A Pisgah Sight of Palestine

James Joyce's Jerusalem

Redemption is a theme of the seventh chapter of Joyce’s Ulysses, “Aeolus,” evoked by Bloom’s recollection of his father reading to him from the Haggadah:

Poor papa with his hagadah book, reading backwards with his finger to me. Pessach. Next year in Jerusalem. Dear, O dear! All that long business about that brought us out of the land of Egypt and into the house of bondage alleluia. Shema Israel Adonai Elohenu. No, that’s the other. Then the twelve brothers, Jacob’s sons. And then the lamb and the cat and the dog and the stick and the water and the butcher. And then the angel of death kills the butcher and he kills the ox and the dog kills the cat. Sounds a bit silly till you come to look into it well. Justice it means but it’s everybody eating everyone else. That’s what life is after all.

The yearly recital of the Haggadah on Passover commemorates God’s redemption of the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage. In the main prayer in the Jewish liturgy, the Amida, the subject of the seventh blessing is redemption. This blessing is called geula, "redemption," and it is a petition to God to take note of the Jew's unredeemed plight, to take up their cause, and to redeem them finally. "Aeolus" is concerned with the redemption of Dubliners, and of Ireland. Stephen addresses the subject of a Dublin to be redeemed in "A Pisgah Sight of Palestine," or "the Parable of the Plums." 

Several noteworthy events are associated with Pisgah.¹ One of them involves a viewing of Palestine, another, a viewing of the People of Israel. The view of Palestine is that of Moses when God shows him the land promised to his forefathers (Duet. 32:48). The view of the People of Israel is that of the non-Jewish prophet Bil'am at the same spot, under orders from Balak (Num 23:14).² Moses’ vision of Palestine represents the culmination of his prophetic career. In "Aeolus" this career is evoked as the hallowed forerunner of the career of Ireland's own would-be emancipator. Stephen's reaction to this proposal is to his listeners eccentric but is consistent with Joyce's attempt to present in him a fledgling Irish artistic Consciousness. Stephen is telling them that there is a more convincing comparison between things Irish and things Hebrew than that between Parnell and Moses: it is the comparison between Moses as the forger of the consciousness of the Jewish race and himself as the prospective forger of the consciousness of the Irish. Stephen's Parable is carefully considered, demonstrating a subtle understanding of the Jewish source, and his own vision for Ireland’s future. 

Within Ulysses Joyce labeled this section (in Bloom's recapitulation of his day) as "Urim and Thummin". This refers to the special implement within the "breastplate of judgment" worn by the High Priest that conveyed to him the will of God in certain instances (see Ex. 28:30). In other words, this is a level of prophesy called ruah ha-kodesh in Hebrew, "holy spirit." Ruah also means "wind," as in be-ruah kadim aza, "by a strong east wind" (Ex. 14:21), when God divided the waters of the Sea of Suf. Here is a wind that assists the Hebrews to escape their bondage and start on their journey to the land promised their forefathers as the winds of Aeolus (when properly used) assist Ulysses to return to his homeland. Joyce's fondness for the idea of the Semitism of the Odyssey leaves its imprint on this chapter. Joyce's intention to express a classical synthesis in the modern world is represented by the graphic design of crossed keys in the advertisement of Alexander Keyes. One key, the Greek one, was given by Joyce to Gilbert and Linati; the other one, Jewish, will be seen as superimposed upon the Greek key. This advertisement of Keyes is Joyce "advertising" keys for Ulysses, Joyce toying with his future critics.

Irene Orgel Briskin indicates that there is Greek-Hebrew unity in the parable of the plums by referring to Berard's fixing of the Semitic root ayin-lamed-he as the source of the name "Aeolus" ("high island," he translates ).³ Return for Jews is always a "going-up", or aliya (from the same root); even today, a Jew immigrating to Israel is said to be making aliya. Several different aliyot (plural of aliya) come to bear upon an appraisal of Stephen's parable from the Jewish point of view. When Bil'am's ass complains to him about the three times that he has stricken him (Num. 22:28), it is "to call Bilaam's attention to the wickedness and uselessness of his undertaking against Israel; “Three times' was to remind him that he wished to curse a nation that 'three times' in every year arranged pilgrimages to the Lord." These three pilgrimages are called in Hebrew aliyot ha-regal, "going up on foot," referring to the three festivals Pesah, Shavuot, and Sukkot, during which male Jews would bring sacrifices "up" to Jerusalem. All three commemorate the period between the coming out of Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land.

