Onshin: about punishment

Over and over again we seem to get bogged down into revenge calling revenge, wounds crying for deeper wounds, blood shedding the shadow of paying with blood. This is our spiritual stand at the present in the whole of the Near and Middle-East. This is the pathetic situation of the Iraqi society, the cradle of Sumer and of the Abrahamic monotheism. The same spirit has yelled throughout the 20th century from Turkey to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaidjan, Persia, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Ethiopia, Sudan.

This wide area includes all the nations and countries that participated or were somehow involved over the past 7,000 years in the development of civilization, law systems, faith and belief patterns that led from polytheism to monotheism. It took ages, centuries, a lot of think abilities, questions, revolving positionings, a lot of brain and understanding to get to Zaratushtra Mani and gnosticism, Mazdean attitude of good and evil that is at the heart of the Jewish codex and appeal to the Jews and to the nations.It took centuries for the Buddha (the Awaken) - /budh/ un Indo-European tongues both means "to exist, to wake up" and strangely influenced the Jewish and Christian Ways.

During the confession, the believer of Byzantine rite says "I sinned in word, action and all my feelings (чувства = feelings but the word reminds "страсти - passion/s). In Hebrew, the same words are included in the the confession of sins/viduy\וידוי considering that when passing away, a human being should repent upon his irrational or violent feelings, uncontrolled yetzer\יצר - as "yetzer hatov (good) - yetzer hara (evil) - יצר הטוב\יצר הרע" that should be overcome by the time of becoming adults. This vast region is shaped by wrestling passions that border irrationality and the God of lovingkindness would prevail over the God of punishment. The Jewish soul is fashioned by love, pardon and hope beyond any possible, realistic or rational hope.

In 2001, just a few months before Intifida 2 started, a very good and credible Israeli daily published a rather long article about the "unforgivable aspect of Israeli society". It described the parallel situation of a society that cannot forgive. In the seven years, this attitude turned into an unflinchingly self-conviction. But the country as the citizens slowly adopt various ways of behavior and living that sways from fear/panic, identity crisis, total ignorance of moral and Jewish traditional values to some sort of national baby kindergarten and infantilization. KZ WWII veterans financially save the State for a part, and live like in an underworld. On the other hand, spoiled adult teens waste money, time and corrupt the "virginal look" of the State of the Jews at its first beginnings.

We are going through the weeks/shabbatot of abomination\תועבה (cf. my previous note) that recall our need for penance and conversion. This does not concern the "others". This concerns the Jews and the community of Israel. The terrible, truly frightening spiritual condition of the faithful - thus also the Children of Israel - is that most congregations would deter sins in the others and victimize them rather than humbling themselves in order to feel God's atonement. This has always been the privilege of Israel's "poor in spirit - anavim\ענויים also called (invisible) tzadikim\צדיקים . Indeed, we live in the same confusion governed by panic masked by the pretence to be strong and keeping everything under control.

Do we remember as 5768 fades away as a year of remittance and repose for the earth and the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel that there is precisely no measure to patince and pardon or remittance of debts, release of sins? If we are the State of the Jews, this means we are the State of the Mitzvot and all related explanations, if any. Rabbi Nahman of Breslov made a very peculiar statement: any Jew that would visit his grave and recite the 10 Tikkun haklali\תיקון הכללי (General repair/remedy) psalms will be redeemed from the Gehenna/Gehinnom or Inferno.

The Tanya that is read everyday in the Chabad community and should also be studied in connection with the tradition of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Churches focuses on the tradition of teaching how to practice the Mitzvot with righteousness\בצדק . During the time of the Abomination days, donning the tefillin (firstly given by the time of Pessah and Exodus) aims at waking up the conscience and moral forces of the Jews in fighting and overcoming evil.

How come that in such historical circumstances, we are so shy at facing reality. Nonetheless, Israel is laboratory State for probing the Mitzvot... What to do\מה לעשות?

We might be tempted by some renewed tendencies practiced by the Sadducees. They held the control of the Temple and developed the famous "baseless hatred\שנאת חינם - sinat chinam". They perfectly knew the rules, the rituals, the sacrifices, the laws. They did not accept the Oral Law or Talmud and rejected the creed in the resurrection of the dead. This means that they did not believe in afterlife, eschaton, world-to-come and eternity.

This corresponds to our contemporary geenral feeling that afterlife may exist, but basically we are limited to be born, grow and die. Thereafter, we disappear or are reduced to nil. The Pharisaic and Christian creeds, on the contrary, insist on life before incarnation (Yevamot 52b: God will embody all the souls into gufim (bodies) until He will reach the full number), during human conscious life time and death in view to be resurrected (Birkat Mechayeh metim\ברכת מחיה מתים - Amidah blessing "revives the dead"). This makes every single life sacred, holy, sanctified and sanctifying.

In this respect, the Mitzvah "You shall not slay, kill, murder\לא תרצח - lo tirtzeah" corresponds in the Tablets to worshiping the Only One God, Source of Life.The realm of the Mitzvot can only be understood and correctly accepted by the Jews who mainly rely upon the Oral Tradition that severely condemns any attempt to murder anybody.

In the past months, the savage terror attack against the yeshivah Rav Kook seemd to induce some rabbis in "blessing" Jewish bar-Mitzvah men who would agenge the students by killing certain Arabs in retaliation. It should be underlined that some politically-oriented if not obsessed members of the Christian Arab clergy have similarly called to bless and support the actions of the Hamas against the Jews and the State of Israel. Such preaches are not rlated to any serious or trustworthy Jewish or Christian tradition. "Thou shalt not kill (any member of thy tribe)" has constantly been a sort of allowance to murder the "others". But such advices do not respect the sacredness of the Mitzvot.

The Commandments overshadow the community of the faithful. By no means, the community can seize and dispose of the Mitzvot and use them to justify political choices. The Mitzvot are factors and agents of Unity while politics sustains parties and divisions. There is more: Israel - because she has to be the State of the Mitzvot relies on a very strong multi-faceted legal system that intends to protects communities and individuals' rights to exist and develop. Thus, we are not in the United States or in the Former Soviet Union. The American law - totally split all through the US States is one of the systems to which some Israelis are submitted by double citizenship or for cultural motivations.

Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian, Uzbek and other former USSR people who are residing or got the Israeli citizenship cannot claim any reference to the former Soviet legal system, just as the Ethiopians or Argentinians or other inhabitants of Israel. With regards to death penalty, this creates an wide scope of possible decisions with as much colors as in a kaleidoscope. This has nothing to do with God's righteousness shown through the Mitzvot that concerns every single soul or living being (animals as well).

Interestingly, the State of Israel has no death penalty, except in the case of those who evidently participated in the process of the extermination of the Jews. This deals with the holocaust criminals and the only executed one was Adolf Eichmann in 1962. It should be noted that this death penalty rule was only applied for one individual out of thousands.

It is stated "that the Lord did not punish undiscovered transgressions (committed in Israel's camps) (Sanhedrin 54a-43b). But the major aspect is to refer to Moses passing away because he had killed a human being. This is at the core of the Shabbat Nachamu\נחמו (comfort, after Tisha BeAv) and the "Etchanan\ אתחנן emand for the grace of entering Eretz Canaan (Devarim 3:26). God refuses this privilege to Moses.

This has a very special insightful and profond meaning: murders were committed by the Hebrews throughout their exodus, especially by the dath of the Egyptians. But the supreme decision was in the hands of God, not depending on human will and emotions. During the Seder of Pesach, Jews sing sotto voce that the Egyptians firstborns were killed. There is no place for any sort of murder for a Jewish soul and, subsequently, an authentic State of the Jews. This can sound a bit bizarre and quixotically dreamy. The faith of Israel underscores how precious and essential purity is for their tradition that consists to live, give life and sustain life in the likeness of God's action.

