Refuah - Healing
One of the most fundamental actions conducted in the name of faith in God is to assist the sick, the injured, those who suffer in their bodies and souls. It is a strong priority. Since ancient days, the Christian hospices, clinics, hospitals, convents and monasteries have been dedicated to the assistance to the needy and the poor, but also the elderly and the sick and their families. At the present, it must be admitted that the best organized system is the Catholic network even if it faces some difficulties.
The Orthodox Church, present in the Holy Land since the Apostolic times of the Early Church and considered as the Mother of all the Churches, has no permanent elderly home for the pensioners and the retired bishops are hosted by Catholic houses. This is a part of our responsibility, as Orthodox believers to develop a true and authentic system of assistance for the believers. "Anyone says "I love God" but hates his brother is a liar; whoever loves a brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). The Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem has and will always have ahead of her an immense task to help spirituality all the inhabitants of the Israeli society, Jordan and Palestine. Wounds and scars of war, history, cross-time dramatic situations have hurt and constantly wounds the inhabitants.
The arrival of the numerous newcomers into the State of Israel does constitute an important an numerically rather clear number of faithful, especially among the doctors, physicians, surgeons, medicine professors, male and female nurses and simple room cleaners in the hospitals. These people often dare show their faith in a natural way. I visit the children and also people suffering from traumas in Jerusalem other diseases in Tel HaShomer (Tel Aviv) Sorok in Ben Gurion hospital in Beer Sheva. It means three full days before the Feast of Easter, often combined with Pesach because of family days-off and possible visits. Visits to the numerous victims of diseases: the alcoholics, to those who were deeply injured during a terror attack. There is no difference in an Israeli hospital between nationality and faith at this point.
Thirty years at the hospital of Nazareth, yes, people used to compared the rites and customs of each Church, which was funny in a way and normal. Then, we understand that the country does count a lot of Orthodox faithful. It is a must to visit them, to confess and bring them the Holy Gifts during this period of Resurrection that is the answer to the Way of the Cross/suffering - Derech Yissurin - in Hebrew.
This can also question the Church because our Sacrament of the Holy Oils is long, tiring for a sick person that cannot follow the texts adequately. I often have to give the Oils in a situation of emergency. It is also beautiful then that the Jewish personnel - many doctors or surgeons are also learned talmudists or rabbis - would remain silent and give time to pray with much decency. Their presence, with other co-workers of all denominations, prove a real respect of God.
Priests and all people dedicating their lives to God are constant witnesses of His goodness. In this country, this is also the possibility to heal through conversation and trust and not by framing each other, rejecting the foreigners and aliens. Encounters are a major action in the service of the Church, as of the Jewish communities, not because it would be useless to proselytize: people here are thirsty to speak and get into contact.
Great Lent is a time for visiting the sick without focusing on our own destiny. We often perform good deeds in order to be refunded in terms of divine gratuities or graces, gracious acts towards ourselves or our fellow people. And then we think are entitled to glorify our actions as being sustained by God Himself. We know nothing. Jesus says to his disciples that the Son of Adam does not even recognize those who visited him in jail, when he was sick, naked or hungry (Matthew 25:36). Religious people are more likely to be sensitive to actions that are linked to eternal life, i.e. the quest of what resurrection means: thus, it requires no limits in time. The Israeli Kupat cholim and Bituach Leumi (Medical and social care assistance services) were launched by the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Mea Shearim at the turn of the 20th century. Religious Jews now visit and participate in the researches carried out at Yad VaShem (Deportation Memorial) as a part of a constant prayer that can heal and exorcize old clutching demons.
In terms of healing, there are no demons, no hideous memories; indeed, they are there, but because we betray them: when we discover the unbelievable treason committed towards the concentration camps survivors inside the very Jewish State of Israel. The same applies when some Christian take over should and capture cultures and societies to their own profit. It restricts the goal: God want to heal and to cure and not only concentrate on a few mirroring aspects that will break into pieces sooner or later in history.
True faith can be profoundly wounded by death. Faith know by intimate conviction than life and reinvigorating forces are there as the sign of God's sign that He resurrects the dead (the prayer is said three time at least by the Jews everyday).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Hallelu-Yah : Praising
Times and orders of rules are a bit disturbed: the "drashat Shabbat HaGadol" or homely pronounced for this Shabbat HaGadol was said last week and this week is Shabbat Parshat "Acharey mot - After the death of the two sons of Aaron " that leads to Pesach 5768 at the end of the Shabbat. Leviticus 16:1-18:30 is the weekly portion read in the Sacrificial book of VaYikra, the Levites. It describes the ritual of Yom Kippur and defines in what sense we are called the "saints - qedoshim". This name was given in this portion to those who serve the Lord, later, because of the location of the Temple, referred to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Paul of Tarsus uses the name when he came back from the diasporas with the money offering and assistance provided by the faithful. During the Byzantine Liturgy, the priest elevates the Bread and says: "Ta Hagia tis Hagiois - the Holy (Gifts) to the Holy (one - haqodesh leqedoshim", parallel to the Song of the Songs.
Indeed, the inhabitants of Jerusalem are called to be poor. Not needy. There is a special air, spirit in the Eretz Canaan/Israel. Galilee would be more prosperous and it can develop in wealthy conditions in the coming decades. This depends on the way the inhabitants of the region will be able to work together, which is on hold at the moment. The Negev - the futurist and prophetic Mamshit area of Ben Gurion's prospective envisions is still in a sort of cradle or covered with the dust bone of all the saints that died en route to the Temple. People cannot have the nerve to say that they are holy. God calls to a process that includes "becoming holy, sanctifying". This used to upset Rav Y. Leibowitz: " I opened my morning newspaper and found it full of accounts of the murders that have taken place in our midst, incest and prostitution and lust and rape and theft and armed robbery, and - superfluous to say, idolatry. And yet, there are people that say "We are by nature a holy people" (The Yoke of Heaven, p. 116)", he declared on Galey Tsahal on 1986! He hated this sort of fossilization of a principle like "sanctity" that can only deal or link to God. It does not belong to anybody.
At least Jews and Christians share the experience of "killing - retzach". Oh, God pardons each time and from the very beginning: God protected avenged Kain's murder by God sevenfold and thus Lamech's seventyfold! (Gen. 4:24), which corresponds to the measure of human pardon given by Jesus; it is the full value of 500 ephah offered in the Temple.
These days, we celebrate two "passing overs'": Pesach\Passover and Passcha/Easter for the Oriental and Orthodox Churches (April 26th, 2008).The problem is not, at this point, to know why and persistently on both parts, relationships are not really existing, showing the choice of hatred instead of love and achievement. Accomplishment implies a plenitude that Christianity cannot proclaim as right out of the blue moon. Judaism not only chose but consistently continue to question the Church(es) about fulfillment.
Moses did not enter Eretz Canaan because he had killed a man. The whole situation is bizarre: the adopted Jewish child, son of Pharaoh, kills an Egyptian, i.e. a foreigner to him, to save a Hebrew who does not they are of the same identity. For this reason, God compliments him for his faithfulness but blood bars the entry to the Land. There is no difference amongst humans with regards to blood = life. Do we measure what it cost over centuries to the Jewish communities to teach such a commandment and not to use it without conscience?
As for Jesus of Nazareth who was killed by a very subtle series of events. We are covered with imprints of life and death seeds and death usually take the advantage in certain contexts. Pontius Pilatus had a legal status. Caiaphas, the high-priest is problematic as a man (Talmud Gittin), but also because what Sanhedrin could take a decision under foreign rule, at a moment when Jewish groups of believers were in open conflict. Thus, Jesus' blood is a murder by the Roman soldiers in a disorderly disorganized society. This is why Jesus' "passing-over" is a highly prevailing and major element.
Both Jews and Oriental and Orthodox Christians sing the "Hallelu-Yah - Praise the Lord (of war, fight). It is the cry, yelling of victory and substantiates during these Feast that we can "love our fellow people as ourselves" as prescribed in the weekly portion (Lev. 19:18). It is a joyous passing-over: the Oriental Churches and the Jewish traditions never remove this “word of glory and praise” from the prayers, contrary to the Latin rite in use in the Roman Church. Mitzvot and graces replace in this commandment any sort of "avenging". God acts otherwise. Shimon Peres reached in age, mental force, opportunity and position in a State of the Jews the possibility to utter that with emotion in Poland as "a Kaddish", 65 years after the uprising of the Ghetto of Warsaw.
