The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [93]
Tsedaka smiled. ‘I do not have to check out anything. I know who you are well enough. I even knew your teacher, Professor Carmichael.’
Daniel was surprised at this. He looked over at Gabrielle.
‘I can tell you that there were two manuscripts older than the Torah that we had in the past, but we now only have one of them. The first – the one that is lost – is called Sefer Milhamot Hashem.’
‘The Book of the Wars of the Lord,’ Daniel translated.
‘It is actually quoted in the Bible,’ Tsedaka continued. ‘Numbers 21:14. The quotation contains a reference to the miracles at the Reed Sea and occurs just after the description of Moses and the fiery serpents.’
Daniel remembered his discussion with Carmichael, but said nothing.
‘But why is it lost?’ asked Gabrielle.
‘It was entrusted to the tribe of Menasha,’ Tsedaka explained. ‘And the tribe of Menasha had land on both sides of the River Jordan. It was to the eastern half of the tribe that the book was entrusted. But you have to understand that over the centuries we have lost many members, not only to wars and massacres but also to enforced conversion. Many of us converted to Islam and many of those converts inter-married. So The Book of the Wars of the Lord is now in the hands of the Bedul tribe.’
‘Bedul?’ Gabrielle echoed.
‘A Bedouin tribe living in the Petra area. But we believe that the book has probably been lost or destroyed or buried.’
‘You said there was another book,’ said Daniel.
‘Yes. It is called Sefer HaYashar.’
‘The Book of the Straight,’ Daniel translated.
‘It is mentioned in the book of Joshua 10:13 and in fact is believed by some to have been written by Joshua himself.’
‘And where is this Book of the Straight now?’ asked Daniel.
‘It is kept in the tomb of Joseph in the nearby valley.’
‘Is there any chance of us being able to see the manuscript?’ asked Daniel. ‘So that I can have a go at translating it?’
Tsedaka looked nervous. ‘It would involve some delicate negotiation. Just getting access to the site will prove difficult. Religious Jews venerate it and militant Muslims claim that it is actually the tomb of a Muslim scholar called Yusuf.’
‘I could try and use my status as an academic to get permission.’
‘Yes but there is more, Professor Klein. If The Book of the Straight is disinterred, there may then arise some argument as to its ownership. Our high priest might prefer to leave it buried there rather than open up a whole can of worms as to whom it truly belongs.’
Daniel thought about this for almost a minute. ‘Okay, well, I won’t try to force the issue. What you’ve told me was in confidence and in any case only you or your priests know exactly where it is. But if you could talk to your high priest I’d be grateful. Tell him that if this document is written in the old script then I can translate and quite possibly validate your claim to be true Israelites.’
Chapter 74
‘So you’re a veteran?’ Goliath said to the brash fifty-something American woman he had got talking to as they hovered around the self-service breakfast tables in the hotel in Taba.
‘I wouldn’t exactly say a veteran. I mean, three visits doesn’t exactly make me a veteran. But I know what to look out for. You have to be careful of some of the men here.’
Goliath didn’t think he had to be careful of any of the men there, and he suspected that this American woman didn’t either. Whilst her ample girth would not necessarily be off-putting to local masculine taste, her age probably would. And if that wasn’t enough to put them off, then her loud manner probably would be.
Goliath suspected that what kept this woman coming back was not the sunshine – which she could have got just as easily in Florida – but the prospect of a fling with a local toy boy.
‘So what did you think of that Bonnie and Clyde couple?’
He tried various other lines as he mingled with people at other hotels, but the Bonnie and Clyde reference appeared to work best