[♪ musical swirl ♪]
[rocks clattering]
- The fever hasn't broken yet.
It's five days now.
- He will heal; he always does.
- And what if our oldest son doesn't heal, hmm?
- That is why I must teach Abiathar
how to make the shewbread today.
- Our family's share in these secret traditions
of Aaron's priestly lineage will be damaged otherwise.
- Yes, yes, Yafa, I'm aware.
- It's yet one more in a never-ending string
of family curses.
- You...
always thinking in catastrophes.
- And, you, always thinking it's another sunny day.
- Send for the boy.
AHIMALECH: Twelve cakes,
one for each of the tribes of Israel.
- But if the bread is still here,
why didn't God eat it, Abba?
- God doesn't need food.
It's called the Bread of the Presence
because it's a reminder
of His Presence in our lives,
a symbol that He sits at our table,
dwells in our midst.
- What happens to the old bread?
- In the Law of Moses it was written that
"Aaron and his sons shall eat it in a holy place,
since it is for Him a most holy portion
out of Adonai's food offerings, a perpetual due."
- I always wondered where you and Saba went every Shabbat!
AHIMALECH: Yes!
We come here to eat the bread that has been removed--
provided neither of us
has lain with his wife that morning.
- Don't you lay with Eema every night, Abba?
- [chuckles] Um... that is a discussion for another time.
But, for now,
we must replace this with the hot bread
as an offering to Adonai.
Reuben.
- Simeon.
- Levi
- Judah.
- Ahimalech--
- Abiathar, go home.
Tell your mother I sent you,
and that everything's going to be fine.
- Listen, I--
- Why are you alone?
Where's your protection?
- The King has sent me on a mission
and said that no one is to know anything about it.
I've arranged to meet my men in a certain place.
- David, it's my understanding you and the king
are not on friendly terms.
- I've been sent on a mission from the King.
Please.
I haven't eaten in days,
and I know my men haven't either;
they're in hiding.
We could make do with five loaves of bread, anything.
- I have no ordinary bread.
- What about that, that was replaced by the hot bread?
- It's still holy bread.
You know the Law of Moses!
- And I know the pikuach nefesh.
- Have the men kept themselves from women?
- Truly they have, and always.
They've been in hiding at Gibeah,
waiting for me for days.
- We must be quick.
So, remember...
what I'm about to give you is sacred.
- Life is more sacred than bread.
- If Saul finds out I helped you,
I won't get to keep mine.
- I know.
- And I'm not sorry.
Something is going to come through you.
I can feel it.
Something bigger and more exciting,
I don't know what.
- There was nothing bigger or more exciting than that giant.
- We'll see.
♪ ♪
(woman vocalizing)
♪ ♪
♪ Oh, child, come on in. ♪
♪ Jump in the water. ♪
♪ Got no trouble with the mess you been. ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪
♪ Oh, child... ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪
♪ Got no trouble. ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Walk on the water. ♪♪
[background market sounds]
Pfft!
[horse whinnies]
- Matthew?
I am thankful before You, Lord our King,
for You have mercifully restored my soul within me.
Great is Your faithfulness.
[grunts]
MATTHEW: Are you hungry?
[paper rustles]
- What did you do to yourself?
- Oh.
Oh! [gags]
- That's disgusting.
Did you not put down new hay before lying down?
- No, did you?
- Of course, I did.
MATTHEW: My mind is racing.
I guess I wasn't paying attention.
[softly praying]
If we split up today,
we'll be able to cover more ground.
- We're not splitting up.
- It would be more logical--
- Jesus wants you back in one piece.
Did you say there was breakfast?
- No, I asked if you were hungry.
Do you know how to make eggs?
- No.
- Boil water.
Put the eggs in the water.
- No, no, no, no.
- What is it?
- Well, I'm not a cook, for starters.
- Neither am I.
But we must sustain ourselves.
While you make eggs, however you like them,
you can also devise our plan for the day...
with me.
- Fine.
You know, we may have to consider the possibility
that she went somewhere other than Jericho.
- Ephraim or Bethel?
No, too much wilderness to cross between camp
and either of those places.
She's most comfortable in cities.
- Ah, you think she's still here?
- I do.
We must analyze her history, what she normally does.
- Lately-- before this--
all she did was study Torah with you and Ramah.
- I checked the synagogue,
the officials said they hadn't seen her.
- How did you describe her?
- How would you?
- She's got black hair.
- Long black hair.
- All our women have--
- Sometimes she can't even cover it all.
She might be inconsolable, or distressed.
- Anything else?
- Unusually pleasant to look at?
You'll want to add the water to the pot before it heats up.