Moses's career constitutes the basis for the dramatic symbolism in Stephen's parable. There are two relevant “aliyot” in the career of Moses. The first is when he ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the Law from God. The other aliya of Moses is the one on Mt. Nebo (Pisgah). This event as related by MacHugh, seen in contrast with the ironic symbolism of Stephen's parable, presents one aspect of Joyce's evaluation of the state of Irish consciousness. The aliya in Stephen's parable—that of the two vestals—is a farcical portrayal of an Irish aliya, echoed in the journalistic prose style of Aeolus. Shouting headlines conceal or confuse the truth. With the women there is a going up, but they cover their eyes, and it is as if they did not go up. They look afar and see, but the vision makes them “giddy.” They are reluctant before the vision of what their own eyes see, a reluctance that may be a native human character trait, as I have described elsewhere. Presenting a Moses-like Parnell is "Bulldosing the public." For Stephen yellow journalism and political nationalism are of the same cloth, both obscuring the truth, the released winds of Aeolus blowing Dubliners back into the dark ages from whence they came.

The aliya of the parable is more like the other aliya on Pisgah. As the vestals' aliya is nullified when they cover their eyes, so Bil'am's "aliya," (Num. 23:14) in his attempt to curse Israel, was nullified, and he blessed Israel instead. Later in Ulysses this principle—that intended curses of Israel inevitably become blessings—is dramatized by the episode with the Citizen. The Citizen identified with the one-eyed Cyclops strengthens this reference to Bil'am, because according to one tradition Bil'am had one eye at the time he came to curse Israel (Gin. Legends of the Jews 3:6:10). What is called the anti-Semitic content of the Citizen's speech is entirely misdirected although he does not know this. His "curse" is intended for Bloom the Jew, and the tone of his speech underlines the personal nature of the attack. However, since Bloom is not a Jew, the attack becomes in a sense an indirect "blessing" of the Jews. The Citizen’s hate misses its target.⁴

Bil'am, according to the Rabbis, was on a par with Moses in terms of raw prophetic ability (Gin. 3:6:4). This prophet was brought by Balak to different high places--vantage points from which to curse lsrael—and one of these was Pisgah. The two principles, that of true prophecy among the nations and that of curses of Israel becoming blessings, helped Joyce with his thematic development of anti-Semitism in Ulysses. That this is true of the second principle has been shown. The point of there being true prophecy among the nations, according to the Rabbis, is to answer any future charge by some nation that it would have been worthy of receiving the Tora had it a prophet with the stature of Moses. (Gin. 3.6.4). The story of Bil'am conveys the message that hatred of Israel is ancient and pernicious. Jealousy of the status of the Jews as God's chosen people burns as an eternal flame in the hearts of anti-Semites through the ages, even while the objective reality of the object of that hate was anything but “choice.”

Some of the language in "Aeolus" also reflects the prophecy of Bil'am. In his central curse-turned-blessing he says: "I see, but not now..."(Num. 24:17), an expression echoed in Professor MacHugh's reaction to Stephen's parable:

— No, Stephen said. I call it A Pisgah Sight of Palestine or the Parable of The Plums.

— I see, the professor said.

He laughed richly.

— I see, he said again with new pleasure. Moses and the promised land.

According to Jewish tradition this utterance of Bil'am is the prophecy of ages symbolizing the Jewish legacy of endurance itself:

I see it, but not now: I behold it, but it is not near: there shall come a star out of Ya῾aqov, and a sceptre shall rise out of Yisra᾽el, and shall smite the corners of Mo᾽av, and destroy all the children of Shet. (Num.24:17).

