The 13th Tablet Many thanks to Alex Mitchell for the explanatory texts and images Saad Salem for photos of Mosul (http://photo.net/photos/Saadsalem) Igor Baskin for photos of Safed (http://photo.net/photos/Igorbasking) Simon Knott for the photos of Church of the Holy Trinity, Hildersham (http://www.simonknott.co.uk/) The photos used are copyright. Please do not use without permission. This is a Haus Annex, created by Haus Publishing. Table of Contents Iraq The Bible Flood and the Epic of Gilgamesh – A Comparison The Travels of Benjamin Tudela Mosul – The old Nineveh – Visual Impressions Israel Safed – The mystical City of the Jews – Visual Impression Baba Sali and his experience in the Ari Sephardi Shul in Safed Baba Sali’s visit to the synagogue of the holy Ari England London – Visual Impression Introduction to the Cambridge University Library: The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit Hildersham, Church of the Holy Trinity Thailand A Tsunami Survivor's Story About Alex Mitchell Biography Picture Gallery Motivation for Writing The 13th Tablet Further Sources The Bible Flood and the Epic of Gilgamesh – A Comparison The Noah Story of the Flood and the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh Introduction by Alex Mitchell As the Babylonian and Hebrew flood narratives play such a central role in The 13th Tablet, this short introduction may come in handy to the avid reader! In 1872, George Smith made an amazing discovery among the clay tablets of the British Museum originally from Nineveh and other sites in Iraq. It was the eleventh tablet from a series of twelve composing the Standard Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It described the primordial flood with such similarities to the biblical version of the flood that he immediately saw the potential of such a parallel. Indeed, both Noah and his Babylonian counterpart Utnapishtim are warned about the imminent flood and told to build an ark with specific dimensions; a horrific flood destroys all living things; the boat rests on a mountain top; a dove and a raven are sent forth from the ark and when the bird does not return, both characters leave the ark to offer a sacrifice to the divinity. The fact that there should be two similar versions of the flood should not come too much as a surprise. Indeed, the legend of a catastrophic flood that destroyed all of mankind except a few who escape in a boat is one of the most widespread myths throughout the world (India, China, Hawaii, Mexican-Indians, aborigines of the Andaman Islands, ancient Greece, New Zealand, Africa, Greenland, Finland, etc. all have a similar version of the primordial flood) but the legend is never told in such a similar fashion. Based on the material evidence (and notwithstanding some differences between the texts), it would seem that the biblical narrative came second to the Babylonian one. Indeed, if Moses was the author of the Hebrew Bible then the biblical Flood narrative dates to circa 1440 B.C.E. But the story of Utnapishtim, even though it is know from the Epic of Gilgamesh which dates back to the 7th century B.C.E. (from an original edition by the incantation priest Sîn-lēqi-unninni sometime between 1300-1100 B.C.E.), it is actually found in earlier Epics, such the Epic of Atrahasis (circa 1750- 1650 B.C.E. also found by George Smith, in Nineveh, May 14, 1873) and from even earlier Sumerian poems in Old Babylonian (circa 2000 B.C.E.). Yet, the Mosaic account may also be an accurate written form of an ancient oral tradition of the original catastrophic event that gave rise to the Mesopotamian, Hebrew, and many other written texts. It is also possible that the Noah story reinterpreted the Babylonian story with a different theological twist (e.g. “humans had turned evil and needed to be cleansed” in the biblical version in contrast to “humans made noise, and bothered the gods” in the other). Ultimately, according to the bible itself the ancestors of the Jews originally came from Mesopotamia (Abraham of Ur), so both interpretations are possible. King James Bible FROM GUTEMBERG PROJECT: "Genesis 6-9" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10/10-h/10- h.htm#The_First_Book_of_Moses_Called_Genesis 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 6:21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. 7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 7:13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 7:14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 7:16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. 7:17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. 7:21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; 8:2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; 8:3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 8:5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. 8:6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 8:7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. 8:8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 8:9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. 8:10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 8:11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 8:12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. 8:14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. 8:15 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 8:16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.