aleph symbol with title UNSONG

Chapter 26: For Not One Sparrow Can Suffer And The Whole Universe Not Suffer Also

St. Francis saw above him, filling the whole heavens, some vast immemorial unthinkable power, ancient like the Ancient of Days, whose calm men had conceived under the forms of winged bulls or monstrous cherubim, and all that winged wonder was in pain like a wounded bird.
St. Francis of Assisi, by G.K. Chesterton

June 26, 1991
Gulf of Mexico

“TELL ME ABOUT THE WORD WATER”.

Sohu sat on her cloud, snacking on manna with ketchup on top. He had been doing this increasingly often over the past few weeks, asking her to tell him about a word, never satisfied with the amount of meaning she was able to wring from it. It didn’t matter how many connections she drew, how many languages she was able to weave together, he would always just say something like “YES, BUT WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF PROTO-NABATEAN, IN WHICH THE SAME WORD REFERS TO AN OBSCURE KIND OF COOKING-IMPLEMENT?” and she would have to admit that, for some reason, that had never crossed her mind.

She sighed theatrically, but gave no further protest. “In Proto-Semitic,” she said, “it is akwa. In Proto-Eurasiatic, also akwa. In Proto-Amerind, akwa again. So we’re getting a very strong aleph-kaf-vav vibe. Aleph connects Chesed to Gevurah, and kaf connects Chesed to Binah, and vav connects Binah to Keter, so we’re getting two paths out of Chesed, one all the way up to Kether, and the other down to Gevurah.”

“GO ON.”

“So we’re invoking Chesed, the kindness of God. Compare Psalm 65: “You visit the Earth and water it, you greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water.” But we’re also invoking Gevurah, the severity of God. Water is the kindess of God, but also His severity; think Noah’s flood, where it was His severity that punished the wicked, but His kindness that saved Noah and promised never again to flood the Earth. We’ve got Binah, the understanding of God. Spiritual growth. Compare John 4:14: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I give him shall never thirst; the water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up into eternal life.” And finally, we’ve got Kether. The crown of God. Human beings are 66% water. The human brain is something like 90%. Human beings are made in God’s own image. Therefore, Kether.

“BUT WHAT ABOUT…”

“The English word water, which breaks the pattern? It keeps the vav, but it finishes with tav and resh. That’s a very special combination. Tav goes up from Malkuth, at the very bottom of the tree, and then resh goes straight up again, until you’re all the way at Tiferet in two moves. And from Tiferet you can go anywhere. A tav-resh is the shortest path, it’s efficiency, it’s no-nonsense, it’s utilitarian, it’s for when you need a lot of power really really quickly.”

“AND WHY DOES – ”

“English deviates from the other languages because for the Tibetans and American Indians and Egyptians, water represents life and mystery and so on. But Britain is an island, and the British are the greatest seafarers in history. The Tibetans think of water and they think of good crops and spiritual rebirth. The English take one look at it and think ‘Yes, an understanding of God is all nice and well, but you can sail over this stuff to get anywhere.'”

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HEBREW, IN WHICH WATER IS ‘MAYIM’?”

“It means…because…I don’t know. Who knows? How deep do we need to go? Isn’t it enough that I brought in three reconstructed ancestral languages from three different continents, plus explained deviations from the trend? Just once, could you say ‘Good job, Sohu, that’s enough, Sohu’?”

“UM. GOOD JOB, SOHU.”

“Uriel, this is really boring.”

“YOU ARE VERY ENGLISH. YOU WANT TO GET PLACES AS EFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE. BUT SOMETIMES…”

“When do I get to learn how to do cool stuff, like blow up mountains?”

“UM. PLEASE DO NOT BLOW UP MOUNTAINS. MOUNTAINS ARE USEFUL. THEY HELP CONTROL CLIMACTIC PATTERNS.”

“Blow up Thamiel, then.”

“YOU CANNOT KILL THAMIEL. HE IS A FACET OF GOD.”

“When do I get to learn anything? Uriel! This. Is. So. Boring. Learning about the structure of words all day. I want to be able to help Father, to help save the world.”

