Zohak

“ Zohak has two serpents growing from his shoulders, to which by degrees thousands fall as sacrifices, for they are fed with the brains of men, and for this purpose two youths are slaughtered every day. That Zohak is called king of Babylon is due to a reminiscence of the fact that the Assyrians ruled over Western Iran, and the Seleucids and Chalifs over the whole country. Zohak persecutes severely the descendants of Jemshid. Abtin, the last of these, finally falls into his power; he causes him to be slain for his serpents; but Abtin's wife carries off his young son Feridun in safety to Elburz. ”

“ On the following day, however, they turned their faces toward the city which is now called Jerusalem, the proud capital of Zohak, whose glorious palace raised its towers unto highest heaven in beauty. Here, Feridoun giving the signal by striking the brazen gates with his cow-headed mace, the army stormed the walls, burst in the gates, and put the garrison to flight. Then, entering the palace, the youthful leader cast down the evil talisman of miraculous virtues that was graven upon the walls, and slew the wicked Deevs who guarded it. ”

“ He inquired of his mother why Zohák had put his father to death, and Faránuk then told him the melancholy story; upon hearing which, he resolved to be revenged on the tyrant. His mother endeavored to divert him from his determination, observing that he was young, friendless, and alone, whilst his enemy was the master of the world, and surrounded by armies. "Be not therefore precipitate," said she. "If it is thy destiny to become a king, wait till the Almighty shall bless thee with means sufficient for the purpose." ”

“ Jemshid, sawn asunder, mockingly performing obeisance; then for hours a mighty throng of youths and maidens, sighing as they passed along, “We are the serpents’ victims”; and Iblis, too, appeared before the Serpent King, assuring him, as he rubbed his hands and laughed in fiendish glee, that he should continue to live so—on and on in torture—for a thousand years. So was the wicked Zohak punished for his evil deeds.
But as for Feridoun, for five hundred years he ruled the world gloriously, and all his days he did that which was beneficent and good, his heart being ever open unto his people. ”

“ The Persian hero of civilisation, like the Greek, is chastised and hurled down by God for his presumption; his fall is occasioned by Zohak, who conquers him, from whose shoulders dragons grow up (the dragons of the Storm and the Night) . After a fall of a hundred years he appears on the coast of the Chinese sea. The Sun is devoured by the monster waiting for him at the bottom of the sea, but afterwards rises again out of the sea, like Jonah in the Hebrew myth.
If now we turn from ancient Irân to the American tribes, we find the Myth of Civilisation take the same direction. ”

“ FERIDÚN Kandrú, the keeper of the talisman, having effected his escape, fled to Zohák, to whom he gave intelligence of the release of his women, the destruction of the talisman, and the conquest of his empire.
"The sign of retribution has appeared,
For sorrow is the fruit of evil deeds." ”

“ It is recorded that Zohák's dread of Feridún was so great, that day by day he became more irritable, wasting away in bitterness of spirit, for people of all ranks kept continually talking of the young invader, and were daily expecting his approach. At last he came, and Zohák was subdued, and his power extinguished.
KAVAH, THE BLACKSMITH Zohák having one day summoned together all the nobles and philosophers of the kingdom, he said to them: "I find that a young enemy has risen up against me; but notwithstanding his tender years, there is no safety even with an apparently insignificant foe. ”

“ The Devil now suggested a remedy, which was to quiet them by giving them every day the brains of two men, killed for that purpose: this tyranny lasted long, till a blacksmith of Ispahan whose children had been nearly all slain to feed the King’s serpents, raised his leathern apron as the standard of revolt, and deposed Zohak. Zohak, say the Persians, is still living in the cave of his punishment, a sulphureous vapour issues from the place, and if a stone be flung in there comes out a voice and cries, why dost thou fling stones at me? ”

