Religious Parallels

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 37180

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "scaryfairymary" <scaryfairymary at h...> wrote:
> 
>   While intently following the "Harry as Saviour" posts I began to 
> mull over another biblical parallel that came to mind.  I suppose 
> it's a blend of the HaS and the "House elves" discussions.
>   Just as Moses freed the slaves fom Egypt, is Hermione going to free 
> Dobby and co? Maybe not in such a dramatic fashion, but extremely 
> important nonetheless.

I might not respond to this normally, but it being Passover I feel obligated.  
I'm not sure how much this comes across in the actual biblical story, but most 
Torah commentators (and I'm not talking about just the modern guys here, 
this is going back to the middle ages or even earlier) feel that the reason the 
Israelites spent 40 years in the desert (when the Sinai can be crossed by a 
large, well provided group on foot in two weeks or a month) was in order that 
slavery might be removed from their hearts.  The Israelites who arrive in 
Canaan were, by and large, the children of the slaves, not slaves themselves.  
They were born free and were therefore willing and capable of fighting for 
what they wanted.

I see the situation with the house-elves as very similar.  Before anyone - 
Hermione, Dobby or anybody else - leads them into freedom they have to 
actually want freedom - to be free in their hearts, as Dobby is, not natural 
slaves like Winky.  In that sense, I do see a parallel between the Exodus and 
the house-elves' problem.  I've never been certain, though, whether to 
expect emancipation for the house-elves at the end of the series.  As 
distasteful as I find their condition, there's no denying that they are happy 
that way.  It remains to be seen whether someone can truly free their hearts.

Incidentaly, modern thinking on the story of the Exodus completely discredits 
the notion that a group of several thousand people crossed it at once.  The 
simple fact is that the Sinai is not capable of supporting such a large group of 
people, and even if it were, it is an archeaological impossibility that they 
could cross it without leaving any trace of their passage.  The return of Israelites 
to Canann was probably gradual, over many years - hence the 40 years 
that it took them all to arrive.  And now I've gone completely off-topic and 
probably no-one is interested, so I'll sign off.

Abigail