Sunday Feb 03, 2008
Some years ago, by some remote chance, I survived a series of operations which implied total anesthesia followed by a rather long coma. When I woke up just by some Providence, I had faced death and was told that some 10 years earlier I would simply "lig'n in a kever - repose in cemetery". Things were new and this "ad shaarey hamavet - till the gates of death" experience looked like a renewal with some losses. Repeated and prolonged anesthesia - the operation is still a questioning accident because I was not sick - affected my memory, except for specific things which had been stimulated in various contexts. On the other hand, I am awfully grateful to the daily studying of the daf yomi (the Talmudic daily page) since my early age. It sustained my memory and humbled me a lot about "knowledge" changing it into a series of life experiences. I met a wonderful a professor of Talmud who, just before World War II began, had the insights to make a journey through the Lithuanian yeshivot, a world that was unknown to him. There he did experience the importance of what his own father had repeated along his adolescence: "laernen, laernen, tumid laernen - to learn, learn and learn always more". God protected him in a way and he became a forced worker/prisoner in a German farm during WWII . The farmer wanted to take some care of him and often gave him some thick Bockwurst (pork sausages) that the talmudist faked to take into his mouth and was quick to spitting out. When he came back and started to teach the Mishna and the Gemara, he used to apologize: he had forgotten everything and was "discovering" the subject with new eyes and a partial absence of correct language and memory. In this context, he was a true survivor. Thus, in a different way, I felt after all these sleeping hours, that waking up was a miracle and that the pedagogy of Talmud had allowed me to impulse some neurons and jog how to track back my memory knitting past and present through this special training.
Talmud Yoma 10a ascertains that before being delivered a Jewish child has a perfect knowledge of the Torah and the Mitzvot (Commandments), the Jewish traditions and the Oral Law, i.e. the Talmud. After his birth, he forgets all that and has to acquire it again in order to be able to go through his life. As if all spiritual and century-long tradition was inscribed in his ADN system as a son of Israel before his birth and disappears when he enters the world in order to make no difference with other people, except the duty to be a subject of the Law (Pirkey Avot 1:1; Galatians 4:4).
This is why Judaism is firstly and resolutely focusing on learning and teaching, which has been considered for centuries as a sacred and long-life educational system to cope with faith and discover a wealth of spiritual gifts and joys. Knowledge about Godly matters doesn't come out of some green cheese or blue moon. This requires a lot of time-tiring training hours, consistency, patience and perseverance. The Jewish world of knowledge is not related to some aesthetic wisdom method or technique. It does not include aerobics, fitness (maybe it should?), Japanese tiny sand gardens for meditation with seeds of reduced bonsais. To begin with, Jewish teachings flow naturally like a river that grows into channels and connect oceans of Aramaic and Hebrew words - without vowels - that may be read in different ways, traditions (massorah) or "fashions". Again, the vowels are the colorful vocalic "helps" or "neshamot - souls" that allow to utter "consonants = bones (etzamot)". It is quite probable that this is what Paul of Tarsus meant when he said "the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6). And when he declared that each believer is "a letter", this positively echoes that each Jew has to write a Torah, at least a letter to be interpreted in numerous ways. A letter is "ot - pl. otiyot" = miracles, signs, marks" that encompass the many possibilities or opportunities to govern one's life and to help the others.
"Learning" is definitely and "professionally" Jewish. In Israel, people will speak at length of their "limudim - studies" that are often considered as a minimum, could be better etc. Still, there is a real thirst for knowledge that come from the positive Commandments.
The Jewish life entirely relies upon the world of the Mitzvot. It is a bit brusque and stated too shortly. But the whole of the Jewish life consists of a self-evident respect and joyous accomplishing the test to achieve the realm of the Mitzvot; from before the time of a birth till burial and faith in the resurrection of the dead. Then it is undoubtedly a humble task overshadowed by spiritual substantial principles that may penetrate our lifestyles in order to make us free and occasionally heal others.
The Pirkey Avot (Sayings of the Fathers) are read for the better part of the year on the Shabbat and are included in Tractate Nezikin (Damages). Along with the Book of Job, they are one of the world's best-sellers because of their simple, incisive and profound wisdom. "Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and handed it down to Yehoshua; Yehoshua to the Elders (Zeqenim); the Elders to the Nevi'im (Prophets); the Prophets handed it down to the Anshey Knesset HaG'dolah (The Men of the Great Assembly = 120).These said three things: "Be prudent in judgment, raise up many disciples (ha'midu talmidim) and make a fence (va'assu seyag) for the Torah" (Avot 1:1).This means that we follow a series of commitments that trace back to Moses, though even Abraham did respect the entire Law because "he loved" (Tractate Berachot 56b). The essential teaching element is based on handing down, communicating, repeating and grooming disciples. This often looks like an exploit for a pack of self-centered or egoistic singletons. At the present, with a small team you can make quite a living promoting discs, CD's-DVD's and some lectures. It is much more difficult to really get to what would definitely help the youth, elders, newcomers, professionals in their lives. Before the Shoah, in a rather poor and needy context, the realm of the Mitzvot could help unveil some difficult aspects of our lives.
Rabbi Rabinowicz had written a perspicacious version of a Talmud text about mice and dogs that provided Louis Pasteur with some instructions as how to find his rage vaccine. The last Rebbe of Lubavitch, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was consulted about astronomic and geophysical issues. But the Chabad Lubavitch movement is one of the trendiest if not most up-to-the-minute groups which developed a strong pattern to teach how to practice the Mitzvot.
It can be only en vogue in the present to say a blessing including the words: "Asher kidshanu bemitzvotav - Who sanctified us by your commandments"; either religion is too present and on the verge of boring, either it enables to get closer to the meaning of words or traditions that need to be explained. In Hebrew and Aramaic, "teaching" and "learning" are close and lead to each other. The "Shema Israel - Hear Israel" (Deut. 6:4; cited three times in the Gospel) confesses and instructs: "Veshinantam levaneikha - You will teach/repeat/infuse to your children, vedibarta bam - and you will speak with and about these words, in your house, on the way, going up or down to bed". This makes teaching similar to conversations, activities, inserting faith and Godly into secular deals and changing the society to its betterment. Indeed, as Jews need to protect the realm of God by walls, fences and hedges for the sake of The Most High, these are not human or cement barriers, nor negative frames as in the ghettos or shtetlech. Universality requires encasement in order to emanate and come forth to full coherence. It is a back and forth, in and out movement toward everyone, in any place. "To repeat" = "shanah, sheni" implies that learning echoes to a "year (shanah)" time that can change us (shanot) and memorize good and bad, tragic and joyous events that make then sense over duration. Israel has created a special body: "ulpan" in order to allow the newcomers to learn Hebrew quickly. "alef - yelif" means "to get accustomed, to learn" (Avot 1:13 : to make a proper use of the learning of the Crown of the Torah). "Lamad - lamed" = "to study" which describes a process of training, practice: "I learned much from my teachers, more from my fellowmen, most from my pupils", states Tractate Makkot 10a.