Hope is a natural sign of healing oil that irrigates Semitic fidelity throughout the ages.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Facebook: av Aleksandr http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 21st, 2008 - 16 deNissan 5768
Indeed, the inhabitants of Jerusalem are called to be poor. Not needy. There is a special air, spirit in the Eretz Canaan/Israel. Galilee would be more prosperous and it can develop in wealthy conditions in the coming decades. This depends on the way the inhabitants of the region will be able to work together, which is on hold at the moment. The Negev - the futurist and prophetic Mamshit area of Ben Gurion's prospective envisions is still in a sort of cradle or covered with the dust bone of all the saints that died en route to the Temple. People cannot have the nerve to say that they are holy. God calls to a process that includes "becoming holy, sanctifying". This used to upset Rav Y. Leibowitz: " I opened my morning newspaper and found it full of accounts of the murders that have taken place in our midst, incest and prostitution and lust and rape and theft and armed robbery, and - superfluous to say, idolatry. And yet, there are people that say "We are by nature a holy people" (The Yoke of Heaven, p. 116)", he declared on Galey Tsahal on 1986! He hated this sort of fossilization of a principle like "sanctity" that can only deal or link to God. It does not belong to anybody.
At least Jews and Christians share the experience of "killing - retzach". Oh, God pardons each time and from the very beginning: God protected avenged Kain's murder by God sevenfold and thus Lamech's seventyfold! (Gen. 4:24), which corresponds to the measure of human pardon given by Jesus; it is the full value of 500 ephah offered in the Temple.
These days, we celebrate two "passing overs'": Pesach\Passover and Passcha/Easter for the Oriental and Orthodox Churches (April 26th, 2008).The problem is not, at this point, to know why and persistently on both parts, relationships are not really existing, showing the choice of hatred instead of love and achievement. Accomplishment implies a plenitude that Christianity cannot proclaim as right out of the blue moon. Judaism not only chose but consistently continue to question the Church(es) about fulfillment.
Moses did not enter Eretz Canaan because he had killed a man. The whole situation is bizarre: the adopted Jewish child, son of Pharaoh, kills an Egyptian, i.e. a foreigner to him, to save a Hebrew who does not they are of the same identity. For this reason, God compliments him for his faithfulness but blood bars the entry to the Land. There is no difference amongst humans with regards to blood = life. Do we measure what it cost over centuries to the Jewish communities to teach such a commandment and not to use it without conscience?
As for Jesus of Nazareth who was killed by a very subtle series of events. We are covered with imprints of life and death seeds and death usually take the advantage in certain contexts. Pontius Pilatus had a legal status. Caiaphas, the high-priest is problematic as a man (Talmud Gittin), but also because what Sanhedrin could take a decision under foreign rule, at a moment when Jewish groups of believers were in open conflict. Thus, Jesus' blood is a murder by the Roman soldiers in a disorderly disorganized society. This is why Jesus' "passing-over" is a highly prevailing and major element.
Both Jews and Oriental and Orthodox Christians sing the "Hallelu-Yah - Praise the Lord (of war, fight). It is the cry, yelling of victory and substantiates during these Feast that we can "love our fellow people as ourselves" as prescribed in the weekly portion (Lev. 19:18). It is a joyous passing-over: the Oriental Churches and the Jewish traditions never remove this “word of glory and praise” from the prayers, contrary to the Latin rite in use in the Roman Church. Mitzvot and graces replace in this commandment any sort of "avenging". God acts otherwise. Shimon Peres reached in age, mental force, opportunity and position in a State of the Jews the possibility to utter that with emotion in Poland as "a Kaddish", 65 years after the uprising of the Ghetto of Warsaw.
Hope is a natural sign of healing oil that irrigates Semitic fidelity throughout the ages.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Facebook: av Aleksandr http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 21st, 2008 - 16 deNissan 5768
Peh: God's mouth converses
Of course, what to do? Our earthly time is a night and day struggle for life, in many evident aspects; at times, things would be more wildly off-the-wall. Israeli society and Jewishness get to the point as if they would be forced to searching their reality, identity, actions. Pesach is the drama about good health: good ears when God’s mouth speaks (Peh siach). Solid travailing wombs to birth a nation, some grains of sechel (discernment).
As long as Jews can play games between rich and poor, needy and schnorrers, schmooze about fate and money, jewelry, trading, career, show to be "klug un intelligent ober a biss'l paskudne = clever and well-educated but a bit obnoxious in their behaviors", things are abnormal. Say that tons of people, nations have the nerve to be arrogant. One peculiar component of this "essence" is the pretence to be best, first, successful, prestigious, mighty (though ready to help at your early convenience), undauntedly powerful. It sounds like our chutzpah, but the word brings forth another point of view: "how irrepressible (chatzifah) is the land of Israel that is still productive after all devastations" (Y. Talmud Taanit IV:69b). This is the real prodigy this year!
There is more in Judaism. Things deal with constant, steady, persistent combat. Not the simple basic fight we have to face because of long-long-long-term, age-long and stubborn rejection, hatred or misunderstanding. This is normal. And it is normal because of what happened in this Yaakov's wrestling overnight. It belongs to the standards of alterity and similarity between God and Israel. This wrestling is the artifact of the original Pesach event.
Theodore Herzl's "I have a dream" is somehow parallel to Martin Luther King's message. Parallel because abnormal according to the basic rules governing societies, but making dreams come true because of faith. Pesach gives each Jew to know who he is for the benefit of collectivities.
This goes far beyond Jacob's special call to be Israel. Abraham was the "ivri - going across the two rivers". Yaakov crossed the ford of Yabbok: note that Ya-Bo -k is the reversed order of the letters in Ya-Ko-v (heel, limp) and it is said: "VaYeAVeK ish imo - and a man wrestled with him" (v. 25) as he was remained alone: the real wrestling now deals, in loneliness - though not solitude - with his special oneness and identity. Like Abraham he has to choose new priorities and geographical orientations. He was "standing behind on his heels (EKev)"; from now on, he will face humankind and himself because the "unknown" fighter was both of divine and human nature. He called the place "Peniel" because he fought timelessly overnight in a human and divine Panim el panim = face to face encounter. Was it Esau, Jacob's own shadow? both God and the brothers? "God created us in His image and likeness" (Genesis 1:27). But moreover, it seems at this point that God concealed something definitely substantial with Jacob becoming Israel. Adam found his fulfillment in the removing of "tzela - rib, side, shadow" (Genesis 2:18) because he was alone. Jacob was alone during the wrestling. Adam woke up and found his wholeness in Eve/Chawah, the woman who is indeed the crown of creation. The same happens during that combat in which Jacob urged the "ish - man" to tell his name. In return, he is hurt at his hip and his "tzolea - limping, walking" is crooked to one side ("Are the paralyzed and crippled to punish him who holds?" Pessakti Rabbati 13). He is no more alone but "achieved, whole" = "shalem, strangely also "sholem = loyal (Genesis 33:18). His new name is that of a "feminine" mildness given upon birth from Jewish women that "shall make the crooked straight (yashar) = Yisrael" (Isaiah 40:4). This combat ended at "alot hashachar = the breaking or ascending of dawn". It is an identity rebirth: Jacob wrestled and removed the useless clue of "dirty dust = abak" (cf. Yaakov, ekev = heel, Yabbok) in order to be able to face his destiny. He became Israel and birthed the Community envisioning what repeatedly happened at Beth-El as dawn broke, i.e. is "making a sort of aliyah-ascent". He has been injured but he relocated to achieving Israel's true goal as a firstly multi-faceted tribe who has to share the blessings with all the nations.
The main problem is whether we accept or not that this wrestling is not a victory per se; this inner combat empowers us to struggle for life in whatever circumstances of our lives without ever stepping down because we witness for much more than ourselves.
