AV_A

Wag-'n-bietjiebos - The Buffalo-Thorn Tree = Ziziphus Mucronata

2010-08-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

South Africa has very rare trees and cactuses, plants of all sorts, ancient, antique, remote and splendid, huge, immense, high, tremendously "pragtig, wonderful". Just as we have them in Israel, the ancient times that spread from the coast and reached the Middle-East. A kind of phlegmatic nonchalance that can listen to the noises of the earth, of the soil, as dust and sand of bushes and small woods are covered with much history that tracks back to the cradle of all civilization. When humans somewhere mutated from fish to apes, apies, then turned to some inmates with social life and brains, souls and language.

There are a lot of trees in South Africa and they developed in small bushes and woods or forests. We have no forests in Israel. We were used as members of the Yiddishkayt/Jewishness of the East to cross and even dwell in immense forests in Russia! I remember that when I crossed Ukraine and Belarus from Kiev to Chernobyl and then to Minsk, whitened trees over miles of damaged areas, kale bome, trees that got white and "lanky". As trees as like humans in the Biblical and Talmudic traditions, they looked "kaalkoppe, baldheaded"; right at the moment, they are threatened again with fires and nuclear attacks and blows. Psalm 1 underscores the role of trees as the image of the fruitful body and the soul of a human being and a Jew, a beleiver who trusts in God and in whom God can trust and entrust the beauty of creation. "The man who scans, meditates and studies" the Law of the Lord, i.e. the man who is like a cow that ruminates God's Word and think of It, refle'cts on It, dink oor "yehgeh" It day and night (Hebrew order...!). It sounds so sweet in Afrikaans: "soos 'n koei wat herkou..., (zoals een koe, die herkauwt (Dutch))", which just corresponds to our love for chewing.

But most of the trees and plants have thorns down there! Just as we have so many in the Holy Land. In English and Afrikaans, the word for "tree" can be either "bos" or "boom (Germ. Baum)" which is comparable to "bush" and "tree" in the local description of the landscape and the nature. One tree is definitely striking!It is called in English "Buffalo Thorn Tree" and traces back to Latin "Ziziphus mucronata" that came from Greek "Ziziphos". The word is not Indo-European at all, it is rooted in the Semitic languages that haunted from old the coasts of the Mediterrean and down through Zanzibar to the South and the Arabs. "Zizûf" exists in Arabic and constitutes the radical of a name that primarily might be misunderstood for some Westerners.

Afrikaans has a very special name for the tree: "Wag 'nbietjiebos - Wag 'nbietjieboom". It is very clear and quite amazing. It means: "Wait A Little Bit Tree". It is full of thorns everywhere; very green with some fruit, and it definitely looks mice and appealing, charming, but it is full of thorns. The word "Zizuf" does not exist in Aramaic or in Hebrew and is not mentioned in the Talmud. On the other hand, the tree is cell-known in the Middle-East and in particular in the Holy Land and Eretz Israel: we have such a tree with thorn, not exactly the same. But, according to the Christian tradition, the Thorns that were put as a crown on Jesus' head came from the same "Ziziphus micronata, Buffalo-Thorn Tree" and thus from a "Wag 'nbiejtiebos". It is evident that the local thorns and those of the Southern african bush tree have been compared and somhow identified as being of very close species.

It is amazing in our context. In 1938, Albert Einstein, questioned on the possibility of a Jewish State, was a bit suspicious and prevented that the Jews should carefully handle such a project in order to work together. They are used to worked in other countries and various cultures, but not to build up their own "self-identity country". He then added that, if God willing there would be a very special and unexpected reason for the creation of a Jewish State, i.e. in order to shelter and harbor the Jews, yeas, it would make sense and the dream may come to be true. He said: "Tolerance (patience) and wisdom" which in his mother-tongue was "Geduld und Weisheit".

The words are everywhere in Israel. "Todah al hasavlanut: thanks for being patient", "savlanut = patience" are blah-blahed night and day and at every minute in the country and the area, both by the Hebrew-speakers and the Arabs or any other ethnicity. It is our national "must, duty, plight, obedience, awareness". I would consider that the same is real for South Africa on this 100 year anniversary of the Union (1910-2010). But the amuzing part is that there is a tree, a bush-tree, full of thorns that, in the Christian faith, reminds that we need to wait with much patience and deceny for the Second Coming of Jesus, in glory, just as the Jews expect with much patience the adventus, the coming of the Messiah Ben David, christ son of David as stated in Talmud Sukka 52b.

Patience: the word is always connected to "suffering, "pathos"" in the Western cultures as it is also in "sevel", in Hebrew. But the thorns, as our trees or cactuses have more: they protect against violence and abuse. Once the thorns are removed, the bush-trees are soft and mild, tender, just as the famous "sabra, local desert cactus, also the name for the Israeli youths".

Some youths these days are maybe lost or confused, as teens or just-after-teens and post-adolescents can be when they only met with thorns or fences. Patiences becomes then a tremendous fight against framing ourselves; the others that did not share such an experience and cannot be patient because as we say in English "I can't wait" that curiously also can be Afrikaans "ek kan nie wag!". We do not live in cultures that are fed with history. Short-sighted about our past, even 65 years ago from Auschwitz to Hiroshima. "There are times and delays, yesh item uzmanim" as stated in Kohelet/the Book of Proverbs. This bows us not to act like lazy carpets, but to kneel down and be patient with a patience that drives us to something merely divine and not generated by our own desires.

In South Africa, the model is also striking for another reason. There is a pop group of singers that is called "Wag 'nbietjie, wait a little bit", like the tree and the fact that when people are planted in such a soil, they must identify with the nature and surely with the care of waiting some time, a little bit.

"When you have suffered just a little bit, I shall reinstall you..." is a key word in the Gospel that complies with the Talmud thought and makes sense in Jerusalem and the Land. There is a tree, and if the psalmist says we are like trees, we may have to behave like the Ziziphus i.e. like the Wag 'nbiejtiebos.

av aleksandr (in my South African blog "Cradle of the World/Wieg van die Wêreld)

August 20/8, 2010 - 10 Ellul 5770 - 10 RamaDHaan 1431

Hebrew in the Church: celebration in Jerusalem

2010-06-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

It is evident that, in Israel, we live in a country, also in Jerusalem, where "dreams come true" and have to come true, in ways that are often unforeseeable. These are the famous words of Theodor Benyamin Ze'ev Herzl whose 150th anniversary of the birth is commemorated in the country. as readily mentioned on several occasions, some time ago we could celebrate the 153 anniversary of the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehudah in the Empire of Russia, in Belorussia and Lithuania, the reviver of the Modern Hebrew language. And this year we als could mention Schalom Aleichem, the famous Yiddish writer and Scholem Asch, whom I had met in the 80ies, one of the best Yiddish writers and special character inside of Judaism, on the verge of some Jewish understanding of Oriental Christianity as it was also the case for Marc Chagall.

"Ich habe einen Traum = I have a dream" does not exactly sound as it echoes in the Talmud Berachot 55b "chalom chalamti = חלום חלמתי ": I dreamt a dream and then the dream,( by a specific encounter between East European and Slavic and Jewish Talmudic spirits) allows to jump into impossible challenges because miracles are natural". Especially if they proceed of a call to implement and carry out actions that are "free", do not try to show off, certainly not our pride or arrogance. The revival of a language has a tremendous significance for all of human intellectual and human, psychological, religious, comportemental, selective choices and meaning of what we are intended to do.

As a young Jewish child, I have frequented Herzl, Eliezer Ben Yehudah (along with Joseph Trumpeldor and the Rav Kook, with whom it is supposed we had a connection via Rav Frenkel) since my early age. I met with Marc Chagall as a child for family connections and much later as a lecturer in Yiddish, just as it also happened with Scholem Asch who died at the outskirts of Judaism because of his tendencies to describe, from inside, a special Christian life in full parallel with the tradition Judaism he had known and depicted.

When I entered the Church, the first thing I did was to translate the Holy Prayers into Yiddish. There may be several reasons for this. The purpose was definitely not connected, as regards my position to any sort of proselytism among the Jews at whatever level or age; my inner experience of a profound and extant Judaism would never have accepted things like that. Christianity for the Jews must certainly not become or be proposed as a "Zulu Bushmen creed, faith or way to salvation and redemption". Similarly, it is somehow a bit ridiculous to prented, thos it is historically totally correct and extact, that the Jews are the "natives" of the Church. Indeed, the first disciples were Jewish; maybe things were a bit more somphisticated with regards to the faithful. But this "Zulu and Bushmen" compararison had been given to me by my colleague and senior professor of Yiddsh, a trained linguist, who as many Jews in the Universties, never would accept to convert to Christianity but had a sort of intense and interior understanding of the Gospel and Christendom. Hearing I got converted, he slapped me, which I considered as a norma lact. He then told me I should immediately join the "Judaism's regular "Salvation Army" and wear a hat. I got the Dollar many years afterwards.

He read the translations and found it was nice and rooted in Judaism. I mean that when we speak Yiddish, we do not speak any Indo-European dialect or language. The "Mume-laush'n" includes about 22 languages and dialects from Western and Eastern Europe, from Bavarian, Niederdeutsch, Slavic, Romanian, Turkish, Greek, French and even Breton, and so much more via Aramaic and Hebrew and the Semitic languages as a whole. But these are for sounds and lights, or appearance, let's say often true and false friends in terms of etymology and meanings. "Heint/היינט " apparently means "today" and indeed comes from German "Heute", but it basically refers to "today as eve of tomorrow", which has a liturgical "evening-morning" significance and roots and drives the day in other Weltanschauung than found or understood in the European cultural area... through not foreign at all.

The real reason why I translated the texts into Yiddish was firstly I made a sort of Memorail, though the Divine Liturgy and the Service always intend to be "memorials" in the Jewish and Christian traditions, which creates an immense spiritual connection between them that cannot weighed by some odd comparison system.

Yiddish had dropped into the terrible bloodsheds of War War II. We were many to think that it would survive due to its huge importance in the spiritual scope of Jewish world conception and analyzing the Talmud and the whole of the Oral and Written Traditions. But it was not that evident some 35 years ago. Today, things are clearer and Yiddish will survive and may even develop, indeed it might be difficult to continue on the tradition Kanaan (Poland and Eastern Europe) basis.

Secondly, I may have translated the texts of the Prayers because it was a way to understand their spiritual meaning in depths. I often quote this example of a young catechumen confided to my wife to be baptized. She was of a very well educated Afghan family and her sister, who did not convert but accept to be present to her baptism, used to talk with my wife. One thing, she would scarsely accept as a catechumen - though definitely a full "Christian believer" - was that God can pardon sins. The ingraved sense of Islam showed up at once. I asked a famous Orientalist to get a Persian version of the Gospel and I guess we even got a Pashto short version. She read it thoroughly and started to ask questions to my wife and very quickly got to the meaning of sin and forgiveness of sins in the Gospel and the Words of Jesus. There are things that need to be clarified in your own cultural mother tongue, other wise ideas can continue to hip hop the wrong way. This happens quite often with a lot of converts and should be carefully taken into consideration before approaching any Jewish soul.

I dedicate my life to Hebrew in the Church. This includes the language and the Jewish languages, but mainly the cultural approach, tradition, way of thinking, analyzing, considering the world and the environment, our contexts - even the Christian reality - as a consequence of the specific Jewish ever-extant and significant, pertinent, meaningful envisionings of faith and Divine realities. We have formed chains of generations of different clergy and teachers, professors who decided to get into such a "border line" position. This is why I had the great chance to be with Fr. Kurt Hruby and Mgr Georgyi Rochcau. Both introduced me to the realm of a limit situation and how to face it with faith, courage and confidence and some realism. But again, I could do that because they were the "historical" links of the chain that tracks back to the first centuries and wil anywayl be carried over in the future.

I have always believed in "Hebrew in the Church" and have composed at the demand of late Cardinal J.M. Lustiger a specific Oriental Euchology book ("The Sacrifice of Thanks giving") rooted in the Oriental Traditions and published for the use of special Judaeo-Christian groups in the Church (1989). I had the promise to come to Israel that I alwayas have considered as my only home country and serve here. It took some more time. But the direciton has always been trustful to the line governing unity through the In gathering of the Exiled in Eretz Israel, firstly, then by the in gathering of some intermingled gorups of various Western and Eastern rite tradition of the Church that, in Jerusalem only can be "Catholic and Orthodox = open to the plenitude/fulfillment-plerome" giving the sens of the "true faith, the authentic faith".

I also focused on a possible meaning of the Church that is not that common for the moment but should be studied in the forthcoming decades and generations, in particular in Israel. That the Klal Israel/כלל ישראל or "Great Assembly of the Fulfillment of the Communities of Israel" is extending to the world Nations and is on the way to move forward and not backward, ahead of the fulfillment of the Divine Community of Israel that invisibly and without much awareness from both sides incude the Church and the Jewish People as a wholeness and ONE and Unique achievement.

Thus, language plays an immense role in such a development. Language is the medium human beings have at their disposal to scrutizine and scan, survey, study, examine, detect, get insights about the whole of mental and invisible scopes of various realities that should never be framed or sterilized in dogmas. This confers a huge important to the ancient religious speeches, parlances, words and tongues. This has definitely marked our "tekufah/תקופה - era and civilization" as being the time of Sumerian civilization with regards to "Oneness of God and Divine Revelation".

All through my life I have studied the different meanings that link traumas and psychological damages (nezikin/נזיקין ) and spiritual "survival". This is an important feature. We often -especially in Israel - consider history as a series of fragmented events that are linked in a row of historically traceable facts. We do not feel how much our brains "are surviving" various fractions, splits and we are not entitled to judge who is first or last or why this happens here and not there . This is the for the moment invisible part or portion of our human development.

This is why the manifold layers that constitute our history are often scattered much wider into other splits because we do not consider the factor of memory or we change "election" into a stiff background; it is merely an "element for the future or "forthground"!

Most "Holy, sacred, divinely inspired" languages have shown a rare tendency to "become like fossiles or rigid, stiff, normalized, standardized according to sophisticated patterns. Some languages have disappeared, other are maintained articifially or along to another more vivid form of dialects. It is supposed that, in the monotheist world, languages have died out. Usually this (partly wrongly) refers to Latin, Sasncrit, Coptic, Gheez, Church Armenian, Syriac/some forms of Aramaic and others languages. This does not apply to Arabic or to Slavonic. Of course, Latin has ceased to be a colloquial tongue, but, normally, in the Church and in different countries in according to oppcupations, it can be used for writing or even sharing ideas: priests, Russian doctors, I often met with German lawyers woh had "fluent possible Latin". It happens to speak Ltin in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The case of Greek is very interesting because it is supposedly and until now the real language of the Gospel since we know that the Gospels were written in Greek. We did not find any comparable Syriac version. On the other hand, Aramaic texts seem to show a real Aramaic substract to the Greek, even if the text were written down much later.

The Greek parlance of the Bible and the Gospel is due to Jews. This is clear for the Septuagint. In the case of the Gospel and the Epistles or the Acts of the Apostles, the Greek New testament language is full of Semitism and errors with regards to the classical Greek grammatical rules. We cannot speak of a Judeo-Gospel Greek as there was a Judeo-Greek dialect at Corfu, for instance. On the other hand, it is quite possible that a lot of mental parameters induced in the Semitic Hebrew and Jewish speech entered the Greek Gospel tongue, juste as the Greek language did enter the language of the Talmud significantly.

Interestingly, Slavonic was created by Cyrill and Methodios from a Bulgarian or "Ukrainian-like" then rather Central if not Dalmatian slavic dialect and developed over the centuries of inculturation and Christendom into a real tongue. The language continues to vivdly nurture the faithful. It has a mental and cultural impact that show the line of civilization split that is persistent between Western and Eastern Christianity, but also, curiously enough, inside of European Judaic ways of thinking.

The Slavonic liturgical texts are basically - though definitely not always - a word-to-word copy of the originally proposed Greek version. One of the major difficulties for the Slavic faithful of the Orthodox Church at the present, in the context of more freedom, is to switch with precision and adequacy from the Old united Slavonic speech to God to the local languages. The Russian Church has been very careful in this process. It has always had over the past century, different personalities and individuals who sketched out how to produce a correct and suitable translation.

Many translators are thus drifted toward the Latin and Roman Catholic Church. Interestingly, the Russian version of the Credo" for the Catholic Latin rite is a duplicate from the Polish version and words. Per se, the thing maybe understood. It could be possible to propose a common Catholic/Orthodox Russian version resolving the Filioque as it always had been in the Ukraine, for example. In reality, each version does not only refer to a specific Church as such, but to a specific "mentality". This makes a huge difference.

The language is a living sign of life and life-giving. Thsi is why the traditional Church languages aim to preserve keep and maintain the unity among the faithful. It is a sort of spiritual care, based on fixed and vivid word of God. Hebrew has the same as in Sota 1,7 that states that God understands all languages but would prefer to be addressed in Hebrew. Beyond the mental aspect, we have to take into account the "divine-inspired" prospect that is a major factor.

I was recently asked by a Greek priest to teach him some Talmud. His explanation is very much at the heart of the whole problem of free prayer and attitude to God and some stiff aspects due to "preferred election". He explained that he was willing to learn the Talmud in order to understand how the jews think and proceed to think the way they do!

This should be respected as an attitude because we all behave, to some point, in the same way. He speaks current Hebrew. There is no reason for him not to understand the Hebrew he hears within the Israeli society. Still, he feels there is something more. I asked him why he wanted to learn Talmud and Talmudic Hebrew. He then said that "he wants to understand the way the Jews think because it is incumbent upon the Greeks, as having received in Greek the message of Jesus Christ, to get into the special way of reasoning of the Jews. And having gotten to the core to be able to "translate and explain" to them the reality of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior."

Such a discussion belongs to moments of grace: they allow to understand the profound estrangement procedure that does not only affect the Greeks. At least, it is honest and this attitude is more than current in the Slavic world today or the Orthodox way of trying to convert any soul. It has not disappeared at all from the Western and Roman Catholic Church and it cannot disappear because it is a tremendous mental and spiritual reflexive reaction. It put clear where the gaps are and remain "put".

In the case of Hebrew, the language we speak today in the State of Israel is of course a strongly Semitically grounded tongue or dialect. It is new. it has been chosen not to oblige to special directions. In the course of the decades, I could feel the important development of the speech and writing within the society. The case is considered as unique and is indeed because of the fact that it allows today to bridge together people of all possible backgrounds and personal biographies. This is definitely a special miracle with regards to Judaism as the Body of the Klal Israel. It suddenly woke up something that has always been kept alive (and this is the major point) and now germinates ahead of something that we hardly can anticipate. Both a theological an a colloquial language. When we participate to any public debate, it is interesting to note the strong connection between secular and spiritual speech, Old, Biblical, Talmudic Hebrew and the new "half-Slavic or East-European dialect of Hebrew origin" that is developing.

This is the second aspect of Hebrew today. Is it the Biblical tongue or something else? Prof. Wexley suggests that Hebrew has revived with strong Slavic and East-European and Yiddish influences. Eliezer Ben Yehudah as also those who decided to speak Hebrew came from the Yiddishland. There is no doubt that there is indeed an extraordinary interconnection that showed historically between this part of European multi-cultural and pluri-religious substracts. Indeed, Modern Hebrew sounds very often closer to some Yiddish-translated dialect with some spices of pan-Semitic inputs.

I have always been convinced of this very deep and meaningful connection that also could link Judaism and Christianity. Usually people can misunderstand. On the one hand, there are indeed, very important connections between Hesychasm and the Russian Byzantine Church. This is also to be felt in the Greek texts. But then we speak of a spiritual proximity between two different and separate religions. They are not only separated, they are estranged and they are framed by mutual ignorace and most often "long-distanced hatred systems".

But Yiddish is much more the possible linguistic link that could have allowed a sort of encounter between Judaism and Chrsitendom in these regions of the East. It failed. It remains that, even in its aversion toward Christianity, Yiddish has a lot of phrases, expressions, words, often also present in the Talmud or used to explain it, that are found in daily speech and normal linguistic use. Hebrew is too "hieratic" and "astray" from any appertaining. It is the language of the Jewish people and has always remained. Yiddish is the language the jews took among the Nations and combined with Talmud and their special spirit in order to include the world of Judaism in a reality that bridges the two people of the Jews and the Gentiles. This has a very powerful Church or spiritual and Israel Community aspect of plenitude.

It is not sure that the Churches are able to comprehend with such a dimension, and definitely not at the present in the State of Israel. On the other hand there is something more that may have a much deeper significance over the decades to come.

Towards the middle of the 19th century, most Churches have tried to convert all the "pagan" nations and the Jews. The Catholic Church got largely belated because of the importance of Latin that had erased local tongues and ecclesiastical rites. In 1841, the Russian Orthodox Synod of Moscow, i.e. previously to the reinstallation of the Patriarchate of Moscow by the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, accepted and blessed to celebrated the Divine Liturgy and the Service of the Russian Orthodox Church in both Hebrew and Russian. The text dated 1841, was due to Fr. D. Levinson who the nserved in Jerusalem. This is the text I have always used for the prayer for two major reasons.

To begin with, the text is and remains official and has been accepted by an official and large body of the Eastern Orthodox Church and seemingly also accepted by the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem at that time.

It makes more sense to use with slights updates an official text rather than darfting different translations. It is an act of faith in the Church "unity". Till new versions - maybe only one - could be accepted and blesssed by the official Church authorities.

There is more: 169 years ago, with a project of conversion of the Jews that is profoundly under question as such in the State of Israel for different reasons, Fr. Levinson could instinctively make use of the Talmudic and Rabbinical language to translate the liturgical texts of the Russian Orthodox Church. Bishop Salomon Alexander Pollack, the first Anglican bishop of Jerusalem in the same years (a former chasan, cantor), also used tradiitonal and Talmudic lexicon. It gives to their translation a sound an a spirit of authenticity and not of some odd "Zulu-like" pidgin essay of inculturation.

The other Western rite Churches are not in such a position. They mainly "refuse if not reject" the Oriental rites that were born from Jerusalem and the Middle-East. I have the text in Aramaic of the Liturgy of Mar Yaakov/Saint James in hebrew script that was used by the small first group of Roman Catholics around 1952. Mgr Eugène Tisserant had convinced Pope Pius X they should be allowed to pray in Hebrew. The Pope had then asked "if Hebrew is a liturgical language"? The cardinal had answered by a question: "Holy Father, in which language was it written on the Cross that Jesus is the king of the Jews?". The Pope admitted it was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek (John 19: 19) and subsequently decided to accept that the brothers could pray in teh Assyrian-Chaldean rite that is the closest to the Hebrew tradition. The community chose rather quickly to switch to the Western and Latin rite in common language.

Is Hebrew a liturgical language for Christianity? This is indeed a real question. It interrogates about how Christians can use Jewish terms to confess, explain, teach and discuss of the reality of the faith that has been condemned and rejected by the Jewish Community. This "excommunication" has not been cancelled or denied by the Jews and it is far too early to consider any possible and substantial change in this matter.

On the other hand, something special happens and continue to show in the new, recent and Modern State of Israel. The language, Hebrew, is riviving and getting reinvigorated. It tracks back to the most ancient times and makes it in a way that, evidently, questions the world. Which nation has ever pretended to be at home in a place their ancestors had left over two thousands years ago. Beyond any political views, this simply challenges our understanding of "belonging, being at home over time, inculturation, survival and development, apparent erasing and new sprouting".

But then, the Eastern Orthodox Church is placed in a special context as also the East-European societies. Hebrew has been used in the Orthodox Church before the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehudah and Theodore Herzl (who has not always been likely to support the use of Hebrew)!

When we served in Hebrew according to the blessed version at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Jerusalem on June 12th with the blessing of Patriarch Theophilos III and of the Russian ecclesiastical Moscow Patriarchate, it was the first time, at our common knowledge, that the text also "revived" with local Israeli choir members, in a living Hebrew spirit and bridging the Slavic cultures that are so intimately intertwined on this earth.

We have felt totally at home and not like guests. Fully welcome and more faithful had come, just because it was a Saturday and the opportunity to participate in the Divine Liturgy. There was a visible and very emotional feeling of doing something we could not even anticipate. We are not in a period of great theological or ecumenical dialogue. But here, this was not the point: everyone felt it was "normal", obvious".

It was normal to hear the main parts of the Liturgy in Hebrew and some slavonic litanies and prayers. It was norma lto read the Gospel in Hebrew and normal to hear some words of a sermon in Russia nand Hebrew. It was more a real moment of "One Church of Jerusalem". Just having a look at the faithful, it was obvious that they were intermingled, Jews, Hebrew Christians, Gentiles, former Soviets and others, certainly some people going to different places. But the place was simply there that morning.

What will be next? God gives in due time. But the point is that on that Saturday, the memory of the local Church of Jerusalem tracked back, beyond all acts of hatred, persecutions, pogroms, extermination, ignorance, slander, destruction, to the original text that preceeded the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the reviver of Modern Hebrew, himself being a man from this Slavic area.

It is important that memory could also be "revived" in a positive sense: we took from old and felt it is new.

Av Aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)

17 - 4 of June 2010 - 5 deTamuz 5770 / ה' דתמוז תש''ע

Qui a le mot de passe

2010-03-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

(from abbaa blog in the daily LE MONDE)
A nouveau, il n’y a plus de saison en Terre de Canaan et d’Israël… Les températures varient en un printemps qui bourgeonne comme les amandiers tôt en fleurs près de l’hôpital de Hadassah, non loin de Eyn Karem. L’autobus serpente vers les nouveaux bâtiments de l’université-faculté de médecine. La route peut aussi descendre vers le monastère russe « Gorninskii » juché sur la paisible colline.

Hadassah-Eyn Karem est sans doute le signe le plus limpide de ce que l’Église pourrait être en tant qu’ « Ecclesia universa - Qahal rav = Convocation de tous les êtres et Grande Assemblée ». C’est une certitude qui s’est vite imposée depuis le temps que j’y conduis les malades aux urgences, visite les malades et surtout les enfants leucémiques. La plupart viennent de Biélorussie (Belarus), d’Ukraine ou de Grèce. Quelques enfants ou jeunes adultes passent parfois de nombreux mois dans ce havre de soins… Ils meurent trop rapidement.

Un peu tout le monde, toutes origines confondues, vient se détendre à la source où, selon le christianisme, Marie, mère de Jésus rencontra sa cousine Élisabeth qui était enceinte de six mois. Une rencontre pleine de promesses de vie pour deux femmes, l’une vierge, l’autre stérile. L’une était trop jeune, Élisabeth était âgée. Il y eut un sursaut du bébé Jean dans le ventre de sa mère à la rencontre avec la jeune cousine ; comme au temps où Rébecca sentit les jumeaux (Jacob et Esaü) bondirent dans le sein maternel à l’orée de Karem, dans ces lieux mêmes, lorsqu’ils perçurent le bruissement l’enseignement sur la Parole de Dieu… « ruminée » par anticipation de la révélation au Sinaï, pleine de vie fraîche comme les prés de Karem (les anciens vignobles alentour).

La Parole fait vivre ; des mots peuvent tuer. C’est banal, commun. La tradition juive insiste sur le fait que la langue est l’un des plus petits muscles. Mais son mouvement, combiné en une cavité appropriée et singulière, articule des sons d’une façon inexplicable. Ces sons lient consonnes et voyelles en des mélodies prétendument harmonieuses, des tonalités qui s’accouplent en de riches tessitures. Le langage bruite pour bénir. Il peut maudire. Il peut tuer. Vocables et lexiques sont souvent riches, opulents. Ils peuvent être concis et s’affirmer avec profondeur. La concision peut électriser des significations claires, précises ou, au contraire, exprimer, comme dans les tchats virtuels, un code simplifié à l’extrême.

Ernest Renan soulignait avec justesse que l’hébreu est « une langue à lettres comptées, mais ce sont des lettres de feu » (Histoire des Langues Sémitiques). L’hébreu — comme toutes les langues sémitiques — apprécie la brièveté, comme beaucoup de langues acérées au sacré comme des flèches directes. En hébreu, les sons restent succincts. Curieusement, les jeunes blogueurs venus d’ex-Union Soviétique préfèrent la richesse de phonèmes tendres et contrastés du slave dont la grammaire et le lexique leur paraissent bien plus étendus, nuancés sinon enracinés dans des terres immenses comme le mystère de l’âme.

Le rabbin Shneur Zalman de Lyadi, initateur du mouvement Lubavitch ou CHaBaD (Sagesse, intelligence distinctive, conscience/connaissance/foi) a ainsi décrit, dans son livre-clé « Tanya » (« Enseignement » en araméen) un exploit du Créateur.

Ce miracle inexplicable unit la cavité buccale à la langue, la luette, le pharynx et les cordes vocales et résonne par des sonorités intelligibles, voire cohérentes, parfois maitrisées, souvent insaisissables. Et tout cela est émis par notre genre humain sous forme de langues qui se font écho les unes aux autres comme la musique d’âmes dont on ne distinguerait pas le chef d’orchestre.

Pendant la liturgie byzantine orientale, le célébrant s’apprête à chanter le Trisagion/Sanctus ou la Triple Sainteté de Dieu. Il prononce ces mots: « chantant (comme les oiseaux), criant (animaux), s’exclamant/rugissant (fauves) et disant (la parole humaine ayant sens)» ces paroles « Saint, Saint, Saint, le Seigneur Dieu de l’univers » (Isaïe 6,3). La source hébraïque met l’accent sur les anges (invisibles) qui s’interpellent dans le monde visible. Il s’agit bien d’une évolution qui affirme un « chant sonore et progressivement cohérent ». Il part du cri animal et culmine dans la parole chargée de sens. Il y a aussi les intonations : le miaulement d’un chat semble dialoguer avec d’autres félidés ou des humains. En yiddish, il y a 19 manières de prononcer l’interjection « Nou! », ce qui peut conduire à une véritable conversation animée sur syllabe pour tons et contre-tons.

Il reste que la faculté d’émettre des sons et de leur donner sens est un don unique dont l’être humain use et abuse sans vergogne. « Toute parole dite est mensonge » affirme un poète russe. En Israël, sans doute pour des raisons socioculturelles, le dialogue s’établit par le regard et reste vague dans des conversations qui semblent ne rien dire d’intime ou de profond.

La tonalité humaine exprime et maille l’oral et l’écrit, le dire et la pensée « par parole, action, volonté, conscience ou inconscience, sentiments ou passions » (sources de la tradition juive aux mots des traditions chrétiennes). Et le Tanya rendait implicite ce que l’analyse continue de scruter : sons et mots peuvent être inversés, rouler sur eux-mêmes, cacher des intentions. Ils conduisent souvent à se méprendre entre l’audio, le vidéo, le sonore et le muet, le silence.

Pendant les semaines de Carême ou Grand Jeûne, les Églises byzantines orientales (orthodoxes et catholiques) introduisent une belle prière attribuée à Saint Éphrem le Juste d’Edesse dont on connaît le texte en grec et en slavon sans original syriaque. Le texte est magnifique de perspicacité humaine et de recherche de divines :

« Seigneur et Maître de ma vie, ne me donne pas un esprit de paresse, de curiosité (indiscrétion), d’ambition (vain désir de pouvoir) et de (vaines) paroles (bavardage). /

Veuille accorder à ton serviteur un esprit de sagesse (sophrosune = non “chasteté”, mais “pleine conscience”), d’humilité, de patience et d’amour (charité). /

Oui, Seigneur mon Roi, donne-moi de voir mes (propres) fautes et de ne pas juger mon frère. Car Tu es béni pour les siècles des siècles. Amen. »

On notera le caractère sémitique du texte qui pourrait être prononcé par tout croyant monothéiste, comme le « Notre-Père ». Il va d’emblée à l’essentiel de ce qui constitue l’universel et s’adresse au tréfonds de l’être.

Différentes versions ont été utilisées dans les traditions slaves, soulignant « l’appétit des richesses ». On a souvent mis l’accent sur la paresse, la déliquescence de la volonté, des sens faits de perceptions ou de capacités psychologiques. De même, la chasteté ne peut se réduire à une dimension sexuelle ou physique.

Prenons le cas de cette marée pédophile « cléricale » qui sort des mémoires dans le monde anglo-saxon, scandinave, germanique, néerlandais, autrichien. On oublie soudain les terribles bourrasques causées par des pervers mariés ou en couples de Belgique et de France. Là, les sociétés néerlando-alémaniques ont été profondément frappées par « l’ouverture à la sexualité ». Il suffit de vivre un peu dans ces pays pour sentir à quel point le rapport à la chair est perçu différemment de ce qui est une réalité universelle. Les cultures « latines » vivent autrement l’émergence du sexe comme s’imposant par imprégnations massives dans la société. La société israélienne affronte ces mêmes démons qui se nichent encore dans les cavernes les plus archaïques.

Il faudrait mettre alors en parallèle les profondes crises économiques, les banqueroutes financières. Il va de chaos moraux ; alors que des milliards sont injectés pour sauver l’édifice international, l’Islande, l’Irlande sont pratiquement en faillite — tout comme, à d’autres niveaux les États-Unis et en ce moment la Grèce. On colmate les brèches sans résoudre les situations.

La spiritualité invite alors à regarder ce que cela peut bien signifier que d’être sage, sans désir de puissance et parler de manière positive, constructive. Le professionnalisme des religieux est tel qu’il peut s’abîmer dans des flots de bonnes paroles. La Parole bâtit, les bonnes paroles peuvent stériliser, tuer ou blesser. L’âme est tellement fragile, ténue et assoiffée ! La « coachisation » sous forme de perroquetage, de reprints, de cooptation, voire de « formatisation » conduit à des périls redoutables. L’être humain languit jusqu’au fantasme après la liberté. Il est bien plus lourd de trouver son équilibre. Il est quasi héroïque de ne juger personne.

Si le célibat des prêtres et des évêques relevait uniquement de décisions humaines et historiques connus, il serait absurde, réduisant Dieu et les sociétés à des marionnettes. Lorsqu’Eve est menée à Adam, Dieu lui donne de parler enfin car il n’avait pas de « créature semblable ». L’image est puissante, car Adam trouve une interlocutrice.

Les juifs insistent sur la séparation de l’homme et de la femme mariée. Le discernement se porte sur le calendrier physiologique de la femme. Aux jours de « petits Kippourim » au début de chaque mois puis au Jour de Grand Pardon-Expiation, le jeûne et la cessation de relations sexuelles impriment une compréhension autre du temps.

Le prêtre marié orthodoxe ou catholique oriental — avec l’ensemble des fidèles (!) — sont invités à jeûner et suspendre les relations intimes avant d’aller célébrer l’Eucharistie, la Résurrection. Ils ne vont pas chanter avec art et/ou conviction ou tiédeur. Seule l’intime conviction de la foi peut conduire à une conduite pareille.

La chasteté ne s’oppose pas alors à la conscience droite et pure. Il n’est pas question de déviances ou de fantasmes. D’autres portes s’ouvrent à ceux qui ont le don de la parole.

Qui a le mot de passe ?

Av Aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

17/4 mars 2010 — 2 nisan 5770 — 1 Baby al-THaany 1431

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2010-03-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

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updated March5/February 19 2010 - אדר א' י''ט תש''ע

עדגונים מפייסבוק שלי

2010-02-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

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2010-01-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

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65 ans sont comme mille ans, le jour d'hier - LeMonde.fr

2010-01-29T04:14:00.000-08:00

65 ans sont comme mille ans, le jour d'hier - LeMonde.fr

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2010-01-28T16:58:00.000-08:00

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Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytskyi: 65 anniversary of his repose

2009-11-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytskyi: 65 anniversary of his repose

On Saturday, November 1, 2008, I published this note. Today, one year later, it is the 65th anniversary of the repose of this great man of the Church. It should be noted, that certainly for various reasons, this “deadline” date is not that mentioned. The problem is not to know whether Metropolitan Sheptytskyi was a Greek Catholic Ukrainian head of a Church that pathetically suffered during world war II and of course before. The point is the width, length, breadth, the in-depth insights that this remarkable servant of God has shown during his life.

I refuse to fence him in his “national” Church or inside the Eastern Catholic Rites. The Ukraine is a place of hardships at the moment. This concerns the political situation but also and mainly the sort of permanent “split” and taming process that shows in this place of God-seeking experience. I had underscored that Israel is a real social and political laboratory as Ukraine is in many ways. The personal destiny of Metropolitan Andrii meets with all the various elements that connect Judaism, Israel and The Ukrainian Church between Orthodoxy and other tendencies.

Present-day rlationships between Ukraine and Israel are somehow difficult. The late Metropolitan had written and thought a lot on his part and he saved a lot, extraordinary number of Jews in outstanding situaitons and actions. This should continue to pave the way for real dialogue.

°°°°°°°°°°

Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi / Слуга Б. митр. Андрей Шептицький of L’viv-L’vov/Львiв=Льов-Łwów-Lemberg\לביב-לעמבערג of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church passed away 65 years ago on November 1st [Greg. cal.]/Oct. 19 [Julian cal.] , 1944 - Heshvan 15, 5705 - ט”ו דחשון תש”ה. He was born in Prylbychi to an old Ukrainian family that then belonged to the Polish Roman Catholic noblesse. He decided to return to the Oriental rite, reinvigorated the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, revived the Basilian Studite Byzantine tradition, wrote and preached in Ukrainian. He was made a bishop in 1899 (Stanyslaviv). Assigned metropolitan of Lviv in 1900.

A Polish Ukrainian-born in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire then under Ukrainan self-ruled short period of independence, heading his Church over Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, Romania and the related diasporas, he was in jail under the tsarist regime (1914-1917), he had to face the Ukrainian civil war during the Bolshevik and Soviet period, then the first German occupation, the Nazi invasion, the Soviet rule.

During the Russian revolution, he heartedly welcomed in his monastery of Lviv his former jailer-keeper, Archbishop Eulogyi [and Abp. Vladimir] appointed by the Moscow Orthodox Patriarch St. Tikhon (murdered in 1927). He obtained the required documents for these two envoys of Patriarch Tikhon, which allowed them taking spiritual care of the Russian Orthodox refugees in Western Europe. Before World War I, he visited the Holy Land with groups of pilgrims. He also organized the Ukrainian Church in North and South America. He surely helped the Orthodox Church to get organized at the beginning of the 20th century, when for the first time after centuries, East and West rediscovered their heritage and roots. This slowly shows up at the present in the long series of encounters and missed rendezvous. He gave the example of conveying a constant dialogue with others, which is so important at the moment. He was a man inspirited by eternity.

He had been given special rights by the Popes from the very beginning of his ministry. They were confirmed by Pope Pius XII in order to resolve on his own the unbelievable confusing situation during World War II in his territory. During WWII, being lame in a wheel-chair, he conducted a permanent Synod sending “pastoral messages and letters” that were read in his eparchy/diocese of Ukraine. In his “труди - [Works]”, he fought all the then ongoing spiritual, moral, ethical, societal conflicts of a profoundly affected region. His famous pastoral letter “не убий - [Thou shalt not kill- לא תרצח “] ” condemned anti-Semitism and the deportation of the Jews.

Metropolitan Andrei fluently spoke many languages, i.a. French, German, English, Russian, read and spoke Hebrew and Yiddish (as late Moscow Patriarch Tikhon also did and showed when he was the Metropolitan of Vilnius). He had frequent meetings with Chief Rabbi Lewyn of Lviv who was murdered by the Nazis. He saved the son of the Rabbi and thousands of Jewish people. After the Shoah, the son of the Chief Rabbi, Kurt Lewyn, described his remarkable attitude in a book “A Journey through Illusions”. He is the only head of the Church who directly protested to Himmler and then Hitler [telexes] against the deportation, mass murder and extermination of the Jews. In the meanwhile he also had to face the Nazis and the Communists, being totally isolated though assisted by his brother Fr. Klement and a wide network of assistants. He was a man of prestige and unusual spiritual insights that influenced far beyond the framework of his own Church. He was a man of knowledge, a theologian, “a man beyond all standards/norms” as stated Prof. Gutman (specialist of the Shoah) in a meeting I attended some years ago in Jerusalem. There were few people of good will, a survivor and a specialist of his exceptional biography.

His brother Klement has been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and recognized as a “Righteous among the Nations” by the Israeli Institute of Yad VaShem. The cause for the recognition of the unique attitude of the late Metropolitan was opened in the Roman Church on December 5, 1958. It is still pending: he has been denied by all parts although the prestige of his actions and positions are widely known. His personality was much respected: he died on November 1st, 1944. Stalin did not dare touch him or do take any action till the end of the 40 days of mourning. It appears that the Soviets deported the clergy and decided to erase his memory.

