Judaism is built upon strong foundations. As large, big and enormous as the basic "avanim levanot/ white stones" that can seen at the Western Wall. True, the visible stones are not the foundations: these can be slightly seen under the tunnel on the side for men and they are planted deep beneath the earth on the place. Heavy blocks were weighing up the Temple Mount. Weighty blocks of stone brought as living pieces to support and protect the Divine Presence.
"Even - stone" is curious in Hebrew. English comes from Old Norse "Steinur", cf. Germ. "Stein", Du. "Steen" used to describe rocks, from Sanskrit "Styayate - hard pieces of standing material that thicken, curdle", Gr. "Stear - fat". Lat. "Petrus - stone = Gr. Petros, Syriac Kaifa = head) refer to weight and strength. The same with Gr."Lithos" that generated "Lithium", used for energetic power and a specific medicine correcting and reinvigorating mental mood. Slavic "Kamen' - kamyi", linked to "hammer", also echoes these energizing capacities. On the other hand, Slavic “Stena” means “wall”, not necessarily made of stones.
Hebrew supposedly comes from the same concept of "power, strength”: "even” from “avar” (with an alef) : to be bent, thick, pressed" as: "throwing a (heavy) stones into a leather bottle has no effect because it is indigestible" (Pessahim 12b). Evarim/n = meat or "three meats as edible parts of an animal limb (Shekalim 8, 3); "ever - male genital member" and tower of protection in a city (Hullin 101b, Sanhedrin 107a), just as in English Slang ("testicles")."The corpse was put on a closing immovable stone" (Niddah 69b) which is found in the Gospel with Lazarus' resurrection (John 11:39) and Jesus' removal of the tombstone (John 20:1).
"Even shtiyah - foundation stone" occupied the place of the Holy Ark in the Second Temple (Yoma 5, 3). It means a place of birth for feeding newborn babes (the faithful) as "oven [linked to beyn = between and banah = to construct]" which means "the passage or vagina through which the embryo goes out" as in "the place here the child comes to light" (Sota 11b; cf. Ex. Rabba 1). But “even” may also be compared to “holid ben/banim – to birth sons” as in the psalm: “Im HaShem lo yivneh vayit – unless the Lord builds the house, those whose build it labor in vain” (Tehillim 127, 1). John the Baptist has a very clear saying: “I tell you, God is able from these stones (avanim), can raise children (banim) to Abraham” (Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8).
Most memorials were made of stones, from the gigantic Easter Island/Rapa Nui human form monolithic statues to Stonehenge (Stone gallows) mystical circles in Great Britain that resemble the Celtic “men/maen hir – long (high stone)” that point to the sky in Brittany or Wales. “Dolmens” are rather flat large stones under which people were buried and also a place for banquets as most cemeteries and burial places are in most civilizations. As a strange move inducing that the earth is fed by coffins and human limbs, which, in return, should receive some food brought or offered by the survivors.
On the one hand, stones symbolize the hospitality and conviviality of solid weighing in substances. They seem to point toward the high. Interestingly, till the end of the Roman architectural style, churches were “flat” just as synagogues or mosques. Gothic belfries should the human pretence to reach out to heaven, sort of “Babel-like” dream to attain God. On August 6th for the Western and August 19th for the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Christianity celebrated a feast that seemingly does not exist in Judaism: the Transfiguration of Jesus of Nazareth on a high mountain. Is it Mount Tabor? Or did the event take place in Jerusalem or some other Northern mountain?
The Greek word is “metamorphosis” because the “shape/form” of the Jesus changed and “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzlingly white as light’ (Luke 9: 29) as he was discussing with Moses and Elijah. It is said in the Gospel of Matthew that this occurred six days after Shimon-Peter (Shimon bar Yona; cf. Ben Sirach chapter 51 and new Kippur service in the rebuilt Temple) confessed Jesus as “the Messiah, the son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). Six days later supposedly imply that it was by the time of the feast of the Booths/Sukkot. But the point is that Jesus appeared in a discussion with Moses and Elijah. Shimon-Peter suggested building three tents/dwellings. And then a bright cloud overshadowed them. For the very first time in the Gospel, a voice (cf. Bat Qol = Spirit of God) told the apostles that Jesus was “the beloved son” (Matthew 17: 1-8).
This directly reminds or traces back to Abraham and Moses as God’s acting messengers. There is a key similarity and parallelism that should be taken into account: Moses died in the wilderness and nobody knows where his grave is located. He someway physically disappeared as nil. Prophet Elijah ascended in a whirl-wind to heaven in the Merkavah / chariot and horses of fire while Elisha, his disciple was staring at the scene with the hope to get a double share of spiritual strength from his master (2 Kings 2:9-12). Jesus was subject to a process of “transfiguration – metamorphosis – Hebrew “hishtanut – change”.
The correct word should be taken from the root “tselem – face / “hitstallamut” means “action to be taken in picture” in Modern Hebrew. But “tselem”, in the Jewish traditions, refer to “Image (dark)”, “painted matter” (Avot 3, 14), “even image, take, painting”; or, “pay honor to the image of the Lord! (= respect humans)” (Tanhumah Mishpatim 19). Yiddish and Hebrew use the word for “the (Christian) cross” considered as an object of idolatry. On the other hand, “Hit’orerut – waking up” and “hit’arut – deep rooting-in” would be convenient because they express a change of “’or – skin, thus face and like waking up from another realm”.
We are strong. Everywhere we go, we hear that we are strong, as Israeli society composed of many nations and various people coming from the whole world. The Jews are strong, the Muslims are strong. The Christians are strong. Our strength is exactly like the mythical fairy tales we condemn about the idols or the godly wars in the Antiquity that turned to be Hollywood rubbish. We are so ancient that, when we unexpectedly, get refreshed and updated, we only can appear to be strong. Or, we think we are mighty, powerful. And every group in Israel is so energetic, exquisitely forceful!
Actually, we go far too deep into framing process. We are segmented, fragmented, broken down according the traditional Jewish patterns of emunah / faith vs secular life, but piety is cut down like thin slices of some in between kosher meat that we could not share. On the one hand, we want to be fit, firm, slim, nice and credible, as those above stones, rock building or monuments. On the other hand, are overfed and often fed up, chubby and meaty, full of oil and still would pretend ascending to heaven by our own forces. We look like tough people full of diet articles of faith or weighed-out commandments that we hardly can share.
I gave the two distinct examples of stones and apparent weight or density and lightness of a flashing change with regards to men whose grave are either empty or void because it shows the hardships to really adhere to the spiritual substance of our lives at the present. Look, as in a paradox, we would accept to belong to various Jewish streams as long as they don’t bother our own micro-stream. At this point, if a huge Passover Seder was organized throughout the country, a unique Pesach Seder, very few of us would accept to share the account of the Aggadah, the order of the memorial Seder, the way meals were cooked… and the spiritual meaning of such an event. We would exclude some non-Halachic Jews, all sorts of Christians. Thus, where would the Muslims and Baha’is find their place?
I have a heavily handicapped daughter with a very peculiar syndrome. She cannot stop eating. Then, she is of course on a permanent diet. The refrigerator is locked, the kitchen is locked, she always finds something edible and she is a real gourmet. Is she over-weight or chubby, compulsorily driven to “swallow or eat up” without suffering from any hunger or lack of food? It is a genetic defect that will certainly be corrected for the coming generations.
This syndrome does exist in our society as a sign of “transgressions”. We are noshing all the day out of fear and because we love to nurture and nourish ourselves and others. It seems to be not sufficient at this point in feeding the poor and the homeless. The discomfort that affects my daughter and can hardly be controlled is a pending interrogation in a society that wastes goods, food, time, morality and might not be able to share a Seder to the full. Indeed, we are together and this can be so nice at times.
Man will not only live of bread (Devarim 8:3; cf. Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4). Israel and Christianity have a common sign of sharing bread and a goal, a call to nurture and feed the world with the Mitzvot and the Reign of God. This implies a constant upgrading to reach out the victims: Peru, China, India as Gaza and….
By the way, what about New Orleans?
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Diyun: cool, folks, don't be judgmental
In the previous blog about the impact of identity in the Jewish society, I tried to show the importance to treat Jewishness with much respect and to listen to the voices and advices of those who have been in charge of the Jewish spiritual development until nowadays.
It may at times irritate us when we consider the way some members of the Rabbinate take peculiar decisions or, on the contrary, are not able to upgrade the numerous problems that arise out of a quick-changing Jewish manner of considering faith, life, death, involvement in the society, work, learning, birthing babies, getting married, divorced or taking care of pets and wildlife.
Nonetheless, whatever positive or negative opinion we may have, the rabbis did preserve and save over ages the reality of the Jewish realm of the Mitzvot/Commandments and the treasury of Judaism. Thus, the Orthodox Jewish movements have to upgrade, but they did protect and did safeguard a heritage whose coherence in imperiled in Israel as abroad because of the dramas caused by secularization and the after-Shoah memory-deleting tragedy.
The Eastern-European Yiddishkayt civilization was put at the stake forever, which does not mean at all that Jewish Laws and Commandments would not outlive for the ages. They are indeed words of eternity that cannot pass. Our challenge is to pass it to each generation and to enhance the quality of reflection, understanding and knowledge of God as co-Worker of humankind.
This is why – whatever streams existing at the present in Judaism, all of them deserve to be respected as a part of the House of Israel/Klal Israel – the rabbis have played and continue to play a major role beyond any “clerical freezing behaviors”. This is one of the pending issues that we have to face: we need “dayanim – rabbinical judges” who must be spiritually credible. We need justices and men and women of righteousness and still, this is the hardest part of witnessing to our vitality.
The parshat hashavua / reading portion of the week is to be found in the Book of Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9: “Shoftim – you shall appoint judges (said the Lord to Moses)”. The process of “Mishney Torah – repeatedly repeating the Torah” shows how God knows as Moses feels with insight that the Israelites are at pains with accepting to observe the Mitzvot. Jewish memory can easily be compared to some elephants whose trunks transfer the stored memorized elements to the trash out of some odd boredom.
