A Paschal Greeting

A certain tradition holds that on one's way from Tzfat in upper Galilee toward the North to the village of Ein al-Zeitun, passing a carob tree, you will find buried a Jewish rabbi, under a pile of stones pointing toward Jerusalem. I like to think that the oldest of his brothers, who went on to lead his followers, followed him to the bitter end, bore witness to his execution, and was then faced with a quandary when a wealthy follower unexpectedly procured the body. He doesn't belong in the family tomb... he doesn't belong to one family anymore. But neither does the body belong in a stone monument like that of other rabbis... he was never supposed to die. "...behold, he goeth before you into Galilee..." Yes -- he'd want to be in his special place of refuge in the mountains back home, the place he would go alone to pray. Those who love him will remember where he is laid.

Another tradition places this same body under a burial mound, topped with a cross, in the village of Shingō, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, after a harrowing escape from his persecutors. There, they say he passed the age of 100, a garlic farmer with a wife and three daughters, before being laid to rest. Truth be told, if this is the spot, I can't imagine he'd be thrilled about the instrument of his torture marking his presence, any more than he would be about its ubiquitousness in many houses of worship worldwide.

Yet another -- which, like the Japanese legend, tracks his path from the Promised Land to this green valley -- suggests these remains are enshrined in the Rouza Bal in the Khanyar quarter in the downtown area of Srinagar in Kashmir, India. One of the distinctive features of this tomb is a stone with carved footprints in the north right-hand corner near the grave. Devotees call them "the footsteps of the messenger." The feet have distinctive scars, positioned just behind the toes. They don't match each other, but they would align if a single nail was driven through both feet, with the left foot placed on top of the right.

And of course, the most well-known is so popular -- and open to interpretation -- that today, people who call themselves his followers still debate spiritual vs. bodily resurrection (or neither).

But regardless of what you believe, wherever the body may lie, whether you call him a god or not, his spirit -- and his message -- live on.

Happy Easter!