Flight to Egypt

Dear friends, this is not an erotic story. No sex happens here, which is why it's in this category. It is a radical take on a classic tale which may bother you, but it goes to show how many different details could have fit into what we know about this 2000 year old tale.

***

Shmu'el was agitated, more agitated than normal. It was two hours after dark, and being suddenly awakened from a deep sleep was enough to rile him, but something else was bothering him more than normal. "What does my Cousin want from me? I give him and his family a place to stay, and this is how he repays me! He wakes me up with an emergency out of nowhere! Yussuf, you are mad or touched by a demon!" He leapt up and down on the dirt street of the village in irritation, a man in his late 50s who wasn't rich and therefore not fat. His grey hair and beard were scrawny.

Yussuf shook his head and put his hand on his Cousin's shoulder. A little taller, he was similar in every way, and was about the same age as his more excitable kinsman. His sense of urgency was more subdued, more of an inner drive. "Shmu'el, keep your voice down. The whole village doesn't have to know."

The hyperactivity faded, and the first man whispered, "All right, all right, but tell me again why you need my donkey right now? Tell me why you can't wait until daybreak like a normal person?"

Yussuf looked at Shmu'el until he stopped bouncing around, and put his finger to his lips. Going over to whisper in his ear, he said: "I had a dream, there was an angel. We have to leave, now. Bad people are on the way. Danger, great danger."

Shmu'el's eyes went wide with fear. "Herod? Soldiers?" he whispered, getting a grave nod in response. "You are my cousin, what I have is yours, of course, I cannot deny you. But ever since...that girl has been nothing but trouble for you. I swear I don't know you anymore, Yussuf. You've been crazy this past year."

"I wouldn't say Miryam's been nothing but trouble. She's been a lamb, and diligent in her work..."

"But Yussuf, why did you have to marry HER? Praise the King of Heaven she was blessed with a firstborn son, someone to take care of her in her old age. What about you, you old stallion? Can your daughters not take care of your household? You don't need another wife, and definitely not another child so much younger than the last of Rachel's babies."

A twig snapped in the distance, and the two men turned to look at what caused it. The village was one of the biggest near Jerusalem, but everyone still knew everyone else. A door creaked, and a fire two houses down was still glowing. The two old men slowly caught their breaths, and looked at each other. "Rachel is still in my heart, no one will take her place. She gave me six fine children, and yes, I have two daughters that can do the cooking and weaving, not to mention James and Joses' wives. But there was that dream..."

"Another dream already! You and your dreams! Lots of fine boys in our family: my son, two of your sons already married and the other two old enough to contract for, you or I could have bargained with old Joachim for Miryam on their behalf. If you're horny enough for another wife, there's a couple of nice widows available who are begging you could rescue. Their gratitude would be endless, they would probably be willing to try every trick the vile Romans do, the perverts." A light arid plop followed the obligatory expectoration the accompanied a reference to the hated rulers. "But you had to take Miryam for yourself! The only thing more ridiculous than taking her for yourself would be digging up old David for her. Your children have children, what more do you want?"

Yussuf put his finger to his lips. "Let's just say I had to and leave it alone. It's a secret."

"It's incredible. So you're becoming a prophet in your old age, just what we need."

The older cousin looked around carefully, then bent over to ask,"So do you let me have your donkey?"

The shorter man looked at his cousin intently, surveying every wrinkle of his face in the wan light. Shmu'el blinked a couple of times, looked scared, and nodded. "You are my kinsman, my cousin. You need the donkey, you have the donkey. I cannot say no. You would do the same for me."

"Yes, Shmu'el. You know I would."

"But this is a sign, a very bad sign." The younger man was waving his finger in his cousin's face until the steely look broke down his anger. "I believe you, danger is on the way. What should I do?"

Yussuf looked around, and whispered in Shmu'el's ear: "Your family should be fine, your children's children are all girls. If you don't want to see the horror, take your family out and hide in the caves. Don't go near Masada. It will take a while for them to get here, the soldiers waking up from their nightly drunken stupor and marching down here. You have time to get away."

"What Yussuf? Why us? Such public infamy will come among us?"

"It happens to ordinary people all the time. Soldiers come, do what they want, follow orders, show no mercy. No one will remember. This is a small town and Herod is such a butcher no scribe will record the deaths of a few little boys. People shrug with every new outrage. Herod is always afraid, and he will see every boy born recently in this town as a threat. It's sick, but that's what will happen."

Shmu'el's eyes went wide with fear again and his mouth opened and shut wordlessly. Yussuf left him, bringing the beast to the cave his family was staying in, to start them moving.

They were huddled in the cave against the winter evening desert chill, and looked at him fearfully. "Now we leave my children, now. Gather everything up, Shmu'el gave me the donkey. There's enough light for the rest of the night, and we should be over the border in a couple of days or so." They got up quickly: four young men and five young women, two toddlers and an infant in his mother's arms. They were average height, dark eyed and dark brown skinned like all their neighbors. The past few days had been eventful for them, but it took little time for them to be ready to move.

"Father, should we take some weapons?" Jude said. "There will be bandits in the desert."

"Yes, Jude, all you boys should take your cudgels. We will stay close together on the road. If we're lucky, perhaps we can frighten the bandits with the story of Herod's pursuit of us and that will chase them away."

Yussuf's daughter Naomi laughed. "That's even true. We won't have to bother to lie."