“THE USE OF KABBALAH TO AFFECT THE PHYSICAL WORLD IS DONE PRIMARILY UPON THE PLANES OF YETZIRAH AND BRIAH. THESE PLANES ARE NOT CONSTRUCTED OF MATTER BUT OF VARIOUS FORMS OF SUBTLE STRUCTURE. UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE CORRESPONDENCES AND THE STRUCTURE, YOU CANNOT HOPE TO INFLUENCE THEM CONSISTENTLY.”

“I made all the rivers in the world run in reverse my first day here.”

“BY ACCIDENT. THAT IS WHAT I AM SAYING. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING, THERE WILL BE MORE ACCIDENTS. AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIX THEM.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“I WILL TELL YOU A STORY.”

“Is this going to be one of your stories that’s a weird metaphor for something?”

“ONCE UPON A TIME, RABBI BEN AZZAI, RABBI BEN ZOMA, THE OTHER ONE, AND RABBI AKIVA VISITED AN ORCHARD. BEN AZZAI SAW IT AND DIED. BEN ZOMA SAW IT AND WENT CRAZY. THE OTHER ONE BURNED DOWN ALL THE TREES. AKIVA CAME IN PEACE AND DEPARTED IN PEACE. THE END.”

“So yes, then.”

“IT MEANS THAT – ”

“Wait. Who is the other one?”

“THE OTHER ONE?”

“You said Rabbi ben Azzai, Rabbi ben Zoma, and the other one.”

“OH. YES. THE OTHER ONE. HIS NAME WAS ELISHA BEN ABUYAH, BUT WE DO NOT SPEAK OF HIM. IN THE TALMUD HE IS ALWAYS CALLED ‘ACHER’, WHICH MEANS ‘THE OTHER ONE’.”

“Why is his name never spoken?”

“THAT IS A LONG STORY.”

“I want to hear it!”

“THE HUMAN BOOK ON EDUCATION SAYS THAT I SHOULD ALWAYS MAKE AN EFFORT TO ANSWER CHILDREN’S QUESTIONS, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE VERY ANNOYING.”

“Yes.”

“ELISHA BEN ABUYAH WAS A GREAT RABBI OF ANCIENT ISRAEL. A BRILLIANT KABBALIST. A MIGHTY MIRACLE WORKER. A TRUE SAINT. ONE DAY HE WAS WALKING ALONG A PATH WHEN HE SAW A LITTLE BOY CLIMB A TREE. THE BOY FOUND A BIRD’S NEST. HE TOOK THE EGGS TO EAT, AND HE ALSO KILLED THE MOTHER BIRD. BUT THIS IS IN DEFIANCE OF DEUTERONOMY 22:6, WHICH SAYS ‘HE WHO SHALL HURT THE LITTLE WREN, WILL NEVER BE BELOVED BY MEN.’

“That’s not how Deuteronomy goes…it says…uh…’If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.'”

“IT WAS NOT AN EXACT TRANSLATION. ANYWAY, THE LITTLE BOY KILLED THE MOTHER BIRD, THEN CLIMBED BACK DOWN THE TREE AND WANDERED OFF.”

“Not an exact translation? What version are you…”

“A FEW MONTHS LATER, HE WAS WALKING ALONG THE SAME PATH WHEN HE SAW ANOTHER LITTLE BOY CLIMB A TREE LOOKING FOR EGGS TO EAT. THIS BOY FOUND A NEST, TOOK THE EGGS, BUT LEFT THE MOTHER BIRD IN PEACE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW. ON HIS WAY BACK DOWN THE TREE, HE STUMBLED, FELL, BROKE HIS NECK, AND DIED. SO ELISHA BEN ABUYAH SWORE ETERNAL VENGEANCE AGAINST GOD.”

What?

