The Life of Pi and Hebrew Teshuqah

I just finished watching The Life of Pi for the second time, this time on DVD. This film is beautifully made with stunning visual effects and is the height of special effects. Producer Ang Lee, with this film, raises film-making to an artform. In age where films come out of our ears, Life of Pi is sure to remain a classic. The scenes shot from above, of the lifeboat floating amidst a water-sky utopia, flow like the pen of skillful Chinese calligrapher upon a parchment scroll - I think the effect of Chinese wallpaper was intended. Watching the film is like a cathartic, zen experience.

The storyline is also amazing. It has family, a love, survival, determination, friendship, adventure - all elements in a good plot.

The film makes me wish I could live in France or India, or French India. And the beautiful rendering of Indian culture is a testament to the ingenuity of human culture and lifeways.

The film ends with the adult Pi retelling the writer Yann Martel (the author of the book) an alternative version of the story.

In the first story, Pi escapes from the ship on a lifeboat. A zebra jumps off the sinking ship and breaks his leg in the lifeboat. An orangutan, a tiger, and an hyena are also aboard. The hyena eats the zebra and the oranguatan, Orange Juice. The tiger eats the hyena. The tiger and Pi survive.

In the alternative story, Pi escapes from the sinking ship on a lifeboat accompanied with his mother, the ship's cook, and a vegetarian, Buddhist sailor. The cook kills the Buddhist sailor to use his leg as bait and kills Pi's mom. Pi kills the cook and he alone survives.

After Pi tells Martel the second version, Martel is stunned. Pi asks Martel a question:

Can I ask you a question? Which story do you prefer?

Martel responds that of course he likes the first story, the one with the tiger. Pi says, in the ultimate statement of the movie,

So it goes with God.

I do not wish to speak regarding the theological aspects of this film because they seem too convoluted to me. I do not know if Yann Martel wished to advocate the idea that all religions ultimately lead to God. All I know is that Pi repeatedly refers to God as an all-powerful, compassionate, transcendent, immanent, and beautiful deity, prays to Krishna, Christ, and Vishnu at various times as well as God, and refers to himself as a Hindu, a Christian (Catholic, specifically), and a Muslim. In each of these religions, Pi learns more about God - but none is enough solely on its own, according to him. Aspects of each religion (beauty from Hinduism, self-sacrificial love from Christianity, and disciplined ritual prayer from Islam) all help him to have a fuller view of God. Whether this view is correct or not is not what I wish to speak about.

What I do want to talk about is the alternative version of the story. In that story,

• the cook = the hyena
• the Buddhist sailor = the zebra
• Pi's mother = Orange Juice, the Orangutan
• Pi = the tiger

The tiger kills the hyena. Pi kills the cook. At that moment in the film, the boy Pi is about to slash the hyena when all the sudden from his direction the tiger, before hidden, leaps from his side of the ship and slays the hyena. At this moment, Pi's survival instinct is unleashed.

When I saw this scene for the second time, I instantly thought of a concept representative of this force in every person's heart in the Hebrew Bible. It is called teshuqah. It is used three times in the Hebrew Bible. The basic idea is of this force within every human heart, that could be dangerous, but if controlled is life-giving.

The Hebrew alphabet originally had pictographic meaning. For example, the first letter, alef (א), meant ox. The second letter, beith (ב), meant tent. So on and so forth. In each word, the reader can combine the letters to decipher the meaning behind the word. The word teshuqah (תְּשׁוּקָה) has the letters Taw (ת), Shin (ש), Waw (ו), Qof (ק), and Hey (ה).

• Taw (ת) = sign, seal, or covenant
• Shin (ש) = teeth (devour)
• Waw (ו) = nail or peg (secure)
• Qof (ק) = back of someone's head
• Hey (ה) = marker of the feminine; what comes from; behold or reveal

Combined, the word teshuqah means "what comes from the devouring seal attached to the back of the head." While this combination may seem like nonsense, it means that one's teshuqah is in the back of our our head (it follows us wherever we go) and could either devour or could make a covenant. It has the dual function of destroying like teeth or becoming the seal of a covenant that is attached, like a peg, forever. In short, your teshuqah can either make you or break you.

The first instance occurs after YHWH, 'Elohim, curses the serpent. YHWH tells the woman,

And to your husband will be your teshuqah and he shall have dominion over you. (Genesis 3:16)

In this instance, teshuqah refers to the woman's desire for her husband. Her teshuqah can have the dual purpose of either devouring her husband (i.e., a nagging woman is like a constant dripping, or being very critical of her husband) or being stuck to him in an everlasting covenant.

