3.29.2015

dig (on usa!) thoughts: ep 4 (prayerful cleanses)


God likes to answer all your big prayers when you're naked.
I have it on good authority.
Several things about DIG (on USA!) to talk about. At this point, I will have you know I'm taking notes. And the reason I'm taking notes is because episode 4 "Prayer of David" clued me in for real: the people who wrote this show are effing SMART. And to keep up with effing smart people, I don't know about you, but need to take notes.

So here's my process for watching this show as of now:

1-"watch" (not really) during the live tweets on Thursday nights. Listen to me, Internet: live tweeting is frickin' HARD. You know how I know it's hard? Because I have a friend who's live tweeting each episode (hi, G! ;-) ) and I can't keep up. Between G and Jason Isaacs, I'm just going along for a wild ride every Thursday. All I can do to cope with my embarrassing ineptness is to make jokey jokes. Hope everybody's okay with that. (They're really my only defense mechanism.)

By the way, if you can live tweet a really stupendous and smartly written show like this? YOU'RE super smart yourself. I find super smart people kinda hot, and I always ingratiate myself with them so we can be BFFs for always. (Hoping some of their smart rubs off on me.)

2-then I watch again (and take notes, to keep up with the smarter people who actually wrote it).

3-then I watch AGAIN, to make sure I didn't miss anything.

What I'm saying is: you HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION. This is not a show you can just sit and have on while you answer emails between the commercials. Or even knit a scarf. Put down your knitting projects! PAY ATTENTION.

Thoughts/reflection on ep. 4 (from my notes!):

*The Essenes? They matter more than ever. (Thank you Tim & Gideon!!! I was going to be SO annoyed with the two of you if I did all that research for nothing.) If you haven't read my Essene research yet, you need to because--and I HATE promoting/bragging about myself, but I'm going to do it because there were several things I dug up (heh) that were in this show--go -->HERE <-- and told me: I was kinda on the money. And I didn't even KNOW! I didn't even know. (This is how all my good ideas happen, by the way: accidentally or too much wine. Or both.)

I currently go back and forth between thinking the Essene is the real bad guy or he's a good guy trying to stop the Jewish Underground (aHA! that group of ne'er-do-wells IS the mafia!) from their nefarious plans. Basically, I think if the Essene is a bad guy, he wants the cow so he can sacrifice it in the Temple...but then all my research says Essenes didn't do that; Essenes were not about ritual sacrificing--that would be way too Pharisee for them. So maybe he's not a bad guy--maybe he's a good guy who just wants to save a cow. (and the world.)

*Let's talk Avram. Because I want to both mother and corrupt him. He's so sweet and innocent, and he's totally being used right now. Avram's all about his God and that baby cow. But there's so! many! hot Croatian girls around him! And the shower scene--oh, what I wouldn't do to an innocent Hasidic boy! (were I a young, unmarried, hot Croatian girl.) But Avram is surrounded by wayward, partying Christians and their licentious, seductive females...with one Essene voyeur watching it all in the bushes. Bless his heart. So I don't know. I DO know I want Avram to come out of this alive, but I'm not hopeful...so can we at least get him laid before his throat gets cut or something? Maybe get him good and drunk, too.

*The Essene--mostly, I want to discuss what the holy heck he was doing by the fire after lurking in the bushes at the party that night. (1) he was naked, (2) there was fire, and (3) he was by some water. I'm not sure what the ritual was about quite yet, but I think it was a purification/cleansing ritual. Just because that's what Essenes did--they took mikvahs (cleansing baths in pools of holy water) every day. I think that's what he was doing. Because after, he went to see Avram (asleep) and the cow. Maybe he needed to get the travel dust off. (Or rituals are just what Essenes DO.)

*Now let's talk about THAT scene: the cow visit. The Essene's comment about the moon matters, I think. While the Essene was with the cow, he told the cow (because why WOULDN'T he let the cow know what the heck's happening??) that it wasn't quite time, something about the moon letting them know when it was time for the cow's destination to be fulfilled.

Here's some things I've learned about Essenes & the moon: several calendar systems were unearthed with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and among these were both solar and lunar methods of calculating/estimating dates of important events based on the solar & lunar cycles. They called these Shawui, which means (in Aramaic) "a week of Shawuahs." (Shuwuah=a season, and I think there were 7.) I also saw it written as Shabua, which is derived from Sheba, which means 7 (**number 7 again**).  

At any rate, it's not the same, but it has similarities to the calendar used by modern day Jews. In addition, Jesus' disciples also followed a solar/lunar calendar system.

This is important, I think, because YOUR definition of when the Sabbath is (once every 7 days) wouldn't have necessarily been an Essene's definition of when the Sabbath is. They would have been more concerned about following the Sabbath in accordance to the cycle of the moon...not necessarily once every 7 days. 