For years, I have been in contact with those in charge of his recognition. Metropolitan Andrei was considered by his flock as “the national [Ukrainian] Moses - рідним Мойсеєм”; he was definitely not a narrow-minded or stubborn nationalist. In the most hideous times of confused sequences of horrible periods, he became a true and outstanding witness. This deals with our own problems. Firstly in Israel: a rare man of knowledge and insightful prophetic views about the existence of the Jewish people in his area. His views about social care and welfare, dignity and ethics, economy and politics. He undoubtedly knew and experienced the in-depth meaning of true Christianity submitted to real vital faith and an incredible fighter for the life of every human being.

It will take a lot of time to understand such a character who confronted all sorts of paradoxes and messy events that continue to affect the development of the world today. He spoke with the words of his generation. He remains tremendously astounding in the present. We often think that we are open-minded and “universal” but we get afraid; then we frame, fence and block ourselves in all possible ways in our quest for identity, revenge or ignorance. Metropolitan Sheptytskyi never forced to foreign or alien creeds. He respected the souls and protected numerous peoples, in particular the Jews during the period of a full idolatry period of apostasy.

His writings and social activities should be a plus for Israel that encompasses the whole of the diversified multi-faceted aspects of humans that came from the Ukraine as survivors of the “Holodomor - голодомор” (mass murder through hunger in the Ukraine 1932-35). The Supreme Soviet intentionally assassinated through famine all the nations in Ukraine, to begin with the locals and Jews, Czechs, Gypsies and other peoples.

This is why the peaceful construction of a Jewish State will someday - in due time, when it will be a bit accessible for our faculties to reach out to the uniqueness of such a rare personality and man of faith. At this point, we are all, striving against the shading devils that have split our unity as human beings. It is not a time of opacity or blindness. We are marching in the future in the pangs of a long-term birthing process.

65 years ago, a man passed the borderline that connects the world of beneath and the world of above by witnessing in silence to the hope of his faith. There are borders and lines that constantly seem to postpone full understanding of out-the-way souls in exceptional situations. This happens with regards to Andrei Sheptytskyi. Still, his repose leads us onto a journey that will overcome one day the many illusions that continue to harm and hurt our generation. Contradiction is often a sign of positive struggle for life.

av aleksandr [winogradsky frenkel]

November 1st/October 19th, 2009 - י”ד דחשון תש”ע

Bereishit 5770

2009-10-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Acharei hachagim\אחרי החגים: "when the feasts are over" is a popular saying and a refreshing song full of true nostalgia and a touch of shmaltz, sort of mixed excessive emotional mush combined with some banality. The other folk's best is then "geshem-גשם/rain", the yearly hit that "will enable us to continue to march on the way"... It is quite amusing how Israeli society that may be crafty suddenly falls into a state of pathetic needs to be cuddled and pampered with a touch of childlike desires to be overprotected. Fall can be indeed a time of transition. A bit red as some of our hair cuts of the automnal leaves: "'s fal'n di bleter\ס'פאלן די בלעטער - the leaves are falling" is also an after world war II hit firstly sung by Yves Montand in French, then in Yiddish... Yossi Banai made it in Hebrew... "Listopad-лiснопад" means "November" in Ukrainian and Polish and means "leaf fall". The approaching month of Marcheshvan\מרחשון is thus a time of "sweeping away old stuff" and regular fasting days paving the way for the clarity of Kislev and the Feast of the Lights (Chanukkah).

It is very trendy to feel down. Of course, e.g. we live in a society that is approximately contented. This was shown in a recent poll and the Israelis are definitely optimistic compared to the way they are looked at from abroad as living in a threatening and dead-end situation. But as regards privacy, we respond with constant equanimity that is on the verge of puzzling perplexity. Just try the poll. It is very forward to play with insightful polls. Just ask: "How are you doing?" to some ordinary anonymous Israel inhabitants. Whatever tongue, the respond is: “Good - beseder - tayeb/kwayes (Arabic version = to:yeb in Jerusalem) - sheyn". The Russian-speaking inmates would tend to say "normal'no\нормально (normal = seemingly good)" but if you continue the poll, Russian will turn to "bolee li menee = more or less (well), cf. "chetzi-chetzi\חצי חצי - fifty-firty". The same happens in English, Yinglish, Arabic. There is a Hebrew, Greek and Russian/all-Slavic hip-hop hit:"Baruch HaShem (yom-yom: day-to-day)! = Gr. Doksa tou Theou! = Slava Tebe, Gospodi! (glory to You, Lord - interfaith version)". It does mean that things are going well at all. This is the plain answer of plain people who squelch spontaneous emotion to maximum private neutrality. We are sorts of firewalls. The problem is that it may kill because human beings are born to talk and need to speak out what they feel, from their insides to their brain and heart.

Can we say that we live in a gentle and kind society? Basically, Israeli society is geting tempted by mor and more internal violence. Justice and righteousness are still relevant but are deeply endangered by different tendencies. It is difficult to say that Israel is not a free state. It is. The biggest part of the country is powerfully dynamic, young, full of creativity. Young and elderly can achieve their goals if they are able to speak out and want to reach specific goals. Israel is an internationally developing country, on a universal basis. In the forthcoming years, some elements might be strengthened: ties with Asia, Africa. The United States and Canada are considered a part of the "golden State - Goldene medine" but it is not sure that the real dynamics come from there although the general trend is to "think Anglo".

Times may show that the connection with the former Soviet Union and its satellite republics or autonomous regions together with China, Japan and Korea may be far more meaningful. This is due the cradle of the State of Modern Israel. It has inherited something very strong from the "Eretz Knaan = Poland and the the border regions of Great Russia" as we used to say in Yiddish. We have been used for two centuries that emigration came from Eastern Europe to Europe and then America or via the Far East to Hong Kong, Manchuria, Mongolia, Harbin down to America and/or South America, in particular Argentina, Uruguay, Chile or Mexico. The move is now a "classic" of international people flow.

It is deeply present in Israel and progressively raises inside of the country some significant signs of constant seeds. It is rare that a country is steadfastly nourished and nurtured from the same basic human, linguistic, spiritual, mental area as it has been the case from the first aliyah till now. There is a permanent level of educational system between my great grand parents, parents (they would be 108 this year) and my cultural background that copes with that of late R. Yeshayahu Leibowicz born in Riga. He discovered with stupefaction that the young former Soviet youths had the same roots and education as he was given in Latvia a century ago.

This can easily be felt in Israeli society when speaking with the various actors of this part of the population that is going through a deep and quick assimilation process of Hebraization. This does not only relate to the language, but to cultural and mental positioning. It is a trend toward freedom and control over personal conscience. People interrogate themselves about the way they can be free, which is a typical Slavic and curiously Eastern Orthodox way of putting things on the table. It does not mean that people would reject the freedom they gained. They need to feel protected, much more than the in-born Israelis or those who arrived before 1967. Slavic people are also "mentally born gamblers". Those who came continue to develop the country on the verge of legacy in many cases. It can also imperil the State, but, on the other hand, such people are ready to start new lives because "games, plays, theater, gym, moves" are always on air and constant standards of reference. This is not the case of the European and American immigrants.

Soviet and Ethiopian people bring natural links to Christianity. This matter is important because of the mixed nature of the newcomers. The Halachah can hardly be proven. In fact, the same situation is applicable to the United State migrants because they often cannot show evidence of all the required certificates of ketubot/marriage of their parents and family. But the importance of the ex-USSR immigration has superseded this defect as well as the coming of the Ethiopians.

On the other hand, the constant defense of Israel and the way the State has to assume this protection question a lot of people that would prefer to leave and settle abroad. This problem is real and is taken into account by the Israeli authorities.

It is exact that a society needs joyful relaxing times; once New Year 5770 started up, it seems the countdown switched on and we may scrap the plans and continue to go around without finding the true way-out. To be honest, what can be new? Fashion? we use 5th to 18th century clothes and hats to makes a distinction between our social and religious groups. Modern chardal (modern ultra-Orthodox = mustard in Hebrew!) women covers and hats were created in Western Europe around 1920 and circulated to the America before showing up here again lately. The planet-wide jeans (even with holes and stigmas) appeared in Genoa(= /jeans/), Italy, just before Christopher Columbus left for some Indian "unzoned area".

Things are new everyday though we grow old at the same time. So is it bad or good to march in the development of a New Year? Blasé apathetic characters would say - as for the daily "alright" - that Kohelet, read at Sukkot is correct: "What has been, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed (in the ages that) preceded us."(Kohelet 1:9-10).

This can refer to the immensity, the width, depth, breadth, length and thus plenitude of God in His Written and Oral Law. Everything is present in the Talmud, i.e. not only morals, but materials and instruments that progressively seem to be created in our culture: e.g. micro-wavers, computers, fashion, nuclear skills or freezers... The problem is how to get to newness and its encoding.

Tractate Yevamot 62b states that God has a huge reserve of all the souls that have to be hosted in the bodies that show in the development of the human generations. As for the Christians: there is a great similarly between the Oral Law and what the Christian world receives through the Holy Spirit. Thus, when Jews remove the Talmud studies as the Karaites (the Samaritans did the same as the Sadducees), they stop to truly believe in the into the World-to-Come. When the Christians cancel or lower the action of the Spirit, they ritualize and reduce the intensity of their faith and reject the resurrection.

Newness is inscribed in the soul of the Semitic speech. In Hebrew, two past tenses (more in Arabic) that seem to speak about what already was and indeed focus on the future. Monotheistic speech is prophetic, opens the way to any event or creation. "Asher asah la'asot\אשר עשה לעשות - that (God) has been making in order to (continue the action of) being creating” (Genesis 2:3). The Gospel shows the same: "The Father and I (Jesus) are always at work"(John 5:19).

In Hebrew "davar\דבר" is both "word, speech and object". We take a great responsibility in renewing the world with words of beauty and creativity. We are often hurt or injured and human speech can be terribly cruel. There is something we have in Hebrew: we always speak of the future, are obsessed by newness. God was also deceived when he looked at His creation and decided to wipe it out (Genesis 6:5-8). Thus, since we are survivors, we cannot even think of stopping the move toward future, betterment and being real "mentchen\מענטשען", humans with a tender and good heart.

In the Gospel it is said:"You, brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. I (Jesus) tell you, on the day of judgment, people will render an account of every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted and by your word you will be condemned” (Matthew 13:34-37).

We have to prove that we are not a "brood of vipers"... In the new year 5770, the State of Israel will have to show that it is indeed a State of freedom of conscience and faith according to its law regulations. I always refer to the example of Prof. Nissim Dana who was heading for a time the Minister of Interior - Christian Communities Department. A professor at the Haifa University, he is specialized in the life of the Druse communities. In his book dedicated to this population, he underscored how the Tel Aviv embryo of Parliament and government was very carefully checking that each non-Jewish community should be treated with full justice and according to their rights. This was during the Independence war.

Recent turmoil with in the Armenian Quarter, i.e. on the way to the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter, constant embattlement with other Christian Churches, the absence of real prevention of missionary actions on all sides - both Jewish and Christian - according to the Laws in force are not positive. Interestingly, there are groups in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities who would be ready to "shelter" the imperiled local Jerusalemite Christian communities (sic)! It is the duty of the Churches to recognize Israel for who and what the State of the Jews is. It is not a problem of everlasting Shoah issue that does fit with either party's commitments. It has to deal with much more than that: daily experience of living seeds of theology, Living Word in a real and living society of the Jews that has to accept to be grafted onto the tree and branches of very old Christian communities. We have to overcome and leave our pretense and though it is a Divine commandment, it is a terrible hardship to carry out.

It may sound a bit tough. But we are blessing-beggars… So if, in the end, we get a lot of flooding rain that renews the soil and the land, it means that we also can plant new good ideas, opinions, wit and insights when our mouth speaks heartfully. On air at the present: clean up our Word system and turn over a new leaf… It may lead us, God willing, to some real step forward toward Gan Gan.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

October 16/3, 2009 - 28 deTishrei 5770 - כ"ח דתשרי תש"ע

Who is the Other ?

2009-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

This is the text of the lecture that I gave at the Swedish Center at Jaffa Gate on October 22, 2009. It is a theological and open reflection about who is "the other, the neighbor", in particular how we can or need or may, must recognize Israelis as a part of the society we live in. The lecture included other words and lively expressions. You have here the framework or the pattern...

WHO IS THE OTHER?

THE TITLE OF TONIGHT's lecture evolved from "who is my neighbor" to "who is next" and now "who is the other?" We may see that the real subject may not really be included in those titles and thus encompass some of their realities.

As a matter of fact, when we speak of "neighbor", we systematically, or most often, switch to the core verse of the Bible "Love your neighbor as yourself/ואהבת לרעך כמוך" (Leviticus 19:18). To begin with, it should be noted that the Torah does not underscore any special meaning for this verse. But all Jewish and further on, the Christian traditions have seen a specific significance and place in God's commandments as shown in the verse. Thus, R. Akiva (2nd c.) said that the commandment of "love your neighbor" is the major principle of the Torah" (Nedarim 9:4).

One century earlier, Hillel presented the commandment in an interesting and reversed/negative way: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor”. He added - in a very similar way to Jesus' statements "This is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary” (Shabbat 31a). The commandment sounds as the Golden Rule; many commentators declared that Hillel's words are more pragmatic and genuine, realistic because "And you shall love your neighbor" looks a bit vague and dreamy even if it seems positive. Medieval Tanna D'Bei Eliyahu shows that God proposes a request to the Jewish people and subsequently to all creatures: "The Holy One said: ‘Children, I only want that you love each other and treat one another with dignity’".

Let's be frank: these words are repeated the way parrots love to do it every day by very pious people and we are of course among those, here at Jaffa Gate and in the Holy City of Jerusalem, but at the same time we would easily admit that daily experience shows us the contrary of what God told the Jewish people and moreover all subsequent traditions.

Jesus Christ was indeed very close to Hillel. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him? Therefore all things whatsoever you would like that men should do to you, do even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:11-12).

Jesus quotes the full commandment as stated in Leviticus 19:18 “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself" in the three synoptic Gospels: St. Matthew 19:19 - 22/39 = St. Mark 12:31 = St. Luke 10:27. The quotation is moreover to be found in Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8. Intriguingly, Leviticus 19:34 states "You shall love the foreigner/stranger" as mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:19.

St. Mark includes a special logon: "To love God with all the heart, all the understanding and all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all whole-burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:33). Jesus’ answer is: "You are not far from the Kingdom of God = korbanקרבן, karov Matzdiki/קרוב מצדיקי = He is close to me the One who justifies me" (Isaiah).

And here we are tonight in the heart of the Old City of all sacrifices from the most ancient days and traditions, from the Temple Mount and Mount Moriah to the NAOS - the Temple par excellence or Church of the Holy Sepulcher = the Anastasis, the place of Resurrection from where all whole-burnt sacrifices were brought to redeem the entire creation...

We have to carefully note - though it has been noted throughout the ages - but still, we have to note the context in which Jesus Christ mentions the Rules of "to love your neighbor as yourself". It does not come out of a sudden, let's put that way that may keep us alerted. Jesus of Nazareth mentions the commandment in the three Synoptics as the natural connection with the "S'ma Isra'el- שמע ישראלl: Listen Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart (bechol levavcha- בכל לבבך), and all your soul (or life, being - uvchol nafshecha - ובכל נפשך) and all your strength (uvchol me'od'cha – ובכל מאדך= all that constitutes you as very good - tov me'od - me'od - טוב מאד מאוד\מאד\אדם = much living, Adam, a member of economic system as strength refer to "possessions, assets"; and non of us can escape from any economic system).

It should be noted with much attention that the commandment to "love the neighbor as yourself" is directly and solely connected in both the ancient Judaic and Christian traditions to the fundamental logon in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 : "Hear Israel". Jesus combines the greatest commandment that concludes Moses' life and became the proclamation of the Jewish faith with the "love of the neighbor as yourself" in St. Matthew 22:37 : "He said to a Pharisee: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40).

Another question that shows in such a context: When Jesus is put to the stake, it is traditionally accepted that his quoting of Psalm 21/22 "Eli, Eli lema sabachtani - Elohi, Elohi, lama azaftani – אלהי אלהי למה עזתני" - "Oh God, my God why have You forsaken me" which implies the full recitation and quoting of the whole psalm. It is also possible to ask ourselves how far the mention by Jesus of the great commandment in its first verse only, should not also imply and spiritually include the whole of the “Sh'ma Israel” as it is in Deuteronomy 6 (ss. 6-9): "And the words that I command to you today take them to heart, impress them upon your children, recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind then as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a frontlet (crowns) between your eyes; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

This leads to consider different aspects: the commandment is not vague, or only directed towards God and the "personal self". It is trans-generational, it obliges to give instructions and to teach God's Reign from generation to generation. The commandments have to observed at home (a fixed place) and on the way (when going on a journey, a trip, a pilgrimage and we know that "regalim - רגלים" used to bring the Jewish people and the followers to Jerusalem, mainly to this City and not to some mere dreamy place located out there through the world. Of course we all know of New Jerusalem (Moscow) or numerous Bethlehem throughout the planet. Still, the places existed and remain consistent here, at least to begin with. The great commandment also requires to attach God' s Presence to our physical bodies and existence.

This is in such a spiritual stage of consciousness, awareness, conscience that indeed, it is possible to admit that reaching God's Image and Likeness allows us, as a consequence to be able to show some positive feelings toward our neighbor! It does not mean we can love, or even like our neighbor. It means that we can understand by God's great commandment confirmed by Jesus Christ how much we come near to ourselves, our inner individuality and identity and therefore look positively to the "neighbor".

At least, it is always dangerous to cite the two commandments outside of their full contexts because we may not understand that God spoke in a special place, to a special people and for a certain context that develops and includes more and more generations with exclusion.

Please note that in the Book of Leviticus the commandment to "love the neighbor" is directly preceded by strict prohibitions against taking revenge or bearing a grudge. It is more than important because, all things being equal - more or less let's say - we spend our time hurting the others, the neighbors, the parentage, the foreigners with the fervent hope that they will never take revenge against us. Interestingly, this also concerns the animal world. Rabbi Abraham Twerski said: "Carrying resentments is like letting someone whom you don't like live inside your head rent-free, without paying any rent". We all can behave like elephants at this point.

This is why the first path is to feel comfortable with who we are, on a personal and societal level. This is a very hard task. Still, if we cannot change people in order to make them as we are, we could accept the phrase: "I can't make people like me, but if I wasn't me, I would like me"...

We come here to the "virtual" part of the society we live in. At the present, we can be moved to tears by the terrible events that affect fictional characters in movies; we may not be able to react with any similar intensity when the same sort of horrible events hit the people we know or when we are a part of such dramas. We cry and we sob when the hero or heroine fall in love, not when our neighbors do.

The commandment to be good or to love the neighbor is expressed in most cultures and civilizations, in particular in the Greek culture, which is next door and always has been present in the area. The same is applicable with regards to the Hindu(ist) and Mazdean traditions. But let's focus on the Biblical background.

Now, the real problem is to understand the commandment correctly. VEAHAVTA LE'REACHA KAMOCHA – ואהבת לרעך כמוך, does it indeed mean: "an you shall love your neighbor as yourself"? I comment the verse in English right now. In Russian, for example, "vozliubish blizhnago kak i samogo sebia", can either refer to "neighbor as being very close to you or a person who is known as being closely (bliskii chelovek) "acquainted, provided, inter alia, that "close relationships are long to be fixed and defined in the Slavic and Russian society, this from ancient days.

"REA - רע" is a parodox in Hebrew as in most Semitic roots: they usually include both a positive and a negative aspect. Horayot 10b shows it: "Even the good which wicked men do is an evil with the righteous (= they can't enjoy it)"; The same in Berachot 1c: "Don't be like the fools who sin and offer a sacrifice, not knowing whether they offer it for the good they have done or for the evil".

The precise meaning of "re,acha - רעך" is thus "your fellow", which, like "your neighbor" suggests someone with whom we routinely have contact. This is the way it is understood in most cases. "Fellow" implies a person that accompanies, but the word is Old Norse = Félag = Verlag = laying money to join!!! Reah\רעה" is connected to Hebrew and Aramaic that means to join, welcome, gladden, rejoice. This is why the paradox is present: dark turns to light, what is bad or evil turns to good or goodness "joined efforts" - companionship = sharing bread along the way; sputnik = sharing the same direction. But it does include the mental attitude to turn from bas to good, to tame what is alien. Otherwise, it is evident that we could have "sheykhen - שכן" as it is the case in Aramaic.

But "neighbor" is not the person who is "close or near to us". Let's say that Scandinavian "När = close = Germ. Nah and Nächst = the thing or person that is most to the closest!! It does not mean the person or proximity: the thing is near! This is remarkably to be found in Yiddish: "no'ent \ נאענט= nah but it is not a NEAR OR CLOSE AT HAND THING OR PERSON. IT REQUIRES A MOVE TOWARD A PLACE OR INDIVIDUALS OR A PERSON. And interestingly "kroyv קרוב - = cousin = people who can be connected by some family or blood links, but not living closely to each other. The same is valid in Swedish: "att naa = to come near", which means a movement. To love a neighbor can never mean to remain/stay put. It obliges to a series of psychological and physical moves.

At this point, it is quite possible to consider that Hebrew: "veahavta lere'acha kamocha – ואהבת לרעך כמוך " implies the view to love the people who are next to us, but also those who can cause evil or bad things to us, and also our enemies. Even if Today's Judaism would reluctantly admit such a position as being self-evident, it would interrogate the tradition the same way "ger toshav – גר תושב" is either a resident and a part of the community or a idolater who is a full foreigner. To begin with, it was Abraham's status to be protected in all Middle-Eastern traditions.

Psalm 90/91 shows how demons can be overcome and how people in the desert or in situation of profound solitude could be afraid from other human beings. This fear is constant and taming is a great par of some form of healing or getting to be humans.

One constant rule is that, in principle, people would say they love humanity. And the more they would love humanity, the more they would serve humanity, but if we have to stand the same people in reality that has to meet in daily life, the more we share with them, the less we maybe able to simply stand them as appears in the monk's confession in Dostoyevsky's "the Brothers Karamazov".

In fact, "To love our neighbor as yourself" include a profound human balance of feelings and dignity.

The problem is not of "neighborhood" or vicinity. The problem is to get together as Saint Paul defined it, especially in the epistle to the Ephesians: "Now therefore, you are no more strangers or foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God (and you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone) in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy Temple of God; in whom you are also built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”. This is the real meaning of RE-ACHA = רעךjoined/built together. (Ephesians 2:19-22).

As a consequence, we must come to the fact that building together proceeds from a spiritual and full of faith because it is founded in the major verses of Ephesians: "That that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promises, having no hope and without God in this world: But now in Christ Jesus you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

“For He is our peace, who has made both (Israel and the pagans) one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity (even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace)" (Eph. 2:12-14).

Indeed, we slowly can come or reach to some meaningful understanding, something that may make sense if we consider that we are faithful and pious people, and we all are. You cannot avoid Divine matters in Jerusalem, but it depends how it works in our relationships.

In any way, and this can seem to be a bit "crazy" or "torn up side down", but "to love the neighbor as yourself" is just as impossible as to show any sort of evidence that God is real, alive, living, life-giving and the Sign of Resurrection. In that sense, LOVE = GOD'S LOVE THAT CALLS HUMAN BEINGS IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE OF LIFE. Love does not mean "cuddles, hugs and kisses". Why not? But when the bride calls "Yishakeni – ישקני - Kiss me" to the bridegroom in the Song of Songs (1:1), it should be noted that they never meet!!

Saint John's chapter 21 after the resurrection has it: Jesus speak of perfect love (Agapein) and Peter answer he likes Him (philein). In the same verse, Aramaic has "richam = like, love with our viscera, intestines, insides", but then it is a love of lovingkindness and not directly the love of all the Divine Attributes.

In the commandment, as following the “Shma Israel”, we are merely called to know or get aware of what those we like, dislike, have to stand, frequent, encounter, love or maybe hate NEED. WHAT THEIR NEED ARE. In that sense, love commences to get a bit consistent. Not when worstate that things were much better in the good old days. Psychology and attitudes, from pride to lack of self-esteem, shyness. We are then commanded to accept who is facing us and reciprocally.
IF WE CANNOT ACCEPT HELP, WE CANNOT GIVE ANYTHING EITHER.

This is also very useful in marital life: spouses need to be given what they need and not mere gifts. But in general the commandment goes far beyond anything that we can conceive or understand.

This is shown during the Byzantine Divine Liturgies of Saint John Chrysostomos and Basil the Great. The celebrant, having blessed the faithful with peace, opens the Royal Gates and says: Let's love each other in order to confess in one spirit/soul - neehuv ish et rehu uvlev echad n’hoodeh/ vozliubim drug druga da edinomysliem ispovedim
נאהוב איש את רעהו ובלב אחד נודה -
Возлюбим лруг друга да единомыслiем исповемы
and the celebrant goes out and bowing in front of Christ icon, saying: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We do not need to shake hands, or to kiss those we know and turn our backs to those we hardly can look at. This sort of "love" is "at-one-ment", makes and creates us ONE beyond what we can even understand and imagine when we share this peace. It is funny and strange how we always want to share and receive something and participate. Here, participation consists in receiving the One we cannot see and Who keeps us alive. Thus, it has nothing to do with shaking hands!

Now, we have to be frank, okay!!? I lecture tonight not because there are so wonderful and nice and cute ideas we could share a bout our spiritual backgrounds, future and cannot agree upon in our daily life here, in this city and country. We meet everyday, every week, every month, sometimes once a year. We would hardly frequent each other.

One of the best opening-up movie is certainly "Gaestebud" "Babette's banquet", a remarkable Danish film. A French woman is sheltered by the time of the Restauration in Jutland in Denmark, in a small village where nobody can talk and share. They meet just to face each other. The woman becomes a servant. One day, she wins a huge fortune at the French Lottery. She decides - she was a famous fine cook in Paris - to prepare a gaestebud, inviting everybody for a splendid banquet and she spent all her fortune. Joys and laughs, hospitality and conversations come out of this exceptional banquet which has been interpreted as a real theological reflection about Eucharist and the Presence of the Holy Spirit.

I came to lecture because I said - in between - that it was more than intriguing if not strange and bizarre that on a day dedicated to "Pilgrimages in Jerusalem" not a single word has been said - I repeat no a single word and I did pay attention with much care about the Jewish pilgrimages! Looking through the window, they were precisely coming up to Jerusalem and to the Kotel - כותל (Western Wall, among other places)!!! I thought it was a bit, just a bit too much! Hajj in the Muslim and Christian and Bulgarian and Orthodox traditions, please, no problem. But not a word about the very nature of the God-seeking attitude that abides the Jewish soul from Ur-Kasdim to Egypt, Beersheva and Mount Moriah over the past 3500 years if not more, because a positive and definitely not a judgmental question.

Israel does exist. Just you to know and you do know! All of you know about that. It may itch or be pleasant. This is not the problem. We cannot oblige anybody to accept the one or those who are in front or next or close to us. On the other hand, we can pray, reflect upon how we behave towards ourselves and our fellowmen/women. It does not mean the yare wrong and we are right. It means we can slightly open up our eyes and conscience.

Emotions exist, both positively and negatively. Rejecting of keeping silent about people, nations, humans is never neutral. It is a way to come closer to what is unbearable - sometimes to each other and most of the time for irrational reasons. The rest is a matter of needs as I mentioned: time overshadows an covers our needs and requirements and slowly joins those who can hardly cope together. This move is of great importance. It shows that the eschaton is moving ahead of us.

With regards to the faith of Israel, there was an interesting statement made in 1968 by some Rabbis: "It is precisely that that Christianity brought to the world that hid Israel to the Nations”. It continues to be the case. But when we come back to our own room, just inside, let's think of what we can positively share and do share without being able, for the moment, to speak too much of that.

Archpriest Alexander Winogradsky
October 22/9, 2009 – ג' דחשון תש"ע

Bereishit 5770

2009-10-26T08:43:00.001-07:00

Acharei hachagim\אחרי החגים: "when the feasts are over" is a popular saying and a refreshing song full of true nostalgia and a touch of shmaltz, sort of mixed excessive emotional mush combined with some banality. The other folk's best is then "geshem-גשם/rain", the yearly hit that "will enable us to continue to march on the way"... It is quite amusing how Israeli society that may be crafty suddenly falls into a state of pathetic needs to be cuddled and pampered with a touch of childlike desires to be overprotected. Fall can be indeed a time of transition. A bit red as some of our hair cuts of the automnal leaves: "'s fal'n di bleter\ס'פאלן די בלעטער - the leaves are falling" is also an after world war II hit firstly sung by Yves Montand in French, then in Yiddish... Yossi Banai made it in Hebrew... "Listopad-лiснопад" means "November" in Ukrainian and Polish and means "leaf fall". The approaching month of Marcheshvan\מרחשון is thus a time of "sweeping away old stuff" and regular fasting days paving the way for the clarity of Kislev and the Feast of the Lights (Chanukkah).

It is very trendy to feel down. Of course, e.g. we live in a society that is approximately contented. This was shown in a recent poll and the Israelis are definitely optimistic compared to the way they are looked at from abroad as living in a threatening and dead-end situation. But as regards privacy, we respond with constant equanimity that is on the verge of puzzling perplexity. Just try the poll. It is very forward to play with insightful polls. Just ask: "How are you doing?" to some ordinary anonymous Israel inhabitants. Whatever tongue, the respond is: “Good - beseder - tayeb/kwayes (Arabic version = to:yeb in Jerusalem) - sheyn". The Russian-speaking inmates would tend to say "normal'no\нормально (normal = seemingly good)" but if you continue the poll, Russian will turn to "bolee li menee = more or less (well), cf. "chetzi-chetzi\חצי חצי - fifty-firty". The same happens in English, Yinglish, Arabic. There is a Hebrew, Greek and Russian/all-Slavic hip-hop hit:"Baruch HaShem (yom-yom: day-to-day)! = Gr. Doksa tou Theou! = Slava Tebe, Gospodi! (glory to You, Lord - interfaith version)". It does mean that things are going well at all. This is the plain answer of plain people who squelch spontaneous emotion to maximum private neutrality. We are sorts of firewalls. The problem is that it may kill because human beings are born to talk and need to speak out what they feel, from their insides to their brain and heart.

Can we say that we live in a gentle and kind society? Basically, Israeli society is geting tempted by mor and more internal violence. Justice and righteousness are still relevant but are deeply endangered by different tendencies. It is difficult to say that Israel is not a free state. It is. The biggest part of the country is powerfully dynamic, young, full of creativity. Young and elderly can achieve their goals if they are able to speak out and want to reach specific goals. Israel is an internationally developing country, on a universal basis. In the forthcoming years, some elements might be strengthened: ties with Asia, Africa. The United States and Canada are considered a part of the "golden State - Goldene medine" but it is not sure that the real dynamics come from there although the general trend is to "think Anglo".

Times may show that the connection with the former Soviet Union and its satellite republics or autonomous regions together with China, Japan and Korea may be far more meaningful. This is due the cradle of the State of Modern Israel. It has inherited something very strong from the "Eretz Knaan = Poland and the the border regions of Great Russia" as we used to say in Yiddish. We have been used for two centuries that emigration came from Eastern Europe to Europe and then America or via the Far East to Hong Kong, Manchuria, Mongolia, Harbin down to America and/or South America, in particular Argentina, Uruguay, Chile or Mexico. The move is now a "classic" of international people flow.

It is deeply present in Israel and progressively raises inside of the country some significant signs of constant seeds. It is rare that a country is steadfastly nourished and nurtured from the same basic human, linguistic, spiritual, mental area as it has been the case from the first aliyah till now. There is a permanent level of educational system between my great grand parents, parents (they would be 108 this year) and my cultural background that copes with that of late R. Yeshayahu Leibowicz born in Riga. He discovered with stupefaction that the young former Soviet youths had the same roots and education as he was given in Latvia a century ago.

This can easily be felt in Israeli society when speaking with the various actors of this part of the population that is going through a deep and quick assimilation process of Hebraization. This does not only relate to the language, but to cultural and mental positioning. It is a trend toward freedom and control over personal conscience. People interrogate themselves about the way they can be free, which is a typical Slavic and curiously Eastern Orthodox way of putting things on the table. It does not mean that people would reject the freedom they gained. They need to feel protected, much more than the in-born Israelis or those who arrived before 1967. Slavic people are also "mentally born gamblers". Those who came continue to develop the country on the verge of legacy in many cases. It can also imperil the State, but, on the other hand, such people are ready to start new lives because "games, plays, theater, gym, moves" are always on air and constant standards of reference. This is not the case of the European and American immigrants.

Soviet and Ethiopian people bring natural links to Christianity. This matter is important because of the mixed nature of the newcomers. The Halachah can hardly be proven. In fact, the same situation is applicable to the United State migrants because they often cannot show evidence of all the required certificates of ketubot/marriage of their parents and family. But the importance of the ex-USSR immigration has superseded this defect as well as the coming of the Ethiopians.

On the other hand, the constant defense of Israel and the way the State has to assume this protection question a lot of people that would prefer to leave and settle abroad. This problem is real and is taken into account by the Israeli authorities.

It is exact that a society needs joyful relaxing times; once New Year 5770 started up, it seems the countdown switched on and we may scrap the plans and continue to go around without finding the true way-out. To be honest, what can be new? Fashion? we use 5th to 18th century clothes and hats to makes a distinction between our social and religious groups. Modern chardal (modern ultra-Orthodox = mustard in Hebrew!) women covers and hats were created in Western Europe around 1920 and circulated to the America before showing up here again lately. The planet-wide jeans (even with holes and stigmas) appeared in Genoa(= /jeans/), Italy, just before Christopher Columbus left for some Indian "unzoned area".

Things are new everyday though we grow old at the same time. So is it bad or good to march in the development of a New Year? Blasé apathetic characters would say - as for the daily "alright" - that Kohelet, read at Sukkot is correct: "What has been, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed (in the ages that) preceded us."(Kohelet 1:9-10).

This can refer to the immensity, the width, depth, breadth, length and thus plenitude of God in His Written and Oral Law. Everything is present in the Talmud, i.e. not only morals, but materials and instruments that progressively seem to be created in our culture: e.g. micro-wavers, computers, fashion, nuclear skills or freezers... The problem is how to get to newness and its encoding.

Tractate Yevamot 62b states that God has a huge reserve of all the souls that have to be hosted in the bodies that show in the development of the human generations. As for the Christians: there is a great similarly between the Oral Law and what the Christian world receives through the Holy Spirit. Thus, when Jews remove the Talmud studies as the Karaites (the Samaritans did the same as the Sadducees), they stop to truly believe in the into the World-to-Come. When the Christians cancel or lower the action of the Spirit, they ritualize and reduce the intensity of their faith and reject the resurrection.

Newness is inscribed in the soul of the Semitic speech. In Hebrew, two past tenses (more in Arabic) that seem to speak about what already was and indeed focus on the future. Monotheistic speech is prophetic, opens the way to any event or creation. "Asher asah la'asot\אשר עשה לעשות - that (God) has been making in order to (continue the action of) being creating” (Genesis 2:3). The Gospel shows the same: "The Father and I (Jesus) are always at work"(John 5:19).

In Hebrew "davar\דבר" is both "word, speech and object". We take a great responsibility in renewing the world with words of beauty and creativity. We are often hurt or injured and human speech can be terribly cruel. There is something we have in Hebrew: we always speak of the future, are obsessed by newness. God was also deceived when he looked at His creation and decided to wipe it out (Genesis 6:5-8). Thus, since we are survivors, we cannot even think of stopping the move toward future, betterment and being real "mentchen\מענטשען", humans with a tender and good heart.

In the Gospel it is said:"You, brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. I (Jesus) tell you, on the day of judgment, people will render an account of every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted and by your word you will be condemned” (Matthew 13:34-37).

We have to prove that we are not a "brood of vipers"... In the new year 5770, the State of Israel will have to show that it is indeed a State of freedom of conscience and faith according to its law regulations. I always refer to the example of Prof. Nissim Dana who was heading for a time the Minister of Interior - Christian Communities Department. A professor at the Haifa University, he is specialized in the life of the Druse communities. In his book dedicated to this population, he underscored how the Tel Aviv embryo of Parliament and government was very carefully checking that each non-Jewish community should be treated with full justice and according to their rights. This was during the Independence war.

Recent turmoil with in the Armenian Quarter, i.e. on the way to the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter, constant embattlement with other Christian Churches, the absence of real prevention of missionary actions on all sides - both Jewish and Christian - according to the Laws in force are not positive. Interestingly, there are groups in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities who would be ready to "shelter" the imperiled local Jerusalemite Christian communities (sic)! It is the duty of the Churches to recognize Israel for who and what the State of the Jews is. It is not a problem of everlasting Shoah issue that does fit with either party's commitments. It has to deal with much more than that: daily experience of living seeds of theology, Living Word in a real and living society of the Jews that has to accept to be grafted onto the tree and branches of very old Christian communities. We have to overcome and leave our pretence and though it is a Divine commandment, it is a terrible hardship to carry out.

It may sound a bit tough. But we are blessing-beggars… So if, in the end, we get a lot of flooding rain that renews the soil and the land, it means that we also can plant new good ideas, opinions, wit and insights when our mouth speaks heartfully. On air at the present: clean up our Word system and turn over a new leaf… It may lead us, God willing, to some real step forward toward Gan Gan.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

October 16/3, 2009 - 28 deTishrei 5770 - כ"ח דתשרי תש"ע

HUMAN COMMUNITY, BODY OF CHRIST, UNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

2009-10-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION

This is the English text of the lecture that I gave in Moscow on September 29th last within the framework of the annual theological and social Conference organized by the Sretenye Brotherhoods. For many years, I used to send the text of my lecture by email and the Russian version was read by one of the Brothers. I have been in contact with most of the spiritual religious movements of the Orthodox Church over the past 30 years, to begin with in Scandinavia, then in Western Europe, especially focusing on the connections that exist between Judaism and Oriental Christianity.

In 1988, I had organized (to my knowledge this remains the only meeting on the subject) "988-1988 : Thousand years of Jewish Presence in the Slavic world" in order to celebrate the Millenium of the Baptism of the Rus' of Kiev and its subsequent impact on the Russian Orthodox Church, the Oriental Byzantine Churches. This took place at the multi-ritual monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, near Namur/Namen, a place that had been i.a. initiated by late Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky.

My whole service as a deacon and ordination as an Eastern Orthodox priest within the Russian tradition continued this call to serve for the betterment of a possible launching of encounter between Judaism and Christianity, in particular in view to assist the Israeli newcomers and other citizens that belonged to the Church and/or and together to some way to Jewish communities. Since 1998 - a bit earlier in fact - I was appointed to the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in order to carry out this very special task. All over the years, from Scandinavia down to Jerusalem, I met with the numerous hierarchs, clergy and lay people who finally got to some point of liberation that burst in 1989 and sometimes later in the different former communist countries, mainly in the former Soviet Union. This freedom for the Church that rose from the Catacombs launched a profound movement of renewal; it is deeply rooted in the old Russian and Slavic Traditions which has prevailed throughout history and need to be considered with much respect.

My task is not only to pray in Hebrew. I do not believe that this constitute a linguistic reality. There is much more: Hebrew challenges the Church as a living and constantly reviving tongue. Hebrew does not mean that we adopt some political attitude or concede to some ethnic national group. Hebrew is the language that God the Father chose to speak to all human beings through the TaNaCh and that always includes the Oral Law or Talmud put down after the destruction of the Temple in Hebrew and Aramaic.

Modern Hebrew is a complex "dialect" that is also very marked by the Jewish Ashkenazi world of the Yiddishkayt that frequented the Eastern Oriental Christian traditions, indeed with much hardships and mutual rejection. In 1842, before the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the reviver of Modern Hebrew, Hebrew was the Liturgical language used for the Divine Services at the Ecclesiastical Mission of the then-Moscow Synod. They had blessed the rich translation made by Fr. Levinson. I use this version till now because it is the only version that got the official blessing and recognition of the Orthodox Church.

Praying in Hebrew in the State of Israel is much more important that just making use of a specific language that directly connects with the Jews and the Modern Israeli speakers. It implies to get aware of cultural, social, behavioral, psychological attitudes and customs. Thus, the Christian soul that accepts to pray in Hebrew has to resolve more question about the identity given by God, the Divine Providence, Mystery of Redemption.