We should not reduce, even if it shows as a great temptation, the realm of the Mitzvot to the way the pagans, nations of the world are seduced to exert their power upon each other. Then killings generate bloodsheds, revenge calls to avenging on others, enemies, foreigners, aliens.

Strangely enough we miss at the moment two opposite samples of characters: Rabbi Yehoshua Leibowicz z"l who would scream and yell all the way at the sight of the present society. He was right when he said that the Yiddishkayt\Jewishness died out in the ashes of the Nazi and Soviet extermination systems. Nonetheless, observing Jews should remember that spiritual credit does not rely on the number of sold best-sellers or ability to run Judaica as a juicy business. This is also true for any Christian or clergy individual or community. R. Leibowicz was screaming because he knew what the world of the Mitzvot is and shall always be: definitely not an American hamburger for Schnell Imbiss (quick-eating). It will take time, a long time before the former Soviets will understand that Israel is not only a shelter for the Jews, with possible baskets and open doors to the planet. Joseph Trumpeldor died at Tel Hai and he made his life a sacrifice. He was secular. But this is the real price of the earth.

Then we also miss something of the Szatmarer tradition. We need people who, whatever extreme in their positions, oblige the Jews and all other communities to understand today what it really means to become who we are still in our mothers' wombs. It cannot be an easy task. Israel only starts to discover the heritage of schools who fully lived via the observance of the Mitzvot.

R. Shmueley Boteach wrote a very nice and perspicacious article for the 14th yohrtzayt/anniversary of the passing away of Rebbe Menachem Mendel z"l. I am not sure that the Lubavitcher Rebbe was so American or Goldene Medine\גאלדענע מדינה - like. He had a real universal vision of Judaism and of how the Mitzvot should be taught and taught again in order to reach out to all the Jews and the Gentiles as well. I am quite sure that he was aware that Moses was banned to enter the Eretz. This was his question: can a Jew leave Eretz once he came back? The Rebbe lived in the dispersion.

אתהלך לפני ה. בארצות החיים \ I shall walk in the presence of the Lord on the earths of the living (Tehillim).

Av Aleksandr

Dinkum dinkum mates in Him

This Pinchas Shabbat is over, but the week starts. The Shabbat fell this year on the 17th of Tamuz 5768. It should really mean something important for each of us, Israelis, inhabitants of Israel. A 60th anniversary celebration period that fades slowly in peaceful uncertainty. There are some points that the Israeli society cannot accept openly. Let's say that it is the consequence of the permanent traumatic harassment that implicitly wants to deny her rights, ignore her existence and ambiguously recognizes her like shadowing glimpses.

In the course of the four shabbatot that will lead to Tisha be'Av (ט" באב - 9th of Av) and the memorial of the destruction of the two Temples, the Jewish people are called to reflect upon its fate and abominations. Contemporary Jews can hardly review their lives in the State of Israel by questioning themselves as guilty and unrighteous community. Guilt and self-rejection, denial have structured for a great part a kind of neurotic behavior toward existence and the reasons why a Jew is or would be still alive and being a living extant person enjoy life to the full. Thus, it might even turn to some constant drift: how to transgress the rules and get free of invisible handcuffs or ropes.

Israeli youths are usually simple and on the verge of naivity. Therefore, they can be cruel and mentally hurt their friends or people they would not stand. Generally speaking, they are nice, soft, like tender teddy bears, easy to cry and ready to comfort, open to the world, spoiled, overprotected because one child is like 100 children in any other country. They are like the flowers: don't remove or cut a growing flower: it grows, it is a living plant and it means a victory over sand, dryness, crude brains and pits without water. Israeli youth grow and they are taught everyday that struggle for life is mainly a fight against a history of hatred that apparently climaxed in Europe during the past century with the Holocaust, the Shoah, the extermination of the Jews in a christened Europe.

At this point, every Jewish soul may think that they implicitly belong to the "company or society/community of the saints", i.e. of those that God elected and chose to be pure and just. This constitutes a tantamount mystery dealing with regards to faith. 17th of Tamuz recalls that the Hebrew people failed in the wilderness and worshiped the golden calf. The day of fast does not focus on any pagan or gentile or foreign attitude directed against God. It shows how the chosen ones failed and nonetheless could turn back to God. It shows that the Mitzvot (Commandments) assemble a set of rules that govern the universe beyond any possibility for mankind to control them or pack them together to rule over the others. The Mitzvot oblige the Jews and the non-Jews to position their ethical choices - and "Dieu dispose" (Fr. God will act accordingly).

Israeli youth is not alone at this point. And this is the new element that should be considered. Clerics of all religions are experts at putting a cherem\חרם - anathema against their fellow communities, or their seemingly enemies. These days, we should not forget that Moshe did not enter the Land of Canaan because he killed an Egyptian... and he killed a then brother for him in order to save the people he belonged to.

Sixty years after the creation of the State of Israel, this State is fully composed of various nations, but mainly show the slow but steady encounter of Jews and Arabs. The interesting point is that Israel is in a long-term process of grafting back. The Israeli society only functions, at all levels because of the positive participation of "the others", i.e. the Arabs whose language and culture in the Near and Middle-East constitute a large part of the Oriental Jewish tradition.

When Israeli Jews or assimilated leave the community because they consider they can make their lives abroad, they should be aware of the real act of permanent atonement shown by God that overshadowed and pardoned the sins of Israel. "פושעי ישראל - poshey Israel - transgressing Israel" may have kept over all generations this very strange aspect of a community "untouched by sin", a view that is very close to Saint Paul word "en avto" in the epistle to the Romans. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a very similar view. It may imperil spiritual life when a community of some individuals stubbornly reject that they commit faults. Before reciting the Vidui\וידוי - confession of sins (3 times a day), the Jew says: "we are not so impudent and obdurate as to declare before You... that we are righteous and have not sinned. Indeed we and our fathers have sinned (אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו-aval anahnu veavoteynu hata'nu).

In the past months, I experienced how split communities can be in the Holy Land. Israel has a very strong tradition of respect toward each individual. It should be noted by some sociologists and reporters. But foreign journalists prefer juicy scoops, even fake ones. I saw so many of them just set up in front of me with two or three guys and girls of all tendencies ready to show up. Israel is a country where a true believer is a man, a "gever\גבר", a male and has guts. This sounds a bit raw, but the words was used by a strong woman who lives in Sderot and is really courageous.

Israel? You may arrive with any kind of "birthright-Taglit" aliyah channeling system, university contract, volunteering then dis-volunteering and switch to any other trend. Flexibility and fluidity are sacked at the moment by the cancer of corruption, distrust. I would never have thought to see in this country that is "the dream above any kind of my possible dreams that came true" that rabbis would be put into jail for homosexuality and incest would wound the Jewish family purity to that extent. Nonetheless, there is a profound significance to any passing beyond the laws. Israel is a place where since and grace are terribly close, narrow. Every Jew can be justified in the Mitzvot and still trespasses remind us that we are born to bow and rise, love and rejoice. And we can do that because God does pardon Moses for a "normal" murder of self-defense and we all have a private golden calf.

Dinkum mates: authentic, true friends. This is Australian slang... Pope Benedict XVI is swagging around Sydney Bay under his matilda (or bush night cover) and he just said that he feels as happy as a boxing kangaroo in a fog because ecumenism is fairdinkumly down. He declared that ecumenism is "at a critical level". Well, in the Aussie winter time, the pope says the relationships between the Churches and Christian denominations are up a gumtree, in the soup or on a sticky wicket. Should he drop his bundle? As folks say down there we have to wait for a purple patch, good oman.

