Words and Symbols have meaning and importantly, tremendous power
This is what Rachav (Rahab) says: (note: symbolically and for the record — the Bible understands her as an Egyptian god and as a symbol of Egypt — although apparently, she wants to join with this Israelite people on their way into their land.
Below, she acknowledges the Gd of Israel as having (greater) powers:
כִּ֣י שָׁמַ֗עְנוּ אֵ֠ת אֲשֶׁר־הוֹבִ֨ישׁ יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶת־מֵ֤י יַם־סוּף֙ מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם בְּצֵאתְכֶ֖ם מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם וַאֲשֶׁ֣ר עֲשִׂיתֶ֡ם לִשְׁנֵי֩ מַלְכֵ֨י הָאֱמֹרִ֜י אֲשֶׁ֨ר בְּעֵ֤בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן֙ לְסִיחֹ֣ן וּלְע֔וֹג אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶחֱרַמְתֶּ֖ם אוֹתָֽם׃
For we have heard how GOD dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds for you when you left Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, whom you doomed.
The Jewish tradition sees this acknowledgment above — כִּ֣י שָׁמַ֗עְנוּ — as an acknowledgment akin to the Shma Yisrael. Here below, an acknowledgment of Rahab as Egypt . . .
In both life and in literature, words as symbols, have meaning.
Wondering if the cord she uses to let the spies down from her dwelling — as she lives between the wall(s) — could these the cords of Life? — remember up to this point — she is a symbol of Egypt (Death). Now is she becoming a symbol of life?
Here we see: Just as she became, for the moment, a symbol of being ‘betwixt and between’ — now she joins them (almost as a ferryman).
וַתּוֹרִדֵ֥ם בַּחֶ֖בֶל בְּעַ֣ד הַחַלּ֑וֹן כִּ֤י בֵיתָהּ֙ בְּקִ֣יר הַחוֹמָ֔ה וּבַֽחוֹמָ֖ה הִ֥יא יוֹשָֽׁבֶת׃
She let them down by a cord through the window—for her dwelling was at the outer side of the city wall and she lived in the actual wall.
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Note on contemporary words and symbols — for the record: words and symbols have meaning: not just in religious and classical literature . . .
But some of the conference’s last words were given by writer Yossi Klein Halevi, who focused his remarks on the relationship between Israel and the diaspora. “The starting point for a necessary realignment between Israel and American Jewry is recognizing the very different and necessary strategies that each community has devised in relation to our surroundings,” he said. “What worries me about this moment is, as I see as really the great danger that we’re facing in the relationship, is that what held the relationship together is symbolized by the two flags on the bimas of most American synagogues. And what those two flags represent, to me, is the commitment to the Jewish state and to democratic values.”
