D: “There you are, it is done. You’ve introduced a new era and I’m on my way out! What does it feel like?”

G: “I feel cheated. Though in the end it’s clearer that I keep the promise….especially now that I’ve made the formal announcement ..

D: which is….

G: Your slaveries, your addictions to follow this fellow over here are forgiven, and will be forgiven. The big tough guy has died, turned over a new leaf…,

D: But you can’t hold back the mighty hand and outstretched arm forever, now?

G: (winks) you’ll see. I’m no longer the vengeful wrathfoul creator…

D: a new covenant?

G: Yes, and that’s the problem isn’t it? Covenant is a promise; can you make a new one without breaking the old one? That sets a bad precedent for treaties…’God did it, why can’t we?”

D: “But your promise is to the faithful,…for they feel deep-down what you meant…and they believe it whether or not the word is exactly what they heard.

G: “that’s just mollycottle – you blur the truth. Oh, yes, ‘the sun must rise again after it sets….the spring shall arrive with rain ….Those are very different promises my friend. If I have broken the word of the credo I gave my people to live by–’the Lord is ONE and his name ONE’ I have created confusion for every ‘ONE’ that was ever spoken!”

D: “The Lord is ALL— all in one and one in all…but not “one, the number before two.

G: “But a one that is NOT two, or three. The Father and the Son! Then add the Holy Ghost to solve their riddle! IT is confusion and chaos…and good pluckings for YOU. But no, I understand. I can see the why of it.. and in the end, my promises, all of them–even with the confusion–they can and shall all be kept.

“For the promise is in Hope, the days of the Messiah, who is just another name for hope in the language of the law….well, the language of the people I first told of the promise.

D: Of course you see that all people are going to be your people when this devil in me stops weighting the dice. And I’ve stopped, dad, I promise.

G: The dice? Oh yes, those… Eons, you say?

D: Just a little lag-time. It’s going to take about forty or fifty throws before you see the results. First of all, you’ve just muddied the water with this stunt of ours, and that’s going to weight things my way… confusions do it all the time you know; slaveries to the simple synapses…I might have told you about this. I’m sorry, it was a bit of a trick on my part but I’m sure you anticipated it. I’m not a cheat. I alluded to it….

G: No. I understand. I know you didn’t trick me. Just as I knew you’d talk Eve and the Original into slavery to knowledge. How else could I make faith more precious? So yes, I’ll give you your point, my promise IS for the faithful. They will feel it deep down when the time is come, when the hope is truly the basis of life. These are to be the days of the Moshiach, the Messiah and the promise can truly be kept even for them, the first of my people.

D: and not the last….Look, two or three are in ALL… let’s not quibble. I’ll make you another wager that you can turn the three back into ‘one’ and you’ll be forgiven.”

G: “No more wagers, thank you. But I thank you for reminding me about forgiveness. I shall need it now from those very people of the first covenant. I’m just not the same God I was. Your job was Job, and you’ve proven your point.

“Now let’s see where we stand. I’ve humbled myself. From your perspective, which is the perspective of all those who’d already left me and were wearing your colors, it was ME who was forgiven, right? And for that, you’d promised to give yourself up. But you’ve already gotten your short-term gains in. As you said, I muddied the water and the market jumped up in your direction. But the bell hasn’t tolled for the market. It’s not shut-down… though some people are doing some wicked trading. But it’s slowly dawning that indeed, I’ve found it in my heart to forgive you—NOT for the horrors you’ve brought about in my name, your means of blaspheme are so ugly! But apparently I must suffer too. It’s part of the humility. And yes, my first people suffered. But then again, I told them of their curse from the start. The prophets knew it. They truly understood the slavery and curse of knowledge. So this new version of the promise shouldn’t have been such a surprise.

D: “You suffer most for them, eh? Your ‘chosen ones’?

G: “Why of course. I’ve double-crossed them by crossing them, when you all crossed me, no joke intended. This is not fun.

“What’s next up your sleeve? You needn’t hide anything. As you said, it’s a new era, and we have such a long way to go…

D: Boss, your promise shall be kept. You can take the devil’s promise on that….and besides, it’s a match. A balance. A quid pro quo. I’ll take my seat willingly and humbly at your left hand.

G: “You’re a vain arrogant good-for-nothing. What’s next on the devil’s agenda, eh?”

D: A trial, a debate, discussion, brainstorm…what you will have of it, between those who would accuse you of breaking a promise if indeed you were to explain to them what you’ve just done. That you’ve grown, or changed the reading, the interpretation of words…of switching gears on them and bringing on confusion. It is, of course, up to you to absolve yourself. Blame ME for all I care!

G: No. They shall see I put it all in the small print. Yet it’s really Maimonides’ thirteen articles of faith I must go on trial for. I don’t see how I can answer them at the moment. He was a lawyer’s lawyer. He grasped the fine print and argued it past me. He even figured out this last stunt of ours but did it one better…using my own arguments. So even if I had a way of telling them, who would dare raise their voices and accuse me in court? They’d declare the court invalid before I could ever open it –even should I come down with miracles and terrible outbursts of mighty power and wrath, like in the old days?!. Who indeed would dare answer?

D: “What are you talking about? You know them all! Hillel, Rashi, the Baal Shem, the Magid of Mezerich, Rambam, Nachmanides, Rabad de Posquieres… throw in Mordecai Kaplan….

G: “The Revisionist?”

D: “Re-construction-ist.”