When Jesus of Nazareth was dying, he said to John, his disciple to take Mary his mother to his home. Say he rose from the dead, then met with Maria Magdalena. Jesus saw "the unbelievable woman" who will powerfully convince the scary disciples that the Master is alive! As Adam welcomed Eve, mother of the living, after a sleep comparable to death and solitude. This lines out with Yaakov becoming Israel, the father of the twelve Tribes, one Community, both injured and unwillingly reinforced. Thus, Rachel died after having birthed Benyamin, the first "son of Abraham" to be born in the land of Canaan. What firstly appeared to look like a cheating story turned into a dream that come true at dawn breaking and continues to interrogate :"hagidah-na shmecha - tell me Your Name?" that can be viewed in the injured "gid hanashe - sinew of the thigh". As Sarah for Abraham, Rachel for Yaakov, Mary Magdalene for Jesus, women (Aramaic 'nesha') remove, discard wounds and debts and save men, i.e. humankind (Talmud Berakhot 17b/Chullin 91a).
Indeed, "[Christians] dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country." (Letter to Diognetus). How curious that Jews experienced the same and in both a terrible and marvelous way and have to respond to this situation with much righteousness in our generation. Freedom remains the goal.
Chag Pesach sameach
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Facebook contact: Av Aleksandr http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 17, 2008 - 12 deNissan 5768
As long as Jews can play games between rich and poor, needy and schnorrers, schmooze about fate and money, jewelry, trading, career, show to be "klug un intelligent ober a biss'l paskudne = clever and well-educated but a bit obnoxious in their behaviors", things are abnormal. Say that tons of people, nations have the nerve to be arrogant. One peculiar component of this "essence" is the pretence to be best, first, successful, prestigious, mighty (though ready to help at your early convenience), undauntedly powerful. It sounds like our chutzpah, but the word brings forth another point of view: "how irrepressible (chatzifah) is the land of Israel that is still productive after all devastations" (Y. Talmud Taanit IV:69b). This is the real prodigy this year!
There is more in Judaism. Things deal with constant, steady, persistent combat. Not the simple basic fight we have to face because of long-long-long-term, age-long and stubborn rejection, hatred or misunderstanding. This is normal. And it is normal because of what happened in this Yaakov's wrestling overnight. It belongs to the standards of alterity and similarity between God and Israel. This wrestling is the artifact of the original Pesach event.
Theodore Herzl's "I have a dream" is somehow parallel to Martin Luther King's message. Parallel because abnormal according to the basic rules governing societies, but making dreams come true because of faith. Pesach gives each Jew to know who he is for the benefit of collectivities.
This goes far beyond Jacob's special call to be Israel. Abraham was the "ivri - going across the two rivers". Yaakov crossed the ford of Yabbok: note that Ya-Bo -k is the reversed order of the letters in Ya-Ko-v (heel, limp) and it is said: "VaYeAVeK ish imo - and a man wrestled with him" (v. 25) as he was remained alone: the real wrestling now deals, in loneliness - though not solitude - with his special oneness and identity. Like Abraham he has to choose new priorities and geographical orientations. He was "standing behind on his heels (EKev)"; from now on, he will face humankind and himself because the "unknown" fighter was both of divine and human nature. He called the place "Peniel" because he fought timelessly overnight in a human and divine Panim el panim = face to face encounter. Was it Esau, Jacob's own shadow? both God and the brothers? "God created us in His image and likeness" (Genesis 1:27). But moreover, it seems at this point that God concealed something definitely substantial with Jacob becoming Israel. Adam found his fulfillment in the removing of "tzela - rib, side, shadow" (Genesis 2:18) because he was alone. Jacob was alone during the wrestling. Adam woke up and found his wholeness in Eve/Chawah, the woman who is indeed the crown of creation. The same happens during that combat in which Jacob urged the "ish - man" to tell his name. In return, he is hurt at his hip and his "tzolea - limping, walking" is crooked to one side ("Are the paralyzed and crippled to punish him who holds?" Pessakti Rabbati 13). He is no more alone but "achieved, whole" = "shalem, strangely also "sholem = loyal (Genesis 33:18). His new name is that of a "feminine" mildness given upon birth from Jewish women that "shall make the crooked straight (yashar) = Yisrael" (Isaiah 40:4). This combat ended at "alot hashachar = the breaking or ascending of dawn". It is an identity rebirth: Jacob wrestled and removed the useless clue of "dirty dust = abak" (cf. Yaakov, ekev = heel, Yabbok) in order to be able to face his destiny. He became Israel and birthed the Community envisioning what repeatedly happened at Beth-El as dawn broke, i.e. is "making a sort of aliyah-ascent". He has been injured but he relocated to achieving Israel's true goal as a firstly multi-faceted tribe who has to share the blessings with all the nations.
The main problem is whether we accept or not that this wrestling is not a victory per se; this inner combat empowers us to struggle for life in whatever circumstances of our lives without ever stepping down because we witness for much more than ourselves.
When Jesus of Nazareth was dying, he said to John, his disciple to take Mary his mother to his home. Say he rose from the dead, then met with Maria Magdalena. Jesus saw "the unbelievable woman" who will powerfully convince the scary disciples that the Master is alive! As Adam welcomed Eve, mother of the living, after a sleep comparable to death and solitude. This lines out with Yaakov becoming Israel, the father of the twelve Tribes, one Community, both injured and unwillingly reinforced. Thus, Rachel died after having birthed Benyamin, the first "son of Abraham" to be born in the land of Canaan. What firstly appeared to look like a cheating story turned into a dream that come true at dawn breaking and continues to interrogate :"hagidah-na shmecha - tell me Your Name?" that can be viewed in the injured "gid hanashe - sinew of the thigh". As Sarah for Abraham, Rachel for Yaakov, Mary Magdalene for Jesus, women (Aramaic 'nesha') remove, discard wounds and debts and save men, i.e. humankind (Talmud Berakhot 17b/Chullin 91a).
Indeed, "[Christians] dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country." (Letter to Diognetus). How curious that Jews experienced the same and in both a terrible and marvelous way and have to respond to this situation with much righteousness in our generation. Freedom remains the goal.
Chag Pesach sameach
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Facebook contact: Av Aleksandr http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 17, 2008 - 12 deNissan 5768
Chametz: Leave and march in
Are you "on a journey - tiyul"? Well, I grew up being and living with most Displaced Persons. The "way" was from East-Europe to West-Europe, then North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. World War I inaugurated a long-term period of human flows or transfers of flocks, redesigning precarious borders.
Queen Victoria was still sending some colonizers paid on her own expenses and for the sake of the Crown to Australia: hooligans, released murderers and street women rose up the level of London cockney to the rank of a new Hollywood dialect at the turn of the 20th century. And suddenly Greek, Bulgarian, together with the first Russian immigrants arrived by steamers. By the same time, Shalom Aleichem described in a short novel "Blondzhdike shterne - Sparkling stars" how any Jew originating from any normal shtetl (small village) would so nicely feel at home in the London East End: no need to speak English, but just move the hands; "dos machen mit di hent - by using their hands expressively". Some nations seem today very cozy and well-settled, as if they had cultivated their green lawn for over more than two thousand years. We have our modern barbarians who cut their greens.
In a cute Dutch village by Nijmegen, nobody is seen in the street during the heat of the day. . . except that most gossip women know everything "online" looking at their "spiegeltjes - little side mirrors" and inform their tribe through SMS or cellular calls. Nations sank into the oblivious unconsciousness of low-gear memories. Modernity meets with gossip, chatting and apparent stiffness. No, people have always been on the move. I wonder if this is not due, to some extent, to the fact that the planet does rotate and pursues a difficult pilgrimage through history. Stability and fixity are rather a part of a myth. Life has often been too short or reduced by the hands of conquerors. Still, Jewish eyes flicker at Pesach and remove bad and evil: the chametz, leaven of pride: "Next year in "ara de'Israel= in the Land of Israel"- "chulem oder emes? - a dream or a reality?". The Tel Aviv Beyt Hatfutzot (Museum of the Diasporas) is definitely a unique and insightful place for a coherent understanding of humans, in particular the Jews en voyage to themselves along God's paths ("My plans are not your plans, nor My ways your ways says the Lord/so is the word that issues from My mouth: it does not come to Me unfilled", Isaiah 55:8-12).