Now, this constant learning/teaching system allows to question God and the world back and forth and find ways to resolve human cross-questions. Words are turned into permanent paradoxes and traditional inquiries (sheilot) in view to correct or envision reality with more insightful responses (teshuvot - responsae).
Some Jewish groups do or did not accept this tradition of handing down a tradition: the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection, the Samaritans, the Karaites who reject the Oral Law. Just as the Christians do not include the Talmudic tradition.
This may be a consequence of some questions about the times and delays in the Mitzvot and in the spiritual experience reported by the Gospel. The Christians often point out that Jesus gave "new commandments" (John 13:34; 1 John 2:7). The Jewish attitude toward the Mitzvot is that - either sichliyot (intellectually acceptable) or shimiyot (to be accepted only for the sake of God) - they exist beyond any real "taamei hamitzvot - reason or explanation". Learning allows the opening of the gates of future because history is more articulate than we can imagine.
God "mechadesh maasey vereishit - renew the acts of the commencement". Learning should sustain us in feeling such motions. "Not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the Law until all things have taken place. Thus, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven"(Matthew 5:17-19).
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Livnot: a call to build
Thursday Jan 31, 2008
How can we define a "community"? As the assembly of grownups assuming their mature adulthood, maybe later than some decades ago? Or some Banot/barey mitzvot (respectively for girls and boys,12 and 13 years-old) that could exercise their full religious duties, found a family and lead a congregation? It sounds a bit dreamy, but youths can sometimes raise their parents (Malachi 3:24: "to turn... the hearts of the children to their fathers"). A great number of newcomers are thus assisted if not taught the Israeli way of living by late teens who give them a click of Hebrew and a touch of administrative know-how. Still, it is difficult to consider them as self-sufficient or being totally responsible for themselves and others.
We are used to consider that a community is led by heads. Synagogues have rabbis, churches rely upon clergy. Both traditions refer to "semichah - ordination" - "chirotonia - laying of the hands" in Greek that is in force in most Christian traditions; with "new breaches" in some Jewish and Christian denominations which decided to ordain women (mainly Conservative, Reformed for the Jews and Episcopal / Protestant movements for the Christians).
Still, should communities restrictedly mirror some of their strong-minded heads! Let's say that we firstly envisage communities as a gathering of grownups, some of them having many young families and children, other more elderly people. A "kehilah - community" reflects a wide spectrum that ranges from kindergarten to elderly home companionship. In some cases, people would not stand the presence of children or get nuts with them. Women? They have their space, not always so opaque to others.
We rarely envision our community of faith and prayer as a living body mainly composed of former or future babies and, as a rule, as a process of birth. In Israel, there is no civil regulation of the legal wedding system to have babies in a secular way. Except if you go on a short journey to Cyprus or some other countries, some few embassies. But this has raised a lot of problems for the "chilonim - seculars". Well, Jerusalem Teddy Kollek was openly an apikoros (sort of secular Jew with questions), a son of the former Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Jewry. He was still a Jew, a character he received by birth.
I mainly speak now about how we cope with what is considered as "a birthright" - Israel is the State where any Jew may come, settle, be assisted to arrive, get full rights and duties before even having got to what the Israeli society presupposes today in its diversity. They are entitled to "return" to Israel because of their specific ties with Eretz Yisrael and the way the State can accept them as legally members of this community.
During World War II, as the Jewish community in Palestine was going through hellish times, there was a strict obedience to the rules and laws governing the a common attitude of all those who wanted to reach the independence of a Jewish State. Indeed, from Rav Kook to any "non-believing Jew", they all focused on unity of action. Some groups (e.g. Stern) were disapproved in their ways and called to maintain a spirit of unity. It appears that, at the present, the same factors seem to show, in particular among some teen female settlers who would disobey the rule of the civil Israel law. The question is thus whether their action can be considered as positive, coherent or if it is not parallel to the acts of disobedience during the war. Is or can a multi-fragmented society get to the awareness of oneness. Building requires unity. Israel face the paradox of building beyond societal standards.
It is written: "God created man (et haadam) in His Image (betzalmo), in the Image of God He created him; male and female ("zachar uneqavah") He created them"(Bereishit 1:27). But usual translations are wrong by definition. We could argue that this concerns one "adam" prototype composed of two vital elements, maleness and femaleness. This is linked to an incarnating process that fashions a body and substantiates the human developments. "Ki Atah qanita chliyoti – You created/acquired my kidneys (conscience)" - Tesukeni bebeten immi - You fashioned me in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:14). Then what about "zachar uneqavah – male and female"? Good, "humankind" has "males and females". We live in a very unisex society (clothes, accessories, behaviors), sometimes on the verge of androgyny. Curiously the recent TV series dealing with the lives of hospital physicians, show more and more cases of "undetermined" sexual identity at birth. We might be either confused or driven toward some "abnormal defects". There is this very ancient daily prayer that sounds firstly a bit special but is indeed very down-to-earth if not even hard-boiled: "Blessed are You, Lord of the Universe…/ Who fashioned man with wisdom (chochmah) and many neqavim/openings (mouth, nostrils) and chalulim/cavities (stomach, brains) within him (Shacharit).As often in Semitic tongues, each word is repeated to underscore the importance of this human structure. "Zachar" (after the root seemingly underwent a change in the middle letter /ch/) means "to remember, recall". "Zechrut" = male genitals (Talmud Sanhedrin 10:28d, Avodah Zara 44a), but also a "fructifying system, germ for plants, eggs" (Talmud Shabbat 7:9d). Memory and germinating factors mix up to produce life. Not only memory, but human decisions, brains, heart, feelings cause a man to look for a woman not only to "speak with" but to create a community", sort of joint-venture at times. "Neqavah" determines "women as openings, orifices" as in "in the cavity (neqava) wherein the pearl is seated" (Talmud Shabbat 90a).
There we have something that may often put aside in defining our communities. Man - as any animal or plant - but with the specification of making use of brains, will, conscience is the only creature to enjoy the same capacities as God to "fashion humans by birthing" and thus building families, tribes, communities that repeat what they were told: generations generate history open to the future of living bodies and souls. This is why the Halachah requires that every male give life by "clinging to his wife/woman - davaq bishto (Bereishit 2;24) - not the opposite. Males are the depositaries of a seminal memory that allows fashioning, shaping and creating other human beings. This is an exceptional, totally sacred and natural capacity and, to begin with, the mark of a human identity. God said it was not good for him to be alone (Gen.2:18). Thus, Eve (Chavah) repairs this loneliness as "ezer kenegdo - helper facing Adam" and flowing out God's imprints of male memory in shaping embryos, babies till they birth.
