We love orange, a bright and warming-up color, full of hope. Orange (Katom) is up-to-the-decade, modern, trendy, somehow as purple while black is beyond fashion. Orange is the color of the quiet Ukrainian revolution that cannot be resolved adequately but is deeply rooted in peaceful movements among the various trends of the Ukrainian society (pro-Moscow, Russian-speakers in the East, Ukrainian-speakers and separatists, autonomists, independents in other regions). In the region, Katom recalls Gush Katif and the after-pullout mishmash.
Adom/adumah means red in Hebrew and refers to "red" as the blood that circulates through the veins of Adam and silently (bedom) maintains him alive. Shoshanah adumah (red rose) in the Canticle (7:3, cf. midrash Rabbah) euphemistically describing female menstruation (Niddah 9b). We have also the parah adumah (red heifer, cow) used for the purification ceremonies and expected each year in order to correctly perform the order of the Yom HaKippurim, the Day of Atonement (Num. 19; Avodah Zarah 24a; Sukka 2,53d). Finally, with a slight vowel change, Edom is Esau's name mostly used to designate a gentile nation, alien to God, in particular the Romans and subsequently "Christianity" as is developed throughout the ages.
Red became a sign of beauty, life, freshness (King David), purification as also of alienation to God and strong opposition as when Jacob usurped Esau’s rights. This will be at the heart of the parshat hashavua "Vayetzei = and he (Jacob) went out", the reading portion that we shall study at the end of this week.
Orange is en vogue. Red is fashion. In Russian, krasnyi corresponds to the color that is highly appreciated by the Slavic cultures. Still, the Krasnaia Ploschad = the Red Square basically means the Beautiful (Krassivaia) Square because its warm and flamboyant color is considered as a major element of the Kremlin area which continues to shelter Lenin's tomb, one of the most visited monuments in the world.
Ninety years! Not even a century, not a hundred (100) years yet. And a sort of blackout, universal silence about the emergence of one of the major events that affected the whole world during the 20th century till it finally seemed to collapse with the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union, its East European satellites and some other countries. Cuba, China, North Korea i. a. consider they substantiate the spirit of communism. The October-November Russian Soviet and Bolshevik (major-extremist) Red Revolution started 90 years ago, about the same period as Lord Balfour that Her Majesty’s government favorably viewed the establishment of a (Jewish) national home in Palestine. Balfour's Declaration was the British response to the Russian Zionists, Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolov.
Moreover, on November 29th, 1947, i.e. sixty years ago within a few days, after much hesitation from the part of President Truman, the UN Special Committee on Palestine voted for the partition of Eretz Israel and the creation of a Jewish State. It was on Shabbat,16 b'kislev 5708. Crowds gathered to dance joyfully in Eretz and in New York. As some month later on the Independence Day, David Ben Gurion said that "he felt no gaiety but a lot of anxiety". Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Herzog declared: "After a darkness of two thousand years, the dawn of redemption has broken". Judah L. Magnes who had steadfastly fought for a bi-national state wrote: "It looks like trouble".
Now, is there or is there not a link between the Red Revolution, the Balfour Declaration, and this continuous trouble that persists along the decades? How can we point out the essential role of the Olam Hamitzvot - the world of the Commandments as showing this particular dawn of redemption beyond times of tragedies?
Russians are en vogue in the country and somehow they irritate those who like to teach them how to become true Jews and Israelis. A very large immigration composed of Jews, half, quarter of Jewish descent and even less. Newcomers that rushed into the country after 70 years of communist rule and ideology, strongly combated by the Westerners, to begin with the North American Jews and non-Jews. Some refiuzniki (fighters, resistants) slowly arrived thirty years ago or were thrown out from the Soviet Gan Eden into satanic Israel, sometimes in transit via Schoenau in Austria. After the fall of communism, almost all former Soviet Union citizens who came to Israel directly arrived by plane or some ship from the Ukraine (Romania or Istanbul for some rare cases). They were immediately given their Israeli citizenship (or the possibility to get it rather quickly). They knew only few things about Judaism. They rarely spoke of their backgrounds. They were assimilated to some hybrid pan-Russian falsely internationally universal nation. The better part of the newcomers originally came from the Ukraine, Belarus where the tsarist Empire had forced them to settle. Jews? Undoubtedly for some bigger part - certainly not according to the Halachah, indeed Jewish with regards to the Nazi rules that governed the deportation and extermination of the Jews during the time of the Shoah. A lot of them do speak Yiddish as also Farsi-Tat (Persian because their ancestors did not return to Jerusalem by the time of Cyrus' decree).
