Meaningful visions and choices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nukes of wrath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

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

Nukes of wrath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

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

TU Bi'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\מי אוהב אותך יותר ממני = who loves you more than I love you" is the sort of syrupy, ever broadcast song sung by many local singers. We are so much in need of care, cuddling, hugging and know that our hearts can share with a soul mate, a sweetheart, beloved, girl/boyfriend, eventually a date, a boo, someone we can love more than anybody could love her or him...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

av Aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

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

Tisha Be'Av and open faith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

av aleksander [Winogradsky Frenkel]

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