This is why men must observe the bound-to-time Mitzvot/Commandments while women are seemingly not time-bound (a few exceptions are mentioned in Talmud Qiddushin 33b). Women are naturally bound to time because of their machzor (menstrual cycle and time of fecundity). Say that women are living throughout their life with the showing and disappearance of a fruitful physical and mental (thus also spiritual) calendar. This agenda basically corresponds, per days, to the lunar Jewish month.
We can then give whatever explanations about the fact that the character of being a Jew is transmitted by the mother. It has a very special meaning: "You drew me from the womb, made me secure at my mother's breast. I became Your charge at birth; from my mother's womb, You are my God" (Psalm 22:10-11).
Being a Jew is a call in utero. Every human being is fashioned according to God's image and likeness. Before being delivered to this world, a Jew is already a child of God's Israel. On the other hand, no human being was born a Christian. Whatever origin, Christianity implies to be baptized. Interestingly, in case of emergency, every human - whatever backgrounds or beliefs - can perform a baptism. But no one was ever born a Christian. This is a problem for some nations that often consider they would have gotten some privileges because of their specific Christian backgrounds. Some Christian communities disappeared (North Africa, Arabia, Tibet, China, Mongolia).
On the other hand, sacredness has to be preserved and respected as the mark of God. This call in utero is unique and can somehow be compared to the Temple and the Shechinah (God's Presence). Indeed, the community of Israel starts before birth. Medical monitoring from the earliest days of conception allows at the present another positive attitude towards what a community is and our responsibility.
Quoting the Jewish tradition about the Shechinah, Paul of Tarsus said: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy". (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
How can we define a "community"? As the assembly of grownups assuming their mature adulthood, maybe later than some decades ago? Or some Banot/barey mitzvot (respectively for girls and boys,12 and 13 years-old) that could exercise their full religious duties, found a family and lead a congregation? It sounds a bit dreamy, but youths can sometimes raise their parents (Malachi 3:24: "to turn... the hearts of the children to their fathers"). A great number of newcomers are thus assisted if not taught the Israeli way of living by late teens who give them a click of Hebrew and a touch of administrative know-how. Still, it is difficult to consider them as self-sufficient or being totally responsible for themselves and others.
We are used to consider that a community is led by heads. Synagogues have rabbis, churches rely upon clergy. Both traditions refer to "semichah - ordination" - "chirotonia - laying of the hands" in Greek that is in force in most Christian traditions; with "new breaches" in some Jewish and Christian denominations which decided to ordain women (mainly Conservative, Reformed for the Jews and Episcopal / Protestant movements for the Christians).
Still, should communities restrictedly mirror some of their strong-minded heads! Let's say that we firstly envisage communities as a gathering of grownups, some of them having many young families and children, other more elderly people. A "kehilah - community" reflects a wide spectrum that ranges from kindergarten to elderly home companionship. In some cases, people would not stand the presence of children or get nuts with them. Women? They have their space, not always so opaque to others.
We rarely envision our community of faith and prayer as a living body mainly composed of former or future babies and, as a rule, as a process of birth. In Israel, there is no civil regulation of the legal wedding system to have babies in a secular way. Except if you go on a short journey to Cyprus or some other countries, some few embassies. But this has raised a lot of problems for the "chilonim - seculars". Well, Jerusalem Teddy Kollek was openly an apikoros (sort of secular Jew with questions), a son of the former Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Jewry. He was still a Jew, a character he received by birth.
I mainly speak now about how we cope with what is considered as "a birthright" - Israel is the State where any Jew may come, settle, be assisted to arrive, get full rights and duties before even having got to what the Israeli society presupposes today in its diversity. They are entitled to "return" to Israel because of their specific ties with Eretz Yisrael and the way the State can accept them as legally members of this community.
During World War II, as the Jewish community in Palestine was going through hellish times, there was a strict obedience to the rules and laws governing the a common attitude of all those who wanted to reach the independence of a Jewish State. Indeed, from Rav Kook to any "non-believing Jew", they all focused on unity of action. Some groups (e.g. Stern) were disapproved in their ways and called to maintain a spirit of unity. It appears that, at the present, the same factors seem to show, in particular among some teen female settlers who would disobey the rule of the civil Israel law. The question is thus whether their action can be considered as positive, coherent or if it is not parallel to the acts of disobedience during the war. Is or can a multi-fragmented society get to the awareness of oneness. Building requires unity. Israel face the paradox of building beyond societal standards.
It is written: "God created man (et haadam) in His Image (betzalmo), in the Image of God He created him; male and female ("zachar uneqavah") He created them"(Bereishit 1:27). But usual translations are wrong by definition. We could argue that this concerns one "adam" prototype composed of two vital elements, maleness and femaleness. This is linked to an incarnating process that fashions a body and substantiates the human developments. "Ki Atah qanita chliyoti – You created/acquired my kidneys (conscience)" - Tesukeni bebeten immi - You fashioned me in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:14). Then what about "zachar uneqavah – male and female"? Good, "humankind" has "males and females". We live in a very unisex society (clothes, accessories, behaviors), sometimes on the verge of androgyny. Curiously the recent TV series dealing with the lives of hospital physicians, show more and more cases of "undetermined" sexual identity at birth. We might be either confused or driven toward some "abnormal defects". There is this very ancient daily prayer that sounds firstly a bit special but is indeed very down-to-earth if not even hard-boiled: "Blessed are You, Lord of the Universe…/ Who fashioned man with wisdom (chochmah) and many neqavim/openings (mouth, nostrils) and chalulim/cavities (stomach, brains) within him (Shacharit).As often in Semitic tongues, each word is repeated to underscore the importance of this human structure. "Zachar" (after the root seemingly underwent a change in the middle letter /ch/) means "to remember, recall". "Zechrut" = male genitals (Talmud Sanhedrin 10:28d, Avodah Zara 44a), but also a "fructifying system, germ for plants, eggs" (Talmud Shabbat 7:9d). Memory and germinating factors mix up to produce life. Not only memory, but human decisions, brains, heart, feelings cause a man to look for a woman not only to "speak with" but to create a community", sort of joint-venture at times. "Neqavah" determines "women as openings, orifices" as in "in the cavity (neqava) wherein the pearl is seated" (Talmud Shabbat 90a).
There we have something that may often put aside in defining our communities. Man - as any animal or plant - but with the specification of making use of brains, will, conscience is the only creature to enjoy the same capacities as God to "fashion humans by birthing" and thus building families, tribes, communities that repeat what they were told: generations generate history open to the future of living bodies and souls. This is why the Halachah requires that every male give life by "clinging to his wife/woman - davaq bishto (Bereishit 2;24) - not the opposite. Males are the depositaries of a seminal memory that allows fashioning, shaping and creating other human beings. This is an exceptional, totally sacred and natural capacity and, to begin with, the mark of a human identity. God said it was not good for him to be alone (Gen.2:18). Thus, Eve (Chavah) repairs this loneliness as "ezer kenegdo - helper facing Adam" and flowing out God's imprints of male memory in shaping embryos, babies till they birth.
