A balmy summer night with the Star of Bethlehem – Maestro over the Milky Way. A jeweled night whose pre-dawn has filtered into a palette of delicate pastels – a concerto of color, the bird choirs on cue soaring in bursts of joy over the ancient stones and alleyways of the Jewish community in Nazareth.
Mary arose to this perfection from a deep sleep. She had started her fast the night before and now she hurried to the ritual bath on the women’s side of the bath-house. Joseph, too, after putting on his phylacteries and covering his head and shoulders with his prayer shawl for the usual morning prayer, walked quickly to this side for the physical and spiritual cleansing – a Jewish pre-nuptial tradition.
At the hour of noon on this perfect day, a grey cloud swept over the earth and a depressing humidity – like the breath of death – descended upon the small community. Flames erupted, glowing crimson and bright orange, choking the streets and dwellings in pillows of yellowish purgatory.
The air hung heavy and sour with the smell of human flesh –
intact.
All this began in a flash and ended in a flash, and the day continued as before celestial in its innocence but not quite the same as in the early hours of morn.
For miles the Jewish community had seen this ill omen – and all rent their garments in fear and cried out in sobs of anguish to their Creator, for they knew not what this meant ...
As evening inked its wash across the sky, the birds resumed their chirps of hope and the breeze lighthearted with the odor of orange blossoms and hyacinths kissed the tops of the trees now a deep olive-green. The sky turned indigo and the mystical six-pointed Star of David appeared once again.
Subdued, Mary and Joseph entered the synagogue with their relatives, and both bore the burden of the world in their hearts ...