She also talks about the idea of the provisional nature of a covenant, and that this means that it is conditional. “Believe in me and obey me or else I will destroy you.” That’s all fine and good, and the chief thing that occurs to me is that this belief business in religions or whatever constitutes a sort of permission, if you will, to take the vengeful action if the agreement is broken. The Hebrew phrase for “he made a covenant”, is karat berît, or literally, he cut a covenant. In the covenant with Abraham in Genesis, animals are cut in two and a fire passes between them in a mysterious ritual. Then, there is the cutting of the flesh at circumcision, and the Sinai covenant where the laws were cut into stone. So, these covenants are apparently what constituted Israel as a nation. The entire foundational frame of Israel, which is the basis of Christianity, is framed by the severed pieces of animals, it seems.