I never stepped down in serving in Hebrew, as also in other languages. Consequently, many groups from various countries contacted me and the different faithful that attend the Services. They wanted to share about the develop of liturgical koinonia/Communion in the Messiah and not only linguistic skills or acculturation. In terms of Hebrew in the Church everything has to be created because it cannot simply copy or duplicate any existing Eastern Orthodox tradition. It must include all of them because the faithful do come from many backgrounds. It must also be acceptable to the Church as the Body of the Resurrected Lord and somehow be also audible to Jewish scholars and simple Israeli citizens, not in terms of proselytism but linguistic and cultural consistency.

I am thus in contact with world-wide groups, praying in all sorts of languages. Finns, Macedonians, Georgians, Romanians and Moldovians/Bessarabians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians as well as Icelandic Scandinavian and English Eastern Orthodox and others come on a regular basis. The Arabs are also very interested in different places of Israel.

To begin with, I serve for Russian speakers. I started in Slavonic, then Ukrainian and Modern Russian. Hebrew has always been the main language I used. It is evident that the groups that consider it is normal to pray in Modern Russian came and discussed the matter with us. This is how I got in contact with Fr. Georgiy Kotchetkov whose work has to be be implemented slowly and much wisdom. Other "liberal groups" were evident to me for more than two decades (spiritual children of late Fr. Alexander Men). I do maintain that we can search ways to renew and innovate without getting astray from the Church as late Patriarch Aleksei II said "You have to sing in the choir". Eastern Orthodox choirs mirror the symphony of redemption in all languages. But the task is immense and requires a lot of patience. The main problem that exist in Russia with regards to Modern Russian is that the Modern tongue is not "contemporary Russian" but "Sovietskii iazyk/Советский язык - the Soviet language". Similarly, Modern Hebrew is the national language of Israel and the vernacular medium for Judaism that needs to be considered with more insights when referring to "Talmudic Semitic Hebrew" and mainly way of thinking.

I used to send my lectures to be read in Russian through emails! My lecturing was known to my spiritual Father. This year, I was told it was a bit ridiculous not to accept the invitation to join the conference in Moscow. I was reluctant for another reason: obedience. This aspect has curiously played a major role in all my pastoral life. Patriarch Theophilos III had not visited Russia since he was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem. For a long time, I considered I could not go there before he paid a visit. In the past months, Patriarch Kyrill, whom I had met several times in Jerusalem became the new patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia.

I asked for the oral blessing by Patriarch Theophilos and he accepted that I could participate in the conference. There is one more detail: I live in a very poor way. Some visitors do understand that, others are not aware or don't understand. I see all the time "spiritual guides and theologians of all sorts" that travel here and there and back and forth and use, misuse, abuse the financial hospitality they are proposed. I do not accept such a behavior. Things could be settled this year.

It also gave me the rare opportunity to consider the work accomplished the past thirty years in very difficult circumstances and restricted means of all natures and to meet wit those "pillars of the present Church" and those very precious friends who accompanied me and mines on this special way of the Cross and the faith in Resurrection. And, for the first time, Hebrew was used for ecphoneses at the Sunday Divine Liturgy in a monastery of the Kremlin.

The Russian version is a bit different - with a lot of improvised phrases and comments. But this text gives a picture of the topic I developed. It needs to be correctly interpreted and the members of the Conference did explain some aspects that could be obscure for those who do not know or understand our situation.

THE LECTURE

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to be with you this year after so many years of emailing and friendly if not “comradely” reading of my lectures by D. G.. I am also glad to share with your community, which means that we encounter and can participate together in a socializing act of understanding of being "a spiritual joint-venture". We try in this Conference to avoid being strangers or estranged within the Church.

I come from Israel; I am a priest within the Israeli society and among the Jewish communities. I put it in a plural form because though considering that Klal Israel/the Community of Israel is ONE, it is multi-faceted. I serve within the framework of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Greeks have inherited or they prolong in their ways the Early Church Hellenistic community, also known as "Ecclesia ex Gentibus -Church from the Gentiles" that succeeded - at times we can say superseded - the "Ecclesia ex Circumcisione - Church of the Circumcision" that totally disappeared with the 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicea II on September, 24, 787, exactly 1222 years ago.

Canon VIII (8) stressed that "camouflaged Jews should not be received into the ecclesial community unless they have made a total renunciation of their Jewish ways, especially of the Shabbat". We can explain this decision by the fact that the Fathers firstly wanted to condemn the conduct of the "Syrian" i.e. "Semitic emperors who had used iconoclastic propaganda". Then most Jews and Judeo-Christians abandoned the Byzantine Empire and got sheltered in the Arab empire, passing "over" to the new religion of Islam as "malawi". They belonged to the cast of the "Kuttab - scribes". Thus, they strongly influenced the Quran and the related texts by introducing elements of specific Judaeo-Christian character.

This specific date and Church Canonic decision is still in force in the Eastern Orthodox Church and put an end to the theological Schools of Antioch and Alexandria that had played an immense role in the development of the Church for fully seven centuries. As a consequence, Empress Theodora obliged the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople of 834 to institute the Feast of the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" with a procession of icons and celebrating the Church's victory over all heresies. Subsequently, the Ecclesia ex Circumcisione was wiped out from the Unity of the One Church and seemingly erased from the living memory of the One Church.

I serve within the Rum Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and you also belong to the same Rum-Orthodox Church. In Russia, it is an later extension of what firstly started with the five original patriarchates and subsequently developed inside of the Roman Eastern and Western Empire and also till the Rus' of Kiev just a few years ((in fact it took a long time and it is not certain that it succeeded to overcome paganism) before the Great Schism of 1054. The center of the Church later moved to the Rus' of Moscow.

We still live in a conception of RUM ROMAN EMPIRE CHURCH though the Church is "one, holy, catholic (kafolicheskaia/кафолическая) and apostolic", gathering in "people of all races, nations, tongues" and expands to the ends of the Earth. The Church as the RISEN BODY OF JESUS CHRIST AND IMAGE OF THE HOLY TRINITY has no human or spiritual borders or limits. It is definitely universal. Nobody is a stranger in the Church just as it is said in the Psalm "ולציון יאמר איש ואיש יולד בה... - Indeed it shall be said of Zion, "every man was born there" (Psalm 87:5). True, the Church expanded beyond the limits of the Roman empire: in Semitic Churches, then other Churches in the East, Persia till India and China.

Still, serving in the Church of Jerusalem as a Rum-Orthodox priest I have to seriously take into account the essential decision of the 8th Canon of the Nicea II Council. It has not been abrogated, neither by the Eastern Orthodox Church (I prefer to mention this in the singular form) nor by the Roman Catholic Church that encompasses more than 10 different rites beside the Latin rite.

Please note that the Roman Catholic "Nostra AEtate" document voted in 1964, deals with Judaism and Islam as other religions. It is positive toward a further recognition of Judaism, but it did not correct or remove the final decision of the 7th Council of Nicea II at all! We do not pay much attention to that. “Nostra AEtate” was accepted by the participants of the Second Council of the Vatican, but the Oriental Patriarchs did not proceed to confirm the decision in their own oriental-rite patriarchates. Then, only a full Ecumenical pan-Orthodox Council AND TOGETHER with the entire Roman Catholic Church would eventually be entitled to change or remove this historic decision. I prefer not to mention the "Protestant Churches" that do not take these decisions into account the same way we do. In the event of any desire to change this 8th Canon tracking back to 787, thus in very exceptional circumstances that we cannot anticipate at the present, it is more than certain that such a decision should also be submitted to the opinion of the Jewish Communities, which simply shows the depth, width, breadth and length of such an unforeseeable decision at the moment.

The decision taken during this Ecumenical Council is of major importance: it is the last Ecumenical Council that is common before the "split" that affected the One Church of the Roman empire whose we are the heirs and faithful. The decision, that was then taken, broke the community shared with the Jewish roots and spiritual Tree of Life.

It also envisioned the community of Israel with much suspicion, rejection, later a desire or understanding that Jews should be converted to the faith. We continue, in particular in our Eastern Orthodox Churches, to measure, "judge" each other. At times we "suspect" the exactitude of the Creed and the faith confessed by our fellow believers. We love to check, verify and interrogate who the believers are, how close, far, foreign, and even enemies they can be, provided that "my" community is the right one, and the other ones are or can be heretics.

You try to determine how we can build up authentic "communities, societies, brotherhoods" united by the reality of the Holy Trinity that reigns over the universe and overshadows all of us. You face problems as local Church members.

In the Church of Jerusalem, we are called not to judge each other but to see that there every believer is born, continues to be born into the ONE MOTHER OF ALL THE CHURCHES OF GOD. Do not worry! I don't dream! This is a huge, terrible, exceptional challenge, a real and truth-testing, faith-experiencing challenge. Beyond any human will, Jerusalem and Israel encompasses all creeds and faiths from the Western Wall to the Holy Sepulcher/Anastasis (Place of the Resurrection).

I would never dare exclude any soul or nation, God forbid! – Still, I minister inside Israel and not the Arab world though it is evident that I do not make any difference and this is perfectly felt by the local clergy and faithful. I mean that we have a local and universal call. But we cannot mix all people, nations etc. into indefinite entities. I serve in a special Church as you also do. The important point is to recognize that we serve God in determined conditions relating to space, time, age.

But it is important to point out that the above mentioned decisions are "crucial" and will require centuries to be corrected. It will take centuries to correct total and ongoing process of estrangement as defined by Hans Urs von Balthasar who wrote a very interesting book "Einsame Zwiesprache mit Buber - Lonely (“monologue”) dialog with Buber". We cannot improvise some correction right out of the blue. We have to be aware of history and this is something that is sometimes very confused. We have not right to supersede the identity of believers – at the same time, it is indeed very hard to upgrade the life of ancient traditions.

And YOU, YOU ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND WE SHARE IN COMMON EVERYTHING or should as mentioned in the Edenic verse of the Acts of the Apostles.: “And the multitude of the them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own: but they had all things in common “ (Acts of the Apostles 4:32).
If we theologically approach the mystery of the Ecclesia or Kahal or the Church in her totality, we can indeed speak of the daily problems we have to face. They are not new with regards to history of faith and religions.

But what I would like to point out is the intimate conviction that the BODY OF THE RESURRECTED LORD still cannot be torn, broken or ignored. It is the Sacramental Presence of God in our age of history. It ran throughout long ages and should endure till the ends of time, the eschaton; and eschaton does not belong to us but depends on God’s will.

This reality can cure those faithful or those who consider themselves as believers because they have to accept the fact that the Church requires faith but cannot oblige anyone to believe; moreover the Church runs in unexpected ways and moves toward directions that are mainly unknown to us. The Church compels to take into account the value of time, also in terms of “communities”. This can also help the members of the Church whenever and wherever they are located and in whatever conditions they must witness that the Kingdom of God is close to every soul and human being.

Now, there is in Biarritz (French border with Spain) a famous Russian "sobor/собор -cathedral". In this church, there is an interesting icon: on a full gold background, different Saints of different ages, periods and locations are shown. It shows the diachronic and synchronic reality of the Church. I often notice in Jerusalem that we do meet - if we pay attention to people - individuals of different "ages" and "cultural historic attitudes". Indeed the Church relies upon history.

In Jerusalem, it is possible to encounter people whose cultural, psychological, linguistic and spiritual behaviors show us this sort of "unifying and fulfilling icon of redemption", i.e. some can be of the 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 19th and present century. This is the fascinating aspect of the mental and religious life-witnesses who share the same period of history. People meeting without encountering, "speaking without talking". They/we get united beyond their unlikeness and disagreements. This is the point: The Divine Presence and the Holy Trinity overshadow them.

The “Pirqey Avot/פרקי אבות – Saying of the Fathers”(Avot 3:4) state: “If three have eaten at a table and uttered words of Torah there, it is as if they had eaten at the Table of God, for it is said : « זה השולחן אשר לפני ה' – this is the table which is before [the countenance of] God» (Psalm 23:5; Introduction to the Zimmun leBirkat HaMazon\זימון לברכת המזון – first prayer and portion said before sharing a meal, part of the Graces after Meal).

The same saying is uttered by Jesus Christ: “[Again, I say unto to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father Who is in heaven]; For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). This is the positive aspect of the “community, assembly gathered in by the Holy Trinity”. The other aspect is also very human as described by Jesus: “For wheresoever the carcase (corpse) is, the vultures (eagles) will be gathered together”. (Matthew 24:28).

I come from a country, Israel, where the sense of resurrection is deeply felt by the citizens of Jewish origin. I say that because I have always been aware of being essentially and unwillingly a member of the community of Israel. Other Jews are fully entitled to have other views than mine or to position in different ways. Is it possible for a Jew to pretend to be Christian and to belong to both the Community of Israel and the Church? The problem is that of the CHURCH AS A TOTALITY. In this time of history, we can only pave the way to come close and to open a dialog, without any pretence that cannot be confirmed by any religious community as a “legal” reality.

There is a Jewish daily blessing: “Blessed are You Lord of the Universe/ Who gathers in the exiled of (His) people Israel (מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל = meqabetz nidchey ammo Israel ). The word is of the same root as “Kibbutz”. To begin with, people had to share everything. As in the Gospel, it lasted the time of a short verse. But we cannot pretend that the spirit or desire to sharing everything did not or doesn’t exist. In daily life, I only see people who mostly look for themselves, can be terribly self-centered, in particular in the Church and there is definitely not sense of the Church being the “Body of Christ”, i.e. we are all together to build together. It is the consequence of faith being perceived as a strictly personal experience.

We have a tremendous problem of identity because – even the local Arab Christians of any denomination – would think they can be asked to prove that they belong to a Church as a living Body of the Risen Lord. The usual experience will be that “we do and go to whom and where we want : the less it costs, the more simple a procedure is and often the shorter, the better it is”. Just as in some American Evangelical groups, “Christians” does not mean “I belong to the Church”; it means: am I a true believer? The question goes on by constantly testing the faith of the others. True faith implies and leads to trust. “In God we trust” as written on the US Dollars, still firstly God trusts in us and it requires a lot of insights to get to that point.

Our question today is in fact a sort of reflection upon “Who is my neighbor? And You shalt love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:19). Jesus summarizes the Torah in two commandments of “Loving God with all our soul, heart and strength = resources” and “Loving your neighbor as yourself”. These words are present in the Synoptic Gospel (Deuteronomy 6:5-11:13 – 30:6 and Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 along with Lev. 19.18).

You belong to the Russian Federation that was created out of the Union of the Soviet Republic. Till now, your country encompasses numerous nations, people, of numerous cultural, religious, linguistic traditions. For political of ideological, religious or ethnic reasons – whether rational or not – many nations and individuals would require at the present some sort of “self-ruled autonomy and/or independence”. One of the new trends is the requirement of micro-entities to get “self-ruled or autonomous” as given by the example of the Abkhaz Orthodox Church that recently declare that she wanted to be “independent”.

We have the right in the Church to be who we are. This is why I mentioned, to begin with, the most-affecting, in-depth-harming decisions of Canon 8 at the Second Council of Nicea. We cannot dream out how we would like to implement the concepts of independence or unity in our communities. I am a member of the Israeli society and a priest, I serve in that community and State, being an Eastern Orthodox member of the clergy and thus called to bear the witness for the Holy Trinity in Jerusalem, in that and not another local Church.

Thus, I have the obligation which concerns each of us in the Church, in Jerusalem or here in Russia, “to sing in the choir “ (a reminder of late Patriarch Aleksei II), together with people, clergy, cultures, traditions that should not be split because of human misunderstanding of desire for power. I have chosen – whatever price it may cost – to remain faithful to the local Church that is recognized as such by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Kingdom of Jordan.

Frankly, when I was appointed there 14 years ago, some European and local hierarchs and clergy together with lay people said with some irony: “he (= I…) got what he was looking for”. The work is known to be an “impossible mission”. They did not prevent me about the situation and the dangers, though I was aware of them. I said: if we are the people of the Church and do trust that we belong to a specific local Church because of what or who we are, we have to keep the good work. In our case in Jerusalem, it is like “playing chess on a six dimensional basis” as an Israeli expert declared.

I may not see the development of an “Israeli acculturated and Hebrew-praying Church”, but it is our duty to pave the way to the future generations. 160 years ago, Hebrew was used in Orthodox celebrations in Jerusalem, long before Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the reviver of Modern Hebrew had started his project. At the present, there is no doubt that the move shall grow, slowly and in various and unexpected ways, it is a reality for tomorrow and even the present. Points of rejection are not relevant because faith consists in measuring what future generations will build up and how. And, as a matter of fact, Israeli Christian communities exist, but not in the way we would define them according to traditional Roman Empire Church patterns.

We do not choose each other in the Church. Never. We are chosen and called to gather in together with others and join the ONE BODY OF CHRIST. Why? Because “friendship, brotherhood” are the fruit of God’s forgiveness and definitely not some human capacities to cope with some or other people. Let’s read again and with true insights the meaning of the Gospel: “I call you not servants; for the servant does not know what his lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” (John 15:14-16).

Indeed, we cannot choose each other in the Church. When Jesus Christ says that He “chose and ordained his disciples and made them “friends””, He is not acting with some “druzhba\дружба spirit”. This is at times very difficult to declare, especially in Russia and in the Russian culture, because of the immense credit of the “druzhbaдружба-/friendship feelings”.

But “חבר =chaver” in Modern Hebrew means “friend, often a boy (girl)friend”. In the rabbinical tradition “a chaver” is a “ordained member of the community” in order to serve in a Jewish “congregation”. At the Talmudic period, the “chaverim” were ordained and given a letter of ordination. This is why the “chavurah – חבורא\חבורה” is a “religious association”. In a rather ironic way, the “chevra qaddisha” is today the example of love and assistance to our fellow people: they are in charge of burying the Jews with much humanity and decency. There is a Yiddish saying stating that a cemetery is a wonderful model of the world-to-come because it gathers people who are quiet, peaceful and repose in the hands of the Most High.

We all face the constant and very questioning problem of how God can or does redeem us. How does He allow us to be “one and diversified” without fencing ourselves. Viktor Frankl , the famous Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who witnessed to his experience in the Nazi period and concentration camps stated that the following pattern of two human attitudes seems to abide and govern human nature in the best and worse situations. He wrote (Man’s search for meaning, p. 123): “If a prisoner felt that he could no longer endure the realities of camp life, he found a way out in his mental life – an invaluable opportunity to dwell in the spiritual domain, the one that the SS were unable to destroy. Spiritual life strengthened the prisoner, helped him adapt, and thereby improved his chances of survival”.

I have been visiting the sick for more than 30 years, in particular the children. Children are “infants” which means that they are not able to “speak, explain” with words what they feel. If a child faces death directly and is saved “in extremis” it becomes unbeatable. Nothing can seriously affect his “Drang an Leben – force to go ahead of life”. In fact, it does not consist in being “survivors”. It means we can feel we have been saved and called to participate in the process of redemption.

There is no reason for me to be present today with you and participate in your fraternal Conference. It appears that for historic reasons I had no perspective to be born. I nearly died at birth and again 15 years ago. A Russian woman, a professor at the Hebrew University – born in Israel – told me many years ago that I can minister in Israel because I feel at home to the full. True. But also because God gave me to face death in such a close way that life is definitely full of His grace and joys. It leads to patience and consider with a certain sense of time what we can build and what others will eventually build. Fraternity does not consist in mirroring ourselves and ours. It calls to see how we are the heirs of previous people and how we can transmit our experience for the benefit of the Church in her totality.
We experienced the reality described by Viktor Frankl in the Gulags, the labor camps, the extermination camps.

Why moral values in the Church can seeming be affected by the behavior of the faithful? Beyond all sorts of visible separations, misunderstanding, competition and real hatred disguised in the rags of fake love, the Church is still the BODY AND THE VINEYARD that calls to go beyond who and what we think we are.
“Jerusalem built up, a city knit together/ Yerushalayim habnuyah k’ir shechuvrah lah yachdav -
ירושלם הבנויה כעיר שחוברה לה יחדיו (Psalm 122,2, Hebrew version).
“Christ is in our midst! He is and will be unto the ages of the ages”.

Archpriest Alexander Winogradsky (Jerusalem)
September 22/09, 2009 – 4 deTishrei 5770

Sagesse et patience

2009-09-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

07.09.09

La société israélienne passe régulièrement par des sortes de “douleurs de l’enfantement”. Il est vrai qu’à force de faire des bébés tout le temps, la société peut finir par ressentir des contractions sociales sensibles. Cette situation est normale, ce qui reste une énigme à l’étranger. Chez nous, il ne faut jamais s’inquiéter comme me répète ma “coach en société israélienne” de 26 ans qui revient de son voyage de noces en Italie où la petite famille a trouvé les paysages splendides, mais les gens franchement nerveux. “Av, al-tidag\אב, אל-תדאג = surtout ne t’inquiète de rien”, affirme avec aplomb cette jeunesse qui servit comme analyste psychologue dans l’armée.

Ce n’est pas toujours évident in situ: on est allé chercher des Ethiopiens, les voilà citoyens et, en ce moment, ça swingue très fort : à Petah Tiqwah, Les écoles religieuses plutôt ashkénazes refusent les écoliers car ces Ethiopiens ne sont pas “totalement juifs” selon la Halakhah/Loi juive. Restons calmes, ça va passer, et c’est vrai. Soudain, un haut responsable druze est directement attaqué avec une forme de racisme qui inquiète les médias et les spécialistes locaux. Ce n’est pas comme chez vous du tout. Le regard porté sur le Proche-Orient et Israël conduit souvent à un jugement pessimiste et négatif par définition. Le mot “racisme” a une pigmentation aggressive par définition. Ici, c’est différent : l’identité de chacun est déterminée par des critères existentiels qui peuvent facilement déraper, par leurs références apparemment “génétiques”, vers des exclusions racistes. Le temps de comprendre que Dieu est bien au-delà de tout génome.

C’est pourquoi il faut souligner que la Terre de Canaan fut toujours une région d’extrême tolérance. En 7000 ans, elle a accueilli des gens de “toutes races, langues, peuples et nations”. Il faut sans doute y voir une vocation à l’universel humain, la plénitude de la reconnaissance de l’autre. Mais, dans des moments-charnières il y a des contractions. La société israélienne tente d’expliquer aux citoyens qu’il y va de la décence civique. Elle repose sur des principes de foi et de droit. C’est peu compris. Cela ne ne s’apprend, pas dans les livres, ça se vit.

Au seuil de cette année 5770, les propos d’Albert Einstein peuvent être médités en profondeur. En 1938, il émit de grandes réserves sur la création d’un Etat juif. Il évoqua les formes étroites de nationalismes qui ont historiquement miné les propres rangs du judaïsme en l’absence de tout Etat. En revanche, il affirma que si des circonstances particulières contraignaient les Juifs à accepter ce fardeau, encore faudrait-il le faire “avec patience (tact) et sagesse”. Khokhma vesavlanut (Sagesse et patience) est sans conteste la devise et le slogan national d’Israël.

Le mois de Ellul est un temps de retournement spirituel. Les prières de Selihot\סליחות expriment cette dimension. Comme d’ailleurs, dans le même temps, les prières du Ramadan.

Le judaïsme se prépare à célébrer l’anniversaire de la création du monde. Avant la création, Dieu avait beaucoup réfléchi et pris l’avis de Son Conseil où siégeait en particulier la Teshuva\תשובה = la Pénitence ou Réponse à Dieu (Nedarim 39b/Pessahim 54a). Il faut dissiper un malentendu. La pénitence ne consiste pas à se tordre les os et l’esprit pour s’accuser avec moulte culpabilité réelle ou feinte de trangressions, de fautes dramatiques ; ni à se composer un look de propreté bon marché. A cet égard, tout clergé a tendance à exiger une humilité que lui-même peine à incarner.

Il y a une blague juive : deux ennemis se rencontrent dans leur synagogue au jour de Yom Kippour/Grand Pardon. Le premier s’avance vers son ennemi de toujours et lui dit: “Je te souhaite tout le bien que toi-même me souhaiteras”. L’autre lui répond: “Ne recommence pas maintenant, veux-tu!” - La Réponse à Dieu consiste à pivoter parce que “shuv\שוב = à nouveau” indique un pivotement sur nous-mêmes. Le grec metanoïa indique un retournement de la conscience.

Il est normalement prévu pour tous les travailleurs de faire un bilan de santé annuel. Ellul, les prière de pardon/Selihot, le Nouvel An et les 10 jours de Teshuva avant Kippour permettent une rencontre franche et ouverte avec autrui et donc avec Dieu. Il ne s’agit d’impressionner personne, ni Dieu d’ailleurs, mais mettre en perspective notre raison d’exister. Il faut du temps pour conjurer l’orgueil et les haines tenaces.

Le judaïsme orthodoxe américain a suggéré d’instaurer un National Apology Day, une jour de demande de pardon qui viserait aussi une démarche des non-Juifs. L’Orthodoxie chrétienne conserve le magnifique office de demande de pardon : chacun se met à genoux et demande pardon au début du Grand Carême qui mène à la Pâque.

Il y a un aspect très dynamisant à pareille attitude. Il ne s’agit pas seulement de demander pardon, mais aussi de prendre conscience des bonnes actions ou mitzvot (ou commandements positifs de l’Eglise en comparaison). Tout n’est pas noir. Il est utile de repérer les points positifs d’une année.

A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

2009-09-08T23:22:00.000-07:00

02 septembre 2009
A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

Je dois dire que cela se produit très rarement. Depuis le début de mon action en tant que prêtre orthodoxe dans la société israélienne - il suffit de lire ce blog - ce sont les dificultés qui sont pointées et les encouragements rares, à la limite de la suspicion. “Une mission impossible” comme me le disent de nombreux amis, ennemis et visituers, parfois des personnes bien intentionnées. Il est vrai que l’histoire montre qu’il s’agit d’une tâche limite. Il y a les nostalgiques de la permanente incompréhension; il y a ceux qui prennent des partis politiques ou autres qui ne m’intéressent en rien. J’ai lancé ces chroniques dans Le Monde car elles permettent, en peu de mots ou à lettres comptées de formuler des points de repères que je recueille dans ma fréquentation directe avec un peu tous les milieux israéliens.

Léon-Marc Lévy est aussi un chroniqueur abonné au Monde. Il se consacre désormais à l’oenologie. Comme d’autres, il m’a demblée témoigné son intérêt pour les chronique que j’essaye d’écrire régulièrement une fois par semaine; en raison du 1er septembre 1939, j’ai commis une deuxième publiée aujourd’hui. Mais il faut savoir se limiter.

Je tiens à le remercier très vivement pour ses mots positifs et chaleureux. Il a aussi compris ce que je tente de faire ici; de le faire dans la joie en dépit de tout, d’un isolement sinon un confinement que j’arrive à dépasser mais que je ne souhaite à personne, des moyens non seulement limités mais qui ont parfois été volontairement supprimés pour des raisons irraisonnées. Et pourtant, non seulement cela continue, mais qui plus est, cela se développe dans des directions tout à fait étonnantes.

Un grand merci à Léon-Marc Lévy que vous pouvez retrouver dans les Chroniques du Monde.fr.

A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

par Léon-Marc Levy

01.09.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES

L‘équipe du « Monde.fr » a la bonne idée de nous gratifier, à intervalles réguliers, de chroniques venues de Jérusalem, signées Av Aleksandr, prêtre orthodoxe. J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de dire ici, par quelques réactions, le plaisir toujours renouvelé que procure la lecture de ces petites perles : morceaux de vie, frais, colorés, complexes, pétillants, fondamentalement optimistes et drôles, venant d’une région du monde où il est pourtant si difficile de croire au bonheur et à la fraternité entre les peuples. Eclats de lumière déchirant l’obscurité, un peu comme en écho aux beaux films venus d’Israël, ou aux textes superbes des grands poètes palestiniens. Mais au-delà du seul plaisir narratif, je suis frappé par le fait qu’à travers ces chroniques, ce « murmure culturel », se dessinent, peu à peu, comme des évidences cachées qui sortiraient de l’ombre, des territoires qui pourraient s’avérer très vite les espaces clés de l’avenir.

- Le territoire du marchand : Av Aleksandr pointe ce village palestinien (Deir Abou Meshal, à l’ouest de Ramallah) dont les femmes cousent depuis longtemps les « kippoth » de leurs voisins Juifs. Le commerce, c’est l’espace de l’échange par excellence, qui depuis des millénaires est partout à l’origine de l’avancée des Lumières. Juifs, chrétiens, musulmans ont construit leur génie, leur culture, leur richesse dans une parfaite synergie commerciale autour de la Méditerranée, quelles que fussent les périodes sanglantes d’intérêts divergents. Les voyageurs des uns travaillaient pour les marchands des autres, les comptables pour les artisans, les banquiers pour les explorateurs de terres nouvelles, en un tissu serré de vie et d’intelligence dont l’Espagne de l’Age d’Or fut un parfait exemple. Aujourd’hui, demain encore, ce territoire sera porteur, inéluctablement, de rapprochement, de compréhension et d’élan commun.

- Le territoire de la langue : Babel s’éloigne. Les jeunes Palestiniens d’Israël parlent tous l’hébreu. Les jeunes Juifs d’Israël ne parlent encore que peu l’arabe. Mais les temps changent nous disent Av Aleksandr et bien d’autres témoins, et le mouvement s’inverse. La rencontre symbolique de deux langues partagées sera forcément une route ouverte vers la rencontre tout court.

- Le territoire de la création artistique et culturelle : Tout le monde reconnaît aujourd’hui le formidable dynamisme de la production moyen-orientale et en particulier palestino-israélienne : cinéma, musique, arts graphiques, BD, littérature. Or ce qui frappe dans cette vague, c’est le mélange inextricable de gens issus de toutes les cultures, de toutes les religions. Regardez la distribution d’un film israélien : acteurs, actrices, techniciens sont indifféremment juifs, arabes ou chrétiens. L’univers culturel, et intellectuel, dans les grandes villes en particulier, est de plus en plus « mixte », véritable creuset d’une culture naissante israélo-palestinienne.

- Le territoire du sexe : De la « chair » dit Av. Même si cela reste encore un sujet sulfureux en Israël, les couples « mixtes » se multiplient et les barrières tombent une à une. Av nous annonce l’arrivée prochaine d’un « baby-boom d’enfants sémitiques », ni Juif, ni arabe, Juif et arabe. Bonne nouvelle pour les « colombes » et… les cigognes ! Mauvaise nouvelle pour les faucons, de tous les camps.

Dans l’interligne des chroniques d’Av Aleksandr, on sent que, décidément, la question de la paix passe par les territoires. Mais les territoires décisifs ne seront pas faits seulement de géographie, de frontières compliquées et de rapports de force. Il en est d’autres, plus essentiels, qui façonnent lentement, tous les jours, avec une force encore insoupçonnable, l’espace d’une rencontre inévitable, la naissance d’une Nation improbable il y a peu et impensable pour beaucoup aujourd’hui encore.

La route sera longue et le fracas des haines encore largement dominant. Mais que j’aime la petite chanson que fredonne Av Aleksandr !

Je suis aussi très touché et étonné par cette réaction mise en ligne sur Le Monde.fr:

Vos réactions

Barukh F. :

Très belle chronique! Témoigner de la réalité des Hommes dans un contexte difficile et offrir une possibilité de dialogue par-delà les différences toujours dépassionée, voilà le cadeau qu’Av nous fait dans ses textes.
Il faut avoir du cran pour pouvoir vivre pleinement, humainement, spirituellement et sans perdre le Nord (le Temple) le quotidien d’Av Aleksandr. Mais même la personne la plus tenace a besoin du réconfort de la reconnaissance! Merci pour cette main posée sur son épaule!

Se souvenir pour en dire le moins possible - 70 ans?

2009-09-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

01.09.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES

Cette chronique est écrite à Jérusalem en ce 1er septembre/19 août (cal. julien) - 12 Ellul 5769 alors que la lune atteint sa plénitude mensuelle. Nous avançons donc, à travers ce mois juif de Ellul consacré à la réflexion, à l’amélioration de la qualité d’une vie personnelle vers l’année 5770, (18 septembre prochain). C’est le Ramadan qui incite aussi par le jeûne et la prière à comprendre le sense de sa vie et de la destinée humaine au regard du Dieu Miséricordieux. Enfin, dans la tradition des Eglises byzantines orientales, le 1er septembre marque le renouveau de l’année liturgique orthodoxe selon les occidentaux, donc ce sera le 14/09 à venir pour l’Eglise de Jérusalem.

J’écris dans divers blogs et dans Le Monde. Cela suffit largement. D’autant que le propos n’est sûrement pas de faire le perroquet, mais d’apporter et de partager des idées sur la foi dans la société. Le 31/08 au soir, je rappelle incidemment en anglais et en hébreu que, voici 70 ans, l’Allemagne nazie attaquait la Pologne avec l’aide de slovaques. Les médias israéliens commencent une longue nuit et journée de mémoire: l’attaque de la Pologne a véritablement signifié le lancement du processus de la Shoah, même si les camps existaient déjà. Le 17 septembre, l’Armée Rouge envahissait la Pologne provoquant la mise en pièce de la réalité polonaise dont les frontières furent toujours contestées et révisées au gré des péripéties séculaires.

Israël se souvient de manière très incarnée de cette date : elle a marqué la ruine d’une civilisation. Il est très actuel, en Israël, de revenir au yiddish. Les médias locaux ont diffusé des dizaines de commentaires sur ce jour et ceux qui suivirent. Les rescapés ont décrit l’extrême fragilisation de la communauté juive lors de l’invasion. La Pologne incluait alors une partie de la Lithuanie, de la Biélorussie devenue Belarus et l’Ukraine. La Prusse orientale semble rayée des mémoires aujourd’hui. C’est sans doute une erreur pour l’avenir geo-stratégique. Curieusement la terre et les hommes sont liés par une mémoire que l’on ne peut nier sans pudeur.

Le président Shimon Peres est lui-même, comme la plupart des membres fondateurs de l’appareil politique de l’Etat d’Israël, un homme de langue, de culture est-européennes et polonaise, frontalière de la Russie et de l’Ukraine transcarpathique. Les médias israéliens ont rappelé aujourd’hui l’abandon historique de la Pologne par la France et de la Grande-Bretagne au moyen d’accords de pacotille. En 1938, la France avait renvoyé en Pologne les mineurs du Nord, les poussant à un charbon dont peu survécurent. La Grande-Bretagne comme l’Union Soviétique ont alors défini des positions de grandes puissances que les Alliés continuent aujourd’hui d’incarner par une sorte de scission constante géographique et humaine de l’Europe telle qu’elle marqua son empreinte au 11ème siècle. L’Europe ne parvient pas à sortir de cette fracture de Velehrad où les Francs latins persécutèrent Cyrille et Méthode, apôtres de Slaves.

Le monde yiddish est célébré cette année en raison du 150è anniversaire de Schalom Aleichem (souvenez-vous: “Un violon sur le toît”). La langue, la civilisation d’un judaïsme yiddish ayant fréquenté le monde polonais et l’Orient chrétien jusqu’à partager des intuitions fortes (hassidisme et hésychasme) furent alors anéanties. Or, elle a survécu par notre hébreu contemporain issu de ces régions dévastées. Il en a hérité la manière d’exprimer les idées. L’hébreu moderne est une sorte de “langage” néo-hébraïque profondément imprégné de yiddishismes et de comportements talmudiques en milieux slaves. De 1880 à ce jour, les vagues d’immigrants n’ont cessé de nourrir, de manière ininterrompue et très particulière, l’embryon de la société israélienne.

En Israël, le 1/09 est largement traité ici comme élément historique crucial dans la destinée juive d’Europe. En revanche, il semble que, par exemple en France, les rafles d’août 1942 ou la rentrée difficile des scolaires en Israël prennent le dessus, dans certains milieux concernés, sur le fait que la catastrophe fut lancée voici précisément 70 ans, en Europe christianisée, ce que les commentateurs ont rappelé en Terre Sainte.

70 ans ont passés. On construit une Europe pluri-nationale, un Euro unique… Ici, nous avons le Shekel, la plus ancienne monnaie en circulation. Ici, nous avons la visite de Madonna qui est en Kabbale. Ici, nous avons les haredim qui attaquent notre police et ses chevaux en les traitant de “Nazis”. Ici, le Grand Mufti, comme en 1939, continue de faire des émules. Mais le Ramadan est paisible.

L’Europe a mal à son âme. Ses neurones flanchent et se disperseraient volontiers parmi des mémoires difficiles à rassembler. Il y a 70 ans commençait des conflits que des apprentis sorciers ont peine à maîtriser.

On ne peut exiger de personne le pardon ou la conscience d’atrocités historiques. Il faut une grande patience pour que le temps et un peu de foi réunissent les vivants.

Ces looks qui passent les murailles

2009-09-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

30.08.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES

On est toujours très mode à Jérusalem (oserait-on écrire “Jéru”?). Tout est dans le paraître. Il est captivant de constater combien une ville si centrée sur la finalité de l’être, de l’âme, de l’essence humaine et divine s’égare ou même s’abîme dans l’habillage, le maquillage et un look qui cachent trop bien ce que l’on ne saurait voir pour mieux le deviner, le rechercher et surtout ces derniers temps, se tromper gravement.

Tout d’abord, il y a les couvre-chefs. Il est préférable de se concentrer sur quelques exemples pratiques. Il est vrai que, vu le climat, il vaut mieux sortir couvert. Soyons simples : les Juifs portent des calottes ou kippot ou encore yarmulkes (terme turco-yiddish). Une kippa peut être ronde, plus ou moins carrée (version boukhare-ouzbek), petite, grande. Cette année, la tendance est aux grandes kippot de grosse laine qui enserrent une grande partie de la tête. Certaines femmes portent aussi ce genre de coiffes; cette vogue semble faire très “égalité hommes-femmes” (ou vice versa; chez nous on lit de droite à gauche). La fabrication des kippot vient de passer en tête des productions textiles des femmes palestiniennes depuis la chute des réseaux chinois…

Il y a les shtreimels faits de queues de visons, les Stetson et autres. Ces deux chapeaux se portent au-dessus de la kippa. Le shtreimel est d’origine polonaise - la noblesse portait fourrure : les Enfants de Dieu se doivent de faire de même. Le Stetson est évidemment moderne et ne se trouve pas dans les Ecritures.

Les femmes portent des voiles très seyants qui laissent entrevoir le haut de leur chevelure. Les femmes pieuses chrétiennes orthodoxes (russes, roumaines) s’empressent de tout recouvrir. Juives et chrétiennes aiment les longues jupes noires serrées. Il y a des version Jean’s très “chromatiques”. Les religieuses catholiques préfèrent la coupe neutre.

Entre chrétiens, on se repère au chapeau : cylindrique chez les Grecs (proche de celui du grand-prêtre dans le Temple), Plutôt losange pour le clergé russe. Deux fentes latérales pour les Roumains. Les Ethiopiens sont en galabiah arabe avec poches et porte un plaid, le clergé grec en soutane, les latins - ça dépend et il y a surtout les robes de bure (Franciscains) tandis que les vardapets (prêtres arméniens) ont une longue coiffe moirée noire en pointe. Les moines syro-orthodoxes et coptes ont un voile noir orné de 12 croix (les Apôtres); une 13ème derrière la tête représente le Christ. Le col romain sur chemise claire est très prisé, mais les catholiques préfèrent souvent l’anonymat. Les évêques anglicans portent chemise rose.

Les femmes raffolent des cheveux frisés style “brebis du désert biblique néo-prophétiques”, ou bien tendance red, voire le crâne rasé. La mode est de saisir la chevelure, de faire et défaire les chignons, en haut, en bas, puis accessoirement de cacher le tout sous une perruque pour cause de mariage. Encore faut-il avoir de la piété. Les moines orientaux ont les mêmes tics : cheveux longs à la manière “messie” et ces mêmes chouchous qui permettent de faire et défaire d’amples chevelures longeant des barbes souvent longues et touffues. Les visages glabres ne sont pas orientaux. En Occident, on coupe les cheveux en quatre et plus… Ici aussi, mais dans l’autre sens ! Têtes et visages sont des “champs”. Les papillottes (peyses\פיות-פיותות en yiddish) sont très longues et bouclées. Alors on moissonne régulièrement ou jamais.

En hébreu: “beged\בגד = vêtement” est un terme courant. Bien que la racine ne soit pas confirmée comme étant commune, ce mot est très proche de “begidah\בגידה = duperie, déguisement, trahison”. Dans une ville comme Jérusalem, que signifie “l’habit ne fait pas le moine”?

