The Nomadic Alternative – Page 112

cattle" (Exodus 12:38), once again to gear themselves to the orbital cycle of nomad migrations. Exodus commemorated a pilgrimage or journey from bondage to the freedom of the Promised Land. And the Lord their rescuer commanded they remember the event. "Three times a year you shall celebrate for me a hagg." Exodus 8:14. The Jewish hagg anticipates the Arabian Hadj or pilgrimage to the sacred places of Mecca, the verb hd-j meaning "to go round in a circle" or "to orbit".

The solemn feast of the Passover remembers the escape and falls on the vernal equinox to coincide with the spring migration. A period of fasting on matzoh, the unleavened bread of the nomad, baked over an open fire, not in a settler's oven, marks the last of the lean season. This period of voluntary deprivation compensates for the actual deprivation undergone at the end of winter. A feast of spring lamb, the Paschal Lamb, follows and rejoices in the return of spring and revival of plenty. God commanded his people to roast it with fire and bitter herbs after the austere, yet delicious, manner of the nomads. They must not boil it in a stewpot as the settlers do. They shall eat the feast in darkness. Nomads begin their journey to spring pastures in the cool of the night and navigate by the stars. "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt." The feast marks the passage of the Israelites from the sown lands into the wilderness.

The Passover or Pessah takes its name from the annual ring dance performed at the feast. "It will be a song for you as in the night when the ring dance is hallowed, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountains of the Lord." Isaiah 30:29. "And you shall eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your sticks in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste, it is pessah for Jahweh." The Passover calls for strength, vitality and youth renewed in springtime. In the Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. Lawrence felt the onrush of spring in the black tents. "Even sedentarized nomads hearken back to the lost nomad life. Springtime in the tents is a time of abundance. Tents flow with sheep, goat and camel milk ... the inhabitants are well nourished and have a good