What is your real trip for Pesach 5768? What is your journey through these seven days of different daily bread? Jews have a sort of creative inability to settle somewhere or not to move from time to time. When the Temple was existent, the Klal Israel - Community of Israel rapidly developed a system of free but rather obligatory pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the Temple in order to offer the korbanot/prescribed sacrifices. This allowed to prohibit the other sites that did not focus on the Lord/HaShem alone, especially in the North. Shalosh regalim: i.e. three footings up to the Holy of Holies (Devir). As in English "foot-step" it is a move of ascent that also corresponds to a way of living, moral or spiritual conducts or actions. Of course, it is wiser to translate "regalim" by "pilgrimages"; but it sounds a bit bizarre. Pilgrimages mean that pilgrims (from O. Fr. Pelegrin = go "beyond the fields (acres) that are outside, foreign” and enter a new place).In Hebrew, "regalim" comes from “regel = leg". We walk on foot, beregel even if some wealthy people would arrive on Dutch bikes, in buses, soon by trains and other by private jets and Mercedes. Firstly, this kind of expedition for Pesach, Shavuot (Pentecost/Giving of the Torah) and Sukkot (Tabernacles) requires a strong a diet a reconnect with a soulful nomadic Semitic spirit (The "wandering Aramean" syndrome depicted in Bemidbar 26:5). "On foot is on foot"; we have all kinds of wonderful sandals, very solid and comfy. We can also walk bare-foot, somehow a bit titillating for the toes... "Shirey hama'alot - are the songs or ascents, Tehillim,120-134, some being read during the Lenten Liturgies in the Orthodox Church).
"Regalim" has more. They are "r'gel davar = the basics of a reason" (Talmud Nazir 9:3). Thus, the three pilgrimages of ascents to Jerusalem and the Temple as commanded in Exodus 23:14."Hirgil" = to make accustomed/ to flay an animal from its feet upwards "for the purpose of levitical cleanness" (Hullin9:3). "Rigel - to spy". But, "The 1st of Nissan is the new year for the oley regel (those who go up on foot)" (Rosh Hashanah 16b). There is a concept of climbing, going up. It may be a slow process, take time. The French Saint Therese of Lisieux, having seen one of the first elevators during her pilgrimage to Rome, declared she would love to get to God by elevator! This year, there is a huge rush of Russian pilgrims for Passcha/Easter on April 27th. Interesting how the locals forgot that crowds used to arrive in the Holy Land before the Russian Revolution. It only starts and should develop with the visit of the Chinese some day... And we! The survivors... and every human is a survivor someway? Do we feel how light and swift, bar-mitzvah-like we are after 3.000 years that we try to summarize and build up a State in (more than) 60 years? The others know, so there is only one thing to say: "Next year...". Todah al hasavlanut, thanks for being patient... G-d.
Ascending is a spiritual exploit. Tradition can cope with modern utensils. Old leavened chametz complies us to clean, lighten, unburden just as "not to judge our brothers" (Mar Ephrem).
Chag sameach
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Contact: Av Aleksandr, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 15, 2008 - 10 deNissan 5768
Queen Victoria was still sending some colonizers paid on her own expenses and for the sake of the Crown to Australia: hooligans, released murderers and street women rose up the level of London cockney to the rank of a new Hollywood dialect at the turn of the 20th century. And suddenly Greek, Bulgarian, together with the first Russian immigrants arrived by steamers. By the same time, Shalom Aleichem described in a short novel "Blondzhdike shterne - Sparkling stars" how any Jew originating from any normal shtetl (small village) would so nicely feel at home in the London East End: no need to speak English, but just move the hands; "dos machen mit di hent - by using their hands expressively". Some nations seem today very cozy and well-settled, as if they had cultivated their green lawn for over more than two thousand years. We have our modern barbarians who cut their greens.
In a cute Dutch village by Nijmegen, nobody is seen in the street during the heat of the day. . . except that most gossip women know everything "online" looking at their "spiegeltjes - little side mirrors" and inform their tribe through SMS or cellular calls. Nations sank into the oblivious unconsciousness of low-gear memories. Modernity meets with gossip, chatting and apparent stiffness. No, people have always been on the move. I wonder if this is not due, to some extent, to the fact that the planet does rotate and pursues a difficult pilgrimage through history. Stability and fixity are rather a part of a myth. Life has often been too short or reduced by the hands of conquerors. Still, Jewish eyes flicker at Pesach and remove bad and evil: the chametz, leaven of pride: "Next year in "ara de'Israel= in the Land of Israel"- "chulem oder emes? - a dream or a reality?". The Tel Aviv Beyt Hatfutzot (Museum of the Diasporas) is definitely a unique and insightful place for a coherent understanding of humans, in particular the Jews en voyage to themselves along God's paths ("My plans are not your plans, nor My ways your ways says the Lord/so is the word that issues from My mouth: it does not come to Me unfilled", Isaiah 55:8-12).
What is your real trip for Pesach 5768? What is your journey through these seven days of different daily bread? Jews have a sort of creative inability to settle somewhere or not to move from time to time. When the Temple was existent, the Klal Israel - Community of Israel rapidly developed a system of free but rather obligatory pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the Temple in order to offer the korbanot/prescribed sacrifices. This allowed to prohibit the other sites that did not focus on the Lord/HaShem alone, especially in the North. Shalosh regalim: i.e. three footings up to the Holy of Holies (Devir). As in English "foot-step" it is a move of ascent that also corresponds to a way of living, moral or spiritual conducts or actions. Of course, it is wiser to translate "regalim" by "pilgrimages"; but it sounds a bit bizarre. Pilgrimages mean that pilgrims (from O. Fr. Pelegrin = go "beyond the fields (acres) that are outside, foreign” and enter a new place).In Hebrew, "regalim" comes from “regel = leg". We walk on foot, beregel even if some wealthy people would arrive on Dutch bikes, in buses, soon by trains and other by private jets and Mercedes. Firstly, this kind of expedition for Pesach, Shavuot (Pentecost/Giving of the Torah) and Sukkot (Tabernacles) requires a strong a diet a reconnect with a soulful nomadic Semitic spirit (The "wandering Aramean" syndrome depicted in Bemidbar 26:5). "On foot is on foot"; we have all kinds of wonderful sandals, very solid and comfy. We can also walk bare-foot, somehow a bit titillating for the toes... "Shirey hama'alot - are the songs or ascents, Tehillim,120-134, some being read during the Lenten Liturgies in the Orthodox Church).
"Regalim" has more. They are "r'gel davar = the basics of a reason" (Talmud Nazir 9:3). Thus, the three pilgrimages of ascents to Jerusalem and the Temple as commanded in Exodus 23:14."Hirgil" = to make accustomed/ to flay an animal from its feet upwards "for the purpose of levitical cleanness" (Hullin9:3). "Rigel - to spy". But, "The 1st of Nissan is the new year for the oley regel (those who go up on foot)" (Rosh Hashanah 16b). There is a concept of climbing, going up. It may be a slow process, take time. The French Saint Therese of Lisieux, having seen one of the first elevators during her pilgrimage to Rome, declared she would love to get to God by elevator! This year, there is a huge rush of Russian pilgrims for Passcha/Easter on April 27th. Interesting how the locals forgot that crowds used to arrive in the Holy Land before the Russian Revolution. It only starts and should develop with the visit of the Chinese some day... And we! The survivors... and every human is a survivor someway? Do we feel how light and swift, bar-mitzvah-like we are after 3.000 years that we try to summarize and build up a State in (more than) 60 years? The others know, so there is only one thing to say: "Next year...". Todah al hasavlanut, thanks for being patient... G-d.
Ascending is a spiritual exploit. Tradition can cope with modern utensils. Old leavened chametz complies us to clean, lighten, unburden just as "not to judge our brothers" (Mar Ephrem).