You see, we are all friends here. In Australia, the sacred bond is that they are all "mates". An English word that came from Dutch (maatschapij = company) and was mainly used in British jails from where came the first Australian settlers. The pope is right. I spend my days in the Holy Land counting all the splits and cracks, breaches and schisms, ruptures; then rifts and fissures that slightly affect the Christian communities within Israeli society. And still, we are all the same as in The Lucky Country: we are "mates = boos, friends, buddies".

Speaking in Australia brings forth other prospects. This is a very young country. It gathers in ancient human history and futurism, from the aborigins to the former Great-Britain prisoners, gangsters and prostitutes to all sorts of newcomers that survived all the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries wars slowly mixing up with Asian blood of all ethnicities. All the Churches and denominations are present there. Newspapers are sold in Greek, Russian, Latvian, Yiddish, Spanish as well as Arabic and in Asian tongues. Jews showed very early, mainly after World War II. Russians immigrants arrived from Harbin and China, via Hong Kong in 1945 and Indo-Chinese from Viet Nam after 1975. We have the same in Jerusalem at the present, swagging between Judaism and some Christian nests.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is very present there as was a haven for the "Church Abroad" as in Canada/USA Californian Coast), which creates a geo-strategical axis. This line goes through Jerusalem where many Greek and Russian nuns were educated in Australia. The link is prolonged to Phili and the group of "resistance" to the Union sealed on Ascension Day 2007 between the Patriarchate of Moscow and the Church Abroad. I its very interesting to note that all this depends on how earthquaking are based or not on pure grace, pure gifts sent by God.

July 20, 2008 - יח דתמוז תשמס"ח

Kinah: passion or emulation?

In a recent weekly portion, we were rather busy in studying the spiritual commitment and assistance to humans provided by animals in the Scripture, in particular Balaam and his she-donkey. This showed how the animal's influence is still significant today as the Morning Prayer blessing starts with the words of Balaam. But this journey through the zoo theological assistance system did not allow us stopping at the major event that happened at the end of the reading portion (Bamidbar 25:1-9): the terrible account of the then-unheard "profaning of the Israelites at Shittim; they corrupted themselves by whoring (lezenot\לזנות) with the daughters of Moab who invited them to the sacrifice for their god" (25:1-2). Thus, the Israelite Zimri publicly scorned at Moses and rejected the God of Israel and had open sexual intercourse with a Moabite.

This creates the link with "Pinchas (son of Eleazar son of Aaron)", the reading portion of this week which mainly deals with passion, zealotry in Bemidbar 25:10-30:1.Of course, it might be astounding that a she-ass corrected Balaam’s words or that a cock crowed in the event of a prophesied treason. But "committing harlotry with Moabite women and worship their god Baal Peor)" seems totally natural in the present. It is almost not shocking. It is not even a real sin.

The Sages had time to explain things and, let’s be cool, there must be some misunderstandings somewhere about the event. The situation is not a real question because - yes, we never heard a police horse refrain his rider to stab demonstrators in a riot, if any. But physical prostitution with pagan women and men… good gracious! This is so ten a penny! And then to have some little worshiping party with gods that line from trees to boats, bananas and incense boxes is just as fit as a fiddle even among the most remote Jewish buddy boo networks. People can be put at the stake with this sexual games and the year has been a rather hot one until just this very hour.

The real problem with Pinchas is that the man seeing this blasphemous circus, got very hot and mad at the scene and put all his passion in getting rid of the profanation. The method is not common at the present. Baal Peor is a small bigotry god compared to the constellation that we developed in the name of all monotheistic beliefs and new paganism. "The Lord said to Moses: "Take all the heads of the people and have them impaled (hoka otam\חוקה אותם) before the Lord in front of the sun (neged hashemesh\נגד השמש = publicly)". Moses did listen to God, but one Israelite suddenly brought a Madianite woman for himself and his companions. Pinchas took a spear, followed them and stabbed her "in the belly - the maw/ el-kevatah\אל כבטה". And God was pleased by Pinchas' passion to avenge the glorious Name of the Lord. God Himself sent a plague that killed twenty-four thousand people among the Israelites to punish their idolatry and harlotry. He thus also praised Pinchas and said: " I grant him My Pact of peace - et briti shalom\את בריתי שלום (wholeness, friendship, loyalty)”. Interestingly, God speaks about Pinchas as being “shalem\שלם – loyal” (1 Kings 8:61) or like Jacob who came back “shalem – safe and sound” to Sichem (Gen. 33:18). He acknowledges Pinchas as an “allied friend”, a “sholem\שולם – co-worker” (Tehillim 7:5). The “Berit shalom\ברית שלום – Pact of peace” definitely links Pinchas to the Prophet Elijah as regards the frenzy killings of the Baal worshipers perpetrated by the Prophet on Mount Carmel. It also connects to the “Covenant of peace” described by Prophet Isaiah 54:10: “The mountains may move, and the hills be shaken, my loyalty (chasdi\חסדי) shall never move from you, nor the Pact of My friendship (brit shlomi\ברית שלומי) be shaken – said the Lord with loving-kindness”.

There is a problem indeed. “Shalom\שלום” does not mean “peace”. Pinchas stabbing attitude that slaughtered a woman and her carnal partner through the maw (a bit bestial) corresponds with the order that God gave to Moses to impale all the idolaters and the whoring Israelites. At the present, after 2,000 years of squeamish strictness along the Diasporas, Judaism and Christianity have developed similar kinds of Puritanism and this Divine decree and Pinchas’ murder would be considered as a proof of some Old Testament avenging God of wrath. Generations of Jews and Christian alike have been educated with awe, which is contrasting with the Oriental Jewish and Christian tradition, basically because of the absence of the “Original sin theology” that is more pregnant in the East. But this weekly portion has raised awe and fear among both the Jews and the Christians.

We call peace all the day upon Jerusalem, upon the world. In Hebrew, it firstly means that we believe in “justice” as in this Pact concluded by God with Pinchas (Num. 25:12). Is it so inhuman to explain the situation in such a way? Or are we cheating and fooling each other and God’s Divine Presence as we gossip like in a parrot fashion about peace and have been paying billions of billions of new old currencies over centuries to reach some dubious cease-fire treaties? Moses officials impaled the wrongdoers and Pinchas got a covenant of friendship with God after his infuriated slaughter. Justice induces passion. This has nothing to do with our justice. Right and righteousness, legacy is an obsession in the Semitic and Greek-Latin world of the Scripture. It certainly brought some insights about the way love slowly showed up throughout the ages. True, John the Baptist and Jesus have terrible words about God’s wrath, family hatred and wars (Matthew 3:10; 24:6).It is quite another prospect to say that one accepts God’s decisions: “Atah tzaddik al kol haba alay\ אתה צדיק על כל הבא אלי – You are just in all that happens to me” (Ps. 51:7). And we must handle these words very carefully because we do miss a lot a real understanding in terms of “verticality”, of God as acting in our lives like the woman towards Adam: “ezer kenegdo\עזר כנגדו = a helper against our will”.

