Tuesday Jan 15, 2008
Judaism has inherited some rules governing daily life that are directly connected with the Temple. Thus, Judaism is known for its strict attitude toward purity and cleanness. Well, some streets could be cleaner, more decent. People could avoid spitting anywhere, anyhow. True, they would scream at you if you take a flower or a bud from a plant. At this point, it is even worst than removing the mother bird from her nest to take her offspring, which is both inhumane, not vegetarian nor vegan. This commandment of Deuteronomy 22:6-7 that protects the mother bird, her eggs and fledglings and only allows taking the young bird is unique. It shows that the Mitzvot are substantially ethical. Maimonides wrote about the "great pain of the animals" in such circumstances (Guide to the Perplexed, III, 48). The Noahide law prohibits the removing of limbs from a living animal. It is of the same caring vein. Plants and animals have been created before human beings. Thus, they must be respected, preserved as signs of the world's beauty. Plants are growing as a consequence of such a wonderful miracle in this country that every flower is wondrously marvelous.
There is seemingly a certain gap between this idealistic view, the legal rules that protect some species and our moral attitude in the present. This has been described, scanned, viewed, analyzed, revised and contemplated: Israel might have a series of ethical problems. Frankly, are we all broken up or the bones of the same bones?
"Chevrah chavritit = full solidarity"? How can we be non-judgmental and still responsible for our actions? How do we commit ourselves to any action done by any inhabitants because we all together face the challenge of good and evil? This is why the " tumah vetoharah = impurity and purity" laws are so important. By the time of the Temple, they allowed to protect the sanctity of the Place and of the people. The Torah, in Number chapter 19, determines the three major "impurities": leper, sexual life control and contact with the dead or corpses. Various Talmudic treatises deal with these matters (Taharot/Purities, Niddah / Menstruals, Nega'im / Leper, Ohalot / Corpses).
Leper is alas a very extant disease; Niddah is supposedly one of the Talmudic guidelines to enjoy a decent and respectful sexual life. In Israel, we are used to death of people, usually buried very quickly. In the West, there is rather a sort of fear of death which is hidden as a basic human experience. Tumah vetoharah show that impurity can be turned into purity, not by magical washing machine powders or "nikayon - cleaning products", but by a moral conduct. The Apostle James depicted it in a way that is very close to the permanent Jewish tradition: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained in the world." (James 1:27). To keep unstained (pure, separate) in the world is what allows us, as believers and/or God-seekers to accept the Commandments or Mitzvot.
The whole process of Judaism is to comply with certain rules that are sometimes not understandable: the mikveh or ritual bath is of that inquisitive nature. Well, it sounds evident that cleanness is better than dirt. Vessels are also to be washed and cleaned carefully as described in Talmud Kelim. The observance of the laws governing kosher items constitutes a vital question for a thoughtful and humble attitude toward our society and environment. KoSHeR is linked to "gashar" (to bridge) and is related to a correct and healthy use of food, tissues, textiles, products, utensils, tools, devices, gadgets. On the other hand, "tref" comes from "taraf" (unclear, non-kosher, Talmud Sanhedrin 43a). Many rules, as going to the mikveh/ritual bath are indeed "chokim" or "beyond any reasonable explanation" and "obvious" commandments at the same time. Yes, morals can be full of contradictions. The accomplishment of the Commandments brings more of divine wisdom to a world that often looks "treyf - split". The 613 Mitzvot also allow human nature to articulate rational and irrational positions.
Yochanan Ben Zakkai was present on the Temple Mount after the Holy of Holies had been destroyed. He was watching at the site where so many corpses were lying. He answered once to his panicked disciples: "By your lives! A corpse cannot make anybody unclean, nor can the waters make clean; in both cases, God alone can change something because He is the Great King" (Pessikta de Rav Kahana 40a/b). Purity is at the heart of Jewish and Christian morals. Not at the lowest available price! There is a price of excellence in achieving the one or many Commandments. At the first Synod of Jerusalem (45/52), Bishop James wrote a letter in the name of the early Church. Being a Jew, he released the sole Gentile part of the Church from the observance of the 613 Mitzvot, but imposed the major Noachide rules to the Gentiles. Interestingly, this verse points out a constant link: "(Jesus said) unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20). It shows how huge and difficult the challenge is, as the "Pharisees = perushim" are those who are unstained in the world and, as the Christians, believe in the resurrection of the dead. Purity also means to care those who in contact with a death situation, such as orphans and widows. There is more than "charity-gemilut chassadim". Eastern Orthodox Churches have also developed many rules to cope with similar issues as "impurity/purity" such as long periods of sexual abstinence during fasts, purity or protection of natural elements and food. These rules are lining with the kosher regulations in many aspects.
The "mikveh - pl. Mikvaot" is connected with the Temple service. The High Priest had to bathe before the Day of Atonement, but in fact much more often. "Ma'yan" = "fountain, source, sprinkling waters (Tractate Mikvaot 5,1, "a bubbling well" Nedarim 41b), also: bowel, womb, inside (Talmud Niddah 28b)" and is linked to "ayin" which is a "source" and the "eye". "Ma'ayanot chochmah = the well-springs of wisdom"(Tractate Tosefta Sota 15,3b). Mikveh implies the construction or utilization of living (flowing) waters. They may either fall from clouds in the shape of rains or snow, provided that it melts... Strange how, each year, we franticly expect snow in Jerusalem and nobody required them to get into a mikveh...
Struggle for purity is a fight against deterioration or wearing effect of time, not the fact of growing old. In the morning prayers, the Jews say: "My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You created it, You fashioned it. You breathed it into me... Blessed are You, Lord, Who restores souls to dead bodies - neshamot lef'garim metim". Thus, men and women are proposed to go through this cleansing bath that is more than a spa, a sauna or Turkish baths. A checking person may help the woman and eventually the man to be sure that every part of the body has been cleansed accordingly. The Jew rises from under the living water as a new-born. Let's say that insensitive and stonyhearted people can thus melt like frozen ice into a thoroughly nice drizzle of renewed minds and skins. Jewish tradition suggests bathing this way repeatedly. The Orthodox, Conservative and Chassidic movements require it every week. On the other hand, when an individual becomes a Jew, s/he should go once to the mikveh (i.e. "aggregating action to the community"), which has been refused by the Ethiopians who came to Israel as Jewish newcomers.
Interestingly, the Judeo-Christian baptistery in Nazareth is definitely similar to any mikveh. Seven stairs lead down to the pool through all the steps of temptations. Getting out of the water (baptizein), the person has been purified for the rest of his life and climbs up through the various degrees that bring to holiness. The Christian Orthodox baptism is still very close to the Jewish mikveh / purifying bath. Some Churches usually pour some water over the head of the person.
Jews and Christians among themselves often came into harsh conflicting discussion about "living waters". This is due to a problem of the respect for souls and spiritual identities. The real "Living water" bath maybe only understood with the courageous statement of R. Leo Baeck who was in a prisoner in Theresienstadt. He declared: "Who has revealed to the world the sense for the purity of conduct, for the purity of family? Who has given to the world, to the attention of mankind, the Image of God? The spirit of the Prophets in Israel and the revelation of God to the Jewish people."(cited by J.Telushkin, A Code of Jewish Ethics, p.25).
Even if somehow, we are prompted to get purified, we are overshadowed by a simple traditional statement outlined by Jesus of Nazareth: "You may be the children of your heavenly Father, for He makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). In this very special year, what can make us grow and multiply without being strangers to each others; and to be try to lessen the burden of distant arrogance between individuals and communities.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Shvat: Drizzling drops of hope
Thursday Jan 10, 2008
"Chodesh Shvat - Month of Shvat" is indeed a lovely season in Israel. Rains and after-rains (Arabic: shita = rain), drizzling drops, still chilly at night in Jerusalem and we feel that nature flourishes, buds, burgeons into plants, fruits, junior and senior teen skins. And, on Shvat 15 (January 22nd), the nation will plant trees all through the country. It is the Rosh HaShanah le'eylanot - New year of the trees. Planting trees is a must and an Israeli bang-on rendezvous. "Eleh" is not a cute baby tree-trunk; it is a sort of terebinth in Tractate Shiviit 7:5, i.e. a prominent plant, not a frail lanky branch. Eylanot would impress by some refreshing spring renewal. But trees also express something more: again, a new opportunity to celebrate a feast: as if each month was a "Rosh HaShanah - New Year's elation" along the year.
Waters, mayyim! A tree requires some water, maybe not that much because it copes with the environment. Purifying waters as the Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate the Baptism-Epiphany of Jesus at the Jordan River on January 18-19th. Jews should go to the mikveh (purification pool) and bathe. Indeed, "Al palgey mayim = in the middle of the waters" is peculiar in the psalm: it relates to the rising waters in the Temple: "(the big tree) was beautiful in its height, the length of its branches, because its stock stood by abundant waters" (sharshu al mayim rabbim; Ezekiel 31:7 and the abundant waters in chapter 47). A true disciple does not fear to drown in high waters. This is why mikveh (as Oriental Christian baptism) is full "diving" - the sort of scuba that does not require any air assistance. It is similar to some "shatul/shatil - transplant" as said in the first verses of the initial psalm. It plays on "shadal" (to persuade, entice) as "where there is no man, strive to be a real man" (Tractate Avot 2:5). This implies to be transplanted (shatul) in a life context that would normally cause our death: who can live in the middle of the water. Even a tree would be on the edge. The Jewish tradition - as thus the Christian teaching - have seen, in "mayim khayyim - a source of living, flowing waters", the flourishing source of spiritual forces and renewal in the shape of a permanent transplantation of our existence. Noah's account relates that to the real roots that irrigate every human being's life path.
The parshat hashavua or reading portion of the week is "Bo" in Shemot/Exodus 10:1-13:16):"Bo el-Pharaoh - go to Pharaoh". The haftarah reading: Jeremiah 46:13-26 (Ashkenazim) and Isaiah 17:1-25 (Sephardim). Pharaoh was still embattled at crossing snakes with Moses and Aaron. The locusts invaded the Land of Egypt; no way! Not stubborn, because Aaron also had his mood at times. Moshe is unique in terms of humility. Pharaoh is obstinate but the point is that all this historical and beyond history account is conducted from Above, by the Almighty. This is quite something! For delivery reasons, pigheaded Pharaoh, will provoke the Israelites to organize, against his will, their first festive and kosher lamb al (tzeli) ha'esh (full-roasted) meal (Ex. 12:8)!! We saw in a previous blog that the death of all Egyptian firstborns - and Pharaoh's son as well-, finally inflected the dogged potentate. We could cite numerous tyrants and despots who were lovable daddies and unshakeable dictators. Ceausescu, Pol Pot, Ivan Groznyi (the Terrible), Stalin - both regretted as paternal leaders... Think that our late Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek had the nerve to convince A. Eichmann to liberate 3000 Jews...True. But Eichmann was a dove and a pigeon compared to Pharaoh. Freedom faces more than any rational quest at that price.
The "seh - lamb" will mark the first seder or meal before anyone is freed; its blood will be sign of "protective offering/Passover - bechipazon Pesach"; and while eating entire lambs with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (matzot al marorim), God will pass and kill all the firstborns of Egypt, both man and beast. The Jews are then eating the flesh of the protective sacrifice, the bread of the needy with the herbs that still recalls them the bitterness of their slavery. Throughout Pesach/Passover, the Israelites are poor, nought but still God's instruments. "Haynu avadim -we are slaves" - "Ha lachma de'aniya - this is the bread of poverty" is our living teaching, the true memorizing method of how to learn the value of our days as bney chorin (free people). On the 14th of the month (of Nissan), God allows us to actualize through a year-to-year memorizing meal this covenant of freedom. We read this portion and we shall only celebrate, on the 14th of Shvat, the New Year of the Trees! As if Jews were going merry all through the months to celebrate New Year all the time! Even when we recall early harvest = Pesach or late harvest = Rosh HaShanah in Autumn, God acts with zero'a nituyiah (outstretched arm). He unchains us according to an agenda that firstly delivered our ancestors from Egypt. This calendar is articulated within history and major significant events that surpass nature to bring us into a more metaphysical realm (physis = nature is active in Greek).