True, we can be so lazy, on the verge of sloth, about learning the Mitzvot and then teach them adequately. They are not virtual games, twisty or tricky monologues or simply a way to reside in Israel without having to make a living, defense the country, avoiding active involvement in the essential questions that they raise: good and evil, the profundity of unreachable God’s Commandments and projects with regards to daily life without living like zombies or bee’s knees or in-crowd trendsetters of remote speculations.
It gives the impression that exerting judgment and being a decision-maker, a manager, sort of heading a ruling entity is a knock-out activity full of prestige and might. Most of the soap operas and serials would rely on recurring patterned events: wedding and divorce, lawsuits and court quibbling. When Moses followed the advice given by his father-in-law, Jethro, to appoint “anshey chayil – men of value, discernment” and councils to resolve the problems that were raising inside the Israelite community as they were a bit lost in the wilderness, he humbly found the wise manner to avoid quarrels among the people.
He was the leader, heading the nation but, as Jethro told him, he could not handle or govern everything. We do see in many countries how politicians or economists, whatever profession indeed may be driven to power; life-long presidents or Chief High Guides of the People. Sometimes the period would legally be reduced to four-five-seven years but there is a real thirst of might. These people of power do exist of course in the world of laws and regulations that vary in different countries. But Moshe Rabbenu humbled himself. He listened to Jethro’s voice of wisdom and assigned the first “judges or justices”.
At this point, from the Sinai Revelation and Giving of the Torot (Oral and Written Torah) onwards, God’s righteousness is the main goal targeted by the Israelites and these activities are broken down into peculiar occupations: Words (writing, reporters, journalists), Law (lawyers, justices, attorneys, judges), Health or language of the body & soul (physicians, surgeons, psychotherapists, therapists, nurses).
Legal matters cover all these activities because it may either cause harsh sufferings or deliver individuals and groups from serfdom and make them feel and act freely. Thus, Law is at the heart of every Jewish prayer and non-Jews would even be astounded of the “legal aspect” of many Jewish demands made to the Lord. “Atah Honantanu –You have favored us with the knowledge of Your Law” (on Shabbat, Berachot 33a), which means that the believers except that God will bless with order the peaceful commencement of a new week, withheld from any sin.
But the striking and constant call to memorize the earlier times of God’s and Moses’ decision for the Israelites is shown in the benediction included in the Amidah (18 Blessings): “Hashivah shofteynu kev’rishonah / Restore our judges (justices) as in prior times, veyoatseynu kev’techilah / and our counselors as of yore; remove from us sorrow and sighing (yagon veanachah) and reign Alone over us, Lord, with kindness and compassion, righteousness and justice (betsedek uvmishpat) (during the ten days of penitence/slichot = Melech HaMishpat – King of Judgment).
The first phrase is taken from Prophet Isaiah 1:26-27, which presupposes that they were able to exert a compassionate legal authority that allowed the removing of grief and suffering. On the other hand, the second part of the blessing suggests that the ancient wilderness appointment of the judges-advisors implied a correct monitoring of the society. This was not the case when foreign dominion and judges were arbitrarily ruling over the Jewish nation, in particular the Romans by the time of the Second Temple. The Palestinian version of the benediction has “Ohev mishpat – Who loves judgment” instead of (Melech/King of judgment) as in Isaiah 61:8.
Indeed, there is a strong connection between the Amidah blessings 9 to 11 about Redemption, the ingathering of the exiled and the restoration of the judges. Curiously enough, the demand was not introduced after but before the destruction of the Temple as explained in Talmud Sanhedrin 41a, seemingly written forty years before 70.
Are we thus so legal-oriented? The State of Israel is repeatedly insisting till some parroting that we live in a “medinah chukit = state of legacy”. The police and the soldiers acting as policemen, but also all kinds of “courts – batey hamishpat” or “beyt shalom – court of peace” for marital and penal disputes constitute a major part of the Israeli stand of justice.
Or, at least there is a genuine and firm purpose to act and resolve any pending societal or individual issue with a sense of righteousness. Of course, people would be tricky, cheating each other, would fall out with best friends for bargains or haggle. We are a friendly nation, rather spoiled somehow like churlish children. Money… money… “kessef/massar oder gelt” and some would know how to get loaded while other can be skint. So what is robbery, eh? It can evolve into a sort of democratic mental and secular mitzvah that fell down to the street or a ditch. A lawless rule can be a spiritually fallen commandment. We see at the present the legal bodies: the Supreme Court, then new Attorney General embattled in upgrading the power of legacy.
Now, there are also the rabbinic tribunals and the dayanim – rabbinic judges. This should be good provided that nobody is corrupt or twisty. The problem with the twist is that it hardly can be detected overtime. As we grow foxy, crooked, we insidiously leave and forget what is at the core of the Mitzvot and we get misleading. Funny how at times we can get astonished or amused to get misled in return. It is correct that Israeli society is going through rising hooliganism, opportunism, self-ruled and self-autonomous decisions taken with less and less respect of the State regulations.
This is a real problem and we caught a glimpse at that with the previous blog about “Identity”. Indeed, Israel has become for some people like the “shalosh arim – the three cities (of refuge)” determined in our reading portion of the week. These three cities existed in order to protect the “rotz’chim - murderers” who had killed or harmed somebody “by mistake”, unwillingly. By the time the mitzvah was decreed, it is evident that legality was respected. And it was a ver humane provision to secure a murderer who had not killed or wounded somebody intentionally.
One of the formulas used for the ancient ordination of the rabbis is: “Yadin – yadin: you want to exercise judgment, you will judge / yattir- yattir: you want to deliver, release, make free – you will authorize / Yoreh – yoreh: you want to teach (the Laws), give birth to souls: you will open them so that they can reach their goals”. In Hebrew “Din, dinim” often corresponds to what the Christians would call “grace, blessings”. Because we have forgotten that a judgment is not only a penalty nor a punishment.
It has a prophetic aspect that enables a society to comply with the rules and still be aware of how to trespass without harming its development. Thus, the moral commandments “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery,…” are composed of very subtle points that are daily infringed by most people. The question is how to correct public life as to induce freedom, release and a spirit of prophecy! And enable some good will to teach the commandments with a spirit of kayf.
It is intriguing that the Noahide Laws require the setting-up of tribunal in every town. Justices, lawyers, shoterim/officers-policemen and women as the rabbis and pious people do have an immense preventive responsibility to bring forth the value of Laws.
Jesus said: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. (Matthew 6:19-20). The realm of the Mitzvot is far beyond any denomination, party, judgment. It calls to be cool.
COMMENTS
1. Amazing that we are now quoting Jesus. If Judaism gave the world nothing else but Monotheism, Justice in all of its aspects may have sufficed as our contribution to humanity. Too bad that Christianity does not teach Jesus's respect for the rightiousness of the scribes and pharisees and the admonition to Justice which includes feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, helping the sick and the downtrodden, but focuses the teachings of Paul.
Stanford Newman, Warren, Michigan USA 48088, Aug 17 6:08PM
It may at times irritate us when we consider the way some members of the Rabbinate take peculiar decisions or, on the contrary, are not able to upgrade the numerous problems that arise out of a quick-changing Jewish manner of considering faith, life, death, involvement in the society, work, learning, birthing babies, getting married, divorced or taking care of pets and wildlife.
Nonetheless, whatever positive or negative opinion we may have, the rabbis did preserve and save over ages the reality of the Jewish realm of the Mitzvot/Commandments and the treasury of Judaism. Thus, the Orthodox Jewish movements have to upgrade, but they did protect and did safeguard a heritage whose coherence in imperiled in Israel as abroad because of the dramas caused by secularization and the after-Shoah memory-deleting tragedy.
The Eastern-European Yiddishkayt civilization was put at the stake forever, which does not mean at all that Jewish Laws and Commandments would not outlive for the ages. They are indeed words of eternity that cannot pass. Our challenge is to pass it to each generation and to enhance the quality of reflection, understanding and knowledge of God as co-Worker of humankind.
This is why – whatever streams existing at the present in Judaism, all of them deserve to be respected as a part of the House of Israel/Klal Israel – the rabbis have played and continue to play a major role beyond any “clerical freezing behaviors”. This is one of the pending issues that we have to face: we need “dayanim – rabbinical judges” who must be spiritually credible. We need justices and men and women of righteousness and still, this is the hardest part of witnessing to our vitality.
The parshat hashavua / reading portion of the week is to be found in the Book of Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9: “Shoftim – you shall appoint judges (said the Lord to Moses)”. The process of “Mishney Torah – repeatedly repeating the Torah” shows how God knows as Moses feels with insight that the Israelites are at pains with accepting to observe the Mitzvot. Jewish memory can easily be compared to some elephants whose trunks transfer the stored memorized elements to the trash out of some odd boredom.
True, we can be so lazy, on the verge of sloth, about learning the Mitzvot and then teach them adequately. They are not virtual games, twisty or tricky monologues or simply a way to reside in Israel without having to make a living, defense the country, avoiding active involvement in the essential questions that they raise: good and evil, the profundity of unreachable God’s Commandments and projects with regards to daily life without living like zombies or bee’s knees or in-crowd trendsetters of remote speculations.
It gives the impression that exerting judgment and being a decision-maker, a manager, sort of heading a ruling entity is a knock-out activity full of prestige and might. Most of the soap operas and serials would rely on recurring patterned events: wedding and divorce, lawsuits and court quibbling. When Moses followed the advice given by his father-in-law, Jethro, to appoint “anshey chayil – men of value, discernment” and councils to resolve the problems that were raising inside the Israelite community as they were a bit lost in the wilderness, he humbly found the wise manner to avoid quarrels among the people.
He was the leader, heading the nation but, as Jethro told him, he could not handle or govern everything. We do see in many countries how politicians or economists, whatever profession indeed may be driven to power; life-long presidents or Chief High Guides of the People. Sometimes the period would legally be reduced to four-five-seven years but there is a real thirst of might. These people of power do exist of course in the world of laws and regulations that vary in different countries. But Moshe Rabbenu humbled himself. He listened to Jethro’s voice of wisdom and assigned the first “judges or justices”.
