Lamentations

I decided that trying to read the Bible from Genesis to Malachi straight through was really hard and just the idea is kinda daunting so I decided to skip around a bit. I'm not sure if this is the right way but hey if my preacher can do it so can I!

I went to one the the shortest books I could find and that happened to be Lamentations.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lamentations. It was like listening to the Blues but a lot more whinny. The five songs of Lamentations are sort of poetic and fun to read. Jeremiah changes his attitude quite a bit. In the beginning he is sad his land has been delivered into slavery, then he praises God forgiveness and mercy in a few uplifting verses them begins to cry again, then he wished this curse on someone else, then asks for forgiveness. It ends with a final plea to God to bring them back into their good graces. I guess God really does follow through with his promises.

I was searching songs with Biblical phrases and I found that U2 uses quite a few!

Avenged Sevenfold also has a song about Cain and Able that was pretty cool

(give me your hand,
blood is spilt and man will follow
infernal man, punishment too great to bear)
Conceived and born was one of light
Rain and dark, the other born black night.

Raise your head and taste the courage
(the one of light)
Fall from grace, unholy night
I've come here to kill you,
won't leave until you've died
Murder born of vengeance,
I closed my brothers eyes tonight...

(give me your hand,
blood is spilt and man will follow
infernal man, punishment too great to bear)
Conceived and born was one of light
Rain and dark, the other born black night.

Raise your head and taste the courage
(the one of light)
Fall from grace, unholy night
I've come here to kill you,
won't leave until you've died
Murder born of vengeance,
I closed my brothers eyes tonight...

Its cold tonight as the clouds turn grey
and from my hands to my brothers grave
You took his side, you took his gift,
feel the power of a fallen man, crestfallen man...

Far away in this land I must go,
out of the sight of The One.
A punishment sent from his hands
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the site of The One,
away in this land you must go.

Where has he gone? What have you done?

A voice commands from high above this earth.
From the soil his blood cries out to me,
Murder, liar, vengeance, deceit.

Far away in this land I must go,
out of the sight of The One.
A punishment sent from his hands
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the site of The One,
away in this land you must go.

So throughout my reading of "The Slave" I came across quite a few strange traditions that the peasants practiced. They mentioned them for only a few sentences but they were mentioned quite a few times so I decided to look a few of them up and see what they were about.
One that I found that was pretty interesting was the story of Baba.
As much as I looked for who exactly was Baba the only Baba that I was able to find was Baba Yaga. She is this really old crazy witch like lady who supposedly eats small children and lives in a house on chicken legs. I don't know if its the same but I still thought it was pretty cool

I also tried to find out what a Dziad was but all I found was a story of an old Man.

The most interesting story I stumbled upon during my search was a Polish legend of a Polish princess named Wanda.

Apparently Wanda was so beautiful that a Prince traveled from Germany to seek her hand in marriage. He had heard of her beauty and the beauty of Poland and decided that he wanted her and her land. When he traveled to Poland the Princess thought he was barbaric and decided she would not marry him. He was so upset he told her if she didn't marry him he would wage war against her people and all would be lost. Wanda knew if her people fought the Germans they would loose, so instead of accepting his offer she walked into the River and committed suicide in order to free her people.

Singer

Well I'm about 100 pages into The Slave and I absolutely love it. I love the love story between Wanda and Jacob I think its so romantic the idea of the forbidden love.
I also think the relationship between Jacob and God is extremely interesting. Its quite a transition from reading the Bible to reading The Slave. In the Bible, God is an ever present character who speaks directly to many of his followers. God is always talking to Abraham and Moses and laying down the law. So its weird to read a book where God is everywhere to a story where God is lost. Its seems like in the Slave, Jacob has to try extremely hard to find God, not only was Jacob separated from his family but from God as well. As a Jewish book, God, to me, seems to be really absent. I read in Wiki that Singer said that God was "completely unknown and eternally silent" Which I can definitely see in The Slave. But I think as Jacob's relationship with Wanda grows so does his relationship with God. Jacob is so torn between his desire for Wanda that he begins to try and find God to balance everything out.

What I also think is strange about the Singer is the way the Christians are portrayed. They are NASTY Jacob seems like royalty compared to these dirty stinky people. Some of the things they do are so disgusting, peeing in the house, flashing the privates, vomiting on the floor, picking lice from the breasts. They are just repulsive. I dont know if its just the time period or if its the people but I'm pretty sure its the people.

David's view of Samson

David Plotz

Action Packed Exodus!

Exodus is my favorite book in the old testament.

I was watching a movie called the Reaping a few months ago and an interesting view of the ten plagues was given.