"matzah - pl. matzot" = "unleavened bread (root: "dry, pressed bread; also "untanned hide" as in Talmud Kelim 17:15")" which was the bread of the poor. It is made only with water and flour, is thin and is eaten instead of leavened bread during the seven days of the Feast of Pesach. In our days, some matzot are made with fruit juice or onions, but they could not get to that for the first meal! It is also a sign of humility, obedience to God and compassion for the killed firstborns while the Jews were on their way to freedom. Interestingly, Hebrew "MaTZoT" can both be read as "matzot = bread" and "mitzvot = Commandments". During this first Passover night, the Jews are given specific Commandments which are included in the 613 Mitzvot. 1) To commemorate this unique historical night of freedom; 2) to eat whole lambs roasted on the fire without any remains (this should be recalled in every Israeli restaurant all through the year), 3) unleavened bread, 4) with bitter herbs during seven days. These are the first Commandments of the Exodus event. There is one more Commandment which is rarely mentioned in that context: 5) to don the tefillin - phylacteries (Ex./Shemot 13:9). Curiously, most Israeli born people don't like eating matzot...!
The exodus of the Land of Egypt is the top historical Jewish event. It is also an ethical act that brings moral attitudes and produce moral expectations among the Jewish people. The move from slavery to freedom is not just a sort of a leave for holidays in the desert. Say, it works; good enough. If not, then we shall come back and continue to eat the Egyptian sweet onions... No way! Nobody can cheat God's schedule. We will be free: this implies we are freely bound to Commandments that show how much we are enabled to be free.These Mitzvot/Commandments are not orders. They pave a humble, exiguous path to achieving God's will and correspond to the bread of the needy mixed with bitter herbs. Oh, we can bake sophisticated unleavened bread and produce bitter-sweet herbs! Again, the event is both historic and metaphysical. It induces accepting with joy the food of the living Commandments. Paul of Tarsus has the same attitude: "Let's celebrate the Feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). The Oriental Churches focus on leavened bread in opposition with Judaism and the Western Churches, but also positively as leaven makes the bread rise and then is considered as a "sign of resurrection" (challot, the two loaves of Pentecost and Shabbat).
Exodus/Shemot chapter 13 summarizes the commandment of the Feast of the Matzot. Firstborns of Israel will be consecrated to the Lord. Secondly, "Vehayah lecha le'ot al-yad'cha ulezikkaron beyn eyneicha - and this shall be a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes (forehead), in order that the Teaching of the Lord may be in your mouth". The first mitzvah/commandment is to wear the tefillin or phylacteries. Guess: most people know nothing about that. But this is a key commandment. These are two boxes (batim = houses) made of kosher untanned hide (unleaven). Each of them includes different texts recalling the miracles that God performed in order to release the Hebrews. Made of leather, they should be donned on the left arm (close to the heart) and on the forehead as the new service of bondage that links every bar mitzvah (13 years) to a life-long service of El Shaddai, God Who saves and protects. Thus, the straps bound along the arm show twice the shape of the Hebrew letter "Shin". On the one hand, to wear the hand box (yad) close to the heart because love and compassion come first; then, the head box (rosh) is like a diadem on the forehead because God alone is King. The tefillin do remind that Israel left human slavery to clutch to God's releasing Presence and action, tied up on our bodies for the best of life.
"Chodesh Shvat - Month of Shvat" is indeed a lovely season in Israel. Rains and after-rains (Arabic: shita = rain), drizzling drops, still chilly at night in Jerusalem and we feel that nature flourishes, buds, burgeons into plants, fruits, junior and senior teen skins. And, on Shvat 15 (January 22nd), the nation will plant trees all through the country. It is the Rosh HaShanah le'eylanot - New year of the trees. Planting trees is a must and an Israeli bang-on rendezvous. "Eleh" is not a cute baby tree-trunk; it is a sort of terebinth in Tractate Shiviit 7:5, i.e. a prominent plant, not a frail lanky branch. Eylanot would impress by some refreshing spring renewal. But trees also express something more: again, a new opportunity to celebrate a feast: as if each month was a "Rosh HaShanah - New Year's elation" along the year.
Waters, mayyim! A tree requires some water, maybe not that much because it copes with the environment. Purifying waters as the Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate the Baptism-Epiphany of Jesus at the Jordan River on January 18-19th. Jews should go to the mikveh (purification pool) and bathe. Indeed, "Al palgey mayim = in the middle of the waters" is peculiar in the psalm: it relates to the rising waters in the Temple: "(the big tree) was beautiful in its height, the length of its branches, because its stock stood by abundant waters" (sharshu al mayim rabbim; Ezekiel 31:7 and the abundant waters in chapter 47). A true disciple does not fear to drown in high waters. This is why mikveh (as Oriental Christian baptism) is full "diving" - the sort of scuba that does not require any air assistance. It is similar to some "shatul/shatil - transplant" as said in the first verses of the initial psalm. It plays on "shadal" (to persuade, entice) as "where there is no man, strive to be a real man" (Tractate Avot 2:5). This implies to be transplanted (shatul) in a life context that would normally cause our death: who can live in the middle of the water. Even a tree would be on the edge. The Jewish tradition - as thus the Christian teaching - have seen, in "mayim khayyim - a source of living, flowing waters", the flourishing source of spiritual forces and renewal in the shape of a permanent transplantation of our existence. Noah's account relates that to the real roots that irrigate every human being's life path.
The parshat hashavua or reading portion of the week is "Bo" in Shemot/Exodus 10:1-13:16):"Bo el-Pharaoh - go to Pharaoh". The haftarah reading: Jeremiah 46:13-26 (Ashkenazim) and Isaiah 17:1-25 (Sephardim). Pharaoh was still embattled at crossing snakes with Moses and Aaron. The locusts invaded the Land of Egypt; no way! Not stubborn, because Aaron also had his mood at times. Moshe is unique in terms of humility. Pharaoh is obstinate but the point is that all this historical and beyond history account is conducted from Above, by the Almighty. This is quite something! For delivery reasons, pigheaded Pharaoh, will provoke the Israelites to organize, against his will, their first festive and kosher lamb al (tzeli) ha'esh (full-roasted) meal (Ex. 12:8)!! We saw in a previous blog that the death of all Egyptian firstborns - and Pharaoh's son as well-, finally inflected the dogged potentate. We could cite numerous tyrants and despots who were lovable daddies and unshakeable dictators. Ceausescu, Pol Pot, Ivan Groznyi (the Terrible), Stalin - both regretted as paternal leaders... Think that our late Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek had the nerve to convince A. Eichmann to liberate 3000 Jews...True. But Eichmann was a dove and a pigeon compared to Pharaoh. Freedom faces more than any rational quest at that price.
The "seh - lamb" will mark the first seder or meal before anyone is freed; its blood will be sign of "protective offering/Passover - bechipazon Pesach"; and while eating entire lambs with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (matzot al marorim), God will pass and kill all the firstborns of Egypt, both man and beast. The Jews are then eating the flesh of the protective sacrifice, the bread of the needy with the herbs that still recalls them the bitterness of their slavery. Throughout Pesach/Passover, the Israelites are poor, nought but still God's instruments. "Haynu avadim -we are slaves" - "Ha lachma de'aniya - this is the bread of poverty" is our living teaching, the true memorizing method of how to learn the value of our days as bney chorin (free people). On the 14th of the month (of Nissan), God allows us to actualize through a year-to-year memorizing meal this covenant of freedom. We read this portion and we shall only celebrate, on the 14th of Shvat, the New Year of the Trees! As if Jews were going merry all through the months to celebrate New Year all the time! Even when we recall early harvest = Pesach or late harvest = Rosh HaShanah in Autumn, God acts with zero'a nituyiah (outstretched arm). He unchains us according to an agenda that firstly delivered our ancestors from Egypt. This calendar is articulated within history and major significant events that surpass nature to bring us into a more metaphysical realm (physis = nature is active in Greek).
"matzah - pl. matzot" = "unleavened bread (root: "dry, pressed bread; also "untanned hide" as in Talmud Kelim 17:15")" which was the bread of the poor. It is made only with water and flour, is thin and is eaten instead of leavened bread during the seven days of the Feast of Pesach. In our days, some matzot are made with fruit juice or onions, but they could not get to that for the first meal! It is also a sign of humility, obedience to God and compassion for the killed firstborns while the Jews were on their way to freedom. Interestingly, Hebrew "MaTZoT" can both be read as "matzot = bread" and "mitzvot = Commandments". During this first Passover night, the Jews are given specific Commandments which are included in the 613 Mitzvot. 1) To commemorate this unique historical night of freedom; 2) to eat whole lambs roasted on the fire without any remains (this should be recalled in every Israeli restaurant all through the year), 3) unleavened bread, 4) with bitter herbs during seven days. These are the first Commandments of the Exodus event. There is one more Commandment which is rarely mentioned in that context: 5) to don the tefillin - phylacteries (Ex./Shemot 13:9). Curiously, most Israeli born people don't like eating matzot...!
The exodus of the Land of Egypt is the top historical Jewish event. It is also an ethical act that brings moral attitudes and produce moral expectations among the Jewish people. The move from slavery to freedom is not just a sort of a leave for holidays in the desert. Say, it works; good enough. If not, then we shall come back and continue to eat the Egyptian sweet onions... No way! Nobody can cheat God's schedule. We will be free: this implies we are freely bound to Commandments that show how much we are enabled to be free.These Mitzvot/Commandments are not orders. They pave a humble, exiguous path to achieving God's will and correspond to the bread of the needy mixed with bitter herbs. Oh, we can bake sophisticated unleavened bread and produce bitter-sweet herbs! Again, the event is both historic and metaphysical. It induces accepting with joy the food of the living Commandments. Paul of Tarsus has the same attitude: "Let's celebrate the Feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). The Oriental Churches focus on leavened bread in opposition with Judaism and the Western Churches, but also positively as leaven makes the bread rise and then is considered as a "sign of resurrection" (challot, the two loaves of Pentecost and Shabbat).
Exodus/Shemot chapter 13 summarizes the commandment of the Feast of the Matzot. Firstborns of Israel will be consecrated to the Lord. Secondly, "Vehayah lecha le'ot al-yad'cha ulezikkaron beyn eyneicha - and this shall be a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes (forehead), in order that the Teaching of the Lord may be in your mouth". The first mitzvah/commandment is to wear the tefillin or phylacteries. Guess: most people know nothing about that. But this is a key commandment. These are two boxes (batim = houses) made of kosher untanned hide (unleaven). Each of them includes different texts recalling the miracles that God performed in order to release the Hebrews. Made of leather, they should be donned on the left arm (close to the heart) and on the forehead as the new service of bondage that links every bar mitzvah (13 years) to a life-long service of El Shaddai, God Who saves and protects. Thus, the straps bound along the arm show twice the shape of the Hebrew letter "Shin". On the one hand, to wear the hand box (yad) close to the heart because love and compassion come first; then, the head box (rosh) is like a diadem on the forehead because God alone is King. The tefillin do remind that Israel left human slavery to clutch to God's releasing Presence and action, tied up on our bodies for the best of life.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Lashon/lush'n: tongues of fire
On this January 7th, 2008, the Eastern Orthodox Church and all Oriental Churches mainly located on an axis that starts in Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia) to slide down through Ancient Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan, till Egypt and Ethiopia celebrate the Nativity or birth of Jesus of Nazareth. I refer to the region because I live in Jerusalem and in the State of Israel. Other Christians follow this old style or Julian calendar that shows a difference of 13 days. On January 7th, the date corresponded to December 25th, for instance, in the pre-Revolutionary Russian Empire. Until now, the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Russian Church and some other Churches only admit this calendar. The Western Churches celebrate the Theophany, i.e. the revelation of Jesus at the Jordan River.
In a recent post, I wrote in advance about the 150th anniversary of the birth of Eliezer ben Yehuda, Eliezer Perlman in Luzhky on the 21st of Tevet 5618 according to the Jewish calendar. The man was a huge prophet, with an innate sense of the meaning of the Jewish family and school teaching. It makes him a dominant personality with regards to all the problems encountered at the present by Israeli society. He was born, as most of the Jewish Israel-envisioning State, in the Russian Empire and, though it was quite difficult, he could get to the Russian gymnasium-high school. From the very beginning, the Jewish State revival in Eretz Israel is rooted in the Russian and Slavic weltanschauung (miropriyatie).