At this point, from the Sinai Revelation and Giving of the Torot (Oral and Written Torah) onwards, God’s righteousness is the main goal targeted by the Israelites and these activities are broken down into peculiar occupations: Words (writing, reporters, journalists), Law (lawyers, justices, attorneys, judges), Health or language of the body & soul (physicians, surgeons, psychotherapists, therapists, nurses).
Legal matters cover all these activities because it may either cause harsh sufferings or deliver individuals and groups from serfdom and make them feel and act freely. Thus, Law is at the heart of every Jewish prayer and non-Jews would even be astounded of the “legal aspect” of many Jewish demands made to the Lord. “Atah Honantanu –You have favored us with the knowledge of Your Law” (on Shabbat, Berachot 33a), which means that the believers except that God will bless with order the peaceful commencement of a new week, withheld from any sin.
But the striking and constant call to memorize the earlier times of God’s and Moses’ decision for the Israelites is shown in the benediction included in the Amidah (18 Blessings): “Hashivah shofteynu kev’rishonah / Restore our judges (justices) as in prior times, veyoatseynu kev’techilah / and our counselors as of yore; remove from us sorrow and sighing (yagon veanachah) and reign Alone over us, Lord, with kindness and compassion, righteousness and justice (betsedek uvmishpat) (during the ten days of penitence/slichot = Melech HaMishpat – King of Judgment).
The first phrase is taken from Prophet Isaiah 1:26-27, which presupposes that they were able to exert a compassionate legal authority that allowed the removing of grief and suffering. On the other hand, the second part of the blessing suggests that the ancient wilderness appointment of the judges-advisors implied a correct monitoring of the society. This was not the case when foreign dominion and judges were arbitrarily ruling over the Jewish nation, in particular the Romans by the time of the Second Temple. The Palestinian version of the benediction has “Ohev mishpat – Who loves judgment” instead of (Melech/King of judgment) as in Isaiah 61:8.
Indeed, there is a strong connection between the Amidah blessings 9 to 11 about Redemption, the ingathering of the exiled and the restoration of the judges. Curiously enough, the demand was not introduced after but before the destruction of the Temple as explained in Talmud Sanhedrin 41a, seemingly written forty years before 70.
Are we thus so legal-oriented? The State of Israel is repeatedly insisting till some parroting that we live in a “medinah chukit = state of legacy”. The police and the soldiers acting as policemen, but also all kinds of “courts – batey hamishpat” or “beyt shalom – court of peace” for marital and penal disputes constitute a major part of the Israeli stand of justice.
Or, at least there is a genuine and firm purpose to act and resolve any pending societal or individual issue with a sense of righteousness. Of course, people would be tricky, cheating each other, would fall out with best friends for bargains or haggle. We are a friendly nation, rather spoiled somehow like churlish children. Money… money… “kessef/massar oder gelt” and some would know how to get loaded while other can be skint. So what is robbery, eh? It can evolve into a sort of democratic mental and secular mitzvah that fell down to the street or a ditch. A lawless rule can be a spiritually fallen commandment. We see at the present the legal bodies: the Supreme Court, then new Attorney General embattled in upgrading the power of legacy.
Now, there are also the rabbinic tribunals and the dayanim – rabbinic judges. This should be good provided that nobody is corrupt or twisty. The problem with the twist is that it hardly can be detected overtime. As we grow foxy, crooked, we insidiously leave and forget what is at the core of the Mitzvot and we get misleading. Funny how at times we can get astonished or amused to get misled in return. It is correct that Israeli society is going through rising hooliganism, opportunism, self-ruled and self-autonomous decisions taken with less and less respect of the State regulations.
This is a real problem and we caught a glimpse at that with the previous blog about “Identity”. Indeed, Israel has become for some people like the “shalosh arim – the three cities (of refuge)” determined in our reading portion of the week. These three cities existed in order to protect the “rotz’chim - murderers” who had killed or harmed somebody “by mistake”, unwillingly. By the time the mitzvah was decreed, it is evident that legality was respected. And it was a ver humane provision to secure a murderer who had not killed or wounded somebody intentionally.
One of the formulas used for the ancient ordination of the rabbis is: “Yadin – yadin: you want to exercise judgment, you will judge / yattir- yattir: you want to deliver, release, make free – you will authorize / Yoreh – yoreh: you want to teach (the Laws), give birth to souls: you will open them so that they can reach their goals”. In Hebrew “Din, dinim” often corresponds to what the Christians would call “grace, blessings”. Because we have forgotten that a judgment is not only a penalty nor a punishment.
It has a prophetic aspect that enables a society to comply with the rules and still be aware of how to trespass without harming its development. Thus, the moral commandments “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery,…” are composed of very subtle points that are daily infringed by most people. The question is how to correct public life as to induce freedom, release and a spirit of prophecy! And enable some good will to teach the commandments with a spirit of kayf.
It is intriguing that the Noahide Laws require the setting-up of tribunal in every town. Justices, lawyers, shoterim/officers-policemen and women as the rabbis and pious people do have an immense preventive responsibility to bring forth the value of Laws.
Jesus said: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. (Matthew 6:19-20). The realm of the Mitzvot is far beyond any denomination, party, judgment. It calls to be cool.
COMMENTS
1. Amazing that we are now quoting Jesus. If Judaism gave the world nothing else but Monotheism, Justice in all of its aspects may have sufficed as our contribution to humanity. Too bad that Christianity does not teach Jesus's respect for the rightiousness of the scribes and pharisees and the admonition to Justice which includes feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, helping the sick and the downtrodden, but focuses the teachings of Paul.
Stanford Newman, Warren, Michigan USA 48088, Aug 17 6:08PM
Zehut: Identity, who's who?
In August, after famous filmmakers died (Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni), it appears that other personalities passed away this summer, completing in some way, the sceneries depicted in the movies realized by these film creators. The point is that, generation after generation, people depart by sorts of waves "be'ito - in due time"(Tehillim 104, 27) having accomplished their task we still cannot measure. .
Identity is a major concern in Israel. Anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It is not linked to the fact that police officers would check identity cards everywhere. ID cards cannot include the richness of all the events that paved the way of a person in good and bad, sorrows, struggles for life and intimacy. ID cards and passports have a number and reckon the “citizenship life account” of a person.
It is like the dry skeleton of a body that may progressively grow in density as one tries to discover the muscles, sinews, brain, speech and memorized or forgotten or possibly forged biographies (cf. Ezekiel 37). In some decades, it will be very intriguing to add the virtual identities of some computer whizzes that invented or reshaped their identity for reason of convenience or as in a playful connection with others.
“Zehut – identity” comes from “zeh hu – this (one) is” or “it is like this or that”. “zeh /masc./, zot-zu /fem./ as in “yavo zeh – let this one come and receive this or that” or “zeh zeh Moshe = “this one – this this” means Moses and “zot zu HaTorah = this that means the Law-Torah” (Menachot 53b). “ei zehu = eyzehu (Mishnah language)” and help determining what something is or who somebody (male or female) is or is supposed to be or just definitely declares what facts and people are (Gittin 8, 4). “eyzehu chacham = who is wise” (Avot 4, 1). The quest is to know “who, what, which” things or individuals are, while “be’eyzeh tsad = in what manner (Aramaic: “eyda – eydeyn that can be compared to “deyn-deyn” – this or that that implies the ability to judge what is existent).
Moreover, the root relates to things-objects or subjects-individuals as they are existent now/at the moment/instant as in “tell me now (eyzu)” (Bava Metsia 70a) or “admit then at least” (Yoma 30b). Time is short and refers to life in its apparently very limited duration if compared with eternity. Instants and short twinkling detectors of life paths that are far more flexible than what we perceive of individual bios.
Nonetheless, “zehut” tracks back to some interrogation about whom and what is existent. It does not use the same way as “min, mah, mi – out of where, what, who” that relate to “semen, seeds” germinating into humans or fruits, plants (Avot 3, 1; cf. the first blogs). We had previously seen that “etzem – self”, connected with “atzmaut – independence, atsamot - bones” would be more suitable to roughly visualize the identity of a person more accurately. “Zeh hu/eyzehu” shows of people or who is who and what for what!
Raul Hilberg was born in Vienna (Austria) to a Jewish family that immigrated to the United States via Cuba in 1939. In 1944, in Munich (Germany), being a young American soldier in charge of the Nazi archives, he interviewed numerous Nazi soldiers. He died this month, on August 4th, after having dedicated his life to the historic approach and understanding of what had happened during the Holocaust/Shoah in a very specific manner. He was the first to collect the Nazi archives and to try to grasp from within the point of view of the Nazis how and why the process of the “Endloesung – final solution” could be implemented. Thus, he wrote “the Destruction of the European Jews”(1955), his dissertation in which he showed some kind of “collaboration” of the Jewish Ghetto heads and councils in their deals with the Nazis.
This point of view was definitely banned by Yad VaShem. Hannah Arendt has misused his works and surveys during Eichmann’s trial in 1961 as regards her view to some “banality of evil”. R. Hilberg interestingly considered the long experience of the European Jewries throughout ages of persecution. He described the sorts of deals passed with non-Jewish authorities in order to “ransom” or “redeem” and thus save some part of the Jews beyond all the murders, pogroms and expulsions/ assets and properties confiscations. Based upon the fact that the Nazi laws could be firstly discussed, the Jews did not anticipate, in Hilberg’s opinion, that these Nazi rules would turn to non-guilty obedience to irrational army orders that blinded and froze their brains.
In his view, the Jewish people in Europe were “slow to fight the Nazis”. Therefore, they could not only be victimized by the exterminators. This point of view profoundly shocked the Israeli authorities and the management of Yad VaShem and other official Shoah organizations.