This is why men must observe the bound-to-time Mitzvot/Commandments while women are seemingly not time-bound (a few exceptions are mentioned in Talmud Qiddushin 33b). Women are naturally bound to time because of their machzor (menstrual cycle and time of fecundity). Say that women are living throughout their life with the showing and disappearance of a fruitful physical and mental (thus also spiritual) calendar. This agenda basically corresponds, per days, to the lunar Jewish month.
We can then give whatever explanations about the fact that the character of being a Jew is transmitted by the mother. It has a very special meaning: "You drew me from the womb, made me secure at my mother's breast. I became Your charge at birth; from my mother's womb, You are my God" (Psalm 22:10-11).
Being a Jew is a call in utero. Every human being is fashioned according to God's image and likeness. Before being delivered to this world, a Jew is already a child of God's Israel. On the other hand, no human being was born a Christian. Whatever origin, Christianity implies to be baptized. Interestingly, in case of emergency, every human - whatever backgrounds or beliefs - can perform a baptism. But no one was ever born a Christian. This is a problem for some nations that often consider they would have gotten some privileges because of their specific Christian backgrounds. Some Christian communities disappeared (North Africa, Arabia, Tibet, China, Mongolia).
On the other hand, sacredness has to be preserved and respected as the mark of God. This call in utero is unique and can somehow be compared to the Temple and the Shechinah (God's Presence). Indeed, the community of Israel starts before birth. Medical monitoring from the earliest days of conception allows at the present another positive attitude towards what a community is and our responsibility.
Quoting the Jewish tradition about the Shechinah, Paul of Tarsus said: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy". (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
Patata: Gossip or Justices
Thursday Jan 24, 2008
The weekly Parshat hashavua - reading portion "Yithro" is the happy end and restart of Shemot/Exodus - Part 1. Moses meets with Yithro, his father-in-law, his wife Zipporah and their two children, Gershom and Eliezer. The people of Israel were dwelling under tents and were meeting with Moses every day from the morning until sunset". "Vayeshev Moshe lishpot ha'am - and Moses was sitting to magistrate the people, nation". The word has a large lexical scope. Its root is rather funny and diverting at first glance: "shafat = "to divide, decree, decide, judge, criticize", as "it was a generation that judged its judges" (Bava Bathra15b ) as " shifta (Aramaic) = childish" are linked to Aramaic: "patata" = gossip, confusing speech, from "patat" = to break, to talk flippant.
The typical "patata" example is when a person repeats things again and again in a parrot-fashion, like in the Talmud: "God be with you" (Leviticus Rabba 32). It should be noted that actions involving judging, deciding or ruling were viewed as the consequence, or at least, comparable to childlike and even childish activities. You know the same as when children play to be rulers, physicians in a hospital, lawyers - jobs that Jews love to exercise as professionals and after years of studies. The Oriental way of judging makes it also very vivid, psychedelic at times.
Moshe Rabbenu was a nice man. Very obedient to Yithro, his father-in-law, a pagan priest of Madian. Grandpa Yithro maybe considered as the first righteous among the nations. He saved Moses, gave him his daughter Zipporah. A thoughtful wife: she has proven to be an adult ever since they met and reminded her husband to circumcise their kids. This weekly portion is significant in many constant aspects that are essential for the spirit of Judaism : Shemot 18:1-20:23. The haftarot (prophetic readings) are from Isaiah 6:1-7.9:5.6(Ashkenazim, Yemenites); 6:1-13 (Sephardim).
Nowadays, we love sessions and run from one yeshivah to another meeting, workshops, video online conferences and discussions. This stress is utterly maddening and insane, what! Yithro had a serious talk with his son-in-law. Of course, it was normal at that time for people to meet constantly outside the tents were normal; at least, Moses was sitting and "was regulating" the situation. The result, by the way, can be even more profitable than all these online overseas video-meetings. Wilderness and oral culture people know how to resolve things much quicker than we do. But our ancestors could not eat properly, wash, pray or take care of their wives and children with normal refreshing kisses. Yithro said to Moshe: "What is this that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit as a magistrate alone while all the people stand about you from morning from evening?" Moses replied: "It is because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes before me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of God (chukei HaElohim vetoratav)" (Shemot 18:16). Yithro said: "You do not do the right thing; you will surely wear you out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone... You represent the people before God: you bring the disputes before God... You shall also seek out from among the people capable men - anshey chayil who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. Set these over them as chiefs... let them judge at all times... make it easier for yourself by sharing the burden with you" Moses did so and heeded his father-in-law". This is the first major event in the process of management after the exodus. Frankly, Moses did not look like some self-centered, power-thirsty supreme guide. He just delivered the Israelites from the worse sort of despotic slavery and led them to freedom. Yithro introduced with Moses the rule that "courage"(sic) and "adult subject of the Law" qualities suppose to make free under condition of anonymity and the prejudice of others? This is a moral question right now among a lot of other related issues of co-responsibility. Prejudice and responsibility presuppose the existence of at least two people... free from bondage and "subject of the law", i.e. open.
But the point is to know to which laws and teachings Moses was referring during these long sessions. The question is that the Israelites - as Moses - never had experienced power or any ruling administration system. They just had fled from Egypt with Pharaoh's temporary consent. This has been an immutable law for the Jews throughout history to do things in accordance with the Nations' acquiescence. This does not rely upon any consent of Christians or Muslims, just Non-Jews. Cyrus of Persia - a pagan Messiah for the Jewish tradition - allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. In 1947, in totally different conditions and the matter is still a slant, the United Nations agreed for the creation of the State of Israel, thus the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel. Thus, who counseled Moses to set up a "governing body of judges"? His father-in-law, the pagan priest of Madian, did. He was the second non-Jew, with Pharaoh's daughter, who had saved Moshe.
Moses chose "capable men = anshey chayil" as we have "eshet chayil - women of virtue". Israel is not based on power or might. It is called to function with judgment, brains, wisdom, discernment between what is right or wrong, good or evil. Yithro showed that "governmental" capacities belong to natural Law and had been erased from the slaves' memory. On the other hand, God's free bond allows the Jews not to rule but exert justice. King (and Messiah) David, his son Solomon lost their minds and broke the seal of the Commandments by their ethical and spiritual misconducts. This shows that we are facing - maybe right now - the same problem: how society, disputes, judges and God can get to an agreement in order to comply with righteousness? Is it accidentally if a free State of the Jews only existed twice and for short periods. Yithro's counsel to Moshe is still pending: to find the required "anshey chayil", those capable to regulate and administrate the people and bring forth true rectitude to the Nations. God's words are the same as in the wilderness: "All the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (mamlechet kohanim ve-goy kadosh" - Shemot 19:2-6).
