犹太人的故事（2013）

“幸亏有祂，我才得以归国”
We kissed the ground, we prayed.
“（进入以色列后）我们喜极伏地祷告，并亲吻祖国的土地，”
On Pesach,
you have your own Haggadah, really.
SIMON:"我觉得您过逾越节的时候， 已经有您自己的Haggadah书可以宣读了"
You have your own...
You have your own Haggadah set up.
“那是Aviva版本的出埃及记”
(意指黑大妈历尽艰险回到祖国的经历，就像是一部她个人书写的"出埃及记"，重走了一遍祖先的苦难历程.)
When I read the Passover Haggadah,
I feel our aliyah
Aviva:"当我在逾越节诵读Haggadah书的时候， 我觉得咱回归以色列的旅程"
(英文字幕中的Aliyah是希伯来语.意为"犹太人回归以色列地"。 意即 ‘归化’)
is the same as the journey of our
ancestors who came up with Moses.
“和咱的先祖们追随摩西出埃及是一样一样的”
But for all the inspiring stories
尽管圣经里头充满了各种逆境求生，
of liberation and survival
against the odds,
重获自♥由♥的励志故事，但是，圣经，
as the chronicle of
a people's history,
作为犹太民族的编年史，
the Bible can often make
for tragic reading.
读起来总是会让人含泪掩卷.
God may have chosen this people,
也许犹太人真是神选之民
but his book never soft-pedals the
harsh fate of puny Jewish kingdoms,
可是圣经也从未让苦命的犹太国家过几天舒心日子
crushed between imperial superpowers
Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.
弱小的国度被各时期的超级大国逐个虐了一遍：古埃及，古亚述，古巴比伦
When it was the Babylonians' turn
to give the Jews the latest
lesson in history,
轮到古巴比伦帝国对犹太国家开刀的时候
it came in the form of destroying
Jerusalem after a year-long siege.
他们对耶路撒冷围城一年，最后破城而入，尽毁一切。
The high temple, said to have been
built by King Solomon,
城内的犹太教圣殿，据传是所罗门王建造的，
was torn down, and the city's elite
deported to Babylon,
也被夷为平地，所有贵族精英都被押往巴比伦为囚(史称‘巴比伦之囚’，基本就是犹太版本的靖康之耻)
the first great exile
in the story of the Jews.
此即犹太人历史上的首次大流放
But Jewish identity did not
disappear in this alien land.
不过身在异国他乡的犹太人并未忘记自己的身份
Beneath the shadow
of the Ishtar Gate,
在Ishtar城门的阴影下 (Ishtar城门，古巴比伦城内城的8扇城门之一，据传精美绝伦，在亚历山大港灯塔出现之前曾是世界七大奇迹之一)，
Jewish scribes continued
the collective endeavour
犹太书写(抄经)员们齐心协力地继续致力于
of Bible writing and Bible editing,
誊写与编辑圣经
making God's laws clearer,
tougher, fiercer.
致力于让上帝的律法更清晰，更有力，更深入人心。#
And so, when the Persians
defeated the Babylonians
所以等到古波斯帝国击败巴比伦人并
and released the captive Jews,
释放犹太人之后
the exiles returned to Jerusalem
with a Bible that bound Jews
回归耶路撒冷的流亡众人们带回的是一部
ever more closely to its rules
and its commands.
将犹太人与神赐的律法更紧密相连的圣经.
The Jerusalem they came back to
was a pathetic heap of ruins.
久别重逢的耶路撒冷已是一片悲凉的断壁残垣
The temple was hurriedly rebuilt,
众人仓促中重建了圣殿
but it wasn't really a patch
on the original.
但绝非只是在旧址上修修补补而已。
And it was 80 years before the city
walls were finally repaired
由流亡归来的Nehemiah带领，
by a returned exile called Nehemiah.
历经80载终于令耶路撒冷城墙得以全部重建 (Nehemiah是圣经人物。见wiki) #
But repairing the city fabric
was just the start.
重建圣城只是个开始
Next, those who'd been left behind
in Jerusalem
紧接着的工作，是要让原先幸存下来并居留在圣城废墟里
had to be reminded
just who they were
的犹太人同胞重拾犹太信仰
and what it was that made them Jews.
让他们别忘了谨遵圣经律法才是
Torah law.
一个犹太人的真正本分。
On the first day
of the seventh month,
“在第七个月的头天...”
(即犹太新年第一天.在希伯莱日历中.第7月即Tisheri月是新年，等于公历的九，十两个月。但这仅限于古代。现代希伯莱日历有变，Tisheri月被定为犹太历的第一个月)
so the Book of Nehemiah tells us,
Ezra, the spiritual leader
“根据《Nehemiah经》的记载，当时的犹太精神领袖，”
who returned from Babylon
a dozen years before,
“那位10多年前从巴比伦归国的Ezra”
(头疼啊...又一个圣经人物，曾是巴比伦之囚的一员，归国后积极地在犹太人群众间倡导重拾圣经教诲)
did something absolutely
extraordinary.