Times of troubles of such a huge nature as the Shoah/hurban will only be understandable overtime, over centuries. We already get the archives from some former communist countries; still the Vatican and other countries would reluctantly show their records. The sufferings of the Jews have reached an immense depth of despair and distrust towards the Nations of the world that it is far too early to openly discuss any Jewish involvement of any kind during WWII. Right now, the Jewish Orthodox groups commence to positively get to Yad VaShem on various feasts (Pessah, Yom Kippur) while the secular Israeli society would somehow continue to accuse the Christians and to be unconcerned.
On July 30th, Patriarch Teoctist of Romania passed away. He was 92 years old and had been elected as patriarch in 1986. Israel has a lot of Romanian and Moldavian inhabitants and citizens. For decades, the Ceausescu regime – let’s call that some kind of peculiar communism – the gates of aliyah/immigration to Israel have always been open from Bucharest to Israel as a possible route to quit the communist countries. After the fall of the regime, tons of workers arrived in Israel as (half)legal/illegal workers/ Romanian Israelis represent a very quiet part of the Jewish aliyot while the workers have often been obliged to leave the country. The Romanian Orthodox Church has a prestigious history in the Holy Land and is very lively. Patriarch Teoctist had a troublesome life path.
He was accused of having worked for the communists and resigned in 1990. Unexpectedly, he was called back by the Holy Synod under the pressure of the faithful. In 1999, he was the first Eastern Orthodox patriarch, since the schism of 1054 between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, to meet with the John Paul II, the Pope of Rome. He built many monasteries and created many schools. With regards to Judaism that has a long and prestigious history in Romania, it should be noted that a lot should be launched in the Romanian Church to study the relationships of the Oriental traditions and the emergence of the Chassidic and other movements in Romania and Bukovina. The Nazi period has been more than chaotic for a region full of contradictions that attempts to settle down and build up credible structures.
On August 5th, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger died. Born in 1926 in Paris to a family of Polish Jews, he was baptized in the Catholic Church at the age of 14 years old in Orleans and ordained a priest in 1954. His father spoke Yiddish and had traveled to Poland before the war broke. Their family of Bendzin was murdered in the camps as the Cardinal’s mother. He undoubtedly was a man of brilliant intelligence and faith, who kept silent for the better part of his priestly life about his backgrounds and tragic sufferings. He also was a man of hope and creative talents, a theologian, a preacher with musical and artistic skills. In 1979, Pope John-Paul II assigned him as bishop at Orleans, which is an extravagant biographic response in some manner.
Soon afterwards, he was appointed archbishop of Paris. At this point, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger explained he was born Aron and also baptized Aron. He definitely considered himself a Jew. True, he worked somehow for the betterment of the Jewish and Christian relationships. Indeed he was a man of rare openness and freedom.
The French Rabbinate protested that he could not claim to be both a Jew and a Catholic. Interestingly, at his funeral, psalm 113 was read in Hebrew and French and his cousin, an Auschwitz survivor, said the Kaddish Yatom (instead of the usual burial Kaddish Tsidduq HaDin) in front of the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Cardinal J.M. Lustiger maintained he was a Jew as were the first Apostles. Again, as for any survivor deeply hurt and afflicted by the Shoah, the Jews have to show a lot of loving-kindness to a man who gave back to Judaism.
But who can say he was a “Jewish” cardinal? He was a French, Parisian Buttes Montmartre “urchin” and an archbishop of the Catholic Church that he had joined in the shadow of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, appointed for his competence to resolve the local problems of the French Church.
It maybe a part of his own wounds that he was not recognized to the full by his own people (John 1:11). He courageously carried his yoke of contradiction (Luke 2:34). He could envision Jewishness as a free part of the Church. But the time of the Early Church is over and new times can only show over long periods of mutual pardon and full recognition between the Jews and the Christians, without pretence. Curiously, the Priests Daniel Rufeisen and Alexander Glasberg were full Jews and still, having saved numerous Jews in Poland and Iraq, they only got recognized as “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad VaShem. “Da’ lifney atah omed – do know (and accept) in front of Whom you are standing”…
Identity is a major concern in Israel. Anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It is not linked to the fact that police officers would check identity cards everywhere. ID cards cannot include the richness of all the events that paved the way of a person in good and bad, sorrows, struggles for life and intimacy. ID cards and passports have a number and reckon the “citizenship life account” of a person.
It is like the dry skeleton of a body that may progressively grow in density as one tries to discover the muscles, sinews, brain, speech and memorized or forgotten or possibly forged biographies (cf. Ezekiel 37). In some decades, it will be very intriguing to add the virtual identities of some computer whizzes that invented or reshaped their identity for reason of convenience or as in a playful connection with others.
“Zehut – identity” comes from “zeh hu – this (one) is” or “it is like this or that”. “zeh /masc./, zot-zu /fem./ as in “yavo zeh – let this one come and receive this or that” or “zeh zeh Moshe = “this one – this this” means Moses and “zot zu HaTorah = this that means the Law-Torah” (Menachot 53b). “ei zehu = eyzehu (Mishnah language)” and help determining what something is or who somebody (male or female) is or is supposed to be or just definitely declares what facts and people are (Gittin 8, 4). “eyzehu chacham = who is wise” (Avot 4, 1). The quest is to know “who, what, which” things or individuals are, while “be’eyzeh tsad = in what manner (Aramaic: “eyda – eydeyn that can be compared to “deyn-deyn” – this or that that implies the ability to judge what is existent).
Moreover, the root relates to things-objects or subjects-individuals as they are existent now/at the moment/instant as in “tell me now (eyzu)” (Bava Metsia 70a) or “admit then at least” (Yoma 30b). Time is short and refers to life in its apparently very limited duration if compared with eternity. Instants and short twinkling detectors of life paths that are far more flexible than what we perceive of individual bios.
Nonetheless, “zehut” tracks back to some interrogation about whom and what is existent. It does not use the same way as “min, mah, mi – out of where, what, who” that relate to “semen, seeds” germinating into humans or fruits, plants (Avot 3, 1; cf. the first blogs). We had previously seen that “etzem – self”, connected with “atzmaut – independence, atsamot - bones” would be more suitable to roughly visualize the identity of a person more accurately. “Zeh hu/eyzehu” shows of people or who is who and what for what!
Raul Hilberg was born in Vienna (Austria) to a Jewish family that immigrated to the United States via Cuba in 1939. In 1944, in Munich (Germany), being a young American soldier in charge of the Nazi archives, he interviewed numerous Nazi soldiers. He died this month, on August 4th, after having dedicated his life to the historic approach and understanding of what had happened during the Holocaust/Shoah in a very specific manner. He was the first to collect the Nazi archives and to try to grasp from within the point of view of the Nazis how and why the process of the “Endloesung – final solution” could be implemented. Thus, he wrote “the Destruction of the European Jews”(1955), his dissertation in which he showed some kind of “collaboration” of the Jewish Ghetto heads and councils in their deals with the Nazis.
This point of view was definitely banned by Yad VaShem. Hannah Arendt has misused his works and surveys during Eichmann’s trial in 1961 as regards her view to some “banality of evil”. R. Hilberg interestingly considered the long experience of the European Jewries throughout ages of persecution. He described the sorts of deals passed with non-Jewish authorities in order to “ransom” or “redeem” and thus save some part of the Jews beyond all the murders, pogroms and expulsions/ assets and properties confiscations. Based upon the fact that the Nazi laws could be firstly discussed, the Jews did not anticipate, in Hilberg’s opinion, that these Nazi rules would turn to non-guilty obedience to irrational army orders that blinded and froze their brains.
In his view, the Jewish people in Europe were “slow to fight the Nazis”. Therefore, they could not only be victimized by the exterminators. This point of view profoundly shocked the Israeli authorities and the management of Yad VaShem and other official Shoah organizations.
Times of troubles of such a huge nature as the Shoah/hurban will only be understandable overtime, over centuries. We already get the archives from some former communist countries; still the Vatican and other countries would reluctantly show their records. The sufferings of the Jews have reached an immense depth of despair and distrust towards the Nations of the world that it is far too early to openly discuss any Jewish involvement of any kind during WWII. Right now, the Jewish Orthodox groups commence to positively get to Yad VaShem on various feasts (Pessah, Yom Kippur) while the secular Israeli society would somehow continue to accuse the Christians and to be unconcerned.
On July 30th, Patriarch Teoctist of Romania passed away. He was 92 years old and had been elected as patriarch in 1986. Israel has a lot of Romanian and Moldavian inhabitants and citizens. For decades, the Ceausescu regime – let’s call that some kind of peculiar communism – the gates of aliyah/immigration to Israel have always been open from Bucharest to Israel as a possible route to quit the communist countries. After the fall of the regime, tons of workers arrived in Israel as (half)legal/illegal workers/ Romanian Israelis represent a very quiet part of the Jewish aliyot while the workers have often been obliged to leave the country. The Romanian Orthodox Church has a prestigious history in the Holy Land and is very lively. Patriarch Teoctist had a troublesome life path.
He was accused of having worked for the communists and resigned in 1990. Unexpectedly, he was called back by the Holy Synod under the pressure of the faithful. In 1999, he was the first Eastern Orthodox patriarch, since the schism of 1054 between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, to meet with the John Paul II, the Pope of Rome. He built many monasteries and created many schools. With regards to Judaism that has a long and prestigious history in Romania, it should be noted that a lot should be launched in the Romanian Church to study the relationships of the Oriental traditions and the emergence of the Chassidic and other movements in Romania and Bukovina. The Nazi period has been more than chaotic for a region full of contradictions that attempts to settle down and build up credible structures.
On August 5th, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger died. Born in 1926 in Paris to a family of Polish Jews, he was baptized in the Catholic Church at the age of 14 years old in Orleans and ordained a priest in 1954. His father spoke Yiddish and had traveled to Poland before the war broke. Their family of Bendzin was murdered in the camps as the Cardinal’s mother. He undoubtedly was a man of brilliant intelligence and faith, who kept silent for the better part of his priestly life about his backgrounds and tragic sufferings. He also was a man of hope and creative talents, a theologian, a preacher with musical and artistic skills. In 1979, Pope John-Paul II assigned him as bishop at Orleans, which is an extravagant biographic response in some manner.
