280 · Carmela Saranga and Rachel Sharaby
songs, according to which “Thy soul merges with mine as with fragrant
musk, amber” (436), this mix is dangerous. Therefore, one should dis-
engage from it before the “knives” (sakakin) are expressed in Jenin and
Paradise turns into a demon.
The places mentioned as Paradise also have a demonic potential—the
Galilee, including Haifa, which is seemingly a harmonious city. The con-
cept that any space may have two faces is expressed by the orientalist’s
mother in her visit to Haifa: “You’ve made yourselves a little Paradise,
but what will you do when some wild beast comes charging out of it?”
(Librated Bride, 276). This idea, that each Paradise has an animalistic po-
tential, also appears in the description of the guest house’s cellar, which
has a “chimney that was rammed into the ceiling like the tooth of an
ancient, petrified mammoth” (503).^40 The church in the West Bank, which
can only be entered by passing through the cellar behind it, serves as
another Paradise.^41
The idea that one must pass through various compartments, such
as a cave or a cellar, in order to reach Paradise is already found in an
ancient rabbinic legend. According to this legend, there are seven Para-
dises, with the first being the Cave of Makhpelah. The soul is supposed to
pass through six Paradises before it arrives, if it is worthy, in the seventh
Paradise.^42
According to this legend, if a person manages to pass the first Para-
dise, he reaches the second, where angels and servants feed him. The
earthly Paradise of the guest house in The Liberated Bride is characterized,
similarly to the legend, by servants who feed the orientalist.^43 According
to the nun in The Liberated Bride, the heavenly Paradise expressed in her
song is not intended for the Jews who robbed an earthly Paradise for
themselves. As the abona (priest) in this work says: “Such is the song of
Paradise, sometimes it’s in Arabic sometimes in Greek, Inshallah, the day
will come when you Jews, too, if only show some magnanimity will sing
in Hebrew” (227).
Demonological Folk Infrastructures
The descriptions of the demonic zone and the demonic relations between
the two peoples in Yehoshua’s writings draw their ideas from demono-
logical stories from the Middle Ages.^44 These stories deal with the theme
of marriage between a man and a she-demon and their lives in demonic