Then Moses and the Israelites leave Yithro and come to Mount Sinai. They will hear and listen to the Ten Paroles/Divrot. There is a special move that should be noted: Moshe was "judging" without any written law, but quoting God's teachings. The first Giving of the Ten Commandments is at the heart of the Jewish moral and spiritual attitudes between man and humans and humans with God. They ram all the Mitzvot into a compact way of living. God repeatedly addressed the humans and, in this portion, the Israelites with principles that are parallel to the Seven Noahide Laws. In the Ten Commandments, the two first were directly heard by all the Israelites. But the people were scared and Moses heard the other eight Paroles and transmitted them to the children of Israel. All the Commandments deal with justice and presuppose the existence of a "court - din/mishpat". This is a major specification of the Noahide laws not to harm an animal and to judge in court.
In many places in the world, justice can be exercised either by professionals or by ordinary citizens or mixed courts/justices. They can refer to habits and customs or special laws, legal articles. The Sumerian civilization had developed the first known legal code of justice that deeply influenced the TaNaKh and the Talmud. Which system had been in use in Egypt, then in the wilderness? Oral Law that presupposed the compliance with a written law did not exist at that time for the Israelites. Or then, a wilderness oral (natural) law accompanied by the oral Giving of the Ten Commandments? "One thing God had spoken (achat dibber Elohim); two things have I heard (shtayim-zu shama'ti) (Psalm 62:12). This is what the Pirkey Avot (Sayings of the Fathers) confirms: Oral Law was given to Moses at the Sinai along with the Written One. For the moment, this week, we are in full oral speech which signals a birth point. Oral law is tracing back to "early ages if not primitive times" of basic wisdom and allow to methodize, organize, regulate and govern with insights and not through the prism of blurring smokes.
The Oral Law has accompanied Judaism throughout its dispersion. The selection of the canonical books of the Bible have varied from the Jewish decisions at Yavneh till the early Church that spread and split into different jurisdictions and Creeds. The Oral Torah has poorly been comprehended by most Churches as a part of the Giving of the Law at the Sinai. The Eastern Orthodox Churches replaced it by the "Tradition of the (Christian) Fathers". But both the "Ten Paroles" and the Gospel have been preceded by a long time of oral teaching that it would be convenient to revitalize.
Moses, as Jesus of Nazareth, called their people not to be afraid: "al-tira'u – have not fear". Different sorts of fears (pachadim) constitute a set of psychological symptoms that may alert us about our reactions to all the events we have to face or cope with. Dialogue is a way to cure this. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Week of prayer for the Unity of the Christians. God is One and can’t be divided. This Week corresponds to the difficult travail that set up a pagan priest and Moses to show how redemption can make sense in a society.
The weekly Parshat hashavua - reading portion "Yithro" is the happy end and restart of Shemot/Exodus - Part 1. Moses meets with Yithro, his father-in-law, his wife Zipporah and their two children, Gershom and Eliezer. The people of Israel were dwelling under tents and were meeting with Moses every day from the morning until sunset". "Vayeshev Moshe lishpot ha'am - and Moses was sitting to magistrate the people, nation". The word has a large lexical scope. Its root is rather funny and diverting at first glance: "shafat = "to divide, decree, decide, judge, criticize", as "it was a generation that judged its judges" (Bava Bathra15b ) as " shifta (Aramaic) = childish" are linked to Aramaic: "patata" = gossip, confusing speech, from "patat" = to break, to talk flippant.
The typical "patata" example is when a person repeats things again and again in a parrot-fashion, like in the Talmud: "God be with you" (Leviticus Rabba 32). It should be noted that actions involving judging, deciding or ruling were viewed as the consequence, or at least, comparable to childlike and even childish activities. You know the same as when children play to be rulers, physicians in a hospital, lawyers - jobs that Jews love to exercise as professionals and after years of studies. The Oriental way of judging makes it also very vivid, psychedelic at times.
Moshe Rabbenu was a nice man. Very obedient to Yithro, his father-in-law, a pagan priest of Madian. Grandpa Yithro maybe considered as the first righteous among the nations. He saved Moses, gave him his daughter Zipporah. A thoughtful wife: she has proven to be an adult ever since they met and reminded her husband to circumcise their kids. This weekly portion is significant in many constant aspects that are essential for the spirit of Judaism : Shemot 18:1-20:23. The haftarot (prophetic readings) are from Isaiah 6:1-7.9:5.6(Ashkenazim, Yemenites); 6:1-13 (Sephardim).
Nowadays, we love sessions and run from one yeshivah to another meeting, workshops, video online conferences and discussions. This stress is utterly maddening and insane, what! Yithro had a serious talk with his son-in-law. Of course, it was normal at that time for people to meet constantly outside the tents were normal; at least, Moses was sitting and "was regulating" the situation. The result, by the way, can be even more profitable than all these online overseas video-meetings. Wilderness and oral culture people know how to resolve things much quicker than we do. But our ancestors could not eat properly, wash, pray or take care of their wives and children with normal refreshing kisses. Yithro said to Moshe: "What is this that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit as a magistrate alone while all the people stand about you from morning from evening?" Moses replied: "It is because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes before me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of God (chukei HaElohim vetoratav)" (Shemot 18:16). Yithro said: "You do not do the right thing; you will surely wear you out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone... You represent the people before God: you bring the disputes before God... You shall also seek out from among the people capable men - anshey chayil who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. Set these over them as chiefs... let them judge at all times... make it easier for yourself by sharing the burden with you" Moses did so and heeded his father-in-law". This is the first major event in the process of management after the exodus. Frankly, Moses did not look like some self-centered, power-thirsty supreme guide. He just delivered the Israelites from the worse sort of despotic slavery and led them to freedom. Yithro introduced with Moses the rule that "courage"(sic) and "adult subject of the Law" qualities suppose to make free under condition of anonymity and the prejudice of others? This is a moral question right now among a lot of other related issues of co-responsibility. Prejudice and responsibility presuppose the existence of at least two people... free from bondage and "subject of the law", i.e. open.
But the point is to know to which laws and teachings Moses was referring during these long sessions. The question is that the Israelites - as Moses - never had experienced power or any ruling administration system. They just had fled from Egypt with Pharaoh's temporary consent. This has been an immutable law for the Jews throughout history to do things in accordance with the Nations' acquiescence. This does not rely upon any consent of Christians or Muslims, just Non-Jews. Cyrus of Persia - a pagan Messiah for the Jewish tradition - allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. In 1947, in totally different conditions and the matter is still a slant, the United Nations agreed for the creation of the State of Israel, thus the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel. Thus, who counseled Moses to set up a "governing body of judges"? His father-in-law, the pagan priest of Madian, did. He was the second non-Jew, with Pharaoh's daughter, who had saved Moshe.