Peace does not imply the absence of conflicts or a crooked method to avoid quarreling if not more. “Shalom” comes from “shalem” which may be broken down into a) “Hishlim\השלים – to complete” as “he freed his slave who completed the quorum of ten persons” (Berachot 47b); b) To end, cease: “They must fast the whole day till it ends”. (Yoma 82a); c) To make friends/ surrender: “He will pay does not mean money but that he will surrender the evil spirit and you will be friends” (Sukkot 52a). Thus “shalem” refers to payments as “wiping out a pending debt of any sort” or “to give a reward, a recompense”: “beshalom\בשלום – for the sake of total trust, faith, confidence”. We do not often think of the fact that “peace” includes and involves combats, payments, as “to redeem (padah\פדה) = to reimburse a debt or a loan over a long-term period.” “Peace” is fulfillment and achieving or reaching out to specific goals. “Menuchah\מנוחה – quietness” is closer to what we usually would consider as “hesychia – time of rests, silence” and peaceful balance.

The Israeli society can give the impression of a quiet and patient atmosphere. By the time of Pinchas and the episode with Baal-Peor, our ancestors might have been more “grilling on fires and boiling”. There is a lot of aggressiveness under control that bursts out of a sudden.

But the real problem in the reading portion of this week is that Pinchas is a man of passion, a zealot; say, he is right but the way he corrects the situation is full of anger, passion, zeal and frankly beyond reason and irrationality. To begin with, “kinah/Aramaic kina = jealousy, passion”: “My zeal for Your house has been my undoing (ate me up) / ki kinat beytcha achalteni\כי קינת ביתך אכלתני” (Tehillim 69:10; cf. John 2:17). Or, “I am consumed with rage-zeal / Tzimtachni kinati\צימתכני קינתי” (Ps. 119:139). Prophet Elijah has the same when killing the worshipers of the Baal. It starts with a zeal than cannot be stopped in order to implement something considered as vital and true, essential. Passion is not only “pathos” or feelings that are close to cruel sufferings affecting thoughts, desires, impulses, reflections. This leads or can develop into some pathology indeed. “Jealousy, lust and ambition carry man out of the world (= he quits himself and reality)” (Avot 4:21). On the other hand, “emulation among the scholars increases wisdom” (Bava Bathra 21a/22a). “Kanna’in/m\קנאי.ים.ין” were the zealots during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans (Numbers Rabba 20). The root means in the Semitic language an in-depth thirst that cannot be reasoned or quenched. It concerns the desire to possess and control truth. Then, people want to act in the name of this veracity or presupposed truth beyond any self-control or capacity of taking some distance. Judaism is curiously balanced with peaks of irrationality and acts of violence and a profound, unique sense of loving-kindness, compassion and analysis. In comparison, Russian “strasti\страсти = (feelings of) passions” that may totally overcome and possess a soul with dangerous abilities to twirling passions and dreams. This may explain, for example, why Slavic souls extensively refer to dreams interpretation or underscore their importance in their subconscious, virtual and real day and night reality. The Semites are quite the same. Indeed, faith is the way to combat the raw basic instinct of fancies, fantasizing thoughts and attain a serene and untroubled state of spiritual and physical balance.

It is a gift to be given a “brit shalom = Pact of friendship” sealed by God. Now, all the systems of beliefs and religion and thus Judaism, Christianity and Islam have shown horrible times when zealots acted as true “terrorists of God”. Purity of faith and acts often climaxed in the Kiddush HaShem\קידוש השם (sacrifice), as during the siege of Jerusalem or at Masada. But who can pretend to be an envoy of the Lord (the same exists among the Christian and Muslim without the problem of any “missionary activity”)? Who can have the nerve to work in the very Name of the Only One and claim to be zealous at the present, without confusion?

The root for “Kinah\קינה-קינא = passion” is “to acquire”. This means that such envoys calling for peace were “acquired” by God and they did not capture Him. Talmud Tractate Gittin positively recounts the life and martyrdom of John the Baptist. His words of penance were zealous and apparently revengeful. On the other hand, it is certain that he was beheaded as the consequence of an autocrat’s passionate oath to accept any desire expressed by a power-thirsty daughter obeying to her corrupt mother (Matthew 14:10). In this full passion-consumed environment, John appears to be a man of peace and considered as a link with Prophet Elijah. True zealots either disappear in the merkavah/chariot or are humbled till they are beheaded but their souls can’t be killed. They emulate and sustain faith.

The heart of the Jewish soul is to pardon and find new ways to emulations.In that sense, Christianity should learn a lot from chassidism.Curiously, on Tamuz 17, both Judaism and Christianity (as an unexpected child) come to the point when it is has reflect upon pardon and life, God's patience over ages. There can be no frontier to authentic and honest faith. We need that right now.

Av Aleksander Winogradsky Frenkel
(Jerusalem Forward blog)

July 18, 2008 - טז דתמוז תשמס"ח

Months of abomination or appetites

During the four weeks that commemorate the destructions of Jerusalem and of the Temples, from Tammuz 17 to Av 9, men use to wear the "tefillin shel rosh\תפילין של ראש - the phylacteries of the head" in order to think with more penetration and insights about the repeatedly historical events that led to the destruction of the City of Peaces - Yerushalaim and the Holy Temples - Batey HaMikdash\ בתי המקדש. We saw how the tefillin were the first mitzvah to be given to the Jewish people by the time of the Exodus from the land of slavery, the country that first accepted the children of Jacob for their blessings and reduced them to some sort of acceptable and even satisfactory bondage when the days of Joseph escaped from their memory.

The tefillin thus reminded that God is close to our heart and call us to implement good deeds; these are the tefillin shel yad\תפילין של יד (of the hand/arm), usually the left arm that is close to the heart. The tefillin shel rosh\תפילין של ראש, put like a diadem on the forehead show that we tend to move according to God's will and project. This is not so obvious in daily life. Then, it may be interesting to consider the tefillin as brain-thinking instruments or devices. When the ancestors came out of Egypt, the Lord did know that they would be tempted to return to their country of slavery. The Israelites did regret their daily bread there - hard work, not very humane, but still providing security of a binding and imposed employment. It is far better than wandering in the Sinai, eating quails or tamarisk rare species of dew that was the manna.

This year, we pass through the summer months of Tammuz and Av, appealing times of peace for Eretz Israel as the neighboring countries, in the special conditions governed by the rule of the shmittah or "release of debts and repose of the soil. In response, we are messing around in quiet doubts and some attacks. Jews are aware that this summer period has, repeatedly throughout history, been months of despair, destruction, hunger and deportation, killings. Indeed, why destruction and fights, murders and ruins quiver permanently like drums and hammers attacking life, pulsing humans to annihilation? From Tammuz 17 to the Ninth of Av, the Jews should be more conscious of their own historical destruction as a consequence of their/our lack of faithfulness or righteousness in God's choice and proposed actions. The time of "te.o'uvah - abomination\תועבה" is so strange, bizarre: we are called to "peru, revu, mil'u et ha'aretz\פרו ורבו מלאו את האארץ - to be fertile, multiply, conquer/achieve the earth (the world, the universe in reality)” as a developing living body (Bereishit 1:28). All the Prophets, in particular Jeremiah who saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation to Babylon, insist on this self-destroying "abomination" that recurrently leads the Jewish people as all the Nations to idolatry and inconstancy.

The Jewish community and, subsequently, the Israelis have gone through so many tortures and persecutions and are scarcely recognized by the Nations of the world. Thus, they would not utterly, openly accept to take the yoke of this “abomination” that is still at the heart of our relationships to God and how the Lord responds to us. I speak in terms of the Jewish traditions, because it is evident that any explanation provided from outside of this coherence makes no sense for the Jews.