“ He is also distinguished by the epithet Sad-wakhshur, which signifies “hundred prophets;” to him is ascribed the book Javedan Khirad, “eternal intelligence,” which is said to have been translated into Greek, with other books, by order of Alexander (see Desátir, English transl. pp. 79, 153, 163) .—A. T.
[257] Zohak, the son of a sister of Jemshíd, usurped the throne of his uncle and sovereign, according to Ferdusi, 2729 years B. C. ”

“ Zohak heard him with patience and released his son. He also made him bearer of a letter addressed to all the provinces of the empire, vaunting his goodness, and calling on all to support him against the youthful pretender to his throne. But Gavah, instead of executing the mandate, tore the tyrant's letter, and, raising his leathern apron on a lance by way of standard, called on all the inhabitants of Irân to arise and take arms in support of Feridoon, the rightful heir to the throne of Jemsheed. ”

“ On the other hand, the Iranic system at a very early age (that of the Avesta) elevated Dualism into the region of pure morals, and yet at a later (the epic period) formed out of the original myth the localised story of the war of Zohak against Ferîdûn. ”

“ Taking leave of his mother, he marches against the tyrant; an angel comes from heaven to aid the rightful cause; Zohak is deserted by his troops; he falls into the hands of Feridoon, who, by the direction of the angel, imprisons him in a cavern of the mountain Demavend. Feridoon, on ascending the throne of his forefathers, governed with such mildness, firmness, and justice, that his name is to the present day in Persia significative of the ideal of a perfect monarch [61] . ”

“ Now, if traced, what, I ask, of the Kaffir slave?"
"By the soul of the Prophet!" exclaimed Zohrab, in great and sudden perplexity, "what can I do, but leave her here?"
"Sell her to the young Shah: she is worth a thousand mohurs," suggested the Hindoo banker.
"The coward has fled," said Zohrab.
"She is beautiful as the one he lost, and whom he mourned so much that it required the whole seraglio to console him."
"Poor fellow!" sneered Zohrab.
"I will buy her of you for two hundred tomauns, paid down," said the Khond. "Money is useful to those who are fugitives." ”

“ In fact, the favourite idea of Modern Zionism, the idea of a spiritual centre in Zion for the whole Diaspora, the focussing of a pure Jewish life in Palestine, the creation of an intellectual and moral reservoir, from which a stream of influence should flow all over the scattered nation, and waves of Jewish inspiration and knowledge should spread in all directions, making the little land a metropolis of Judaism in religion and life—was not this Zionist programme laid down and carried out in the intentions and achievements of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah? ”

“ Accepting on these grounds the pre-existence of the soul, the continuance of the soul in the world to come, and reincarnation, he comes to the Cabbalah, quotes the Zohar, and declares himself a disciple of R. Isaac Luria. According to the Zohar, man is composed of three things: Life, or Nefesh, Spirit, which is Ruach, and Soul, which is Neshamah. By this man becomes a Ruach Chajah (Living Spirit) .1 Manasseh’s doctrine may be summarized as follows ”

“ And thus there came into the world a book, the book Zohar (brilliancy) , which for many centuries was held by Jews as a heavenly revelation, and was and partly is even now regarded by Christians as an old tradition. But seldom has so notorious a forgery so thoroughly succeeded. Moses de Leon well knew how to produce the proper effect on credulous readers. He made Simon bar Yochaï appear in splendor, surrounded by a halo, in the book Zohar, and impart his revelation to a circle of select pupils (sometimes twelve, sometimes six) , "scholars who shine with heaven's light." ”

“ No one need to be told that it will send a mystical thrill through the hearts of the vast majority of Jews throughout the world.... It is no idle dream which anticipates that by the close of another generation the new Zion may become a State, including, no doubt, only a pronounced minority of the entire Jewish race, yet numbering from a million to two million souls, forming a true national people, with its own distinctive, rural, and urban civilization, its own centres of learning and art, making a unique link between East and West. ”