Who could have anticipated this unbelievable rush of Russian Christian Orthodox tourist/pilgrims these days, freely crowding over the Holy land without visas since a few days (Russians only), to Bethlehem curiously touring alongside with Israelis of Eastern origin, driven to all the holy places of Judaism and Christianity. This is a new and open move. So, on this Monday 7th of January 2008 / December 25, 2007 (New Year is on 01/13-14), we will celebrate the civilian birthday of E. Ben Yehuda. In 1858, in Jerusalem, people spoke Hebrew. They were writing a lot in this tongue by that time, in a way that would seem either "awkward or too sophisticated". Intriguingly, in Jerusalem, the Russian ecclesiastical mission of the then-Moscow Synod (the Patriarchate of Moscow was re-established by the time of the Bolshevik Revolution) was headed by Fr. Levinson whose translation of the Divine Liturgy into Hebrew is wonderful example of a really respectful rabbinic word choice and spiritual coherence. The language is nice. It does not really cope with a "colloquial speech". This is hardly the case for religious texts.
By the time Eliezer Ben Yehuda was born, Hebrew was a semi-reviving/living tongue in Jerusalem. Some authors have underlined that Hebrew should not even be considered as a Semitic language, but rather a reviewed "Judeo-Sorbian" dialect, i.e. a Slavic language in search of a Semitic past (P. Wexler, The Schizoid Nature of Modern Hebrew). It is correct that most of the first Hebrew speakers were of Yiddish and Russian mother tongues with some Ukrainian, Polish, Belorussian words and phrases. It gave a certain taste and greatly influenced the development of Modern Hebrew. A recent Hebrew "Slang" dictionary shows the significant impact of Russian or Slavic expressions that came into Hebrew through Yiddish. This mental imprinting is more important because of exodus of the Jews from the Slavic cultural area to Israel since 1880. In December 1890, Eliezer Ben Yehuda created the Hebrew Language Council that later became the Hebrew Academy. By the time of a "Biblical generation" (1881-1921), he could benefit from the Aliyah from Russia of well-educated, motivated young people for whom it was normal to challenge history and switch to Hebrew in their homes (J. Fellman). Indeed, on November 29, 1922, the British Mandate Authorities recognized Hebrew as the national language of the Jews in Palestine. E. Ben Yehuda died one month later. But the adventure was and remains prophetic.
He had decided, together with many other Jews in the country that parents could speak with mistakes to their children. In return, the kids would teach correct Hebrew to their parents. "Veshinantam levaneycha...", you will teach them (Mitzvot) to your children "vedibbarta bam - and say them again and again into them" (Devarim 6:4) became a substantial and real reviving method for any Jew to make the tongue a living medium. This seems to be the main aspect. It is more than important in the present. True, this remarkable and exciting undertaking was also a mental, psychological and spiritual challenge. Why? Hebrew had to get out of the scope of the synagogue dialog with God and penetrate the shul, shtib, cheder, i.e. be re-introduced into the natural and outspoken world of education of the Jewish souls.
Thus, Hebrew did take over traditional Yiddish or vernacular Talmudic and not only Biblical training systems. When I arrived in Israel, some groups would only speak Yiddish. Today their children prefer to speak Hebrew. It reconnects in a lively way the Yiddishkayt with the very humane character of God's Words. Any simple Jewish Israeli child - and the foreigner living in their midst - speaks the TaNaKh and the Talmud, deepening the gap and misunderstandings with the other monotheistic traditions. Hebrew is biblical in Rome, Greek in Moscow and Athens, English in New York. There is a profound estrangement if not more to any in-depth full acceptance and use of the Talmudic roots of the Gospel. We still have to rediscover the works of Daniel Chwolson who taught Hebrew and Judaism at the Catholic and Orthodox Academies of Saint-Petersburg in the 19th c.
The revival of the tongue relied upon teaching methods, backed by the Alliance Israelite Universelle since 1882. Each teacher was "an academic"... without tools, but absolutely dedicated to the task of upgrading spoken Hebrew. This inspiriting strength is totally defective at the moment and definitely affects the Israeli educational priority duties. Teaching through creativity constitutes the fundamentals of the Mishna and the Gemara. Thus, education, studies are essential in a Jewish group. The Russian First Aliyah newcomers were highly educated as are today the newcomers arriving from the former Soviet Union. But they are not given the same spirit and possibilities at the present as those who arrived in times of dearth. There are still typical Hebrew fan ulpan teachers whose vocabulary, sentences, intonation and search for new words is marvelous. The same exists as concerns the development of Icelandic and its nyyrd - new words.
The third step that brought back Hebrew to revival was to oblige the home family to only speak that language. This is the normal consequence of a functioning synagogue and shul - educational system. Before leaving his home to go to school, the mothers used to bake cakes of honey having the form of the Hebrew alphabet. Ben Yehuda adopted the reversed process in order to anticipate the revival of the tongue: "Son of man, eat from the scroll... that was sweet as honey (devash lematoq) in my mouth" (Ezekiel 3:1). What had found its place in the synagogue, i.e. the community as society living with the specificities of the Word had to reach out each home, family, individual. This also presupposes a very strong sense of responsibility, "fatherhood" and decision to achieve a project.
But "devash lematoq - sweet as honey or honey to sweeten" refers to the faith of Israel and this should be taken into account, whatever doubtful, non-believers definitely speak Hebrew. It shows something of an immeasurable rich and resounding Presence and communion covering all ages and places.
Ben Yehuda's 150th anniversary is somehow comparable to the shmittah year of remittance that raises so numerous problems...Le'an? Where are we going to with Hebrew? Computer keyboards can't even manage the letters adequately.
This is a unique spiritual and human experience. Hebrew - even not known or not pronounced - has unconsciously been the native (innate) tongue of every Jew and shows in many ways in the realm of psychology, human attitudes, reflections, beliefs, trading and creativity. It has to be handled with care and not be used as a means for excluding the others. Hebrew is not framing. It needs "border ropes" (cf. Talmud) to breathing and go on the trip. Just as the Christian monasteries have enclosing walls. The revival of Hebrew resembles the statement made by Paul of Tarsus with regard to "resurrection" (To the Romans 11:25).
This is why Hebrew continuously interrogates the Churches. It is worthless to fake using a language or to try to make it and instrument of conversion. In the Churches, Jews have often been denied their "Father tongue" for some obscure reasons that there should be no difference between Jews and non-Jews in Jesus. It only means that all are equal. The child who was born these days in Bethlehem, the city of David, never used Hebrew (largely traced back in the Gospel) for national purpose. New insights into the Talmud and its importance have been "unwillingly" proposed by E. Ben Yehuda. He could not avoid doing that. Hebrew has to be a part of the Church without too much will of capture or replacement from the non-Jewish side. It constitutes a part of the incarnation of the Word and a mark of belief in the resurrection.
It would be interesting one day to examine the positive Christianity-linked influences of Jewishness that allowed Eliezer Ben Yehuda to abruptly break with any tongue safe Hebrew. We need such inspired individuals and people.
In a recent post, I wrote in advance about the 150th anniversary of the birth of Eliezer ben Yehuda, Eliezer Perlman in Luzhky on the 21st of Tevet 5618 according to the Jewish calendar. The man was a huge prophet, with an innate sense of the meaning of the Jewish family and school teaching. It makes him a dominant personality with regards to all the problems encountered at the present by Israeli society. He was born, as most of the Jewish Israel-envisioning State, in the Russian Empire and, though it was quite difficult, he could get to the Russian gymnasium-high school. From the very beginning, the Jewish State revival in Eretz Israel is rooted in the Russian and Slavic weltanschauung (miropriyatie).
Who could have anticipated this unbelievable rush of Russian Christian Orthodox tourist/pilgrims these days, freely crowding over the Holy land without visas since a few days (Russians only), to Bethlehem curiously touring alongside with Israelis of Eastern origin, driven to all the holy places of Judaism and Christianity. This is a new and open move. So, on this Monday 7th of January 2008 / December 25, 2007 (New Year is on 01/13-14), we will celebrate the civilian birthday of E. Ben Yehuda. In 1858, in Jerusalem, people spoke Hebrew. They were writing a lot in this tongue by that time, in a way that would seem either "awkward or too sophisticated". Intriguingly, in Jerusalem, the Russian ecclesiastical mission of the then-Moscow Synod (the Patriarchate of Moscow was re-established by the time of the Bolshevik Revolution) was headed by Fr. Levinson whose translation of the Divine Liturgy into Hebrew is wonderful example of a really respectful rabbinic word choice and spiritual coherence. The language is nice. It does not really cope with a "colloquial speech". This is hardly the case for religious texts.
By the time Eliezer Ben Yehuda was born, Hebrew was a semi-reviving/living tongue in Jerusalem. Some authors have underlined that Hebrew should not even be considered as a Semitic language, but rather a reviewed "Judeo-Sorbian" dialect, i.e. a Slavic language in search of a Semitic past (P. Wexler, The Schizoid Nature of Modern Hebrew). It is correct that most of the first Hebrew speakers were of Yiddish and Russian mother tongues with some Ukrainian, Polish, Belorussian words and phrases. It gave a certain taste and greatly influenced the development of Modern Hebrew. A recent Hebrew "Slang" dictionary shows the significant impact of Russian or Slavic expressions that came into Hebrew through Yiddish. This mental imprinting is more important because of exodus of the Jews from the Slavic cultural area to Israel since 1880. In December 1890, Eliezer Ben Yehuda created the Hebrew Language Council that later became the Hebrew Academy. By the time of a "Biblical generation" (1881-1921), he could benefit from the Aliyah from Russia of well-educated, motivated young people for whom it was normal to challenge history and switch to Hebrew in their homes (J. Fellman). Indeed, on November 29, 1922, the British Mandate Authorities recognized Hebrew as the national language of the Jews in Palestine. E. Ben Yehuda died one month later. But the adventure was and remains prophetic.
He had decided, together with many other Jews in the country that parents could speak with mistakes to their children. In return, the kids would teach correct Hebrew to their parents. "Veshinantam levaneycha...", you will teach them (Mitzvot) to your children "vedibbarta bam - and say them again and again into them" (Devarim 6:4) became a substantial and real reviving method for any Jew to make the tongue a living medium. This seems to be the main aspect. It is more than important in the present. True, this remarkable and exciting undertaking was also a mental, psychological and spiritual challenge. Why? Hebrew had to get out of the scope of the synagogue dialog with God and penetrate the shul, shtib, cheder, i.e. be re-introduced into the natural and outspoken world of education of the Jewish souls.
Thus, Hebrew did take over traditional Yiddish or vernacular Talmudic and not only Biblical training systems. When I arrived in Israel, some groups would only speak Yiddish. Today their children prefer to speak Hebrew. It reconnects in a lively way the Yiddishkayt with the very humane character of God's Words. Any simple Jewish Israeli child - and the foreigner living in their midst - speaks the TaNaKh and the Talmud, deepening the gap and misunderstandings with the other monotheistic traditions. Hebrew is biblical in Rome, Greek in Moscow and Athens, English in New York. There is a profound estrangement if not more to any in-depth full acceptance and use of the Talmudic roots of the Gospel. We still have to rediscover the works of Daniel Chwolson who taught Hebrew and Judaism at the Catholic and Orthodox Academies of Saint-Petersburg in the 19th c.
The revival of the tongue relied upon teaching methods, backed by the Alliance Israelite Universelle since 1882. Each teacher was "an academic"... without tools, but absolutely dedicated to the task of upgrading spoken Hebrew. This inspiriting strength is totally defective at the moment and definitely affects the Israeli educational priority duties. Teaching through creativity constitutes the fundamentals of the Mishna and the Gemara. Thus, education, studies are essential in a Jewish group. The Russian First Aliyah newcomers were highly educated as are today the newcomers arriving from the former Soviet Union. But they are not given the same spirit and possibilities at the present as those who arrived in times of dearth. There are still typical Hebrew fan ulpan teachers whose vocabulary, sentences, intonation and search for new words is marvelous. The same exists as concerns the development of Icelandic and its nyyrd - new words.
The third step that brought back Hebrew to revival was to oblige the home family to only speak that language. This is the normal consequence of a functioning synagogue and shul - educational system. Before leaving his home to go to school, the mothers used to bake cakes of honey having the form of the Hebrew alphabet. Ben Yehuda adopted the reversed process in order to anticipate the revival of the tongue: "Son of man, eat from the scroll... that was sweet as honey (devash lematoq) in my mouth" (Ezekiel 3:1). What had found its place in the synagogue, i.e. the community as society living with the specificities of the Word had to reach out each home, family, individual. This also presupposes a very strong sense of responsibility, "fatherhood" and decision to achieve a project.
