From Daniel Marom's essay in the The Inescapable: For centuries, poets, artists, mystics and teachers have returned to the image of David in order to rediscover their own vitality, to "renew their days of old." It is David's eternal youth, his overflowing daring and spontaneity, his irresistible mixture of sensual primacy and religious integrity which make him the lasting prototype for the Messianic king and a figurehead for renaissance. When all else withers, the memory of David remains the source of life. By remembering David, one forgets the sinful, the decrepit, and the ruined, and moves on to the next venture. But is is not easy victory. For all his hardships, David did not have to see his city ravished and burned, nor his temple destroyed and mocked. He did not have to suffer the humiliation of his would-be-king descendants, to witness their being ridiculed, enslaved, crucified, burned at the stake and turned into farcical reminders of the hopelessness of restoring his reign. ..Who, after the Holocaust, can rely on David anymore without asking him to take some of the blows, top, without letting him see what has to be done in order to stay alive? Who can protect him any longer from what our eyes have seen? Whether for love of David or for fear of losing him, could longer live with him without taking through this terrible ordeal. back