Moses chose "capable men = anshey chayil" as we have "eshet chayil - women of virtue". Israel is not based on power or might. It is called to function with judgment, brains, wisdom, discernment between what is right or wrong, good or evil. Yithro showed that "governmental" capacities belong to natural Law and had been erased from the slaves' memory. On the other hand, God's free bond allows the Jews not to rule but exert justice. King (and Messiah) David, his son Solomon lost their minds and broke the seal of the Commandments by their ethical and spiritual misconducts. This shows that we are facing - maybe right now - the same problem: how society, disputes, judges and God can get to an agreement in order to comply with righteousness? Is it accidentally if a free State of the Jews only existed twice and for short periods. Yithro's counsel to Moshe is still pending: to find the required "anshey chayil", those capable to regulate and administrate the people and bring forth true rectitude to the Nations. God's words are the same as in the wilderness: "All the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (mamlechet kohanim ve-goy kadosh" - Shemot 19:2-6).
Then Moses and the Israelites leave Yithro and come to Mount Sinai. They will hear and listen to the Ten Paroles/Divrot. There is a special move that should be noted: Moshe was "judging" without any written law, but quoting God's teachings. The first Giving of the Ten Commandments is at the heart of the Jewish moral and spiritual attitudes between man and humans and humans with God. They ram all the Mitzvot into a compact way of living. God repeatedly addressed the humans and, in this portion, the Israelites with principles that are parallel to the Seven Noahide Laws. In the Ten Commandments, the two first were directly heard by all the Israelites. But the people were scared and Moses heard the other eight Paroles and transmitted them to the children of Israel. All the Commandments deal with justice and presuppose the existence of a "court - din/mishpat". This is a major specification of the Noahide laws not to harm an animal and to judge in court.
In many places in the world, justice can be exercised either by professionals or by ordinary citizens or mixed courts/justices. They can refer to habits and customs or special laws, legal articles. The Sumerian civilization had developed the first known legal code of justice that deeply influenced the TaNaKh and the Talmud. Which system had been in use in Egypt, then in the wilderness? Oral Law that presupposed the compliance with a written law did not exist at that time for the Israelites. Or then, a wilderness oral (natural) law accompanied by the oral Giving of the Ten Commandments? "One thing God had spoken (achat dibber Elohim); two things have I heard (shtayim-zu shama'ti) (Psalm 62:12). This is what the Pirkey Avot (Sayings of the Fathers) confirms: Oral Law was given to Moses at the Sinai along with the Written One. For the moment, this week, we are in full oral speech which signals a birth point. Oral law is tracing back to "early ages if not primitive times" of basic wisdom and allow to methodize, organize, regulate and govern with insights and not through the prism of blurring smokes.
The Oral Law has accompanied Judaism throughout its dispersion. The selection of the canonical books of the Bible have varied from the Jewish decisions at Yavneh till the early Church that spread and split into different jurisdictions and Creeds. The Oral Torah has poorly been comprehended by most Churches as a part of the Giving of the Law at the Sinai. The Eastern Orthodox Churches replaced it by the "Tradition of the (Christian) Fathers". But both the "Ten Paroles" and the Gospel have been preceded by a long time of oral teaching that it would be convenient to revitalize.
Moses, as Jesus of Nazareth, called their people not to be afraid: "al-tira'u – have not fear". Different sorts of fears (pachadim) constitute a set of psychological symptoms that may alert us about our reactions to all the events we have to face or cope with. Dialogue is a way to cure this. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Week of prayer for the Unity of the Christians. God is One and can’t be divided. This Week corresponds to the difficult travail that set up a pagan priest and Moses to show how redemption can make sense in a society.
TU bishvat: plant and love
Thursday Jan 17, 2008
On the 22nd of January 2008, Tu bishvat - 15th Shvat 5768, will mark the celebration the New Year of the Trees/Eylanot. An agronomic annual rendezvous with nature and fruit, plants and flowers, trees. It can be very healthy to give charities promoting planting of trees before the feast, after the Shabbat and, in general throughout the year. It is also a time to buy fresh fruit and remember to pay some unpaid tithes, if any, or to pay some for the development of agricultural products. As the feast starts on Shabbat eve, bouquets of flowers should show our spruce (like wood) and stylish feelings towards our sweethearts. This also happens to be the Knesset 59th anniversary. The Scriptural tradition reminds us that the 120 members should grow because "the fruit of the righteous (p'ri tzadik) is a tree of life" (Proverbs 11:30) and "there is hope for a tree (la'etz tikvah), if it is cut down, it will renew itself and its shoots will not cease" (Job 14:7). It is very meaningful on this day of 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. In these hard times of moral interrogation about political ethics and individuals, it might be fit to consider all State institutions as a forest ready to act with righteousness and hope.
The parshat hashavua - reading portion of the week is Shemot/Exodus 13:17-17-16 for Shabbat "Beshallach": "And Pharaoh let the people go ".116 verses (pesukim) = 58 to go and get free, 58 conflicting ones, but the general atmosphere was corny, grouchy, definitely not a mind blower. The main issue is expressed toward the end of the portion: "Hayesh HaShem bekirbenu im eyn - Is the Lord present among us or not?" (Shemot/Ex. 17:7). The haftarah (prophetic readings) is from the Book of Shoftim/Judges 4:4-5:31, with slight changes from the Shkenazim to the Yemenites.
Miracles are natural. They are daily stuff. We may not care or be aware that small or bigger events positively change and even save our state of mind, life, physical and material, financial position. The problem is the same in Exodus. Did they really want to be delivered from bondage? Or enjoy some refreshing time in the wilderness? Something has pushed the Israelites to follow Moses' injunction to leave "Mitzra'im (Egypt) = place of imprisonment". Not only a jail, but Egypt was very famous for being a place of graves and tombs.
Versatility should be noted in the events of this week. Stubborn Pharaoh finally conceded to Moses to leave the country with a population of more than 600.000 people. Then, all of a sudden, the ruler felt wrongful, mistaken and ran after the Hebrews (Ex. 14:3). By the way, when the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt, God said: "The people may have a change of heart ("pen-yinachem ha'am") when they see the war and return to Egypt” (Ex. 13:17). They had not been free or centuries and slavery is hard but somehow secure. It does not involve in personal armed conflicts. God stiffened both the hearts of Pharaoh and of the Hebrews.
