Moses was high?

We often stray from our Jewish roots here on kvetchette, mainly in an effort to bring you as many rants as possible and quite frankly, we don't participate in too many Jewish activities short of kvetching, so our parcel is limited, so to speak. But in order to maintain Jewish Blogroll status we have to occasionally post something jewcy for jew to read. I know, a bit racialist if you ask me but whatever. Challah.

So did jew know that Moses was tripping up there on Mount Sainai? According to Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem when God delivered Moses the Ten Commandments, Moses was tripping. Burning bush? Yeah, he thinks Moses was tripping then too. Citing an example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon where psychotropic drugs are taken to induce people to "see" music, Shanon believes that Moses was taking a drug similar to ayahuasca, providing him with spiritual-religious visions.

Now if this were true, this theory might be interesting if thrown in to a variety of Jewtopia. Like, walking in the desert for 40 years. I'm fairly certain nobody walks for 40 years straight, but whatever. Minor detail. How about the parting of the red seas? That is DEFINITELY a drug-induced tale if you ask me. And what about when that dude Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt? Can't you imagine some LSD-induced vision of a person turning into some salt? I'll tell you what, the first time I did acid my dorm room popcorn ceiling morphed into an army of millions of little GI Joe men fighting a war. Salt? Popcorn ceiling? Hmmm.

Jews are crazy. It wouldn't surprise me if this Shanon guy is on to something. I often wonder why the most frummy of Hassidics wear the hatbox on their heads and not the hat - someone maybe should tell them? Or maybe they are high as a kite and the joke is on us.

My only question then is...where does one get ayahuasca? I'm fairly certain my pot dealer doesn't carry that in stock. But I sure could use a spiritual vision right about now. Oy, the week I've had.

L'chaim.