Chag sameach
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Contact: Av Aleksandr, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
April 15, 2008 - 10 deNissan 5768
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
RONI : Kaire - Rejoice
At 6pm. last Friday, we shall go down in procession to the Holy Sepulcher, with Patriarch Theophilos III and the members of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, to read for the last time during Great Lent the magnificent sequence of the "Theotokos - the Mother of God" as we did each Friday at the end of the day. We have seen that it could be possible to sketch out various possible connections between the Mother of Jesus Immanuel - i.e. "mother of God" - usually translated into Hebrew by "Yoledet El " although this expression sounds too much "foreign". The "Unespoused virgin" of the Theotokos hymnography rather corresponds in Semitic thought to the roots that derive from "almeyatho " as I tried to briefly explain in a previous note."Hebrew "Kallah - corresponds to the same notion of absolute purity, integrity at a physical as well as at a spiritual point of view.
The major question, with regards to these annual readings, is how avoiding being trapped by the rituals. On the contrary, it suggests how to envision and to understand the updates to which they relates beyond slight changes within societies of various moral and ethical tendencies. It is somehow useless to systematically contradict the "negation of virginity" as shown in present literature and thoughts coming mainly from the Anglo-Saxon world. Judaism - as Christianity - have experience too much "fear, fright, angst, attraction-repulsion toward sex" that led to a profound imprinting and misunderstanding of what sex means and purity proposes from God's Presence and Reign.
This task should be positively accomplished and it is quite a paradox in Judaism, e.g., that married rabbis and scholars could write down such stupid statements as those that are found in the description of the woman essential female and femnine menstrual cycle (Machzor, Tractate Niddah ). Let's say that there would be a sin - there is no original sin for the Jews as for the Eastern Orthodox Church - it is just clumsy and stubborn over generations to focus on the condemnation of half of humanity - i.e. women because of some apparently picturesque sharing of a wrong fruit, namely an "apple" which - according to the Torah is definitely not mentioned and in the Mishna is the "fig - tenah " that corresponds to the tree of teaching, as comparable with the "pip'l" in the Buddhist tradition.
Negative judgmental positions against women, their stand and role in the society although they can be venerated and almost falsely venerated as goodesses on the other hand shows a deep lack of spiritual comfort and ease everywhere. It is not only a matter of patraiach or matriarch tradition. It deals with the purity of life seed (zera'im ) as described in the first treatise of the the Mishnah. Chanting the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church corresponds in some way to the fulfillment of the Song of the Song: "do not wake dont awaken love till it finds its pleasure", which doe not relate to sole and exclusive sexual, sensual, physical but all-encompassing emotions that clutch God to mankind. Such binding is only possible through women. And of course without exclusion of any human gender.
At this point our society is profoundly sick, deeply insane. In our generation, and in the State of Israel - somehow also in Palestine and the neighboring countries, life standards are very high and people can grow very old. There is no special requirement for early sex or physical experience, except a tragic feeling of mechanical loneliness. People hardly can share on the long-term and physical emotions turn in showing a real "Angst vor Leben - life anxiety". Thus, it would be essential to show the backgrounds and roots of the Theotokos hymnography and the song that could explain with realism the way that can lead to authentic purity.
Mariam the Egyptian was born in Alexandria and lived in the 4-5th century. It is essnetial that the Eastern Orthodox tradition dedicates the last Sunday before Lazarus Sunday to such a saint. She was supposedly 12 years old when she started to live as a prostitute. The interesting point is that she explained to Saint Sozymas that she was so eagerly driven by her passion for lust that she did not even wanted to be paid by her clients and preferred to beg for her living. This aspect of a "teen age" woman (girl) can show at the present the same it did for her in the first Christian centuries. She was certainly more mature than usual girls of her age, though this does not mean a lot in our region where it is frequent to marry at 15 years old.
Lust should not only be understood as a devilish passion without control or that loses any control. Just as men should never been left alone and God had the wisdom to repair Adam's solitude, women need extreme respect and true "untouched" love because of the huge amount of possible emotions that they have in their insides, hearts and feelings, intuition and rational wisdom too.The miracle that happened to Mary of Egypt as she decided to enter the Holy Sepucher and could pass the gate by some invisible barrier, led her to the icon of the Virgin, where she prayed and then entered freely the sanctuary. Such accounts should be read with insights in order to understand God's salvific pedagogy. She fled to the desert near Jordan, the monastery of Saint Nicholas where she met with saint Zozimas who brought her each year the Eucharist - in fact he found her lying dead at the place where he had communicated her the first year. Her body was not corrupt.
Again, the same for the rabbis. Most Church Fathers wrote unbelievable accounts about female temptation capacities. Malehood has not more insights in spiritual life. I have always been "shocked" in a way by saint Augustine's attitude: he had a wife or say a women he lived with for the better part of his life and a son. He never really took care of her or of his son although, at that time, he could anyway have become the priest, bishop and spiritual leader. There is a sort of permanent disdain or mocking towards women liberation movements. This is definitely not interesting here. Mariam does not want to be a man. She was ready to seduce any man to get her drops of lust. And this is very dangerous in ethical life. Israeli society will come to Pesach 5768 within a few day in a year of remittance for the land and release of the debts (shmittah ). Instead, former president Katzav as other probable ministries and high ranking personalities show themselves a in sex-obsessed, raping society that is totally the opposite of why the Hebrew could leave Egypt and after a sin of idolatry enter le Land of Canaan.
When Zosimas found Mary in the wilderness to give her the Communion, she was lying dead and nude. She was also nude when she had met him and had asked for his cover. She was apparently nude: she had to the extreme gotten away from the world and brought, in her nakedness the newness of love. In terms of newness, it is definitely time for men to get more perceptive of the very human and achieving nature (physis = acting force) of women’s redemption role. Judaism and Christianity have shown that at length and got stiff-headed responses from males. The distance that cannot be reduced from the women side to maleness causes a long, very long-term absence of balance, whereas God proposed unity and equity.
These are not simple feelings. They are difficult to explain and put into words that people can accept and make theirs, for their betterment, for being more gentle and capable to feel aat ease in their civilization.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 14, 2008 - 9 de'Nissan 5768
The major question, with regards to these annual readings, is how avoiding being trapped by the rituals. On the contrary, it suggests how to envision and to understand the updates to which they relates beyond slight changes within societies of various moral and ethical tendencies. It is somehow useless to systematically contradict the "negation of virginity" as shown in present literature and thoughts coming mainly from the Anglo-Saxon world. Judaism - as Christianity - have experience too much "fear, fright, angst, attraction-repulsion toward sex" that led to a profound imprinting and misunderstanding of what sex means and purity proposes from God's Presence and Reign.
This task should be positively accomplished and it is quite a paradox in Judaism, e.g., that married rabbis and scholars could write down such stupid statements as those that are found in the description of the woman essential female and femnine menstrual cycle (Machzor, Tractate Niddah ). Let's say that there would be a sin - there is no original sin for the Jews as for the Eastern Orthodox Church - it is just clumsy and stubborn over generations to focus on the condemnation of half of humanity - i.e. women because of some apparently picturesque sharing of a wrong fruit, namely an "apple" which - according to the Torah is definitely not mentioned and in the Mishna is the "fig - tenah " that corresponds to the tree of teaching, as comparable with the "pip'l" in the Buddhist tradition.
Negative judgmental positions against women, their stand and role in the society although they can be venerated and almost falsely venerated as goodesses on the other hand shows a deep lack of spiritual comfort and ease everywhere. It is not only a matter of patraiach or matriarch tradition. It deals with the purity of life seed (zera'im ) as described in the first treatise of the the Mishnah. Chanting the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church corresponds in some way to the fulfillment of the Song of the Song: "do not wake dont awaken love till it finds its pleasure", which doe not relate to sole and exclusive sexual, sensual, physical but all-encompassing emotions that clutch God to mankind. Such binding is only possible through women. And of course without exclusion of any human gender.
At this point our society is profoundly sick, deeply insane. In our generation, and in the State of Israel - somehow also in Palestine and the neighboring countries, life standards are very high and people can grow very old. There is no special requirement for early sex or physical experience, except a tragic feeling of mechanical loneliness. People hardly can share on the long-term and physical emotions turn in showing a real "Angst vor Leben - life anxiety". Thus, it would be essential to show the backgrounds and roots of the Theotokos hymnography and the song that could explain with realism the way that can lead to authentic purity.