Soon afterwards, he was appointed archbishop of Paris. At this point, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger explained he was born Aron and also baptized Aron. He definitely considered himself a Jew. True, he worked somehow for the betterment of the Jewish and Christian relationships. Indeed he was a man of rare openness and freedom.
The French Rabbinate protested that he could not claim to be both a Jew and a Catholic. Interestingly, at his funeral, psalm 113 was read in Hebrew and French and his cousin, an Auschwitz survivor, said the Kaddish Yatom (instead of the usual burial Kaddish Tsidduq HaDin) in front of the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Cardinal J.M. Lustiger maintained he was a Jew as were the first Apostles. Again, as for any survivor deeply hurt and afflicted by the Shoah, the Jews have to show a lot of loving-kindness to a man who gave back to Judaism.
But who can say he was a “Jewish” cardinal? He was a French, Parisian Buttes Montmartre “urchin” and an archbishop of the Catholic Church that he had joined in the shadow of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, appointed for his competence to resolve the local problems of the French Church.
It maybe a part of his own wounds that he was not recognized to the full by his own people (John 1:11). He courageously carried his yoke of contradiction (Luke 2:34). He could envision Jewishness as a free part of the Church. But the time of the Early Church is over and new times can only show over long periods of mutual pardon and full recognition between the Jews and the Christians, without pretence. Curiously, the Priests Daniel Rufeisen and Alexander Glasberg were full Jews and still, having saved numerous Jews in Poland and Iraq, they only got recognized as “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad VaShem. “Da’ lifney atah omed – do know (and accept) in front of Whom you are standing”…
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Reeh: meaningful visions and choices
Mishney Torah or Book of Deuteronomy repeatedly teaches the Commandments in order to inscribe them in the heart of every Israelite that lived out till the time close to the entrance into the Land of Canaan/Eretz Israel. The Kabbalat Mitzvot 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 parshat shavua or reading portion of this week is "Reeh = 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 to combat idolatry and destroy all the idols, pagan altars and worships after their take-over of the Land of Canaan. This is a real theological question, still pending in 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 have too often paved the way to horrible stiffness and certitude and ‘divine’ approval in the slaying of those whom have been considered 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 foreign backgrounds. They would only achieve true Jewishness after a long-term process of understanding 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 to touch or alter in-depth identities for political or national reasons that are limited by definition?
The reading portion of this week starts with the interjection: “Reeh – 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? What did he see, i.e. what is the reason of such a situation (Baba Bathra 123a). “Nirah – it looks like, appears”: “He had said that things were nirin = 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 = 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”). This is the “shtey drachim – 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 many 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 people 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 those addicted to drugs. I used to find legless rolling drunken men and a few women 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-addicts, prostitutes and sex-addicts 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 traumatic pasts and need God’s help to reinvigorate their egos. Assistance is very Jewish.
The first medical and social care system in Eretz Israel was 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 = 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), therefore I command you: open your hand to the poor and the needy (“le’aniyecha uleeviyoncha”) 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 these commandments are given together with the “shemittah – year of remission, especially of the debts” (Deut. 15:9-18). By the way the coming year 5768 is 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 wonderful work to correct these situations. In Israel, there is a widely “tzedakah” acting system that corresponds, to some extent, to the Muslim “zakat – charity money”.
The Christian Churches have been always very generous towards the local Arab people (hospitals, elderly homes), also providing some money and assistance to the Jews in many ways and for various purposes. Interestingly, the Greek-Melkite (Catholic) Patriarch Gregorios III (Lutfi Laham) who served many years in Jerusalem as archbishop, developed and continues to enhance with his hierarchy a strong network of assistance to the poor, the sick, the elderly people as a fundamental part of the religious love towards God and the humans.
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 – poor / ‘aniyut - 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 respects 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. This implies a good knowledge of who we are and a lot of self-control that is challenged by a system of consumption that has increased 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 = poverty of spirit”.
Saint Francis of Assisi is called “Poverello – Little poor man” in Italian. 800 years ago, 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.
The parshat shavua or reading portion of this week is "Reeh = 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 to combat idolatry and destroy all the idols, pagan altars and worships after their take-over of the Land of Canaan. This is a real theological question, still pending in 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 have too often paved the way to horrible stiffness and certitude and ‘divine’ approval in the slaying of those whom have been considered 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 foreign backgrounds. They would only achieve true Jewishness after a long-term process of understanding 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 to touch or alter in-depth identities for political or national reasons that are limited by definition?
The reading portion of this week starts with the interjection: “Reeh – 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? What did he see, i.e. what is the reason of such a situation (Baba Bathra 123a). “Nirah – it looks like, appears”: “He had said that things were nirin = 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 = 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”). This is the “shtey drachim – 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 many 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 people 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 those addicted to drugs. I used to find legless rolling drunken men and a few women 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-addicts, prostitutes and sex-addicts 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 traumatic pasts and need God’s help to reinvigorate their egos. Assistance is very Jewish.
The first medical and social care system in Eretz Israel was 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 = 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), therefore I command you: open your hand to the poor and the needy (“le’aniyecha uleeviyoncha”) 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 these commandments are given together with the “shemittah – year of remission, especially of the debts” (Deut. 15:9-18). By the way the coming year 5768 is 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 wonderful work to correct these situations. In Israel, there is a widely “tzedakah” acting system that corresponds, to some extent, to the Muslim “zakat – charity money”.
The Christian Churches have been always very generous towards the local Arab people (hospitals, elderly homes), also providing some money and assistance to the Jews in many ways and for various purposes. Interestingly, the Greek-Melkite (Catholic) Patriarch Gregorios III (Lutfi Laham) who served many years in Jerusalem as archbishop, developed and continues to enhance with his hierarchy a strong network of assistance to the poor, the sick, the elderly people as a fundamental part of the religious love towards God and the humans.
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 – poor / ‘aniyut - 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 respects 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. This implies a good knowledge of who we are and a lot of self-control that is challenged by a system of consumption that has increased 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 = poverty of spirit”.
Saint Francis of Assisi is called “Poverello – Little poor man” in Italian. 800 years ago, 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.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Chug: circle, feasts, balls...
I had a look at the first wonderful and amazing pictures showing the red landscapes on Mars, the red planet ("ma'dim", Numbers Rabba 4, Shabbat 156b); then I randomly surfed on the Jerusalem Post site online and found an interesting article about Israeli women getting more and more blond or dying their hair blond, a way to neutralize the inter-tribal modern Hebrew State differences. Indeed, hair often seems to turn to light blond, though it sometimes maybe a heavy darkening blond.
Still, it is baffling how many women from the Baltic area have natural red hair and light pale skin in these old Jewish communities with freckles and "admoni" - red - reddish" was the color of the hair of Saul and King David. Today, women would have long curly red hair or very short red hair cut. It is rather frequent and quite evident in a hot and colorful country. “Redness” is an ancient and meaningful symbol in Judaism as in most cultures of the world. We often don't know that Africans (we have the Ethiopians), Asians are born red haired, which is seemingly due to some features of chromosome 16. Blood-oath, what a crash-hot ridgy-didge that we are the colors of the world and bloody reddish complies with our carrot-like preferences!
There is a "little" wilderness town in South Australia, Oodnadatta, not that too much far from Alice Springs located in the North, well it depends on the speed of your truck. Fifty five years ago, it was still a sort of wild expedition, even if Aussies were already very forward, to travel in the area. Was it the end of the world? Or a more original point for a better understanding of whom humans are? Some World War II veterans and concentration camps survivors were propositioned to emigrate there and they could develop their enterprises abandoned in some European city, make money and get wealthy. True, they did not settle in Oodnadatta, but rather in Melbourne, Sidney and Canberra. Good on 'em!
This is why I could have spent my young days in Australia, but it could have been in British Columbia too which, at the present has a lot of Israeli inhabitants and tons of Ukrainian workers that arrived 160 years ago... and conquered the Western Canadian Provinces. How strange and intriguing that sixty years after the end of the war, the descents of the Russian, Jewish and various Soviet Union Displaced People that lived in Harbin (China) were allowed to move to Dairen/Port Arthur, then to Hong Kong and were dispatched to the United States, Canada, Argentina and Australia. Today they come back to Israel in Spanish, English and a touch of Yiddish with some Ladino... You bet! The world is so small and history such a mishmash... Or maybe there is more.
Now, before I brushed up my Greenlandic and Nunatsiavut Inuit (optional) writing consisting of syllable letters in the shape of bear foot marks in the snow, I discovered very early the richness of two Australian aboriginal tongues: Pitjantjatjara and Aranda spoken in the region north of Oodnadatta. This doesn’t look like the full quid in our Israeli context, Mars, red haired and Adam. Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek are indeed the language in which God delivered His Mitzvot to the Israelites. As stated in Sota 7,1, He does understand all the languages of the world. We must be careful with that. It does not mean that we understand anything, but God value any parlance because He better knows than we do what each of them represents for a perception of His Divine Presence. Yes, Inuits as Australian aborigines have been murdered or encouraged to die out through diseases, alcohol and despair.
Curiously, a lot of religions focus stubbornly on the primacy of their sacred tongues: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Gheez (Ethiopian), Sanskrit, Tibetan and some many other languages. The point is that it is fascinating to understand how the Pitjantjatjara and Aranda speakers, for whom the hand (as our ”hamsa”) and wet imprint of the hands on hot stones could explain the Presence of God, the Only One that revealed His Paroles and Commandments in the Sinai. Apparently, they had no words to express that God shaped human beings in His image and likeness.
Still, by using animal descriptions and body imprints in the sand or on wet stones, they could get to this conviction that HaShem had created them and all beings. The problem was for the Christians (mainly the Anglican Church) to prove that “flesh and blood”(in Hebrew, “bassar vadam = mortal human) could resurrect. In their case as also among the Inuits or the Namibian Bushmen (Nama), the quest excludes any idea of “mental disability”. We are not the knowing ones facing a world of ignorance. On the contrary, at the present, Jewishness requires the development of huge projects in order to reinvigorate the Yiddishkayt traditions that drowned during the Shoah. We have lost the direct contact with the world of the wilderness and the instinctive intuition and feelings of what we cannot understand nor seize: the realm of the Mitzvot.