L’habit exprime viscéralement une identité. Cette identité, en Israël et dans les Territoires comme dans le Proche-Orient est avant tout une référence claire et normalement précise à la religion, et, secondairement, à la nationalité, sûrement pas la citoyenneté.

Les hijabs (et quelques burqas) très fashion actuels s’accommodent de la modernité de Jean’s à fleurs. Lors des vagues d’attentats, on a trouvé plus d’habits juifs (y compris des châles de prière) chez les assaillant(e)s que des soutanes ou des vêtement arabes. Curieusement, les repères vestimentaires ne signifient pas grand chose pour une génération qui vit en repli et tend à ignorer les “autres”. Ceux qui gardent leurs signes distinctifs se cloîtrent souvent dans une frilosité exclusive.

Le judaïsme affirme: “Sache devant Qui (= Dieu) tu te trouves”. On commence par croiser des êtres humains et il est important qu’une société se connaisse pour se reconnaître. Lorsque Jésus est moqué par les gardes, ceux-ci tirent au sort sa tunique (Jean 19,23). Elle ne sera pas déchirée et les croyants y voient un signe d’unité. Dieu ne se laisse pas fragmenter ou dépouiller dans Sa dimension divine.

Tout le combat consiste alors à se débarrasser de ses oripeaux et donner au paraître la force d’exprimer ce qui est et existe vraiment.

Où as-tu mis le corps?

2009-09-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

25.08.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES

Ca y est ! Il fait 29-30° à Jérusalem ! Les températures sont “en chute” et on supporterait sa petite laine… On sent surtout que l’année 5769 s’en va… tout doucement sans faire de bruit. Les rumeurs, le chaos, ce sont les autres. Que ferait-on si l’on ne pouvait plus médire en paix pour faire un peu, beaucoup, passionnément la guerre, en évitant de s’attaquer à ses propres déviances ?

Ce 25/12 août, l’icône de la Vierge sera portée en procession jusqu’au pied du mont des Oliviers, dans la tombe où aurait reposé la Mère de Jésus avant d’être enlevée au ciel (Dormition, le 28/8 = Assomption). Ici, il est naturel de “monter”, ce qui, en hébreu se dit “aliyah: montée, aller au pupitre faire la lecture biblique, immigrer en Israël, pousser, s’ériger, érecter”. Comme si, lors de la mort, l’âme se séparait d’un corps voué à disparaître. C’est impensable pour la foi orthodoxe et juive qui refuse l’incinération des corps humains. Le catholicisme et d’autres chrétiens adoptent des positions moins incarnées sur la future résurrection des êtres.

Le prêtre russe Georgiy Florovsky souligna (comme les Pères de l’Eglise) que “l’âme habite le corps”. Sans cela, nous serions des “fantômes”. Je passe mon temps à expliquer le plus sérieusement du monde que notre vie spirituelle existe précisément parce que notre âme est hébergée dans notre corps et non l’inverse. Cela nous dessine dans un espace, une culture, un pays, à un moment de l’histoire, pour être et paraître. Nous ne sommes pas des automates. Notre corps n’est pas logé dans notre âme/esprit. Dans la tradition juive, la vie charnelle incite à admirer la beauté . Certes, il est primordial que le corps ne s’enflamme pas par une hypophyse en surchauffe. Il peut être utile de faire bon usage du genre que l’on a reçu, au fond, comme un appel à la vie.

Mais cette chair si charnelle : on joue aux Lego, Meccano, comme s’il était possible de débrancher l’âme. Ou bien, on coupe le corps dans une sublimation souvent délirante : comment toucher autrui sans le faire tout en le faisant et sans que personne ne le sache. Sinon le psy, le maître spirituel, le gourou, le coach ? Les “toits s’envolent” comme nous disons à Jérusalem à propos de certains êtres… Ca décoiffe dans le vide, ce qui paraît souvent une perte de temps.

Tenez, on parle de quoi ? La Shoah ; elle reste “inégalée”. Mais c’est quoi, la Shoah ? On prend des êtres. On les déclare “non-êtres”, donc à détruire. Ainsi, la chair doit être tuée et, surtout, pas de traces ! Disons que nous traversons une période naturellement morbide qui est exacerbée par cette chair qui cherche sa fitness libératoire.

“Le Verbe s’est fait chair et a habité parmi nous plein de grâce et de vérité (Noms divins en hébreu)” (Jean 1,14). L’Eglise orthodoxe requiert que ce texte soit lu, premièrement en hébreu, à Pâque : “bassar\בשר = chair, viande, bonne nouvelle, joie, [ré]jouissance”. Dans le contexte cela veut dire: “Le Verbe s’est fait “juif” et a habité parmi nous”. Ca peut mettre tout le monde mal à l’aise. Il y a eu un choix, divin. On peut vouloir effacer, nier, détester, jalouser ou s’approprier ce fait. Regardez, ce “on” indéfini et collectif: il peut conduire aux pires meurtres, aux orgueils les plus intolérables. “Le salut vient des Juifs”, dit Jésus à la Samaritaine (Jean 4,22). Mais alors, pourquoi pas des Galapagos ? L’ouverture aux Nations à un sens et ce n’est en rien du nombrilisme hypertrophié.

En ce début de 21ème siècle, l’âme retrouverait le corps qui se mirerait dans une âme en recherche d’équilibre. Alors partout ! Partout, on cherche les ossements. D’autres donnent dans l’ADN, mais elle serait clonable ! Il y a des trafics d’ovaires. Les juifs ne touchent pas les morts ; les orthodoxes chrétiens font un “baiser d’adieu (le premier fut celui du mariage)”. Aucun média normal (ou autre d’ailleurs) n’a remarqué que le Rabbinat d’Israël s’apprête à décider si la Loi juive autorise ou réprouve les dons d’organes… Les vents contradictoires prétendent alors que le pays se lancerait dans la vente d’organes, selon une rumeur digne de la rencontre entre les sagas et les contes des mille et une nuits.

Curieusement, le “sexe” n’existe pas en hébreu. C’est court, mais le mot n’a aucun sens en hébreu. “Sexe = couper, séparer; appartenir à un genre masculin ou féminin… il faudrait ajouter “autre” car le vivant est imprévisible”. Le grec “Hexis = lifestyle, mode de vie”. L’hébreu et les langues sémitiques sont bien plus subtiles: “MiN\מין = qui? questionnement sur l’origine = d’où?” Tout comme “la manne = MaNHU\מנהו(א) = qu’est-ce-que c’est?”. Du coup, les relations intimes prennent une autre dimension, chargée de dynamisme et de sens des responsabilités. Il y a même plus: “MiN/qui-MaN/quoi” renvoie à “le’HeMiN\להמין = avoir foi, faire un acte de foi”.

La vie intime et mentale conduit à de tels actes. Ils est plus facile de les décrier que de leur donner pleine mesure car cela exige confiance, effort et don de soi.

“S’il te plaît, dessine-moi un mouton”.

Be strong and courageous

2009-09-08T23:06:00.001-07:00

Part 1

With what profits will we remember of year 5769? Is it possible to understand anything and to detect God's projects that so many would eventually deny?

Our civilization is divided into the speediest instant messengers, some up-to-the-second thrilling tempo of life and a burden-like, often shameful and scandalous waste of time and competences. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been sleeping since the 4th of Tevet 5766 (January 4, 2006).

Precisely one year ago, the world was about to sink in the worst financial collapse since 1929. It appeared that the corruption of the trading world and stock exchanges had then reached a borderline if not a deadline. Traders are again overpaid, again States fund and fund again banking institutions that waste the money again and again and further again! It then appeared that Iceland and Ireland had sold their souls. Iceland had developed to a very prosperous and wealthy countries in the past decades. I remember how we lived on a very high level there and people used to work intensively. Today, the country is on sale and was about to be captured by the Russian Federation, I mean at least that such money were about to be injected that the Icelandic State would be a sort of satellite. They had been growing bananas, oranges because of their geysers and the assistance of the American presence... Today people sell their houses and - unheard - they have needy in the streets...

The same is happening with Ireland. Moreover, it appeared that the educational system of the Catholic institutions in this very religious had been rotten for decades by the local clergy, sexual abuses, rapes and humiliation of the pupils for several generations. Along with that, America's collapse is going on, California is on the verge of bankrupt, also unheard for the State that simply could sustain the whole or at least some areas of the other States of the Union.

Germany turns 60 years new style. This started in 1949; there was the split into two entities: the Western Federal and the Eastern Democratic republics that reunified only 20 years ago as the prelude to the fall of the communist regimes. Whatever blind we can be and want to stay, Germany as Poland have been cut from huge national territories. It would be a mistake or a sort of misunderstanding to think that the Prussian refugees have no memory and that the cities of Koenigsberg and Memel belong to the past or turned "post-Soviet" or "Russian".

Europe cannot find the right way and errs, as in the first beginnings, with a Euro and increasing numbers of candidates. The Second World War started exactly 70 years ago. Europe cannot overcome the period and is at pains with her soul. There is a document at the Vatican Library dating back to the 11th century. It shows how the schism developed between Rome and Constantinople. The anathemas took much more time to be in force. In some areas, it is even difficult to think that they ever were in force.

But Catholicism and Orthodoxy do not care and don't have any sense of living memory to really and decently correct a situation that traced back to the then one Roman Empire era. Rabbi S. Aviner (Ateret Cohanim) has a very insightful question that he shares with other decisioners: Is the Jewish people allowed or entitled to return to the places of death from where they were murdered and extorted till hteir memory disappeared? When Abraham intervened for Sodom, God listened to him. When he decided to destroy the two cities, he told Abraham and Lot not to look back, which is also a provision uttered by Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 9:62).

It is a pending question: what do the Jews have to do in Europe as communities? The move has been constant throughout history and long before Christianity. The Jews were praying in Greek in Athens and Rome while the Mizrachim/מזרחים or Oriental Jews never cam back from Iraq, Persia, South Arabia and Yemen until our generation. The Jews of Alexandria (Egypt) who simply lived for centuries next door to Israel could not or hardly decide to return home in 1948-52. The main problem is to know whether it is permitted or not to leave Israel once a Jew returned and rooted his future here. It is even interesting in a legal point of view: the "aliyah/עליה " starts when Jews ascend to Zion for ever. At the present, it becomes a huge theological rabbinical question as people can come and get an Identity Card and then leave again or back and forth.

This is very likely to be compared to Abraham before he had to settle and bury Sarah his wife. But look back: the whole thing is like a blurred picture and we wait for some clarification that may only come from time unveiling new times and epochs. Israeli society is very dynamic. But it develops in a context of constant blackmailing speech. In 1967, Jews knew who was who. Today, things are indeed blurred. But the process of melting is ongoing and will not stop. The Jews have the right to be more and more suspicious and extremists are as right and the most forward leftists and Israeli human right movements. This is a paradox, but it shows how life is complex.

Former Soviet newcomers are also at pains to get into the society but they do, as the Ethiopians do. The result is that generations will breed a new Israeli culture that has to be strongly rooted in Judaism. It also shows the terrible fall of the Christian Churches and their lack of confidence as well as local credit. The Churches pathetically need to turn to the Jewish AND Israeli culture and society.This is the difficult way of having been trained by centuries of dualities. Today the situation is confusing for the ecclesiastical communities. We do assist to an extravagant revolving process of the Church history. But History is ongoing by nature; faith is different. Nobody is allowed to betray a single soul for the sake of faith or usurping the pretence that faith can lead to abandon true faith. In the Gospel, the disciples were in the house with closed doors "by fear of the Jews". Today, the disciples and hierarchies are in the same situation because of their own panic and fright to lose their goods and properties.

The general situation did not help Israeli society this year. It could manage in a very special way to overcome the international crisis. This shows the existence of reliable and real networks of Israeli developing activities that also sustain different regions of the world. On the other hand, "exclusion" and forms of "racism" that always existed among the Jewish communities mirror at the present the way most nations behave and appear to be framed. It will pass. It is a very strangulating period of stress and distrust.

For the first time in history, the visit of the Pope of Rome showed how constrained the Churches are and certainly will be under the control of the Israeli authorities. There is a real problem of justice and righteousness. Even if it sounded a bit arrogant (it was not and only a real question), the fact that the Rabbinate of Israel could require from the Pope to give explanations about those Jews who could not join back their Jewish communities after World War II constitutes a rare if not unique event that should humble Christendom. Indeed, there are a lot of missionaries while other denominations are openly anti-Semitic or frightened to do anything. It will take a long time to get settled.

It is never good for Israel to feel that alone. It is not normal for Christian communities to get so estranged in their own requirements and the encounter with the Jews. It may happen some time and there are some tiny signs. It does not that we can encounter in depth. It only means that new measures will be used in the future for the Jews to apprehend Christianity. Maybe the Churches do not get so easily to that point.

In the coming year, the real problem maybe how to face the emergence of Israel as a State collecting people from all the nations; and how this can be a source of some dialogue with the Christians. The dialogue with Islam has a long history that should be taken into account by all groups.

Part 2

In the course of 5769, we roved here and there and rambled in the search of some long-term solution. Our ancestors were wandering from Ur-Kasdimאור כסדים down to Egypt and back to the Land of Canaan. Abraham erred - because he was seeking God or it would be more adequate to say that God took him on a journey. He was - as we often shared it here - "bekhom hayom\חום יהיום - in the very heat of the day". Together with Sarah, he was struggling along throughout wide spaces and unknown people, but he did it consistently, cheating at times but overcoming all the "nissayonot - נסיונות/ tempting tests proposed by God while Sarah could have a grin or some laugh. No real problem: it was still prophetic. We read quite the same with Moses’ story. He constantly remained a man of faith in the context of impossible challenges.

Elie[zer] Wiesel’s first account written after his experience in the concentration camp of Auschwitz echoes this profound darkness and abandonment: “Di Nacht\די נאכט – the Night”. The young survivor of a “Nacht und Nebel – night and fog” period could hardly describe what is beyond any description. As numerous survivors, it took time before he could only smile. Thousands of pious Jews got away from their ancestors’ faith in the living God and until today, it remains a very painful and open wound for a great number of souls. It is an act of divine loving-kindness that some men and women, survivors and their children could surface after the Churban\חורבן (Extermination) with something parallel to the seeded steadfast, inflexible though not rigid emunah-אמונה / confidence-faith of Abraham, Moses or Job. In this respect, the rather joyous spiritual traditions experienced by the Sephardim and Oriental Jewries do reinvigorate and everywhere allow curing the scars left by history. Indeed, sarcastic and cynical attitudes mirror how the twentieth century had thickly been marked by darkness and despair.

True, the communist terror and various forms of genocides in different countries (South Africa, Turkey, Cambodia, Rwanda) would also enter in some sort of conflict with the light shown at Mamre’s oaks. The Russian Eastern Orthodox monk, saint Silouane the Athonite, declared: “Keep your soul in hell and do not despair”, which definitely links the Oriental tradition with the powerful rise and revival of Judaism.

“Night” is en vogue. It makes sense because it allows showing that people who dedicated their lives to God could – like anybody else – be terribly affected by some total privation or defect of God’s Presence. A young French Catholic nun, saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who died at the age of 26 years-old, was the first to describe with remarkable insights her experience of “night, or divine apparent absence” as a spiritual test. Jewish and Christian, Muslim renewal and sometimes stiff attitudes contrast and might come into conflict with this experience of a spiritual “eclipse / tzimtzum-ציצום” that affected the last century in many aspects.

Nonetheless, there is a profound gap between the Jewish and Christian approaches with regards to this darkness or “night”. The reading portion of this week is a twofold one; the second portion is usually read after Rosh HaShanah. These Shabbat readings “Netzavim-Vayelech\נצבים וילך” are thus to be found in Devarim-דברים / Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20 and 31:1-30.

Our memory is short-minded and sighted. This is true in our own lives and records. We may be swirling in a world of pictures, takes, shots, videos and films. Images are stored en masse and fade. Days pass, disappear and change. They apparently may give the impression of some déjà-vu. Fashion swings that way. There is a special way for Jewishness to apprehend tenses. But Judaism cannot focus on any positive “night or darkness, absence of eclipse / tzimtzum of God”. Christianity has it as a part of natural Gentile and “heathen-rooted” tendency. It turns to be a positive experiment because it shows that God chooses and man may feel as left aside, abandoned.

The most difficult part for Jews is to admit that such a spiritual posture is not linked to idolatry and that faith in God may show as “ from under ashes or dust” (cf. Gen. 3:19; “Al efer tashuv\אל עפר תשוב – you shall return to dust”). The so-called “culture of death” has reigned over too many events that affected Christianity in the past century. On the other hand, Jews may forget that they are proposed two ways, once again, for the last time before Autumnal New Year: blessing or curse. Indeed we ask that the year end with its curses and that New Year start with God’s blessings. Does it mean that we enjoy any real free will and free choice? Pre-destination and absence of free will or conscience have prevailed throughout the Christian history and that souls are at stake.

The Catholic Church revised this essential point during the last Council that ended in 1965. The Oriental and Orthodox Churches are less flexible until now, though they mainly focus on conversion, return to God and resurrection. Indeed, our freedom depends, as concerns Judaism, on how the Mitzvot are so real and abide our souls that everything only depends on God.

The reading portion proposes a set of choices to which we are submitted beyond any personal decision. True, we are called to bless, to build, support, save, cure and help. Daily life may be rather a burden that too much misses simple justice. We have seen that during the year: “shuv\שוב – again, return, renew” is the main spiritual and human tendency. Judaism is shaped to value life and not death. Life supersedes anything and this is the exceptional spiritual plus that Judaism brought and maintains, and somehow sustains among the Nations. It is the real challenge of the hardships faced in the timid development of a dialogue with the Christians. This is the terrible difference between Jews and Christians. Just as the night would seemingly be considered as a positive sign of humbleness, death may be a temptation to see if survival is possible. Judaism focuses on a choice: take the good measure of your days and nights and why should God extend them?

“Veshavta ad HaShem\ושבתעד-ה' – you will return to (= until) the Lord” (Deut. 30:2). Hebrew says “ad\עד – until” because God expects that the believers or humans in general turn, convert, respond in a swiveling and revolving move toward God until they reach Him in the “ad\עד = eternity, world-to-come, forever” and not only for a while, say even a “year”. And the same verse continues: “You (gather) them again (“shav\שב”) those that were scattered (“shvutecha\שבותך – deported that you call back and return”). Jesus also spoke of newness, of making all things new. But this is at the core of what Rosh HaShanah and the reading portions want to teach us this week. This kind of newness that is a perpetual call to all human being that has a breath of life: indeed things are new.

Then, it is true that there are different schools. Either people are too scared to place their bets or would say they don’t care. There are tons of clichés, if any: life is too short; I do what I want; this is my decision. The real challenge in the “teshuvah\תשובה – conversion, penance, response, revolving return forever to God” is that it requires that every soul is ready to invest the maximum, more than anything they think to possess in order to get to that point. This is the highest effort that surpasses every effort. That’s the point. It sounds not inhumane and still it shows the price of life.

“Remember us for Life, King Who desires Life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, Living God”.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

September 8/Augt 26 2009 - 20 deEllul 5769 - כ' דאלול תשס"ט

Joy

2009-09-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

I sent this evening a new "chronique" to the French daily Le Monde. Incidentally it concerns "looks and clothing". I shall put it on when and if it is published in French. But, I have been thinking for several days about the way we behave, in particular as clergymen, in Israeli and partly Arab society. I do not work among the Arabs but live in their quarters and in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is very special. It is a sort of "autonomous" big body that encompasses the whole world and people of all backgrounds, origins, languages, cultures, lifestyles. I often say that we can meet here with people who would seem to belong to the 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th and modern centuries. It is like a huge icon with a lot of characters that can really exist and frequent or ignore each other. This is a part of the "eternal look" of Jerusalem.

Yesterday, some Russian Orthodox clergy and lay people came into a restaurant, sat down, ordered bverages and cakes and did not greet me. It is very frequent. Clergy people do not greet each other or ignore the others, or even fake to ignore and not to see them. Where are in times of hardships. It is rude, freak, definitely not Christian and this was not the case some 30 years ago. It would have been unbelievable at that time to behave in such a way. There is more: the faces look at the others with suspicion: who's/what's that? what kind of Christian or heretic provided that here you can only be the sectants and heretics for some other "true" believers. Inside of a religious group people would avoid to greet. Good enough. So suddenly I said to the man who was about to take a picture of me without even asking for some permission, that he firstly should greet a priest; that it was the feast of the Dormition. I added that we ar very few now in the Holy Land and if we are true faithful, at least we could share the joy to meet and share. And I greeted them as also their clergy. They got in shock.

I then apologized for being a bit rude or at least provocative, but who we think we are if we cannot share the joy of being alive, together and share God's gifts. They stared for some minutes and said: "Father, please, we do apologize, but you should understand that you are the first priest to speak with us - okay you remind us what we should do and you are totally right and we would do! But you see, we could not be able to get into contact with any priest or nun here during our stay. They only shriek at us, push us away, tell us the doors are closed and "get away" and.. now you are nice and you are the first one. Then you see, you are the only one to contact people in a coffee-shop and it is clear that you address anybody. But we experienced just the opposite during our journey and now, we are a bit confused and don't know what to do!". I was about to add in Russian some "LOL". I had some "blessed bread - antidor'/antidoron" that I usually give to the Arabs and some sick I visit, took a big parcel and gave them for the trip and we share the "peace of the Lord". We also spoke about our respective "where, how, what... the news".

It is true that the local clergy is too serious. It is a tradition. Strictly dressed. Well, depends. In summer, the Greek and Armenian clergy wear open cassocks in the streets and dress correctly when going to meetings, liturgical Services. It shows that the clergy is used to the Middle-East way of living and things will slow down as the temperatures will drop. We have to wear polished shoes, the Greek hat, the big rason (mantle) or at least to have it with us. But we do not smile, rarely. The first reaction is to be suspicious. The Latins can be more open, but it can also be a sort of "cheese-smile" reflex that is constant among the Messianics. In fact, as time passes, visas are cut and the war is ongoing, we get more and more low profile and low gear. But "everything is well" - "I am doing well" is the permanent parroting phrase: just click, you get it, even when things are simply pathetic.

I love to contact people. I guess this is due to many factors. I know thr price of being alive and every encounter is as if the angels were present, a sign of obvious hospitality and humane feelings that each person is unique and that short encounters are forever. My real name (both as a born Jew and a Christian) is Abraham (Avi in Modern Hebrew nicknaming). I was asked in the Orthodox Church to use my Russian given name. But I do feel that it is a wonderful thing to welcome everybody as grand'dad Abraham did under his tent in the heat of the day (Gen. 18:1). There is another reason that makes sense and I did not relate to that. People told me: I am at home, in my homeland. I left 2000 years ago but all my life I dipped into the very essence of Judaism. Israeli society is mine and I dare speak or answer to any insult as well as start a discussion anywhere. Usually, people are definitely ready to talk. In this society, it is normal to interrogate, question and be questioned. If you play the game, people will be very open and nice.

And when they are not willing to say a word, rebuke you, just tell them you perfectly understand the situation. Everybody has a right to be in a bad mood, go through incredible problems, be fed up wit hhe rest of the world, their moms, dads, children, wives, partners, lovers, wooers... or they simply can't stand to be alone, which is absolutely crazy in a society that is a born set of tribes. This is why, I have daily discussions with Israelis and they can be very very pushy towards Christianity and a priest. They quickly get to the fact I am also one of them. They can say that I chose to bear a terrible burden and this shows they are aware of the burden of history. On the other hand, they would ask about Christianity because most of them understand that Christendom and Islam are present everywhere.

I decided to write this note because a friend wrote to me that "You are always joyous and you look good". True, I am not sad. The way is totally narrow. I would never kick anybody out or away. Drunkards and drug-addicts, prostitutes or hooligans... and so what? I often sit on stones, especially on special days at Kikar Zion (Square) and discuss. People can shout, be odious, arrogant and lack any sense of basic politeness... and so what? We are here and we are alive and we can share must more that screams. Interestingly, if you adopt the "wisdom and patience principle described by A. Einstein about Israel, it works and people come by, stop for a few minutes and would say more next time. I had helped to the translation of a rather renown German-born Israeli theologian, Schalom Ben Chorin and lately heard that he used to sit on a stone at the Kikar Zion on Friday mornings...

The first Christians used to do the same: living up there on stones, speaking on squares and never being afraid to face the "others". I was recently told by a hierarch that it is useless to meet with the people, nor to confess them because they don't really believe in what they pretend to be! Good gracious, but people need to search, need to seek God and just to share about the lives of their souls. If a Church responsible dares say that some people "pretend" to be what he or others would deny them to be or refuse to trust them, what believers are they? Jesus said not to reject anybody, that those who are not with us are not against us. The whole of the Jewish and Muslim traditions is to focus on authentic trust in God because whoever we are God does trust in us or, at least we may think He does.

Christendom should firstly show some love here. Priests may take off their cassocks or robes and go to night-clubs because they are under constant pressure. But there is more: if we cannot address the locals in their way, their speech, their modernity, their rejections, their being who they are - without any spirit of bringing them to any faith - but just walking around with open hands, maybe they will get much more of sympathy to those they tend to simply ignore.

I was once coming back to Jaffa Gate in full Greek form and heard a woman explaining her life in Russian with much details to two guys. It was a full messy way of life, all sorts of adultery, lies, theft and she felt sorry but, at the same time she was telling them she could not change. I often hear such discussions, but then I reached them and, out of a sudden, she said "Oops! Good it is a Greek priest; he did not understand what I said". I turned to her with a smile and answered in Russian: "No, sorry, I did understand and hear the conversation and it is your life, it is your responsibility, your way and it is good that you can speak about it with friends". She blushed and said: "Vot slavniy sviaschennik/вот славный свыященник - this one is a really kind priest!" - I said: "No! I am a "pravoslavniy=православный - Orthodox" priest". They laughed and we spoke for four hours in a coffee-shop. She progressively, very slowly changed her way of living and the men too.

Av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

30/17 August 2009 - 10 deElul 5769 - י' דאלול תשס"ט

Quench not the Spirit

2009-08-25T13:41:00.001-07:00

Our Friend Michael Chuck Hann was recntly made a Subdeacon in the United States. May the Lord continue to bless his way and studies for the service of the Church.

'Quench not the Spirit . . . ' (1 Thess. 5:19). Man usually lives careless and unconcerned about the worship of the Church and his own salvation. Then grace awakes the sleeping sinner and calls him to salvation. Listening to this call with a sense of repentance, he resolves to devote the rest of his life to works that are pleasing to God, and by so doing to achieve salvation. This resolution shows itself in eagerness and zeal: and these in their turn become effective when strengthened by divine grace through the holy sacraments. From this moment the Christian begins to burn in spirit—that is, he begins to be unremittingly zealous to fulfil all that his conscience shows him to be the will of God.

It is possible either to sustain and strengthen this burning of the spirit, or to quench it. It is warmed above all by acts of love towards God and our neighbor--this, indeed, is the essence of the spiritual life—by a general fidelity to all God's commandments, with a quiet conscience, by deeds that are pitiless to our own soul and body, and by prayer and thoughts of God. The spirit is quenched by distraction of the attention from God and God's works, by excessive anxiety about worldly matters, by indulgence in sensual pleasure, by pandering to carnal desires, and by infatuation with material things. If this spirit is quenched, then the Christian life will be quenched too.

St. John Chrysostom discusses this burning of the spirit at some length. Here in brief is what he says. 'A thick mist, darkness and clouds are spread over the earth. Referring to this the Apostle said: "For ye were sometimes darkness" (Eph. 5:8). We are surrounded by night, with no moonlight to help us, and it is through this night that we must walk. But God gave us a bright lamp when He kindled the grace of the Holy Spirit in our souls. But of those who have received this light, some have made it brighter and clearer, such as Paul, Peter, and all the saints; but others have quenched it, such as the five foolish virgins or those who suffered shipwreck in the faith, the Corinthian fornicator or the fallen Galatians. And so Paul says, "Quench not the Spirit", that is the gift, for he usually speaks of the "gift" of the Holy Spirit. And what quenches it is an impure life. For if anyone pours water or throws earth upon the light of a lamp, it goes out, and this also happens if they simply pour the oil out of it: in the same manner the gift of grace is extinguished. If you have filled your mind with earthly things, if you have given yourself up to the cares of daily business, you have already quenched the Spirit. The flame also goes out when there is not enough oil, that is, when we do not show charity. The Spirit came to you by God's mercy; and so if it does not find corresponding fruits of mercy in you, it will flee away from you. For the Spirit does not make its dwelling in the unmerciful soul.

'Let us, then, take care not to quench the Spirit. All evil actions extinguish this light: slander, offenses and the like. The nature of fire is such that everything foreign to it destroys it, and everything akin to it gives it further strength. This light of the Spirit reacts in the same manner.'

This is the way in which the spirit of grace manifests itself in Christians. Through repentance and faith it descends into the soul of each man in the sacrament of baptism, or else is restored to him in the sacrament of repentance. The fire of zeal is its essence. But it can take different directions according to the individual. The spirit of grace leads one man to concentrate entirely on his own sanctification by severe ascetic feats, another it guides pre-eminently to works of charity, another it inspires to devote his life to the good organization of Christian society, and again another it directs to spread the Gospel by preaching: as for example Apollos, who, burning in spirit, spoke and taught about our Lord (Acts 18: 2 c).

--St Theophan the Recluse

Russian Jews ponder age-old question: Israel or the U.S.?

2009-08-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Natasha Mosgovaya's article reflects her personal path and existence that I discovered many years ago on her Livejournal/живой журналь 6 vivid and often brilliant many blogs written by Russian Israelis. After Arutz 10, she got a real place for...... HaAretz in the US; her insights are always welcome.

Russian Jews ponder age-old question: Israel or the U.S.?

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Yiddish

WESTHAMPTOM, NEW YORK - They sing the American national anthem first. Then "Hatikvah." They forgo the Russian national song for obvious reasons. The 98-year-old granddaughter of Sholem Aleichem, Bel Kaufman, goes on stage and tells the audience how she held her grandfather's hand and he told her this helped him to write better. Then Knesset members and an adviser to Israeli president Shimon Peres discuss whether there is a Russian elite in Israel, and the imam of the great mosque in New York talks about the relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities.

Several hundred young adults are in the audience, the children of Russian Jews who decided to migrate to the "Goldene Medineh" rather than go to Israel. While the children of Russian immigrants who came to Israel and experienced the difficult years of integrating into the new society debated whether their parents had made the right decision by preferring Israel to "Little Odessa" in Brighton Beach, the youngsters in the Russian-Jewish community in New York posed the opposite question: Is the lucre of America preferable to Jerusalem of Gold? Young Russian-speaking Jews who gathered two weekends ago for a "Limmud FSU" conference at the Hampton Synagogue, in Westhampton, New York, said that the families' decisions tended to be intuitive.

The wave of Jews that began to emigrate from Russia nearly two decades ago tended to split evenly between the U.S. and Israel. More than 350,000 people settled in New York alone. During the last few years they have begun to increase their involvement in the Jewish community, they have set up fund-raising organizations, and after several failed attempts to elect candidates to the local political scene, scored a first success recently, when the Moscow-born Alec Brook-Krasny was elected to the New York State Assembly. The children of an earlier wave of immigrants, from the 1970s, some of whom do not really speak Russian, formed an organization called Generation R, and are diligently looking for roots. Meanwhile those from the more recent wave, who migrated to the United States as children or teenagers, and are now in their 20s and 30s, are looking for alternative ways to express their Russian American Jewish identity.

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"I am American Russian Jew, because I am no longer a real Russian Jew and I am definitely not an American Jew," says Yevgeniy Zingman, 27, who came to New York with his family from Russia and today works for a financial company that specializes in real estate.

Zingman is active in the Jewish community during his free time. "Something Russian burns in our souls. I have learned to live and work here, and to find friends, but I find it easiest to communicate with guys like myself. We're left with all sorts of social rituals from there, and concepts of friendship, and it's difficult to find substitutes for that. I came here at age 14, to a very American environment, but culturally, I feel as though I have been put in a can of preserves. I follow the new Russian music to some extent, but mainly listen to the '80s and '90s rock on which we were raised."

Zingman has visited Israel five or six times and says, "it is very important for my identity and my life." He even considers himself a Zionist, although he is not contemplating immigration at this time. "Look, it's not that I haven't though about it a lot. By and large my parents made the decision for me. Part of our family made aliya to Israel, some migrated to America, and so we mulled it over a lot. But our relatives in Israel wrote us: Think twice. My parents thought it over and we came here."

Zingman speculates that "maybe my soul" is in Israel. But remembering as he does the difficulties he had in adjusting to life as an immigrant to the U.S., he says he doesn't want "to go through all that again, with work, a language, friends."

Zingman does not know what his family will be like in the future. He says: "I am pragmatic, and I understand it is difficult to maintain a three-dimensional identity. What is most important for me is that my future children will be Jewish, but yes, I would like to retain also some of the Russian culture." The best he can do at the present, he suggests, is to invest in "strengthening the ties to Judaism - then we'll see how it will go with the Russian."

Different values, different jokes

Olga Monastyrskaya, a 27-year-old graphic artist, migrated with her family from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, when she was 16. Her mother's extended family settled in Karmiel, Israel, and her father's family moved to New York. "So father took the initiative and moved us here," she says, with the hope that his daughter would have a good future. Today Olga works for the publisher Simon & Schuster as a designer, and her life is indeed quite good, she says. She loves it in the United States.

"I finished studying, I work in a serious place, and there are many perspectives," she adds. Yet she and the people who surround her have a common history and identity: They are Russian Jews.

"I don't have a problem with the Americans. I work with them and have friends, but their culture is different and they were raised on different values, different jokes," she explains. "The Americans are more formal. As a rule, you cannot just go over to someone and hang out in his kitchen until 5 in the morning over a glass of tea or vodka and talk as we did in Ukraine. You have to coordinate plans. There may be some exceptions, but you are more likely to find soulmates among migrants like yourself. I had an American boyfriend for two years, and I made friends with Israelis, but something was missing. So I continued looking, and I found Russian Jewish migrants like me, bent on talking philosophy and singing with a guitar. Maybe it's nostalgia, but this culture is part of us. It's not because we have failed, but because this is what satisfies us, spiritually."

Leon (Lunia) Gayer, 33, and English teacher, has been living in Brooklyn for 16 years. "We had an aunt who joined one of the first waves of immigration to Israel. Grandma used to correspond with her in Yiddish. I began studying Hebrew when I was still in Odessa, but we decided to come to New York because they said that in Israel you must serve in the army and the Russian experience with the military has not been too great. One relative told us we were crazy even to consider Israel, where he said they live in mud huts .... Here I remained quite Russian, because in America there is no pressure to give up your previous culture and identity. Because of this approach, the link to tradition comes from a more correct place, without pressure and coercion."

We are not deserters

Despite the arguments of activists who fought for aliya to Israel and were insulted when Russian Jews "deserted," many migrant Jews are drawn to tradition precisely when they are in the Diaspora. M., 28, from Pennsylvania, was raised in a secular Russian Jewish family, but became a Conservative Jew as an adult. Today he wears a skullcap, eats kosher food and observes the Sabbath. He traveled for hours to Limmud FSU, in Westhampton, in the hope of finding a Jewish match.

"The community in our town is small," he said. He did find someone there he wanted to marry, but she was of Sephardi background, and her parents rejected him as a groom. Finding a bride in Israel sounded enticing, but he works for the U.S. Defense Department, and fears such a marriage would harm his security clearance.

Oksana Baiul, the former Olympic ice skating champion for Ukraine, arrives at the conference wearing a coif and immediately becomes an attraction. Everyone wants to be photographed with her. "I discovered my Jewish roots at quite a late stage, at the age of 25, because I am an orphan," she says. "However, the Jewish community received me warmly and now I am helping raise money for an orphanage in Ukraine. Many Russian Jews are looking for a way back to tradition and I think it's really good for the community."

Until recently, the American Jewish community ignored the Russians' uniqueness, hoping that over time they would be absorbed into the community's usual framework. Israeli diplomats and local representatives of organizations such as the Jewish Agency also preferred to ignore reality. However, the Limmud FSU convention demonstrated the extent to which attitudes have changed. Showing up at a one-day meeting with 400 participants were Israel's minister of immigrant absorption, Sofa Landver, the country's consul general in New York, Asaf Shariv, several Knesset members and a Jewish Agency emissary who considers them a potential source for high-quality immigrants.

"Three hundred and fifty thousand Russian Jews in New York mean that every third Jew in New York is a relatively new immigrant from Russia," said Rabbi Marc Schneier, who hosted the conference in his synagogue. "We see the increased number of visits to our synagogues as well as [the interest] of many others who were eager to learn more about their roots and tradition. It is our responsibility to talk to them. They have big gaps to fill with regard to issues that trouble the Jewish community in the United States. We have missed many years by ignoring them. For 15 years the Jewish community did not know how to communicate with them. But it is also clear to us that it is impossible to transform them into 'us.' You can expose them to issues, you cannot force them to adopt a particular way."

Chaim Chesler, the Jewish Agency's former treasurer and founder of Limmud FSU, says that he faced a lot of criticism when he started the project. "Why do 'the Russians' need a unique approach? Let them come to classes with everybody else, like all the Jews," he recalled the comments.

But they did not come. "Because when it comes to sensitive matters such as religion and identity, only Russians can touch other Russians' souls. Finally, 32 organizations contributed to the project, because it works. When a Russian Jewish community assumes responsibility for intensifying and strengthening its identity, it works; not when Israelis or American Jews try to explain it to them."

"Of course I'd like to see all these young people in Israel," said Minister Landver, of Yisrael Beiteinu, "but you've got to be realistic too. You can't always say right up front: 'Come over.' It has to come from them, out of their searching. I know this feeling from the synagogue in Leningrad where we used to meet. It just grabs you, this spirit, the desire to make aliya - not because someone persuaded you. Recently we have seen an increase in the immigration of these young people." Knesset Member Zeev Elkin (Likud), who also came to the conference, thinks that Israel and the Russian Jewish community in the United States have a clear interest in strengthening their ties. "The Russian Jews here are beginning to realize that Israel is a significant arena for the American Jewish organizations. And the Jewish organizations are beginning to understand that this community will not put up with being on the sidelines; that they will break away unless they have equal rights. It's not just the community's considerable size. These are educated people, energetic and quite a number of them are successful too. The process is slow, but we should integrate in time."

Israelis and Ukrainians in 5770- 2009

2009-08-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday, Ukraine! On August 24, 1994, the republic of Ukraine voted her independence. I wrote this Jerusalem post blog three years ago and it continues to make sense; Jews and Ukrainians are doing well in Israel; diplomatic relationships are mo...re difficult for various reasons, but the old connection between the two countries should open up new prospects.

One of the most peculiar issues we have to face as Israelis and Mid-Easterners is the existence of a State which is legally recognized internationally, mostly de jure or at least de facto. On the other hand, we have not succeeded to sketch out where our real historic and mental borders are located, provided that San Francisco's UN partition is only in the process of implementation and will obviously remain our concern in the region for the coming decades if not centuries. I tried to define in a previous blog that this is the normal procedure for a sort of grafting that goes far beyond any mental, cultural, historical development as usually outlined by human brains.

As regards the history of Israel, this grafting process is more than the organic structural proceeding of any return. Judaism is somehow aware that we are rooted in the realization of a project that started with the religious call to worship the One God Who took us out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. Geography is thus bound to psychology, culture and basically faith, tracking back to Abraham and the multitude of events accounted in the TaNaKh. We may technically speak of a return to Zion according to the Hoq HaShivat (Law of Return passed in 1950); the word is ambiguous: is it a "return = comeback" or "the renewed sequence of an ongoing process"? When we bless meals, we read Psalm 126:1 : " beshuv HaShem et-shivat Zion - when the Lord (will) return the exiles of Zion, we (will) have been like dreamers". It is evident that the word means "go anew, come back". But does it imply that we ever left? Thus, the thing is that as decades pass, old and newcomers discover that Israel's geography and "regions" are not merely a sheltering homeland for "wandering Jews". It is our birthplace even if we would a lot of people would never accept to settle in the country.

This widens the scope of our border marks. For example, "Land of Egypt = Eretz Mitzraim", and "mitzraim" means: "border from the mark traced on the ground with a rope to show a limit, a border". In the Biblical context this is highly symbolic and definitely not ethnic or political. The children of Israel are born out of the womb of a constrictive and limited space.