But "devash lematoq - sweet as honey or honey to sweeten" refers to the faith of Israel and this should be taken into account, whatever doubtful, non-believers definitely speak Hebrew. It shows something of an immeasurable rich and resounding Presence and communion covering all ages and places.
Ben Yehuda's 150th anniversary is somehow comparable to the shmittah year of remittance that raises so numerous problems...Le'an? Where are we going to with Hebrew? Computer keyboards can't even manage the letters adequately.
This is a unique spiritual and human experience. Hebrew - even not known or not pronounced - has unconsciously been the native (innate) tongue of every Jew and shows in many ways in the realm of psychology, human attitudes, reflections, beliefs, trading and creativity. It has to be handled with care and not be used as a means for excluding the others. Hebrew is not framing. It needs "border ropes" (cf. Talmud) to breathing and go on the trip. Just as the Christian monasteries have enclosing walls. The revival of Hebrew resembles the statement made by Paul of Tarsus with regard to "resurrection" (To the Romans 11:25).
This is why Hebrew continuously interrogates the Churches. It is worthless to fake using a language or to try to make it and instrument of conversion. In the Churches, Jews have often been denied their "Father tongue" for some obscure reasons that there should be no difference between Jews and non-Jews in Jesus. It only means that all are equal. The child who was born these days in Bethlehem, the city of David, never used Hebrew (largely traced back in the Gospel) for national purpose. New insights into the Talmud and its importance have been "unwillingly" proposed by E. Ben Yehuda. He could not avoid doing that. Hebrew has to be a part of the Church without too much will of capture or replacement from the non-Jewish side. It constitutes a part of the incarnation of the Word and a mark of belief in the resurrection.
It would be interesting one day to examine the positive Christianity-linked influences of Jewishness that allowed Eliezer Ben Yehuda to abruptly break with any tongue safe Hebrew. We need such inspired individuals and people.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Hamatteh: A staff for power or miracles
This weekly Torah reading portion is called "Va'era'" (God "appeared" to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) in the Book of Shemot/Exodus 6:2-9:35. Quite a big show and a one time sorcerer program! There are intermingled affairs and situations: the portion starts as God says to Moses that He is the God Who appeared, revealed, declared His project to a specific three generation tribe whose bones rest in peace at Machpelah cave in the Land of Canaan. According to Talmud Arakhin 15a/b and Mishnah Avot 5:4, this fabulous human history developed over three times ten generations, till the final splitting of the Waters at the Red Sea. Then, ten plagues echoed these decades as a phenomenal miracle against the Egyptians.
Thus, it should be noted that if plagues are the syndrome, God is the main decider. The context shows how the enslaved Jews were moaning to be delivered from their bondage. The whole portion is a sort of teaching that will finally peak with the first sacrifice of the lamb and "Seder Pesach - Passover Service".
Again, names are important in this event of apparent virtuoso wizard championship. God says to Moses: "Ani HaShem = I am the living Lord" but I revealed Myself to your forefathers as El Shaddai" (Ex. 6:2). It is more a Bereishit/Genesis Name which incidentally is mainly present in the TaNaKh or the Aramaic translations (Targum Onkelos) to identify God when mankind is confronting wickedness. Job and his friends only refer to Shaddai. Is He the God Who protects from the "devils/evils - shed/im" (Talmud Yoma 75a: "as the demon changes into many color appearances, so did the manna into various tastes")? The reference to Manna is important because it implies a connection with salvation by providing food as after the exodus from Egypt. Or, for instance, "Shad = female breast" that is essential for the child as the Manna" (Tosefta Sota 4,3). "she-ddai lo" would suggest that "Stop, enough for God!"; or it suffices. Hebrew "Dai (she-dai) = stop, over, finished" indeed means "it suffices, it is enough". Penetrating the process of delivery from bondage, we discover that some things suffice or be considered by God as enough. The Haggadah of Pesach - the Account of the Delivery during the Passover night - has a song linked to each plague and the response is "Dayenu - it would have been sufficient for us" if only one plague had convinced Pharaoh and his assistants.
Yes, God's Name "El Shaddai" predetermines that God has a long-term project that goes far beyond the short-sighted views of all the actors. Moses can hardly speak and his brother Aaron exercises a prophetic role parallel to the Egyptian sorcerers' job; this maybe considered as anticipating Aaron's need for the spiritual insights, divinely inspired to Moses in order to avoid falling into idolatry (Golden Calf). It can be compared to Job's test directly decided by an agreement passed between God (Elohim - El Shaddai) and Satan - the Adversary (the obstructive one). Job is not locked up in slavery. A wealthy, prosperous and contented man, he suddenly becomes the subject of a deal between God and Satan. Indeed, a Gentlemen's transaction concerning his soul and human balance, taken without any preliminary contractual discussion with the people concerned. No way! Job would never dare organize a marching-in demonstration in a pre-Jerusalem suburb. He did not know that the top of Super-deities had a pact, with a provision required by God, "Satan should not touch the integrity of Job's soul = make him mad"("raq alav al-tishlach yadcha - don't lay your hand upon him" - Job 1:12) Nor would the enslaved moaning Jews give a hand to Moses and his brother Aaron. Slavery is naturally human and power divine, at least secularly gorgeous. It seemingly provides human beings with a blessing not to think, nor to babble as children do in the presence of superpowers. This churlish simpleton behavior is even more pregnant in the sphere of spirituality: when heads lose faith and swirl in some foggy nonsense that fakes devotion. Other faithful will continue to pay respect to such puppets. Indeed, spiritual conflicts are comparable to match or lighter sparks that chuck out, just out! and oust people into more bondage. Internationally en vogue networking systems propose games that consist in buying and selling our friends as "human pets"... and make a fortune out of addicting virtual enslaving.
Again, this portion obliges us to remember what Talmud Pessahim 10,4 insistently raps on our conscience: "Arami oved avi - my father was a fugitive Aramean... the Lord freed us from the Land of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, awesome power, by signs and portents (uv'otot uvmoftim - Deut. 26:5-9)". These verses are read each year by the Jews at Rosh HaShanah; each day we are summoned to understand we are on a way. Parshat Va'era' is the only one that so strongly insists on the miracles and signs shown by God to humankind. Scientists might be doubtful. The account sounds mythological and hardly matches with any reviewed historic calendar? And these two pitiful chaps - Moses and Aaron - whose yikhes (pedigree) lineage tries to explain they are normal brothers (Ex. 6:14). Geography does not justify some plagues though the desert quails do fall at a certain time, in a certain area each year...but what Red Sea: a narrow channel?
On the other hand, plagues are "makkot" in Hebrew. The battlefield shows how feeble humans, but true faithful in the living God, can face wizards who may fool them down till the pagan Pharaoh and his staff are reduced to less than any lest - lesser than nil, nothing, which is the meaning of "makkah" ("makke" in Yiddish, when nil can quietly drive to grinning). "Makkot" only affect idolaters that mock and challenge God. Strange how whatever news, situations, conflicts concerned, everyone is "strong" at the moment. Some people, somehow, somewhere might admit they have problems. Still, everybody is strong. When we read this portion of the week, we are on the verge to feel we are done with a series of factors: darkness and light, blood, locusts, hail. Wonders and plagues surpass any social strength. Thus, it is a question: why do faithful target power and strength? "The Lord has prepared the healing of the wound ("refuah lemakkah"; Tractate Megillah 13b).
Thus, the last "makkah - plague" is the death of all the firstborns in the Land of Egypt, including Pharaoh's son. This prolongs the first portion of Shemot read last week and the murder of all Jewish boys in Egypt: Moshe is saved by miracle. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Herod proceeded to the killing of all the children. In this apparently mythological recount, there is one thing we have experienced as human beings: recurrent slaughtering of the firstborns and babies in order to cancel life. It should be noted that in the murder of Jewish boys (Moshe and Jesus), the memory tracks back as to a specific personality, "a fugitive Aramean" who destroyed the idols and cut off from his pagan parentage... not until his great-grandson Benyamin, the first child to be born in the Land of Canaan.
We assist, at the present, to the alarming and abominable consequence of systematic mass murders of babies. Some other trendy or rather experimental groups would prefer male and/or female "sterilization" that affected some wealthy or Third World nations. Either hedonistically and self-centered as in Germany and Scandinavia, or unable to feed and educate in restricted room (Japan). Curiously, a Jewish midrash states that by the time of Exodus, Jewish women began to beget children "like hens" at an overrated unheard-of level (Exodus Rabba 6,3; though the daily birthing was maybe overestimated).
The death of Pharaoh's son and of all Egyptian firstborns suddenly twitched the ruler, gave him an uncontrollable jerk and real fear of the Living One God. This is also a question: are rulers so perverse and mulish that only death may convince them that life is a treasure of incredible value? We are, at the present, after the time of Passover liberation. Our main contemporary concern seems to be a sort of idolization of any clerics. Moshe did not enter the Land of Canaan because he was responsible for his people that dared deifying the Golden Calf. Quiz of the week parsha: who are they our modernistic Aaron and interfaith metal idol cooks?
One thing is awe-inspiring: when the children of Israel will sing the song of liberation, they will sing it in a low voice, which we continue to do. Jews were freed from bondage at the cost of a nation-wide death of firstborns. This should always prevent us from despising any foreigner, especially at the present as we live in Eretz Israel.
On January 18-19, the Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the other Oriental Churches of the Holy Land and in particular the Armenian Church celebrate at the Jordan River (Israeli and Jordanian sides) the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The splitting and passing of the Red Sea are considered as a sign of this cleansing and delivery process. The Jews only became free when they definitely left Egypt. Jesus was not baptized by any Church or denomination at the Jordan River. He came to undergo some sort of "mikveh - bath of persons or instruments" proposed by John in the desert. "Our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" says Paul of Tarsus (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). The Christian Orthodox tradition proposes another reflection: when Jesus went down the waters and rose immediately, he sanctified the entire creation (Mark 1:10).
Again, is this week portion the account of the gigantic crash between mythical deities? Or, on the contrary, it would show how El Shaddai calls the living to bring forth holiness and freedom.
Thus, it should be noted that if plagues are the syndrome, God is the main decider. The context shows how the enslaved Jews were moaning to be delivered from their bondage. The whole portion is a sort of teaching that will finally peak with the first sacrifice of the lamb and "Seder Pesach - Passover Service".
Again, names are important in this event of apparent virtuoso wizard championship. God says to Moses: "Ani HaShem = I am the living Lord" but I revealed Myself to your forefathers as El Shaddai" (Ex. 6:2). It is more a Bereishit/Genesis Name which incidentally is mainly present in the TaNaKh or the Aramaic translations (Targum Onkelos) to identify God when mankind is confronting wickedness. Job and his friends only refer to Shaddai. Is He the God Who protects from the "devils/evils - shed/im" (Talmud Yoma 75a: "as the demon changes into many color appearances, so did the manna into various tastes")? The reference to Manna is important because it implies a connection with salvation by providing food as after the exodus from Egypt. Or, for instance, "Shad = female breast" that is essential for the child as the Manna" (Tosefta Sota 4,3). "she-ddai lo" would suggest that "Stop, enough for God!"; or it suffices. Hebrew "Dai (she-dai) = stop, over, finished" indeed means "it suffices, it is enough". Penetrating the process of delivery from bondage, we discover that some things suffice or be considered by God as enough. The Haggadah of Pesach - the Account of the Delivery during the Passover night - has a song linked to each plague and the response is "Dayenu - it would have been sufficient for us" if only one plague had convinced Pharaoh and his assistants.