Within a few days, we shall enter new month Ellul that prepares for the time of Rosh HaShanah without any feast until New Year. It is a month of silent meditation. So the Jews can be red, blond, black and curly, this is a major concern with regard to the en vogue heads; anyway, but hair is always related to redemption: “My iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hair of my head (mesa’arot rashi) and my heart fails me” (Tehillim 40:13; 69:5). The Gospel adds some Talmud-rooted sayings: “Do not swear by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:36 – obviously some people today may think that hair dyeing is natural) or “And even the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30).
Heads and hair are very spiritual elements of our bodies and it is absolutely appealing that parts of our being correspond to divine realities. Hebrew “silsel = to lift up, swing (cf. salal = battery power!). Tractate Rosh HaShanah 26b states: “A handmaid said to one (rabbi) twirling his hair “how long will you curl your hair”, which meant “(why do you) turn the Law into all directions”. We are very good, too good at “twirling” the Law. On the other hand, our desire to be trendy, a la mode, does not mean that we are aware that there is nothing new in fashion, haircuts or natural skin colors that spread widely and speedily throughout the planet. Israel is obviously “cosmic-fashion” at this point as its inhabitants came from all parts of the world, introducing the most faraway cultures. And now, we get to Mars the Red… Let’s say the universe expands like an ellipse as shown by J. Kepler. We are also expanding and growing, overcoming all the hindrances we tend to find out in order to restrict our apprehension and understanding of life.
On this Monday, August 6th 2007 is the 62nd 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. The Nazis collected 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 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 Transfiguration of Jesus: 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 in a sort of fragmenting micro waver, while we segment Eretz Israel into ethno-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).
“Chag” means “feast” as also “chagigah” 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 = 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” (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 = earth, globe” or “kadur regel = football” that may often be used to say that there is a messy situation or conflicts.
“Kadar = 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).
Still, it is baffling how many women from the Baltic area have natural red hair and light pale skin in these old Jewish communities with freckles and "admoni" - red - reddish" was the color of the hair of Saul and King David. Today, women would have long curly red hair or very short red hair cut. It is rather frequent and quite evident in a hot and colorful country. “Redness” is an ancient and meaningful symbol in Judaism as in most cultures of the world. We often don't know that Africans (we have the Ethiopians), Asians are born red haired, which is seemingly due to some features of chromosome 16. Blood-oath, what a crash-hot ridgy-didge that we are the colors of the world and bloody reddish complies with our carrot-like preferences!
There is a "little" wilderness town in South Australia, Oodnadatta, not that too much far from Alice Springs located in the North, well it depends on the speed of your truck. Fifty five years ago, it was still a sort of wild expedition, even if Aussies were already very forward, to travel in the area. Was it the end of the world? Or a more original point for a better understanding of whom humans are? Some World War II veterans and concentration camps survivors were propositioned to emigrate there and they could develop their enterprises abandoned in some European city, make money and get wealthy. True, they did not settle in Oodnadatta, but rather in Melbourne, Sidney and Canberra. Good on 'em!
This is why I could have spent my young days in Australia, but it could have been in British Columbia too which, at the present has a lot of Israeli inhabitants and tons of Ukrainian workers that arrived 160 years ago... and conquered the Western Canadian Provinces. How strange and intriguing that sixty years after the end of the war, the descents of the Russian, Jewish and various Soviet Union Displaced People that lived in Harbin (China) were allowed to move to Dairen/Port Arthur, then to Hong Kong and were dispatched to the United States, Canada, Argentina and Australia. Today they come back to Israel in Spanish, English and a touch of Yiddish with some Ladino... You bet! The world is so small and history such a mishmash... Or maybe there is more.
Now, before I brushed up my Greenlandic and Nunatsiavut Inuit (optional) writing consisting of syllable letters in the shape of bear foot marks in the snow, I discovered very early the richness of two Australian aboriginal tongues: Pitjantjatjara and Aranda spoken in the region north of Oodnadatta. This doesn’t look like the full quid in our Israeli context, Mars, red haired and Adam. Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek are indeed the language in which God delivered His Mitzvot to the Israelites. As stated in Sota 7,1, He does understand all the languages of the world. We must be careful with that. It does not mean that we understand anything, but God value any parlance because He better knows than we do what each of them represents for a perception of His Divine Presence. Yes, Inuits as Australian aborigines have been murdered or encouraged to die out through diseases, alcohol and despair.
Curiously, a lot of religions focus stubbornly on the primacy of their sacred tongues: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Gheez (Ethiopian), Sanskrit, Tibetan and some many other languages. The point is that it is fascinating to understand how the Pitjantjatjara and Aranda speakers, for whom the hand (as our ”hamsa”) and wet imprint of the hands on hot stones could explain the Presence of God, the Only One that revealed His Paroles and Commandments in the Sinai. Apparently, they had no words to express that God shaped human beings in His image and likeness.
Still, by using animal descriptions and body imprints in the sand or on wet stones, they could get to this conviction that HaShem had created them and all beings. The problem was for the Christians (mainly the Anglican Church) to prove that “flesh and blood”(in Hebrew, “bassar vadam = mortal human) could resurrect. In their case as also among the Inuits or the Namibian Bushmen (Nama), the quest excludes any idea of “mental disability”. We are not the knowing ones facing a world of ignorance. On the contrary, at the present, Jewishness requires the development of huge projects in order to reinvigorate the Yiddishkayt traditions that drowned during the Shoah. We have lost the direct contact with the world of the wilderness and the instinctive intuition and feelings of what we cannot understand nor seize: the realm of the Mitzvot.
Within a few days, we shall enter new month Ellul that prepares for the time of Rosh HaShanah without any feast until New Year. It is a month of silent meditation. So the Jews can be red, blond, black and curly, this is a major concern with regard to the en vogue heads; anyway, but hair is always related to redemption: “My iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hair of my head (mesa’arot rashi) and my heart fails me” (Tehillim 40:13; 69:5). The Gospel adds some Talmud-rooted sayings: “Do not swear by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:36 – obviously some people today may think that hair dyeing is natural) or “And even the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30).
Heads and hair are very spiritual elements of our bodies and it is absolutely appealing that parts of our being correspond to divine realities. Hebrew “silsel = to lift up, swing (cf. salal = battery power!). Tractate Rosh HaShanah 26b states: “A handmaid said to one (rabbi) twirling his hair “how long will you curl your hair”, which meant “(why do you) turn the Law into all directions”. We are very good, too good at “twirling” the Law. On the other hand, our desire to be trendy, a la mode, does not mean that we are aware that there is nothing new in fashion, haircuts or natural skin colors that spread widely and speedily throughout the planet. Israel is obviously “cosmic-fashion” at this point as its inhabitants came from all parts of the world, introducing the most faraway cultures. And now, we get to Mars the Red… Let’s say the universe expands like an ellipse as shown by J. Kepler. We are also expanding and growing, overcoming all the hindrances we tend to find out in order to restrict our apprehension and understanding of life.
On this Monday, August 6th 2007 is the 62nd 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. The Nazis collected 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 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 Transfiguration of Jesus: 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 in a sort of fragmenting micro waver, while we segment Eretz Israel into ethno-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).
“Chag” means “feast” as also “chagigah” 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 = 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” (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 = earth, globe” or “kadur regel = football” that may often be used to say that there is a messy situation or conflicts.
“Kadar = 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).
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Shmiyah: Love, hear, memorize and not forget
Ingmar Bergman passed away. The son of very strict Lutheran pastor of the Swedish Church, he wrote the story of our human days and feelings with much perspicacity and insights. A man who always clutched to the women he was creating his films with in a move that could resemble love. In his book "Laterna Magica, Images", he explains that the big part of our education (he speaks of his generation but this is still real for most of us) is based on concepts like sin, extraction of confession.
This is alien to Judaism and to the Eastern Orthodox Churches and thus penetrated Jewish culture as Orthodox Christian new styles. In the relationships between parents and children, punishment could lead to atonement and ultimately to grace (inspirited as "dinim" in Judaism though not so submitted to vidui/confession). He has been a man of four women-actresses, among the most beautiful creatures of the Swedish movie wildlife face book.
I remember the fresh summer takes of "Hon dansade en sommar/she only danced one summer" that showed the nudity of a pure Scandinavian girl bathing in the sun. But I. Bergman mainly aimed at underscoring that such inter-generation relationships, stiffed and framed, could only be governed by clear-headed people thought they would understand and control but, indeed, it may have allowed inducing Nazism without opposing or condemning the system. "In hierarchical systems, all doors are closed", he said. The film master approached life and ethical changes "like the wind rusting through the leaves", dealing with the main “up-to-the-century” mal-etre of repeating crisis process: marriage, men-women relationships, fancies and neurotic clashes, sex and (ascetic) self-abnegation that, in the end, get rusty and out of space. The frightening scenes of "Fanny and Alexander" showed how the Western civilization prolongs its route with the foolhardy forlornness of the so-called "death of God".
This lines with the parshat hashavua/reading portion of this week: “Ekev- Subsequently, if you hearken these judgments…” in Devarim/Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25. God insists on a specific commandment, given to the Israelites and constantly repeated, again and again, for the sake of their faith in God as humans living among humankind. Devarim 6;4: “Hear Israel/ Shma’ Israel” that links obedience to the Only One, accepting to hear and listen to His words, accomplishing them with love.
Let’s say that Ingmar Bergman powerfully depicted how the Western society drifted from the purity of the Commandments, emptying their raison d’etre till some deep nonsense and social disease.
A second major filmmaker died this week. The Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni belonged to the same generation, focusing on life and uneasiness in love. Major films on how frail and unstable human nature and feelings can develop into real malaise (as in the introspective movie “L’Avventura” with Monica Vitti in 1960 or “La Notte/The Night”). It climaxed with “Blow up” which reinforced this malaise by inserting sexual takes while unwillingly shooting in photos of a murder, in London.