“ He was only inspired by the emotions of triumph and passion, by the sure conviction that this fair Feringhee, this daughter of a vanquished tribe, this outcast unbeliever, so lovely in her whiteness of skin, her purity of complexion, and wondrous colour of hair, in her roundness of limb, and in stature so far surpassing all the maids of the twenty-one Afghan clans or races, was his—his property—to become the slave of his will or his cruelty, as it pleased him!
Of the paradox that woman's weakness is her strength, with the Christian man, Zohrab knew nothing, and felt less ”

“ Zohrab grasped her left hand with his right, and planting his left cheek on the other hand, with an elbow on his knee, began to take courage, and, surveying her steadily, to speak more distinctly and with an admiring smile; for the silence of the night was around them, and no sound came on the wind that moaned past the grove or the great cypresses close by; so from the silence, perhaps, he gathered confidence, if, indeed, he really required it.
"Allah has been good to us," said he, "exceedingly good, in creating such beautiful beings as women to please us. ”

“ Black Zogal galloped into the town at daybreak and has just galloped back, bringing a great company of Sheikhs and Notables—Egyptians, chiefly—who have come up the Nile to meet us, but many are Bedouins from the wild East country running to the Red Sea. Such fine faces and stately figures! Most of them living in tents, but all dressed like princes. They are saluting Ishmael as the 'Deliverer,' the 'Guided One,' the 'Redeemer,' and even the 'Lord Isa,' and he is not reproving them! ”

“ As not one of them had ever seen a Turk of Feringhistan, these answers seemed to perplex them.
"Then why here?" asked Zohrab, suspiciously.
"I served Shah Sujah, and have left him, for fate is against him, and he shall never reign in Afghanistan," said Waller, thinking in his heart, "How many falsehoods must I tell to deceive these artful savages?"
"You are right," said Amen Oollah, grimly; "but as we deem that in serving the Shah you have been guilty of a crime, I give you as a slave to Nouradeen Lai. You shall help him to plough the land." ”

“ While the familiar passages of Scripture concerning the Restoration were calculated to promote human effort in this great cause—for in many of these passages the spiritual application is not the most obvious, and all of them seem inspired by the vision of a real and natural return to the Land—the Biblical descriptions of the Holy Land contributed not less to the propaganda of what we may call the Zionist idea. There is no country whose geography is, if not better known, at any rate dearer to the heart of man than that of the land of which the Bible speaks. ”

“ The Zohar is particularly concerned with that side of man which is an eternal riddle to man,—the soul, its origin and end. Like the older Kabbalists, the Zohar assumed the pre-existence of the souls in the brilliant world of the Sefiroth. They are there wrapped in a spiritual robe, and entranced in the contemplation of God's light. When the souls are about to enter this world they assume an earthly garment, the body; but as soon as they are to leave the earth, the angel of death divests them of this earthly garment. ”

“ Speaking at a Zionist meeting in 1914, in Cincinnati, the late Professor Solomon Schechter said: “Zionism is now a living fact. We must have Zionism, if we want Judaism, orthodox or reform, to continue to exist. Judaism is at the present time in a very weak condition, not only in America, but also in Europe. The Jew cannot live in his own atmosphere, he is compelled to breathe the spirit of other religions.... The question then arises: What is it that can preserve the Jewish people? ♦How can Judaism be saved from complete annihilation? ”

“ He realized the distinctiveness of the Jew. He said that Jews and Germans were as the poles asunder in thought and conceptions of life, and the logic of history and the necessities of humanity made him plead for Zion to be restored. Nature’s economy, he said, demands that the Jew should lead his own life, in his own fashion, and in his own country. He pleaded in the first place for a reaction against Hellenistic theories of life: to him family life was sacred; the mother’s love was the real sacred source of Jewish persistence, because it was spiritual yet not unreal. ”

“ For Zionism cannot be properly understood if it is regarded merely as a result of certain political combinations or as a reaction against anti-Semitism. It must be traced to its roots, which lie deep in the national consciousness of the Jewish people; and that national consciousness is not simply a vague sentiment, but has long had its concrete expressions in connection with the revival of Palestine and of the Hebrew language. The inner history of Zionism, then, is to be traced along the lines of Palestinian colonization and the Hebrew renascence. ”