- Okay, Matthew.
Are you all right?
- Just another night at The Nomad.
- The Nomad?
- I can't believe I made it up the stairs.
Dionysus carried me.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Hey.
Paws off, rat.
- Anyway, where were we?
Oh, yeah, you gave a description of Mary to the official--
- What did he say about stairs?
- What flowers can you eat?
- Rose, borage, dandelion--
a little tangy, but who's going to complain?
- How do you know so much about edible flowers?
- My family has been poor my whole life.
You learn what the earth can give you.
- But your Son is--
- My Son is a homeless nomad
Who no longer brings in income from carpentry.
- And you're smiling about it.
- I'm smiling because He is doing what He was born to do,
and maybe sometimes that means
we will be hungry for a few days,
but at least His time has come.
- If His time has come,
why doesn't He just bring Mary back?
- It doesn't work that way.
- And how does it work?
- Sometimes, He is as much a mystery to me as He is to you.
- Oh, berries!
Poison.
- We lived in Egypt when Jesus was a boy.
One of their gods was called Thoth,
whom they believed they could compel to grant their wishes
if they performed rituals.
It's not like that with our God;
why would it be with Jesus?
- Nothing good can come from Mary disappearing
like this.
- Do you know that?
- She was already upset about something
even before the possessed man came into camp.
- Simon and Matthew are competent searchers.
- They do not like each other.
- They'll have to work together.
- She could be dead or dying in a ditch somewhere!
Why would Jesus use her pain
to unite two men who are annoyed by each other?
- We do not know that she's in danger.
- She's a woman alone!
She's either in a savage wilderness,
or a depraved town patrolled by Romans.
- Ramah,
some trust in chariots and some in horses.
TOGETHER: But we trust in the name Adonai our God.
- I want to be a teacher like Mary someday.
I want to be able to write my thoughts.
- You will.
- Not if she doesn't come back.
- We can't fix anything by worrying about it.
Lavender!
- Can you eat lavender?
MARY MAGDALENE: Nine for Shoob.
- Nine is too much.
- I came in here with a single shekel to my name,
and now look at this pile, huh?
- How did you get the first one, woman, hmm?
What'd you have to do for it?
- Wouldn't you like to know.
- Hey, are we going to play or what?
- Get on with it.
[knucklebones jingling]
Watch and learn, boys, watch and learn!
Hie!!!
[knucklebones clatter]
[all groan]
First time, Hohj, yes?
Hey, another.
- Ah! No sweeps on twos!
- That's a loose rule.
- Well, we're playing by...
[background conversations]
We're not playing; we are done.
[coins jingling]
- Hey, you can't do that!
I'm going to win my money back.
- Yeah? When?
HOHJ: Now.
- I see, Hohj was just slow-playing us, everyone.
He's actually a lion.
[laughter]
You want to win your money back?
- Seriously?
- Mm-hmm.
It will be behind the bar.
Another.
[laughter]
- A woman should know her place.
- I suppose you're gonna show me?
- What do we do when we are scared?
- We say the words...
[chair scrapes floor]
- 16...
17...
18...
19...
19 servings.
And there's 15 of us?
- Fourteen, if Philip doesn't make it back today.
- That's true.
And 11 if Matthew and Simon don't find Mary.
- It's only a day's walk to Jerusalem.
- If Philip, Matthew, Simon, and Mary don't come back,
we could split the remaining 8 servings,
but someone would still be left out.
And what if the others do come back?
We'll have nothing for them!
- Maybe Philip stayed an extra day
to visit his brother Micah.
- Why are you so troubled about Philip?
This...
this is literally our last meal.
These lentils.
We don't have even half a beitza of flour or yeast.
- Ramah and Mary might find berries.
- He can make people walk, He can heal lepers,
why can't He make food appear out of thin air?
- When I was with John,
sometimes we would go for days without food.
Other times,
a person he baptized would give us money
and we would eat like kings...
for a day.
- He doesn't sound like much of a planner.
- We never thought about it.
John doesn't believe in money.
- Doesn't believe in it?
Are you seeing this?
- He says it's a man-made construct
designed to assign value and take ownership of things
that belong to God.
- Sounds like the guy needs an accountant.
Maybe we should send Matthew to him.
- Right now isn't the best time for jokes.
- Okay.
[chopping]
- I once thought about joining the Zealots.
- What? You never told me that.
- You never asked.
- So, why didn't you?
- This very thing.
We have enough rules from Torah to follow as it is.
- 613.
All these prayers we have to recite,
all these things we can and cannot do.
Add a bunch of body exercises to that each morning?
Pfft.
- They have to be in prime shape, you know?