Curiously, it is quite usual to say that Moses gave the laws governing the oaths and vows (nedarim\נדרים). This is not exactly the case. Moses speaks to the heads of the tribe – rashey hamatot, which means something specific. The commandment to “leave father and mother” (Gen. 2:24a) basically consists in being not alone. It mainly implies to have a family, a tribe in view to fight idolatry. Midrash Yelamdeinu includes a “mate’ \ מטה- rod” who is found throughout the whole history of Israel. It is connected to “mitah – bed, family, descent” rooted in “nata/nata’ \נטה-נטע= to lay hands, plant”. As Moses could provide water with his tick, the mate’ can be “kol mate’-lechem shavar\כל מטה לחם שבר = God destroyed every staff of bread” (Tehillim 105:16). Thus, as stated in the midrash, this rod symbolizes “the bread of life”, the combat between idolatry and the eventuality to die and not surrender to idol worshiping. As we arrive at the end of the reading of the Book of Numbers/Midbar, we can mention how Jacob crossed the Jordan river with this rod, Moses worked miracles in front of Pharaoh (Ex. 4:3; 7:10). David slew Goliath with this mate’/rod (1 Samuel 17:40) and the rabbinic tradition said it became his scepter kept in the Temple as the sign of his kingship. Different words can be used in Hebrew to refer to the “tribes: mishpachot.משפחות/families; shivtei Israel\שבתי ישראל /tribes of Israel”. In this key-reading of the week, the TaNaKH sums up the whole of the Hebrew destiny: born to fight idols, kin connections that shall develop in God’s Kingship over the universe and the Divine Presence in the Temples. This lines with our commemorating the four weeks that led to the destruction of this miraculous structure because of acts of abominations (te’uvah\תאווה) committed by the Israelites. How strange it is that "abomination sounds so claose to "(good) appetite = hunger belly eating desires - te'avon\תאבון".

It should be noted that the reading portion does not determine the meaning of vows and oaths. They are of extreme importance in the spiritual life of each Jew and the Jewish communities. Some rabbis link these nedarim/vows included in the parashah “Matot” read in summer, during the four weeks of reflection about destructions, to the “Kol Nidrey\ כל נדרי – all the vows and oaths” pronounced (in Aramaic) in the 8th century in the Babylonian academy of Sura and in Europe since the 12th century at the beginning of the Day of Atonement for the annulment of forced vows. There is an emotional impact connected with this text, but the rabbis have always been rather reluctant to such a prayer considering that Jews are free from any forced commitments imposed by non-Jews.

On the other hand, the reading portion underscores that men (fathers and husbands) can release their wives’ and daughters’ vows and declare them non valid. Well, Women’s Lib definitely protested…but maybe things are not so simple. In the previous reading portion “Pinchas”, we saw how sexual intercourse collectively accomplished as an act of idolatry with pagan women, led the priest Pinchas to outrageously make use of his zeal against idolatry.
God killed the Israelites by a violent plague. In this weekly portion, men seem to regulate the spiritual vows of women. Is it not rather that they have firstly to respect their own vows and not fall into idol worshiping commitments? The slaughter of the Madianites, led by Moses and the priest Eleazar with the participation of 1,000 males of each tribe (matot) was accompanied by some special promises. Reuben and Gad should receive the land along the Jordan… negotiations, gentle-tribe agreements… The slaughter of the Madianites, in which Balaam perished, exterminated all their males while their women and children survived. “Moses said: “You have spared every female… that are the very ones who induced the Israelites to trespass against the Lord…slay also every male among the children and every woman who has known a man carnally” (Numbers 31:15-17 - Parshat Pinchas).

This slaughter includes all the parameters of human hatred and human difference. It requires a lot of insightful reflections and in-depth studies to consider this text as showing faith in God. Thus, as they were en route to cross the Jordan and enter Eretz Canaan, it would be normal to question how such murders can anyhow participate in the sanctifying action of praising the Name of the Lord. Are life and death so parallel that it does not matter whether humans birth or kill? Destroy or build up? “Even when they say, “As the Lord lives / chai HaShem”, they lie and their swearing is false” (Jeremiah 5:2). In the prophetic reading (haftarah), the same Prophet echoes Moses’ requirement: “Do not defile the land which you will inhabit?” (Bemidbar 35:34) by these words: “You entered and defiled My land and made My heritage my abomination” (Jeremiah 2:7). Indeed, the real problem is not to be in the Holy Land or to make it holy by our forces. We cannot, any of us – make it holy. Eretz Israel is sanctified by the development and the living respectful compliance with God’s birthing Mitzvot that make this land a special place where the Holy One dwells and reveals His Presence to all the Nations (Tehillim 87:5).

Say, it is the same as when we plant trees and have beautiful gardens, with source waters and fertile soils. Purity of heart can go beyond the tragedies of any destruction. It takes time, a lot of time, but time has no measure for who loves without destroying. The four weeks of “abomination” should, at the present, be turned into a thoughtful and wise reflection about construction. Israel is born to construct and not to obstruct, in particular herself, which has often shown to be a huge temptation. Judaism has to accept elements that were or are still very hostile, just as the others are entitled to consider Judaism as possibly being negative towards them.

This week, the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates the Apostles, Jesus chose disciples who were in despair after his death (Luke 24:13-35, the unfaithful disciples on the road at Emmaus) and reminds Peter and Paul of Tarsus. Then, there will be the various feasts of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Again, it deals with a generating process of construction. How come that we are hypnotized by exclusion? The Jews have the “birkat haminim/malshinim – blessing against the heretics”.The Christians can be self-convinced that they replace Judaism.

Interestingly, we hardly can pass over the 11th century when two envoys came to Constantinople and excommunicated the Oriental Patriarch. Times of violence and carnality, with prostitutes put by force on the thrones of the patriarchs of Constantinople and later Jerusalem. Metropolitan Cyril of Smolensk, Moscow Patriarchate, made a wise statement one year ago: “At least, we know what they (the Catholics) think of themselves and who they think they are. Nothing is new, but at least it is said and it makes things clear”. Today the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of the Kievan Rus' challenges the Slavic Churches with other transitional tests. It is sometimes good to face tests and overcome them.

In Israel, we experience a unique situation of permanent renewal. The four weeks of Tammuz-Av, repeated creeds and definitions that show the limits of how and where God is acting should enable us to less shyness and more courage to meet any human being. We faced and lived through such devastating destructions that it is just the right minute to share, even for only a few seconds, the joy of being together on this soil sanctified by God and humans.

av Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel

July 14, 2008 – יב דתמוז תשמס"ח

Sechvi: insightful animals

In these days of terrible heat... well not that pathetic for the area to tell the truth, but anyway we may feel a sort of natural compassion for animals. Jerusalem is full of pregnant cats, some are so lucky to have a permanent residence near one, two or more restaurants and coffee-shops, while others sniff around as good street NFA pets where they might get some nice bones or grains.

During summer time, it is a real mitzvah to feed homeless animals. It is nice to see along the ways - inside the Old City - but also in many other places, pieces of bread. Spontaneous groups or individuals do gather for informal catering system allowing the pigeons, other birds or dogs to get even fresh meat. The mitzvah may apparently not be founded on the same mitzvot reference. In the Old City, the Christian spirit might firstly consider it is just normal to feed animals. Then, it somehow tracks back to Jesus' remark: "Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them… not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them." (Matthew 6:25-34). As regards the Jewish part, it is normal to be kind with animals and the commandment that prohibits to torn a limb from a living animal shows a great respect. There can be a lot of personal fondness or emotional frustration, loneliness involved in such behaviors. I often heard when listening to some of these small groups how the Shoah background was present in terms of absence of care, humanity and just be given simple basic food. At the top of the showing, at the present, is the wide development of these high and longhair puddles or greyhounds if not some huskies. That's quite a real acculturating process that lines with the general aliyah movement!

I know a Chinese dog from Russia ( I mean he is a pet boo...) that only eats rice and really developed a ghetto spirit: totally scared by any cat or mouse.