The first refiuzniki were, as Nathan Sharansky, true fighters for the sake of Zion. Some of them were Christian Orthodox priests, as Yuri Edelstein’s father who is famous. Some others were Gentiles, accepted by the State of Israel to go up to Jerusalem with their Jewish parentage. The situation is quite unique in history! True atheistically-educated people, rooted in all possible tribes and nations composing the former Soviet Union and satellites regions or republics, suddenly discovered they were fully entitled to be Israeli citizens. The weird part is that many had discovered the Church in between.
Many were hardly Jewish by faith or background. True, they were driven to come to Israel for various reasons. Many would admit that the economic collapse and historical uncertainty decided them to make their aliyah to the State of the Jews. In comparison, the situation would be rather similar if a sudden anti-Semitic rash would affect the United States and Canada. A large part of the North American Jews have no real roots in the world of the Mitzvot and would hardly be able to prove their Jewishness, as it often happened to the former Soviet newcomers.
A mirroring situation? Definitely. It is a part of the same drama and hope that has been on air since the erosion of the civilization of Yiddishkayt in Eastern Europe, started 120 years ago seemingly climaxing with their eradication during World War II.
It took a certain time to convince Lenin to return to Russia and take the lead of the Red Revolution. The Bolshevik revolution was led by a two names joint-personality: Lenin-Trotsky (aka Bronstein). No use to trace back to Marx-Engels. Jews foresaw socialism and the red revolution as a part of some messianic move that would apparently remove the noblesse and the bourgeoisie and chip down the realm of the Mitzvot, making it a proletarian egalitarian codex. Some think that communism is devilish. It would be useful to positively consider the widespread development of education, culture, some sort of Slavic-inspirited freedom, high level of technology and this special mixture of lies combined with purity and truth, rectitude and assistance to all the nations that grew in some rude and rough areas. The international druzhba (friendship) that preceded the American tendency and is rooted in the civil commandment of love and human assistance (chevrut). As mentioned in a previous blog in August about the 70th anniversary of Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous region, we might overestimate the West and misunderstand the real qualities brought by the former Soviet olim to Israeli society. Ballets, theatres, orchestras, medical and hi-tech professions, tours without borders throughout the country allow the emergence of new Israeli that would not say yes to any system of thought or faith. They maybe double-minded incidentally, but it is a profit in times of research.
So why is there such a silence about this 90th anniversary of the Red Revolution? Most political conflicts show they are featured according to the same “past” communist patterns. From Angela Merkel to Vladimir Putin, with various choices – the communist era brought the pioneers to Israel and they clutched to the fundamentals of righteousness. The world of chassidut and Yiddishkayt only found refuge in the United States, trying to save what had sustained true Jewishness and got secularized in the “communist” dream of all human rights and equality.
Late Rav Yeshayahu Leibowitz was a typical heir of the Riga world of Yiddishkayt and had a true understanding and experience of the Mitzvot. He noted how educated the Russian youngsters are when they arrive from Soviet schools. He and they had in common the same teaching methods. He knew that the first kibbutzim were conceived in the then-Belorussia, dealing with fight for equal rights and care. He had faced the German seeds that led to National-Socialism and had also crossed the path of the Chabad that struggled against the consequences of the Red Revolution.