The second instance occurs in the next chapter, with Qayin (Cain). After YHWH sees that Qayin is not lifting up his face (i.e., is downcast) because YHWH did not favor Qayin's offering as much as He favored Hevel's offering (Abel), 'Elohim tells him that he needs to control his own teshuqah, otherwise sin will result. YHWH says to Qayin,

After all, if you do well, will there not be a lifting up (of your face)? And if you do not do well, sin lurks at the door. And to you is its (or, his) teshuqah, and you shall have dominion over it (or, him). (Genesis 4:7).

In both occurences, the object of the teshuqah shall have dominion over the subject of the teshuqah. In the first, the woman has teshuqah for her husband and he rules her. In this case, sin has teshuqah for Qayin and Qayin has to gain dominion over sin.

In this case, YHWH encourages Qayin to not feel self-pity even though He had not regarded Qayin's offering. Instead of self-pity, Qayin could have his face lifted up, that is, YHWH could accept him. And it's an "of-course" formula in Hebrew. If Qayin "does well," YHWH will accept him. But if Qayin does not do well (dwelling in self-pity, doubt, and not receiving YHWH's love), then sin will master him and Qayin will have to battle it for the rest of his life.

Qayin has the decision to turn sin's teshuqah from destroying him to mastering sin. By murdering Hevel, Qayin lets sin's teshuqah master him, instead of mastering it, and now Qayin has to deal with the rest of his life. Qayin chose a life of perpetual war over a life of perpetual peace, ruling over teshuqah.

The third and final instances occurs in the erotic poem the Song of Songs. This poem narrates a beloved's exclamations of love for her lover. Church theologians have read the Songs of Songs as an allegory between Christ and His people, which is undoubtedly a spiritual truth, but is not the literal meaning of the Greatest of Songs (in Hebraic thought, X of X means that X is the greatest in its class). Near the end of the poem, the beloved exclaims in delight,

I am to my beloved, and upon me (or, concerning me) is his teshuqah. (Song of Songs 7:11)

The beloved states that she belongs to her lover (not in a patriarchal sense, but in a relational sense) and that her lover's teshuqah is directed towards her. The lover has mastered this wild force and now, in the reversal of the Fallen reality of Genesis 3, the lover no longer rules his wife but instead has mutual desire for her. He has funneled, channeled this wild, seemingly untamable force into covenantal ardor for his wife. Because he directed his teshuqah to covenant and not to destruction, it can only be beneficial - and the result is covenanted love between them two. If we read the allegorical interpretation, Christ will, in the eskhaton (the end time), be married to His bride, His people and has directed His teshuqah from divine wrath into covenantal eternity with His people, come about by His self-sacrificial death for His people.

In summary of the Biblical occurences of the word, Hawwah (Eve) let her teshuqah devour her husband in condescension. Qayin let teshuqah run wild and he ended up murdering his brother. But the Song shows that in the perfect, ideal married state, the husband has harnessed his teshuqah into love for his wife. Instead of letting the devouring part of teshuqah master him, he has harnessed the covenant-making aspect of teshuqah. He is committed to his wife for life.

Now to Pi again. The tiger represents Pi's teshuqah. When the tiger slays the hyena, Pi releases his teshuqah in a fit of rage. This teshuqah ends up posing the possibility for his destruction, e.g., the flesh-eating island is an example of what could have happened when his teshuqah eats away at himself. But instead, he tames his teshuqah, delineating the proper boundaries where the tiger must stay. He channels his teshuqah for his survival. That is why he says he could not survive without the tiger, Richard Parker. His teshuqah has the potential for limitless creative activity, if tamed. Pi funneled his teshuqah into creative potential. So literally he could not have survived without this creative ability. His creative ability, manifested in making the raft, training the tiger, using his supplies resourcefully, allowed him to survive.

When he lands in Mexico, Pi's teshuqah vanishes. He does not need the survival instinct, his creativity has been stretched - his teshuqah fades into the background. Now that Pi has funneled his teshuqah towards creativity rather than self-destruction - he has passed the test - he has mastered his teshuqah, he has gained dominion over it.

It is unthinkable that Ang Lee knew about this Hebraic concept. Nevertheless, because of our shared reality, humans universally know things about humanity, things that G-d has put in our hearts.

What will you do with your teshuqah? Limitless ability to be creative and to do good, or the potential to allow wild passion dominate you in a fit of rage. Which story do you prefer?

I am indebted to Dr. Frank Seekins, Hebrew Word Pictures, for the analysis of the Hebrew pictographic elements; to the writings of Skip Moen, especially Guardian Angel: The Biblical Role of Women; and to my friend Zeke from church for giving me the idea that Richard Parker the tiger represents Pi's other side, the side that he has to overcome. And most of all Yeshua haMashiakh, creator of all things, through whom and by whom all things exist and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who gives me a love of learning and all I do and know and by whom I have conquered the world and who delivered me from Satan, death, and sin into His marvelous light, to Him be glory and power and dominion into ages of ages אמן.