Local animals are more donkeys and camels. Camels show for terribly short tours for children and reckless grownups. The tour consists in getting up and down the camel, smiling at the beast, walking a few meters on his back and bye.. But camels are sweet and cute: they can store liters of water to quench their thirst. We don't have vultures... maybe safer! They swallow corpses like the Mazdean/Zoroastrian towers of death at Bombay. The Jewish tradition has always praised the people who took care of creatures: Jews should remember that they are a nation of shepherds and flock care-takers. David was the last and forgotten son gone somewhere to graze the lambs and ewes... He was the right one to reign as a king. Rebekkah is the model of the nice girl who gave waters to Eliezer's camels. This was the good sign to become Itzchak's wife. Jews should be, by nature, "rachamim bney HaRachamim - רחמים במי הרחמים - compassionate as they are the children of the Merciful God" (Beitzah 32b). Thus, the Jewish ethics towards animals is summed up in this verse: "The righteous respects the life (nefesh\נפש) of his beasts" (Proverbs 12:10). Still, the Talmud accounts how some famous Sages could be rude with their beasts, e.g. Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi who is blamed for not having shown compassion towards a calf. Curiously, it is more humane to respect a calf that is to be slaughtered than to put down insightful verses of the Mishnah.

This definitely relates to the reading portion of this week: “Balak” in the Book of Bemidbar/Numbers 22:2-25:9. This Gan Eden atmosphere of wonderful deer and gazelles combining charming swiftness and tenderness, love and perfect beauty plus wisdom is at the heart of the weekly reflection. To begin with, a nasty deal that should commit an idolatrous God-fearing magician called Balaam with Balak, son of Zippor. The Moabites were alarmed that the people who had left Egypt had completely defeated the Amorites and were heading towards Moab. Thus, the best way was to consult an expert in divine affairs and to curse the Israelites so that they would either perish or be done before even trying to fight Balak. Let’s say that there was a sort of wide range of gods and goddesses, deities who could either put a spell, a curse or a blessing on our brothers/sisters, parentage, tribe but imperatively on our enemies. This is our major life activity: how can we curse others without harming ourselves (too much)? Balak just behaved accordingly: he sent the elders of Moab to contact a good professional “magush\מגוש – magician”. Because these elders were themselves versed in “ksamim beyadam\קסמים בידם – diviners, charmers having divination at hand”. “He began to make divinations by throwing arrows and sundry objects” (Eycha Rabba 1) states that a charmer makes use of carved or chipped objects (qessem\קסם). We use the word in Modern Hebrew to say that a person is “cute”, which does imply that s/he is chipped up or cut down. There is also linked to the present use of the word “icon” as we love to have “cult characters” at the present. As a usual paradox in the Jewish tradition, it is also said: “He who makes himself a carver, i.e. a skilful worker in the words of the Law shall finally become a leader through them” (Sanhedrin 9, 6). Old Norse “Spjall” – English: “to spell out = explain step by step” had initially this aspect of “carving” that is strictly forbidden by God’s Commandments. There is no possibility to bewitch or to attract people by enchantment in the monotheistic tradition. Not kidding, because it is evident that persuasion plays that game of “carving fascination” in our daily life. This consists indeed in hexing, exercising witchcraft and at this stage there is a strong connection between Balak’s attitude and our ways of living and acting in the present. Let’s go on and consider the way we parade all the time with our egos; when millions of teens and “immature” adults change and enhance their trade mark look on the net. Specific sites allow them selling their images and features, contact abilities. We can charm through photoshop and apparently overcome a damned boring loneliness. We might then get aware of how we progressively frame ourselves into this carving of self-idolatry, maybe driven by some irresistible compulsion. There is a constant motto and rallying war cry on the web: “This is not true – you/we/people fake, lie or hide who and what they are”. This is exactly at the core of the essential reading portion of the week.

Balaam is a diviner. He is not a believer in the One God. But he listened to God’s voice and refused to be paid in order to curse the Israelites. This is meaningful because of the above quotation from Talmud Sanhedrin 9, 6: a carver instructed in the Laws’ word will become a leader, at least a true man of God. At this point, Balak sent more distinguished dignitaries who would richly reward Balaam. Again there is a heart-to-heart talk between God and Balaam who confesses the Lord and refused house, silver and gold. Then God put a sort of test (not to say a charm). “You may go with these men. But whatever I command you, that you shall do, said the Lord” (Num. 22:20). There is a subtle move to which we are pretty much accustmed as individual souls. God told Balaam to do what He will tell him to do. Is Balaam the wicked diviner described throughout the Tradition? In particular, when some so-called scholars, insist on describing Balaam as lining up with Jesus. It basically allows disputing with Christianity. Faith in the One God never relies, by no means, on splitting or conflicting twisting textual irrelevant interpretations. This concerns all beliefs, but in particular the dramatic history that affected the relationships between Judaism and Christendom.

It is very difficult not to put love – i.e. pure love - on sale as a flat, a car, a cupboard, simple objects when there is no farthing left and no true trust in the Providence. The problem with Balaam is to know whether he was vainglorious (Rashi) or that he “could and shall not disobey God’s will”(Chumash and Onkelos). This should be noted with regards to Balaam as a diviner. There is no specific reason to accuse him of being “vainglorious” or “seduced and attracted by wealth” which is in contradiction with the Canticle: “If man offers all his wealth for love he would be laughed to scorn/despised to the maximum” (Shir 8:7).

Balaam had an ass. Let’s say he had a she-donkey in order to avoid misunderstanding words. During the 23rd Egyptian Dynasty (749-21) it was normal to write such legal statements as: “If you don’t agree with that decree, may a donkey copulate (fuck) with you”. We are often totally antiquities-style in our search to be trendy… Interestingly, God grew angry when He saw that Balaam was joining Balak’s emissaries. He placed two defenders: His angel standing in the way with a sword and the she-donkey/aton. Now, does your favorite pet appears to be your best counsellor? Okay pets can bite some foreigners in between, but would your domesticated animal tell you bemamash/בממש for true who you really are? On the one hand, Balaam had the angel of God and he was beating the poor she-donkey that stubbornly did not want to move. Then the Lord opened the “aton’s” mouth: She said: “Why have you beaten me three times?” Balaam admitted the donkey had always served him correctly. The Lord unveiled Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel; thus he bowed down with his nostrils to the ground (“Vayikod vayishtachu le’apav\ויקוד וישתחו לאפיו”).

The fascinating part of the episode is the revolving attitude of the faithful diviner. He did know God and listened to Him. He was ordered to go with God’s enemies in order to curse Israel. And thus, God protected him as his best friend the aton/she-donkey did. “Aton\אתון” is a special word. In Daniel 3:9 it is stated: “Who ever will not fall down and worship (the statue of gold) shall be thrown into a burning fiery furnace (lego-atun nura\לגו אתון נורא)”. In this prophetic verse against idolatry, the word symbolically refers to God’s anger before redemption.

It could be possible to mention the numerous quotations linking Balaam, as a negative personality, to Jesus of Nazareth. It may be far more interesting to open other ways. Balaam is the pagan diviner that recognized the living God and bowed totally down (Ps. 95:6). God and his she-donkey switched his tongue from cursing to blessing to such an extent that till now, when entering a synagogue, we say: “How fair are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings Israel!” (Num. 24:5). Judaism always relies and complies with the words of converted pagans and this is a major aspect of the Jewish faith (cf. Jonah, Ruth). The three Magi that came from the East to see the new born child Jesus in Bethlehem also refused to bow down before Herod and did not tell him where the child was laying, which shows a real connection with the Tradition (Matthew 2:1-12).