Okay, we are all limited: geographically, our body is spatially restricted as our capacities to use our brains, memory, envision the future and enlarge our views. Nonetheless, every human is shaped in the likeness of seeds of plenitude. Might not be so essential in our daily socializing, but it can help: "regard others as better than yourselves", says Paul of Tarsus (Philippians 2:16). Just the opposite of our tops: TV serials with handcuffs, jails, bonds, bondage, fences, walls, checkpoints and ropes.

Jewish souls are at their best when they outline spatial and mental freedom beyond any bonds.

Now, the Republic of Ukraine celebrated on August 24th last the fifteenth anniversary of its independence. Ukrainians show a "historic borderland disorder" very close to ours. The Jewish civilization has always developed and maintained strong ties with parts or all the regions of the present Ukraine. "U-kraina" in Ukrainian comes from "kraj" = a) land, country; b) border, borderland, mark (as for "Denmark" - "borderline/mark of Dan), c) krajina = country, principality. This interesting point is that, in Ukrainian, "za kordonu" = "(from) abroad" in the sense of being "beyond the rope" ("kordon" from French (cord, string). True, the country has always slid along flexible and uncertain borders. In the 20th century, the Ukraine was "independent" from 1917-1921, then from 1954 to 1990 within the Soviet Union and finally from August 24, 1991, i.e. 15 years ago.

The Ukraine is one of the most significant countries for the Jewish and today Israeli "civilisation or way of living". This started long ago as in folk’s tales.... As the Iron curtain recently fell, let's track back to the Iron age and the Scythians who took over the steppes where previous invaders had left the stone steles (3000 BCE). Then Greek communities settled together with Jews who also spoke Greek, mainly along the Black Sea areas and in Crimea (Simferopol). "There is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free" wrote Paul (Colossian 3:11). From Persia over the Ukrainian steppes lived a large Jewish community, firstly named "Ashkenaz" as a possible pronunciation for "a-shkuz" (the Scythians). In the 7th century, the Khazars, Turkish nomads, converted to Judaism as it often happened, e.g. in North Africa and in that peculiar region of the Black Sea. The Khazars were defeated by the Viaryagy (Vikings) in the 9th century; this led to the adoption of Christianity as the prevailing faith under Volodymyr the Great in 988/9 although Jews, Jewish proselytes, first Christians were present in Scythia long before that year. To begin with, it did not formally exclude the Western Church, though Kievan Rus was baptized by the Greeks and was the first "Russian" Christian entity in this immense area.

Ukrainia has ever since gone through dramatic historic events. No real borders, except of the left Russian left bank of Carpathia intermingling Ukrainians, Russyns (specific Slavic mountain tribes), Poles, Belorussians (White Russians), Hungarians, Romanians and Turks, Muslims, Tatars, Mongolians that recurrently invaded the steppes, threatening Europe from the East. Thus, the " kordon" - rope, borderland, mark" has always been insecure and imprecise.

In 1648, hetman Bohdan Khmelnytzky, leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, created a Zaporozhian entity viewed as a "ruin" by the Poles. A non-judgemental but realistic viewpoint of this situation shows how deeply the development of a real Ukrainian body has been affected by the absence of stable and defined unity or cohesion. The Jewish memory has kept the horrible pogroms carried by the Zaporozhian leader that murdered more than 700,000 Jews. Nonetheless, the pitiful relationships deviating from the Poles, the Russian Empire and "shapeless Ukraine" profoundly affected the harmony between Jews and Ukrainians. In 1789, when the French architects were called by Empress Catherine the Great to build Odessa and other "fake" towns, Jews and other "foreigners" were allowed to dwell in these Ukrainian and White Russian regions, on the borders with Galicia (Halych, Transcarpathia and Bukovina and the Eastern part of the present Ukrainian republic, Kharkiv). From that time till the first pogroms in 1880, the civil war (1917), World Wars I and II and the fall of communism, Jews have been present all over the Ukraine. Poor peddlers and rich merchants, filthy inhabitants of impoverished shtetlekh (ghettos), or mixed intelligentsia in Kiev and Odessa, undoubtedly enriched the local culture. From the marks of Poland and Lithuania, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire to the influence of the Ottoman rulers and the presence of French and German traders, the Jews brought their economic and scientific skills and, mostly participated in the growth of the local spirituality: "di Yiddishkayt", Yiddish tongue grew into authentic rabbinic Jewish creative lifestyles and ethics. It may be today a question whether true East-European Judaism has survived the dramas that broke down Jewish civilization in the Ukrainian regions as also the Gypsies, Armenians, Gagauzes and Tatars.

The Ukrainian language was subject to terrible rulings and forbidden for decades; still, peculiar how close it is to Church Slavonic. This "borderline" aspect is present in today's existence of more than 15 Eastern Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Latin, Armenian Churches, segmented in pieces as a result of local tragedies. It should be noted the presence of the "First Calvinists" who did influence Christian Eastern and Western Churches... On the other hand, Hassidism developed in the Ukrainian and neighbouring regions (Baal Shem Tov along with Satmar, Belz, Chabad and, curiously the parallel Ukrainian oriental spiritual movements inherited from the traditional Greek theology! (Saint Gregory Palamas). The Bratzlover Rebbe's tomb attracts at Uman daily crowds of faithful arriving from Israel and other parts of the world, though no one should ignore Baby-Yar's massacres.

15 years of an independent and now a "quaking, feverish" State in search of its identity! This means that Ukrainians - even those who had been deported to Siberia, Central Asia by Stalin or immigrated to the New World over the past 150 years - often mixed with Jews. Why did hatred and suspicion prevail over more than 2500 years, from the time of the Scythians and Ashkenaz? Not always at present. A lot of common traditions and know-how: cooking, architecture, music, spirituality, cosmetics, techniques... and a lot of Ukrainian newcomers in Israel.

Tragic destines of Jews among the Nations? Or, a true symbol of atonement in the Holy Land and Eretz Israel. Ukrainian is a major tongue in our backgrounds, even if people would doom it as "folkloric". It is real and "down-to-earth", pragmatic and now spread all over Mediterranean countries and islands.

Late Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky of L'viv (or Lemberg, Lwow, L'vov, Leopol) wrote letters to his Greek catholic clergy throughout World War II. He is the only "individual" (thus speaking in the name of the catholic and someway the Eastern Christian Churches) who, for the sake of God, dared imperil his life, alerting Himmler and Hitler about their obligation to stop the extermination of the Jews.

He warned his faithful about moral, ethics, human rights and dignity; he had, in a unique historic situation of full disorder and swaying borderline changes, to fight and face devilish treasons and structures. He never stepped down from his task. He helped the Russian Orthodox Church to arrive in Western Europe in the twenties (Metropolitan Evlogyi). When I read his "Trudy" ("Works") every night before going to bed, I think this man and his country share a lot with the "borderline" situation that smashes our society at the present. Only faith and profound confidence in God could motivate such a character, maybe unique and somehow "too similar" to a authentic Jewish believers... kind of real "A-shkuz - Ashkenazic Scythian Ukrainian Eastern rite, Latin born Polish, Galician Transylvanian Austro-Hungarian, beyond Habsburg and tzarist "man of God"... True faith makes believers like everybody else, just a little more...

If so many newcomers arrived from the Ukraine and still go there because of our cultural links, we may expect a lot from parallel developments conveyed by atonement.

Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky and Ukraine-Rus 2009

2009-08-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

The recent developments of Church relationships and difficulties in trying to resolve the numerous Church entities and multi-faceted "Eastern Orthodox and Eastern rite" bodies could lead to scan history as it appeared in the 20th century by the time of short independence of Ukraine after World War I. One of the elements that could allow a wide prospect of the situation and to compare with present-day evolution is to be found in the English version translated by Fr. Serge Keleher of the book written in French by Fr. Cyrille Korolevsky, a grerat friend and collaborator of Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky, Metropolitan of L'viv (L'vov, Lwow, Lemberg, Leopol).

I dedicated a lot of notes and articles to Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky. Born on 1865/07/29 in Prybylchi (Poland-Ukraine) he died on 1944/11/1 in L'viv. It is again and again possible to mention Prof. Gutman's (former Yad VaShem responsible) that this man of faith was beyond all standards and norms. He spent his life facing permanent aggression from many sides and still acted with wisdom and insights for the good of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, in the mainland and abroad. He also allowed Metropolitan Evlogyi and Archbishop Vladimir appointed by Late St. Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow to reach France and thus to develop the Eastern Orthodox Russian presence in the West.

He is also without contest an exceptional and outstanding personality in the way he worked to help the comprehension of the Jewish identity and culture. In 1916, he organized a great pilgrimage to the Holy Land and there read and spoke Hebrew fluently. In his diocese/eparchy he could spontaneously met in Yiddish and Hebrew with the Jewish communities. We know at the present that he vehemently protested against the deportation and extermination of the Jews to Hitler and Himmler by sending telexes. His famous "Nie Ubyi/Не убий - Thou shalt not kill" pastoral letter sent to all the churches and priests under his responsibility remains a unique act of courage ever shown to that extent by a member of the Christian clergy and high hierarchy. Kurt Lewin (the book has been recently translated into Ukrainian) described how Metroplitan Andrii Sheptytsky directly saved numerous Jews and children by hiding then and protecting them.

Paralyzed and living in a wheelchair in the 15 last years of his life, he could manage to control the Ukrainian Church in times of unbelievable turbulence, assisted by his brother, Fr. Klement and a huge network of connections that still let him isolated during the Communist regime and the second World War. The Poles accused him of having left the Roman Rite in order to restore the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church. He has been in contact with most of the actual thinkers (Metropolitan Evlogyi, Vladimir Soloviov) and helped creating place of encounter between Eastern and Western Churches to pave the way for a renewed dialogue, such as the Monastery at Chevetogne.

He las been an overall suspect: he had twice to manage the invasion of the German army that took control of the Ukraine (Western area) and then to combat the Nazis. He had to face the civil war in Ukraine and the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise and power of the communists, also twice in different circumstances. Stalin did not dare (and this is also unique) to touch the Greek Catholic clergy and waited till the 40th day of mourning was over t o seize and deport the clergy. He has been accused to be working for the French (world war I), the Nazis (world war II), the communists (in between and till his death). Strangely enough - though it is a typical habit, the archives that best depict his actions were to be found in the communist Soviet offices of the KGB.

I often mention his "trudy/труди - works" and would read his sermons or pastoral letters in Ukrainian in my church and on different occasions. This is a very simple matter: undoubtedly, Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky's attitudes and personality go far beyond the Ukrainian Church. It would be a terrible mistake, that sadly often shows at the moment to make an icon of example of Metropolitan Andrii as a Ukrainian nationalist. On the other hand, he was definitely aware - with the words, style and ideas of his time - that the Church that developed from Kiev and expanded in the Ukraine and the widespread Slavic areas has a specific universal role to play in the symphony of the Body of the Resurrected Lord. This is not the way people would consider his path at the present. It is suspicious because his character overgoes the standards of clergy hierarchy, in particular in such a troublesome region as Ukraine and the surrounding countries and cultures. Conflicts are easier to mention than unity as he tried to achieve some of his goals in times of incredible hardships.

In Israel, Metropolitan Andrii's actions and thoughts should be a model of reflecting on the situation of Israeli society. Social and inter-cultural, ethnic, spiritual and political problems show intriguing parallels with our building of a new and unexpected human reality with Jews, Arabs and other ethnic groups. In many ways, Metropolitan Sheptytsky has to deal with something that is really close to our turmoil or "pangs of birth". He answered to hatred by love and calling to ethics and moral dynamics with faith.

I definitely do not intend to present the following excerpts of the above mentioned book by some political or religious a-priori's. I would not give an opinion about the troublesome religious situation in the Ukraine in the present. It would by just full of pretence and would restrict and fence the possibility that such a personality allows to open up as new prospects. Furthermore, in the present context, this portion of the text is never referred to and is ignored. It shows that history in the region comes up and up again. It is also worth noting how Metropolitan Andrii finally takes a decision and keep on the line that underscores the spiritual benefits of the faithful, an aspect rarely expressed by the media nowadays.

Andrew proposed as Ukrainian Patriarch

"Among the many questions demanding the attention of the Ukrainian government (headed by Paul Skoropadsky in 1918-1919) the ecclesiastical organization for the country. What Catholic organization was left in Tsarist Ukraine was all Roman, except for the small Greek-Catholic group which was just beginning to organize at Kiev. Only later, under Petliura's government, was Ukraine represented at the Holy See, first by Count Michael Tyszkiewicz, the scion of an old Ukrainian family which had been Romanised like so many others, and then when the Count was sent to Paris as head of the Ukrainian delegation at the peace conference, by Father François-Xavier Bonne, a Belgian Redemptorist who was serving as a Greek-Catholic so as to help the Ukrainian immigrants in Canada. Father Bonne had come to Galicia and in Count Bobrinskoy's time was named eclesiastical administrator of the district of Ternopil - since he was a Belgian citizen, Bobrinskoy did not dare to expel him. For the moment, Skoropadsky was only concerned for the Orthodox Church.

There of the Russian Church, at the moment when the Bolsheviks were taking power in Moscow. were two parties. Those favourable to a future accord with Russia would wish an arrangement with Patriarch Tikhon (Beliavin) of Moscow, elected on 28 October (O.S.) 1917 by the National Council of the Russian Church, at a moment when the Bolsheviks were taking power in Moscow. In Kiev, this party recognized Metropiltan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), former Archbishop of Volyn, who had been one of the most active propagandists for Orthodoxy in Galicia; he was confirmed as Metropolitan of Kiev by Patriarch Tikhon. Those who demanded complete independence for Ukraine also had to demand ecclesiastical independence with a Ukrainian chief hierarch, according to the customs of the Orthodox Church. As the two groups did not come to any understanding, a council was called for 21 JUne 1918. The autocephalist party dreamed of establishing a Patriarchate at Kiev, like the one in Moscow, although Kiev had nver had a Patriarchate - historically Kiev had been a dependency of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

An attentive observer will realize that the autocephalist party was moved purely by nationalist considerations and thought very little of dogma. This group actually ofered the patriarchal throne to the one who most represented the Ukrainian world in his own person, Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky - who was in communion with the Holy See of Rome. If this proposal would have been accomplished it would have had vast consequences, when one considers the significance of ecclesiastical communion according to the Orthodox understanding. Ecclesiastical communion depends uniquely on the head of the particular Church, whom the metropolitans and bishops solemnly commemorate during the services. If this chief hierarch is Catholic, his whole Church is Catholic in view of his communion with the Pope. Since the only point of doctrine which matters for the great majority of the people, and even for the lower clergy, is the recognition of the Papal primacy of honour and jurisdiction, the election of Metropolitan Anderw would have reunited Ukraine to the Catholic Church in one moment. Although this prospect was dubious, one can understand how seriously he took it. However he had to set clearly in a letter to Archduke Wilhelm, the son of Archduke Charles Stephan, the Austrian candidate for an eventual Ukrainian throne. The draft of this letter was later found when the Poles searched the Metropolitan's palace in L'viv; the Poles published it with a photographic facsimile of the beginning and the essential section, in an effort to prove the Metropolitan's political intrigues. No résumé could replace the actual text:

"L'viv, 13 June 1918

I have learned htat one party of the general Synod of the Ukrainian Church which is to assemble one the 21st of this month (the letter is dated) is thinking of offering me the dignity of Ukrainian Patriarch. This initiative is both an expression of opposition to the election of Anthony as Metropolitan of Kiev and a concrete affirmation of the autocephaly, Although the reactionaries are mortally opposed to autocephaly, it nevertheless is the wish of the Ukrainians. The Hetman (Paul Skoropadsky at that time) has declared that if the Synod does not come to a decision on the matter, he will have to grant the autocephaly himself. Should the first eventuality come to pass, I shall inform Your Imerial Highness of the matter andof my eventual position in the affair. I could only accept an absolutely free election by a large majority which would thus have canonical value according to the principles of the Eastern Church. It goes without saying that such an election would by its very fact mean an acceptance of the Church Union. For the moment, the powers which I have received from Pope Pius X are sufficient. Naturally, I should also ask the assent of His Majesty.

"At L'viv it is difficult for me to have more exact information. Since people know that I have been in favour of this idea for a long time, they urge me to prepare the election by some propaganda. In principle I would not want to do this, and anyway there is not enough time. If Your Imperial Highness knows or should learn anything on this matter, I would be most grateful to have the information..."

One mus read this letter with great attention. It shows that the Metropolitan was favourable to the idea of the autonomy of the Church in Ukraine, which is completely in accord with the principles of the Eastern Church and to the current practice of the Catholic Church, with the proper understanding of the term "autonomy". In the seventeenth century, there was a proposal to erect a Patriarchate at Kiev, and Propaganda considered the matter; I have found (says Fr. Cyrille Korolevsky) the proof in the archives and the copy I made was in the Metropolitan's hands. He read everything I sent him with the greatest attention. On principle, he did not wish to do anything for his personal advantage. He saw a means to joint the whole of Ukraine to the Catholic Church, provided that the election was done by a large majority, which would have assured stability. of jurisdiction of the Pope, who would have had to confirm this election. And in the Metropolitan's view, such an offer would mean, in practice, the acceptance of church union, that is the recognition of the primacy of the jurisdiction of the Pope, who would have had to confirm this election. No Catholic bishop in the Metropolitan's position could have acted more appropriately and more prudently.

As to Skoropadsky's conviction that he himself could grant the autocephaly, no one who knows Orthodox practice will be surprised, because for the Orthodox Church the supreme authority after Christ - Who is no longer on earth - is the Ecumenical Council, but such a Councilsince 787 (the Orthodox do not consider the council has not been held of 869 which condemned Photius ecumenical). The Romanian Patriarchate was founded on 4 February 1925 by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church and received legal sanction from the Kingdom of Romania on 12 February of that year. Only afterwards was the assent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople requested - Constantinople did not refuse. It was the same for the Bulgarians, although in that case Constantinople took longer to concede. According to the principles of the Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has a primacy of honour, but no primacy of jurisdiction.

But back to Kiev. The party opposed to a complete break with Russia gained the upper hand so the idea of autocephaly for the Church of Kiev was abandoned by the Council. Was the whole idea viable? Certainly not: Kyr Andrew (Sheptytsky) would have had the greatest difficulties to convince the bishops to accept the primacy of the Pope, let alone the other controverted dogmas, and there would eventually have been an internal schism."

...
The Polish-Russian armistice was signed on 11 October and ratified by the Polish Diet on the 23rd. The definite treaty was made on 18 March 1921".

Excerpts from: Cyril Korolevsky: Metropolitan Andrew (1865-1944), translated and revised by Serge Keleher, L'viv 1993, pp. 213-217). The original book by Fr. Cyrille Korolevsky - born Jean-François Charon at Caen (France). His account in French is difficult to read because of the many mistakes in French. He was a brilliant priest and had spent most of his life in th service of the Eastern Churches. His testimony gives a unique description of the multi-faceted and numerous problems that Metropolitan had to face during his long pastoral service of the Greek-Catholic Church in the Ukraine and abroad, in particular in North and South America. He was very capable and acute. His testimony is indeed essential at the present because his had envisioned the many developments that show up at the present in a very troublesome situation. Nonetheless, being a French by birth and having open-minded views and prospects on the Eastern Middle-Eastern and Slavic Churches, he describes the facts with much distance that a local specialist would hardly reach. His book "Métropolite André Szeptyckyj, 1865-1944 - was published in Rome in 1964 in "Працi Украïнського Богословського Наукового Товариства - Opera Theologicae Societatis Scientificae Ucrainorum - vol. XVI-XVII with a preface by Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, one of the greatest specialist of Eastern Churches.

Incidentally, it should be noted that Cardinal E. Tisserant, Prefect of the Oriental Churches, pleaded the cause of the first Hebrew-praying four Roman Catholic priests who celebrated in the language in 1952; he had stressed that the Chaldean Oriental rite was the most adequate, but the Western origin of the concerned clergy drove it to full Latinization. N.B. "Hebrew in the Church of Jerusalem" has been in use by the blessing of a remarkable translation by Fr. Levinson of the Divine Liturgy by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow in 1852, i.e. before the restoration of the Patriarchate of Moscow.I use this text because of its official recognition, validity and real beauty.

It should be noted that the above mentioned quotation from a specific situation confronted by late Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky should correctly be understood. In his quotation and comments, Fr. Cyril Korolevsky draw the attention of the readers to very special points. These are very parallel to the situation that the Eastern Orthodox Church is embattled with at the present in Ukraine. The excerpts are followed by a clairvoyant description of the dangers that Ukraine can both generate and be obliged to affront from the part of the Poles, the Central European Powers and Russia. Interestingly "za kordonu = at the frontier, on the rope of the border that has always been difficult to determine". As if the "cord", also maybe mostly in a spiritual connection would imply the emergence of a lot of unexpected and "imperiling" factors. We should also keep in mind that the history of the Church of the Rus' of Kiev and then Moscow has been tragic over the centuries. It has been deeply assaulted by invaders coming from Asia (Mongols, Tatars) and from the West (Poland, Lithuania).

Nonetheless, Eastern Orthodox Churches of the Rus' have also been also influenced by the Westerners, both the Latins and the Protestants that introduced special habits that were not present in the Greek tradition (Holy Confession).

This text should be measured adequately. It shows one or two invariants and also refers to constant traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Churches that should normally be respected by the Oriental Churches united to Rome. A last remark that is very rarely mentioned. The Second Council of Vatican was adopted by the Roman Church and its Oriental components, provided that the Patriarchs heading the Oriental Churches would confirm and ratify the decision upon their return to their local ecclesiastical areas. This had not been done. They never convoked the concerned Synods for different reasons. Some Churches - like the Greek-Catholics/Melkites - claim to adopt the decisions of the Council with the provision that the Eastern Orthodox Churches would also join in such decisions, which can hardly be the case for the moment. It is evident that the Roman clergy and faithful are not directly concerned or aware of this pending situation.

The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine (Акт проголошення незалежності України) was passed on August 24, 1991 by the Ukrainian Parliament and widely confirmed by the referendum dated December 1, 1991 (90% of the voters). This happened 18 years ago and the National Day will take place on forthcoming Monday 24th of August 2009.

With regard to the exceptional personality of Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky and the "above any sort of nationalism" position that he adopted, this text, as many others readily quoted in other notes and articles would bring some light on how to go ahead with God's assistance.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

August 19/6, 2009 - 29 deAv 5769 - כ"ט דאב תשס"ט

Meaningful visions and choices

2009-08-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

Mishney Torah or Book of Deuteronomy repeatedly teaches the Commandments in order to inscribe them in the hart of every Israelite that lived out till the time close to the entrance into the Land of Canaan/Eretz Israel. The Kabbalat Mitzvot\קבלת מצות or traditional acceptance of the light yoke of the Mitzvot/Commandments is given by God and confirmed, then recurrently hammered out and determined with precision so that the people could accept these teachings as taking full part in mental reflexes of a nation of redeemed slaves.

The reading portion of this week is "Reeh\ראה = See (I/God am setting before you today a blessing and a curse" in Devarim/Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17). Again, God reinforces Moses and the Israelites with a spirit that will allow them combating idolatry and destroying all the idols, pagan altars and worships after their take-over of the Land of Canaan. This is a real theological question, still pending at the present. In this Mishney Torah, God repeats His Commandments of loving care in order to redeem all the nations and souls. The uniqueness of what is said by God to the Bney Israel in the Sinai is proven by His trustful and loving care. Religion and faith conviction have too often laid to horrible stiffness and certitude to be divinely approved in slaying down those whom have been considered as heretical or spiritually wrong. The "acceptance of the Commandments" is so much beyond any human evidence that God requires humility and insights instead of self-justification.

The problem is real as concerns "national" identity. Is it strictly a national specificity to be called to be Jews or would it also involve a profound spiritual and theological significance that presupposes a certain freedom of choice. On many occasions, Israeli society would impose Judaism to people who come from faraway backgrounds. They would only get to true Jewishness after a long-term process of understanding of the Mitzvot and the core of the living moral and divine prescriptions. Thus, the Jewish tradition is strongly opposed to act by force to go through the giur/(turning of non-Jews to Judaism). Indeed, our present situation in Israel resembles the time when the ancestors entered the Land of Canaan, but it only seems similar. In our generation, after nearly 3,000 years, the problem is different because of the deployment of monotheism in numerous manners that we still have to know and not reject systematically. Then souls are all human and, firstly and ultimately, belong to God. Thus, who is allowed touching or altering in-depth identity for political or national reasons that are limited by definition?

The reading portion of this week starts with the interjection: “Reeh\ראה – Look, see”. This is the very particularity of this week as we come closer to Ellul that precedes Tishri, New Year’s autumnal month. The original root has different meanings connected with “sight and meeting”. Thus, “He who sees comes to a place” (Berachot 9,1). “Look upon the blood of this ram as if it were the blood of an offering” (Bereshit Rabba 1) or “Mah raah\מה ראה? What did he see, i.e. what is the reason of such a situation (Baba Bathra 123a). “Nirah\נראה – it looks like, appears” : “He had said that things were nirin\נראין = supposedly acceptable”. As also: “What has been considered as fit on one feast and then discarded may again become fit” (Sukkot 33b). There are some interesting extensions to the word: “re’iyah\ראיה = sight, seeing, glance” as in “the faculty of sight – for childbirth” (Niddah 31a) but also “appearance, ascent to the Temple, aliyah): “the appearance in the Temple (pilgrimage, cf. Ex. 23:17) since all males have the obligation to appear in the Temple (Hagigah 1, 1; Peah 1,1). Finally, the word means “evidence, proof”: “It rests on him to produce evidence that he is an Israelite” (Baba Kamma 3:11; Ketubot 23a/15b (in Aramaic). This week we are called to envision the goal of the most important Mitzvot. This is first the capacity to choose to receive from God a blessing and not a curse (“bracha uqlalah\ברכה וקללה”). This is the “shtey drachim\שתי דרכים – two ways” options. Let’s say it is not easy. Nobody would spontaneously choose to be cursed by God!! For instance, some alcoholics would start drinking in order to socialize. They finally meet with much lonely people in despair.

From quenching thirst and feeling on the top of the world till drying any mouth pleasure, solitary addiction seemingly leads to self-destruction and hopelessness. More and more in Israel drink beer, spirits and liquors and the cheerful get it down the neck can turn to some family hell or personal curse. The same happens with drug-addicted. I used to find legless rolling drunk men and a few women out of their skulls illegally lodged in some cave in the outskirts of Jerusalem. They felt a bit fragile as many broken souls because of their tragic backgrounds. Curiously, they only could get out of such a hell by a personal decision, knowing that, being under the weather, God could bless them again and again.

Indeed the main purpose of the sidra is propositioned in two real, test-proof mitzvoth / commandments. Alcohol, drug-addicted, prostitutes and sex-addicted should be considered like true “poor and needy folk”. There are dissocialized inmates who feel cursed by their environment or their own mental stand, or were the victims of historic dramas and need God’s help to reinvigorate their egos. Assistance is very Jewish. The first medical and social care system in Eretz Israel were developed by the Ultra-Orthodox Jews. This traces back to our portion. “There will be no one in need – efes ki lo yihyeh eviyon” as stated in Deut. 15:4 “because the Lord is sure to bless you in the Land that the Lord you God is giving you to occupy”. The word is special: “eviyon\אביון = poor, distressed” “who is distressed because he longs for everything (Baba Metsia 111b). Then there is another verse, specified after this first mitzvah which states: “There will never cease to be some in need on the earth (eviyon bekerev haaretz\אביון בקרב הארץ), therefore I command you: open your hand to the poor and the needy (“le’aniyecha uleeviyoncha\לעניך ולאביונך”) neighbor/brother in your land” (Devarim 15:11). The same is said in the Gospel: “Jesus said: you will always have the poor and needy with you.” (Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8).

How come that the first verse seems to secure all the inhabitants and the second one commands the mitzvah which is in the heart of Judaism? It should be noted that this commandments are given together with the “shemittah\שמיטה – year of remission, especially of the debts” (Deut. 15:9-18). By the way last year 5768 was a shemittah – a year of remission. We are facing here the same quest as for “Shma’ Israel – Hear Israel” that is a pure and strict commandment to revere God without expecting any reward. The same happens with regards to the poor and the needy. It is true that we are a in a terrible period of impoverishment. Statistics and ads show that thousands of children and numerous unemployed, old pensioners (Shoah survivors in between…) don’t have enough food or resources. Some charity movements or volunteers do a wonderful work to correct these situations. In Israel, there is a widely “tzedakah\צדקה” acting system that corresponds, to some extent, to the Muslim “zakat – charity money”.

This is the point: if we pretend that we love God, we firstly have to show that we are able to love our fellow people whom we see. Look at this psalm: “The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises all who are bowed down, the eyes of all look to you, and you given them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living one” (Tehillim 145:14-16). The “You” form is both applicable to God and to the human beings. It is incumbent to the believers to show a real love of the neighbors/fellow people / others / enemies and, in return, God largely provides His blessings. This is exactly the same move as for Yom Kippur. On the Day of “At-one-ment”, the Jews are called to forgive each other and then be pardoned by God as a consequence of their mutual love and choice of blessing and not curse. It may look a bit dreamy… In Israel, as in many countries, some secular organizations would seemingly show more charity and assistance than the religious groups.

For the Jewish tradition, “’ani\עני – poor / ‘aniyut\עניות - poverty” must be combated and is considered as a shame as regards social stand that leads to diseases, filth, immorality, sloth and depravation. But it is should be noted that the shemittah / year of remission of the debts and rest of the earth allows another consideration of “poverty”. Human beings must give a “leave, holiday time, refreshing year” to the earth that nourish. Of course, the Jews can reverse the mitzvah by hiring non-Jews, but the mitzvah is great and nice toward the soils that also need some vacation.

The observance of the shemittah shows that the faithful totally entrusts his life in God and respect the living, anticipating a year for the remission of debts and permanent agricultural production. Credit cards, money provisions (loans, overdrafts), virtual aspects of financial transfers alarmingly affects numerous families or individuals in the country.

Thus, Judaism values the spiritual wealth of the poor who expect everything from God alone and confide in the Providence / Hashgachah-השגחה. This implies a good knowledge of who we are and a lot of self-control that is challenge by a system of consumption that increases in Israeli society since 1967. “Israel asked the Lord: who are Your people? He said: the poor (ani’im)” (Ex. Rabba 31, Avot 1,5). In the Gospel, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20), Jesus praises the “aniyut deruchot\עניות דרוחות = poverty of spirit”.

Saint Francis of Assisi is called “Poverello – Little poor man” in Italian. He launched a thanksgiving movement of freedom and pure love for the poor, praising God in His creation. The Baal Shem Tov and the Chassidic groups appeared in a similar context. Poverty does not mean “poor thing!” On the contrary, it shows that every single soul is worthy and that everything is possible.

Nukes of wrath

2009-08-12T04:29:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow, August 6th 2009 is the 64th anniversary of the first nuclear/atomic bombing over Hiroshima at 8.15 am., local time.

A so-called gadget “Little Boy” was nuked up as “a song of death” (Baghavad Gita (11,32) read by J.R. Oppenheimer on July 16, 1945 citing his personal translation of the text:

“I am Death, the destroyer of the worlds”. The exact version should have been: “I became Time and my task, at the present, is to destroy” in a place called “Trinity” where the scientists blew up the first nuclear bomb.

While the Nazis were collecting the hair of exterminated victims murdered by Zyklon B gas in order to make soap, the cream of the crops of the modern scientists launched the process of some future possible Sodom without being gods. They were Jews and Christians and referred to some alien famous poetry. They were fascinated by a hopeless spirit of destruction. How strange and even bizarre that these scientists chose August 6th, the day on which the Western Churches celebrate the Jesus' Transfiguration: as he was speaking with Moses and Elijah, he appeared whiter and brighter for a short while of eternity, eternal life with God (Matthew 17:2).

At the present, we are all nuking each other potentially, from Modern Persia that would displace the Israelis as refugees to the European Community in search of its Christian (and Jewish, if any…) background to some nuking software in Libya. The aliens are cooking the world into a sort of fragmenting micro waver, while we segment Eretz Israel\ארץ ישראל into ethnic and cultural self-searches. Still, “the Lord of Hosts established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens… and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth” (Jeremiah 51:15-16).

Adorno's statement that, after Auschwitz people or at least European nations would be terribly frightened to eventually face more hideous and horrible than death, a sort of second death is never compared with the parallel historic situation that was happening in Hiroshima at the same time. Just consider what is going on at the present: we have spent about years of constant obsession about the Shoah. The European nations and Community, the European Churches - in particular the Catholic Church - cannot get out of that dizzy circle, nor reach any kind of "repair". In any case, all attempts to to come to some definition of the Shoah is today problematic. It mostly focuses on the difficulty of the Churches to cope with the event. In that respect, Dr. Janusz Korczak was right to declare that the European nations will be profoundly affected for a long period of time smells of death that came out of the extermination camps.

The world has apparently overcome the parallel event of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuking of a bomb that they then dared to call "Trinity site process" carried out on the day of a feast of anticipated proof of the resurrection of all mankind, the Transfiguration.

In Hebrew, “Chag\חג” means “feast” as also “chagigah\חגיגה” which is very “festive”. We love feasts. Israeli society loves to joyously celebrate events with balloons and bubbles, cakes and simple gifts. We may not be very conscious that our feasts are like elliptic dances stretching out to more and more wisdom. Thus, they participate in the expansion of space inside of creation, intruding like whirling circles. “Chagog\חגוג = to dance, whirl, go circling, wheel”. The TaNaKh says: “I was there when He drew a circle on the face of the (void) deep / Ani bechuko chug al pney tehum\אני בחוקו חוג על פני תהום” (Proverb 8:27).

Thus, God “sits above the circle of the earth / chug haaretz and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers”. Many things draw back to “circle” without framing in Hebrew: “Kadur = circle, round, ball, pill” as in “kadur haaretz\כדור הארץ = earth, globe” or “kadur regel\כדור רגל = football” that may often be used to say that there is a messy situation or conflicts.

“Kadar\כדר = to be arched, rounded” as in: “The sign of eggs of clean birds (sign of life) arched on the top and rounded, i.e. rolling” (Hullin 64a). The Gospel, in particular the Book of Apocalypse / Revelation, scrolls up and down the same gyrating movement in the vision of the 24 elders sitting around the Throne of glory. They elliptically unfold the scroll of eternity that “love is strong and even stronger than death. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame” (Song 8:6).

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

August 5/July 23, 2009 – 15 deAv 5769 - ט"ו דאב תשס"

Nukes of wrath

2009-08-12T04:29:00.000-07:00

TU Bi'Av: Love me, tender

2009-08-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

It is a hit, because it only can be a hit and we are so mild and cute, nice and lovely: "Mi ohev otach yoter mimeni\מי אוהב אותך יותר ממני = who loves you more than I love you" is the sort of syrupy, ever broadcast song sung by many local singers. We are so much in need of care, cuddling, hugging and know that our hearts can share with a soul mate, a sweetheart, beloved, girl/boyfriend, eventually a date, a boo, someone we can love more than anybody could love her or him...

Is it the price of solitude? Or is love so natural? The rape of the Sabine women is a Roman Empire saga and supposedly consisted, to begin with, in the abduction of the women. Indeed, the abduction conducted to rape. Rape of foreign women is strongly condemned by Moses in the name of God as a sign of idolatry. As time passes, it is so amazing and weird to read the news about the development of different attitudes in Israeli society. Rape, incest, men raping their wives, women raping men at times, children or teens submitted to sexual assaults and the head of the State crashing down for forced and thus not so clear carnal temptations. A lot of men are harassed by women or girls and children can be physically abused by their parents even in the more religious families.

The Semites are inspirited by violence and baseless instinct of possession. This is what is softly meant by "yoter mimeni\יותר ממני = who loves you more that I do?". Okay a very honey-honey song with sugar and slow-slow rhythm but the guy does possess the girl and that's it. And girls can possess guys and guys think they own their friends. This is love, nu-nu?

On the forthcoming Wednesday 5th of August 2009, we shall celebrate Tu Be'Av\ט"ו באב = the 15th of the month of Av. It is usually called "Chag HaAhavah\חג האהבה = Feast of love". At the present we are very fond of such feasts that allow giving flowers or presents to our special one. It may happen that the special one may grow to two, well… say not more, but there can be no special one at all. The worldwide celebrated Saint Valentine’s Day, in February, would seem rather parallel. This is not really the case. Tu Be’Av (like Tu bishvat\ט"ו בשבט = New Year of the Trees) falls on the 15th day of the Jewish month. In this particular case, it falls in the middle of the month of Av, i.e. one of the most tragic months in the Jewish history with the Ninth (tisha) of Av that for ever memorizes the “saddest days” of the two destructions of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem. The 15th day always marks in the Jewish calendar the short time of the lunar cycle monthly recurring “full moon” (“Hayireah bimlu’o\הירח במלואו”). This is why the indefeasible faithfulness of God was disclosed so many times throughout history as mentioned by Talmud Taanit 26a, 30-31b. Is it not appealing that the Jewish tradition is never overcome by disasters, destructions, death, exterminations? And that Tu Be’Av, in the heat of summertime, should be the most joyous day of the year when the moon is full as ready to birthing new times and seasons.

Let’s talk a bit about tradition: it is said that Yom Kippur and Tu Be’Av are the two happiest days of the Jewish year. This relies upon the related birthing process that leaps over death to introduce into new months and times (Taanit 4,3). On that very day of the 15th of Av, in the fortieth year in the wilderness, the Israelites stopped dying in the desert. The clear sign of joy appears with the reply of the women to the punishment imposed by God to those who did believe the spies who slandered against Moses. Indeed, men were and remain too important for women. Here is the interesting point of “the feast of love”: the daughters of Zelophehad came to speak with Moses and the priest Eleazar and they were upset (Num.27:1-11). Their father had died in the desert, there were no men and they wanted men and inheritance! This is the very Hebrew counter-point to “the rape of the Sabine women”! This also became a day of “duty-free” service in a very tribally structured society. Thus as it also developed after the destructions of the Temple, young girls and women could dress humbly and go dancing through the streets and on the squares and look for some nice lad and possible bridegroom. It was a “duty-free” day in the sense that women could marry any member of any tribe as also, the sons of the tribe of Benjamin.

As the Zohar states, the Jewish people are like the moon: going up and falling down, erring and reaching goals and then getting lost again. But every step allows enhancing the quality of a new rise towards God and the Mitzvot.

“Veahavta lereacha kamocha\ואהבת לרעך כמוך – and you shall love your fellowman as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18). We are submitted to “love” because only God is Love. But as we just remembered the destruction of the Temples, we could reflect upon the fact that the first Temple was ruined due to rational and conscious hatred while the second Temple was razed out of a baseless / irrational hatred. Now what happens if we compare these two reasons that prevailed for the destructions with the joyful “full moon” marriage chasing that became a “feast of love”. Sex is a very small part of what love implies and encompasses. Nonetheless, at the present, in Israeli society, it shows to prevail as it always did throughout the TaNaKh: with much confusion of feelings, irrational pulses or slanders.

When the daughters of Zelophehad came to petition Moses they did not ask for love: they asked for men and inheritance, which means they wanted to birth babies and be secured as women. Women do need to be financially and socially secured even if they often initiate or support business developed by men. These daughters had a basic request: we need men to prolong the tribe – indeed all the tribes – that died in the wilderness and we need money, land, properties. At this point, it is evident that Tu Be’Av is a feast for women as they choose their partners, friends, special ones or husbands. Men often don’t get to that. It is at times horrible to observe or even to audit how women are treated with much disregard and total lack of respect in Israeli society and Jewishness. It is incredible that the number of battered women, as also men and children continues to increase and shows difficult to stop. Each sex is more and more victimized by rapes, incest and this is in full contradiction with the realm of the Mitzvot a proper and traditional, usual family and lifestyle.

This is why more and more youths need to be coached, guided or “cured”. When the children of divorced or even multi-reconstituted families “live together” in order to feel some warmth and support each other, they were hardly prepared to any real “love” and awkwardly move ahead or stay on stand by knowing nothing or ignoring the risks of STD or venereal diseases. I see this in at many different levels of the inhabitants and this is the real quest. This is why acting “theology” does not consist in parroting pious words of the Sages. Early in the morning or at night, when youngsters are spaced out because they can only be drug-addicted, they firstly need a hand. They gather in special areas of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other towns. But this hand must be full of understanding and, truly, the tradition of the Sages does provide a lot of answers to face the terrible increase of impoverishment. Impoverishment also includes lack of real love.