G: “I was joking.…but yes, you’re right….all my prophets talked back to me, especially Moses. Were my mighty wrath to come at last, it’d be of no use, they’ll find every logical reason to foist it off on the atheists and the vagaries of Nature… and the insurance companies will already have stricken out ‘Acts of God’ from their policies, since global warming and my meteorological histrionics shall be due to “political errors“…and no longer random nor payable unless you took out a special high-cost Apocalypse Policy!

“A little bit on that later, though. I’ve got a little bit of a surprise for you.”

D: “uh,...ahmm.… so you’re game?”

G: “I take it YOU plan to be moderator!?”

D: “Not exactly me, no.. What’s the surprise?”

G: “Later. When we’ve got this settled.

“I’m beginning to see the rub. I suppose we should hold a conference on Sinai… Starting with Moses… like I had outside Jerusalem when the apostles saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah?”

D: “By the way, I never thanked you for Gideon. You seemed to take him into confidence more times than anyone else…

G: “He never talked back…but you’re pulling my leg!?”

D: “Of course. And how did he repay you? With a giant silver ephod? That was the biggest boon I ever had from you. I almost felt loved!”

G: “A slight error of judgment… I wish you hadn’t reminded me. Let’s get back to the trial. where and how shall I meet them all for this so-called colloquium?

D: “Zoom”

G: “Zoom?

D: “You can make anything possible. Why not?”

G: “That’s not the point. Of course I can …but why should they believe it is me and not some Chinese hacker, or the ‘man behind the curtain, that balloonist from Nebraska…”

D: None of them even dreamt of zoom, so if we do it all in a dream, and if they can interpret their dream in accord with their heart and mind awake, they will know it was YOU.”

G: “and not YOU?”

D: “And not me. Though I’ve got the internet on contract…you wouldn’t be wrong if you said it’s through me. Hah. I can see the billing:

“The trial of God, charged with malfeasance and multiple counts of confusion, doubt, and injustice.” !!

“But no, there’s going to be total transparency. I won’t be involved besides providing the simulated representation of a mechanism…which is what I do anyway for a living. You’re providing the dream and all the scribes arisen to participate in the zoom. I just offer a premise for the dream.

G: “Which is also what you do for a living… heaven trying to escape the suffering of this life. And the premise of the zoom is that they shall all see and meet each other?

D: “Of course. They’ll all be using biblical Hebrew and Aramaic... and they’ll all appreciate the questions and arguments…for you realize that all the prophets and the children you fashioned your people from who came before Moses wouldn’t even recognize him.

G: “You’ve reminded me of a chink in my promise that I can lean on during the trial. I’m thinking of ben Maimon’s Thirteen Articles of Faith as a restatement. They are focused as much around me as they are around the law and history–the Torah I gave to Moses. So a good Jew says that all the prophets before Moses were ‘from him.’ What that means is that until we got the whole story down in his tent …before they took the Ark over into the Promised Land, none of the promises to my prophets were actually ‘ratified’.

What Maimonides is saying here is if there had been no Moses there would have been no prophets, nor promises at all. That should be a precedent for interpretation I can lean on when it comes to modifying my own promise, wouldn’t you say?

D: I’m not so sure. Rabbi Moses was the best, like you said, when it comes to a good lawyer. And a good doctor.…but a real imitatio Deus, as severe as you were in the desert. Each of the promises listed in your dictation to Moses are in the Book as you dictated them. The whole idea of Moses was to ‘close the book’ and ratify all your previous obligations. That’s what Rabbi Ishmael’s Thirteen Rules of interpretation are about….how to ratify their lives AFTER Moses. That’s where I could always trip people up.”

G: “Well, then you’ll serve as a passable defense lawyer, no? How can we use the Thirteen Rules to help these key changes to the promise stand?”

D: “‘Key changes’ is right! Like the definition of ONE. But this reminds me, you shall have to go on trial for the Nicene Creed as well, you realize.”

G: “What a glorious idea! What a wonderful invention this Zoom could be in dreamtime!”

D: “Did you hear me?”

G: “Of course. I’m ready. We can replay Luther and Tetzel–only I shall be Luther and he’ll find himself playing Tetzel! What fun!!! But let’s get the first trial done with. Why should we limit it to just a few? Every tzaddik that ever prayed or asked a fervent question of my Torah should be in on this dream. I can see them all making separate cases against me, and then standing up for me a moment later!

“Best part is I can see them all, and speak to them no differently than I did with Gideon…pretty relaxed and practically every other night! Only they’ll all be together now, seeing each other! How wonderful. Just think of being a tsimple tsaddik from Jerba or Tomsk to be in on this dream!”

D: “…who raiseth the dead whenever he has a mind!!”

G: “Hah. And, since you’ve raised the central point again of the Shema. Insist Spinoza be called to the stand! It was Rambam’s interpretation that he focused on and saw all the issues of slavery and ethics in it. And they crucified him for it, and so shall we! Be sure to turn him inside-out. That’ll confuse the lot of them!”

D: “Baruch shall be mighty confused.

G: “Crucified. A little vinegar on the lips and he’ll die of shock. Then we’ll bring him back from the dead. Won’t he see my opinion on ‘One-ness’ then? He’ll leap for joy at complexity! He’ll cry tears of joy when numbers themselves turn to tears! It’s a bit more than anyone bargained for when One is drawn out of Chaos and chaos merely completes it, no?”