They left the cave as quickly as they could, Miryam the last, walking gingerly after childbirth, with her infant in her arms. After putting their meager possessions on the beast, they lifted her up so she could ride. It was a peaceful night, with hardly a breeze, and between the waning moon and the remnants of a bright star that peaked several days ago, there was enough light. The donkey was surprisingly docile as they passed into the wilderness; they were like ghosts passing in the night.

The winter day in the desert was bright with a few rain clouds in the north. Yussuf kept them out of the wadis for fear they would get caught in a flood. They saw neither human nor animal, except for a family of rabbits they caught and slaughtered for a meal. At dusk the next day, they found a camping place and set up their tent. James, the eldest, asked his father, "How far have we gotten, do you think?"

"Ten leagues, by my reckoning. Far enough to set up camp and rest. We've made decent time in spite of our burdens." Miryam got down from the donkey and stretched, handing her baby to one of her stepdaughters. Her brown eyes looked tired, but her expression was calm and confident.

Simon was nervous. He had just made his Bar-Mitzvah, and was the youngest of Yussuf's four sons until recently. "I'll take first watch, Father. I won't be able to sleep."

Yussuf put his hand on his shoulder. "Good, son. I know I can count on you. Help us get settled first and after the meal, you can go up to that rise and watch." The boys and girls all worked on the fire, wandering widely to gather fuel. Yussuf's oldest two sons, James and Joses, had wives already with sons who would be caught in Herod's web as well as the new infant. The toddlers were fascinated with the infant, the first they'd ever seen. Yussuf's daughters Salome, and Naomi, who were around Miryam's age, joined their older sisters-in-law and bustled with their tasks. Miryam tried to help as best she could, but she was still weak.

They roasted the rabbits, supplementing their meal with some cucumbers. Jude found a spring nearby, so water was also available to them. There was little conversation around the fire, all were frightened and watchful, and they huddled together under the tent silently afterward. Simon sat at a distance on the nearest rise under the stars, looking back at a star that peaked a few days before overhead. After a half hour, his father came and sat beside him putting his arm around his neck. "Did Cousin Shmu'el put up much of a fight over the donkey last night?"

"About as much as usual. I didn't expect him to understand, he thinks I'm crazy, but in the end he gave in: I knew he would. We grew up together, worked together, he could not deny me."

"Father, lots of people in Bethlehem think you're crazy. They whisper about Miryam, that something happened to her, that you were foolish to take her in."

"I've been called a fool before. People thought I was crazy when I married your mother Rachel. But Ha'shem is kind and merciful, and leads us where we should go."

"Where are we going, Father? We're all worried."

They were silent for a few moments; a slight wind picked up and there was a slight whistling from the wadi. When it subsided, Yussuf exhaled: "I was worried a flood was about to come down. The racket would have scared everybody awake. Now Simon, we have little to worry about. We have enough of a head start. If Herod's soldiers knew exactly who they were looking for and exactly where we were going, they would catch us, but that's a pretty far reach."

"But I don't want to beg for a living, Father. Too many are begging."

"We're builders, Simon. People are building things everywhere, so matter where we go, there'll be work for us. We won't have to beg. Right now we're just crossing the wadi of Egypt, and let's hope no storm fills it before we pass. It will be the day after tomorrow when we reach it. Some friends of Shmu'el live over there and will give us work. The way Herod is living he's sure to die in a couple of years, we'll make our way back then. The Romans are still building some big cities and we'll settle near them, maybe even as far north as Galilee. When Herod dies they're bound to split his kingdom. We're nobody, we'll disappear."

A distant rumble of thunder bounced around the hills. "Father, do you really think Herod's men will find us soon?"

The old man shook his head. "It'll take them two days to do their awful work in Bethlehem, then they'll have a big drunken party. We'll be somewhere safe before they start casting their nets wider."

The teenager sniffed, partly in anger and partly in fear. "I hate the fact they're going to butcher babies."

"Me, too, son. Me, too. That's the way the world is, and we're ordinary people. We're always at risk from the big currents in the world."

They sat a while longer, seeing a few flashes in the far north, but otherwise the stars rode silently above them. Jude came up the path to relieve Simon for the third watch, and Yussuf stretched his arms before starting down back down the path himself. Jude broke the silence, making him stop,"Cousin Shmu'el thinks you're crazy, Father."

"Shmu'el has always thought I was crazy. Ever since he learned to talk."

"Says you're a wild man, spreading his seed like a teenager. You want a perfect number of children, perhaps even 12."

"If he only knew. After Rachel, I don't think I could do that again. No other woman could move me like she did. This is the last, heaven willing."

"Says you don't know what you're doing, don't know what's happening next. Taking unreasonable chances."

"So what? Everything is set, even though we don't know exactly what's going to happen. We have to do our part, but little Yeshua will be safe. We will make it to Egypt, then to Galilee if we have to, we'll be fine. We won't be rich but we won't starve. We must look after him, then he will look after us."

There was a pause and more flashes from the North. "Shmu'el says you have too many dreams, that an evil spirit is afflicting you. Says you're too old to start over."

Yussuf laughed out loud. "Cousin Shmu'el has always said that if an angel talked to you, you had to listen. I've always listened to angels. So would he if one spoke to him. We'll be all right." There was another big flash in the north, followed moments later by a faint crack of thunder. "My son, it's always a good time to start something new, no matter how old you are."