Yes, God's Name "El Shaddai" predetermines that God has a long-term project that goes far beyond the short-sighted views of all the actors. Moses can hardly speak and his brother Aaron exercises a prophetic role parallel to the Egyptian sorcerers' job; this maybe considered as anticipating Aaron's need for the spiritual insights, divinely inspired to Moses in order to avoid falling into idolatry (Golden Calf). It can be compared to Job's test directly decided by an agreement passed between God (Elohim - El Shaddai) and Satan - the Adversary (the obstructive one). Job is not locked up in slavery. A wealthy, prosperous and contented man, he suddenly becomes the subject of a deal between God and Satan. Indeed, a Gentlemen's transaction concerning his soul and human balance, taken without any preliminary contractual discussion with the people concerned. No way! Job would never dare organize a marching-in demonstration in a pre-Jerusalem suburb. He did not know that the top of Super-deities had a pact, with a provision required by God, "Satan should not touch the integrity of Job's soul = make him mad"("raq alav al-tishlach yadcha - don't lay your hand upon him" - Job 1:12) Nor would the enslaved moaning Jews give a hand to Moses and his brother Aaron. Slavery is naturally human and power divine, at least secularly gorgeous. It seemingly provides human beings with a blessing not to think, nor to babble as children do in the presence of superpowers. This churlish simpleton behavior is even more pregnant in the sphere of spirituality: when heads lose faith and swirl in some foggy nonsense that fakes devotion. Other faithful will continue to pay respect to such puppets. Indeed, spiritual conflicts are comparable to match or lighter sparks that chuck out, just out! and oust people into more bondage. Internationally en vogue networking systems propose games that consist in buying and selling our friends as "human pets"... and make a fortune out of addicting virtual enslaving.
Again, this portion obliges us to remember what Talmud Pessahim 10,4 insistently raps on our conscience: "Arami oved avi - my father was a fugitive Aramean... the Lord freed us from the Land of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, awesome power, by signs and portents (uv'otot uvmoftim - Deut. 26:5-9)". These verses are read each year by the Jews at Rosh HaShanah; each day we are summoned to understand we are on a way. Parshat Va'era' is the only one that so strongly insists on the miracles and signs shown by God to humankind. Scientists might be doubtful. The account sounds mythological and hardly matches with any reviewed historic calendar? And these two pitiful chaps - Moses and Aaron - whose yikhes (pedigree) lineage tries to explain they are normal brothers (Ex. 6:14). Geography does not justify some plagues though the desert quails do fall at a certain time, in a certain area each year...but what Red Sea: a narrow channel?
On the other hand, plagues are "makkot" in Hebrew. The battlefield shows how feeble humans, but true faithful in the living God, can face wizards who may fool them down till the pagan Pharaoh and his staff are reduced to less than any lest - lesser than nil, nothing, which is the meaning of "makkah" ("makke" in Yiddish, when nil can quietly drive to grinning). "Makkot" only affect idolaters that mock and challenge God. Strange how whatever news, situations, conflicts concerned, everyone is "strong" at the moment. Some people, somehow, somewhere might admit they have problems. Still, everybody is strong. When we read this portion of the week, we are on the verge to feel we are done with a series of factors: darkness and light, blood, locusts, hail. Wonders and plagues surpass any social strength. Thus, it is a question: why do faithful target power and strength? "The Lord has prepared the healing of the wound ("refuah lemakkah"; Tractate Megillah 13b).
Thus, the last "makkah - plague" is the death of all the firstborns in the Land of Egypt, including Pharaoh's son. This prolongs the first portion of Shemot read last week and the murder of all Jewish boys in Egypt: Moshe is saved by miracle. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Herod proceeded to the killing of all the children. In this apparently mythological recount, there is one thing we have experienced as human beings: recurrent slaughtering of the firstborns and babies in order to cancel life. It should be noted that in the murder of Jewish boys (Moshe and Jesus), the memory tracks back as to a specific personality, "a fugitive Aramean" who destroyed the idols and cut off from his pagan parentage... not until his great-grandson Benyamin, the first child to be born in the Land of Canaan.
We assist, at the present, to the alarming and abominable consequence of systematic mass murders of babies. Some other trendy or rather experimental groups would prefer male and/or female "sterilization" that affected some wealthy or Third World nations. Either hedonistically and self-centered as in Germany and Scandinavia, or unable to feed and educate in restricted room (Japan). Curiously, a Jewish midrash states that by the time of Exodus, Jewish women began to beget children "like hens" at an overrated unheard-of level (Exodus Rabba 6,3; though the daily birthing was maybe overestimated).
The death of Pharaoh's son and of all Egyptian firstborns suddenly twitched the ruler, gave him an uncontrollable jerk and real fear of the Living One God. This is also a question: are rulers so perverse and mulish that only death may convince them that life is a treasure of incredible value? We are, at the present, after the time of Passover liberation. Our main contemporary concern seems to be a sort of idolization of any clerics. Moshe did not enter the Land of Canaan because he was responsible for his people that dared deifying the Golden Calf. Quiz of the week parsha: who are they our modernistic Aaron and interfaith metal idol cooks?
One thing is awe-inspiring: when the children of Israel will sing the song of liberation, they will sing it in a low voice, which we continue to do. Jews were freed from bondage at the cost of a nation-wide death of firstborns. This should always prevent us from despising any foreigner, especially at the present as we live in Eretz Israel.
On January 18-19, the Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the other Oriental Churches of the Holy Land and in particular the Armenian Church celebrate at the Jordan River (Israeli and Jordanian sides) the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The splitting and passing of the Red Sea are considered as a sign of this cleansing and delivery process. The Jews only became free when they definitely left Egypt. Jesus was not baptized by any Church or denomination at the Jordan River. He came to undergo some sort of "mikveh - bath of persons or instruments" proposed by John in the desert. "Our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" says Paul of Tarsus (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). The Christian Orthodox tradition proposes another reflection: when Jesus went down the waters and rose immediately, he sanctified the entire creation (Mark 1:10).
Again, is this week portion the account of the gigantic crash between mythical deities? Or, on the contrary, it would show how El Shaddai calls the living to bring forth holiness and freedom.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Avot: Revival or re-inspiriting Hebrew
This 30th of December 2007 corresponds to the 21 (kuf-alef) Tevet 5768. As we end an international calendar of Western Christian origin, this day marks the Hebrew date of birth - 150 years ago - of Eliezer Yitzchak Perlman in Luzhky, a small town swindling on the border between Lithuania and Belarus. Before the Shoah, it was a big Jewish settlement. It is strange how calendars and dates can intermingle, showing different aspects of a prismatic reality that we love to break down and eventually disfigure or mutilate. The 19th century has given very strong personalities and we are their descents, a part of the heritage. This is a normal process for each generation, in any culture. With regard to Judaism, the whole of the Yiddishkayt, Jewishness, Hebrew identity and quests have been shaken to the deepest of our entrails by persecutions, pogroms, migrations, secularity and assimilation to non-Jewish lifestyles. In Israel - not to speak of the galut - dispersion - we prospectively are the growing seeds that slowly revive numerous aspects of the Hebrew and Jewish existence. It is not a question of memory. The process does include memory but directly places it to another level that is classic in Judaism. Memory does not trace back: it opens up to go forward, ahead and beyond all probabilities.
At the present, the reviver of the Hebrew language has a street in almost all of the Israeli cities. The strange phenomenon is that in these streets in particular, as in rehov Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, people will definitely speak or start talking in English. True, English is our trendy Aramaic or Esperanto. We do develop a local Israeli Yinglish Pidgin. The methods used to teach Hebrew to newcomers (I would also say to some yeshive-bucherim or Talmudic schools) can be terribly defective. 150 after his birth in a common Jewish East-European shtetl, Eliezer Yitzchak Perlman, inspired by something resembling the eight lights of Hanukkah, tremendously helps re-embodying the Klal Israel, the Community of Israel. But his anniversary seems vaguely celebrated. I tracked all possible books about his life and context that could be published in the coming days. The gaon, genial man of intuition, who incarnated such a huge challenge look like our local kabtzanim (needy)...they will survive, anyway, anyhow. When Perlman became Ben Yehuda, he wrote the Otzar, the Treasury of the Hebrew language that remains unique. I grew up with his dictionaries next to my bed. Indeed, Hebrew had never died and many groups, movements were using Hebrew in Europe, especially for trading and different relationships, incl. discussing about the Scriptures. Eliezer ben Yehuda and the two sisters who successively married and assisted him turned Hebrew into a carnal quest, a living challenge facing what could still appear as a Quixotic dreamy vision. He made it grow as a wonderful linguistic instrument. Ben-Zion Ben Yehuda was the first baby not allowed to hear the lullaby naturally sung by his mother in Russian. He could be schizophrenic, autistic. The correct experience is to visit the Qumran's scroll hall at the Israel Museum and see how teens spontaneously reconnect with the forefathers and the text of Prophet Isaiah. This presupposes a gigantic and prodigious mental experience, a prophetic boost.
Similar experiences may be compared with Hebrew throughout the 19th century in Europe. Ivar Aasen created the country-side and coast Norwegian language (Nynorsk). Croatian, Modern Greek, Faroese or the eldest European tongues like Icelandic and Lithuanian or Latvian, many speeches got recognition or paved their way to renewal in times of nationalism. And this issue of nationality increased throughout the 20th century. It continues to reshape borders and mental cultural borderlines (e.g.: Kosovo, Mindanao, Timor, Bask land, Ireland). Is it relevant with regards to Hebrew revival and Ben Yehuda's unique experience? This constitutes a part of the modern debate. As T. Herzl and most of the builders of the State of Israel, he was born in a context of hatred that was leading to "national freedom" or some solution to be freed from humiliation and new serfdom, poverty.
The celebration of his 150th anniversary should allow digging deeper into other relevant and basic insights linked with the Hebrew spirit of prophecy. This is certainly the major factor that is less en vogue at the present. But it should be underlined that Ben Yehuda's father, Leib Perlman, was a Chabad hassid. He died when his son was five and the boy turned to the adepts of the Haskalah - Jewish enlightenment. It means, that, even widely supported by the secular Jews, the revival of Hebrew does include specific features of the Lubavitch Chabad movement. The famous Tanya's reflection of R. Shneur Zalman of Lyadi about how "sounds are produced in cavities that cannot produce naturally produce any sound" (Ruach Piv, Shaarey Yichud 7). Speech and sounds are of divine and prophetic nature. We may get astray of something that sounds banal to our ears at the present even if most Hebrew-speakers would ask anybody from where they learnt the tongue. Ulpanim are definitely secular and the link with the prophetic aspect of the language, its "divine mamashut/essence" is definitely not evident or underscored. As the Chabad directly linked the Ashkenazim to the North African Jews, E. Ben Yehuda naturally spoke Hebrew with Jews from Algiers.
There was an old Yiddish vitz/joke: in a Tel Aviv bus, a mother stubbornly discusses with her son in Yiddish while the boy answered in Hebrew. A man told her to stop because Hebrew was the language of the future... The mom sharply said: "Good, but I don't want him to forget that he is a Jew". This joke showed around 1940... Curiously it could make sense today with the comeback of Yiddish. But Hebrew is the only paternal tongue. That was the quarrelsome point for Ben Yehuda’s son who got some Russian because a mother has to educate in a tongue that can be suckled like her own personal milk. Hebrew is the language of Avinu, Malkenu - Our Father, our King , Avinu shebeshamayim - our Father /Who is in heaven (not "are/art" according to the Jewish blessing grammar). We can hear many "speculations or fancies" about the language God spoke with Adam and the ancestors (Avot), still it sounds to be Hebrew and not Aramaic and nobody excavated the original earthen pot DVD on air from Mount Sinai. Who knows, Moshe maybe spoke Hebrew with a touch of then-Yiddish pronunciation like David Ben Gurion? Hebrew is universal and this is a dramatic point at the moment in a State where it apparently confirms a citizenship and existential identity given by mothers.
This is a theological problem that questions both Jews and non-Jews. Over thousands of years and indeed in the past two thousand years, Hebrew has mainly been "scriptural". During the week, one spoke Yiddish and lush’n haqoydesh af shabbes - and the Holy Tongue on Shabbat. On the other hand, Rashi commented the TaNaKh by using a wide French lexicon grounded in the Champagne vineyards. This has created a gap that can lead to some "spiritual tongue-twisters or slips". Israel is the State of the Jews (Judenstaat) that requires Hebrew as a common living language gathering very different groups of native origins. Judaism has always included or "grafted" people who took up them the realm of the Mitzvot. By the time of Jesus, proselytes were numerous. Thus, Judaism is not only national; it is connected to the faith of Israel.