Love is not only lovemaking with condoms, pills, abortion. Thus it can be reduced to a speechless relationship without sincere and open talk. There is often nothing to share except bones playing with bones under skin. Indeed, the Jewish tradition has developed a highly positive view of sexuality. At the present, the situation is a bit confused. Personalized desires of groups of individuals, egoistic and rather childlike behaviors tend to imbalance the relationships in new couples. I recently heard two olot chadashot/female newcomers explaining that, according to the tradition, they were only obliged to have sex with their husbands on a regular basis, wash up the dishes, keep the house clean and get the more possible money. Plain and simple. This is another aspect in a country where it is rather difficult to marry and, till today, to find love outside of one’s own tribe (Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrachim… and why not any other tribe living in Eretz Esrael).

Love is a gift, a real gift sent by God. Love is like a miracle and it is a miracle that is renewed everyday in so many families. And love can show at any age. A woman physician was visiting Jerusalem with her daughter who was leaving for the Army. They were not Jewish according to the Halachah. The mother suddenly asked: “Is it so important to be Jewish?” She had been abandoned by her husband. She was surprised when I replied: “Don’t you think love is more important than anything else?”. Or the contact with a rabbi, who did not know what to do: his wife got fascinated by the Gospel right out of the blue moon. We had exceptional discussions: yes, he had the possibility to divorce her, but, she was still Jewish and, by the way, did he love her? They did not quit.

Jesus started his preaching by assisting at a marriage in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11) and two Jewish miztvot/commandments were evident to him. He never denied them: marriage and priesthood. “Love” is a major motto for any Christian believer, just as “joy” (Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Seraphim of Sarov). As regards “love” we might not be quite aware how milder, more caring, compassionate the world of the heathens became through Christendom. We don’t have any idea of the hideous violence that existed in the Barbarian society, even if new paganism recently emerged out of various trends.

This year, on Tu Be’av it would be so be so tender, like God: “HaShem, El rachum vechanun\ה' ה' אל רחום וחנון, Lord, Lord of mercy and loving-kindness”. And then we could also discover each other, without fear.

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

August 1/ July 19, 2007 – 11 deAv 5767 - י"א דאב תשס"ט

Tisha Be'Av and open faith

2009-08-12T04:24:00.000-07:00

On the 9th/10th Av 3829, the Beyt HaMikdash - בית המקדש/Temple of Holiness, was destroyed, plundered by the Roman soldiers led by Emperor Titus. The kelim. כלים (instruments) were brought in triumph to Rome. One year later, Trucus Rufus ended up the work of capture by plowing the Temple Mount, apparently erasing all marks of sacredness from the site and the city of Jerusalem.1938 years have passed and Tisha BeAv became the central memorial day for the destructions of the two "Batim.בתים".

The Beyt HaRishon - בית הראשון/First Temple had been exterminated in 5173/72 as Nebuchadnezzar firstly ruined the Temple, inhabited by the Shechinah - שכינה/Divine Presence. It was built by King Solomon as to definitively fix God's housing in the city that linked the “Shalamim/שלמים”: the “Peace of Above and the Peace on earth/nether world”. For the pagan world, it consisted in eradicating the Jewish nation and the House where they were worshiping a God Who both attracted and galvanized the jealousy of other empires. In terms of history, the construction of the First Temple showed the Jews settling in the Land of Canaan/Israel. Again, they passed from a nomadic culture inherited from the wanderings through the wilderness and terminated for the ages to come the place where the Avodah/Divine Service should be performed perpetually. Thus, the Mishkan - משכן/Tabernacle would no more be on a journey, but reside for ever in a meaningful site. This notion of installation of the Shechinah in a stable location is a real question: how and why the Only-One God, life-giving and Redeemer of the world, should abide in a non-movable place that would moreover in gather all worshiping forces and priestly call of the Jewish communities.

A very interesting transfer occurred from the time the Israelites built the Mishkan - משכן/Tabernacle in the wilderness and could carry it everywhere they journeyed and the moment when David was told by God that he would not built the House, but his son Solomon. Both committed sins, usually mixing sex and leadership with idolatry, thus reducing the existence of the Living House. The Beyt HaSheni.בית השני has also been restored, but not to the full and as a consequence of the decree promulgated by the pagan Messiah Cyrus allowing the Jews to go up to Jerusalem and rebuild there God’s House. It should be noted that it is the last word of the Jewish canonical TaNaKh that ends with this prospect: “Whoever is among you of His people, may the Lord His God be with him! Let him go up/vaya’al - ויעל” (2 Chronicles 36:23).

Tisha BeAv - ט'באב is considered as the “saddest day” of the Jewish history (Taanit 6b) because the God’s Batei Mikdash.בתי מקדש were more than stones. They were “kayam - קים – existent”. In both cases, the Temple only lasted for two periods of ca. 400 years, which is terribly limited in consideration of history. But these years have shown to be times of intensiveness and sins. Or, let’s say that “abomination – to’avah - תועבה“ merely happened to be stronger than faithfulness and desire to comply with the Mitzvot.

Thirty years ago, I was working with of one of the most intriguing and brilliant re-builders of the post-Shoah Jewish communities. We usually met for long travail sessions abroad and then in Jerusalem. The city had been under Israeli control only for ten years. By that time, the local inhabitants and the Churches (not to speak of the Muslims) were in shock and convinced that the Jews would “be kicked out or leave speedily”. The local Churches had never had any special reflection about any spiritual development and deployment of God’s prospects and looked astoundingly dazed at the new situation.

True, the problem of belongings and properties is a constant challenge for the faithful. All the local Churches have sold and bought properties (churches, monasteries) that they had entrusted to other Christians while their people were facing wars, hungers or epidemic diseases in their homelands. In return, it allowed some Churches seizing some places. Some Churches refused to give them back to their original owners which raised conflicts, still pending at some courts today. But nobody could even think that there is no “certificate of property” as regards God. The Jews had experienced this throughout history and they also had enough faith and insights to disconnect temporary properties from long-term promises given by God. So, as I worked with this rabbi, we did agree that very soon the Jewish communities of Israel will show a real will to get closer to the Temple Mount. It could not suffice to go to the Kotel/Western Wall that we had seen as a sandy and dusty place in Iyyar 5727/June 1967.

There should be a move that would lead to require more, i.e. to ask for the re-observance of the daily sacrifices and the rebuilding of the Temple. Don’t say this is weird or ridiculous or that we are World Wildlife at the present, i.e. against animal sacrifices. This deals with the irrational part of human nature and identity. Indeed, the very first steps were taken at that time by collecting the money in order to shape again the Kelim - כלים/instruments, the great Menorah… Interestingly, the rabbi, as many rabbis of other parts of the world were absolutely aware that these problems could be considered as “light-hearted’ and somehow unrealistic conversations at that time. We were just convinced that, in some unexpected manner, this huge issue would powerfully develop among Israeli society over the coming years. We were not members of any specific group. We were simply describing what history had always proven: the return in mass of the Jews to Eretz Israel in conformity with some blessing from the Nations (as Cyrus represented Persia) includes the necessity to positively reckon on the Temple’s primacy in both the Jewish and the non-Jewish life, as by the time of the destruction of the Mikdash in 70 ce.

Today, the question grew to a serious concern and became a harsh political issue. This had and still has nothing to do with our method of thinking three decades ago. Faith and religion in Israel are systematically patterned in narrow boxes or niches. Judaism is much diversified; still “tevot.תבות – boxes” are apparently very convenient. From Noah’s Ark to the boxes protecting the tefillin.תפילין and, in some way, the Temple housing God’s Shechinah.שכינה (only in the First Mikdash according to the tradition), there is a permanent trend to “lock without locking up” the Divine Presence or Her related instruments in manually controlled places or objects.

There might be a sort of constant misunderstanding or confusion today. We see some slowdown in the celebration of the annual anniversary of the entrance of the Israel Army into the Old City and their taking over of the Temple Mount. It did allow free access to anybody to the Western Wall and the State of the Jews exercises, for the first time since 70, a legal control of the Churches, which was totally unheard or unthinkable . 5727/1967 marked a turn in the Jewish conscience that will require years and decades of patient dialogue with the other faith bodies.

Just as we cannot leap over centuries of hatred and estrangement, we definitely cannot compel – not even ourselves as Jews and Israelis or Christian people of Jewish origin – to get aware, accept, comply and agree with what has happened forty years ago. Again, any political point of view about this issue is biased and vain. But the Old City of Jerusalem tracks back to the very roots of what deals with the Jewish faith before the time of King Solomon’s First Temple.

On the Feast of Rosh HaShanah, the Jews are told to remind that they were strangers and that “my father (Abraham) was a wandering Aramean” (Deut. 26:5). The point is between stability in a definite location and/or journeys through the world bearing in mind the Land of Canaan. Without any reference to any other religion, Judaism has been and is still confronted to hatred and will of extermination, as if their own being could impulsively drift the Nations to a mental, spiritual, physical extermination and erasing process of Israel. Sadly enough, this alien desire of annihilation goes along with some crude and recurrent self-hatred shown by the Jewish communities who would tend to trespass or capture God’s gifts and miracles… and destroy them. Thus, the First Temple was ruined, according to the Sages, because of a “conscious hatred – sichliyut - שכליות)”. “Sechel.שכל = wit, intelligence, awareness”; from radical “achel.אכל = to consume) is means “destruction: “I created the angel of death to work destruction (mesakel/משכל)” (Numbers Rabba 16:24).

Are humans so spaced out that they can hate each other with full and straight-minded consciousness if not conscience? The Shechinah left because of humane pretence to replace Her. As regards the Second Temple, it was destroyed by a “sinat chinam.שנאת חינם – baseless hatred or rather an irrational hatred”. There are definitely times when humans lose any sense of spiritual orientation. They would desperately need some coaching, guidance. The Temple was frequented by the Jews as also a lot of international Gentiles and proselytes, later by the first Christians (Acts of the Apostles 2:46). “Churban - חורבן” is the usual word used for “Temple destruction”. It is a “desolation that devastated the vineyard” (Kilayim 4, 29c).

Indeed, we maybe in a situation of confused process of destruction. On the one hand, “Churban” applies to the murder and physical eradication of the Beyt/Temple as the living and acting Mishkan or Dwelling of God. Forty years after the entrance of the army of the Jewish State, Moshe Dayan’s attitude to given back the Mount to the baffled Muslims was not only a wise and tactical move. The Jewish authorities would not have been able to bless the Jews to go up the place. Today, after 40 years, the tendency is to allow going up there without any overall consent. We are searching our way… as if going out of the wilderness after 40, 400, 4,000 years… But the Churban is a very specifically Jewish concern that will require time. Again we are without clocks or delays.

The destruction of the Temple constitute the first and major element of the Jewish memory that also extended throughout history to the will to wipe out the Jews. On this particular day, I would presume it would be good to disconnect Tisha BeAv from the Shoah!שואה (Holocaust, Katastropha in Greek/Russian). At this point, the Shoah.שואה directly refers to the attitude of the Christian faith and Churches towards Judaism. On the 9th of Av, Jesus’ words: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up… He was speaking of the temple of his body”.(John 2:19) might pre-suppose for the Christians that the time of the Temple is over and that the Churches are not concerned by the destruction. The misunderstanding continues as the Christians would consider that the Holy Sepulcher – Empty Tomb or place of Resurrection (Anastasis) has unconditionally replaced the Living House where Jesus himself used to come daily (Matthew 26:55).

Whatever friendly relationships between Judaism and the Churches that seemingly develop in many places – but hardly in Israel because of this permanent political hindrance – Tisha BeAv is a major rift between the community of Israel and Christendom. The rift of splitting is a long-distance, long-term one. How in the world can any Church tradition positively consider the reconstruction of the Temple? The Amidah/18 benediction prayer “Boneh Yerushalayim.בונה ירושלים – building (the two) Jerusalem” refers to “Build the House” (Berachot 2:3) that certainly dates back to the pre-Maccabean times. The original prayer is found in the Birkat HaMazon (3rd blessing, graces after meals).

On the 9th of Av, we may become aware that, in anyway, any time, anyhow, i.e. in unexpected ways God might “soon and speedily = 1 day to thousands years” reverse history, comfort/nachem - נחם or have mercy/rachem - רחם upon the community of Israel and thus remove the veil of pretence that blindly freezes any believer. Faith implies to enjoy the dynamics of being together. And to go up, “vaya’al - ויעל”!

av aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 28/15, 2009 – 7 deAv 5769 - ז' דאב תשס"ט

Times of vision and comfort ?

2009-07-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

We arrive to some sort of "end of time, end of year" period. Every year, in summer, the four/three-week Tammuz to Av recurrence should bring the attention of the Jews to the meaning of "kaytz\קיץ - summer", connected with "ketz\קץ - end. There are the “K'tzey haolam\קצי העולם - the end of the world as a space" and the prospect of finishing the year, a time of harvesting (Bereishit 8:22 or Tehillim 74:17: "You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter).

Many Sages of Israel have often presupposed that Shabbat "Devarim\דברים" that commences with the reading of the the parshat hashavua/portion Devarim-Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22. : "Eleh haDevarim-אלה הדברים/ These are the words (that Moses said to all Israel beyond the Jordan)" aimed to repeat what God had said previously to Moses from the very first verse of Bereishit/Genesis till their approaching of the Land of Canaan from the Eastern pat of the Jordan River.

We should note and with much awareness that the fifth Book of the Written Torah encompasses many actions that all exclusively deal, at first glance, with the achieving part of the exodus and the final entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Canaan after some 39 years of wandering and various tribulations in the wilderness. This is correct and still not totally exact. Indeed, the Book suggests that God confirmed Moses with all the historic data that happened since the flight from Egypt and obliged the Jewish people to err in the desert before getting allowed to cross the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua Bin Nun. Moses concludes his own mission and gets ready to die “somewhere” on Mount Nebo, reckoning all the events that he carried out with a God's predilection.

But the Book is called “Mishneh Torah\משנה תורה – repetition of the Law” that wrongly became in all translations “Deuteronomy = the Second Law”. Why is it slightly inexact? “Second Law” might be misinterpreted as a new or different giving of the Torah, as supposedly accomplishing what was not perfect and complete at the Mount Sinai. This has some veracity but is still not the real purpose of the Book. Then, from the Second Book of the Chumash\חומש (Five Books of Moses), the actions are trying to develop in view to allow the Israelites to return to the Land of Canaan and penetrate the region that was promised by God to the Avot\אבות (Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-Israel).

Long series of a journey full of hardships and misunderstandings among the Israelites as regards how God meant to implement this redemption project and what benefits the Israelites can get having “anshey chayil\אנשי חיל – men of power and judgment”. Then they were given the Written and Oral Laws (Matan Toratenu\מתן תורתנו) after they behaved as childlike troubleshooters with the Chet-ha-egel\חטא העגל (the golden calf sin). It was more a kind of accessories and jewelry melting party. But Moses intervened and repeated the major elements of the Divrot\דברות – Ten Commandments, the building of the Mishkan -Tabernacle. VaYikra is the Book of the Levites or how to get closer to holiness and sanctify God as a priestly nation.

Finally, BeMidbar\במדבר-Numbers shows how the Israelites did finish the construction of the Mishkan/Tabernacle but were not able yet to penetrate the Land. Some tongues have specific ways in expressing the idea of what appears “secondly”. Russian has “vtoroi/второй = second as following first and introducing a third thing, if any”. But “drugoi/другой = second in the sense of “other, different” as “innyi/инний”. “Mishneh Torah does not really refer to some second, third or more Torot-תורות/Laws’. Indeed, Moses undertook to expound how God spoke to the Israelites at Horeb. But his account is not showing some yearning for the past. On the contrary, although this might sound like a paradox: this account opens the way to the future. “Mishneh משנה = elements to be repeated” because the Book of Devarim – Deuteronomy includes a sort of “eleventh” Mitzvah/commandment: “Shma’ Israel” (Deut. 6:4-9). “Leshanen\לשנן = to repeat” is a pedagogical method. God insists that specific Commandments have to be repeated constantly by the Israelites, maybe thus with more insights and prophetic capacities.

This is why, “kaytz\קיץ – harvest, end” allows envisioning as true factors the capacity for the Jews to get enhanced harvesting seasons in the future. Apparently, Moses recounts what has happened during the exodus and the wandering in desert. He rather anticipates how the Israelites will have to comply with the Mitzvot and the tests they overcame in searching their way to reaching out to the Land of Canaan. Again, the Land of Canaan or Eretz Kanaan/Israel, is not a “new” conquest. It will turn to series of fighting confrontations with the local inhabitants. But, it is indeed, in an unusual manner, the homecoming of the Avot/ancestors’ descent according to a Divine promise that defies time, space and human understanding.

The spiritual experience of Israel is that “destructions” as those of the Temples (Ninth of Av) are timeless and lead to time and motion comprehensiveness of repairing actions. God accepts and tolerates us but “ad matai\עד מתי – until when?” (Tehillim 4:3). The Jews are normally trained to exert their living memory as looking through the tragedies of the past in order to repair and create anew what have been destroyed of damaged.

Many contemporary rabbis have underscored the strong connection that ties up the weekly portion with the haftarah\הפטרה (prophetic portion) read on that Shabbat Chazon\שבת חזון (Shabbat of the “Vision”) in Isaiah 1:1-27. Tisha beAv (9th of Av) marks a peak since the year 70 (C.E.) in the symbolic and emotional, spiritual life of the Jewish experience. History and calamities rushed at Judaism and 9th of Av corresponds at the present to events definitely linked to a special period of history, i.e. the emergence and spreading of Christianity, the pretence of false messiahs (Bar Kochba) and the penance of famous Jewish Sages (R. Akiva). Thus, the following events are supposed to have happened on the 9th of Av: Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70; plowing of the Temple Mount by Turnus Rufus and Jerusalem became the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina in 71; the defeat of Bar Kochba in 135; the first crusade launched by Pope Urban II in 1095; the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1295 and the final expulsion of all Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492. Some former Soviet religious sites are called “New Aelia Capitolina!” Shabtai Tzvi’s destiny as false messiah also intermingles with this key date.

We should never forget that Jews read the Prophet Isaiah’s Chazon/vision on the Shabbat before Tisha BeAv for a reason that has nothing to do with the Nations’ attitude and abominations against the Jews. When he wrote, hundreds years after Moses’ last account in Devarim: “Oy, goy chet-אוי גוי חטא/ oy - sinful nation / am kaved avon\עם כבד און – people laden with iniquity… Your country lies desolate; your cities are burnt with fire…What is to Me the multitude of your sacrifices… I do not delight in the blood of bulls, of lambs or of goats” (Is. 1:4.7.11). “Eycha hayta lezonah-איכה היה לזונה/ Oy how the faithful city has become a whore” (Is. 1:21) include the title cry of the Hebrew Book of “Lamentions – Eycha\איכה” – read on the 9th of Av. Is it not strange and spiritually highly significant that the Devarim/Deuteronomy starts with the same cry of lament and interrogation uttered by Moses about the Israelites: “Eycha essa levadi\איכה אשא לבדי – how can I bear the heavy burden of your disputes all by myself?” (Deut. 1:12). “Eycha\איכה – how, how come?” also shows in the Song 1:7 (“eykana\איכנא” in Song 5:3; Esther 8:6). This refers to the main quest after the meaning of life in good as in evil.

Indeed, “eycha\איכה” is firstly to be found in the Book of Bereishit/Genesis as Adam and Eve have disobeyed to God commandment not to eat from the fruit. It should be noted that Judaism as the Oriental Christian Churches do not accept the concept of “the origin sin”. The sin consisted in disobeying God’s word. Thus, in the Gan Eden, God’s call to Adam at the end of the day was: “Ayecha\איכ (eycha) – how, where are you?” (Gen. 3:10). When God exclaimed this question and summoned Adam rather softly to hear the truth, “eycha\איכה” implies a fault, a rupture between God and His creature. Thousands of years still leave Judaism in a sort of incapacity to admit we have to be obedient to God and not to what we think, in our opinion, that God is willing. There is a profound experience of cry from the entrails in this very short and exceptional word.

This is why Devarim/Deuteronomy is indeed “Mishney Torah”: We will see that the Book does not repeat many Mitzvot/Commandments and this is a very intriguing point too. On the contrary, Devarim brings forth new commandments. The Book achieves and implements the destiny of the Jewish nation but there has been a harsh dispute why not to start the TaNaKh with Bereishit, i.e. the creation of the world and every human being created “in God’s Image and Likeness” (Gen. 1:26).

It would be rather short-sighted, narrow-minded to focus, on these days of fast and penance, on the tribulations that Christianity imposed upon Judaism. Judaism did suffer a lot and with much cruelty from the pre-Christian anti-Judaism and the first destruction of the Temple on 9th of Av 587(bce) and that day (1312 bce), the spies/scouts dissuaded the Israelites to penetrate the Land of Canaan (Taanit 9b). We are going through nine days of fast till Tisha BeAv, not because the others did harm, attack, imperil, slaughter, kill and destroy, in many ways, the different traditions and the faithful of the Jewish communities.

But the task of Judaism is not to roll up into some shelter and, in return, only accuse the Christians of the wounds and scars of history against the Jews. Some Christian Churches have taught with much despise and ignorance of the Scripture how the Jews had killed Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel, as the catechism of the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches show that all mankind (both Jews and Gentiles) have put Jesus to the Cross. It would be pitiful and not be responsible not to combat the deep mutual ignorance that separate most religious communities. On these days of fast, the Jews focus on the abominations that led to the destruction (churban\חורבן) of the Temples. We have been scapegoats from the time of the exile in Egypt, so it is incumbent on the Jewish spiritual leaders and communities to avoid any scapegoat-making in return or some kind of revenge. Christian catechism as the transmission of the Jewish faith is an immense task that has often been defective, at different levels and in a constant trend to get estranged. How can we today, in Israel, tame each other in a peaceful reflection? We apparently cannot dialogue at the present, Catechism comes from Greek “to echo”, similar to “mishney torah – repeat repeatedly and looking forward, ahead of who we are .

“I have set the land before you: go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them” (Gen 1:8). “Eycha! How, where in the world! How come?” It is such an extravagant and awesome event that turns death into life and we are really born to bless, only expecting any echo of faith (= “amen”) …

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 19/6, 2007 – 27 deTammuz 5769 - כ"ז דתמוז תשס"ט

Jealoys..., Human Faces..., Blah-blah..., Adversity... Summer notes

2009-07-19T07:23:00.003-07:00

1) Jealousy, zeal and emulation

With regard to the parshat Balak/פרשת בלק, we were rather busy in studying the spiritual commitment and assistance to humans provided by animals in the Scripture, in particular Balaam and his she-donkey. This showed how the animal's influence is still significant today as the Morning Prayer blessing starts with the words of Balaam. But this journey through the zoo theological assistance system did not allow us stopping at the major event that happened at the end of the reading portion (Bamidbar 25:1-9): the terrible account of the then-unheard "profaning of the Israelites at Shittim; they corrupted themselves by whoring (lezenot) with the daughters of Moab who invited them to the sacrifice for their god" (25:1-2). Thus, the Israelite Zimri publicly scorned at Moses and rejected the God of Israel and had open sexual intercourse with a Moabite.

This creates the link with "Pinchas (son of Eleazar son of Aaron)", the reading portion which mainly deals with passion, zealotry in Bemidbar 25:10-30:1.Of course, it might be astounding that a she-ass corrected Balaam’s words or that a cock crowed in the event of a prophesied treason. But "committing harlotry with Moabite women and worshiping their god Baal Peor)" seems totally natural in the present. It is almost not shocking. It is not even a real sin.

The Sages had time to explain things and, let’s be cool, there must be some misunderstandings somewhere about the event. The situation is not a real question because - yes, we never heard a police horse refrain his rider to stab demonstrators in a riot, if any. But physical prostitution with pagan women and men… good gracious! This is so ten a penny! And then to have some little worshiping party with gods that line from trees to boats, bananas and incense boxes is just as fit as a fiddle even among the most remote Jewish buddy boo networks. People can be put at the stake with this sexual games and the year has been a rather hot one until just this very hour.

The real problem with Pinchas is that the man seeing this blasphemous circus, got very hot and mad at the scene and put all his passion in getting rid of the profanation. The method is not common at the present. Baal Peor is a small bigotry god compared to the constellation that we developed in the name of all monotheistic beliefs and new paganism. "The Lord said to Moses: "Take all the heads of the people and have them impaled (hoka otam) before the Lord in front of the sun (neged hashemesh\נגד השמש = publicly)". Moses did listen to God, but one Israelite suddenly brought a Madianite woman for himself and his companions. Pinchas took a spear, followed them and stabbed her "in the belly - the maw/ el-kevatah\על קבתה". And God was pleased by Pinchas' passion to avenge the glorious Name of the Lord. God Himself sent a plague that killed twenty-four thousand people among the Israelites to punish their idolatry and harlotry. He thus also praised Pinchas and said: " I grant him My Pact of peace - et briti shalom\את בריתי שלום (wholeness, friendship, loyalty)”. Interestingly, God speaks about Pinchas as being “shalem – loyal” (1 Kings 8:61) or like Jacob who came back “shalem\שלם – safe and sound” to Sichem (Gen. 33:18). He acknowledges Pinchas as an “allied friend”, a “sholem\שולם – co-worker” (Tehillim 7:5). The “Berit shalom\ברית שלום – Pact of peace” definitely links Pinchas to the Prophet Elijah as regards the frenzy killings of the Baal worshipers perpetrated by the Prophet on Mount Carmel. It also connects to the “Covenant of peace” described by Prophet Isaiah 54:10: “The mountains may move, and the hills be shaken, my loyalty (chasdi\חסדי) shall never move from you, nor the Pact of My friendship (brit shlomi\ברית שלומי) be shaken – said the Lord with loving-kindness”.

There is a problem indeed. “Shalom\שלום” does not mean “peace”. Pinchas stabbing attitude that slaughtered a woman and her carnal partner through the maw (a bit bestial) corresponds with the order that God gave to Moses to impale all the idolaters and the whoring Israelites. At the present, after 2,000 years of squeamish strictness along the Diasporas, Judaism and Christianity have developed similar kinds of Puritanism and this Divine decree and Pinchas’ murder would be considered as a proof of some Old Testament avenging God of wrath. Generations of Jews and Christian alike have been educated with awe, which is contrasting with the Oriental Jewish and Christian tradition, basically because of the absence of the “Original sin theology” that is more pregnant in the East. But this weekly portion has raised awe and fear among both the Jews and the Christians.

We call peace all the day upon Jerusalem, upon the world. In Hebrew, it firstly means that we believe in “justice” as in this Pact concluded by God with Pinchas (Num. 25:12). Is it so inhuman to explain the situation in such a way? Or are we cheating and fooling each other and God’s Divine Presence as we gossip like in a parrot fashion about peace and have been paying billions of billions of new old currencies over centuries to reach some dubious cease-fire treaties? Moses officials impaled the wrongdoers and Pinchas got a covenant of friendship with God after his infuriated slaughter. Justice induces passion. This has nothing to do with our justice. Right and righteousness, legacy is an obsession in the Semitic and Greek-Latin world of the Scripture. It certainly brought some insights about the way love slowly showed up throughout the ages.

John the Baptist and Jesus have terrible words about God’s wrath, family hatred and wars (Matthew 3:10; 24:6).It is quite another prospect to say that one accepts God’s decisions: “Atah tzaddik al kol haba alay\אתה צדיק על כל הבא – You are just in all that happens to me” (Ps. 51:7). And we must handle these words very carefully because we do miss a lot a real understanding in terms of “verticality”, of God as acting in our lives like the woman towards Adam: “ezer kenegdo\עזר כנגדו = a helper against our will”.

Peace does not imply the absence of conflicts or a crooked method to avoid quarreling if not more. “Shalom” comes from “shalem\שלם” which may be broken down into a) “Hishlim\השלים – to complete” as “he freed his slave who completed the quorum of ten persons” (Berachot 47b); b) To end, cease: “They must fast the whole day till it ends”. (Yoma 82a); c) To make friends/ surrender: “He will pay does not mean money but that he will surrender the evil spirit and you will be friends” (Sukkot 52a). Thus “shalem\שלם” refers to payments as “wiping out a pending debt of any sort” or “to give a reward, a recompense”: “beshalom\בשלום – for the sake of total trust, faith, confidence”. We do not often think of the fact that “peace” includes and involves combats, payments, as “to redeem (padah\פדה) = to reimburse a debt or a loan over a long-term period.” “Peace” is fulfillment and achieving or reaching out to specific goals. “Menuchah\מנוחה – quietness” is closer to what we usually would consider as “hesychia – time of rests, silence” and peaceful balance.

The Israeli society can give the impression of a quiet and patient atmosphere. By the time of Pinchas and the episode with Baal-Peor, our ancestors might have been more “grilling on fires and boiling”. There is a lot of aggressiveness under control that bursts out of a sudden.

But the real problem is that Pinchas is a man of passion, a zealot; say, he is right but the way he corrects the situation is full of anger, passion, zeal and frankly beyond reason and irrationality. To begin with, “kinah-קנאה/Aramaic kina\קינא = jealousy, passion”: “My zeal for Your house has been my undoing (ate me up) / ki kinat beytcha achalteni\כי קנאת ביתך אכלתני” (Tehillim 69:10; cf. John 2:17). Or, “I am consumed with rage-zeal / Tzimtachteni kinati\צמחתני קנאתי” (Ps. 119:139). Prophet Elijah has the same when killing the worshipers of the Baal. It starts with a zeal than cannot be stopped in order to implement something considered as vital and true, essential. Passion is not only “pathos” or feelings that are close to cruel sufferings affecting thoughts, desires, impulses, reflections. This leads or can develop into some pathology indeed. “Jealousy, lust and ambition carry man out of the world (= he quits himself and reality)” (Avot 4:21).

On the other hand, “emulation among the scholars increases wisdom” (Bava Bathra 21a/22a). “Kanna’in/m-קנאין-ם” were the zealots during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans (Numbers Rabba 20). The root means in the Semitic language an in-depth thirst that cannot be reasoned or quenched. It concerns the desire to possess and control truth. Then, people want to act in the name of this veracity or presupposed truth beyond any self-control or capacity of taking some distance. Judaism is curiously balanced with peaks of irrationality and acts of violence and a profound, unique sense of loving-kindness, compassion and analysis. In comparison, Russian “strasti/cтрастьи = (feelings of) passions” that may totally overcome and possess a soul with dangerous abilities to twirling passions and dreams. This may explain, for example, why Slavic souls extensively refer to dreams interpretation or underscore their importance in their subconscious, virtual and real day and night reality. The Semites are quite the same. Indeed, faith is the way to combat the raw basic instinct of fancies, fantasizing thoughts and attain a serene and untroubled state of spiritual and physical balance.

It is a gift to be given a “brit shalom\ברית שלום = Pact of friendship” sealed by God. Now, all the systems of beliefs and religion and thus Judaism, Christianity and Islam have shown horrible times when zealots acted as true “terrorists of God”. Purity of faith and acts often climaxed in the Kiddush HaShem\קידוש השם (sacrifice), as during the siege of Jerusalem or at Masada. But who can pretend to be an envoy of the Lord (the same exists among the Christian and Muslim without the problem of any “missionary activity”)? Who can have the nerve to work in the very Name of the Only One and claim to be zealous at the present, without confusion? Fencing and framing ourselves by rejecting the others softly or with violence and without any sense of tolerance or loving-kindness is a real danger of fundamentalism that affects every community, at least most of them. Identity is stronger at the moment than "being, existing" which is a true miracle of constant survival for the whole mankind.
Indeed, we seemingly go through new processes that would require to determine or give some precision about who we are. There are such periods in history. They show up and disappear on regular basis. But the real God-witnessing person or community is the one that in-depths remains open to the widest possible scope of what is humane and spiritual. They know their lives are built on miracles.

The root for “Kinah\קנאה = passion” is “to acquire”. This means that such envoys calling for peace were “acquired” by God and they did not capture Him. Talmud Tractate Gittin positively recounts the life and martyrdom of John the Baptist which the Eastern Orthodox Church will celebrate on Saturday, in particular in Ein Karem were his parents lived. His words of penance were zealous and apparently revengeful. On the other hand, it is certain that he was beheaded as the consequence of an autocrat’s passionate oath to accept any desire expressed by a power-thirsty daughter obeying to her corrupt mother (Matthew 14:10). In this full passion-consumed environment, John appears to be a man of peace and considered as a link with Prophet Elijah. True zealots either disappear in the merkavah-מרכבה/chariot or are humbled till they are beheaded but their souls can’t be killed. They emulate and sustain faith.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 15/2, 2009 - 23 de Tamuz 5769 - כ"ג דתמוז תשס"ט

2) Human Faces

“Would Abraham or the Sages of old naturally cope with the hi-tech world in which we live? In all times, the challenge has been to overcome fears, panics to feel alone and to face the “burden of some survival”.

In a very famous low voice sung sort of poem, the French Greek but mostly Jewish music writer Georges Moustaki wails: "With my face of foreigner ("mug of a dago" is more exact) / of wandering Jew / and of Greek shepherd...". The words are scarcely audible with a touch of artistic charm and sex-appealing pathos while his fingers hardly reach the cords of a big guitar.

Yes, we have three decades of hits continuously reprogrammed in Israel because we love to feel history down to the pits of all roots, even sound records. And a real talent to appear as a miserable shlimazlשלימזל - the rejected all-alien that still would attract any mermaid slowly dancing on the beach. He had written the famous best "Je ne regrette rien - No, I don't regret" and "Mylord" sung by the genius Edith Piaf whose crisping vocal cords could damn crowds of fans. They can't be compared with Yossi Banai who put some songs into Hebrew with much feelings and skillful insights of universal experiences. The Beatles' "Help" echoes the Swedish Abba group's "Money, money" hit that still advertise how they want to spicily get "in a rich man’s world". Abba is being programmed every 10 mn. on some Israeli radio... that time, the Soviets were vanishingly praising "The evenings of Moscow" - peace was secured by the Choir of the Soviet Army - while the Chinese were tuning about "proletarians who ought to love proletarians and enhance culture among the rice cultivators". Wham got into Georges Michael’s “wake me up before you go”. We belong to a generation of broadcast sounds, especially rhythmic in English; it doesn’t matter if it is not in Hebrew: as the Queen rock opera Freddy Mercury sang “We are the champions”.

He was the Zoroastrian pop singer followed by Nirvana’s “Smell like teen spirit” to develop the good odor. Rap, R ‘n B paved the way to the boys/girls bands like the “Spice girls”. Oh! and our Sarit Haddad recites the "Shma Israel" in a song in which she does confess with a good tempo "Ani achshav levad6אני עכשיו לבד / I am now alone". I don't buy that at all. She is now 31, I missed her concert, alas in Jerusalem, but she is backed by Rav Ovadya, by all the Tzaddikim! Nothing to say at this point about late Michael Jackson - the sad story of a genius whose life was broken but all the colors of American dreams, shots and scandals and still, we do not know where his remains are...

The problem is to manage all i-pods, MP3 players, i-phones. Full equipment presupposes computers, laptops ("nayad" sounds so sweet), notebooks, cell phones and cellular’s, with recording memories, images, pictures, videos, films, tape-recorders; yes! and then 160 satellite television channels plus some competitors, all the singers of the universe... I get my personal breaking news directly from all my computerized tool bars.Is it still a bit mebubal-מבולבל /confused"? Thus, it would be good to feel so connected that it would even allow me to reach out to find some boo, a buddy (post-“Friends” generation) in Palau. No Jews there but you could get some former Guantanamo Uighur prisoner who spontaneously immigrated there. Just unbelievable. Impossible. Look! Ten years ago, I was watching the news, "beshidur chai-שידור חי - live" from a small Japanese storm-beaten island. Two Japanese soldiers were explaining that they would never surrender to the U.S. Forces and would rather commit hara kiri (ritual suicide); they were expecting the response of the Emperor of Japan whose divinity had been abolished by a decision taken by Gen. Mac Arthur. Then, what a chance! I was full instrumented to know that World War II (supposedly) was over and there, in the hell of remote stormy islands, two valiant soldiers were still fighting ghostly foes.

I thought of Abraham Avinu, of course. From Ur-Kasdim to Haran down to Egypt, up to the terebinths at Mamre and Machpelah, you see, Grandpa, we shall overcome some day, but at the right time, the right place, not like these two rescued chaps that emerged from some odd abashment between past and future.

This bewildering point is the synchronic (same-time) occurrence of events that connect us with diachronic (time-crossing) situations that happened in different locations. We have it in the Israeli society. It requires a lot of watchful and judicious attention and understanding. Some inhabitants not only behave as if they were living some centuries ago. Their ways of thinking can show us the contemporary outlasting of men and women from the various ages. And simultaneously, we can check or survey the disruptions that affected the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Middle-Eastern collectivity, in particular as regards their relationships to faith. Thus we can meet people that “express” the time of the Temple (the Madianites of our weekly reading “Matot” that heard of John the Baptist, but not Jesus’ baptism, cf. the Sabba’im), but also Yemenites who developed the Zohar and still use Aramaic. Ethiopians show us very ancient practices connecting Judaism and early Christianity.

Some former Soviets would link the Scythian Crimea of the Antiquity and the Khazars that converted to Judaism and disappeared in the 7th century. In the 9th century, Grand Duke Volodymyr (Vladimir) of Kiev dramatically chose the Byzantine Oriental Christian faith then expressed in one Orthodox and Catholic Church after having consulted the Jews and the Muslims. Their presence in Israel is often positioned with some aggressiveness towards a long-century experience of confrontation with Islam and the Mongolians. We can also meet with contemporaries of Rav Luria’s disciples and the yeshivot of Safed that go to the same supermarkets as some monks from the Hagion Horos (Holy Mount Athos). They observe the rules of Eastern Orthodox Christian regulations. They do explain more accurately than any breaking news how Rome and Constantinople split in 1054 and cannot repair the situation at the moment.

Let’s come back to the caring hospitality shown at Mamre’s Oaks by Abraham Avinu and his right jolly laughing wife at the announce of her birthing a son. The scene has been drawn, designed, painted. We have tons of icons with and without the patriarch and Sarah. No film, no picture, no video and, of course, no canned laughter. They were two wilderness NFA Arameans dwelling under some big tent, without I.D. cards and photos. They were not dotting the I’s of their pods, phones, MP3 players, world TV networks. They got one (several indeed) Divine breaking news whose developments are prolonging at the present. “I bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the sea-shore; all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants because you have obeyed My command (Bereishit 22:17-18).

Now, by the time of Abraham and Sarah, there were no computers, mobiles, sms messages, instant messengers, ICQ (born on the Israeli coast), Trillian and others connecters. Identity was a “word is a word”. Either you say the truth or you are fined and can eventually be killed in an oral cultural environment. Abraham, for instance, got afraid and presented Sarah to King Abimelech of Gerar as being his sister (Gen.20:1-18). A world of visions, nightmares, dreams and talks, well online chats with the Lord. This is the silent world counter-point of our multi-media stuff. We swirl in a super high tech mall or mart of sounds, cries, music drone dizziness and may lose our identity.

In Hebrew, “panim\פנים = face” comes from the root “panah\פנה = to turn (one’s face). In Gen. Rabba 91: “pney haaretz\פני הארץ = the wealthy”; “she can cover her nakedness/appearance” (Berachot 24a, Niddah 14b). “The Torah has law for each of which there are 49 “clean” and 49 “unclean” ways of interpretation” (Cant. Rabba 2,4). “This question must be brought inside and even to the innermost” (Bava Metzia 16a). In the context of Abraham at the terebinths of Mamre, the ancestor had no proof of identity as we can check today. Hebrew “Panim” is a plural because of the numerous aspects of an identity. Like the “face of a watch”, a human shows a visage and a hair backside without expression. But appearance and countenance reveal an image, not necessarily who we are indeed. We are overcome with images and looks that do not exhibit the heart of the souls. A decade ago, was created in Harvard the famous world top “Facebook”. It is doubled with “Piczo” or drawing natural sites for the development of contact networks. Just as “Myspace” (which is very “musical and sounds”) and the various albums and blogs, they question our identity as holders of the “imprint, mark/chotam\חותם – Gr. “sphragis” and not only our self-esteem which is a basic virtue according to the Jewish rabbinic tradition.

