Ephrata Cloister, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. November 2020
Rachel, Micah, Conrad and the end of the world
Long lockdown walks took my brother and me to the Warwick-Lititz Rail Trail. Since we parked in Ephrata, I wanted to stop off at the Ephrata Cloister. I had not visited in years, but unfortunately, it was totally closed. I caught the shadow of a tree on one of the buildings from the parking area. A shadow on a shadow because the cloister no longer actively exists - just the buildings. In 1941 it was transferred to the State of Pennsylvania as an historic site and has been lovingly maintained ever since.
And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Genesis 35: 16-19 (King James Version)
On a tour to Bethlehem, after crossing the huge wall that cuts it off from Jerusalem, the guide told us that the Tomb of Rachel was nearby (on the Israeli side of the wall). The tomb was not on the tour. It was just a throw away comment by the guide, yet that tomb has been contested for over a thousand years by Jews, Muslims and Christians - all at times restoring it and declaring it their own. These days it is firmly Jewish even though surrounded by a Muslim cemetery with the existing tomb built by the Ottomans. It is, however, "Ephrata".
What would Rachel have to say about the contentious nature of her final resting place?
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Micah 5:2 (King James Version)
About a thousand years later, the prophet Micah wrote again about Bethlehem Ephratah. Before the tour to Bethlehem, I did a little reading and discovered that, in fact, there is strong evidence that ANOTHER Bethlehem might be the birthplace of Jesus. It made much more sense that Joseph would have not traveled so far for the census (traditional Bethlehem is very far from Nazareth). Another small town with the name Bethlehem in Galilee has a more plausible location. The issue is that Genesis seems to put Ephratah near Bethlehem, so Ephratah was near Jerusalem, or was it? Further reading shows that some people think this "Ephratah" is north of Jerusalem and that Rachel's Tomb has been mislocated. If I learned anything from my time in Jerusalem, it was that no one ever agreed on anything. Faith is just accepting certain "facts" without question because the very process of questioning can lead to a crisis of said faith. Rachel died in childbirth in Ephratah near Bethlehem, a place later named by the Prophet Micah as the birthplace of the messiah. That's what we all go with, period.
Micah, if you only had GPS.
Fast forward about 2500 years to Conrad Beissel from Eberbach, Holy Roman Empire (now Baden-Württemberg, Germany). He was stuck in a conflicted Calvinist vs. Roman Catholic town and decided to emigrate to American to do his own religious thing. He founded the Ephrata Cloister (Monastery) where men and women led pious lives of devotion and never married. They lived austerely, sleeping on benches with only wooden blocks for pillows. The adherents lived simply, prayed a LOT, and basically waited for the End Times. This Pennsylvania Historic Site was actually a doomsday cult. According to my friend, PM, on a tour of the place, the guide explained people stayed awake all night in shifts because Jesus might come at any moment. (I think Jesus might have woken the pious) The religiously chaste male and female monks were served by "householders", another group who married, had children, and worked on the grounds taking care of the monks. From what would be now a bizarre, perhaps even government-watched group, sprang today's town of Ephrata, Pennsylvania filled with Lancaster County quaintness, charm, and history.
Even if through the present's lens the place is a bit off, they were not necessarily "bad". They had one of the largest German language printing houses in Pennsylvania and printed the largest pre-revolutionary book (for the Mennonites) in America. Conrad also wrote a lot of hymns which exist to this day. He and his followers were vegan. They may have been the first vegetarians in North America. Jonestown this was not, but I still have a hard time getting past the idea they were waiting for the "imminent" return of Jesus. Was 18th century America filled with strange people from Europe who simply did not fit in there? If Australia was founded by "convicts" (not really, but rather sections of society that Britain found undesirable), was America founded by radical thinkers that Europe just wanted "gone"?
A dormant tree casts a shadow over a dead cult's legacy. Why did Conrad choose Ephrata as the name? Did he believe Jesus would return to "Ephrata, Lancaster" rather than the Holy Land? What would Rachel have to say?
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