- To kill people.
- Yes.
- But, rolling out of bed each morning to Eema's breakfast,
going out on the boat with Abba
seemed pretty great when I thought about it.
- But now that he's with us,
he's technically not a Zealot anymore, right?
- I have this theory.
That, for some people,
like Little James and Thaddeus over there--
- Uh-huh.
- --they're called to follow our Rabbi,
and, they just somehow know it is a better path
than the one that they are on.
- And then there's him.
- Mm-hmm.
Decades of training for one thing?
It cannot just go away overnight.
- I'm more worried about Simon than him.
- [chuckles] And we've had our moments, too.
- Ah, yes, "Sons of Thunder."
Aye! What is Eema going to think?
[laughing]
- I don't know, maybe she'll be glad we got a title!
[laughing]
- I wonder how Mary's doing?
- I just don't understand
why Jesus would pair up Simon and Matthew
to go and find her.
Matthew.
It's like asking a fox and a fish to go and team up
and do something productive.
- What?
- Because they could never work together.
It's a saying.
- Nobody says that.
Anyway...
[sighs]
I actually don't understand most of this;
just pieces here and there,
when good things happen,
but the rest?
I'm just following.
- I have a sinking feeling...
it's going to take a long time to understand.
- For us?
- For everyone.
- Unh.
- I know places like this.
- "If I make my bed deep in the depths,
You are here."
- Just stay behind me.
[background conversations]
HOHJ: It's time to play for real this time.
[background chatter]
HOHJ: Who's a lion, who's a mouse?
>> I'm a lion.
HOHJ: All right, I hope so.
HOHJ: Round four, Shoob.
Round four, Shoob.
Place your bets.
[all yelling]
ROMAN: Keep it civil over there.
Hebrew dogs.
[background conversations]
- [Loudly] Excuse me?!
[silence]
Have you seen a woman with long, dark hair?
She may be distraught.
- Are you friends of Lilith?
- No.
- It sounds like Lilith.
That witch took me for everything I have
at knucklebones.
- It's Mary.
Do you know where she is now?
- She can't have gone too far.
We'll cover more ground if we split--
- We're not doing that.
- We can meet at the stables!
- Didn't you learn anything in there?
Mary can obviously take care of herself.
You can't.
- What if you were cut off from Jesus
by something in your past?
Wouldn't you want help getting back to Him
as soon as possible?
- Okay.
We split up.
North.
East.
South.
West.
Huh?
I go North--
MARY MAGDALENE: Boys?
- Mary!
- I thought I was dreaming you.
- Can you walk?
- I'm not going anywhere.
- We have to go back.
- No, I can't.
- C'mon, Mary.
He told us to come for you.
- No... no.
He already fixed me once... and I broke again.
I can't face Him.
- I'm a bad person, Mary.
- Matthew--
- No!
My whole life, all for me.
No faith.
- I do have faith in Him...
just not in me.
- I'm learning more about Torah and God because of you.
I'm studying harder because you are such a great student.
- Remember when we were at Zebedee's?
And they lowered that man after breaking Zeb's roof?
[chuckles]
We did that together.
And they got to meet Jesus
because of your care for them
and your good ideas.
- Ramah is beginning to read and write because of you.
He saved you to do all these things.
[crying]
[gags]
[retching]
It's all right, it's all right.
- Where's your handkerch--
- Will you get some water, please?
[continues retching]
- Yeah, right.
- It's okay.
I'll find some water.
DUNASH: So, all you're telling me is
that he told someone to carry his mat on Shabbat?
SHMUEL: And invoked the title "Son of Man,"
from the prophet Daniel.
- Yeah, many have.
And maybe something happened at Capernaum
but you're not certain it was the same person.
- I am certain.
DUNASH: Right, and your second witness--
SHMUEL: My colleague, Yussef.
DUNASH: --who was not at the Pool and neither were you.
- I was there.
- I'm sorry, but this case is very thin.
President Shimon does not preoccupy himself
with minutiae.
- Minutiae?!!
YANNI: If I may be so bold,
which violations of God's immutable Law
does President Shimon deem worthy of his attention?
- You're not listening, Yanni,
just like you haven't in the past.
That is why you still hold a low station.
SHMUEL: I would like to know as well.
if Shabbat violations are not worthy of Shimon's time,
what is?
- Of 613 commandments,
there are some, which, when pitted against one another
under certain circumstances,
create pain for our people who are already suffering.
- But "The Law of Adonai is perfect, reviving the soul--"
- Let us return to the matter of witnesses.
In the Torah,
the testimony of how many witnesses is required
to judiciously establish a fact?
Hmm?
- Two.