“THE ONE BOY DID A WICKED DEED AND WAS NOT PUNISHED. THE OTHER BOY DID A VIRTUOUS DEED AND WAS PUNISHED WITH DEATH. ELISHA BEN ABUYAH SAW THIS AND DECLARED THAT WHATEVER POWER IN THE UNIVERSE METED OUT JUDGMENT, HE WAS IN REBELLION AGAINST IT.”

“Because of one bird? Isn’t that a little extreme?”

“WHAT IS THE CORRECT LEVEL OF INJUSTICE AT WHICH TO DECLARE YOURSELF IN REBELLION AGAINST THE POWER METING OUT JUDGMENT IN THE UNIVERSE?”

“I mean, you would need to have…oh. Oh.

“YES. ELISHA WAS VERY ANGRY. ONE BY ONE, HE BROKE ALL OF THE LAWS. HE WAS A GREAT RABBI, SO HE KNEW EVERY LAW AND WHICH ONES MOST OFFENDED GOD WHEN BROKEN, AND HE DEVOTED HIMSELF TO THE TASK WITH FEARSOME DEDICATION. HE LIT FIRES ON THE SABBATH. HE ATE PORK. HE EVEN BOILED A GOAT IN ITS MOTHER’S MILK. WHICH BY THE WAY IS WHY THERE IS NO LONGER A CITY OF POMPEII. BUT THESE WERE NOT ENOUGH FOR HIM. HE SWORE TO BREAK THE MOST IMPORTANT LAW OF ALL.”

“What’s the most important law of all?”

“THE UNITY OF GOD. ELISHA ASCENDED TO HEAVEN, AS ONE DOES, AND HE POINTED AT THE ARCHANGEL METATRON, THE REGENT OF THE DIVINE IN THE FINITE WORLD. AND HE DECLARED ‘THAT GUY THERE, HE IS ALSO A GOD. THERE ARE TWO GODS. T-W-O G-O-D-S. DEAL WITH IT.’ THE RABBIS DECREED THAT HIS NAME MUST NEVER BE SPOKEN. AND ALL WHO HEARD OF IT SAID ‘SURELY THE GREAT RABBI ELISHA BEN ABUYAH WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING. IT MUST BE SOME OTHER ONE.’ AND SO FROM THAT DAY ON, HE WAS CALLED ‘THE OTHER ONE’.”

“Did he ever repent?”

“GOD REFUSED TO FORGIVE HIM.”

“What? God always forgives these sorts of things!”

“YES.”

“Then -”

“EXCEPT ELISHA BEN ABUYAH.”

“Just him?”

“IT IS SAID THAT EACH YEAR ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, A GREAT VOICE WOULD RING FORTH FROM THE HOLY PLACES, SAYING ‘REPENT, O CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS MERCIFUL AND SHALL FORGIVE YOU. EXCEPT YOU, ELISHA BEN ABUYAH.”

“It really said that?”

“IT WAS A VERY SPECIFIC VOICE.”

“So what happened to him?”

“NOTHING.”

“He just hung around being sinful, then died and went to Hell?”

“NO.”

“No?”

“THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD SAYS THAT HE WAS TOO GREAT A RABBI TO GO TO HELL, BUT TOO EVIL TO GO TO HEAVEN.”

“So where did he go?”

“I DON’T KNOW. I NEVER ASKED.”

“You never asked?”

“I AM VERY BUSY. I CANNOT KEEP TRACK OF EVERY TALMUDIC RABBI. CAN I GET BACK TO MY STORY NOW?”

“How do you just lose an entire rabbi?”

“SINCE YOU ARE SUCH AN EXPERT ON METAPHORS, HOW DO YOU INTERPRET THE STORY?”

“I…forgot the story. What was it again?”

“ONCE UPON A TIME, RABBI BEN AZZAI, RABBI BEN ZOMA, THE OTHER ONE, AND RABBI AKIVA VISITED AN ORCHARD. BEN AZZAI SAW IT AND DIED. BEN ZOMA SAW IT AND WENT CRAZY. THE OTHER ONE BURNED DOWN ALL THE TREES. AKIVA CAME IN PEACE AND DEPARTED IN PEACE. THE END.”

“That was an awful story.”