Pharaoh clumsily pursuit his slaves; his army perished in the waters. God knew that the Israelites might be "waking up" from some involuntary dream of a refreshing sea-shore cruise and decide to cancel their ticket, going back to slavery jail. Thus He made their way longer. The scene is grandiose, not that Hollywood style if we consider the local places and events. The waters split at the Yam Suf - The Sea of the Reeds? Nu? There are doubts about the grandeur of the event. Say that liberty implies a certain splendor. But the site is small and not proven to be splitting so much. Yam Suf is the "Sea of the Reeds", not really the Red Sea. This refers to a place of humility as suggested by the name of the location: the "reeds - suf": a deadline. Botanically speaking, this is not bombastic nor flamboyant, but humbling. This aspect is rarely taken into account. Ordinary men and women, people who fled from Egypt someway under condition of anonymity. Without much intimate conviction, they reached at least the deadline of human bondage. And this is at times unbearable. This sea marks an end (sof), the humbling moment that swirls a life into a totally new and unexpected direction. The right and left side walls of the waters allowed them to pass the sea in dry ground! With a cloud of darkness and a pillar of fire that panicked the Egyptians in the morning. A destruction conducted with mastery "between good and evil" (Talmud Tanchumah Bereishit 12).
But please, God, Moses, more miracles! We are not awfully afraid. We are only scared because we don’t feel secure. This makes the "chom" - "protective wall-warming" barely real. And still, they got saved. This may explain why we cannot "see" God; we would die. But we "see" Him in miracles. When the miracle has humbled and reinvigorated us, it clutches definitely to our beings. At the Yam Suf - Sea of the Reeds, a world was overcome and destroyed: slavery. Wow, this can take lives to be understood as a true human experience.
Thus, the prominent "shirat HaYam - Song of the Sea" in Exodus chapter 15 is essential. Its verses account facts that the Israelites did undergo, but the whole text - in Hebrew - is in imperfect tense. It is an ongoing, present, future daily involvement that any Jewish believer continues to live through. And the Prophetess Miriam, chanting it with a choir of women shows the full unity of the people and the coming generations.
The Christians experience a rather similar situation as Paul of Tarsus states: "For we were saved in hope. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But I we hope or what we do not see, we wait with endurance" (Romans 8:24-25). Or: "Our ancestors were all under the cloud and passed through the sea, into Moses. All ate the same spiritual food (manna) and all drank the same spiritual drink...Yet God was not pleased with most of them and they were struck down in the desert... God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial He will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it" (Corinthians 10:1-5.13).
In Israel, we often have some scatterbrained galut/dispersion attitudes. Ingathered? Right; but Jews recognizing Jews as wool-gathering groups of people. We are hardly conscious that we have constantly been saved by God's outstretched arm: He undoubtedly ensnared us from death. Still, we need to complain as Moses' flock. The Christians also need but they don't dare. It is exact that, considering some torturous diseases, lifelong ones, handicaps, mental or physical defects, all the sufferings of social and economic indigence and humiliation, the humans would firstly require substantial assistance. But God has the nerve - if not the chutzpah (arrogance) - to entrust faith and His kingdom to hokey children.
The Israelites got many miracles along the journey. We can't stand bitter waters? There we get some fresh sources. We had better died in Egypt with some bread: cool, guys: the Lord provides flesh (fat fowls) at night and "manhu - what's that (manna)" the bread that falls from heaven for a full month in the morning, i.e. one extra portion for the Shabbat. Because the exodus included a resting day, the institution o the Shabbat before the Torah was given. So they were sitting put in the wilderness, expecting a seventh portion of manna, they had already swallowed the day before. As concerns the "shelav - quails" or supper, the phenomenon is known in the region at specific times. These fat bird name comes from the root: "resting, overweight, pleasure" as today "shalwah". At Massa and Meriba (trial and quarrel), the Israelites felt a special thirst that Moses resolved by striking the rock with his rod and a lot of water quenched the complaining nation that still had to comment: "Is the Lord present among us, or not?" God had the endurance to oblige the Israelites to fight Amalek at Rephidim. A victory against Evil and Idolaters that is reminded everyday in the morning prayer and still a combat that continues "The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages"(Shemot 17:16).
The real problem is "emunah - faith". Crossing the Sea of the Reeds, yes, the Israelites saw the death of Egypt in the sea and "vaya'aminu baHaShem uvMoshe avdo - and they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moses (Ex. 14:30). But they did not get to the point that they were getting totally free, boundless. Faith still appears as a dead-end. True, this generation had a lot of faith, but failed when Moses came down with the Torah and they died in the wilderness. They will rest forever in the sand of the desert: "midbar = place where God speaks", not in some polytheist Egyptian grave. The Amalekites will be exterminated by David, but Maimonides underlined that the Jews had the task to bring them to the Noahide rules in a peaceful way.
Miracles are daily, they happen everywhere, anytime, reaching out to anybody. Still, most people require "proofs, evidences". God has nothing to prove: He gives miracles. We are more sensitive to calamities, but God strengthens.
When the Churches confess that Jesus was born to a virgin young woman, walked on the waters, healed the sick and resurrected Lazarus/Eleazar, this requires to have faith beyond any natural faith as Moses Mendelssohn once declared. But the basic acts of faith are long to be integrated. In that sense, holiness consists in overcoming such doubts and life tragedies, especially in the natural and supernatural realm of the Mitzvot. Rabbi Akiva, tortured by the Romans, uttered the "Shm'a Israel, Hear Israel" proclaiming his lifelong faith, beyond any mistake, lack of understanding.
On the eve of Tu BiShvat and New years of the Trees, it maybe useful to say that "everything was very good- tov me'od" and that we can go ahead of the Yam Suf with confidence.
On the 22nd of January 2008, Tu bishvat - 15th Shvat 5768, will mark the celebration the New Year of the Trees/Eylanot. An agronomic annual rendezvous with nature and fruit, plants and flowers, trees. It can be very healthy to give charities promoting planting of trees before the feast, after the Shabbat and, in general throughout the year. It is also a time to buy fresh fruit and remember to pay some unpaid tithes, if any, or to pay some for the development of agricultural products. As the feast starts on Shabbat eve, bouquets of flowers should show our spruce (like wood) and stylish feelings towards our sweethearts. This also happens to be the Knesset 59th anniversary. The Scriptural tradition reminds us that the 120 members should grow because "the fruit of the righteous (p'ri tzadik) is a tree of life" (Proverbs 11:30) and "there is hope for a tree (la'etz tikvah), if it is cut down, it will renew itself and its shoots will not cease" (Job 14:7). It is very meaningful on this day of 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. In these hard times of moral interrogation about political ethics and individuals, it might be fit to consider all State institutions as a forest ready to act with righteousness and hope.
The parshat hashavua - reading portion of the week is Shemot/Exodus 13:17-17-16 for Shabbat "Beshallach": "And Pharaoh let the people go ".116 verses (pesukim) = 58 to go and get free, 58 conflicting ones, but the general atmosphere was corny, grouchy, definitely not a mind blower. The main issue is expressed toward the end of the portion: "Hayesh HaShem bekirbenu im eyn - Is the Lord present among us or not?" (Shemot/Ex. 17:7). The haftarah (prophetic readings) is from the Book of Shoftim/Judges 4:4-5:31, with slight changes from the Shkenazim to the Yemenites.