In Jewish tradition this is the only reference in the Tora to the coming of the Messiah. The half-blind prophet of Ulysses is the Citizen, who proclaims the stuff of Irish redemption, convincingly even, but suitably prefaced by thematic words: "There's no-one as blind as the fellow that won't see, if you know what that means"

Balak, because of his abilities as sorcerer had been able to determine that Pisgah was to be a place of great misfortune for Israel and hoped that this misfortune was that which he sought to bring upon them. Accordingly, when Bil'am's curses fail, Balak feels that he may have mistaken the precise location and so repeatedly brings Bil'am to different spots. Bil'am tries to explain to Balak that matters of sorcery have nothing to do with the fate of the Jewish nation, that,

When they set forth into battle, they practice no magic, but the high priest clad in the Urim and Tummim, consults God about the outcome of the battle" (Gin. 3:6:47).

This may shed some light on Joyce's labeling of this chapter "Urim and Tummim." How is truth revealed to humanity? What is being contrasted in Stephen's parable, which is also contrasted in Joyce's "Aeolus," is writing as high art which deals with truth and journalistic writing, which deals with propaganda.

One important aspect of Moses' death, perhaps the single most important one, is the fact that his actual burial place remained unknown.

Rav Hama bar Hanina said: 'Why was Moses' grave hidden from human eyes? Because it was clear and certain to the Holy One Blessed Be He that the Temple would be destroyed and Israel, being exiled from their land would come to Moses' grave at that time in tears beseeching, him saying: 'Moses our teacher, pray for us'--and Moses would stand in prayer and the edict would be cancelled, because the prayers of the righteous are more comely to God in their death than in their lives."⁵

A secondary purpose of this legend is to warn against idol worship of the type that attributes special powers of holiness to inanimate objects, or to human beings. Knowledge of the whereabouts of Moses' grave would lead to pilgrimages, and pilgrimages would lead to the erection of a monument. Statues of revered figures are the perennial expression of this natural human tendency, and this the Tora comes to prevent at all costs. The image, or hewed form, rife with human presumption, warps the true relationship between the living and the dead. Popular journalism is like classical idol worship in that it warps the true relationship between the living and the real, proclaiming that the importance of a thing rests in the degree to which it finds expression in public, or the degree to which it commands an audience through the mechanisms of mass communication, or by strength of the sword. That the statue in Stephen's Parable is of the English hero Nelson provides the ironic grounds for Stephen's statement on Irish nationalism. The vestal's view is a view of Dublin through English eyes (or eye), as it were. In obscuring, magnifying and distorting, the headlines, or idols, of Aeolus are non-headlines, anti-idols, as the curses of the Citizen are "anti-" or "non-curses." 

The work of idolatry is a function of political aggrandizement. Once universally impressed-or expressed by the brandished sword, in lawful days it lay in the support of the masses, through the hypnosis of those masses. “We were weak, therefore worthless," MacHugh says. Strength, however, is not the key to true emancipation: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit" (Zech. 4:6). "By my spirit" is the translation of the Hebrew ki im b-ruhi, ruhi being the singular possessive form of ruah, some Jewish connotations of which have already been discussed. Regarding the appearance of the angel with the drawn sword Ginzberg relates that: 

The sword in the angel's hand did not signify that he meant to strike Bilaam for a breath from his mouth would have sufficed to kill myriads, but it was to point out the following truth to Bilaam: "The mouth was given to Jacob, but to Esau and to the other nations, the sword. Thou art about to change thy profession, and to go out against Israel with his own weapon, and therefore thou shalt find death through the sword that is thy own weapon." (Gin. 3:6:25) 

The mouth given to Jacob is the mouth that can prophecy, the mouth that can pray; particularly, it is the mouth that can pray for redemption in a world where prayer has provisionally replaced sacrifice. A Pisgah Sight of Palestine is Stephen's prayer, whose sword is his mouth: "Unsheathe your dagger definitions," According to Maimonides, one of the signs of the final Jewish Redemption is the ingathering of the exiles to the Land of lsrael:

In the future, the Messianic king will arise and renew the Davidic dynasty, restoring it to its initial sovereignty. He will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel.
Then, in his days, the observance of all the statutes will return to their previous state. We will offer sacrifices, observe the Sabbatical and Jubilee years according to all their particulars as described by the Torah.
Anyone who does not believe in him or does not await his coming, denies not only the statements of the other prophets, but those of the Torah and Moses, our teacher. The Torah testified to his coming, as Deuteronomy 30:3-5 states:

God will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you. He will again gather you from among the nations... Even if your Diaspora is at the ends of the heavens, God will gather you up from there... and bring you to the land....