We know today that this ideological system cannot simply be rejected because it curiously relies upon some curved Messianic Jewish call to justice and equality. In that sense, “ordinary, anonymous people” are the produce of such a society. Pope John-Paul II was a major actor in the fall of communism because he understood it from inside and positively. It is far too early to measure the return to faith of the Eastern Orthodox Churches and protestant sects.
Whatever huge problems are related, in the present, to what happened 90 years ago with the Red Revolution, the Balfour Declaration and the UN vote (60 years ago), the Rav Leibowitz would not have kept silent. He did underscore in his explanation of Jacob’s peculiar vocation. By usurping his brother’s birthright, Yaakov chose to journey through a hellish life made of failures and wandering on a distorted path. God’s correction and confidence thus showed as the constant miracle as with the coming lights of Kislev.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Yichus: nepotism or prophetic pedigree
In the past few decades, specific professions have appeared due to the development of new techniques and applications: films, movies, cartoons, the realm of music, electrical tunes, long-term soap operas on TV for the most visible part of the high tech development. This also concerns the world of the media in all its variety: news, newspaper magazines, audio - video, virtual, web, internet. Some grandfather appeared to be a pioneer in some actions, and his children followed by their grandchildren until now continue to work in the same field of activity. In some cases, it is easy to explain because they had their entries in the framework of a professional milieu and we love to select those we know and are similar to us. The rule is not always true and it may even not function at the best, but this is a human tendency.
The last parashat hashavua Chayei Sarah (the lives of Sarah) shows how from a situation of aperture and wide opening to the outside world, we tend to restrain ourselves and others, till it even evolves into a series of human breaches: Abraham had three women (at least) and chose to disfavor Ishmael and Katurah's children in order to privilege Yitzchak beyond any reasonable measure.
In the haftarah, the prophet Nathan is the old court handyman and behind-the-scenes operator that tried to assist, save and correct King David. He is a personal and professional prophet. This sounds a bit strange today. It can be terribly perilous for a prophet to change into a carpet-like servile yesman. It is easy, too easy and comfortable; and still it looks uncomfortable to crawl to a potentate, a top-manager, executive or a simple egg-headed watchdog. Is it a life to caress the man or the woman like a kissy-kissy brown-nose, in the political or civilian sectors of activities? At the present, Nathan would have been a mixture of prime minister, private assistant and secretary, man of confidence. I met a lot of characters of excellence who had acute insights into the development of specific situations, keep known and refrain to required any front visible privilege. They are the true rulers in a difficult context in which their behind-the-scenes presence allows for the growth of what often could be cut off very quickly.
Indeed, the prophet Nathan could have been less flexible, not too much: just a bit more strict on different issues. In his quality of God’s prophet, he certainly did not depend upon any decision taken by his boss, Melech David. Don’t get me wrong: he had to accomplish his task fully for the benefit of the king of Israel. Nathan has always acted with much honesty. In the same situation, all things being equal and whatever professional level concerned, workers cheat their companies on the widest and most unbelievable scales: telephone, browing the internet for hours, files, papers, pens, items of any sorts just abused by any personnel. And money! It has nothing to do with the Saying of the Fathers: “Mine is yours and yours is mine proposed by Hillel as the highest level of sharing and conscience (Avot 5:10). It has nothing to do with the first proposition of “mine is mine, so speaks the ignorant (am haaretz). It shows how a working group and society are subject to moral deleting, misusing its tools, instruments of work, narcissistic “selves” embattled in tiny short-used, short-timed mean portions for “myself, not you”. In this respect, we are archaic, like the first men of the caves. In Yiddish, Yid – Jew used to implicitly mean “a (real) human being”, just as Mentsh – from Germ. Mensch which only a Jew can use to speak of another Jew.
Thus, the prophet Nathan was responsible in the face of God for King David's adultery and project of assassination of his rival, Uriah, the official husband of Bathsheba. He should have vehemently protested and could even have called the priests to ban the King. Instead, he was submitted (not obediently) and wept at his king’s mourning for his adultery lover and did not have the nerve to yell at the former shepherd was found unexpectedly in the fields to be crowned as king of Israel. Nathan was crawling to Melech David because it is easier in a familiar company to bow and scrape and play some sycophant game waiting for the one who will be kicked out next.