Miracles are natural. They are daily stuff. We may not care or be aware that small or bigger events positively change and even save our state of mind, life, physical and material, financial position. The problem is the same in Exodus. Did they really want to be delivered from bondage? Or enjoy some refreshing time in the wilderness? Something has pushed the Israelites to follow Moses' injunction to leave "Mitzra'im (Egypt) = place of imprisonment". Not only a jail, but Egypt was very famous for being a place of graves and tombs.
Versatility should be noted in the events of this week. Stubborn Pharaoh finally conceded to Moses to leave the country with a population of more than 600.000 people. Then, all of a sudden, the ruler felt wrongful, mistaken and ran after the Hebrews (Ex. 14:3). By the way, when the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt, God said: "The people may have a change of heart ("pen-yinachem ha'am") when they see the war and return to Egypt” (Ex. 13:17). They had not been free or centuries and slavery is hard but somehow secure. It does not involve in personal armed conflicts. God stiffened both the hearts of Pharaoh and of the Hebrews.
Pharaoh clumsily pursuit his slaves; his army perished in the waters. God knew that the Israelites might be "waking up" from some involuntary dream of a refreshing sea-shore cruise and decide to cancel their ticket, going back to slavery jail. Thus He made their way longer. The scene is grandiose, not that Hollywood style if we consider the local places and events. The waters split at the Yam Suf - The Sea of the Reeds? Nu? There are doubts about the grandeur of the event. Say that liberty implies a certain splendor. But the site is small and not proven to be splitting so much. Yam Suf is the "Sea of the Reeds", not really the Red Sea. This refers to a place of humility as suggested by the name of the location: the "reeds - suf": a deadline. Botanically speaking, this is not bombastic nor flamboyant, but humbling. This aspect is rarely taken into account. Ordinary men and women, people who fled from Egypt someway under condition of anonymity. Without much intimate conviction, they reached at least the deadline of human bondage. And this is at times unbearable. This sea marks an end (sof), the humbling moment that swirls a life into a totally new and unexpected direction. The right and left side walls of the waters allowed them to pass the sea in dry ground! With a cloud of darkness and a pillar of fire that panicked the Egyptians in the morning. A destruction conducted with mastery "between good and evil" (Talmud Tanchumah Bereishit 12).
But please, God, Moses, more miracles! We are not awfully afraid. We are only scared because we don’t feel secure. This makes the "chom" - "protective wall-warming" barely real. And still, they got saved. This may explain why we cannot "see" God; we would die. But we "see" Him in miracles. When the miracle has humbled and reinvigorated us, it clutches definitely to our beings. At the Yam Suf - Sea of the Reeds, a world was overcome and destroyed: slavery. Wow, this can take lives to be understood as a true human experience.
Thus, the prominent "shirat HaYam - Song of the Sea" in Exodus chapter 15 is essential. Its verses account facts that the Israelites did undergo, but the whole text - in Hebrew - is in imperfect tense. It is an ongoing, present, future daily involvement that any Jewish believer continues to live through. And the Prophetess Miriam, chanting it with a choir of women shows the full unity of the people and the coming generations.
The Christians experience a rather similar situation as Paul of Tarsus states: "For we were saved in hope. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But I we hope or what we do not see, we wait with endurance" (Romans 8:24-25). Or: "Our ancestors were all under the cloud and passed through the sea, into Moses. All ate the same spiritual food (manna) and all drank the same spiritual drink...Yet God was not pleased with most of them and they were struck down in the desert... God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial He will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it" (Corinthians 10:1-5.13).
In Israel, we often have some scatterbrained galut/dispersion attitudes. Ingathered? Right; but Jews recognizing Jews as wool-gathering groups of people. We are hardly conscious that we have constantly been saved by God's outstretched arm: He undoubtedly ensnared us from death. Still, we need to complain as Moses' flock. The Christians also need but they don't dare. It is exact that, considering some torturous diseases, lifelong ones, handicaps, mental or physical defects, all the sufferings of social and economic indigence and humiliation, the humans would firstly require substantial assistance. But God has the nerve - if not the chutzpah (arrogance) - to entrust faith and His kingdom to hokey children.
The Israelites got many miracles along the journey. We can't stand bitter waters? There we get some fresh sources. We had better died in Egypt with some bread: cool, guys: the Lord provides flesh (fat fowls) at night and "manhu - what's that (manna)" the bread that falls from heaven for a full month in the morning, i.e. one extra portion for the Shabbat. Because the exodus included a resting day, the institution o the Shabbat before the Torah was given. So they were sitting put in the wilderness, expecting a seventh portion of manna, they had already swallowed the day before. As concerns the "shelav - quails" or supper, the phenomenon is known in the region at specific times. These fat bird name comes from the root: "resting, overweight, pleasure" as today "shalwah". At Massa and Meriba (trial and quarrel), the Israelites felt a special thirst that Moses resolved by striking the rock with his rod and a lot of water quenched the complaining nation that still had to comment: "Is the Lord present among us, or not?" God had the endurance to oblige the Israelites to fight Amalek at Rephidim. A victory against Evil and Idolaters that is reminded everyday in the morning prayer and still a combat that continues "The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages"(Shemot 17:16).
The real problem is "emunah - faith". Crossing the Sea of the Reeds, yes, the Israelites saw the death of Egypt in the sea and "vaya'aminu baHaShem uvMoshe avdo - and they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moses (Ex. 14:30). But they did not get to the point that they were getting totally free, boundless. Faith still appears as a dead-end. True, this generation had a lot of faith, but failed when Moses came down with the Torah and they died in the wilderness. They will rest forever in the sand of the desert: "midbar = place where God speaks", not in some polytheist Egyptian grave. The Amalekites will be exterminated by David, but Maimonides underlined that the Jews had the task to bring them to the Noahide rules in a peaceful way.
Miracles are daily, they happen everywhere, anytime, reaching out to anybody. Still, most people require "proofs, evidences". God has nothing to prove: He gives miracles. We are more sensitive to calamities, but God strengthens.
When the Churches confess that Jesus was born to a virgin young woman, walked on the waters, healed the sick and resurrected Lazarus/Eleazar, this requires to have faith beyond any natural faith as Moses Mendelssohn once declared. But the basic acts of faith are long to be integrated. In that sense, holiness consists in overcoming such doubts and life tragedies, especially in the natural and supernatural realm of the Mitzvot. Rabbi Akiva, tortured by the Romans, uttered the "Shm'a Israel, Hear Israel" proclaiming his lifelong faith, beyond any mistake, lack of understanding.
On the eve of Tu BiShvat and New years of the Trees, it maybe useful to say that "everything was very good- tov me'od" and that we can go ahead of the Yam Suf with confidence.
Peru: grow and multiply
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.
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.
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.
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