DUNASH: And if a husband dies,
and his wife was the only one to witness his death?
What does it make her?
- A widow?
- An agunah, an abandoned woman
because there was not a second witness to his death.
- And if she remarries?
- It makes her an adulterer,
and her children illegitimate.
- Well, can you not see the cruelty of that?
These are the laws that Shimon,
like his father Hillel,
is seeking to reform.
His care is for women, for widows,
for the undervalued, for the vulnerable.
Yours seems to be about people carrying mats on Shabbat.
- Blasphemy is not harmless.
Dunash, think of the political value.
- I'm only telling you that Shimon is extremely focused.
He will not expend energy on this case.
Shalom.
[sighs]
YANNI: Thin?
Blatantly commanding someone to violate Shabbat,
in addition to blasphemy?
President Shimon would call that a "thin" case?
- Dunash was totally dismissive.
- He is arrogant because he believes he's the final word.
He thinks there's no consequence in talking down to us.
- It's hopeless.
- No, it's just getting started.
Now we go to the other side.
The rigid one.
- Shammai?
- I was hoping to create more chaos
by working through Shimon,
but perhaps Shammai will respond to our stories with such fury
this will work better anyway.
- Once, during the Feast of Tabernacles,
Shammai's daughter gave birth to a son.
Shmuel, he climbed up onto the roof of the chamber
where she and the boy lay
and tore open a hole in the plaster,
just to make it a sukkah.
- Yes, and his philosophies have weight in the Sanhedrin,
which helps.
But what if he finds out we sought President Shimon first?
- Not what if-- we spell it out for him.
Shammai and Shimon are philosophical rivals.
Here we have a matter of law
that President Shimon doesn't have time for.
It's a perfect issue for Shammai.
Shimon will have no explanation
as to why he didn't take this seriously.
- Why does it take all this?
[shuddered breaths]
- Thank heaven, you're alive!
- What happened?
- Philip returned with news.
John the Baptizer was taken into custody.
- In Herod's most heavily blockaded prison,
high security.
- I guess it was pretty bad.
They were rough; they hurt him.
- Huh... does Jesus know?
Mm-hmm.
- Has Andrew heard?
[indistinct conversation]
- Do you need anything?
- No, where is He?
- In His tent.
- Should I wait?
- No, I will take you to Him.
[Mary sighs]
- It's not you.
There's quite a lot going on right now.
[sniffles]
[sighs]
So, it's good to have you back.
- I don't know what to say.
- I don't require much.
- I'm-- [sniffles] I'm just so ashamed.
You redeemed me, and I just threw it all away.
- Well, that's not much of a redemption
if it can be lost in a day, is it?
[chuckles]
- I owe you everything...
but I just don't think I can do it.
- Do what?
- Live up to it.
Repay you.
How could I leave, how could I go back...
to the place I was.
And I didn't even--
I didn't even come back on my own.
They had to come get me.
[sighs]
I just can't live up to it.
- Well, that's true.
But you don't have to.
I just want your heart.
The Father just wants your heart.
Give Us that, which you already have,
and the rest will come in time.
Did you really think you'd never struggle or sin again?
I know how painful that moment was for you.
- I shouldn't.
- Someday, but not here.
- I'm just so sorry.
[sobbing]
- Look up.
[sobbing]
- I can't.
- You can.
- I can't.
- Look at me.
[sniffles]
I forgive you.
[sobbing]
It's over.
[sniffling]
[sobbing]
SIMON: You're certain Herod said forever?
- I think that's what life imprisonment means.
Signed the declaration on the spot... in blood.
- We'll never see him again.
- We can break him out.
I know some people.
- The Zealots against Herod's army?
That's a fight I'd pay to see.
It's maximum security up there.
- That would make it more fun.
- No... no.
You're not a part of that Order anymore.
You're a part of this one.
- We shouldn't limit our options is my point.
- Now isn't the time for that.
- I'm afraid the situation is worse than you know.
- What could be worse?
- This never used to happen to me before I met you guys.
- I'm sorry to interrupt, Rabbi.
It seems that there's, uh--
- Yes, let him in, Matthew.
- Rabbi?
- Thomas.
- I recognize there is a lot happening,
and right now may not be a good time.
- What is it?
- We only have lentils left to eat
for tonight's Shabbat dinner,
and after that, we are completely out of food.
- Nothing left?
I'm so sorry, Rabbi.
[sighs]
- Seems like something we should seek my Father about.
- Pray?
- Well, it is almost Shabbat, after all.
I know of a synagogue nearby.
- The nearest settlement is Wadi Kelt,
and I don't think they give out free meals.