In the forthcoming Shabbat Tol’dot (history, generation), Yitzchak is his dad’s righteous good old boy married to a sly cunning foxy woman, Rivkah, chosen because she knew how to be good with pets (she gave water to the camels). Today, it makes her incredibly human. Generations that should continue from our homeland, Chaldea. At this point, we are frankly on the verge of committing hideous crimes as thousands years later, we, as descendants, let our birthplace (Ur-Kasdim in Chaldea) be reduced to nil in the present.
Yichus = pedigree in Hebrew. Yiches (Yid.) is a source of pride or pretence. How strange and funny that a lot of Semitic roots mean “to connect, link” as for yachas: to connect, be connected, trace the connection of events and descents. This is a typical DNA thing that ties up historical events, blood parentage and memory. “In Israel, families should be of traceable descent”, states Kiddushin 70b adding: “See this one is of nobler birth because he stopped quarrelling” (Kiddushin 71b).
The radical of the word is moving: chus (to bend over, have affection for) as in “You took pity on the gourd…” (Jonah 4:10). “The Law has much affection for man’s small property because they are valuable” (Nega’im 12, 5); in Aramaic, “chassiya” means “pardon” and is the name of the sacrament of confession in the Assyrian-Chaldean Church. “Pedigree = pe de gru in Old French = footprints of birds, especially herons”. It is really too cute to consider our genealogy as prints of birds connected with some divine imprint transmitted from generation to generation.
What can really be transmitted? When I arrived in Israel forty years ago, things were more or less clear. I cannot track back the details but it is a matter of fact that my family, as many Jews who lived in the Ukraine, and were a mixture of rabbis and wheat merchants to begin with; incidentally, one parent had been in charge of the Romanian fleet at Istanbul during World War II. He had bought land and properties for the Jewish Agency. Israel meant a lot, far more than a shelter. It was not a dream. It was a daily breathing uttered through the air of the prayers that led back to Abraham and envisioned the ingathering of the exiled.
Yichus/Yiches? After 80 years of manifold disasters (Ukrainian civil war, Russian revolution, World War I and II, deportation and extermination of the whole family, both sides – 400 killed), the “footprints of the Jews” in my native region of South Ukraine had turned to a full loss of physical survivors. But I experienced something unique. My mother, a survivor of all the series of events, taught me the profundity of the blessing Yatzar HaAdam – Who fashioned human being with wisdom and the importance to give full priority to forgiveness as a sign of future and creativity. In that sense, she taught me the value and meaning of a true yichus. I might have already written this: she was considered as losing her mind by her friends and fellow survivors, when she decided that her son would perfectly speak German and know the German culture because I belong to the generation of reconciliation with the Germans. Thus, I spent some time as a young child in Bischofshofen, not far from Salzburg (Austria) among former Nazi peasants and then started to learn how twisted minds are mainly the produce of knitting up and down confused and tormented history, avoiding facing the book that may mirror their guilt and erase hope. But they were human beings and that was the most difficult thing to explain, even at the present. German women raise Israeli Oriental children at the present.
This why it is particularly beautiful and significant – as a spiritual sign of respect towards Jerusalem, the Jewish people and all the inhabitants of the Holy Land that the Conference of the Austrian bishops, headed by Christoph Schoenborn, Cardinal and Archbishop of Vienna, have decided to meet in Jerusalem. The cardinal had launched, some years ago, a “Versoehnung – pardon” process in the split city of Vienna. He is very concerned by the existence of Israel and the Jewish tradition. At present, they will spend some days here as a sort of spiritual renewal and retreat, which is new and courageous. The prelate has close contacts with Pope Benedictus XVI. When he was a student, he wrote his dissertation about “Saint Sophronios of Jerusalem”, who headed the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (560 – 638), ordered the services of prayers, and a few months before his death, could with insightful wit, conclude an agreement with the caliph Umar I (Al Kittab, the Umariya Covenant).It is still in force and recognizes the full religious and civil rights of the Christians of Jerusalem. He did act with a spirit of prophetic yichus.