“I NEVER SAID IT WASN’T.”

“The story of Elisha ben Abuyah was like a million times more interesting!”

“THIS STORY IS A PARABLE ABOUT THE DANGERS OF MYSTICAL ACHIEVEMENT. THE ORCHARD REPRESENTS THE HIGHER PLANES YOU WILL CONTACT IN YOUR STUDIES. IF YOU ARE UNPREPARED, KABBALAH CAN KILL YOU. IF YOU ARE ONLY PARTIALLY PREPARED, KABBALAH CAN DRIVE YOU MAD. IF YOU YOUR INTENTIONS ARE NOT PURE, KABBALAH CAN TURN YOU INTO A FORCE FOR GREAT EVIL WHO DESTROYS EVERYTHING AROUND YOU. ONLY IF YOU ARE WISE AND VIRTUOUS LIKE AKIVA CAN YOU ESCAPE UNSCATHED.”

“So you’re saying you’re not going to teach me anything interesting until I am wise and virtuous like Akiva.”

“MAYBE NOT THAT WISE AND VIRTUOUS. BUT I WOULD LIKE YOU TO STOP TALKING ABOUT BLOWING UP MOUNTAINS.”

“Maybe the mountains are evil. Or evil is hiding in them. Or something.”

“PLEASE DO NOT BLOW UP MOUNTAINS. IT NEVER HELPS.”

“Grumble.”

“DID YOU EVER FINISH LEARNING ALL THE WORLD’S LANGUAGES?”

“I told you, that’s impossible!”

“I THINK YOU SHOULD TRY.”

“You’re trying to get rid of me, aren’t you!”

“…”

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200 Responses to Chapter 26: For Not One Sparrow Can Suffer And The Whole Universe Not Suffer Also

  1. Soumynona says:

    Thamiel origin story?

    • Aaron says:

      Unlikely, it seems like Thamiel was kind of just waiting in the center of the earth until Sataniel found him.

      • Daniel Blank says:

        Other King origin story, more likely.

        • gwern says:

          I agree. The Other King is not Thamiel, but he’s a bad man, a really bad man. He is also extremely knowledgeable in the Kabbalah to defeat the Comet King, has also met Metatron, is not mentioned as being young or having an origin (suggesting a Wandering Dutchman origin where he’s just ancient), and the epithets ‘the other one’ and ‘the other king’ match up too perfectly.

          Incidentally, I thought the ‘wren’ verse was coming from Teller’s rhymes, but nope, it’s Blake again in “Auguries of Innocence”:

          The bat that flits at close of eve
          Has left the brain that won't believe.
          The owl that calls upon the night
          Speaks the unbeliever's fright.
          He who shall hurt the little wren
          Shall never be beloved by men.
          He who the ox to wrath has moved
          Shall never be by woman loved.
          The wanton boy that kills the fly
          Shall feel the spider's enmity.

          • Sniffnoy says:

            I don’t recall anything saying the Other King has also met Metatron. Not that he hasn’t, but I don’t recall anything saying it.

          • Marvy says:

            I agree with Sniffnoy: the Other King was never said to have met Metatron.

          • gwern says:

            I meant that the Other One has met Metatron, not the Other King.

          • person says:

            Given that The Comet King met Metatron (learning the Shemhamphorasch) yet was defeated by The Other King, it makes sense to seek The Other King amongst those who too have met Metatron.

          • Guy says:

            Well, once he learned the name, the Comet King seems to have almost given up.

          • Psycho says:

            Once he met Metatron, he gave up. His giving-up may or may not be related to learning the name.

          • Madbranch says:

            Yes, as it already came up in earlier chapters … I’m not sure about direct quote, but there was something akin to: “It turns out Blake was right about everything.”

          • Devin says:

            Do those slant rhymes at the end annoy anyone else?

        • boris says:

          I was thinking Captain Nemo. Seems like the eternally wandering sort, and refuses to give a name. Though by the sound of it, he wouldn’t respect that convention.