- Tell everyone we head out in the morning.
- Shabbat shalom, Rabbi.
- Shabbat shalom, Lamech.
SIMON: Have you been to this synagogue, Rabbi?
JESUS: No, I have not, Simon.
JOHN: Why this synagogue, Rabbi?
It's not on any of our maps.
- That's a good question.
Have you noticed that,
no matter where we go recently,
we are more and more misunderstood?
JAMES & JOHN: [scoff] Definitely.
- It's a very complicated time.
It grieves me that Mary was not welcomed in the synagogue
in Jericho when she first arrived in distress.
- What, they turned her away?
She didn't mention it.
- Come on, she's a woman.
She didn't expect their help, but she needed it.
Add to that John's arrest.
You could say I'm feeling nostalgic for a small town.
LAMECH: No one born of a forbidden union
may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Even to the tenth generation,
none of his descendants
may enter the assembly of the Lord.
No Ammonites or Moabites
may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Even to the tenth generation,
none of them may enter...
the assembly of the Lord forever!
Because they did not meet you with bread and with water
on the way.
- Shalom.
LAMECH: Even to the tenth generation.
None of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever.
- May I see?
LAMECH: Because they did not meet you
with bread and with wat--
Excuse me!
What are you doing?
- What is your name?
- Elam.
- Your friend Elam has a withered hand.
- Are you a healer?
- It is not lawful to heal on Sabbath!
[sighs]
- Which one of you who has a sheep,
and it falls into a pit on Sabbath,
will not take hold of it and lift it out?
- Who are you to speak to our congregation in such a way?
- Of how much more value is this man than a sheep?!
- Stop this at once!
- Come here, come stand here.
It's okay.
MADAI: Elam, sit down,
we don't know this person,
he could be a shaman.
- Is it lawful on Sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill?
- This affliction does not threaten his life!
- It does not even affect his health!
- Lift it up.
[breathing deeply]
- Stretch it out.
- It's good, huh?
- If he was supposed to be healed
God would have done it Himself!!
- Interesting point.
- Get out!
- Gladly.
- Blasphemer!!
- What is wrong with you?!
- Apparently, everything.
- Wait! Come back!
How dare you!
- Are they going to send the town guards after us?
- I think those guys are the town guards.
SIMON: All right, so, for those of you who didn't see,
first He interrupted the reading
simply by standing next to this guy with a paralyzed hand--
[laughing]
--and then the priest, he just went--
- What?
- Reaping or harvesting on Shabbat.
- Oh, yes.
[spits them out]
- I'm sorry, I've been so hungry
I forgot what day it is.
- You may.
[rustling leaves]
- MADAI: Go! Get!
Out of the way!
You have made a mockery of our little synagogue and of Torah.
LAMECH: You will tell us your name, your lineage, your--
First you, and now your disciples,
are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!
- Have you not read what David did
when he was in need and was hungry?
He entered the house of God,
in the time of Ahimalech the priest,
and ate the bread of the Presence,
which was not lawful for him to eat,
but only for the priests?
- You would compare yourself to David?
- It was an emergency!
- Or have you not read in the Law
how on Shabbat the priests in the temple
profane the Sabbath but are guiltless?
- That's for Levites.
Are you a Levite?
Of priestly lineage?
- Listen carefully...
something greater than the temple is here.
And if you had known what this means,
"I desire mercy, not sacrifice,"
you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So... the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
- The Son of M-m--!!!
- Let's go.
MATTHEW: That title, "Son of Man,"
it seems to upset a lot of people.
Why?
- I'll tell you later.
MADAI: They probably won't even read it.
This is Wadi Kelt, not Bethany, or Jericho.
They routinely forget to send us memoranda
of liturgical changes for synagogue practice.
- And if we don't alert the Sanhedrin?
- Then we sin by omission.
- He even had women following him!
Three!
- Be sure to add that.
- If that doesn't catch their attention--
- But the Sanhedrin is distracted.
Between Rome, and the fractions, and the Zealots,
and the protests, and Herod and Caesar...
Their attention is diluted.
- Who would have dreamed?
Someone claiming to be the Son of Man--
- The one who approaches the Ancient of Days.
- --and Lord of the Sabbath,
walking into our tiny synagogue.
- Wadi Kelt.
Jerusalem.
David.
Goliath.
Maybe there is hope for the little,
the overlooked.
- Or maybe they write it off
as just another lunatic in the wilderness
spewing blasphemies and trying to get attention.
- And it will end up at the bottom of the pile
on some secretary's desk.
We could go to Jotapata.
There will be some people of import among the protests,
we could tell them as well.
- Yes... we will do both.
Who knows?