This allows envisioning a world of images caught with perspicacity and figuring out the greatness and tragedy of a society. Today, images replace reality or subdue individuals into the mal-etre or difficulty to live, love and breathe. Thus, we are totally “mirroring us” into the memorizing system of cuts and takes, screens and images, moves as if to stop or circumvent despair, shortsightedness.
We are all actors directed by cameras of security protection. Any fish-eye lens can sink down to the surface of our intimacy. We desperately need to smile, laugh or answer with a pout. The Actors Studio turns to “Youtube’ing”and instant self-contentment.
It is evident that these new techniques prodigiously enhance our cultural attitudes and prospects. Pre-birth photos widen our family albums back to few weeks’ existence. Takes and films store actions, events. “Cinema” from Greek “kinein – to move” copes with the Hebrew tradition that praises dynamics. Hebrew “kolno’a – cinema = move/tottering (Niddah 25b) of the voice”.
The reading portion of this week profoundly insists on the fact that humans must love God to the full, via all their flesh and bone, intellectual and emotional capacities joined to their financial and economical assets. Again, after the destruction of the Temples and the Feast of love on Tu Be’Av, how can we sketch out what love implies?
Let’s get further and again scrutinize whether “love/ahavah” is humanly evident. The mitzvah is focusing on God alone. We often think as if it would suffice to ascertain our love to the Most High. This mitzvah does not imply any expectation of promise or reward from God. Because when Jacob woke up at Bethel, he vowed in a down-to-earth way: “If God will be with me and keep me in this way I go and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come back home in peace, then God shall be my God” (Bereishit 28:20).
I like this vow very much. It is not ecstatic… Jacob is the son of his mom who coached him to cheat his father Isaac, a normal nudnik and so many of us behave as if El Shaddai would be some Bituach leumi/national medical care and social assistance + first aid + recurrent money basket provider. But this is so humane. So real.
Now, the “shmiyah/obedience” means we do not dare expect anything but accept to lift all our being to the One God. There is more as regards any Jew: Abraham and his descent have nothing to do with any kind of ethnic or tribal or sub-tribal distinctive features. “In you, all the Nations (and generations) will experience how blessed they are” (Gen. 12:3). This relies on true love. Love is more than justice and righteousness, which are included in “ahavah”. Love obliges to do and give always more, much and even too much.
Still it is not enough. Look, Abraham was a sort of Moshe Rabbenu. He argued to save some inhabitants of Sodom: he disputed with God about the number of righteous, if any. But the Zohar (Book of Splendor) still considers that he did not accomplish his real duty: no use to count the just. There was more to do, said R. Eliezer ben Azariyah, and he did not push God into that: Abraham did not require God’s pardon and loving-kindness (Zohar 106a).On the other hand, Moses had intervened for the sake of the Israelites after the golden calf.
This is why it is important to “Understand that the Lord Your God does not give you this land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people (am-koshey-oref). Remember and forget not how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day you went out of the Land of Egypt till you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord (mamrim haytem im HaShem)” (Deut. 9:6-7). “Mamre” has different meanings, from the place of hospitality to rebellion. Strangely enough, the Israelites are called to serve as a priestly nation of tribes.
Still, it hardly can reach out to their own fellowmen, especially in the present situation of split culture. Hillel said: “Love the humans” (Avot 1,2). Similarly, “When you hurt your fellowman (reacha) even very slightly, do reckon this as something important, but if you show him much loving-kindness, consider this is a tiny thing” says the Abot deRabbi Nathan (B, 27a). Indeed, there is no difference between human beings but this too often turns to be a parrot-fashion speech – God “does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger in giving him food and clothes. Thus, love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Devarim 10:18-19).
When faith is distorted to some administrative or political issues/challenges, modern inter-tribal relationships are spoiled and defile God’s Oneness. The rules in force in the State of the Jews seemingly have a certain know-how and experience of how to save the fundamentals of the inspired Mitzvot and divine warning given in the wilderness.
Let’s be “movie”; it is indeed a serious Jewish quest to know whether filmmaking is ethically kosher or not. In 1987, the Danish film “Babette’s Banquet” (Feast/seudah) showed the life in a remote Jutland village in the 19th century. Two sisters scrupulously observe with the local inhabitants the stiff sectarian laws defined by their deceased father, a pastor who had created the sect. Refrained envies, frustrating self-control, spiritual narrow-mindedness have turned temptations (beauty is so beautiful, nu! Nu?) to routine loss of vitality.
By the time the sisters want to have a nice memorial day for the 100th anniversary of their father and community prophet, they give refuge to a French woman, Babette (French actress Stephane Audran performs a real feat in wonderfully pronouncing Danish and its famous glottal stop/stoed). The housekeeper who came from the south (cf. as out of Egypt) won 100 Francs and decided to order, in secret, special supplies for a refined French meal, sort of real “side (Yid.) – festive meal”.
And she got exceptional wines, liquors, living quails, turtles, dried cod and cakes with grapes and figs… The sisters got scared. A Swedish general, a French libertine writer full of lust, show the sensuality-addicted aspect of the Western ambiance. Babette cooked “quails in sarcophagus”, i.e. the Providential food from heaven: quails in “flesh-eater = Gr. sarco-phagus”, which refers to the manna and to Jesus’ words that “he is the bread of life” (John 6:35.48.51) who was buried to resurrect. And the guests silently started to stare at the dishes, slowly began to smile, talk, laugh and even dance.
This is how God works wonders. Love consists in welcoming and feeding any visitor, fellow people or strangers, enemies. Indeed, it enhances and stimulates freedom.
This is alien to Judaism and to the Eastern Orthodox Churches and thus penetrated Jewish culture as Orthodox Christian new styles. In the relationships between parents and children, punishment could lead to atonement and ultimately to grace (inspirited as "dinim" in Judaism though not so submitted to vidui/confession). He has been a man of four women-actresses, among the most beautiful creatures of the Swedish movie wildlife face book.
I remember the fresh summer takes of "Hon dansade en sommar/she only danced one summer" that showed the nudity of a pure Scandinavian girl bathing in the sun. But I. Bergman mainly aimed at underscoring that such inter-generation relationships, stiffed and framed, could only be governed by clear-headed people thought they would understand and control but, indeed, it may have allowed inducing Nazism without opposing or condemning the system. "In hierarchical systems, all doors are closed", he said. The film master approached life and ethical changes "like the wind rusting through the leaves", dealing with the main “up-to-the-century” mal-etre of repeating crisis process: marriage, men-women relationships, fancies and neurotic clashes, sex and (ascetic) self-abnegation that, in the end, get rusty and out of space. The frightening scenes of "Fanny and Alexander" showed how the Western civilization prolongs its route with the foolhardy forlornness of the so-called "death of God".
This lines with the parshat hashavua/reading portion of this week: “Ekev- Subsequently, if you hearken these judgments…” in Devarim/Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25. God insists on a specific commandment, given to the Israelites and constantly repeated, again and again, for the sake of their faith in God as humans living among humankind. Devarim 6;4: “Hear Israel/ Shma’ Israel” that links obedience to the Only One, accepting to hear and listen to His words, accomplishing them with love.
Let’s say that Ingmar Bergman powerfully depicted how the Western society drifted from the purity of the Commandments, emptying their raison d’etre till some deep nonsense and social disease.
A second major filmmaker died this week. The Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni belonged to the same generation, focusing on life and uneasiness in love. Major films on how frail and unstable human nature and feelings can develop into real malaise (as in the introspective movie “L’Avventura” with Monica Vitti in 1960 or “La Notte/The Night”). It climaxed with “Blow up” which reinforced this malaise by inserting sexual takes while unwillingly shooting in photos of a murder, in London.
This allows envisioning a world of images caught with perspicacity and figuring out the greatness and tragedy of a society. Today, images replace reality or subdue individuals into the mal-etre or difficulty to live, love and breathe. Thus, we are totally “mirroring us” into the memorizing system of cuts and takes, screens and images, moves as if to stop or circumvent despair, shortsightedness.
We are all actors directed by cameras of security protection. Any fish-eye lens can sink down to the surface of our intimacy. We desperately need to smile, laugh or answer with a pout. The Actors Studio turns to “Youtube’ing”and instant self-contentment.
It is evident that these new techniques prodigiously enhance our cultural attitudes and prospects. Pre-birth photos widen our family albums back to few weeks’ existence. Takes and films store actions, events. “Cinema” from Greek “kinein – to move” copes with the Hebrew tradition that praises dynamics. Hebrew “kolno’a – cinema = move/tottering (Niddah 25b) of the voice”.
The reading portion of this week profoundly insists on the fact that humans must love God to the full, via all their flesh and bone, intellectual and emotional capacities joined to their financial and economical assets. Again, after the destruction of the Temples and the Feast of love on Tu Be’Av, how can we sketch out what love implies?
Let’s get further and again scrutinize whether “love/ahavah” is humanly evident. The mitzvah is focusing on God alone. We often think as if it would suffice to ascertain our love to the Most High. This mitzvah does not imply any expectation of promise or reward from God. Because when Jacob woke up at Bethel, he vowed in a down-to-earth way: “If God will be with me and keep me in this way I go and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come back home in peace, then God shall be my God” (Bereishit 28:20).
I like this vow very much. It is not ecstatic… Jacob is the son of his mom who coached him to cheat his father Isaac, a normal nudnik and so many of us behave as if El Shaddai would be some Bituach leumi/national medical care and social assistance + first aid + recurrent money basket provider. But this is so humane. So real.
Now, the “shmiyah/obedience” means we do not dare expect anything but accept to lift all our being to the One God. There is more as regards any Jew: Abraham and his descent have nothing to do with any kind of ethnic or tribal or sub-tribal distinctive features. “In you, all the Nations (and generations) will experience how blessed they are” (Gen. 12:3). This relies on true love. Love is more than justice and righteousness, which are included in “ahavah”. Love obliges to do and give always more, much and even too much.