Indeed, Judaism lost so many communities throughout history. There is no DNA in memory, even if Jews can be terrific memorizing racers. It is not a pride, a privilege. Yichus makes sense for those who see whereto our footprints can follow a path designed for more tolerance and creativity.
The last parashat hashavua Chayei Sarah (the lives of Sarah) shows how from a situation of aperture and wide opening to the outside world, we tend to restrain ourselves and others, till it even evolves into a series of human breaches: Abraham had three women (at least) and chose to disfavor Ishmael and Katurah's children in order to privilege Yitzchak beyond any reasonable measure.
In the haftarah, the prophet Nathan is the old court handyman and behind-the-scenes operator that tried to assist, save and correct King David. He is a personal and professional prophet. This sounds a bit strange today. It can be terribly perilous for a prophet to change into a carpet-like servile yesman. It is easy, too easy and comfortable; and still it looks uncomfortable to crawl to a potentate, a top-manager, executive or a simple egg-headed watchdog. Is it a life to caress the man or the woman like a kissy-kissy brown-nose, in the political or civilian sectors of activities? At the present, Nathan would have been a mixture of prime minister, private assistant and secretary, man of confidence. I met a lot of characters of excellence who had acute insights into the development of specific situations, keep known and refrain to required any front visible privilege. They are the true rulers in a difficult context in which their behind-the-scenes presence allows for the growth of what often could be cut off very quickly.
Indeed, the prophet Nathan could have been less flexible, not too much: just a bit more strict on different issues. In his quality of God’s prophet, he certainly did not depend upon any decision taken by his boss, Melech David. Don’t get me wrong: he had to accomplish his task fully for the benefit of the king of Israel. Nathan has always acted with much honesty. In the same situation, all things being equal and whatever professional level concerned, workers cheat their companies on the widest and most unbelievable scales: telephone, browing the internet for hours, files, papers, pens, items of any sorts just abused by any personnel. And money! It has nothing to do with the Saying of the Fathers: “Mine is yours and yours is mine proposed by Hillel as the highest level of sharing and conscience (Avot 5:10). It has nothing to do with the first proposition of “mine is mine, so speaks the ignorant (am haaretz). It shows how a working group and society are subject to moral deleting, misusing its tools, instruments of work, narcissistic “selves” embattled in tiny short-used, short-timed mean portions for “myself, not you”. In this respect, we are archaic, like the first men of the caves. In Yiddish, Yid – Jew used to implicitly mean “a (real) human being”, just as Mentsh – from Germ. Mensch which only a Jew can use to speak of another Jew.
Thus, the prophet Nathan was responsible in the face of God for King David's adultery and project of assassination of his rival, Uriah, the official husband of Bathsheba. He should have vehemently protested and could even have called the priests to ban the King. Instead, he was submitted (not obediently) and wept at his king’s mourning for his adultery lover and did not have the nerve to yell at the former shepherd was found unexpectedly in the fields to be crowned as king of Israel. Nathan was crawling to Melech David because it is easier in a familiar company to bow and scrape and play some sycophant game waiting for the one who will be kicked out next.
In the forthcoming Shabbat Tol’dot (history, generation), Yitzchak is his dad’s righteous good old boy married to a sly cunning foxy woman, Rivkah, chosen because she knew how to be good with pets (she gave water to the camels). Today, it makes her incredibly human. Generations that should continue from our homeland, Chaldea. At this point, we are frankly on the verge of committing hideous crimes as thousands years later, we, as descendants, let our birthplace (Ur-Kasdim in Chaldea) be reduced to nil in the present.
Yichus = pedigree in Hebrew. Yiches (Yid.) is a source of pride or pretence. How strange and funny that a lot of Semitic roots mean “to connect, link” as for yachas: to connect, be connected, trace the connection of events and descents. This is a typical DNA thing that ties up historical events, blood parentage and memory. “In Israel, families should be of traceable descent”, states Kiddushin 70b adding: “See this one is of nobler birth because he stopped quarrelling” (Kiddushin 71b).