This 150th anniversary of the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehuda interrogates in a way that we would prefer to avoid in these times of turbulences. Interestingly, the daily tongue develops with huge influences from all kinds of languages (Russian, Amharic, English and of course Arabic, inter alia). Over 40 years, the language gained in numerous ways to express humor, playful sentences, slang and sciences. It is indeed the real living tongue of the Israelis of all origins and of many Jews based abroad. It does not mean that Jews and Non-Jews use it alike. This constitutes a point of subtlety that is not rooted in some "nationalism" but in "relating to the Father in heaven". It may at times make no sense for the secular, intermingled groups for whom Hebrew is a linguistic Esperanto.
Hebrew has been present in the Churches from the very beginning. Hebrew is not simply a medium that can be translated. It carries out the Father’s revelation and reaches to the mamashut (Yid. mamushes). Hebrew refers essentially/substantially to the Talmud connected with the Mitzvot. It speaks out daily the Talmud daf yomi, daily study page. One year ago, I gave a lecture and underlined "that because of the tremendous gap between Judaism and Christianity appeared an strong estrangement. True, people pray in Hebrew. But, for the bigger part, they do not take into account - as Churches and individuals - the huge spiritual impact that always linked the Talmud with the spirit of the Bible, not the Gospel. And it might take centuries before we get to that point. It is still the prospective meeting point, if any.
It is good if Hebrew is used for the better knowledge of Judaism in the Church; but there is no need to make some folklore of it or "to christen" Jewishness and even Israelity. Israel relies upon both the Written and Oral Laws.
The Hebrew date of the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehuda corresponds in the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Sunday of the Forefathers that led to Jesus. It insists on the fact that, from Adam to Zacharias, Daniel, they showed total faith in God. It is a good day to show gratitude for the spiritual renaissance or continuous birthing of the prophetic tongue that abode the Fathers (avot).
Happy New Year 2008!
At the present, the reviver of the Hebrew language has a street in almost all of the Israeli cities. The strange phenomenon is that in these streets in particular, as in rehov Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, people will definitely speak or start talking in English. True, English is our trendy Aramaic or Esperanto. We do develop a local Israeli Yinglish Pidgin. The methods used to teach Hebrew to newcomers (I would also say to some yeshive-bucherim or Talmudic schools) can be terribly defective. 150 after his birth in a common Jewish East-European shtetl, Eliezer Yitzchak Perlman, inspired by something resembling the eight lights of Hanukkah, tremendously helps re-embodying the Klal Israel, the Community of Israel. But his anniversary seems vaguely celebrated. I tracked all possible books about his life and context that could be published in the coming days. The gaon, genial man of intuition, who incarnated such a huge challenge look like our local kabtzanim (needy)...they will survive, anyway, anyhow. When Perlman became Ben Yehuda, he wrote the Otzar, the Treasury of the Hebrew language that remains unique. I grew up with his dictionaries next to my bed. Indeed, Hebrew had never died and many groups, movements were using Hebrew in Europe, especially for trading and different relationships, incl. discussing about the Scriptures. Eliezer ben Yehuda and the two sisters who successively married and assisted him turned Hebrew into a carnal quest, a living challenge facing what could still appear as a Quixotic dreamy vision. He made it grow as a wonderful linguistic instrument. Ben-Zion Ben Yehuda was the first baby not allowed to hear the lullaby naturally sung by his mother in Russian. He could be schizophrenic, autistic. The correct experience is to visit the Qumran's scroll hall at the Israel Museum and see how teens spontaneously reconnect with the forefathers and the text of Prophet Isaiah. This presupposes a gigantic and prodigious mental experience, a prophetic boost.
Similar experiences may be compared with Hebrew throughout the 19th century in Europe. Ivar Aasen created the country-side and coast Norwegian language (Nynorsk). Croatian, Modern Greek, Faroese or the eldest European tongues like Icelandic and Lithuanian or Latvian, many speeches got recognition or paved their way to renewal in times of nationalism. And this issue of nationality increased throughout the 20th century. It continues to reshape borders and mental cultural borderlines (e.g.: Kosovo, Mindanao, Timor, Bask land, Ireland). Is it relevant with regards to Hebrew revival and Ben Yehuda's unique experience? This constitutes a part of the modern debate. As T. Herzl and most of the builders of the State of Israel, he was born in a context of hatred that was leading to "national freedom" or some solution to be freed from humiliation and new serfdom, poverty.
The celebration of his 150th anniversary should allow digging deeper into other relevant and basic insights linked with the Hebrew spirit of prophecy. This is certainly the major factor that is less en vogue at the present. But it should be underlined that Ben Yehuda's father, Leib Perlman, was a Chabad hassid. He died when his son was five and the boy turned to the adepts of the Haskalah - Jewish enlightenment. It means, that, even widely supported by the secular Jews, the revival of Hebrew does include specific features of the Lubavitch Chabad movement. The famous Tanya's reflection of R. Shneur Zalman of Lyadi about how "sounds are produced in cavities that cannot produce naturally produce any sound" (Ruach Piv, Shaarey Yichud 7). Speech and sounds are of divine and prophetic nature. We may get astray of something that sounds banal to our ears at the present even if most Hebrew-speakers would ask anybody from where they learnt the tongue. Ulpanim are definitely secular and the link with the prophetic aspect of the language, its "divine mamashut/essence" is definitely not evident or underscored. As the Chabad directly linked the Ashkenazim to the North African Jews, E. Ben Yehuda naturally spoke Hebrew with Jews from Algiers.
There was an old Yiddish vitz/joke: in a Tel Aviv bus, a mother stubbornly discusses with her son in Yiddish while the boy answered in Hebrew. A man told her to stop because Hebrew was the language of the future... The mom sharply said: "Good, but I don't want him to forget that he is a Jew". This joke showed around 1940... Curiously it could make sense today with the comeback of Yiddish. But Hebrew is the only paternal tongue. That was the quarrelsome point for Ben Yehuda’s son who got some Russian because a mother has to educate in a tongue that can be suckled like her own personal milk. Hebrew is the language of Avinu, Malkenu - Our Father, our King , Avinu shebeshamayim - our Father /Who is in heaven (not "are/art" according to the Jewish blessing grammar). We can hear many "speculations or fancies" about the language God spoke with Adam and the ancestors (Avot), still it sounds to be Hebrew and not Aramaic and nobody excavated the original earthen pot DVD on air from Mount Sinai. Who knows, Moshe maybe spoke Hebrew with a touch of then-Yiddish pronunciation like David Ben Gurion? Hebrew is universal and this is a dramatic point at the moment in a State where it apparently confirms a citizenship and existential identity given by mothers.
This is a theological problem that questions both Jews and non-Jews. Over thousands of years and indeed in the past two thousand years, Hebrew has mainly been "scriptural". During the week, one spoke Yiddish and lush’n haqoydesh af shabbes - and the Holy Tongue on Shabbat. On the other hand, Rashi commented the TaNaKh by using a wide French lexicon grounded in the Champagne vineyards. This has created a gap that can lead to some "spiritual tongue-twisters or slips". Israel is the State of the Jews (Judenstaat) that requires Hebrew as a common living language gathering very different groups of native origins. Judaism has always included or "grafted" people who took up them the realm of the Mitzvot. By the time of Jesus, proselytes were numerous. Thus, Judaism is not only national; it is connected to the faith of Israel.
This 150th anniversary of the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehuda interrogates in a way that we would prefer to avoid in these times of turbulences. Interestingly, the daily tongue develops with huge influences from all kinds of languages (Russian, Amharic, English and of course Arabic, inter alia). Over 40 years, the language gained in numerous ways to express humor, playful sentences, slang and sciences. It is indeed the real living tongue of the Israelis of all origins and of many Jews based abroad. It does not mean that Jews and Non-Jews use it alike. This constitutes a point of subtlety that is not rooted in some "nationalism" but in "relating to the Father in heaven". It may at times make no sense for the secular, intermingled groups for whom Hebrew is a linguistic Esperanto.
Hebrew has been present in the Churches from the very beginning. Hebrew is not simply a medium that can be translated. It carries out the Father’s revelation and reaches to the mamashut (Yid. mamushes). Hebrew refers essentially/substantially to the Talmud connected with the Mitzvot. It speaks out daily the Talmud daf yomi, daily study page. One year ago, I gave a lecture and underlined "that because of the tremendous gap between Judaism and Christianity appeared an strong estrangement. True, people pray in Hebrew. But, for the bigger part, they do not take into account - as Churches and individuals - the huge spiritual impact that always linked the Talmud with the spirit of the Bible, not the Gospel. And it might take centuries before we get to that point. It is still the prospective meeting point, if any.
It is good if Hebrew is used for the better knowledge of Judaism in the Church; but there is no need to make some folklore of it or "to christen" Jewishness and even Israelity. Israel relies upon both the Written and Oral Laws.
The Hebrew date of the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehuda corresponds in the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Sunday of the Forefathers that led to Jesus. It insists on the fact that, from Adam to Zacharias, Daniel, they showed total faith in God. It is a good day to show gratitude for the spiritual renaissance or continuous birthing of the prophetic tongue that abode the Fathers (avot).
Happy New Year 2008!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Kerem, the vineyard of fine wine
We start to read a new Book as parshat hashavua - weekly reading, i.e. "Shemot - (the) Names" in Hebrew, called "Exodus or the flight from Egypt, the house of slavery" in usual translations and traditions. In Hebrew, it is normal to refer to the first words of Biblical Book: "Ve'eleh shemot Bney Yisrael = these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming from his household" (Shemot/Exodus 1:1). We penetrate the history of a specific small Jewish rooted family. They entered Egypt out of hunger, were saved by Joseph, their sold son and brother that redeemed them and made them honored by Pharaoh. But the title also underscores in Hebrew that, eleven brothers entered a foreign country that, at first glance, welcomed them and provided them with a lot of wealth in the most fertile region of Goshen.
To begin with, the sons of Israel were accepted. There might have been other troubles or famines, as time passed. Then, a new Pharaoh showed up who did not know Joseph. The problem we have to face is that Jews are either too few, or too many -multiply or disappear. History has also shown how they were plundered, massacred. There is a point that should be highlighted. The Book of Shemot (Names) prolongs the history initiated in the Book of Bereishit (Commencement) -Genesis of all the universe, beginning with the creation of the world, planets, sun, moon, stars, vegetable and animal creatures and finally the humans. The Jewish tradition insists on that aspect. After thousands of years, Jews are trained to the fact that micro-groups of ten-twelve people can suddenly grow to millions after some centuries or eventually collapse in some circumstances
Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem into the humble family of a carpenter with a prestigious priestly and Davidic backgrounds. He started with three Galilean disciples, then 12 that extended to 70 or 72 and finally there are millions of disciples. On the other hand, they did disappear, as the Jews, from some regions, often for the same reasons of rejection or collapse. This is why it is important to take into account this Book of Shemot because it obliges to humble ourselves: Shemot means "Names" and the Jewish people were conceived as in the image and likeness of God-Elohim (Gen. 1:27) (HaShem - the Only Name) and they only belong to This Name or aim to testify to this Holy Name. Jews have no other reason to exist than to engrave God's Presence into a without soul. This allows another connection to "Shem", Noah's son who is the ancestor of the Semites, dwelling in a place "there (sham)" where The Name is present.
Then, Exodus, from Greek "going - way out", explains the development of a nation in a hostile context. They came to be blessed with food and wealth. They are forced into bondage and seem to be satisfied with their slavery when God decides to save them against their will. We can hardly figure out today what happened by the time of Moshe/Moses. This account is much relevant, consequential and far-reaching: we trace back this week to the roots of a call to permanent freedom, definitive release from bondage and the extravagance of being born to be constantly free over and over again. This implies other invariants: relations with the pagans and the Gentiles, reluctance to move up, to admitting that freedom is worthier than any brick-building non-volunteering tasks ordered by hating rulers.
There are some similarities - definitely normal if we quietly consider historic developments - between the birth of the Jewish boy Moshe, saved from killing all Israelite newborns and being adopted by the sister of Pharaoh (Shemot 2:5-11) and the birth of Jesus, the murder of all the Jewish babies ordered by Herod. He fakes to be willing to praise the newborn and wants to know where he was born in order to slay him (Matthew 2:1-12). Then, another Joseph (son of Jacob, (Matthew 1:16)) is told in a dream: "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt." Thus, Herod became furious and ordered the slaughter of the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, citing Prophet Jeremiah (31:15): "a voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children and she could not be consoled since they were no more." The Church recalls the "Children massacred by Herod" soon after the Nativity of Jesus. When Herod died as a tyrant, Joseph "took the child and his mother and went to the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), but fearing Herod's son, they settled in Nazareth (Matthew 2:21-23).
