{"id":36586,"date":"2021-03-19T01:17:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T08:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=36586"},"modified":"2021-03-18T14:50:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T21:50:15","slug":"pyramids-on-the-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/03\/19\/pyramids-on-the-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Pyramids on the Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

An image from the author\u2019s 1941 Passover Haggadah by Saul Raskin.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Although they are not specifically mentioned in either the Haggadah or in the Torah, Egyptian pyramids have come to be associated with the Pesach story. That many modern Haggadot include illustrations of the pyramids points to how these structures play a key role in our collective memory.<\/p>\n

At the Pesach seder, we say, \u201ctze u l\u2019mad<\/em>,\u201d \u201cgo out and learn.\u201d In A Haggadah Happening<\/em>, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin explains the idea as, \u201cmake sure your learning accompanies you wherever you go.\u201d So what better way is there to appreciate the Hebrew slaves\u2019 hardships than to visually present them by tangible symbols, such as the items on the seder plate, as well as the Four Sons, songs like \u201cEhad Mi Yodaya<\/em>\u201d (\u201cWho Knows One\u201d) and, of course, the pyramids?<\/p>\n

But what specifically drew the Haggadah compilers to the pyramids? First of all, for a period of time, the Hebrews did live in Egypt. Thus, in Exodus, Chapter 5, we read about their involvement in Egyptian construction, where they are portrayed primarily as Egyptian brick-makers, not as builders: \u201c\u2018Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.\u2019 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying: \u2018Thus saith Pharaoh: \u201cI will not give you straw.\u201d\u2019 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters were urgent, saying: \u2018Fulfil your work, your daily task, as when there was straw.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Archeologists maintain that, in antiquity, Egyptian homes were constructed from mud bricks. Pyramids, however, were reportedly built of quarried, hewn stone and mud bricks. So, the more persuasive answer as to why modern Jews include pyramids in their Haggadot seems to be the pyramids\u2019 sheer durability. That there are extant pyramids carries tremendous weight when retelling the story of the Hebrews\u2019 time in Egypt \u2013 it connects us to our past.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, that pyramids are still viewable is not a chance happening, apparently. According to freelance science writer Dr. Craig Freudenrich, the pharaohs built the pyramids knowing that the pyramid, with its square base and four equilateral triangular sides, is \u201cthe most structurally stable shape for projects involving large amounts of stone or masonry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, Donald Redford, a professor at Penn State University, reports that the ancient Egyptians probably chose that distinctive form for their pharaohs\u2019 tombs because of their solar religion. The Egyptian sun god Ra, considered the father of all pharaohs, was said to have created himself from a pyramid-shaped mound of earth before creating all the other gods. The pyramid\u2019s shape is thought to have symbolized the sun\u2019s rays.<\/p>\n

The shape of the pyramids was carefully chosen to reflect underlying aspects of divine unity. The pyramid has four faces: three faces to the heavens and one face to the earth. Architecture-by-astronomy was common in the ancient world, says archeoastronomer Giulio Magli. The Great Pyramid of Giza, for example, is aligned with amazing precision along the compass points, which would have required the use of the stars as reference points.<\/p>\n

Three pyramids were built at Giza, and many smaller pyramids were constructed around the Nile Valley. The tallest of the Great Pyramids reaches nearly 500 feet into the sky and spans an area greater than 13 acres.<\/p>\n

What is truly startling is that, with no connection to Egypt, other ancient cultures built pyramids in such far away places as Latin America and in what is, today, southern Illinois, in the United States. Like the ancient Egyptians, these other cultures understood the power and sway the pyramid structure had over the general population. According to history.com editors: \u201cThe Americas actually contain more pyramid structures than the rest of the planet combined. Civilizations like the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca all built pyramids to house their deities, as well as to bury their kings. In many of their great city-states, temple-pyramids formed the centre of public life and were the site of holy rituals, including human sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Egyptian pyramids are closely connected to the sun, Peruvian pyramids were considered to be replicas of mountains; they were thought to possess all the powers the mountains themselves possessed.<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes away from St. Louis, Mo., are the remains of the United States\u2019 first high-rises. They are more than 850 years old, constructed by the Cahokia Indians of Illinois. At 5,000 square feet, the house of the great chief or high priest (or another type of leader, since we really don\u2019t know) was the most impressive of all the buildings. From the flat top of this colossus, with a footprint of 14 acres, it is larger at its base than the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Egypt\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n

So important is the pyramid as a symbol that it was used on the U.S. one dollar bill. According to the bill\u2019s designer, the pyramid was used because it \u201csignifies strength and duration … a new order of the ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Bill Ellis, a professor emeritus of American studies at Penn State, \u201cThe pyramid was seen as the kind of human structure that lasted out the ages.\u201d He said America\u2019s Founding Fathers wanted the country to last as long as the pyramid \u2013 though the pyramid didn\u2019t show up on the dollar bill until 1935, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt\u2019s administration added them. \u201cNew order\u201d is printed in Latin, under the pyramid, and historians say this refers to the birth of a new country and FDR liked the way it synced with his New Deal program.<\/p>\n

Whether, in fact, the Hebrew slaves actually built the Egyptian pyramids is of secondary importance, as so many freedom struggles have been based on the tale that the Hebrews had to construct these mammoth buildings until they fled the slavery of Egypt.<\/p>\n

Deborah Rubin Fields<\/strong> is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of <\/em>Take a Peek Inside: A Child\u2019s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An image from the author\u2019s 1941 Passover Haggadah by Saul Raskin. Although they are not specifically mentioned in either the Haggadah or in the Torah, Egyptian pyramids have come to be associated with the Pesach story. That many modern Haggadot include illustrations of the pyramids points to how these structures play a key role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[4242,400,20427],"class_list":["post-36586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-history","tag-passover","tag-pyramids"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}