Finally, God shows animals as instruments of the redemption and true faith or apostasy. Balaam had beaten his donkey three times without being aware of the good she was calling upon him. The first morning blessing praises the “sechvi\שכוי – rooster, cock – but also conscience!” to have the capacity to distinguish night from day. When Jesus is judged, Peter-Kaipha is sitting around near the fire. Jesus had told him: “This very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times… He went out and began to weep bitterly (Matthew 26:75).

It should be the task of all clerics to kick us like the she-donkey. Or do we have roosters?

July 8th, 2008 - ו דתמוז תשס"ח (at midnight = the 6th of tamuz)

CHUQ: The mitzvah of purifying love

The Hebrew Mitzvot are numerous and diversified. This Shabbat is called "Chukkat - חוקת " and present the account, in Bemidbar/מדבר \Numbers chapter 19, of the commandment to slaughter the red heifer or parah adumah\ פרה אדומה whose blood and ashes should be sprinkled over the altar and purify the people. This is the kind of actions that are not very en vogue at the present. But cultural attitudes are often totally unexpected.

Last week, I celebrated at the cemetery of Mount Zion, the godovchina\годовчина or first anniversary of the pasing away of a person whom I had buried. Exact day, one year later. Same place for what the Jews call a יארצייט\yohrtzayt - a yiddish word that really corresponds to the spirit of the Slavic word. The family came from Baku, Azerbaidjan, but were totally intermingled and included both Christian Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Armenians, Azeris, other Caucasian nationalities. They used both Russian and Hebrew as their tribal Esperanto. As usual, we had a meal after the memorial service at a family restaurant. Tons of food, all sorts of lambs, meat, chickens, fish with rice and vegetables. Far too excessive and a bit like a banquet linking both memory for the living and the dead to meet on that annual day. This is also new Israel or Israel as it shows today. But, to begin with, these very nice and for the bigger part educated people, had asked to bring the lamb and mutton alive and to slaughter them on the spot. They could not get the permission which is basically evident, but still proves how cultural behaviors and rituals may cope with blood actions or ashes. The Buddhists do use ashes with water in a manner that is not so far from the red heifer ritual prescribed for the purification of the people. Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of the Latin Rite Great Lent also consists in imposing ashes on the forehead and/or the hand of the faithful though it is a very simple act without specific reference to the red heifer and the slaying of a cow. Chukim\חוקים are "not rationnally understandable or explainable commandments". God has spoken and declared, ordered; man must accept the Word. We hate orders and why should we obey without understanding or at least without discernment?

The "parah adumah\פרה אדומה " is special in the Jewish tradition: "par\פר " means "steer, bull". It allegorically refers to the Jews in their offering of their lives for the redemption of mankind. This is the way Jonah was retained three day in the belly of the big fish as making a sacrifice for the fishmen who had thrown him into the water.Strength and weakness, inteligence and some sort of blindness characterize bulls. "Adumah\אדומה " is "red (Fr. "rousse")" as Adam was taken from the earth\adamah - אדמה ."Adom" is red like blood\dam - דם and silently runs in the veins of the living. In Avodah Zara 24b, Adom/red means the sacrifice of the red heifer as the general offering of human sacrifice to God that is either linked to life/birth or death and prolongement of life (shoshana aduma\שושנה אדומה = menstrual women bleeding). Edom\אדום turned by vowels from the red color to the Edumites and thus the Egyptians, and later the Romans, the Roman empire. It was finally associated with a negative attitude toward Christianity.

Pouring a unique cow's blood and ashes in lustral waters over the altar is not a magic act. It is not idolatry. This is the most difficult part of our teachings. It apparently makes no sense. No human mind or spirit can get to a partly or full comprehension of what such a mitzvah may imply. It is like love or pardon: we cannot comply anyone to love anybody. We may spend our lives just like single portions of some nice or less appetizing products in sale in supermarkets. The Jewish teaching is different. It focuses on "more than more". It is not evident or given to love. Daily speech just shows that: "we could kill by love die out of love". This makes no sense. This is not love. There is a huge part of irrationality in atonement and true love.

In that sense, Israel does need the presence of any ministering people, parroting the Name of God and making the living on the souls of the local inhabitants. True faith must lead to unity or coherence with regards to history and human destinies.

The Ukraine is, for a big part, a major country of reference and origin for the Jews who built Israel. There is a tough link between the State of Israel and its founders and this area of the Southern fundamental region of the Rus of the Slavs. In the Antiquity, the Jews already lived in Odesa, Cherson, Sebastopol that the Scythian people had conquered. It is possible to speak of a sort of tragedy in the relationships between the Jewish and Ukrainian/Subcarpathian nation. The mitzvat parah adumah/ commandment of the red heifer would suggest that we had to pardon. That God may marry couples in love since He ended the creation of the world. The first things that God did: He repented with Noah of His will to destroy the universe and the earth. This is a unique example that God Himself did repent. And then, He put a sign on the forehead of Cain who had killed his brother. This means there is no measure to how much we are born to pardon. We cannot oblige anybody to pardon and forgive. There are souls and there are times, places where this becomes the sign of true hope and resurrection.

On Friday night, in the harbor of Haifa, the Ukrainian Ambassador of Ukraine in the State of Israel welcomed different personalities on board the short visiting Ukrainian ship "Hetman Sahaydachniy". It is the kind of event that is both discreet and significant. There is a large Ukrainian community in Israel. It is composed of different levels of Israeli citizens, legal and illegal workers, people who would spend some years in Israel (sometimes switching to the Palestinian Territories). The community has some difficulties in setting up real organizations and associations. There was something very moving at seeing Israeli soldiers of Ukrainian descent with their family or girl/boy friends, speaking Hebrew, Ukrainian and Russian.

Yes, there have been murders committed by the Ukrainians since the Jews lived in the country. Again, Yad VaShem shows that, in the present, the number of "Righteous among the Nations" that saved the Jews during World War II is higher than for any other nation. And it is thus important, on such a shabbat of the red heif and "beyond rationality pardon" to insist on this "gentle, maybe gentlemen's agreement link" that is authentic and rich of cultural, spiritual insights for the future.

It was indeed moving to look at the people: from Mr. Moshe Maniovich, lawyer but mainly veteran of the Ukrainian and Israeli armies. We are coming in July and August to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of the Rus' of Kiev/Kiyv. It cannot get reduced to some internal and political conflict in the Ukraine and among the multi-faceted Christian, Jewish, Muslim denominations. There is a spirit that is indeed present in Israel. This spirit helped the Jews, maybe unwillingly or without much awareness, to build up a modern state that faces a lot of common contradictions with the Ukrainian society.

In 1902, in Nikolaiev/Mykolaiyv, was born Menachem Mendel Schneersohn who became the last Rebbe of Lubavitch, and died on the 3rd of tammuz 5754, i.e. fourteen years ago. I hope to write more notes about the interesting ties that could be found between the Rebbe and Paul of Tarsus. Undoubtedly, i is not possible to ignore the way the Rebbe could contact all Jewish communities, whether Ashkenazi, Sephardi or Oriental - his "universal" call and also to the Gentiles in Christianity. In modern times, it suggests a special ability to all mankind, first to the Jews, then the Gentiles. This is strangely very Paulinian. It is evident that some tendencies developed by the Chabad (Lubavich movement) may be questioned. It is a very creative path to what is at the heart of Jewishness: the indissoluble clutch to the Mitzvot and their giving of life.

Israel is totally entitled to know who, how the Jews have been murdered by a widely baptized Europe. On the other hand, she has also the task to pave the way when a red heifer may show; at this point, the Rebbe of Lubavich will help as curiously Paul of Tarsus and the saints that God is acting far beyond our will and understanding. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskiy of L'viv remains a powerful and Light of God for the darkest days of all Ukrainians.

