deeply rooted in the human role. After all, they ended up here in the real world. The real world is no stage whatsoever! After all, they have their own head, hands and feet, their own thoughts, pain, and joy. They are hungry and thirsty, rejoicing in food and property. So, why the fuss about “Who am I?” “I’m a human, of course!” Certainly that is true, but it’s only because no one would ever suspect that, on the stage of God’s drama, to be a human is to play the role of a human wearing a mask of a human. Should anyone manage to catch a glimpse of this fact, even just for a moment, he would previously have had to overcome another difficulty – in addition to his life role, there are other social roles to be played in human life: for example, one is a rabbi, whereas another is a beggar, another a widow or a queen. And as their social roles become firmly intertwined with their basic life’s roles, then it undoubtedly really seems as if one has nothing in common with the other deep down inside. Apart from assigning the actors in God’s drama their life’s roles and human masks, Godthe-Director also assigns names to the actors. They have these in order to distinguish them from each other even more easily: you are as strong as a lion, your name will be Ariel, and you, in turn, are as meek as a lamb, your name will be Rebecca. Then, no one even suspects that he or she has been given a name that is not his/her name. A person immediately turns around on hearing this name, only proving how attached he/she has become to a name. 3 Who are we? However, participants in God’s drama are not only individuals but also entire nations. If an entire nation bursts on to the scene, then it must also be able to be distinguished. It must have its own identity. Initially, it is sufficient for its members to know each other by their names. Later, however, as their number increases, they need some common cultural symbol. Such a natural symbol may, for example, be a totem – a raised object people collectively look up to, often located at some frequently visited gathering place, named collectively after this place. A totem is just a mere item. For the Israelites, it was supposedly dangerously close to the golden calf. But, an idol, in general, was forbidden! Therefore, an alternative option of identity became a priority for them, and that was a common ancestor. Every Israelite believed in his pedigree that had to extend somehow as far back as one of Jacob’s sons. In this way, it was stipulated to an Israelite who was his neighbour and who was not, at least physically. Let us once more return to God’s drama. If an Israelite had not realised that God was within him, would he ever have thought of God being in his neighbour as well, or even some day also in a man who was not his neighbour at all? Not directly, but via a mediator, this was surprisingly possible! For the Israelites, from a common physical forefather there was only a small step to even more advanced identification – to a spiritual identification – and that is the mutual God. Thus far, they had no idea of God’s presence in each human, so God showed up on the scene as another person – Spirituality Studies 1 (2) Fall 2015 71 (3)
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