For the Jewish tradition, our “faces” (it curiously gave the Yiddish plural form “punimer\פנימער”) are not narcissistic. If millions of self-addicted people spend hours in vamping up a virtual online presumed contact way to show off who they are or think they are, our self-esteem can be brought to the measure of our suffering of personal solitude; we might even feel abandoned in an immense universe of whirling voices, sounds, changing or photochopped images. Would Abraham or the Sages of old naturally cope with the hi-tech world in which we live? In all times, the challenge has been to overcome fears, panics to feel alone and to face the “burden of some survival”. There is a sort of parallel between Sarah’s laughter and our swiftly virtual “lol”. Is it a desperate search for some kind of existence? In Israel, we constantly face “chopped” images of a wide God’s Likeness that is going through a sort of puzzlement.

It is said: “An extra measure of love was made known to the humans as they were created in God’s Image” (Avot 3:14). This also explains why Adam was unique and created singly: it allows every human being to get aware of the fact that s/he is personal has the same likeness as God and thus be saved –each soul encompasses the whole universe” (Sanhedrin 4:5).Good enough, but this is not what we may see in daily life. We go through times of shows, passivity and self-content. Modern techniques are a plus for a society as far as they allow it to improve its welfare and capacities. But the realm of visible things or people is nothing compared to the vast and immeasurable source of capacities that are beyond our sights and envisioning skills. This absence of plenitude may be a spiritual challenge in times of licentious, loose and libertine turmoil.

Jesus made an intriguing statement: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand” (Matthew 12:24). We have the tools utilized for building up ourselves and not making us sleepy or spaced out. We don’t reach immortality or more power because we have records and archives at hand. Abraham’s blessing is stronger than anything we can share and thus requires a deft touch of reality.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 12/June 20, 2009 - 20 deTammuz 5769 - כ' דתמוז תשס"ט

3) Translation or blah-blah ?

Jews came from all over the world since the creation of the State of Israel. With regards to the local inhabitants, there has always been a huge diversity of cultures, languages and dialects. Since the 6th century, the Arabic tongue developed among the population that was passing by in the area and settled or were the descent of all intermingled tribes and groups. Jews converted to Christianity, then to Islam and this is studied, at the present, at the Hebrew University. This makes sense and can be easily tracked back through naming, names of the villages and family names.

From the time of the Hittites who sold the cave of Machpalah to Abraham and thus created the first strong link between the embryo of a Jewish identity based on faith in God in a small tribe generated by a wandering Aramean from Haran and Ur-Kasdim in Sumer, a lot of people and nations entered the Eretz Canaan - Eretz Israel, passing through the original "Philistine land or Palestine".

Today, the international lingua franca or vernacular tongue is undoubtedly English. Thus, there is a specific way here to speak English and to pronounce or write it and make special mistakes locally considered as correct. It is quite different from the London Cockney that became national Australian speech. It is our melting-pot, village mixer. We are blending English with all kinds of other languages or dialects. It does not mean that we merge a society that way.

Look! Until recently and they still have that attitude, the Japanese will stop speaking if they understand that you know or only understand some Japanese. And they would not help in learning the tongue that is only for the Japanese. Or, they will require some evidence why you are not “acting with enmity”. Israelis have developed the same tendency over many years. Of course, we have the Anglo's and they arrived from all over the planet. But how come that you speak Hebrew and can even write and read it? You must be Jewish somehow. Before this blessed friendly plug-in happens, people will stubbornly speak with anybody in our Pidgin English - and even with patented Israelis that did not have the local look at first glance. No problem, it is en vogue.

Yiddish redeploys in religious circles but steps down from other groups in Mea Shearim to be replaced by Hebrew. On the other hand, we focus on some sort of English Jewish Israeli Palestinian Center/Jerusalemite Isringlish; it cannot be Ladino of course, even if the numerous North American and U.S.A. speakers are more and more influenced by Spanish. Our Argentinean newcomers are Pampa-Spanish with some taste of Ashkenazi Yiddish added to Uruguayan Cervantes Ladino del tiempo de la Conquesta. Buenos-Aires is still more Yiddishkayt and Vida Ladina with a good knowledge of Hebrew Hebrew than Israel. Here, we use a kind of Balagenglish that spontaneously showed up from the Balkan messy situation and certainly some protest against the British. Maybe the pioneers liked the idea of having their Haganah Crown speech. At the present, we do it with love and consistency. You asked something in Hebrew, the answer comes in this Balagenglish, asking in return if you are from the Netherlands, San Salvador. As in the good old day of Shalom Aleichem, Russians only know Russian. It depends how things can evolve. But most former Soviet Israelis want to learn English.

How strange thus that, after two 400 year periods of strong Ottoman presence that ended in the years 1920es, Turkish is totally absent from the Israeli and Arab memories. It is a language of prestige, but the Turks never promoted the installation of their citizens in the large Ottoman Empire. They only sent officers and executives, governors, sultans, whatever, who left with the wind when the Empire collapsed. How peculiar for a great nation that claims so many links with Europe, Judaism and Christianity, remained fenced culturally. It evidently reconnected, after the fall of Soviet Union, with all the Central Asian Turkish-speaking States (Turkmenia, Uzkekistan... Mongolia). It means a vast and powerful oil and raw material network. But it is fascinating how a tongue ceased to be used in almost one day... and to my knowledge there is only one Turkish family in Jerusalem that still speaks Turkish and settled here. Though, Turkish is very important at the present, with the Uighur presence facing Chinese Hans. But Chinese does penetrate into Israel and tourism undoubtedly makes it an international visible Esperanto as well as a speech. As concerns Turkish, this is quite an unusual phenomenon in the history of “self-protected linguistic imperialism" developed by some “ruling Empires”.

We continue somehow to mock the prodigious and immense work of Eliezer Ben Yehudah who revived the Hebrew language. I daily have to frequent people who would simply say: “Hebrew? It enters by my left ear and goes straight out through the right one”. Or they would ask, with some innocence: “When will they disappear? / leave the country these Hebrew-speakers?” There are terrible defects in teaching the language to the newcomers or to the workers. One of the cheapest Jerusalem Ulpanim is mostly frequented by Arabs who have enough common sense to be taught the language adequately. Russian newcomers have their tricky ways but the rising generation is typically Hebrew. Balagenglish allows something: to hide who we are before being sure it is worth to show something exact about who we really are. This harms the development of the national tongue in a country where there are ca. 500 mother languages and numerous tiny dialects

“Yesh li chalom\יש לי חלום – Ich habe einen Traum… I have a dream”. T. Herzl’s words are taken, maybe by some hazard, from the Talmud (Berachot 55b). In terms of tongue-dreamers, Ludwig L. Zamenhof (1850-1917) is a model of the flourishing Polish-Yiddishland blossoming thinking abilities. Born in Byalostok, Russian tzarist Empire, he was so impressed by the multitude of tongues that separated the inhabitants of his native town (Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Russyn-Subcarpathian, Romanian, German, Hebrew, Gipsy-Tsygany), that he created the famous international language called Esperanto: ”Se mi ne estus hebreo en la ghetto, la ideo pri la unuigo de la homaro…. Neniam tenus min tiel obstine en la dauro de mia tuta vivo/ If I were not a Hebrew from the ghetto, the idea of unity of mankind would never have kept me busy with such obstination during my life”, he stated.

This physician wanted to heal a deep defect of connectedness. Interestingly, Esperanto is like a construction set; it is even more precise than human reflection by its capacity to set up numerous words with prepositions and suffixes. Then, it is a typical Jewish and European Inter-Christian idea. The words are mainly taken from European languages and would never be adopted by Asia, Africa. We assist to the wide spreading of Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Arabic, Malaysian (Indonesian) and Spanish. Swahili and the Bantu dialects conquer Africa. But L. Zamenhof had a special dream that still abides our souls. It sounds like in Bereishit: “(everyone on) all the earth had one language and the same (one) words (“devarim achadim\דברים אחדים”)” (Gen. 11:1). This is related to the survival after the flood. The Christians would speak of a “Pentecostal” unity phenomenon. The Jewish tradition insists on the fact that “safah achat\שפה אחת = a coherent, exact, incorrupt words and means of real understanding”. “Lax lips and low indistinct speech show wounds that also affect the mouth” (Makkot 32a). Thus, “devarim achadim\דברים אחדים = not the same, but rather each word had one precise, clear and specific meaning for all humans, a common substance”. Words were not misleading, dubious, full of nuances that could ambiguous contradictions. We do need this sort of flexibility in any human speech, but it is also the mark of some uneasiness.

One of the most difficult tasks for the humans is then to “translate”. This is indeed a twofold activity and two different professions. A person who translates texts is not like an interpreter who would translate orally. Hebrew “metarguman\מתרגומן” apparently applies to both because “davar” is can be an oral or material (written) object. We rarely think of the splitting into many tongues after the attempt to build Babel. Was it an act of arrogance towards God (confusion/bilbul-בילבול)? Or, a way to reach the Gates of the Almighty (Bav-El)? “Translation” implies the requirement to make use of a loud and strong voice “ragem\רגם” (Assyrian). This means that human beings are deaf and mute to each other by nature. This is the point. “Targem\תרגם = to explain, interpret, red orally and translate at the same time into another tongue”. This is found in the Book of Ezra 4:7. It shows that from the very beginning the Word of God were not heard, not listened to or distorted and needed permanent upgrading of comprehensiveness.

Until now, the Yemenite communities will always read the reading portions in Hebrew, then in Aramaic in the targum of the proselyte Onkelos and finally in Arabic. This method of translating/interpreting can bring to a complete estrangement to the basic meaning of the sacred texts. Ergo, it is wise to check all the various levels of explanations and meanings of words specific contexts and periods.

This is why the Jewish tradition is only at a stage of a new birthing after 3,000 years of Jewishness expressed in opposed environments. Not conflictingly opposed, but showing partial aspects. At the present, Israel is incredibly bound to reconnect with the Hebrew heritage which is immense and firstly belongs to the Hebrew identity. On the other hand, Judaism will have to positively approach the Septuagint (LXX) or Greek version, presumably translated by 72 Hellenistic Jewish scholars of Alexandria upon the request of the Ptolemaic Kings (III c. B.C.).The legend specifies that they started and ended the “targum/ metagraphi – interpretation” on the same day and showed the same translation! This was the Bible mainly used by Jews and the first Christians. The Jews stopped using it in the II c. But, there is a move in many parts of the world: the LXX version is studied in the Jewish communities as showing important features of the Scripture and liturgical background. It is useless to quarrel about differences collected over ages. It is wiser to point out and check at length how Jews came to make this “interpretation” of the TaNaKH and how it relates to our contemporary and future envisioning of who we are and how we go ahead.

On Thursday 9th of July, the Armenian Church commemorated Saints Mesrob(p) and Sahag who translated the Scripture into Armenian. Mesrob created the Armenian alphabet in 404 and other Caucasian alphabets, bringing the Greek version of the Septuagint adopted by the Eastern Orthodox Churches to Armenia and from there to Persia. The Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, Georgian, Slavonic translations of the Scripture follow the Greek version of the “Seventy”. On June 28th, the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorated Saint Hieronymos (Jerome) of Stridonium who translated the Bible from the Hebrew and the Greek texts into Latin, which became the age-long read Vulgata. He lived and died in Bethlehem.

Italians say: “Traduttore, tradittore = translator – traitor”. We are often submitted to waves that are drifting away. The one and coherent words are often today reduced to a minimum of consistency. Or they are accepted by individuals and selected groups “free satellites”. Targum, “metagraphi”, interpretation presuppose to hear and listen carefully. There might be one sign that this is possible when Tradition makes us aware of the number of generations, worlds of knowledge and experience that teach patience and wisdom to be open-minded anyway, anyhow and still in the shadow of the Most High.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 11/June 29, 2009 - 20 de Tammuz 5769 - כ' דתמוז תשס"ט

4) In the Face of Adversity

Tonight starts the fast of Tammuz 17 commemorating in the Jewish community the first breaches through the walls of Jerusalem by then thus a time of reflection and conversion to God, fasting and also expectation for the consolation that God has shown after the full destruction on Tisha Be'Av (Ninth off Av, in three weeks).

The main purpose is how to serve God and why. There is a real need in our generation to understand how we are handling over our heritage, not as a privilege, but as received for granted by the Most High only by His Will; there is something evident and still a matter for deeper envision of what serving means and implies. We are chains, links, connections and each has to teach, to educate, to repair and build up something that never happened before, for the benefit of more and more people.

In 1932, late Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky [Андрий Шептицський] addressed these lines to the Ukrainian youth. It was a time of very great turbulence for the country. He had been heading the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for a long time. In that very year, hunger was decided by the Soviet communist authorities. It is known as the "Holodomor=голодомор - mass murder through hunger, famine". I often relate to the event without making it a nationalistic combat for any internationally recognized "genocide". This can evolve into a serious subject of debate and contest among the nations. Indeed, millions of inhabitants of the Ukraine were killed by famine over these years, mainly Ukrainians but also Czech, Gypsies, Jews and other nations.

The outstanding character of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky proposed to answer these years of turmoil and nonsense with faith and by transmitting the values of human respect for life and dignity. If we have a real look at today's situation in Israel, it should be noted that there do exist a lot of similar points. I always mention, wherever it is possible, that Sheptytsky's personality and actions embraced much wide insights than those required for the development of Ukraine. In his country and through the great diversity of its inhabitants, he reminded all about the divine laws and human rules that should govern our lives.

These are the excerpts (cited by Andrii Krawchuk, Christian Social Ethics in the Ukraine) :

"... to do one's duty in the face of adversity, to bear the heat of the day, the scorching rays of the sun, the ill will of people, the hatred of enemies, the absence of trust from among one's own, the want of assistance from one's closest friends - and in the midst of such work, to fulfill one's task to the very end, without expecting any laurels for the triumph or any reward for the service... In our hands is only one moment we do not link up our work without those who came before us, and if those who come after us do not link up their work in their time with our work and with the work of those who came before us, then what can our nation achieve, even after centuries?"

(Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky)

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A time for tearing down and a time for building up

2009-07-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

Within two days, we shall reach, for the year 5769 of the Jewish computing system, the period of three weeks. This cycle begins on the eve of 17 tammuz (July 7/June 24, 2009) and shall end on Tisha Be'Av or 9th of Av (July 30/17). It is important to note the importance of Fasting for the Jewish tradition along the year. When the Temple was "alive - kayam\קים" the stone of the Sanctuary were truly living and birthing to life. Since the year 70 ce., the Jewish people have survived without the main location to which Jews supposed ly had to gather many times a year and pray as a community, even if is said that the Shechinah or Divine Presence did not abide the Second Temple. This question is controversial by nature and it is also admitted that the Shechinah always accompanied and protected the Jewish people along their wanderings through the nations of the world.

It should also be noted that the destruction of Jerusalem and thus of the Holy Site par excellence is constantly recalled in the daily Jewish prayers and calendar. At the beginning of New Year/Rosh HaShanah, the fast of Gedaliah (Tishri 3) followed a bit later by the fast of Tevet 10 reminding Nebuchednezzar's besieging of Jerusalem show how much these recurrent destructions have profoundly imprinted the soul of the Jewish identity and creed. The Jewish historic experience has been, in our ages, a constant combat to face the two destructions of the "Living Temple". It tracks back to a very intriguing spiritual experience: the desires of the enemies to annihilate, exterminate, remove or wipe out, erase the Presence of God and therefore the existence of the living entity of the Klal Israel/Fulfillment of the community of Israel. On Tammuz 17, after a very long period of siege, the walls of Jerusalem were penetrated. This first wound led to the physical and geographical destruction and erasing process of the Temple. This happened three weeks later when the Temple was finally destroyed and the whole city of Jerusalem got plowed as if nothing could remain of the place and the activities of the prayers and sacrifices offered by the Jewish tribes in view of the redemption of the whole universe and each soul "that is inhabited by the spirit of the living God blown into their nostrils" (Rosh HaShanah prayer).

It is also important to underscore the connection that the Jewish tradition proposes with major historic events that deal with the sacrifices. On that day, Moses saw how Aron, the High Priest and the people in the desert worshiped the golden calf.

Moreover The "zevach Tamid\זבח תמיד - Perpetual Sacrifice" daily offered for centuries had suddenly to be stopped for a simple practical reason: the animals for the sacrifices could not be brought to the Temple. Whatever level of secularization or reluctance for some Jews to accept the performance of animal sacrifices, it is a very appealing mental and psycho-cultural impact that abides the Jewish soul in many ways: basically, whatever reluctance of acceptance, the sacrifice of Tamid is known as having been suspended for some two thousand years. It is very pregnant in a sociological survey of the Jewish spirituality at the moment.

When I was the privileged to work some 35 years ago with R. Leon Askenasi (Algeria, France, Israel) and discuss with Emmanuel Levinas or R. Wajda, the question of rebuilding the Temple was something like a sort of interrogation. But in Jerusalem and Israel, it was clear that the rebuilding of the Mikdash was a reality and not a mere dream or utopia. By that time, it was evident that money and sponsorships were collected in order to gather the stones. At the present, the goal became a real pending matter. On June 28th, 1967, it had been decided not to offer the Passover - Pesach sacrifice in order to avoid any misdeed and the "Devir\דביר - holy of Holies" had been given back to the Muslim authorities. In fact this situation is still in force. On the other hand, more and more Jewish educational organizations focus on the Temple and the desire to pray on the Temple Mount. The situation evolved from a position of historic shock to "unexpectedly" get back to the heart of every soul and spiritual experience throughout centuries, to begin with Abraham. It developed new features and new patterns that memorize for the present time the requirement to gather into one body, i.e. the Beyt HaMikdash - Holy Temple. This implies new behaviors that ranks from community blocks, new annoucement of the the "bessurot tovot\בשורות טובות - good tidings" of the ingathering of the Jewish people; it may also lead to deep rejection of "others" as an accompanying process. It allows the Jews to gather in and assemble beyond their disparities. On the other hand, it also allows to exclude those who are not the members of the Jewish people. There is a strong tendency to act as if the Jewish people exists ethnically and not basically and by nature by the grace of God alone. It is a spiritual call, it cannot become an ethnic reality. Indeed, Jews are Jews by being birthed and born to a Jewish mother. The statement is not a Biblical nor a Talmudic rule. It is in force because of the burden of history and the requirement to fix some laws to decide who can or not be considered as a Jew.

Tammuz 17 is also a special date: Apostomos, one of the representatives of Antiochus of Greece decided to burn a Torah Scroll. This burning of the Scroll is highly significant till our age for every true Jewish soul. It shows that God's Word can be destroyed, wiped out, erased from the world of the living. The Talmud has then another very striking explanation. Even when the holiest books are burnt or seem to disappear or be reduced to nil, It remains vital and invisibly present by the process of our memories. It is quite evident that this has saved the Jews over the centuries in many parts of the world.

Interestingly, the "fighting" relationships between the Jews and the Greeks in the Antiquity developed on such matters as the destruction of cancellation of every single Jewish societal rule: Shabbat, Torah reading, circumcision. This is clearly a sign that the spirit of Judaism can be murdered and reduced to nothing, exterminated.

Finally, it is stated that an idol was placed in the Temple. Curiously enough, it is very meaningful that different possibilities were considered. Some consider that the representatives of Antiochus put an idol as a sign that they mocked the Temple and the sanctity of the place. Others would presuppose that King Hezekiah's son, Menashe, who was a mocking the Jewish tradition an heritage had placed the idol in the Temple. Indeed, it often happened and surely continues to be real that some Jews would ridicule their own faith by a sort of confusion if not "self-hatred".

Tammuz 17 is also an important spiritual day. We often do not clearly understand how deep we go astray from God's path and will. When breaches show, the whole building will be tearing down. It is a very slow, not evident and sensitively high feeling, but it means a lot for a correct comprehension of Jewish fate and history. It should also be noted that prophet Isaiah had advised to King Hezekiah not to give birth to his son Manashe because of the "upcoming burden of times". This warning was about the same by the time of prophet Jeremiah. Both prophets were aware of the "pending destruction process of the Jewish people" and the tragic events, hungers and mishaps that would affect the collectivity and they wanted to prevent any sufferings from the part of the children. The same attitude showed at the end of World War II. After the Shoah, a lot of Jewish families were highly reluctant to give birth because they were afraid by what had happened. This fear was a bit too "irrational" because mainly based on the tragedy of overall persecution throughout Europe. The commandment to birth babies correspond to the period that preceded the Exodus from Egypt. It is said in the Talmud that "women started to birth on a daily basis!!!" because of the urgent necessity to overcome death and trust in God. There was no ethnic competition at that time...

The three weeks from Tammuz 17 to Av 9 constitute a time of fasting, of turning (back) to God, of physical constraints. It is rooted in the period of summer, a time of heat, torrid and affecting nights and days of spiritual combats. It is called "Beyn Hametzarim\בין המצרים - (period) between the straits = between the narrow places" as written in the Book of "Eycha\איכה or Lamentations" that is read on the day of Tisha Be'Av ("kol rodfeiah hisigu'ah beyn hametzarim\כל רודפיה השיגוה בין המצרים = all her pursuers overtook her in the narrow places, places of anxiety) (Eycha 1:3).

Indeed, the situation is special and recurrent in the history of the Jewish people. Interestingly, it is possible to compare the period and the time of life endangering with Jesus' words in the garden of Gathshemane that corresponds to a prelude to his passion and "destruction". He said: "Venafshi nivhalah meod\ונפשי נבהלה מאד - my whole being is stricken with terror" (while the Vulgate has: "anima mea turbata est valde"). In a different context, the Jew Jesus came to feel the same as the spiritual limits or marks of human capacities supported and attested throughout the Jewish history of Revelation.

Tammuz 17 shows the way to the full destruction and erasing of the holiest place for the Jews. The destruction of the Temple witnesses to a non-reversible event. For the Christian tradition, Jesus' "destruction" on the stake induces something of a parallel experience. The real question between Judaism and Christianity is where the Temple is as perfectly described in the Gospel according to John. John focuses on the Temple and insists on the fact that Resurrected Jesus of Nazareth is the new Temple; Moreover, that being the "rebuilt revived Temple" God makes in each human and those who believe in him "a Temple of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 3:16 - 2 Corinthians 6:16).

The Book of the Lamentations and the Selchot\סליחות recited during this time of the year in Judaism show the incomparable shock and trauma that truly in-depths affected as a sort of spiritual and mental impact the Jewish soul before and after the total "killing, murder and erasing" of the Temple. Thus it is understood that besides the trauma something more subsisted. It is certainly due to the insights of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai who was clairvoyant enough to ask emperor Vespasian to allow the Jewish community be gather in into a small town Yavneh/Jamnia, which permitted to save Jewish teaching.

Still, the survival of a Jewish steadfast place of studies in accordance with the teachings of the Avot and the Sages included something more that should be taken into account nowadays. In the Jewish tradition, teaching is compulsorily a huge part of what opens up to the people and also to the nations the Divine Presence of the Most High in this world and the world to come. Teaching relies on memory. Memory - as already said in many notes and articles - is based on life transmission and birthing of the souls, sustaining the bodies, nurturing the community and preserving, developing it. It is possible to compare the Sifrei Torah to a Divine Presence as the Word is living and present, in someway similar to the presentation and reading of the Gospel in the Church. At least, in both cases, memories substantiates "hic and nunc" the Presence of the Lord. It is considered as a sacramental presence in the Orthodox and Catholic Church(es) and it is indeed a point of "thanksgiving - zevach todah\זבח תודה" that may be paralleled with Greek "evlogia" and to some extent the "eucharistic" joy, i.e. a full rejoicing and thanksgiving action.

The Church rested on the Sacraments. Jesus declared when showing the Temple to his disciples: "I can destroy the Temple of the Lord and rebuild it in three days" (Matthew 26:61; comp. Mark 14:58, John 2:19. Jesus is recalled these words when he is on the Cross: Matthew 27:40 & Mark 15: 29). Intriguingly, Saint John does not account the Last Supper (of the Seder Pesach, Hagadah shel Pesach\סדר.הגדה של פסח). Instead, it is more than significant that he mentions the washing of the feet which was a major Temple and hospitality action (John 13:8).

There is a striking point: true, the Zevach Tamid\זבח תמיד ceased to be offered everyday substantially and a visible way. On the other hand, it should be possible at the present to dig out the spiritual elements that have been accompanying the Jewish communities throughout the ages. The Christian communities often consider as something of the past that the Temple was standing in the middle of Jerusalem and that this period is over, eventually and mainly replaced by the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth "true man and true "God" (Narsai sequence in the Assyrian and Chaldean Churches).

Some messianic groups scattered all over the world would consider that the ingathering of the exiled would hasten their own redemption as Christian believers and that it would culminate with the "rebuilding of a third Temple". Let's say that this view is more or less expressed by some Evangelicals and some "Protestant" congregations. It can hardly be positively considered as a valid possibility by the Catholic Church that only approach Jewishness and usually updates Judaism according to her own patterns and creeds, which is definitely normal.

The Eastern Orthodox Church (I avoid the plural) have firstly to recover from the tragedy of their history before being positively open to envision the role of Judaism, Israel and the Temple. It is hardly time to discuss the matter within the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. The only possible thing is to endeavor some timid approach and proposals of mutual taming actions and studies.

It is possible to pave the way to theological considerations and reflections as being full members of the Jewish society in Israel. This is a challenge. Most believers stay "aside"; some prefer to systematically show some sort of solidarity by exerting some unconscious process of replacement. It is still unforeseeable immense and thanksgiving reality to envision Jerusalem as the One and only Holy Assembly, Kahal rav, Klal\קהל-כלל ישראל-כל בית ישראל. Saint Paul's "All Israel shall be saved" (Romans 11:26) might not be interpreted as a prospect, but an eschatological reality that is both to felt among the Nations and inside of Jewishness, beyond what we may be able to apprehend, fathom, perceive, acknowledge or realize in our generation.

This is why, in some unfathomable way, the Tamid\תמיד is present in the daily sacrificial prayer of the Klal Israel, in particular memorized during the Morning prayer of Shacharit\שחרית. This prayer allows in some way to "embody" the vision and presence of the Tamid offering (permanent daily sacrifice). Is it possible to make some parallel with some historical elements that do or did exist in the Churches. For three centuries, the Japanese Church survived by baptism performed by lay people and basic prayers. The same happened in a different manner in Korea because of the absence of ordained clergy. As confirmed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, they could still say "Christos is in our midst - He is and will be unto the ages of ages".

It would require many explanations and to keep our minds in deep humbleness to go forth on this narrow path. At this stage, there is no first or last. A perception of that nature obliges to apprehend history and eschaton without any notion of privileged fulfillment anywhere and toward anyone. This is an immense task. But this task can be launched at least because of the developing process of consciousness that "universal" and "universality" is not a mere dream but a reality. Subsequently, diachronic and synchronic factors may help to get closer to what "eternity" means, just as Tamid did and invisibly enlightens memories.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 16/3, 2009 - 24 deTammuz 5769 - כ"ד דתמוז תשס"ט

In the very heat of the day

2009-07-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

The heat is waving here and there tough and dry air. In Jerusalem, the air can still be very slightly refreshed towards the end of the day by a swift wind that remains still imperceptible in the bigger part of the country. One of the consequences of such a heat is a sort of "siesta - hesychia (Greek)" atmosphere. Either people would really have a nap in the afternoon or some slowdown of their activities. Sleeping - not only to have a nap - is a major creative activity along the Great Sea (Mediterranean Sea) that resembles to some relaxing sojourn, for a limited number of hours, in the belly of the Big Fish, supposedly the "whale", that hosted Jonah before he went to Nineveh (Mesopotamia).

He was onboard a ship when a terrible tempest broke up and the sailors got so scared that they suspected one of them, namely cast the lots and got to the idea that the "Jonah the Hebrew" was the initiator of the storm. Jonah thus declared when he was heaved overboard after they had cast the lots: "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made both sea and land - Ivri anochi veHaShem Elokei hashamayim ani yare\עברי אנכי וה' אלהי השמים אני ירא" (Jonah 1:9). The seamen cried out to the Lord an intriguing prayer: "Lord, do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O Lord, have brought this about"(Jonah1:14). The Book of Jonah is read every Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement as the reminder that Jonah, against his will to begin with, accepted to proclaim the yoke of Heaven and after having reposed in the Big Fish throughout the city of Nineveh that converted to God.

We entered the month of Tammuz on Tuesday 23rd of June and shall go along the days of heat. They pave the move to the penitential act of conversion: the two destructions of Jerusalem, deportation to Babylon, the extermination of the two Temples. There are different days of fast during that period, that starts on Tammuz 15th and leads to Av 9th (Destruction of the Temples).

How curious that this area of the world is so inhabited by an intense and effective power of death. It is maybe more sensitive because of the message of hope and resurrection, afterlife, world-to-come that spread from Jerusalem and Eretz Israel till the ends of the world. As if heat could be a sign of life and, at the same time, call to quarrels and fencing hatred. It is thus quite amazing how millions of people have fought in the name of God in this area and got embattled in harsh conflicts, full of passions, bloodsheds, assassinations.

The cause of God is like a permanent war against death. Still, deathly eradication and destruction, extinction and extirpation from this world would seem the most fascinating and appealing trace of divine Presence “underneath”. It is correct that we live very strange times of mental strangulation and ruthless sophisticated manslaughter in the Middle-East. We are living in a region where there is just a switch between life and death. It is obvious everywhere, a bit more here. The rule is simple and tragic or, on the contrary, magnificent: every minute should be a full breath of gratitude or marvel, down-to-earth gladness. The paradox of Eretz Israel, at this point, is that the society is exceptionally dynamic although it lacks real time of peace and suspension of constant death threats. There can be mobs in Paris and its suburbs, at times terrorists in Europe and in particular in Germany or Italy. Any guy can so quietly enter any supermarket in the United States – it is even a sort of recurrent symptom – and just shoot down the clientele and the employees, the manpower; thus, this a different attitude toward the real challenges of life and death. South American people can be totally fascinated by death.

A famous Russian Jewish film avant-garde found a shelter in Mexico during World War II because he was married to a Mexican painter, a hot-tempered colorful native. She actually used to clash with him and threatened to kill him with a huge knife, a dramatic scene – just because she could not refrain this profound call for blood that never happened. Whatever unbelievable killings were committed during the conquista of Latin America, in particular by the Churches, we can only be stunned by the numerous and century-long human sacrifices offered by the Amerindians who used to remove the hearts of the victims as a sign of life-giving! The same occurred in Africa, Asia with repulsive savage masochism.

The Israeli society is at pain with a kind of apparent uncertainty. Yes, we ought to back the survival of Israel, but in a way that is so diverse and unclear that everybody could think s/he is entitled to do anything except harming his/her own self. Or not really protest in case of obvious violations of human rights.

Abraham was a wandering Aramean (Deut. 26:5). He used to sit “b’chom hayom\בחום היום – in the very heat of the day”, under an open tent and to welcome those who were passing along the way (Gen. 18:1). He was peacefully giving hospitality to those who needed a rest when the heat was reaching its peak. On the other hand, Saul slaughtered the Ammonites till the heat of the day (1 Samuel 11:11; cf. 2 Sam. 4:5). Heat can also be a matter of remuneration as in Jesus’ parable to give one talent pay to all the workers, those who bore the burden of the day and those who came for on hour (Matthew 20:11; cf.Avodah Zarah 10b).

“Cham\חם = hot, hot-tempered, warm, boiling” is a basic Semitic and thus Hebrew word, rooted in “H-H-M\חחם – hot, warm, to boil”, mainly referring, in the Talmud, to water and cleansing activities or to special colors (as “red”, the same as today some women would love to have red hair or, in between, some strawberry dye close to red). It may relate to rituals: “The bathers began to heat the water on the Shabbat (Shabbat 40a). Teaching: “Warm yourself by the fire of the scholars and try to associate with them (Avot 2,10). “Hammam = Turkish baths, the sort of sensual Oriental vaporous bath and massaging” that is upgraded in our SPA’s.

In terms of heating as healing processes, “chacham\חכ.חם” turns to “chum\חום = heat and heal, excite” as also “to be hot, covet, carnally excited”. “I had a desire for his embrace” (Niddah 20b) and “He got so hot that he was (healed) by his pollution, though not once but again and again (Niddah 43b). On the other hand, “This is a land which all great men were anxious to possess (Tanhumah Mishpatim 17) connects carnal desires and hotline with a deeper feeling of anxiety and insecurity, which is quite frequent.

The word is very intriguing, indeed. “Chum\חום” swindles from heat to departure. “Arouse the feeling of the people when delivering my funeral address for my soul (I) shall be present” (Shabbat 153a, about a righteous man because people were speaking warmly of his memory). “b’khol chumma’o\בכל חומאהו = in his full heat = youth”. Curiously, this heat that is the sign of daytime and life dynamics, including confrontations, implies, in the Semitic realm, some need for limitation of space and accessibility.

The Old City of Jerusalem is partly surrounded by the “chomot\חומות – Walls (of the Old City)” that are much frequented from the different places where one can climb up and down along the Gates. We have a very poor historic and cultural memory; say, we prefer not to know. From the time of Abraham to Jericho, everything in this region was a matter of fortification, walls of protection. And each time, throughout history, the main issue is to know how to cool down the fever (chamah\חמה.א), quench excitement (chamad /chamda\חמדה.א) and reduce anger (chemah\חמה, cf. Daniel 3:13.19). “It is not possible to live without (moral) protection”, states Talmud Yevamot 62b (cf. Jeremiah 31:21). “Chomah\חומה = fortification” is currently used in Talmud Megillah (1:1- 5b) to designate walls or a “protecting lake” that serves as fortifications. This is something we do not accept easily and that is totally misunderstood abroad for various reasons.

The essence of Judaism is to be in need of protection. Firstly, Jewishness requires to be protected by God or the Divine Presence, the Shechinah. Then, there is a permanent lack of comprehension. Pious Jews, the world of “Jews in prayers” cannot mix in any way with the non-Jewish or Gentile world, and somehow some part of secularized Judaism. This is even ridiculous to pretend that a “Non-Jew” can enter that world freely and deliberately. There is an immeasurable gap between pious Jewishness and any connection between this society segment and the Non-Jews. There is an earth-to-heaven line that cuts it as an invisible wall of fortification. Something we often see here in micro-climates and rain: rain on your left, no rain on your right! But people often misunderstand that because they think in terms of framing and ghettos created by hatred against pious Jewries. Decades ago, Fr. Marcel Dubois, a Dominican, who was the first Christian to teach Christian Philosophy at the Hebrew University, wittingly answered that “every Catholic congregation were usually fenced in”, i.e. that those who are not members of that specific community are not allowed to enter the bigger part of the monastery, or very rarely. We never think in terms of “positive” separation and thus often consider situation with much framed points of view.

“In the very heat of day”, Abraham was pretty much exposed to killings, alienation. His tent was open. In this region, we are still living on the pattern of this radical “cham/chum-חם\חום”. Are there some linguistic “reality words”? “Cham\חם = father-in-law” (from the same root) and “chamot\חמות = mother-in-law”. This is amusing because this parentage is supposedly very inquisitive and even nosy in their children’s lives. Some are delicious; and good that they exist because, their grandchildren’s parents often have to rely on them financially and in learning how to reach adulthood. There is a meaningful example of the presence of such a Semitism in the Gospel when Jesus started preaching and met with Shimon-Kaipha whose “mother-in-law was laying sick with a fever” (Aramaic “eshata\אשתא – fire” lines with Greek “puressousa –had a fire = fever”). In Hebrew, the specificity of the “chom/cham” is present twice, i.e. redundantly : chamuto\חמותו = his mother-in law, “chom = fever”. And the “wall of sickness” is lifted up. (Mark 1:29).

There is a stimulating deutero-canonical (apocryphal) Book – not recognized by the Jewish and Protestant Bible, but accepted and rather widespread in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches: Tobit; a fragment of the book was found at Qumran. It deals with God’s Tovah/tobiyah, goodness. Tobit is a kohen (priest) who strangely spends his time collecting and burying the dead slain by Sennacherib in Nineveh. At the present, it seems bizarre because the kohanim are not allowed to be in contact with the dead. The point is that it had not always been like that in the Jewish tradition even if we must accept the present development. When the Temple was existent, the priests were offering the daily sacrifices. They had no properties and no tribe territory. They were given the charities of the sacrifices. And thus, they were indeed in contact with burnt-offerings, i.e. with dead animals slaughtered for the sanctification of the Name.They were making their living with dead animals.

Our messy situation in the Middle-East is going through fire, anger, fever and irrationality. It is marked by law infringements and lack of true respect for human beings and souls. Abraham’s hospitality in the very heat of the day at Mamre’s Oaks seems to be a real mitzvah as also to assist all the dead that multiply and loosen unclear fences that pull off at the moment.

av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 1/June 18, 2009 – 9 deTamuz 5769 - ט' דתמוז תשס"ט

Abomination or (self-) destruction

2009-07-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

During the four weeks that commemorate the destructions of Jerusalem and of the Temples, from Tammuz 17 to Av 9, men use to wear the "tefillin shel rosh\תפילין של ראש - the phylacteries of the head" in order to think with more penetration and insights about the repeatedly historical events that led to the destruction of the City of Peaces - Yerushalaim and the Holy Temples - Batey HaMikdash\ בתי המקדש. We saw how the tefillin were the first mitzvah to be given to the Jewish people by the time of the Exodus from the land of slavery, the country that first accepted the children of Jacob for their blessings and reduced them to some sort of acceptable and even satisfactory bondage when the days of Joseph escaped from their memory.

The tefillin thus reminded that God is close to our heart and call us to implement good deeds; these are the tefillin shel yad\תפילין של יד (of the hand/arm), usually the left arm that is close to the heart. The tefillin shel rosh\תפילין של ראש, put like a diadem on the forehead show that we tend to move according to God's will and project. This is not so obvious in daily life. Then, it may be interesting to consider the tefillin as brain-thinking instruments or devices. When the ancestors came out of Egypt, the Lord did know that they would be tempted to return to their country of slavery. The Israelites did regret their daily bread there - hard work, not very humane, but still providing security of a binding and imposed employment. It is far better than wandering in the Sinai, eating quails or tamarisk rare species of dew that was the manna.

This year, we pass through the summer months of Tammuz and Av, appealing times of peace for Eretz Israel as the neighboring countries, in the special conditions governed by the rule of the shmittah or "release of debts and repose of the soil. In response, we are messing around in quiet doubts and some attacks. Jews are aware that this summer period has, repeatedly throughout history, been months of despair, destruction, hunger and deportation, killings. Indeed, why destruction and fights, murders and ruins quiver permanently like drums and hammers attacking life, pulsing humans to annihilation? From Tammuz 17 to the Ninth of Av, the Jews should be more conscious of their own historical destruction as a consequence of their/our lack of faithfulness or righteousness in God's choice and proposed actions. The time of "te.o'uvah - abomination\תועבה" is so strange, bizarre: we are called to "peru, revu, mil'u et ha'aretz\פרו ורבו מלאו את האארץ - to be fertile, multiply, conquer/achieve the earth (the world, the universe in reality)” as a developing living body (Bereishit 1:28). All the Prophets, in particular Jeremiah who saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation to Babylon, insist on this self-destroying "abomination" that recurrently leads the Jewish people as all the Nations to idolatry and inconstancy.

The Jewish community and, subsequently, the Israelis have gone through so many tortures and persecutions and are scarcely recognized by the Nations of the world. Thus, they would not utterly, openly accept to take the yoke of this “abomination” that is still at the heart of our relationships to God and how the Lord responds to us. I speak in terms of the Jewish traditions, because it is evident that any explanation provided from outside of this coherence makes no sense for the Jews.

Curiously, it is quite usual to say that Moses gave the laws governing the oaths and vows (nedarim\נדרים). This is not exactly the case. Moses speaks to the heads of the tribe – rashey hamatot, which means something specific. The commandment to “leave father and mother” (Gen. 2:24a) basically consists in being not alone. It mainly implies to have a family, a tribe in view to fight idolatry. Midrash Yelamdeinu includes a “mate’ \ מטה- rod” who is found throughout the whole history of Israel. It is connected to “mitah – bed, family, descent” rooted in “nata/nata’ \נטה-נטע= to lay hands, plant”. As Moses could provide water with his tick, the mate’ can be “kol mate’-lechem shavar\כל מטה לחם שבר = God destroyed every staff of bread” (Tehillim 105:16). Thus, as stated in the midrash, this rod symbolizes “the bread of life”, the combat between idolatry and the eventuality to die and not surrender to idol worshiping. As we arrive at the end of the reading of the Book of Numbers/Midbar, we can mention how Jacob crossed the Jordan river with this rod, Moses worked miracles in front of Pharaoh (Ex. 4:3; 7:10). David slew Goliath with this mate’/rod (1 Samuel 17:40) and the rabbinic tradition said it became his scepter kept in the Temple as the sign of his kingship. Different words can be used in Hebrew to refer to the “tribes: mishpachot.משפחות/families; shivtei Israel\שבתי ישראל /tribes of Israel”. In this key-reading of the week, the TaNaKH sums up the whole of the Hebrew destiny: born to fight idols, kin connections that shall develop in God’s Kingship over the universe and the Divine Presence in the Temples. This lines with our commemorating the four weeks that led to the destruction of this miraculous structure because of acts of abominations (te’uvah\תאווה) committed by the Israelites. How strange it is that "abomination sounds so claose to "(good) appetite = hunger belly eating desires - te'avon\תאבון".

