Iakov Levi
El – the Bull
Supplement A to The Demonization of Israel
As L.M.Barré has shown in “El, god of
Israel--Yahweh, god of Judah and " El Defines Israel"
the god El was the god of Israel, and was very differentiated from Jahveh, the
god of the Judahites.
As Theodor
Reik has shown[i], the original totemic beast, which
became the symbol of Jahveh, was the ram, and the Jews still use his horns as a
ritual instrument.
Theodor
Reik was aware that the Golden Calf story conceals the traces of the struggle
between two totemic beasts. Reik advances the hypothesis that the bull was the
totemic beast of the Hebrews previous to their migration from Mesopotamia to Palestine. Mesopotamia is fitter to the
breeding of cattle than Palestine, which - because of its semi - arid climate and landscape - fits more to the breeding of sheep.
According
to Reik, when Moses and his god – Jahveh the Ram - let the people down delaying his return from
the mountain, the Hebrews returned to their previous totemic beast - the Bull –
as their Saviour. As is written: "These are your gods, (Ex.
32:4).
However, it seems to me that the events unfolded slightly differently. The Exodus story of the Golden Calf conceals the mnemonic traces of a struggle not just only between two totemic beasts, but between two clans or groups of clans of which the two totemic beasts were the symbols. The bull was the totemic beast of the northern tribes – Ephraim Israel – and the ram was the totemic beast of the southern clans which later amalgamated into the tribe of Judah, and which were wandering in the Negev and in the Sinai before penetrating into Palestine. Both totemic beasts translated into two differentiated gods: El and Jahveh. The former god of the kingdom of Israel, and the latter god of the kingdom of Judah. Until the Exile, after which the two were incorporated into one by the new monotheistic reforms. As evidence
that El –the bull – never ceased to exist as god of The association between the golden calves
made by Jeroboam and the totemic beast is made evident when “the man of
God” who “came out of Judah by the word
of Yahweh to Beth El”, in order to reproach Jeroboam, says: “If you will give me half your house, I will not go in
with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place” (1King
13:8). Freud has shown that eating together is
part of the identification between the brotherhood horde and the assassinated
father (the totem) and between themselves: “If a
man shared a meal with his god he was expressing a conviction that they were of
one substance; and he would never share a meal with one whom he regarded as a
stranger” (Totem and Taboo IV:4). If the bull –calf was the god -
totemic beast of Israel (Joseph –Ephraim), it becomes clear why the Lord
(Jahveh – the Ram) commanded his messenger - who came from Judah - not to touch
food or water in Beth El, in the territory of Ephraim, where they were
worshipping the bull. Another confirmation we find when Julius
Wellhausen attributes the story of the Golden Calf in the Book of Exodus to the
Eloist (E) source, which was edited in the northern Kingdom of The all elements reconnect to Ephraim, the central tribe of the northern
kingdom. The association calf - Ephraim – Let
Let
The close association between the golden
calf and Joseph – father of Ephraim, Patriarch of the northern tribes and the
According to Reik, when the bull
was substituted by the ram, the first was demonized. Reik brings as
evidence - among other considerations - that the Talmud forbids to make a Shofar out of the horns of a bull.[ii].
It seems to me that this struggle might not have occurred in the Sinai peninsula - were the northern tribes of Israel had never been wandering – but somewhere between Judea and Samaria, before – or in the process - of the formation of two separate kingdoms (Like Ahmed Osman, I dismiss the biblical version of the existence of a United Monarchy). Possibly during the tumultuous time described in the Book of Judges. The traces of the event resisted the repression and demanded to find and expression. As a compromise, they were displaced from their original context and emerged into the narrative of the wanderings between Egypt and Palestine.
Israel - very differently from Judah – lived in close relationship with the Canaanites of the fertile northern valleys and with the kings of Tyro. Lebanon and the Phoenician culture were more intimate to the Israelites than to the Judhaites. We can even say that it was the same culture. The same language, the same customs, and the same religion.
In the Psalms we can find a trace that the god of Lebanon – Israel was indeed a calf:
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young ox
[i] In "The
Shofar" in Ritual:Psychoanalytic Studies,
I report here the copy of pp.253 -5 of the afore mentioned work. I believe that it adds a lot to the general comprehension of the issue, which is quite complicated but extreemely valuable. I hope I do not violate the copyrights of anybody. However if anyone feels otherwise, please let me know and I shall delete the copies.:
[ii] Op.cit., p.264
Reik’s assumption also fits Freud’s words. Dealing with the demon, Freud writes:
Concerning the evil Demon, we know that he is regarded as the antithesis of god and yet is very
close to him in his nature. His history has not been so well studied as that of
god; not all religions have adopted the Evil Spirit, the opponent of God, and
his prototype in the life of the individual has so far remained obscure. One
thing, however, is certain: gods can turn into evil demons when new gods oust
them (“A Seventeenth-Century Demonological Neurosis” (1923 [1922]), in SE, vol. 19, pp.85-6.)
[iii] Julius
Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel, The Meridian
Library,