        • Peter D says:

          I don’t know: Acher rebels against God for what he percieves as injustice. In Judaism there is a distinction of commandments between Man and God and those between Man and Men. Seems like Acher is deliberately breaking only those between Man and God. And he is motivated in part by compassion for a fellow being, It does not make much sense to start doing evil towards others in response to what he percieves as God’s evil towards mankind.
          So Acher does not sound like a character to go around crucifying people to me.
          Another confusion I have is how the story of the boy falling from the tree connects to the story of Pardes: if Acher starts sinning only after entering Pardes, then this seems at odds with the story of him started sinning after seeing the falling boy, unless seeing the falling boy is somehow equivalent to entering the Pardes. Then there is also the story of him starting sinning after seeing the sitting Metatron – go figure how to make sense of these three…

          • boris says:

            I agree. The Other King seems sadistic, Acher seems to have a legitimate (if cliche) beef with God.

            The Pardes story is a parable, so irrelevant to questions of biography. Sounds like he started breaking laws after the boy died, then somehow found a way to ascend to Heaven and deny the unity of God, which is when God got pissed off and decided never to forgive him.

            But here’s the kicker: we know that in-universe most of the Mosaic Law exists to keep us from putting strain on Uriel’s system’s resources. So the UNSONG version of the story might be:
            1. Acher notices an apparent injustice: a boy breaking the Mosaic Law lives, one following it dies. But this isn’t actually an injustice because God doesn’t actually care.
            2. Acher goes around breaking a lot of laws that make him a huge pain in Uriel’s ass but don’t offend God at all.
            3. Acher ascends to heaven, having done nothing really wrong so far, and breaks one of the only laws God actually cares about.
            4. God bitch-slaps Acher.

            I’m amazed Uriel doesn’t know what Acher’s up to these days, given that he’s probably off somewhere boiling a goat in its mother’s milk.

          • Chrysophylax says:

            I am confident that the voice that condemned Acher was Uriel’s. Acher is a strong enough kabbalist that Uriel can’t just smite him, but if there’s any crime Uriel would find hard to forgive, it’s boiling goats. We also know that Metatron had disappeared from Heaven by this point and may have been written out of existence. (See my comment further down the page for the full argument.)

        • PDV says:

          There’s no such thing as a slant rhyme, just a rhyme you’re pronouncing in the wrong dialect.

  2. stavro375 says:

    Add another entry to the Nothing Is Ever A Coincidence Files.

    “So where did he go?”

    “I DON’T KNOW. I NEVER ASKED.”

    Well this won’t be important later. Maybe Aaron has the same fate after he causes the apocalypse?

    EACH YEAR ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, A GREAT VOICE WOULD RING FORTH FROM THE HOLY PLACES, SAYING ‘REPENT, O CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS MERCIFUL AND SHALL FORGIVE YOU.

    Y’know, it occurs to me that Judaism is sort of the Rudy of religions: not that strong (to what religions still exist, and both in terms of number of followers and political significance), but it’s persisted across thousands of years and in spite of endless attempts to quash it and is famous for that determination alone.

    Except in the Unsong verse Judaism is the One True Religion. It was noted in one of the interludes that even the USSR perceived the weirdness following the Long March as specifically Jewish weirdness. And given the reference to the Holocaust last interlude, it’s still somehow weak and vulnerable (if persistent). I wonder why the One True Religion never became the world-spanning force people tend to assume it would be.

    • Joe says:

      If you consider Catholicism as the fulfillment of Judiasm then it really did spread through out the world.
      http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/schoemanintvw1_july04.asp

      • Yaacov says:

        Yeah, but it’s not

        • MugaSofer says:

          Isn’t it? The angels are unsure if Jesus is Lord, but the Christian Bible is perfectly isomorphic to Adom Kadmon, Hell appears to be based on Christian depictions, angels are winged humanoids etc.

          “All had originally one language, and one religion: this was the religion of Jesus, the everlasting Gospel.” – William Blake

          Certainly the Catholic Church were wrong about many things, but so was Judaism, so…

    • Anonymous says:

      IF YOU YOUR INTENTIONS ARE NOT PURE, KABBALAH CAN TURN YOU INTO A FORCE FOR GREAT EVIL WHO DESTROYS EVERYTHING AROUND YOU.