In fact, the Hebrew word for "moon" is moedim, but there's a Hebrew word, moed, that also means "signal." So clearly something is going to happen when the moon/lunar calendar lets the Essene know: GO, Daddy-o! 

*ALSO: did you know that, in the Talmud, there were TWO different houses of Judaism? The house of Hillel and the House of Shammai. I saw that in my (very quick and not at all thorough) research on Essenes and lunar cycles just now. I just read that and thought it was interesting enough to note here in regards to this story.

*Okay--moving on: Khalid. He's a cold-blooded killer. Still don't think he likes it much, but does it because he thinks God's cool with it. He's also the guy who steals all the stuff and brings it back to the Jewish Mafia, just like Templeton at the end of CHARLOTTE'S WEB but with higher stakes. I think I'm pretty sure now that Khalid killed Emma, to get the red stone. (And yet I'm not 100% sure, because, y'all, EVERYBODY'S involved.) 

I just can't still figure out why he wouldn't also have killed Peter, too, when he totally could have in episode 1. That may be interesting.

*GOLAN'S GAY!! Or bisexual. (I once went to Atlanta's Gay Pride festival and met a gay man who advised me: "Oh, honey. Be unique--be trisexual: try anything." Good life advice, and I think we all should whenever given the chance.) I LIKE it! Did not see that coming. Oh, I do like surprises in my stories. So. Awesome. 

*I so love the relationship between Peter and Golan. They're cute. I hope Golan makes it to the end and Peter makes him his full-time partner. Maybe they can open a P.I. business together. Investigating and solving world conspiracies. They could totally take out Putin, those two.

*Oh, wait! Let's talk about Addict Debbie really quick. So her boyfriend Charlie (who told her to get lost last time, but obviously he's a codependent who can't say no to her) came to rescue her. He was admitted into the compound, which is cold and sterile and grey. The whole time, I was all: CHARLIE!! Dooon't go IN there!! I was certain that was going to be like one of those slasher movies, where the dumb white people go down into the creepy basement and the psycho ghost killer disembowels them alive. 

In the end, they just creepily told Charlie Debbie OD'd and here's all her stuff in a box, bye. Meanwhile, Debbie's chained up. Then they take her into the reckoning room (where they do their effed up bar mitzvah sacrifices, I think) and...we'll talk about what happens there, in a minute. It was super important. But what I thought mattered about this, is that they so quickly and easily shot Josh 1 to death...but they aren't killing Debbie just yet. They need her. (Why?) (I don't know yet.)

*Also--Prayer of David. It was the clue from the paper Emma left (with the squares cut in different places) that they held up to the scroll. Those were Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran, by the way. 

Psalm 17: 8--"Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings." (there are many translations of this; this is the newest, most modern version.) Just (again quickly and not at all thoroughly) researching this: basically, it means protect me from all the bad guys. But most interesting is that the word "apple" in Hebrew actually means pupil, as in black pupil of an eye, which (if you'll think back to your Biology 101 class) reflects images but in miniature. And the wings reference is just that--God will protect those who are seen in the pupil of God's eyes...under God's wings. 

What's most interesting is, in the Hebrew version of this scripture, the juxtapostion of the words ishun (dark spot) and tzel (shadow). Just wondering if that has something to do with the Sons of Darkness.  Or it could just mean we're the result of the Universe wanting to gaze upon Itself. Like a mirror. (A friend...hi G!...has a philosophy about this, and I like it. So I'm throwing it in here, and I don't care if it bothers you. MY blog, my rules.)


*****************
Okay, you guys. I have to stop. I think my brain's officially starting to melt. 

Listen: there is a LOT going on in every show. So much, I could probably spend another hour (and 20 pages here) picking apart other things in the show--like that fabulous car chase scene. And how last Thursday (I think), Jason Isaacs tweeted a picture of various different pools of "blood" they'd been trying to decide which one to use in one of the scenes and he asked WHO'S blood we thought it was. (The dead guy in the museum's vault, Jason.) 

And I also didn't get into how NOW I'm wondering if there's a connection between Rabbi Lev and Golan's uncle...Son of Darkness, Son of Light? And I think Peter knows Hebrew! He reacted to something Golan's uncle said ("Is this one of your boys...or friends?" something like that, basically asking: new boyfriend?) and Peter drew in his breath and stiffened. Peter taught semiotics (the study of symbols) and he was also at seminary--most seminary schools require their students to learn Hebrew (how can you teach it, if you can't read it as it was originally written? Would not be surprised to find out Peter knows Greek, too). So he knew what Golan's uncle said. 

EDIT/UPDATE (on account of my overflowing brain forgot earlier): Josh #2 is being reared to be the High Priest. If you read what I researched about the Essenes, you'll find out they believed there would be two high priests--a war one and a ritual one. And also (maybe) a Messiah. But Josh is being raised to be the, or one of, the high priests. Is my theory.