Mariam the Egyptian was born in Alexandria and lived in the 4-5th century. It is essnetial that the Eastern Orthodox tradition dedicates the last Sunday before Lazarus Sunday to such a saint. She was supposedly 12 years old when she started to live as a prostitute. The interesting point is that she explained to Saint Sozymas that she was so eagerly driven by her passion for lust that she did not even wanted to be paid by her clients and preferred to beg for her living. This aspect of a "teen age" woman (girl) can show at the present the same it did for her in the first Christian centuries. She was certainly more mature than usual girls of her age, though this does not mean a lot in our region where it is frequent to marry at 15 years old.
Lust should not only be understood as a devilish passion without control or that loses any control. Just as men should never been left alone and God had the wisdom to repair Adam's solitude, women need extreme respect and true "untouched" love because of the huge amount of possible emotions that they have in their insides, hearts and feelings, intuition and rational wisdom too.The miracle that happened to Mary of Egypt as she decided to enter the Holy Sepucher and could pass the gate by some invisible barrier, led her to the icon of the Virgin, where she prayed and then entered freely the sanctuary. Such accounts should be read with insights in order to understand God's salvific pedagogy. She fled to the desert near Jordan, the monastery of Saint Nicholas where she met with saint Zozimas who brought her each year the Eucharist - in fact he found her lying dead at the place where he had communicated her the first year. Her body was not corrupt.
Again, the same for the rabbis. Most Church Fathers wrote unbelievable accounts about female temptation capacities. Malehood has not more insights in spiritual life. I have always been "shocked" in a way by saint Augustine's attitude: he had a wife or say a women he lived with for the better part of his life and a son. He never really took care of her or of his son although, at that time, he could anyway have become the priest, bishop and spiritual leader. There is a sort of permanent disdain or mocking towards women liberation movements. This is definitely not interesting here. Mariam does not want to be a man. She was ready to seduce any man to get her drops of lust. And this is very dangerous in ethical life. Israeli society will come to Pesach 5768 within a few day in a year of remittance for the land and release of the debts (shmittah ). Instead, former president Katzav as other probable ministries and high ranking personalities show themselves a in sex-obsessed, raping society that is totally the opposite of why the Hebrew could leave Egypt and after a sin of idolatry enter le Land of Canaan.
When Zosimas found Mary in the wilderness to give her the Communion, she was lying dead and nude. She was also nude when she had met him and had asked for his cover. She was apparently nude: she had to the extreme gotten away from the world and brought, in her nakedness the newness of love. In terms of newness, it is definitely time for men to get more perceptive of the very human and achieving nature (physis = acting force) of women’s redemption role. Judaism and Christianity have shown that at length and got stiff-headed responses from males. The distance that cannot be reduced from the women side to maleness causes a long, very long-term absence of balance, whereas God proposed unity and equity.
These are not simple feelings. They are difficult to explain and put into words that people can accept and make theirs, for their betterment, for being more gentle and capable to feel aat ease in their civilization.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 14, 2008 - 9 de'Nissan 5768
Sheket: Silence
Is it possible to compare what is happening at the present in the Near and Middle-East to some "fading of faith, disappearance of faith, fading of faith as salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13; Mk 9:50)? This would expand from Turkey down to Ethiopia through the traditional regions that link Mesopotamia to Egypt as the birth cradle of faith in One Living God.
I would believe with all my faith that we are only witness to the dawn of faith in God and that, more than any "magushe - Magi" - we only approach to the cradle of Christendom. This presupposes that our eyes are open and in alert and not stiff or lame by the burden of history.
We usually consider that we live in a Westernized civilization. This has been the case since the apparent conquest of the Europeans that spread over the planet in the past two thousand years. Before that period, and the Roman Empire per se, Sumer has been the cradle of a civilized think-tank that developed toward the West of Mesopotamia and to the East.Faith in the One God cannot avoid a profound reflection upon Zaratushtra and the ethical questions of "good and evil", acceptable or damageable.I have a Syrian Orthodox picture of a 5th century Cross that clearly shows a portrait of Buddha as image of Christ as both the Awaken and Jesus and Nazareth hold the same instruments of power, the scepter and the scroll.In the past two thousand years, the good news of salvation spread throughout the world because of the Jews and the Christians, from a specific local place based in the Mediterranean region. But It has hardly been the work of the Western Church alone for some very clear reason:the soldatesque combat of faith against Evil often became too refined in its psychological ways and pretence. On the other hand, the methods that spiritually allow to reach to a God making all things divine have been deprived by useless techniques. Love cannot be technical. As some Jesuits have noted with much insights before the time of the perestroika, the fall of communism in former Soviet Union, (Fr. Rouleau, sj), Christianity is poor in the West. This is a humbling reality that we would not easily be accepted. The West cannot forget that it did not generate the Bible or the Gospel and the Epistles. They firstly only exist or seem to exist in their Greek original forms based on a Semitic way of thinking and announcement. The Fathers of the Church wrote in Greek but also in Syriac, Coptic, later Armenian, Gheez, Georgian and Arabic. The Yemenite peninsula, facing Ethiopia combined for a time the Talmudic, Nestorian, Syriac, "Jacobite" traditions while the West was systematically destroying the most ancient local mythologies. The same process showed also by the time of the Baptism of the Rus.
True Westerners do know that they are indebted to the Oriental traditions and rooted in them. In the present, this also supposes the capacity to humble and not pretend that spiritual or superpower models may continue to lead the world because of irrefutable business developments that extended some spiritual "overcome" or pre-supposed "victories". Westerners pathetically need to constant referring to the traditions of the Fathers. They can only be understood in a full and positive parallelism with the Jewish traditions that developed in the Mesopotamian academies and regions. On the other hand, the Eastern Church maybe confused by the fact that Revelation took place locally and in cultural realms that continue to develop or rise again unexpectedly.
Israel shows the evidence of a dangerous and persistent temptation for all believers: faith and culture have been intermingled, mixed up and led to more confusion. This may explain why foreign Christians - in particular - may adopt some attitudes of partisanship in facing the others (Jews, Islam). The Easterners may not be able to distinguish between faith and culture. No culture or tongue can encompass the wholeness of the Revelation. Thus, it is not possible, for any of us at this stage, to judge who a soul is, provided that the mystery of Election given to Israel by humbleness of God calls any soul to do things "greater that the Lord Jesus Himself". This is the core point of humans on their way to become God Whom they receive.
There might be at the moment a process of confusing mixture - a mishmash - in which Christians look at each other as wolves AND sheep. but they cannot be both! The miracle in which we are called to participate is that the Western and Oriental Churches should accept and recognize why each survived and did not develop; they grew and disappeared; they wanted power and got the mark of martyrdom = witnesses. Who could have thought with clarity that the Eastern Churches would rise from the stake of atheism or dictatorships in their original countries and get on the path of a witnessing action: man is called to be sanctifying?
Some people would call that "struggle for life"; it is different from "Drang auf Leben that, in German, rather underscores impulsive forces allowing life to grow and fight for the good combat. "Russian "Bor'ba za zhizn" is a fighting effort, often at pains, to preserve and save life. What makes the spiritual destiny of Israel totally unique is that it comes back to a home whose leasing contract does not exist except in the Oral and Written Laws transmitted flawlessly down the generations till we reach this "instant" inside our history. Jews are or can be back. Or they reject and deny that just as others can back this story and then turn against and erase the idea that they could even support such a project.
Because this history is mainly comparable to the spiritual splits that affected the Churches over the past two thousand years. Some stiff cultural attitudes do trace back to the Great Schism of 1054 between Western and Eastern parts of the Undivided Church. A difference of alphabet can maintain very strong barriers even in very educated circles. But what was totally unexpected is such a gathering-in at the utmost universal sense of the human image and stand while the Mediterranean Churches broke down and down again. They had the desire and strong will to achieve this full unity.
Indeed, we go through fascinating times because they revolve what we would think predictable and will open the way to others: India, China, Africa are only at the dawn of experiencing what Passover may imply. Thus, if we are sincere, we are like children that, year after year stare at the marvels of saving nights.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
I would believe with all my faith that we are only witness to the dawn of faith in God and that, more than any "magushe - Magi" - we only approach to the cradle of Christendom. This presupposes that our eyes are open and in alert and not stiff or lame by the burden of history.