There is a fathomable similarity between the two accounts: to fathom consists to measure "with outstretched arms" as God always did and does. Exodus 6:6 (or Deuteronomy 4:34) is cited in almost every single Jewish prayer: bizro'a nituyah = with outstretched arm (I will redeem you). In both cases – commemorated at the same time, with parallel and dissimilar views – Jews and Christians firstly recall the birth and saving of Moshe and, on the other hand, the birth and saving of Jesus. In both cases the will to power is so resolute, violent and mighty that murders are preferred to life. Of course, it was totally bizarre for the enslaved Jews to be protected by the man they considered as the son of Pharaoh. Again, we face "appearance" vs "being" as when Joseph appeared to his brothers as an Egyptian manager. Yes, our generation never experienced the singularity of the parsha - reading of this week because we went through thousands of years of pagan hatred and two millennia of estranged bewilderment with other monotheistic communities. Jews settled too often in various parts of the world with the impression that - remaining somehow or totally faithful to the Jewish traditions - they would be protected by some sort of rulers. This is the tragic bluff that deceived generations. This is one or the most intriguing and pending questions today in Israel as in the diaspora.
There might be more. God can be reduced to a set of ordinances, some of which we comply with. There are those that we systematically reject. This is the dialogue between God and Moses at the bush that does not burn up "has'neh bo'er ba'esh vehas'neh eynenu ukal" (there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed – Ex. 3:26). God said to Moshe: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob". The root of the word "S'neh - thorn bush" is connected to Aramaic/Hebrew (different spelling): "sina - hatred, removal". Because God is different, totally alien to whom we think we are when we disguise, hide ourselves or try to be high-profile in this world. Such a bush changes any moment into times of eternity and any jealousy into wiping out wickedness. This is what Rabbi Yehiel Michal of Zlotshov explained when he said that Abraham had accomplished all the 613 Mitzvot / Commandments. He declared that Abraham loved God more than any other human, idea or concept. This is what Moshe progressively discovers: being "dressed" as a foreigner to his own people, he does return to them because of the constantly renewed Divine love and faithfulness to a call. From Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, till Joseph and the 12 sons of Israel, the Jews have been alien (they do not enjoy the same rights as the local citizens). Even if Machpelah can only be considered as theirs as "the burial site bought by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite" (Gen. 50:13). There are tons of small or bigger nations that hate each other for racial, cultural, social, economic reasons. This week, we have to face the kernel reason: Jews only exist to attest that, from nil, God calls to being, enhancement, unexpected growth and freedom. Eretz Yisrael is given to the twelve sons of Israel as a permanent lease for life. Thus, Judaism is bringing forth nonperishable seeds of reality, survival and hopeful continuance.
When Israel states that it comes back to Eretz Yisrael, how do they prove to be seeds of freedom? Moses was thus given a password to speak to the enslaved Jews: God has a Name: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Shemot 3;14).This Name continues to convulse and reshuffle our daily lives and paths. It corresponds to I am Who I am – frankly, it sounds stiff; correct, but inelastic and aloof. God is merciful... The burning bush without consuming reveals that God's Name means: I will (not 'shall') be/come the Who to the fullest of Who I will be/come. This sounds jet-set stylish, but read again, please: it is a motion without automatics; or I will become/develop to exist to the fullest the One (Who)I will live to the full.
The Haftarah is read from Isaiah 27:6-28:13 (Ashkenazim) - Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 (Sephardim) - Ezekiel 17:1:-14 (Yemenites). The readings focus on the vineyard that is fruitful and gives excellent wine. This vineyard shows the fertility of God’s Word in our souls to reach equilibrium. It is this New Year challenge.
Someway, Jesus summarized what God proposes to any Jew and believer: "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head" (Matthew 8:20). Indeed, we start, this week and with 2008, a huge trip in the go-getting Name of the Lord!
To begin with, the sons of Israel were accepted. There might have been other troubles or famines, as time passed. Then, a new Pharaoh showed up who did not know Joseph. The problem we have to face is that Jews are either too few, or too many -multiply or disappear. History has also shown how they were plundered, massacred. There is a point that should be highlighted. The Book of Shemot (Names) prolongs the history initiated in the Book of Bereishit (Commencement) -Genesis of all the universe, beginning with the creation of the world, planets, sun, moon, stars, vegetable and animal creatures and finally the humans. The Jewish tradition insists on that aspect. After thousands of years, Jews are trained to the fact that micro-groups of ten-twelve people can suddenly grow to millions after some centuries or eventually collapse in some circumstances
Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem into the humble family of a carpenter with a prestigious priestly and Davidic backgrounds. He started with three Galilean disciples, then 12 that extended to 70 or 72 and finally there are millions of disciples. On the other hand, they did disappear, as the Jews, from some regions, often for the same reasons of rejection or collapse. This is why it is important to take into account this Book of Shemot because it obliges to humble ourselves: Shemot means "Names" and the Jewish people were conceived as in the image and likeness of God-Elohim (Gen. 1:27) (HaShem - the Only Name) and they only belong to This Name or aim to testify to this Holy Name. Jews have no other reason to exist than to engrave God's Presence into a without soul. This allows another connection to "Shem", Noah's son who is the ancestor of the Semites, dwelling in a place "there (sham)" where The Name is present.
Then, Exodus, from Greek "going - way out", explains the development of a nation in a hostile context. They came to be blessed with food and wealth. They are forced into bondage and seem to be satisfied with their slavery when God decides to save them against their will. We can hardly figure out today what happened by the time of Moshe/Moses. This account is much relevant, consequential and far-reaching: we trace back this week to the roots of a call to permanent freedom, definitive release from bondage and the extravagance of being born to be constantly free over and over again. This implies other invariants: relations with the pagans and the Gentiles, reluctance to move up, to admitting that freedom is worthier than any brick-building non-volunteering tasks ordered by hating rulers.
There are some similarities - definitely normal if we quietly consider historic developments - between the birth of the Jewish boy Moshe, saved from killing all Israelite newborns and being adopted by the sister of Pharaoh (Shemot 2:5-11) and the birth of Jesus, the murder of all the Jewish babies ordered by Herod. He fakes to be willing to praise the newborn and wants to know where he was born in order to slay him (Matthew 2:1-12). Then, another Joseph (son of Jacob, (Matthew 1:16)) is told in a dream: "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt." Thus, Herod became furious and ordered the slaughter of the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, citing Prophet Jeremiah (31:15): "a voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children and she could not be consoled since they were no more." The Church recalls the "Children massacred by Herod" soon after the Nativity of Jesus. When Herod died as a tyrant, Joseph "took the child and his mother and went to the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), but fearing Herod's son, they settled in Nazareth (Matthew 2:21-23).
There is a fathomable similarity between the two accounts: to fathom consists to measure "with outstretched arms" as God always did and does. Exodus 6:6 (or Deuteronomy 4:34) is cited in almost every single Jewish prayer: bizro'a nituyah = with outstretched arm (I will redeem you). In both cases – commemorated at the same time, with parallel and dissimilar views – Jews and Christians firstly recall the birth and saving of Moshe and, on the other hand, the birth and saving of Jesus. In both cases the will to power is so resolute, violent and mighty that murders are preferred to life. Of course, it was totally bizarre for the enslaved Jews to be protected by the man they considered as the son of Pharaoh. Again, we face "appearance" vs "being" as when Joseph appeared to his brothers as an Egyptian manager. Yes, our generation never experienced the singularity of the parsha - reading of this week because we went through thousands of years of pagan hatred and two millennia of estranged bewilderment with other monotheistic communities. Jews settled too often in various parts of the world with the impression that - remaining somehow or totally faithful to the Jewish traditions - they would be protected by some sort of rulers. This is the tragic bluff that deceived generations. This is one or the most intriguing and pending questions today in Israel as in the diaspora.
There might be more. God can be reduced to a set of ordinances, some of which we comply with. There are those that we systematically reject. This is the dialogue between God and Moses at the bush that does not burn up "has'neh bo'er ba'esh vehas'neh eynenu ukal" (there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed – Ex. 3:26). God said to Moshe: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob". The root of the word "S'neh - thorn bush" is connected to Aramaic/Hebrew (different spelling): "sina - hatred, removal". Because God is different, totally alien to whom we think we are when we disguise, hide ourselves or try to be high-profile in this world. Such a bush changes any moment into times of eternity and any jealousy into wiping out wickedness. This is what Rabbi Yehiel Michal of Zlotshov explained when he said that Abraham had accomplished all the 613 Mitzvot / Commandments. He declared that Abraham loved God more than any other human, idea or concept. This is what Moshe progressively discovers: being "dressed" as a foreigner to his own people, he does return to them because of the constantly renewed Divine love and faithfulness to a call. From Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, till Joseph and the 12 sons of Israel, the Jews have been alien (they do not enjoy the same rights as the local citizens). Even if Machpelah can only be considered as theirs as "the burial site bought by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite" (Gen. 50:13). There are tons of small or bigger nations that hate each other for racial, cultural, social, economic reasons. This week, we have to face the kernel reason: Jews only exist to attest that, from nil, God calls to being, enhancement, unexpected growth and freedom. Eretz Yisrael is given to the twelve sons of Israel as a permanent lease for life. Thus, Judaism is bringing forth nonperishable seeds of reality, survival and hopeful continuance.
When Israel states that it comes back to Eretz Yisrael, how do they prove to be seeds of freedom? Moses was thus given a password to speak to the enslaved Jews: God has a Name: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Shemot 3;14).This Name continues to convulse and reshuffle our daily lives and paths. It corresponds to I am Who I am – frankly, it sounds stiff; correct, but inelastic and aloof. God is merciful... The burning bush without consuming reveals that God's Name means: I will (not 'shall') be/come the Who to the fullest of Who I will be/come. This sounds jet-set stylish, but read again, please: it is a motion without automatics; or I will become/develop to exist to the fullest the One (Who)I will live to the full.
The Haftarah is read from Isaiah 27:6-28:13 (Ashkenazim) - Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 (Sephardim) - Ezekiel 17:1:-14 (Yemenites). The readings focus on the vineyard that is fruitful and gives excellent wine. This vineyard shows the fertility of God’s Word in our souls to reach equilibrium. It is this New Year challenge.
Someway, Jesus summarized what God proposes to any Jew and believer: "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head" (Matthew 8:20). Indeed, we start, this week and with 2008, a huge trip in the go-getting Name of the Lord!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Herayion: a time of birthing
In the night from 24th to 25th of December 2006, the Western Churches, i.e. the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican (Episcopalian in Israel - more Lutheran in the Palestinian Territories) most Christian congregations will celebrate the "Nativity of Jesus": Christ... who took flesh and became a man (Nicaene Creed). The Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem (the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem historically assures the spiritual assistance to all Christian Orthodox believers living in present-day Israel, Territories under Palestinian Authority, Jordan), the Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Romanian Orthodox Churches together with the ancient Orthodox Syrian-Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian Churches will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity on January 6th to 7th, 2007. For various reasons, the ancient Apostolic Armenian Church is the only denomination to honor the feast on January 18-19, celebrating both the Nativity and the Baptism of Jesus (on January 16th in Armenia). The Greek-Catholics who follow the same rites as the Eastern-Orthodox but recognize the Pope of Rome - as also the Maronites (originally from Lebanon), Chaldeans (from Iraq), Syrian and Armenian Catholics will mark Christmas with the Roman Catholic Church.
Except in some specific areas as the Old City of Jerusalem, some parts of Galilee and the Palestinian Territories, the Israeli citizens, Jews and others, but also the tourists, are less and less accustomed to see any Christian clergy. It is a real question: both the Jews and all the Christians refer to the verses: "The Lord, the Lord, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin... (Exodus/Shmot 34:6-7) which constitute the 13 Divine Middot (Attributes) or AHaVaH as fulfillment of Love and Justice. After 2000 years, from the time of the early Christian Community, the Church developed and spread over the world, along with the dispersion of the Jewish communities. There are 13 official Churches recognized by the State of Israel as the heritage of the Ottoman rule, to begin with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, then the Roman Catholics - the Franciscans ensure the Custody (the guardians) of the Holy Places in a wide region from Cyprus and Turkey through the Near East.