But mostly, before I go: at the end of the show Josh #2 had to put a dark and a white stone into a black bag to decide Debbie's fate. (Because they were like, Hey Debbie, we like you and still want you to be one of us, how about it? And Debbie was all: Hey, creepy cult, thanks for getting me clean and all but I want NOOOO part of all this nasty killing stuff and also I think you're all a bunch of hypocrites. [Totally feeling you on that, Debs.]). 

Josh #2 pulls out the black stone, holds it high, and says, "GUILTY." But here's the crazy thing: I just so happened to be on imdb.com yesterday (because so many not very attentive people are watching this show and not getting it and then they get online and whine: I don't get it! and that's really annoying the holy bejesus out of my inner geeky girl and then my inner codependent girl wants to help them, wants to FIX them, wants to save them from themselves), and a lady on that board went: "hm, that wasn't what the Hebrew on the stone said. Wonder if it was a plot twist or just a mistake?" And I was all: WTF?! NO! These are super smart big brain writers...they're not going to make a mistake like THAT. Come on. 

So here's what that lady said the stone actually had written on it (and if you speak/read Hebrew, correct me and this anonymous woman if we're wrong): INNOCENT. 

BAM!!!!!!!! Go chew on THAT til Thursday, World Wide Web!

Next time I write, it will be about mikvahs (maybe) and the breast plate and its stones (definitely) the Jewish Underground & Friends want so desperately. I'm going to have to do a separate essay about the Temple Mount and the Ark of the Covenant...possibly one entry for each topic. There's just too much information to lump it all together, and I'm worried if I do that your eyes will melt out of your face and your brain will implode, and I bet you need both of those things to do whatever it is you do for a living. I don't want to end you up destitute or anything.

(and also, just a friendly reminder: if you aren't watching this show, we are NOT on speaking terms. You are at the TOP of my Shit List. Have a great Sunday!) 

11 comments:

  1. I'm not sure where you found that moadim = moon. The Hebrew words for moon are Hodesh (Chodesh), Yareach, and Levana. Mo'ed (pl. mo'adim) means special times, AKA festivals or other holidays.

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    1. Hi there...actually, you know what? I'm not sure where I found that either. Some website I stumbled upon in my frenetic research quest (therein lies the Internet's dichotomy). Thanks for letting me (and anyone reading this) know that. Always thankful for insights I couldn't possibly have!

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  2. Random thing about the whole psalm 17:8:

    There were actually three numbers mentioned in the episode 26,17,8. The 26 refers to the Book of Psalms which is the 26th book of the bible. But here's the interesting part. See, Psalms is *not* the 26th book in the modern Jewish lists (it's 25) or in the Christian ones (it's 19). The answer is that the war scroll was supposed to have been written ~2000 years ago, and that the canonical Jewish list used to include the book of Ruth ahead of Psalms (instead of lumped together with the other "Five Megillot"), making Pslams the 26th book. This went totally unmentioned in the episode which is why I thought it was worth adding.

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    1. There are only 24 books in the Jewish Bible.

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    2. There are 35 if you count the 12 minor prophets as separate books. ;).

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    3. No kidding; Tehillim would be #26, then!

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    4. ...yes, as long as you add Ruth ahead of Psalms (not as in the modern order). That was my point.

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  3. A comment on the whole "It actually said 'INNOCENT' on the black stone":

    See Hebrew is sometimes written without vowels, so there can be confusion as to the pronunciation of certain words. What it written in Hebrew on the black stone was "T'MIM" -- no vowels.

    This can be read in two ways:

    1) As "Tamim" -- this means "innocent" in Hebrew.
    2) As "Tumim" -- part of the Urim and Tumim.

    In fact, if you look carefully at the scene, the other stone (the white one) says "Urim" on it, thus the Hebrew writing on the black stone is actually referring to "Tumim". This also makes sense since Pastor Billingham refers to the stones as the Urim and Tumim in the scene.

    Thus, I assume that Josh is simply going by the color of the stone (black = guilty), though the second interpretation of Tumim/Tamim might still be a hidden message to the audience that Debbie is actually innocent.

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    1. Hi Josh! Well, thanks for this. I don't speak or read Hebrew--I have a friend who does, but I didn't even consult her. I just went with what a stranger on imdb.com said. Sometimes I'm like that.

      So interesting! Thanks so much! I love learning about other languages :)

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    2. Hi Josh! Well, thanks for this. I don't speak or read Hebrew--I have a friend who does, but I didn't even consult her. I just went with what a stranger on imdb.com said. Sometimes I'm like that.

      So interesting! Thanks so much! I love learning about other languages :)

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