It should be noted that the reading portion does not determine the meaning of vows and oaths. They are of extreme importance in the spiritual life of each Jew and the Jewish communities. Some rabbis link these nedarim/vows included in the parashah “Matot” read in summer, during the four weeks of reflection about destructions, to the “Kol Nidrey\ כל נדרי – all the vows and oaths” pronounced (in Aramaic) in the 8th century in the Babylonian academy of Sura and in Europe since the 12th century at the beginning of the Day of Atonement for the annulment of forced vows. There is an emotional impact connected with this text, but the rabbis have always been rather reluctant to such a prayer considering that Jews are free from any forced commitments imposed by non-Jews.

On the other hand, the reading portion underscores that men (fathers and husbands) can release their wives’ and daughters’ vows and declare them non valid. Well, Women’s Lib definitely protested…but maybe things are not so simple. In the previous reading portion “Pinchas”, we saw how sexual intercourse collectively accomplished as an act of idolatry with pagan women, led the priest Pinchas to outrageously make use of his zeal against idolatry.
God killed the Israelites by a violent plague. In this weekly portion, men seem to regulate the spiritual vows of women. Is it not rather that they have firstly to respect their own vows and not fall into idol worshiping commitments? The slaughter of the Madianites, led by Moses and the priest Eleazar with the participation of 1,000 males of each tribe (matot) was accompanied by some special promises. Reuben and Gad should receive the land along the Jordan… negotiations, gentle-tribe agreements… The slaughter of the Madianites, in which Balaam perished, exterminated all their males while their women and children survived. “Moses said: “You have spared every female… that are the very ones who induced the Israelites to trespass against the Lord…slay also every male among the children and every woman who has known a man carnally” (Numbers 31:15-17 - Parshat Pinchas).

This slaughter includes all the parameters of human hatred and human difference. It requires a lot of insightful reflections and in-depth studies to consider this text as showing faith in God. Thus, as they were en route to cross the Jordan and enter Eretz Canaan, it would be normal to question how such murders can anyhow participate in the sanctifying action of praising the Name of the Lord. Are life and death so parallel that it does not matter whether humans birth or kill? Destroy or build up? “Even when they say, “As the Lord lives / chai HaShem”, they lie and their swearing is false” (Jeremiah 5:2). In the prophetic reading (haftarah), the same Prophet echoes Moses’ requirement: “Do not defile the land which you will inhabit?” (Bemidbar 35:34) by these words: “You entered and defiled My land and made My heritage my abomination” (Jeremiah 2:7). Indeed, the real problem is not to be in the Holy Land or to make it holy by our forces. We cannot, any of us – make it holy. Eretz Israel is sanctified by the development and the living respectful compliance with God’s birthing Mitzvot that make this land a special place where the Holy One dwells and reveals His Presence to all the Nations (Tehillim 87:5).

Say, it is the same as when we plant trees and have beautiful gardens, with source waters and fertile soils. Purity of heart can go beyond the tragedies of any destruction. It takes time, a lot of time, but time has no measure for who loves without destroying. The four weeks of “abomination” should, at the present, be turned into a thoughtful and wise reflection about construction. Israel is born to construct and not to obstruct, in particular herself, which has often shown to be a huge temptation. Judaism has to accept elements that were or are still very hostile, just as the others are entitled to consider Judaism as possibly being negative towards them.

This week, the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates the Apostles, Jesus chose disciples who were in despair after his death (Luke 24:13-35, the unfaithful disciples on the road at Emmaus) and reminds Peter and Paul of Tarsus. Then, there will be the various feasts of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Again, it deals with a generating process of construction. How come that we are hypnotized by exclusion? The Jews have the “birkat haminim/malshinim – blessing against the heretics”.The Christians can be self-convinced that they replace Judaism.

Interestingly, we hardly can pass over the 11th century when two envoys came to Constantinople and excommunicated the Oriental Patriarch. Times of violence and carnality, with prostitutes put by force on the thrones of the patriarchs of Constantinople and later Jerusalem. Metropolitan Cyril of Smolensk, Moscow Patriarchate, made a wise statement one year ago: “At least, we know what they (the Catholics) think of themselves and who they think they are. Nothing is new, but at least it is said and it makes things clear”. Today the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of the Kievan Rus' challenges the Slavic Churches with other transitional tests. It is sometimes good to face tests and overcome them.

In Israel, we experience a unique situation of permanent renewal. The four weeks of Tammuz-Av, repeated creeds and definitions that show the limits of how and where God is acting should enable us to less shyness and more courage to meet any human being. We faced and lived through such devastating destruction that it is just the right minute to share, even for only a few seconds, the joy of being together on this soil sanctified by God and humans.

av Alexander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

July 8/June 25, 2009 – 15 deTammuz 5769 - ט"ו דתמוז תשס"ט

תפילין - Tefillin

Holy Matrimony

2009-06-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

In the theology of the Orthodox Church man is made in the Image of the Most-holy Trinity, and, except in certain special cases (such as monasticism, for example), he is not intended by God to live alone, but in a family situation. Just as God blessed the first humans, Adam and Eve, to live as a family, to be fruitful and multiply, so too the Church blesses the union of a man and a woman. Marriage, however, is not a state of nature, but is rather a state of grace, and married life is a special vocation (no less than the special calling of monasticism), requiring a gift or charism from the Holy Spirit this gift being conferred in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

That Holy Matrimony has divine sanction comes no less from the words of the Lord Himself, Who says: Have you not read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh' [Gen. 2:24]. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (Matt. 19:5-6).

The Holy Apostle Paul sees this mystical union of husband and wife as reflecting the mystical union of Christ with His Church: Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, His body.... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.... Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of His body.... This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church... (Eph. 5:22-25, 28-30, 32).

The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony consists of two parts: Betrothal and Crowning. The Betrothal is, in some way, the civil act, sanctified by the blessing of the Church. It sanctifies the intention of two persons to enter into the martial union and reflects Old Testament customs, when on those who had expressed their intentions to marry, rings were placed. This exchange of rings in the Office of Betrothal is an outward token that the two partners join in marriage of their own free will and consent, for without free consent on both sides there can be no Sacrament of Christian marriage.

The Office of Crowning also contains an Old Testament element in the crowning itself, which reflects the ancient practice of placing crowns on the heads of the betrothed. This is the outward and visible sign of the Sacrament, signifying the special grace of the Holy Spirit received by the couple. These crowns are crowns of joy and martyrdom joy for the new union and martyrdom since every true marriage involves immeasurable self-sacrifice on both sides.

In the Greek Churches, the crowns are usually made of leaves and flowers, while in the Russian Church they are usually made of silver or gold. Customarily in the Russian Church the crowns are held over the couples' heads by the best man and maid of honor, but in many places (as in Romania, for example) they are actually worn by the bride and groom.

The Gospel for the day contains the account of the Wedding in Cana in Galilee (John 2:1-11). The blessing, given by God to man in Paradise was renewed by Christ in the New Testament, when, at the beginning of His ministry, He performed the miracle of changing water into wine. Thus, at the end of the Marriage Service the newly-married couple drink from the same cup of wine, which recalls this miracle of Our Lord. The common cup here is also a symbol that henceforth they will share a common life with one another.
Divorce and Remarriage.

The Holy Orthodox Church does, however, permit divorce and remarriage, quoting as her authority the words of the Savior: For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: Whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery (Matt. 19:8-9). Here Our Lord allows an exception to the indissolubility of marriage, and so, too, the Church is willing to allow an exception.

While in principle the church regards the marriage bond as lifelong and indissoluble, and condemns the breakdown of marriage as a sin and an evil, she still desires to help the sinners and to allow them a second chance. Thus, when a marriage has ceased to be a reality, the Church does not insist on the preservation of a legal fiction. Divorce, therefore, is seen as an exceptional, but necessary concession to human weakness. Yet, while helping men and women to rise again after a fall, the Church does not view a second or third union as being the same as the first and thus, in the ceremony for a second or third marriage, several joyful ceremonies are omitted and replaced by penitential prayers. Orthodox Canon Law permits a second or third marriage, but more than that is strictly forbidden.
When Weddings are Not to be Celebrated.

There are certain times during the year when the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony may not be celebrated. These are:

1. On the Eves of Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year.

2. On the Eves of Sundays throughout the year.

3. On the Eves of the Twelve Great Feasts, patronal feasts of the parish or monastery, and other great feasts.

4. In all of the Fasts (Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, Dormition Fast and Nativity Fast).

5. From the Nativity of Christ (Dec. 25) through the Synaxis of the Baptist (Jan. 7).

6. During the course of Cheesefare Week (from Sunday of Meatfare through the Sunday of Cheesefare).

7. During the course of Bright Week.

8. On the Day and the Eve of the Beheading of the Baptist (Aug. 29) and the Elevation of the Cross (Sept. 14).
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Excerpt taken from "These Truths We Hold - The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings". Compiled and Edited by A Monk of St. Tikhon's Monastery. Copyright 1986 by the St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, South Canaan, Pennsylvania 18459.

The significance of Pentecost

2009-06-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Significance of Pentecost
a reflection proposed by Reader Michael Hann, of the Romanian Orthodox Church
(United States)

Most people only know Pentecost as a Christian holiday, one that commemorates the day when the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles and disciples of Christ as they gathered in the Upper Room after the Ascension. While the apostles and disciples remained in Jerusalem out of obedience to Christ (cf. Acts 1:4-5), Scripture tells us that Jews from many different nations were also present in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2:5, 9-11). They were present for a different reason: The Jewish Feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost is originally a Jewish holiday. Along with Passover and Tabernacles, it is one of the three Great Feasts of the Jewish calendar. The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word which means “fiftieth.” The feast takes this name because it occurs fifty days after the second day of the Passover.

To the Jewish people, Pentecost has historical and agricultural significance. Historically, Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Since God accommodated his Law to an agricultural people, it enjoins upon the Jews various grain offerings. So, agriculturally, Pentecost also commemorates the time when the first fruits of the wheat harvest were harvested and brought to the temple in the form of two cakes of leavened bread (cf. Lev 23:17).

As Christians, we may ask ourselves what significance there is to the fact that Jesus decided to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the Church on this Jewish Feast. I think there are many instances in which the Christian celebration of Pentecost proves to be a sort of fulfillment of the Jewish Feast.

The Jewish Feast celebrates the beginning of the wheat harvest by offering the first of the harvested wheat to the Lord. In the Christian Feast, we celebrate the beginning of the Christian Church, when Jesus harvested 3000 souls who were cut to the heart by Peter’s teaching and were baptized. Jesus Christ Himself is the first fruit (“of those who have fallen asleep,” cf. 1 Cor 15:20), and we too are a kind of first fruits by the grace He has given us (cf. Jas 1:18). Finally, the Spirit that the Church received on that day guides us into all truth and knowledge of God’s Will in a way that far surpasses what was given in the Torah.

So, in many ways, the Jewish feast of Pentecost was the perfect day to set in motion the Church that God had in mind from the very beginning.

Scouting or spying, trust or distrust

2009-06-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

The parshat hashavua\פרשת השבוע "Shelach lecha\שלח לך" or the coming weekly reading portion "Send (men to scout the Land of Canaan)" accounts one of the most famous episodes of the TaNaKH about the spies and includes essential Jewish Mitzvot-מצות/Commandments in the Book of Bamidbar-במדבר/Numbers 13:1-15:41.

It is time to march into the Land of the Avot-אבות/Ancestors. Moses decides to assign twelve men from the ancestral tribes to scout the land = latur et-eretz Kena'an\לתור את הארץ כנען (Num. 13:17), have a real look at the country, the inhabitants, a full spying survey with much discretion and know-how. At this point, this is a typical and very proficient activity of Israel over the world. Moses did not send the men the same way we have a pending problem with Jonathan Pollard. He was not on a "tour". In Hebrew, "tur\תור" means "to spy", still in a way that implies to walk, go around, be awake and on alert, go on foot (regel/leg - meragel\רגל-מרגל = spy in Modern Hebrew). "You have espied the Land and found fault with God's Tent", says Talmud Shebuot 47b, echoing Numbers Rabba 16, 20: "You have espied the faults of the Land of Israel".

A good spy, for the Talmud, is Aaron: "The great spy (Aaron) died who had espied for them the road of life" (Yoma 1:38b). The Israelite spy is a man of God who is accomplishing a sort of divine mitzvah for the benefit of the whole community of Israel. In this view, our spies should not be corrupt... totally under self-control... not utter any slander... of rumors, and we should not hear any blah-blah about them in return. The perfect shomer-שומר/guardian of the integrity and rigor is also the model of the bney chorin-בני חורין/ free men (and women). Numerous names come then to our minds, especially of those people who, in terrible days when Jews were persecuted and for the sake of the State of Israel, offered their lives with courage and silence. Israelis have developed amazing and witty tricks to confound the enemies. We love thrillers, but curiously the good old-fashioned Israeli spies are more of the Lamed-Vavnikim sort (the 36 unknown tzaddikim-צדיקים/righteous

that save the world) than full-tanned oriental green-eyed guys and girls jumping from beds to couches with guns, poisoning pills, killing kisses, pocket bombs and Holy Land bullets. Everybody knows the joke of a man who answers – in the middle of a dark night in Tel Aviv – that he is Yaakov the violinist, but that Yaakov the spy lives on the fourth floor, up there…

Moses sent the twelve men and they had a wonderful tour. They brought gorgeous fruits, clusters of grapes and pomegranates after forty days of scouting. The report was disparate. Exceptional landscapes and country, but the inhabitants seemed a bit bizarre. How difficult to recognize the people after an absence of 400 years! Land of milk and honey, but the inhabitants are powerful; their cities are fortified and terribly large. This is dangerous, reported ten of the men who saw the Amakelites and the mighty Hittites. They got scared. Worse than everything: they even met with very tall men, something like 100 XXXL size guys, the Nephilim\נפילים, that had disappeared since Gen. 6:4. There, they were looking at the Sons of the Covenant like grasshoppers, and the “spies” did have the courage to look back. These ten also spread some rumors that the country they saw devours the inhabitants and they successfully slandered around so that the Israelites wanted to return to good old Egypt.

Slander is called to disappear by nature, said the Sages. But the reaction of these “reporters” is exactly the same as what we hear about our Israeli society and the country at the present. We all have our dreamy Nephilim\נפילים, extra sized ghosts. We look at each other so often like grasshoppers or chimpanzees in a zoo. And the land is wonderful but no oil, only honey and milk fruits and grapes, olives. Indeed we are fortified. Everybody is even fortified here. and always better or more threatening than in Egypt. When we find some family connection from America to Israel, we may discover we have a “rich” uncle in some Rehov Ben Yehudah, who owns a tiny falafel or pizza corner. But what a location! Well, this week, we should maybe pray for our spies… and all the honest spies because the problem is that they are very buddy-buddy and interconnected and can easily be spoiled. On the other hand, it is really difficult to account the truth and keep balanced. Caleb and Joshua exposed what they had seen and that it was possible to conquer the land. They said “Do not fear the people of the country for they are our “lachmenu =bread=food (prey)”. “Milchamah\מלחמה = war” in Hebrew does mean that we are no more in a situation of rather natural hospitality in the tribal culture. We doubt, suspect, attack or flee. “Mi’lchamah\מלחמה = it is no more possible to share the same meal/food/bread, which induces a state of war, a conflict”. This is very significant in spiritual life and also as regards the Christian bread sharing rooted in the Kiddush partaking of bread. Caleb and Joshua underscored that the Israelites should not rebel against God.

Now, “kibush\כבוש, conquest” shows more than the way we even use the word at the present. In the case of the Israelites – again in revolt against God and Moses and willing to return to Egypt – we must consider something else. They got out of the womb of some foreign “fostering” country, i.e. Egypt, symbolically a “house of slavery”. Let’s say that the wilderness, in the Sinai, is a place of dizziness, tests, wandering and giving of the Torah. It is time for the Israelites to behave as grownups and face the conquest of their own identity, the fulfillment of their being. They cry exactly as spoiled children do. And the rumors just match with their fears: why getting ahead to the Land of Canaan? True, the same question is pending in the present as regards the apparently unexpected renewal of a Jewish State and of the Arab nation, Semitic heritage in the region.

The present reading portion obliges us to consider how we behave in terms of righteousness or deep injustice. When Caleb and Joshua witness that the kibush, conquest is possible, how can we show today that the Israelites do not rebel against God? In our time, it is more questionable. The real interrogation is how to get to a target that does not harm but will allow building actions. No unjust expropriations but a progressive and comprehensive “Semitization” of the Israeli society in the Middle-East.

Indeed, the false rumors conveyed by the ten men, their lies and betrayal of Mose’s mission are constant stuff. We are reluctant to grow, to become adults. Adulthood is so frightening for some Jews because of the monstrous experience of history. This is why – even it sounds like some kind of a vitz-וויץ /joke – good scouting eyes and brains allow growing spiritually. No way to compare with some servile traitors conveying sugary gossiping reports to some potentates. The point is to be found in the accomplishment of the first commandment given to all beings: “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it “vekhivshua\וכבשה””(Bereishit 1:28). We must be careful not to damage human souls and this is quite a challenging problem for our society. “Kibush\כבוש” is also the means of subduing evil, pride an will of useless conquest, preventing overbearing what is proper to others” , states Pessikta Zutrathi 197a (Buber Ed.). On the other hand, reaching out to our own self-control allows enhancing oneself and sometimes a society.

Thus, it makes sense that the Jewish tradition proposes the systematical reading of the Pirkey Avot-פרקי אבות – Sayings of the Fathers, a portion of the Talmud Tractate Nezikin\נזיקין (Damages) from Pesach to Shavuot, usually till Rosh Hashanah in most congregations today. The book is included in most Shabbat prayer-books and is composed of five chapters plus one (Kinyan Torah\קנין תורה=acquisition of the Torah) brought from a minor Tractate “Kallah\כלה”. As the Book of Job or Lamentations, the Sayings of the Fathers (Avoth\אבות according to Mishnaic Hebrew) is one of the best-sellers and most read books in the world. It is very ethical, down-to-earth and spiritual, crude and full of wisdom and thus can bring some reflection, insights and responses to all humans in search of who they are.

This also deals with our weekly reading portion. The “spies or scouts” were to examine with insightful and ethical eyes the realm of the country. Interestingly, at the end of the reading, God gives the commandment to hold the tzitzit-ציצית / fringes at each corner of the garments with a blue cord (techelet), “to look at it, observe them so that you don’t follow your heart and eyes /velo tituru (scout astray, make the wrong tour) acharei levavchem veacharei eyneichem(in lustful urges)\אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם” (Bamidbar 15:39-40). The commandment to look and observe the tzitzit in order to achieve and accomplish all the Mitzvot held in hand and upon our eyes is basic and extant for every Jew. They introduce to a daily viewing and consideration of how to behave with decency and dignity. It is not a problem of “derech haaretz\דרך הארץ = morals” that obliges every soul to make healthy use of their brains and will. In the reading portion, it is repeatedly mentioned that “if something was done unwittingly = le/bishgagah -ל-בשגגה”, there were some provision to be observed. This traces back to the wondrous prayer of Yom Kippur: “Forgive us, cleanse us, atone us, all the House of Israel as the inhabitant who resides in her midst (leger hagar betocham\לגר הגר בתוכם) / ki kol ha’am bishgagah\כי כל העם בשגגה (because all the nation, people, community) ha s erred unwittingly. The word is linked to “meshugah\משוגע – insane, fool, foolish” that became Slang Yinglish “shmeggegeh\שמגעגע” (just sounds so lovely and exact!). We could say “weird, weirdo, spaced out without any drugs except our ego’s pressure”.

The word “mussar\מוסר” is usually considered as the correct word for “ethics”, or authentic tradition of good behavior. But the commandment to look at the tzitzit is not moral, not ethical. Who can know what is inside of a soul? Morals or ethics suggest attitudes or pave the way to measure how we dare or not behave toward ourselves and the others. The twelve men were called to more: to see and not to get astray from a path that they might consider dangerous. Our lives can be imperiled by many events or situations. We can then choose to respond like Caleb and Joshua, by taking over the truth and face it. In that view, the Mitzvot are not moral, ethical, judgmental, pleasing. They show our connection with God and how we accept him. Moses was very humble and thus could not enter the Land taking upon him the lack of faith of the Israelites.

There is more: we are scouted by God. God scans our hearts and souls, our projects and desires. When He does this, He does not act with reluctance. Indeed, both the psalm (6:4 - 90:13; Math. 17:17-Mark 9:19;Luke 9:41) and Jesus use the same expression: "Until when = ad matai\עד מתי?" Until when God has to tolerate and support us? God does not spy us because He knows and this is also the point that is an exceptional sign of His Divine Providence and Protection as Shechinah. Then, as scouted witness, we have also the task to describe the reality as it is and not to refuse, deny or change it according to our desires.

The community of Israel is going through a long-term and lasting period of turbulence. It does not mean that israeli society is deeply imperiled, even by the neighboring dybbukim-devils or haunting ghosts. We have to be watchers, but never lose common sense and wisdom. I already wrote many times that a real Israeli born in the country or in Eretz via the authenticity of the Mitzvot knows in-depths that Israel is not really endangered. The real danger comes from us, from Israeli society and the repeated mistakes, carried over ages. The psalms teach never to trust the mighty, but only to have confidence in the Lord. This has been pathetic throughout Jewish history. It led to constant crawling attitudes of temporary and not permanent advisers or managers. Ben Gurion declared that we could not trust the Nations. This has to be correctly understood and taken into account. It does not mean we have to suspect, just be on alert. Golda Meir had confidence in the Soviet comrade just before the Independence day: instead she got the corpses of those who could tremendously be useful in this period of surviving battle.

On the other hand, it does mean we should not learn to appreciate those who live in our generation; we live with them and they live with us. Abraham was a wandering/fugitive Aramean (Parshat Tavo) which is mentioned at Rosh HaShanah and should be present to the conscience of every Jew (and by ricochet to every Christian); Abraham could not allow himself the spit and mock the people he was hosting as a foreign settler under his tent at the heat of the day, welcoming them and being in a contact of hospitality with them. This extends to the reality of a true Shabbat and thus concerns the whole of the Klal Israel. Hillel's word echo the obligation to respect those who dwell with us and not systematically contest their existence.

Finally, Judaism is based on prophecy, on the unveiling of actions and times. The burden of history has often affected such a vision of history built on the power of the living Word. In that sense, we are to be able to positively scout our lives and our gift to be alive.

We just celebrate the Feast of the Pentecost and the Spreading, Giving of the Holy Spirit. On the second Sunday after Pentecost, the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates the local Saints. Interestingly, in the 4th century, seemingly in the Celtic Roman Catholic Church of the West, the Church of Rome decided to recall the Saints on November 1st and then All the Souls (Departed) that were defunct (had accomplished their officium/task) on the following day, showing a sort of hope in winter time. The Orthodox Church celebrates the Saints as those who lived in the Pentecostal breathing-in of the Spirit. Firstly, all the Saints as last week and now the local Saints. Thus, the Palestinian Saints track back to the Avot, the ancestors and all the prophets of the Bible. From the time before Abraham till the cave of Machpelah\מכפלה, the Land of Canaan and Eretz Israel, each territory of the ancestral tribes and Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Arabia till so far away… God-seekers scout souls and soil and teach how to share wittingly.

God is the true scout, touring inside of our souls during our days and nights and weighing our lives by the yardstick of trust and distrust and victory over life steeple-chase.

Humbleness and the Spirit

2009-06-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Time passes and the next memorial feasts or days will show in July with the commemoration of the destructions of the Temples, the city of Jerusalem that will climax on the 9th of Av (07/29-30). We just left Shavuot and the Giving of the Written and Oral Laws to Moses. The journey through the wilderness continues with Shabbat Beha'alotekha\בהעלתך (Moses, when you will elevate the lamps) and the weekly reading portion in the Book of Bamidbar/Numbers 8:1-12:16. There starts the second year of the Israelites' sojourn in the desert. The Levites are called to mount = ha'alah\העלה the lamps in the Tent of the Meeting. They are told to serve from the age of twenty-five till they reach fifty. Then, they would stay on the side of the acting Levi'im, without performing anything. There qre two reading portions this year: "beha'alotkha\בעהעלתך" in Israel and "Nasso\נשא" abroad, in the rest of the world.

Moses proposes to celebrate the feast of Passover, thus for the second time in the wilderness. It happens that some men come with specific requests. Can they join the feast as they had been in contact with corpses and are unclean. At each step, Moses answers that he knows nothing and needs to get God's advice and response. This is the repeated motto of this weekly reading. Moses goes ahead but constantly needs God's personal answer. In the case of the feast of Passover, the reply is that these men should wait one full month and then celebrate Pesach on Iyar 14, i.e. what became "Pesach sheni\פסח שני = Second Passover" for those who were absent at the feast and could not participate for some valid reason. This provision is mentioned as a sort of leitmotiv that accompanies the Israelites during their journey in the Sinai. It is said that they should take good care of everybody, every soul and to never reject anyone. Today, this sounds as a typical reminder from the wilderness times. The Sinai is per se a kind of no-man’s land, a wild area full of dangers, with plenty of visible, invisible, day or night enemies or fictions that may exert their power even through fictitious visions.

Moses repeated the Lord’s commandment: “when a stranger who resides with you (“ve-khi yagur ger\וכי יגור גר”) will offer a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, he must offer it in accordance with the rules and rites (mishpato) of the Passover sacrifice. There shall be one law for you, whether stranger or citizen (velager ule’ezrach\ולגר ולאזרח) of the country”(Bamidbar 9:14). This extends the rather permanent issue we face in this country, much after the time spent in the wilderness and discussed as an actual problem in the previous blog. The time in the Sinai corresponds to a pedagogical tour. It is not a labyrinth because this wonderful space and mind route has but only two possible goals. The Cretan labyrinth combined secrecy and hardship to get free and/or memorize. It was also a mythological way to hold the Minotaur and thus to restrict one’s thought on limited solutions. The Egyptian pyramids were built on the same confusing pattern. Human rulers and leaders love these sorts of quizzes. Genetics and specialists of memory diseases or defects would show how such paths can be controlled with much insight.

The journey through Sinai is not of the same nature. It is not built upon myths and mythological attempts to tie up human beings. We are still in the Sinai in many ways, in particular as regards our desires or expectations, beliefs or faith that we came and will continue to come out of serfdom to freedom. In the wilderness, the Hebrew nation, was a displaced living body that advanced in some dizzy darkness. This means they missed explanations, maps, central piloting headquarters and strategy. Today, just look at the mobiles. We get the last breaking news in whatever alphabet, the weather forecast for the week, a living map showing where we are and where you may go. It also means you know where our friends, buddies are located and where the next conflict will nuke out. And, along with the view of the Tent of the Meeting, if any, your favorite pictures or flashing ads, SMS and fax services, access to your credit cards and personal documents, with the exact time. We hold the world in the palm of our hand, or around our neck, provided there is no strike somewhere. Then, you can call your friend who is at the Kotel/Western Wall and cry out all our distress lives from Anchorage! In Israel, beside a weapon on a belt, there are people who have 3, 5 cell phones at hand. It does not mean we know how to use our cells. But we are not lost…, well!

Now, in the desert, when there is a grain of sand, everything gets blurred. And there they were the ancestors! They were journeying ahead with camels, donkeys and sheep, rattling around without real understanding of where the route should lead them to. In this respect, as people were also dying in this environment, it should be interesting to analyze with precision that were listening to Moses. It is quite a pity that no TV nor Arutz “something” could not record daily life, counseling with Moses and prayers at the Tent of Meeting. The Talmud is rather lively, but still… It is evident that, progressively, the marching in the desert appeared to be dangerous. They were not at Jericho. But the Israelites made two hammered silver trumpets (chatzotzrot kesef\חצוצרות כסף) to summon the divisions and convoke the congregation with long blasts. The task was given to Aaron and the priests. Because these trumpets were to be blown in case of a war in order to remind the people that God is able to deliver the nation from their enemies (Num. 10:9). Everything still focuses and is naturally centered on God. He is the One and only Counselor at this point. There are “intermediate contacts or laws that allow to make a “chatzitzah\חציצה – partition” between clean and unclean and shake a situation” (Hagigah 78b). The trumpets and their resounding name in Hebrew have this function. It does not mean that God will save. It does not mean that the human divisions of the Israelites were strong or powerful, mighty. On the contrary, they did know that only Moses could advise them adequately because he was conversing with God in full obedience and consent, mutual trust.

At times, the Israelites could not accept such a situation. This is why it is inquiring to see how Moses tries to persuade Hovav the Madianite to guide the division across the desert and help them avoiding wrong routes (Bemidbar 10:29). Hobab was a sort of “stranger and citizen”. He answered to Moses that he preferred not to guide him and return to his home. Moses tried a second time to convince him to “give his eyes” in order to find the right direction. He got no response. The scene is fascinating because we still go through the same temptations, tests and frightening experiences, here in this country but also everywhere because the mental configuration is rather similar. Nahmanide had stated that: in the wilderness, Hovav would have given a human hand in a situation that basically defies God actions and certainly not Moses’ non-existing power. Thus, two radicals are used that are essential in Judaism: “tov\טוב – good – yetiv\יטיב – to be good”, which Moses said to Hovav to persuade him to guide them; in return, he would be good, generous toward Hovav. Hovav’s refusal is more than significant. It is precisely when the ger is a full resident and still claims his own freedom. This can upset or rebuke. Moses is a simple man and has the human right to be feeble. In that sense leaders are terribly weakened by nature. Hovav reminds Moses that his only guidance comes from God’s mouth and nobody else. When Moses insists “lecha itanu\לכה איתנו – come with us”, he forgets for a very short while that is definitely essential, that the Israelites are to join the spiritual path accomplished by the Avot – the ancestors and three first patriarchs. As concerned leaving idolatry and the house of Terach, Abraham heard “lech lecha – go, leave – go to yourself and who your are- go, go then to your country”. This is a divine call, a bit “weird” and that he could hardly listen and accept immediately. We have the same problem. We have more: we know this by heart! So leave it to the highbrows and we shall pull in/out, backward/forwards, around/away, underneath/in the air. And there go the strikes in the reading portion: the people protest: they want to eat, weep upon all these delicious products of Egypt. They got quail and manna.

But this was in the desert and the real thing concerns Moses. It is written about him: “Moses was a very humble man more than any other man on earth (anav meod mikol adam asher al-haadamah\ענב מאוד מכל אדם אשר על האדמה)” (Num. 12:3). This traces back a parallel with the first human being. “with him, says the Lord, I speak mouth to mouth (peh al-peh) (v.8), without riddles and he beholds the likeness of the Lord.”. Moses could not utter words properly. He was “ani\עני – poor” as God expecting His people prayer (Tehillim 104). He could not boast God or the Israelites or Pharaoh or anyone by his experience with God. How can we expect anything of God if we think we are strong and know anything about Him? Everywhere leaders will declare that they know; they will not step down because they know. And even when the downfall, collapse is definitely clear, still they are strong and know. Leaders can just be any anonymous who blows up for some odd reason.

Moses’ humility has become a model that remains unsurpassed in the TaNaKH. He is the model of the Jewish “anawim\ענויים – poor that totally rely on God”. He was obedient to God. “Obedience” does not mean a lot at the present. True, it sounds “too Christian” and servile. The Latin word “ob-audire” means “to hear, listen in a converging way, together”. This is the most difficult point to reach. It does not consist in “hearing” (sh’ma\שמע) and then do what pleases us. It does not mean a sort of constantly frustrating reduction of personal freewill or freedom. On the contrary, as “the poor in spirit – oi ptokhoi to pneumati” (Matthew 5:3), lauded by Jesus, the way is widely open to who believes that Go can work unexpected things. Jewishness has deep feeling toward those they would assume to be “anawim” or “tzadikim\צדיקים – righteous”, beyond any titles.

The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates this week the Gift and giving of the Holy Spirit. It should be noted that we hardly can imagine the world we live in without the presence of the Spirit. The 'Ruah\רוח " was waving over the space when the universe was created. It means that, whatever faith or religious attitude, the Spirit or blowing wind has always been refreshing the Earth and the galaxies. This explains why it is sometimes difficult for people either to conceive what seems evident to them or at least very complicated to describe; it can also presuppose that things have been totally renewed with the resurrection and session of Jesus to the Throne of Glory (the right hand of the Father).

The real problem is not that Christianity breaks down the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As many Easterners, I often say after the mention of the three names "Elohim echad\אלהים אחד = One Divinity" the phrase is usual among the Arabs. The issue is Who the Spirit is; why and from where the Spirit is given anew by the Father with regard to Jesus, "true Man and True God" as states the very ancient Assyrian litany in Aramaic. In fact, it is the Divine Spirit that has inspirited Elisabeth and Mary before the birth of John and Jesus. The actions acquired in the giving of the Holy Spirit consist in a constant renewal and reviving, refreshing of what humankind can eventually understand of the Divine Fatherhood and the goals of our existences. "Shechinah\שכינה " insists on an "overshadowing dwelling" while "ruah - revah = רוח\רו(ו)ח " expresses the notion of freedom and release, total absence of moral or physical bonds (Sephardic and Oriental Kaddish).

Lives are complicated, complex, sometimes simply sophisticated, just because we love to err. There are moments when we hardly can be, just be, exist. There are diseases that hinder souls, moves, getting forward. The miracle that can be found in a lot of places of sufferings (hospitals, nursery and elderly homes, prisons, i.a.) testifies that diseases, injures, mental or physical hindrances can be overcome at a huge and often inhumane price. It shows that we cannot draw or sketch out the profile or the map of the actions sustained by the Spirit.

I had a very dear "parishioner" who died last summer. A true dissident for the sake of the faith and he spent a long time in the GULag in Soviet Union. He was really in love of Jerusalem and knew the city by heart, stones, maps, roads, caves, hills, monuments. As most of the Soviet people in Israel, he could do whatever job or work. He was a wonderful and rare computer whiz. Once, he spoke with me about how to correctly repair a broken computer. He used to say that it is not convenient at all to download all sorts of programs. It was not "nice toward the computer because it could not stand it and it makes it sick". And he could add: "You see, the computer cries, a computer is a living body but we are like tools, with spirit, brains, selfish. A computer feels that the programs are wrong and it aches, it aches a lot but we do not feel that because we are often worse than tool or machines".

This is why he took great care in repairing the computers adequately. This is what the Spirit endeavors to do with us. The problem is that we prefer to ignore or walk further without trying to change our opinions, views, lifestyles. But the Spirit cares which answers to the English phrase: "Who cares". He does. It only becomes visible when we radiate the sprinkling joy that covers our longings.

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

June 3/May 21, 2009 – 11 deSivan 5769 - י"א דסיון תשס"ט

Hamsa on Prayer of the Lord in Aramaic

Ephraim Katzir z"l - אפרים קציר ז"ל

2009-06-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Prof. Efraim Katzir, Israel’s Fourth President, Dead at 93
by Gil Ronen Prof. Efraim Katzir Dies at 93 [Arutz 7]

Prof. Efraim Katzir, who served as Israel’s fourth President from 1973 to 1978, died in his home in Rehovot Saturday evening. He was 93.

Katzir had been hospitalized for several weeks due to an illness but was released to his home after some improvement in his condition.

Katzir was born in Kiev, Ukraine, as Efraim Katchalsky and made Aliyah to Israel with his parents when he was still a boy. He was raised in Jerusalem and received his doctor’s degree in biology from Hebrew University. He worked on the research and development of explosives in the Haganah underground and was appointed to head the IDF’s Science Corps during the War of Independence. He later became Chief Scientist for the IDF.

Katzir with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 1977 (GPO).

Katzir was among a group of scientists who founded the Weizmann Institute, where he established the Biophysics Laboratory. He received the Japan Prize in 1985 for pioneering research that served as the basis for development of medicines. He was among the founders of the Biotechnology Department on Tel Aviv University and was the first Israeli elected to the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S.

As President he encouraged the establishment of Judaic Studies departments in colleges and universities abroad, in order to stem the tide of assimilation. He was President during several of Israel's most dramatic moments, including the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the rise of the Likud in 1977, and the visit to Israel later that year by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

His brother, renowned chemist Prof. Aharon Katzir, was killed in a terror attack on Lod Airport in 1972. His wife Nina died in 1986.

Efraim and Nina Katzir had three children: a son, Meir, who is a professor of mathematics at the Haifa Technion, and two daughters. The daughters both died tragically: Nurit, a successful actress, died in December 1966 when gas from a heating stove leaked when she slept and poisoned her. Her younger sister Irit committed suicide, after sinking into depression following Nurit's death.

Say it in Yiddish in the Knesset (Arutz 7)

2009-05-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

For the first time since its founding, the Knesset is officially marking Yiddish Language and Culture Day on Tuesday. A Yiddish-Hebrew Knesset lexicon was released for the occasion.

The date for the parliamentary nod to Yiddish, a language once spoken by more than 12 million Jews, was selected to mark 150 years since the birth of the Yiddish author Shalom Aleichem. This past week was also the 20th anniversary of the founding of Yiddishshpiel, Tel Aviv's all-Yiddish theater.

The day's events include a joint meeting of the Knesset's Absorption, Immigration and Diaspora Committee and the Education and Culture Committee to discuss Yiddish culture. The Knesset is also holding a special session to discuss the place of Yiddish in modern Israeli society. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Deputy Minister of Pensioners Affairs Leah Ness are delivering the main speeches of the session.

Ahead of the unique Knesset session, a lexicon of the Yiddish translations of several key phrases often used by Israeli parliamentarians was distributed to all Knesset members. A few key phrases from the lexicon that veteran MKs may find useful include:

Ich hob eich nisht geshtert, toshter nisht mir!\איך האב אייך ניט געשטערט, טאשטער מיך ניט - "I didn't interrupt you, don't interrupt me!"

Ich ruf eich tzum seder dus ershte mol...\איך רוך אייך צום סדר דאס ערשטע מאל. - "I am calling you to order for the first time...."

Ordners, derveitert im fun zal!\ארדנערס, דערווייטערט אים פון זאל - "Ushers, remove him from the hall!"

Vehr siz far, zol veilen 'far'. Vehr siz keigen, zol veilen 'keigen'.\ווער ס'איז פאר, זאל וויילן "פאר". ווער ס'איז קעגן זאל וויילן קעגן - "Whoever is in favor, vote 'in favor'. Whoever is opposed, vote 'opposed'."

In the Knesset auditorium, members of the Yiddishshpiel theater troupe are performing songs and selected scenes from the Yiddish theater and from Jewish tradition. Throughout the day, the Knesset halls will host an exhibition from the Shalom Aleichem House, which is dedicated to preserving the author's legacy.

More than 450 people were invited to take part in the Knesset festivities and events.

Mameloshen\מאמע-לשון

Behind the cultural initiative stands Knesset Member Lia Shemtov (Israel Beiteinu), chairperson of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, who grew up speaking Yiddish in her family home in the Ukraine.

"This language represents for me the language, culture and history of the Jews of Europe," Shemtov said. "Yiddish is a rich, pungent, humorous, sweet and indulgent language. ...Yiddish, for me, is mein mameloshen, mein tateloshen, mein bubbeloshen und mein zeydeloshen ('my mother tongue, my father tongue, my grandmother tongue and my grandfather tongue')."

The two parties with the most Yiddish speakers, Shemtov said, are Yisrael Beiteinu and the Ashkenazi hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism party. Three Yisrael Beiteinu MKs - Shemtov, Avigdor Lieberman and David Rotem - speak Yiddish, as do all five MKs from UTJ. Other MKs who list Yiddish as an additional language on their official Knesset webpages are Avishai Braverman (Labor), Shai Hermesh (Kadima) and Yaakov "Ketzaleh\קעצעלע" Katz (National Union).

(Yiddish script by av a.)