These explicit words of the Torah include all the statements made by all the prophets.
Reference to Mashiach is also made in the portion of Bilaam who prophesies about two anointed kings: the first anointed king, David, who saved Israel from her oppressors; and the final anointed king who will arise from his descendants and save Israel in the end of days. That passage Numbers 24:17-18 relates:

'I see it, but not now' - This refers to David;
'I perceive it, but not in the near future;" - This refers to the Messianic king;
'A star shall go forth from Jacob' - This refers to David;
'and a staff shall arise in Israel' - This refers to the Messianic king;
'crushing all of Moab's princes' - This refers to David as II Samuel 8:2 relates: 'He smote Moab and measured them with a line;'
'decimating all of Seth's descendants' - This refers to the Messianic king about whom Zechariah 9:10 prophesies: 'He will rule from sea to sea.'
'Edom will be demolished' - This refers to David as II Samuel 8:6 states 'Edom became the servants of David;'
'Seir will be destroyed' - this refers to the Messianic king as Ovadiah 1:21 prophesies: 'Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau....'

This will be the ultimate aliya in Jewish history. The spirit or wind of creation, “ruah Elohim” ("wind from God" Gen. 1:2), present before the creation is spirit admired by Stephen. This creative spirit is articulated, and in that, realized: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). Stephen emulates: "Let there be life" before he begins with his parable. The undeveloped artistic consciousness, because of the hubris that characterizes it, must suffer the barren terror, or the bliss, of ecstatic flights beyond the reach of its controlled vision, traversing the giddiness that hampers it, until it realizes a new vision. Stephen must discover, as Joyce did, the Mosaic metaphor, which speaks of a vision powerful precisely in its components that are simply human, even as trivial as when or how to wash one’s hands upon arising from night’s sleep, a vision that becomes autonomous of its creator, and realizes itself in the collective consciousness of the human group.

The ultimate vision of Moses' creative spirit was the entire Land of Israel as seen from Pisgah, a point of equal latitude and some fifty kilometers east of Jerusalem, but Moses could not make this more than a vision. The vision was realized for his race, whose consciousness was forged finally in that sight of Palestine. Bloom as articulation of one aspect of Joyce's own “ruah”, explains his pacification of the Greek warrior aspects of Ulysses. As God looked through the Tora when creating the Universe, so the incisive but pacific ruah of Joyce emulates, in the manner of Moses "in exile" on Pisgah, and looks through Ulysses--with Irish eyes--at Dublin of the Irish consciousness, artistically forged, waiting to be realized.⁶

1. "Pisgah" means either the highest single peak of a mountain (Rashi on Num. 21:20) or is the proper name of a mountain (Ibn Ezra on Num. 34:6). Ibn Ezra says that Pisgah is synonymous with Nebo.

2. It is Rashi on this verse who clearly teaches that these two events occurred on the same mountain, i.e., that Pisgah and Nebo are the same. Balak brought Bil'am to that spot because Balak, the sorcerer, divined "that in the future a great disaster would befall Israel at that place” (Moses died there) and thought that there the curse would be effective in thinking that the curse would bring “the disaster that I foresee”. (My trans.)

3. Irene Orgel Briskin, "The Parable of the Plums," James Joyce Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1966) p. 249.

4. See my post:

Leopold Bloom, Jew or Not

5. Sefer ha-Agada (Book of Legends), comp. H. Bialik and Y. Rabenitsky (Tel Aviv: The Dvir Co. Ltd., 1960; 5" printing: 1973) p. 79 (my trans.).

6. Zohar, Teruma, 61:635