“To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.
All parts away for the progress of souls,
All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe.”
Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road
Walking on a public road way before Whitman, another poem dreams.
It’s not just universal peace that Isaiah dares imagine - it’s a totally new arrangement of relationships and friendships. No more bad guys. Everybody learns to get along with each other no matter our own histories and faults. He even includes Egypt - that mega mythic source of slavery from which the Hebrew nation was painfully born. Even Egypt, in Isaiah’s imagination, will be loved again by the people Israel and by their God. The prophet takes his united nation vision another big step forward and he’s operating in a very specific political context - Egypt is not in the past, it’s a big part of his present day ordeal.
Mid 8th century BCE, Egypt was busy battling itself with endless civil wars between competing factions that included several dynasties. Isaiah, casting his gaze towards the great empire of the south, laments that Egypt too will fall, like all the others, a victim of its people’s politics and power grabs. When all will be demolished, he predicts, even those who worship the Nile as a god and every other idol and shape as sacred, will come to know the inner truth of God beyond all masks. And then, repentant, they will seek forgiveness from YHWH - and it will be received. A similar fate will await Assyria - the contemporary superpower that threatened Egypt, as well as Judah and all others in the world. The surprising symbol of this future turn of repentant events will be the highway that will run from south to north - erasing differences and paving a literal new road to global peace:
בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא תִּהְיֶ֨ה מְסִלָּ֤ה מִמִּצְרַ֙יִם֙ אַשּׁ֔וּרָה וּבָא־אַשּׁ֥וּר בְּמִצְרַ֖יִם וּמִצְרַ֣יִם בְּאַשּׁ֑וּר וְעָבְד֥וּ מִצְרַ֖יִם אֶת־אַשּֽׁוּר׃ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא יִהְיֶ֤ה יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ שְׁלִ֣ישִׁיָּ֔ה לְמִצְרַ֖יִם וּלְאַשּׁ֑וּר בְּרָכָ֖ה בְּקֶ֥רֶב הָאָֽרֶץ׃ אֲשֶׁ֧ר בֵּרְכ֛וֹ יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת לֵאמֹ֑ר בָּר֨וּךְ עַמִּ֜י מִצְרַ֗יִם וּמַעֲשֵׂ֤ה יָדַי֙ אַשּׁ֔וּר וְנַחֲלָתִ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
“On that day, there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians shall join with the Egyptians and Egyptians with the Assyrians, and then the Egyptians together with the Assyrians shall serve YHWH. On that day, Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth; YHWH GOD of Hosts will bless them, saying, “Blessed be My people Egypt, My handiwork Assyria, and My very own Israel.”
Isaiah 19:24-25
One has to pause and appreciate, even admire, this bold big idea: Way before highways and superhighways were invented, Isaiah sees the link that will connect countries and dissolve differences, all united by faith in a force greater than all. To imagine Israel in alliance with the two superpowers of the time is both hubris and comedy, utopian fantasy and a vision of radical hope.
@RabbiBradleyShavitArtson explores this big wild vision deeper:
“Could it be that God’s love is so great that it can’t be contained in a single covenant? That God’s service is bigger than any single religion? Might it be that the oneness of this God is not numerical, but refers to the mystical ways that all distinctions and differences are integrated into this embracing unity without ever being smothered into uniformity.
Egyptians: be Egypt, and serve God in the special ways that only you can. Assyrians: cultivate your ancient identity and offer it to a broader humanity for all to benefit. Jews: share the wisdom of your heritage as a blessing to all humankind.
God’s greatness transcends all boundaries and breaks through any wall. God’s love washes us all, and bathes us in a light that both highlights our differences and underscores our shared humanity.”
What’s even more exciting about this big dream of Isaiah’s is the specific metaphor he uses - the building of shared infrastructure - a common road. The word he uses to describe this futuristic highway of YHWH is ‘Mesila’, connected to the verb ‘sll’ - to pave, as in ‘to pave a road’. But there is evidence that goes back to at least the Roman times that this is also connected with the way we elevate roads - turning them literally into ‘high-ways’. David Curwin suggests the linguistic links here:
“ Why is a main road called a highway? One theory is that it goes back to the Romans, who built elevated roads with ditches for drainage on each side. These roads were therefore higher than the surrounding land. Presumably, Isaiah’s imagined mesila was also elevated in a similar way. A related word is “solela”. It originally meant “a raised mound of earth,” and was placed around the walls of a city for defensive purposes (for example in Isaiah 37:33). One last biblical word with a connection to the root SLL is “selah.” It frequently ends verses in the book of Psalms. The meaning is debated, but one explanation is that it derived from the meaning “to lift up,” and was a musical direction intended to instruct the singer to raise the voice.”
The highway of interconnectedness imagined by Isaiah is yet to be built from Cairo to Damascus, including Tel Aviv and Tehran - but the infrastructure of the future is built in, deep in our psyche, eager to get on the road and lift up love and dignity, mutual respect and collaboration in ways that will save our future, as only prophets who pave the way know.
“Like Watchmen in the Night”
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