      I think this is the part most relevant to Aaron’s quest… Remember, he’s doing it all for very selfish reasons.

      • Cariyaga says:

        A singer is one who tries to be good.

        • Anders Sandberg says:

          But one can try to be good without being good. Or even becoming good.

          (Is becoming god easier than becoming good?)

          • Aaron says:

            I suspect that there are many people who have become good and very few who have become god. Empirically it seems much easier to become good than to become god.

          • Glenn says:

            (Is becoming god easier than becoming good?)

            Eliezer Yudkowsky thinks so.

            (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

        • Decius says:

          Aaron is being grossly negligent regarding the harm he is willing to inflict to satisfy his personal desire to do good.

          • Aaron M says:

            Oh man, I only just realized that commenting as “Aaron” is confusing on Unsong posts. Guess I’ll add an initial.

            But on topic: what harm has Aaron shown himself willing to commit?

          • Aran says:

            More of a Teller than a Singer, you mean?

  3. Jeremy Jaffe says:

    is the other one the comet king?

  4. Daniel says:

    I think th Other One is the Other King.

    • Daniel Blank says:

      I do too, as above. But why kill the Comet King? What specific law does that break, other than “Don’t kill people?”

      • Electrace says:

        The Comet King was laying siege to Hell. The angels of Hell care only about the opposite of honoring the glory of God. That makes them natural allies to the Other One.

        • Galle says:

          On the other hand, the Other One specifically swore vengeance on whatever force is responsible for meting out justice in the world, and yet delivers only injustice. Thamiel may only care about the opposite of honoring the glory of God, but he is still PART of God, and the part that the Other One hated most.

  5. XerxesPraelor says:

    From wikipedia, the same story.

    Four men entered the pardes — Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher [that is, Elisha], and Akiva. Ben Azzai looked and died; Ben Zoma looked and went mad; Acher destroyed the plants; Akiva entered in peace and departed in peace.[4]

    What is the meaning of “Acher destroyed the plants”? Of him scripture says: “Do not let your mouth make your flesh sin”.[6] What does this mean? Acher saw that Metatron happened to be granted authority to sit while he record the merits of Israel, and he said: “We have been taught that in heaven there is no sitting…. Perhaps there are — God forbid! — two supreme powers”. They brought him to Metatron and they smote him with sixty bands of fire. They said to Metatron: “When you saw him, why did you not stand up before him?” Then authority was granted Metatron to erase the merits of Acher. Then a heavenly voice was heard: “‘Repent, O backsliding children!'[7] except for Acher.”[8]

  6. elijah says:

    So, The Other One is not in heaven nor in hell. I take that as a clue that he might be someone we met on Earth. Maybe The Other King?

    Also, apparently, Thamiel cannot be destroyed, because he is a facet of god. This means he is inherently different from the angles (and archangles, which we witnessed dying). I think that he is some kind of a very powerful klipah (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qliphoth), which makes me wonder where are the other kliphots (there supposed to be one for each sphere. Thamiel is for Kether).

    I still don’t understand when and why these klipoth (i.e. Thamiel) got out of control. The klipoth are supposed to be a crucial part of the creation, enabling change and development other than infinite divine light.

    • Anonymous says:

      angles (and archangles, which we witnessed dying)

      That’s some really obtuse orthography.

      • elijah says:

        Sorry about that, I’m not a native English Speaker…
        I meant to say that since we have seen Archangles dying in this story, Thamiel is probably not any kind of Angel/ Archangel.

        • Alex R says:

          > That’s some really obtuse orthography.

          The comment referred to the fact that you said “angles” instead if “angels”; “orthography” means “spelling” and “obtuse” can refer both to an angle that is more than 90 degrees and to something hard to understand.

          • Anonymous says:

            Yes. I also wanted to stick an orthography/orthogonality pun somewhere, but nothing I thought of came out right.