Still it is not enough. Look, Abraham was a sort of Moshe Rabbenu. He argued to save some inhabitants of Sodom: he disputed with God about the number of righteous, if any. But the Zohar (Book of Splendor) still considers that he did not accomplish his real duty: no use to count the just. There was more to do, said R. Eliezer ben Azariyah, and he did not push God into that: Abraham did not require God’s pardon and loving-kindness (Zohar 106a).On the other hand, Moses had intervened for the sake of the Israelites after the golden calf.
This is why it is important to “Understand that the Lord Your God does not give you this land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people (am-koshey-oref). Remember and forget not how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day you went out of the Land of Egypt till you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord (mamrim haytem im HaShem)” (Deut. 9:6-7). “Mamre” has different meanings, from the place of hospitality to rebellion. Strangely enough, the Israelites are called to serve as a priestly nation of tribes.
Still, it hardly can reach out to their own fellowmen, especially in the present situation of split culture. Hillel said: “Love the humans” (Avot 1,2). Similarly, “When you hurt your fellowman (reacha) even very slightly, do reckon this as something important, but if you show him much loving-kindness, consider this is a tiny thing” says the Abot deRabbi Nathan (B, 27a). Indeed, there is no difference between human beings but this too often turns to be a parrot-fashion speech – God “does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger in giving him food and clothes. Thus, love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Devarim 10:18-19).
When faith is distorted to some administrative or political issues/challenges, modern inter-tribal relationships are spoiled and defile God’s Oneness. The rules in force in the State of the Jews seemingly have a certain know-how and experience of how to save the fundamentals of the inspired Mitzvot and divine warning given in the wilderness.
Let’s be “movie”; it is indeed a serious Jewish quest to know whether filmmaking is ethically kosher or not. In 1987, the Danish film “Babette’s Banquet” (Feast/seudah) showed the life in a remote Jutland village in the 19th century. Two sisters scrupulously observe with the local inhabitants the stiff sectarian laws defined by their deceased father, a pastor who had created the sect. Refrained envies, frustrating self-control, spiritual narrow-mindedness have turned temptations (beauty is so beautiful, nu! Nu?) to routine loss of vitality.
By the time the sisters want to have a nice memorial day for the 100th anniversary of their father and community prophet, they give refuge to a French woman, Babette (French actress Stephane Audran performs a real feat in wonderfully pronouncing Danish and its famous glottal stop/stoed). The housekeeper who came from the south (cf. as out of Egypt) won 100 Francs and decided to order, in secret, special supplies for a refined French meal, sort of real “side (Yid.) – festive meal”.
And she got exceptional wines, liquors, living quails, turtles, dried cod and cakes with grapes and figs… The sisters got scared. A Swedish general, a French libertine writer full of lust, show the sensuality-addicted aspect of the Western ambiance. Babette cooked “quails in sarcophagus”, i.e. the Providential food from heaven: quails in “flesh-eater = Gr. sarco-phagus”, which refers to the manna and to Jesus’ words that “he is the bread of life” (John 6:35.48.51) who was buried to resurrect. And the guests silently started to stare at the dishes, slowly began to smile, talk, laugh and even dance.
This is how God works wonders. Love consists in welcoming and feeding any visitor, fellow people or strangers, enemies. Indeed, it enhances and stimulates freedom.
Tu Be'Av: "Love me, Tender..."
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 = who loves you more than I love you" is the sort of syrupy broadcast song sung by many local singers. We are in need of care, cuddling, hugging so much and know that our hearts can share it 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 began with the abduction of the women. Indeed, the abduction lead 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 strange 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.
The Semites are inspirited by violence and baseless instinct of possession. This is what is softly meant by "yoter memeni = who loves you more that I do?" Okay a very sweet song with a 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?
Today is Tu Be'Av = the 15th of the month of Av (July 29, 2007). It is usually called "Chag HaAhavah = Feast of love". At the present we are very fond of such feasts that allow giving flowers or presents to our special someone. It may happen that this special someone may grow to two, well… say not more, but there can be no special one at all. The internationally celebrated Saint Valentine’s Day, in February, would seem rather parallel. This is not really the case. Tu Be’Av (like Tu bishvat = 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 forever commemorates the “saddest days” of the two destructions of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem. In the Jewish calendar, the 15th day always marks the short time of the lunar cycle, the monthly recurring “full moon” (“Hayireah bimlu’o”).
This is why the indefectible 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, and 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 and ready for the birthing of new times and seasons.
We are a society that permanently faces despair with “va’irbu smachot be’Israel = let joys multiply in Israel”. Sarah’s laughter, lack of faith and lie (“I did not laugh” she said to the angels), Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s bursting into laughter at the sight of the foxes creeping out of the Devir/Holy of Holies inaugurated times of hope and redemption. We cannot say we have the same spirit at the present, but still, balloons and hagigot/festive encounters are a much astounding positive point of our society. But in this case, there is more: Tisha Be’Av is the destruction, ruining achievement to reduce God’s Presence to nil and annihilate Her, defile and abate the spiritual nuisance that, for the pagans, exists in the Jewish tradition.
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 overleaps death to introduce into new months and times (Taanit 4,3). On the 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 enhances the quality of a new rise towards God and the Mitzvot.
“Veahavta lereacha kamocha – 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, 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 secure, as women. Women do need to be financially and socially secure 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 is 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-reconstructed families “live together” in order to feel some warmth and support for each other, they are hardly prepared for any real “love” and awkwardly move ahead or stay on, stand by knowing nothing or ignoring the risks of STDs (sexually transmitted disease) 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 as only those on drugs can be, 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 and abortions. Thus, it can be reduced to a speechless relationship with no sincere and open dialogue. 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 confusing. Personalized desires of groups of individuals, egoistic and rather childlike behaviors tend to unbalance 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 most 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 Israel).
Love is a gift, a real gift sent by God. Love is like a miracle and it is a miracle that is renewed every day 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?” Her husband had abandoned her. She was surprised when I replied: “Don’t you think love is more important than anything else?” Or a rabbi, who did not know what to do as his wife became fascinated by the Gospel, out of the blue. 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). With regards to “love”, we might not be quite so 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 tender, like God: “HaShem, El rachum vechanun, Lord, Lord of mercy and loving-kindness”. And then we could also discover each other, without fear.
“Solitude” by Marc Chagall, the first painting he gave to an Israeli museum.
COMMENTS
2. Tu Be'Av is also a time to reconsecrate oneself to love G-d as our Husband. The 9th of Av occurred because we turned away from G-d, that is ceased loving G-d and hence stopped loving our neighbour as ourselves, it is only after we make a choice to choose G-d as our Husband can we enjoy full redemption, and love one another in purity. Even to love our enemies, as G-d loves them.
Richard , USA, Jul 31 2:07AM
1. What is MST?
Yehudit, USA, Jul 30 7:07PM
The rape of the Sabine women is a Roman Empire saga and supposedly began with the abduction of the women. Indeed, the abduction lead 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 strange 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.
The Semites are inspirited by violence and baseless instinct of possession. This is what is softly meant by "yoter memeni = who loves you more that I do?" Okay a very sweet song with a 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?
Today is Tu Be'Av = the 15th of the month of Av (July 29, 2007). It is usually called "Chag HaAhavah = Feast of love". At the present we are very fond of such feasts that allow giving flowers or presents to our special someone. It may happen that this special someone may grow to two, well… say not more, but there can be no special one at all. The internationally celebrated Saint Valentine’s Day, in February, would seem rather parallel. This is not really the case. Tu Be’Av (like Tu bishvat = 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 forever commemorates the “saddest days” of the two destructions of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem. In the Jewish calendar, the 15th day always marks the short time of the lunar cycle, the monthly recurring “full moon” (“Hayireah bimlu’o”).
This is why the indefectible 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, and 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 and ready for the birthing of new times and seasons.
We are a society that permanently faces despair with “va’irbu smachot be’Israel = let joys multiply in Israel”. Sarah’s laughter, lack of faith and lie (“I did not laugh” she said to the angels), Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s bursting into laughter at the sight of the foxes creeping out of the Devir/Holy of Holies inaugurated times of hope and redemption. We cannot say we have the same spirit at the present, but still, balloons and hagigot/festive encounters are a much astounding positive point of our society. But in this case, there is more: Tisha Be’Av is the destruction, ruining achievement to reduce God’s Presence to nil and annihilate Her, defile and abate the spiritual nuisance that, for the pagans, exists in the Jewish tradition.
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 overleaps death to introduce into new months and times (Taanit 4,3). On the 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 enhances the quality of a new rise towards God and the Mitzvot.
“Veahavta lereacha kamocha – 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, 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 secure, as women. Women do need to be financially and socially secure 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 is 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-reconstructed families “live together” in order to feel some warmth and support for each other, they are hardly prepared for any real “love” and awkwardly move ahead or stay on, stand by knowing nothing or ignoring the risks of STDs (sexually transmitted disease) 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 as only those on drugs can be, 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 and abortions. Thus, it can be reduced to a speechless relationship with no sincere and open dialogue. 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 confusing. Personalized desires of groups of individuals, egoistic and rather childlike behaviors tend to unbalance 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 most 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 Israel).
Love is a gift, a real gift sent by God. Love is like a miracle and it is a miracle that is renewed every day 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?” Her husband had abandoned her. She was surprised when I replied: “Don’t you think love is more important than anything else?” Or a rabbi, who did not know what to do as his wife became fascinated by the Gospel, out of the blue. 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). With regards to “love”, we might not be quite so 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 tender, like God: “HaShem, El rachum vechanun, Lord, Lord of mercy and loving-kindness”. And then we could also discover each other, without fear.
“Solitude” by Marc Chagall, the first painting he gave to an Israeli museum.
COMMENTS
2. Tu Be'Av is also a time to reconsecrate oneself to love G-d as our Husband. The 9th of Av occurred because we turned away from G-d, that is ceased loving G-d and hence stopped loving our neighbour as ourselves, it is only after we make a choice to choose G-d as our Husband can we enjoy full redemption, and love one another in purity. Even to love our enemies, as G-d loves them.
Richard , USA, Jul 31 2:07AM
1. What is MST?
Yehudit, USA, Jul 30 7:07PM
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