The Armenians have a prestigious patriarchate, a famous library, wonderful voices and chants. With the exception of one verse: "The community of the believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possession was his own but they had everything in common" (Acts of the Apostles 4:32), the Christian faith developed in spite of internal clashes among the apostles (Paul of Tarsus and Barnabas, Peter) and as time passed the numerous sects that existed or showed. Thus, we do face at present the same wise statement made by Gamaliel II (famous rabbi whose Paul was a disciple), member of the Sanhedrin: "Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men (Jesus believers)... Let them go. For if this endeavor or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God" (Acts of the Apostles 5:34-39).
The substrate of the Jewish newcomers and Israeli society has shown conflicting and troubled relationships with Christianity, which is a real question. Why hatred and estrangement has prevailed over the basic Commandments and Attributes of Love? In a country where all the nations of world have come for some reason, Christianity offers a kaleidoscope of colorful diversity that hides the tragic history of the local Christians, often murdered. They are trapped in the splits that affected, from abroad, the unity of the Church along the centuries.
On the other hand, more and more Israelis - at all levels of the society - want to understand, get closer to what happened with the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth two millennia ago. Whatever attitude, acceptance or rejection, Christianity is present everywhere in this country. It is evident that Christian believers have been living and here and all over the Middle-East over 2000 years, developing churches, monasteries, religious arts, along with the synagogues, later Islam. Scientific and theological books are now published in Hebrew paving the way for some kind of dialogue beyond suspicion. Each Church and their monasteries have huge intellectual instruments stored throughout history (libraries, research institutes and printing houses in most languages used by comparative theology). It should be a wonderful prospect to try to match competences...
"Nativity" implies that a child is born. In the case of Jesus, there is no certainty about his exact date of birth. His place of birth has also being questioned: Nazareth (Natzor = the consecrated / Nazarene one, Nestar = hidden) or Beyt Lechem (Bethlehem = the house of Bread [Hebrew: "lechem"] or Flesh [Arabic: "lacham/lachma"])? This directly connects the taking flesh of Jesus to food and satisfaction, healing and salvation (Yehoshu'a = "God saved, saves and will save" - the name is declined as most Semitic overtime tenses). This lines with "veachalta vesava'ta - you will eat and be satisfied" (Deuteronomy 8:1) and, in general, with the Birkat HaMazon (Blessing after Meals) as defined in Tractate Berachot 33-48 about nourishment as "bessorot tovot - good tidings" (HaRahman). In Hebrew, "bassar" means : "flesh, meat, rejoicing, announcing". Jesus said - and this is still a pending inquiry: - "I am the bread that came from heaven". They said: "Is this not the son of Joseph?" Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" - "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" - Then many of his disciples said: "This is too hard. How can we accept it?" (John 6:34-59). Whoever we are, beside any historical tragedies, Jesus constantly requires facing a supernatural, meta-historical, beyond all possibilities challenge of creed, faith or acceptance. This is what Moshe Mendelssohn, translator of the Bible into German, spoke of the “extreme challenge of Christianity” which is a part of every believer's path.
Jesus' conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a young woman (Heb.: "almah" - Gk. "parthenos", virgin (Isaiah 7:14), betrothed to Joseph who did not reject her and is cited in the two Gospels, that speak of his birth (Matthew and Luke). Interestingly, the Nativity was considered as a minor Feast almost until the middle of the 5th century, thus after the Councils that asserted that Jesus was truly God and Man ("k'Aloha wa k'bar Adam", in Assyrian sequences).
With regards to his day of birth, it is possible to cope with the general link of December 25th that corresponds to January 6th in the Julian calendar. Paul of Tarsus recalls that Jesus was born "under the Law" (Galatians 4:4). "Babe Jesus" was firstly exposed in Saint Francis of Assisi's crèche (there is a wonderful Ethiopian icon showing Mary breastfeeding her child). At least, the baby indeed looked like anyone of us. The Prophet said: “How welcome on the mountain are the footsteps of the herald (mevasser) announcing good (tov) announcing salvation/victory (yeshu'ah), telling Zion: Your God is King!”(Isaiah 52:7). Gospel means "Good news, tidings, from O. Norse "Gudsspjall": Good or rather God's good upgrading in time. Gk. "evangelion" (Good messenger/herald; cf. "angel"), Lat. "ad-nuntiatio" (announcing) and allows to consider the conception of the child on March 25 (Annunciation) and his birth nine months later, i.e. on December 25.
Still it would be relevant to consider Jesus’ birth according to a Jewish time-schedule. True, he never stepped down, during his life, from the Jewish Law and its Commandments (Matthew 5:18) as they were in force at his time. On January 1st (01/14, Julian calendar), the Greek Church of Jerusalem, as all the Christian Orthodox - celebrate the "brit" - circumcision (hagia peritomia) of Jesus, showing a regular breach with paganism that wanted to abolish this basic commandment.
It should be noted that one feast, Sukkot (Feast of the Booths), disappeared when the specific Church cycles were created. The Eastern Church celebrates X-Mas (Mass of X - Christ, i.e. Nativity) at the end of the 30-31st week after Pentecost, thus focusing on the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Western Churches proclaim a time of "Ad-ventus" or "advent - coming". The joy of the hallowed night (Germ. Weihnachten) often veils that the point is to expect the second coming of Messiah Jesus in glory. The move toward future beyond recurring feast is an essential feature of Christian and Jewish Feasts.
We might have some encrypted date of birth in various sequences of the Gospel. "In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah" (Luke 1:5). We know that this means he served in August as provided for his priestly division. Considering the time of birth of John the Baptist - six months earlier than Jesus (Luke 1:21.26.56), we must add ca. 15 months from that service in August to eventually determine Jesus' birth by the eschatological or end of time feast of Sukkot.
The fascinating aspect is the consider that "rooted in and grounded in love, we may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth... and be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19).
Except in some specific areas as the Old City of Jerusalem, some parts of Galilee and the Palestinian Territories, the Israeli citizens, Jews and others, but also the tourists, are less and less accustomed to see any Christian clergy. It is a real question: both the Jews and all the Christians refer to the verses: "The Lord, the Lord, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin... (Exodus/Shmot 34:6-7) which constitute the 13 Divine Middot (Attributes) or AHaVaH as fulfillment of Love and Justice. After 2000 years, from the time of the early Christian Community, the Church developed and spread over the world, along with the dispersion of the Jewish communities. There are 13 official Churches recognized by the State of Israel as the heritage of the Ottoman rule, to begin with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, then the Roman Catholics - the Franciscans ensure the Custody (the guardians) of the Holy Places in a wide region from Cyprus and Turkey through the Near East.
The Armenians have a prestigious patriarchate, a famous library, wonderful voices and chants. With the exception of one verse: "The community of the believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possession was his own but they had everything in common" (Acts of the Apostles 4:32), the Christian faith developed in spite of internal clashes among the apostles (Paul of Tarsus and Barnabas, Peter) and as time passed the numerous sects that existed or showed. Thus, we do face at present the same wise statement made by Gamaliel II (famous rabbi whose Paul was a disciple), member of the Sanhedrin: "Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men (Jesus believers)... Let them go. For if this endeavor or activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God" (Acts of the Apostles 5:34-39).
The substrate of the Jewish newcomers and Israeli society has shown conflicting and troubled relationships with Christianity, which is a real question. Why hatred and estrangement has prevailed over the basic Commandments and Attributes of Love? In a country where all the nations of world have come for some reason, Christianity offers a kaleidoscope of colorful diversity that hides the tragic history of the local Christians, often murdered. They are trapped in the splits that affected, from abroad, the unity of the Church along the centuries.
On the other hand, more and more Israelis - at all levels of the society - want to understand, get closer to what happened with the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth two millennia ago. Whatever attitude, acceptance or rejection, Christianity is present everywhere in this country. It is evident that Christian believers have been living and here and all over the Middle-East over 2000 years, developing churches, monasteries, religious arts, along with the synagogues, later Islam. Scientific and theological books are now published in Hebrew paving the way for some kind of dialogue beyond suspicion. Each Church and their monasteries have huge intellectual instruments stored throughout history (libraries, research institutes and printing houses in most languages used by comparative theology). It should be a wonderful prospect to try to match competences...
"Nativity" implies that a child is born. In the case of Jesus, there is no certainty about his exact date of birth. His place of birth has also being questioned: Nazareth (Natzor = the consecrated / Nazarene one, Nestar = hidden) or Beyt Lechem (Bethlehem = the house of Bread [Hebrew: "lechem"] or Flesh [Arabic: "lacham/lachma"])? This directly connects the taking flesh of Jesus to food and satisfaction, healing and salvation (Yehoshu'a = "God saved, saves and will save" - the name is declined as most Semitic overtime tenses). This lines with "veachalta vesava'ta - you will eat and be satisfied" (Deuteronomy 8:1) and, in general, with the Birkat HaMazon (Blessing after Meals) as defined in Tractate Berachot 33-48 about nourishment as "bessorot tovot - good tidings" (HaRahman). In Hebrew, "bassar" means : "flesh, meat, rejoicing, announcing". Jesus said - and this is still a pending inquiry: - "I am the bread that came from heaven". They said: "Is this not the son of Joseph?" Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" - "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" - Then many of his disciples said: "This is too hard. How can we accept it?" (John 6:34-59). Whoever we are, beside any historical tragedies, Jesus constantly requires facing a supernatural, meta-historical, beyond all possibilities challenge of creed, faith or acceptance. This is what Moshe Mendelssohn, translator of the Bible into German, spoke of the “extreme challenge of Christianity” which is a part of every believer's path.
Jesus' conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a young woman (Heb.: "almah" - Gk. "parthenos", virgin (Isaiah 7:14), betrothed to Joseph who did not reject her and is cited in the two Gospels, that speak of his birth (Matthew and Luke). Interestingly, the Nativity was considered as a minor Feast almost until the middle of the 5th century, thus after the Councils that asserted that Jesus was truly God and Man ("k'Aloha wa k'bar Adam", in Assyrian sequences).
With regards to his day of birth, it is possible to cope with the general link of December 25th that corresponds to January 6th in the Julian calendar. Paul of Tarsus recalls that Jesus was born "under the Law" (Galatians 4:4). "Babe Jesus" was firstly exposed in Saint Francis of Assisi's crèche (there is a wonderful Ethiopian icon showing Mary breastfeeding her child). At least, the baby indeed looked like anyone of us. The Prophet said: “How welcome on the mountain are the footsteps of the herald (mevasser) announcing good (tov) announcing salvation/victory (yeshu'ah), telling Zion: Your God is King!”(Isaiah 52:7). Gospel means "Good news, tidings, from O. Norse "Gudsspjall": Good or rather God's good upgrading in time. Gk. "evangelion" (Good messenger/herald; cf. "angel"), Lat. "ad-nuntiatio" (announcing) and allows to consider the conception of the child on March 25 (Annunciation) and his birth nine months later, i.e. on December 25.
Still it would be relevant to consider Jesus’ birth according to a Jewish time-schedule. True, he never stepped down, during his life, from the Jewish Law and its Commandments (Matthew 5:18) as they were in force at his time. On January 1st (01/14, Julian calendar), the Greek Church of Jerusalem, as all the Christian Orthodox - celebrate the "brit" - circumcision (hagia peritomia) of Jesus, showing a regular breach with paganism that wanted to abolish this basic commandment.
It should be noted that one feast, Sukkot (Feast of the Booths), disappeared when the specific Church cycles were created. The Eastern Church celebrates X-Mas (Mass of X - Christ, i.e. Nativity) at the end of the 30-31st week after Pentecost, thus focusing on the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Western Churches proclaim a time of "Ad-ventus" or "advent - coming". The joy of the hallowed night (Germ. Weihnachten) often veils that the point is to expect the second coming of Messiah Jesus in glory. The move toward future beyond recurring feast is an essential feature of Christian and Jewish Feasts.
We might have some encrypted date of birth in various sequences of the Gospel. "In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah" (Luke 1:5). We know that this means he served in August as provided for his priestly division. Considering the time of birth of John the Baptist - six months earlier than Jesus (Luke 1:21.26.56), we must add ca. 15 months from that service in August to eventually determine Jesus' birth by the eschatological or end of time feast of Sukkot.
The fascinating aspect is the consider that "rooted in and grounded in love, we may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth... and be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19).
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