“做出了非凡之举”
At one of the city gates,
the repaired walls behind him,
“在圣城的某一城门处，Ezra站在修葺一新的城墙前”
he assembled all the Jews of
Jerusalem, women as well as men -
“召集圣城内所有的犹太‘男女’众人-”
the Bible makes a special point
of saying that -
“圣经特别指出男女聚集一堂”
as well as all those
who could understand,
“受召前来的还包括所有能听懂他话的人...”
which almost certainly
means slaves and servants too,
“这几乎毫无疑问的指那些底层犹太人，做奴隶的，还有仆人什么的都有”
and there,
he read to them from the Torah,
“然后Erza当众宣讲从巴比伦带回来的”
the law which had been
brought from Babylonia
“历尽五代人精心编汇的Torah经”
where it had been edited
for five generations,
“和其上记载的各种律法”
its monotheistic edge
refined to a new sharpness.
让犹太一神教的神圣教义和戒律在蒙尘多年后重放光芒，犹胜往昔！
And then, with the full authority
of the Book behind him,
凭借着(解读)圣经赋予的权威
Ezra demanded that the Jerusalemites
hold themselves aloof
Ezra要求耶城犹太子民与非犹太人拉开距离，做到物以类聚人以群分。
(种族隔离啊？！ 这句实在翻不来，请查Longman字典的aloof释义...永远是英文解释英文最干净...囧...)
from their non-Jewish neighbours,
疏远非犹太人邻居
and put away their foreign wives
休掉外族妻子
and their half-foreign children too.
与外族的婚生子女脱离关系 (抛妻弃子?! 这...红朝进城的新婚姻法？)
This is brutal, a hardline purge
“以牺牲当年的社会现状为代价，施以铁腕手段，”
that elevates religious
and ethnic purity
“来无情的清洗，”
at the expense of social reality.
“以求净化种族(成分)与信仰”
And although Ezra says, "This is the
way it's always been for us Jews,"
“尽管Ezra声称‘咱犹太人一直这么干’”
it's him who's actually
gone out on a limb,
“但他实际上是独自承担了所有恶名”
not the Jerusalemites
“而让那些自发自愿与当地异族--"
with their spontaneous co-existence
with local clans.
"融合通婚的耶城犹太人们成为‘苦主’”
How do we know this?
"那么我们是怎么知道这些的呢？"
Well, one answer lies
900 miles south,
“答案之一就在此城以南900英里”
in a Jewish world
startlingly different
“那地方的犹太群落与这边笃信一神的”
from the monolithic purism
of Ezra and Nehemiah.
“Ezra和Nehemiah们可以说是极为不同”
At precisely the same time
就在巴比伦之囚们归国重振
that Jerusalem was being purified
by the Babylonian exiles,
犹太教义的同时
here in the very Gentile world
of Upper Egypt,
在民风淳朴的上埃及某地，
exiles were living a Jewish life
of a very different kind.
流亡此处的犹太人却过着一种有别于其他同胞日子。
This is Aswan, where the Nile once
plunged over the first cataract.
此地名曰Aswan,曾几何时，尼罗河流经此处的一段河道上乱石浅滩激流汹涌。
Here, on an island
called Elephantine,
再往下走，下游河道上有个叫Elephantine的河心岛
stood a fortress town
guarding the frontier
岛上矗立着一座要塞城♥堡♥，
between Egypt and Nubia
to the south.
守卫着埃及与南边的努比亚王国之间的边界
Since the 7th century BC, it had
been manned by Judean mercenaries
此堡垒自公元前7世纪起，即由犹太地雇佣兵把守
who lived on the island
along with their families.
他们拖家带口地居住于此岛。
A century later, when the
Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem
一世纪之后，巴比伦帝国摧毁耶路撒冷
and carried its elite into exile,
some of the ordinary people,
俘获几乎所有的犹太精英并带往巴比伦为囚，有些巴比伦人看不上的普通民众
finding themselves abandoned,
made their way south,
an exodus in reverse.
则被弃之原地。 于是他们南逃避祸，来了一次《入埃及记》.
There was one great formative moment
从以色列国人，变为犹太人
when the Israelites became Jews,
这一非凡的身份变更的实现，完全有赖于
and that, of course,
was the exodus from Egypt,
重获自♥由♥并离开埃及的那一段史诗历程
and the Nile ran through that story
like a silver thread.
而尼罗河则像一条银色纽带贯穿着整个出埃及记的故事始终.
That destiny had begun
when Pharaoh's daughter
had found the baby Moses
命运巨轮始于法老的女儿在尼罗河边偶拾江流儿摩西
in the river and taken him back to
be brought up as a prince of Egypt
at court.
并将他带回宫里当作一个王子来抚养成人 (我更愿意相信动画片'埃及王子'的演绎，摩西在宫里应该类似小桂子)
When that prince turned liberator,
his God had turned the Nile to blood
后来江流儿王子成为解放者，他的上帝耶♥和♥华♥为了
in an effort to persuade Pharaoh
to let the Israelites go.
"说服"法老释放被奴役的以色列人降下神通，令尼罗河化为血水
So, to return to the Nile
was to repudiate that history,
那么对这些犹太人来说，重返埃及就是否认那段历史
to take away that covenant,
to un-Jew themselves,
抛弃与上帝间的(宗教)誓约，自我放弃了犹太人的身份，
yet, to the disgust and dismay
of the prophets,
他们完全不顾先知们的反感和失望
back they went all the same.
义无返顾的奔回埃及。