Some years ago, I baptized a child in a town of the South of Israel. When I entered the flat, grandad spoke Ukrainian with his wife, the only tongue she had - he welcomed me in Yiddish; the other generations spoke Ukrainian, Russian, some Russyn dialect and Polish (from Subcarpathia to Poland), Yiddish and Hebrew. This is the same as for the above Caucasian family: Israel is boiling up with a spirit of newness. It mixes up and shapes new situations. Indeed, Messiah comes and Christians witness that He will come in glory.

Begidah: disguise, treason

Over the years, this became a sort of parrot-fashion in my daily speech: Hebrew "beged\בגד - cloth" is mainly a "begidah\בגידה - fake treason, cheating, a super trick". University scholars, anonymous Israelis explained that there is no possible etymological connection between the two words. Talmud scholars and professional "pilpulers", on the contrary, are true Jews who know that links exist beyond reason and rationnality, and that letters make sense in there proximity or distance in the Jewish tradition.

All languages have stressed that clothing does not prove that a monk is a monk. But it is quite an experience to constantly wear a cassock in the Holy City of Jerusalem and in Israel. People just stare at you like at chimpanzees in a zoo. They can decide to ignore the cassock-bearer stubbornly and in a way that does not show any basic human respect. It is like a mixture of childlike arrogance, full ignorance shaken with much disregard and hatred to the others. When normal chassidim walk in the street in Europe or America or elsewhere in his "chalat\חאלאט - gehrock\געהראק - stripped black or white brown gown" (Yiddish "chalat\חאלאט" comes from the same word that means "home gown" in Russian\халат), they would be in full panick to hear the laughters, mockery, words of despise, insults and receive the spitting drops eventually poured by the "cassock men". They would immediately alert all Anti-Diffamation Circles and Leagues against Anti-Semitism. They might also keep a low profile as I sadly noted when I landed in Europe and suddenly all Jewish signs had disappeared by some hazard or necessity...

But the main features of a cassock man at the present in Israel consist in the fact that people immediately consider them as foreigners and English-speaking only. As Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem recently stated, the Christian Orthodox are not hosts in the Holy Land and have been present over the 2000 years. But Israelis cannot figure out the Church correctly. They swing between wrong Inquisition ages and mix up East and West. This creates a situation of "begidah\בגידה- treason" because vestments cause a permanent error in getting to the real identity. This is more sensitive in a society where every person is more or less some kind of "Tootsie" film character.

Cassocks (chalates, ghandurahs) trace back to a profound spiritual meaning. In the Byzantine tradition, the great rason or coat cassock is the symbol of martyrdom. In Syriac/Aramaic, "talaysan" comes from "tallit\טלית" the great prayer shawl with the fringes worn by the Jews and by Jesus. Religious vestments are important. This is why a clergyman wears a cassock: he is nude and only covered by Jesus resurrected from the dead, true God and true man. It has nothing to do with a fashion defile or a way to give some honor or heed someone. A cassock witnesses for God's presence; it is not a function coat or some workman's overalls. At the present, it would seemingly be easier not to show in such a dressing in the streets of Israel. Depends! I would tend to think that, in the present, a clergyman who did not go through this experience as a positive encounter that requires true love and understanding, has little to do within the Israeli society. It is not clearcut or too sharp. It deals with Whom is present through the clothes and beyond our own identities.

Let’s come back to the caring hospitality shown at Mamre’s Oaks by Abraham Avinu and his right jolly laughing wife at the announce of her birthing a son. The scene has been drawn, designed, painted. We have tons of icons with and without the patriarch and Sarah. No film, no picture, no video and, of course, no canned laughter. They were two wilderness NFA Arameans dwelling under some big tent, without I.D. cards and photos. They were not dotting the I’s of their pods, phones, MP3 players, world TV networks. They got one (several indeed) Divine breaking news whose developments are prolonging at the present. “I bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the sea-shore; all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants because you have obeyed My command (Bereishit 22:17-18).

Now, by the time of Abraham and Sarah, there were no computers, mobiles, sms messages, instant messengers, ICQ (born on the Israeli coast), Trillian and others connecters. Identity was a “word is a word”. No choice: either you say the truth or you are fined and can eventually be killed in an oral cultural environment. Abraham, for instance, got afraid and presented Sarah to King Abimelech of Gerar as being his sister (Gen.20:1-18). A world of visions, nightmares, dreams and talks, well online chats with the Lord. This is the silent world counter-point of our multi-media stuff. We swirl in a super high tech mall or mart of sounds, cries, music drone dizziness and may lose our identity.

In Hebrew, “panim\פנים = face” comes from the root “panah\פנה = to turn (one’s face). In Gen. Rabba 91: “pney haaretz\פני הארץ = the wealthy”; “she can cover her nakedness/appearance” (Berachot 24a, Niddah 14b). “The Torah has law for each of which there are 49 “clean” and 49 “unclean” ways of interpretation” (Cant. Rabba 2,4). “This question must be brought inside and even to the innermost” (Bava Metzia 16a). In the context of Abraham at the terebinths of Mamre, the ancestor had no proof of identity as we can check today. Hebrew “Panim\פנים” is a plural because of the numerous aspects of an identity. Like the “face of a watch”, a human shows a visage and a hair backside without expression. But appearance and countenance reveal an image, not necessarily who we are indeed. We are overcome with images and looks that do not exhibit the heart of the souls. A decade ago, "Facebook" was created in Harvard. It is doubled with “Piczo” or drawing natural sites for the development of contact networks. Just as “Myspace” (which is very “musical and sounds”) and the various albums and blogs, they question our identity as holders of the “imprint, mark/chotam\חותם – Gr. “sphragis” and not only our self-esteem which is a basic virtue according to the Jewish rabbinic tradition.

For the Jewish tradition, our “faces” (it curiously gave the Yiddish plural form “punimer”) are not narcissistic. If millions of self-addicted people spend hours in vamping up a virtual online presumed contact way to show off who they are or think they are, our self-esteem can be brought to the measure of our suffering of personal solitude; we might even feel abandoned in an immense universe of whirling voices, sounds, changing or photochopped images. Would Abraham or the Sages of old naturally cope with the hi-tech world in which we live? In all times, the challenge has been to overcome fears, panics to feel alone and to face the “burden of some survival”. There is a sort of parallel between Sarah’s laughter and our swiftly virtual “lol”. Is it a desperate search for some kind of existence? In Israel, we constantly face “chopped” images of a wide God’s Likeness that is going through a sort of puzzlement.

It is said: “An extra measure of love was made known to the humans as they were created in God’s Image” (Avot 3:14). This also explains why Adam was unique and created singly: it allows every human being to get aware of the fact that s/he is personal has the same likeness as God and thus be saved –each soul encompasses the whole universe” (Sanhedrin 4:5).Good enough, but this is not what we may see in daily life. We go through times of shows, passivity and self-content. Modern techniques are a plus for a society as far as they allow it to improve its welfare and capacities. But the realm of visible things or people is nothing compared to the vast and immeasurable source of capacities that are beyond our sights and envisioning skills. This absence of plenitude may be a spiritual challenge in times of licentious, loose and libertine turmoil.

Jesus made an intriguing statement: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand” (Matthew 12:24). We have the tools utilized for building up ourselves and not making us sleepy or spaced out. We don’t reach immortality or more power because we have records and archives at hand. Abraham’s blessing is stronger than anything we can share and thus requires a deft touch of reality.

Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Av_a Jerusalem Forward Blog
July 1st, 2008 - כט דסיון תשס"ח