We usually consider that we live in a Westernized civilization. This has been the case since the apparent conquest of the Europeans that spread over the planet in the past two thousand years. Before that period, and the Roman Empire per se, Sumer has been the cradle of a civilized think-tank that developed toward the West of Mesopotamia and to the East.Faith in the One God cannot avoid a profound reflection upon Zaratushtra and the ethical questions of "good and evil", acceptable or damageable.I have a Syrian Orthodox picture of a 5th century Cross that clearly shows a portrait of Buddha as image of Christ as both the Awaken and Jesus and Nazareth hold the same instruments of power, the scepter and the scroll.In the past two thousand years, the good news of salvation spread throughout the world because of the Jews and the Christians, from a specific local place based in the Mediterranean region. But It has hardly been the work of the Western Church alone for some very clear reason:the soldatesque combat of faith against Evil often became too refined in its psychological ways and pretence. On the other hand, the methods that spiritually allow to reach to a God making all things divine have been deprived by useless techniques. Love cannot be technical. As some Jesuits have noted with much insights before the time of the perestroika, the fall of communism in former Soviet Union, (Fr. Rouleau, sj), Christianity is poor in the West. This is a humbling reality that we would not easily be accepted. The West cannot forget that it did not generate the Bible or the Gospel and the Epistles. They firstly only exist or seem to exist in their Greek original forms based on a Semitic way of thinking and announcement. The Fathers of the Church wrote in Greek but also in Syriac, Coptic, later Armenian, Gheez, Georgian and Arabic. The Yemenite peninsula, facing Ethiopia combined for a time the Talmudic, Nestorian, Syriac, "Jacobite" traditions while the West was systematically destroying the most ancient local mythologies. The same process showed also by the time of the Baptism of the Rus.
True Westerners do know that they are indebted to the Oriental traditions and rooted in them. In the present, this also supposes the capacity to humble and not pretend that spiritual or superpower models may continue to lead the world because of irrefutable business developments that extended some spiritual "overcome" or pre-supposed "victories". Westerners pathetically need to constant referring to the traditions of the Fathers. They can only be understood in a full and positive parallelism with the Jewish traditions that developed in the Mesopotamian academies and regions. On the other hand, the Eastern Church maybe confused by the fact that Revelation took place locally and in cultural realms that continue to develop or rise again unexpectedly.
Israel shows the evidence of a dangerous and persistent temptation for all believers: faith and culture have been intermingled, mixed up and led to more confusion. This may explain why foreign Christians - in particular - may adopt some attitudes of partisanship in facing the others (Jews, Islam). The Easterners may not be able to distinguish between faith and culture. No culture or tongue can encompass the wholeness of the Revelation. Thus, it is not possible, for any of us at this stage, to judge who a soul is, provided that the mystery of Election given to Israel by humbleness of God calls any soul to do things "greater that the Lord Jesus Himself". This is the core point of humans on their way to become God Whom they receive.
There might be at the moment a process of confusing mixture - a mishmash - in which Christians look at each other as wolves AND sheep. but they cannot be both! The miracle in which we are called to participate is that the Western and Oriental Churches should accept and recognize why each survived and did not develop; they grew and disappeared; they wanted power and got the mark of martyrdom = witnesses. Who could have thought with clarity that the Eastern Churches would rise from the stake of atheism or dictatorships in their original countries and get on the path of a witnessing action: man is called to be sanctifying?
Some people would call that "struggle for life"; it is different from "Drang auf Leben that, in German, rather underscores impulsive forces allowing life to grow and fight for the good combat. "Russian "Bor'ba za zhizn" is a fighting effort, often at pains, to preserve and save life. What makes the spiritual destiny of Israel totally unique is that it comes back to a home whose leasing contract does not exist except in the Oral and Written Laws transmitted flawlessly down the generations till we reach this "instant" inside our history. Jews are or can be back. Or they reject and deny that just as others can back this story and then turn against and erase the idea that they could even support such a project.
Because this history is mainly comparable to the spiritual splits that affected the Churches over the past two thousand years. Some stiff cultural attitudes do trace back to the Great Schism of 1054 between Western and Eastern parts of the Undivided Church. A difference of alphabet can maintain very strong barriers even in very educated circles. But what was totally unexpected is such a gathering-in at the utmost universal sense of the human image and stand while the Mediterranean Churches broke down and down again. They had the desire and strong will to achieve this full unity.
Indeed, we go through fascinating times because they revolve what we would think predictable and will open the way to others: India, China, Africa are only at the dawn of experiencing what Passover may imply. Thus, if we are sincere, we are like children that, year after year stare at the marvels of saving nights.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Tazria: Seeds for childbirth
We continue our trip to late Pesach 5768 in this Shabbat "Tazria' (Woman in childbirth-bringing forth seed) - Metzora". Two parashiyot / weekly portions are read, i.e. a full coherent text about physical morals from the Book of Vayikra/ Leviticus 12:1-13:59-14:1-15:33.
Shabbat Shemini, last week recounted the awareness of how we are called to acknowledge God's holiness and try to become holy or sanctify His Name in such a way that morals, and the overwhelming highness of the Mitzvot / Commandments, can surpass any discouragement.
We hardly can meet our souls. It could be strange or funny. Some people would be likely to figure out what their souls look like because of the shape of their body. It does not mean that their appreciation about their shape is correct in terms of beauty or ugliness. Yes, our soul is in our body and not the body in our soul. How curious that most spiritual teachings in Judaism assume that the whole Oneness of God is visualized like the "bassar achat = one flesh" (= mental capacity to valuate news). We continuously break down our mental and physical life into two different, slice-fragmented parts that supposedly would not co-function in harmony. Tazria deals with human body as an active seed birthing shrine of the soul. It starts with birthing a male and ends with all sorts impurities that may affect womanhood. Both reading portions are linked to show us what the Kahal rav is, the holy congregation as a whole.
We shall celebrate Pesach: the first step of a delivery for a nation birthed by God. We came from serfdom to freedom, with a persistent taste of groping around in the wild. This fierce emptiness - safe God's Presence - continues to quest the ethical Jewish entity. Bound to God and thus tempted to look backwards and perish. Is idolatry appetizing as a golden calf?
I once had a very interesting discussion with a specialist of anthropological arts. He would not consider that circumcision has any corporeal and genuine basis in the Jewish backgrounds. Purity, full cleanness of skin has proven to be essential among the Nations. The Shoah survivors were tattooed systematically, but not all of them were circumcised nor even considered as Jews according to the Halachah. This is one of the most striking paradoxical points of "identity / counter-identity" of the Israeli society.
Pesach/Passover is the feast of offering the first fruits. It develops till the chag haBikkurim/first fruits) on Shavuot/Pentecost. Thus, reading portion Tazria’ starts as follows: "Ishah shetazria' veyaldah zakhar - a woman who will bring forth (birth) the seed and bear a male (son)... shall be unclean seven days; on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised - beyom shemini yimol bassar orlato" (Lev. 12:1-4). And during 33 days, the woman shall remain in a state of "damei taharah - blood cleaning process".
Two key factors appear in the first verse of the reading and are developed as a whole throughout the Shabbat meaning: God extends our call to do our best as humans in order to reach holiness and sanctify our life in our bodies. The woman is thus the place of sacredness, breeding and growing of the seeds (Zera'im is the first Order of the Mishnah). Before speaking of rash, eruption, tzora'at is not "leper"; it is a generic word for all skin abnormalities, peculiarities or diseases, the portion focus on the fact that we are submitted to physical and sexual morals or total absence of accepting moral laws in sex. The same way we are submitted to exercise a moral and conscious mental attitude toward God. "Skin" as "o'r" is a parallel facet, showing the same amplitude as or mental ability to be sanctifying God's name. "O'r (with initial "ayin") = "skin" but the word is not only in opposition with or (with initial alef) = light because it would covers a nudity that proves that Adam and Eve had infringes God's commandment to eat of the fruit of the tree (a fig-tree/te'enah in the rabbinic tradition). "whether awake or asleep, man and woman are stirred up to live" (Bava Kamma 2:5; Niddah 12a, Shabbat 55b referring to the Song of the Songs that is so pregnant every week and on Pesach). "I am asleep and negligent in observing the Mitzvot, but my heart is awake for charities and good deeds and love" (Shir Rabbah 5:2). "My heart is awake as I the Lord is anxious (awake) to redeem me" (Pessikta Rabbah 15). "When she woke up, she read and found it was her get/bill of divorce" (Gittin 8:2 (78) about a miracle).
Now, as the Temple is not existent at the present but women continue to observe the "cleansing mitzvot" of Talmud tractates Nidda and Negaim about "skin purity".
As concerns males, they all have to be circumcised. Interestingly, the commandment is definitely repeated this week in the Book of VaYikra (Leviticus), i.e. how to reach sanctity. Indeed, we have to comply with Abraham's sign of Covenant as "brit milah" = covenant of destruction ("cutting" idolatry away from our flesh). Again, the commandment is repeated after the Exodus and Moses circumcised his son because his non-Jewish wife reminded him of his obligation. The "cutting" of the foreskin is a basic act that a male can advance on the way of sanctity by having the life-giving member as in constant "erection or life transmission". This is a major mitzvah and only a mitzvah that, through Avraham Avinu (our father Abraham) integrates us to the seed of life, the rising of the dry bones. This is not a hygienic surgical act. It is not physically clean or eventually safer against diseases (as AIDS). Say, it might, in some case. True, the Christian Anglo world does practice the circumcision, because Jesus was circumcised. A Jewish male receives this cut/mark because he must be educated in order to also sanctify his physical intercourse, usually with a woman. "The cutting of the prepuce (orlah; like a fruit) where there is no doubt about the health of the child, supersedes the Shabbat" (Shabbat 134b). Daily news show too much criminal sexual aggressions that were basically less present in the Jewish communities: incest, rapes, same-sex early relationships and brutalities, disappearance of true respect due to women and the outrageous attitude towards the agunot/women who are not given their get (divorce) and thus can't marry.
On this Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, The Easter Orthodox Church shall reflect upon Saint John Klimakos and the Ladder. The Ladder that correspond to slowly understanding of ups and downs, sowing seeds of sanctity. We need the Shabbat as the Church readings pathetically in the present. Only spiritual love in physical and mental relationships can remove the thorns and suggest that lilies or little roses can, as in the Song, sustain and protect love to the fullest.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 3rd, 2008 - 27 deAdar II 5768
Shabbat Shemini, last week recounted the awareness of how we are called to acknowledge God's holiness and try to become holy or sanctify His Name in such a way that morals, and the overwhelming highness of the Mitzvot / Commandments, can surpass any discouragement.
We hardly can meet our souls. It could be strange or funny. Some people would be likely to figure out what their souls look like because of the shape of their body. It does not mean that their appreciation about their shape is correct in terms of beauty or ugliness. Yes, our soul is in our body and not the body in our soul. How curious that most spiritual teachings in Judaism assume that the whole Oneness of God is visualized like the "bassar achat = one flesh" (= mental capacity to valuate news). We continuously break down our mental and physical life into two different, slice-fragmented parts that supposedly would not co-function in harmony. Tazria deals with human body as an active seed birthing shrine of the soul. It starts with birthing a male and ends with all sorts impurities that may affect womanhood. Both reading portions are linked to show us what the Kahal rav is, the holy congregation as a whole.
We shall celebrate Pesach: the first step of a delivery for a nation birthed by God. We came from serfdom to freedom, with a persistent taste of groping around in the wild. This fierce emptiness - safe God's Presence - continues to quest the ethical Jewish entity. Bound to God and thus tempted to look backwards and perish. Is idolatry appetizing as a golden calf?
I once had a very interesting discussion with a specialist of anthropological arts. He would not consider that circumcision has any corporeal and genuine basis in the Jewish backgrounds. Purity, full cleanness of skin has proven to be essential among the Nations. The Shoah survivors were tattooed systematically, but not all of them were circumcised nor even considered as Jews according to the Halachah. This is one of the most striking paradoxical points of "identity / counter-identity" of the Israeli society.
Pesach/Passover is the feast of offering the first fruits. It develops till the chag haBikkurim/first fruits) on Shavuot/Pentecost. Thus, reading portion Tazria’ starts as follows: "Ishah shetazria' veyaldah zakhar - a woman who will bring forth (birth) the seed and bear a male (son)... shall be unclean seven days; on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised - beyom shemini yimol bassar orlato" (Lev. 12:1-4). And during 33 days, the woman shall remain in a state of "damei taharah - blood cleaning process".
Two key factors appear in the first verse of the reading and are developed as a whole throughout the Shabbat meaning: God extends our call to do our best as humans in order to reach holiness and sanctify our life in our bodies. The woman is thus the place of sacredness, breeding and growing of the seeds (Zera'im is the first Order of the Mishnah). Before speaking of rash, eruption, tzora'at is not "leper"; it is a generic word for all skin abnormalities, peculiarities or diseases, the portion focus on the fact that we are submitted to physical and sexual morals or total absence of accepting moral laws in sex. The same way we are submitted to exercise a moral and conscious mental attitude toward God. "Skin" as "o'r" is a parallel facet, showing the same amplitude as or mental ability to be sanctifying God's name. "O'r (with initial "ayin") = "skin" but the word is not only in opposition with or (with initial alef) = light because it would covers a nudity that proves that Adam and Eve had infringes God's commandment to eat of the fruit of the tree (a fig-tree/te'enah in the rabbinic tradition). "whether awake or asleep, man and woman are stirred up to live" (Bava Kamma 2:5; Niddah 12a, Shabbat 55b referring to the Song of the Songs that is so pregnant every week and on Pesach). "I am asleep and negligent in observing the Mitzvot, but my heart is awake for charities and good deeds and love" (Shir Rabbah 5:2). "My heart is awake as I the Lord is anxious (awake) to redeem me" (Pessikta Rabbah 15). "When she woke up, she read and found it was her get/bill of divorce" (Gittin 8:2 (78) about a miracle).
Now, as the Temple is not existent at the present but women continue to observe the "cleansing mitzvot" of Talmud tractates Nidda and Negaim about "skin purity".
As concerns males, they all have to be circumcised. Interestingly, the commandment is definitely repeated this week in the Book of VaYikra (Leviticus), i.e. how to reach sanctity. Indeed, we have to comply with Abraham's sign of Covenant as "brit milah" = covenant of destruction ("cutting" idolatry away from our flesh). Again, the commandment is repeated after the Exodus and Moses circumcised his son because his non-Jewish wife reminded him of his obligation. The "cutting" of the foreskin is a basic act that a male can advance on the way of sanctity by having the life-giving member as in constant "erection or life transmission". This is a major mitzvah and only a mitzvah that, through Avraham Avinu (our father Abraham) integrates us to the seed of life, the rising of the dry bones. This is not a hygienic surgical act. It is not physically clean or eventually safer against diseases (as AIDS). Say, it might, in some case. True, the Christian Anglo world does practice the circumcision, because Jesus was circumcised. A Jewish male receives this cut/mark because he must be educated in order to also sanctify his physical intercourse, usually with a woman. "The cutting of the prepuce (orlah; like a fruit) where there is no doubt about the health of the child, supersedes the Shabbat" (Shabbat 134b). Daily news show too much criminal sexual aggressions that were basically less present in the Jewish communities: incest, rapes, same-sex early relationships and brutalities, disappearance of true respect due to women and the outrageous attitude towards the agunot/women who are not given their get (divorce) and thus can't marry.
On this Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, The Easter Orthodox Church shall reflect upon Saint John Klimakos and the Ladder. The Ladder that correspond to slowly understanding of ups and downs, sowing seeds of sanctity. We need the Shabbat as the Church readings pathetically in the present. Only spiritual love in physical and mental relationships can remove the thorns and suggest that lilies or little roses can, as in the Song, sustain and protect love to the fullest.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 3rd, 2008 - 27 deAdar II 5768
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