The radical of the word is moving: chus (to bend over, have affection for) as in “You took pity on the gourd…” (Jonah 4:10). “The Law has much affection for man’s small property because they are valuable” (Nega’im 12, 5); in Aramaic, “chassiya” means “pardon” and is the name of the sacrament of confession in the Assyrian-Chaldean Church. “Pedigree = pe de gru in Old French = footprints of birds, especially herons”. It is really too cute to consider our genealogy as prints of birds connected with some divine imprint transmitted from generation to generation.
What can really be transmitted? When I arrived in Israel forty years ago, things were more or less clear. I cannot track back the details but it is a matter of fact that my family, as many Jews who lived in the Ukraine, and were a mixture of rabbis and wheat merchants to begin with; incidentally, one parent had been in charge of the Romanian fleet at Istanbul during World War II. He had bought land and properties for the Jewish Agency. Israel meant a lot, far more than a shelter. It was not a dream. It was a daily breathing uttered through the air of the prayers that led back to Abraham and envisioned the ingathering of the exiled.
Yichus/Yiches? After 80 years of manifold disasters (Ukrainian civil war, Russian revolution, World War I and II, deportation and extermination of the whole family, both sides – 400 killed), the “footprints of the Jews” in my native region of South Ukraine had turned to a full loss of physical survivors. But I experienced something unique. My mother, a survivor of all the series of events, taught me the profundity of the blessing Yatzar HaAdam – Who fashioned human being with wisdom and the importance to give full priority to forgiveness as a sign of future and creativity. In that sense, she taught me the value and meaning of a true yichus. I might have already written this: she was considered as losing her mind by her friends and fellow survivors, when she decided that her son would perfectly speak German and know the German culture because I belong to the generation of reconciliation with the Germans. Thus, I spent some time as a young child in Bischofshofen, not far from Salzburg (Austria) among former Nazi peasants and then started to learn how twisted minds are mainly the produce of knitting up and down confused and tormented history, avoiding facing the book that may mirror their guilt and erase hope. But they were human beings and that was the most difficult thing to explain, even at the present. German women raise Israeli Oriental children at the present.
This why it is particularly beautiful and significant – as a spiritual sign of respect towards Jerusalem, the Jewish people and all the inhabitants of the Holy Land that the Conference of the Austrian bishops, headed by Christoph Schoenborn, Cardinal and Archbishop of Vienna, have decided to meet in Jerusalem. The cardinal had launched, some years ago, a “Versoehnung – pardon” process in the split city of Vienna. He is very concerned by the existence of Israel and the Jewish tradition. At present, they will spend some days here as a sort of spiritual renewal and retreat, which is new and courageous. The prelate has close contacts with Pope Benedictus XVI. When he was a student, he wrote his dissertation about “Saint Sophronios of Jerusalem”, who headed the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (560 – 638), ordered the services of prayers, and a few months before his death, could with insightful wit, conclude an agreement with the caliph Umar I (Al Kittab, the Umariya Covenant).It is still in force and recognizes the full religious and civil rights of the Christians of Jerusalem. He did act with a spirit of prophetic yichus.
Indeed, Judaism lost so many communities throughout history. There is no DNA in memory, even if Jews can be terrific memorizing racers. It is not a pride, a privilege. Yichus makes sense for those who see whereto our footprints can follow a path designed for more tolerance and creativity.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Ziknah: between old and young
We just got the fresh news that the oldest Icelandic sea mollusk recently died at the age of 435 years old, beating ocean whales (only 140 or so) and other odd animals. The noting point as concerns the Icelandic mollusk is that it develops specific lines, the same way tree trunks do and this is how the scientist got to its probable age. It was indeed a very respectable age, true and it is strange that no other living animals show the same features at the present. Life grows short. In the Caucasus, there are some famous areas where the elders, mostly men, can live far beyond 120 years old, with tea yogurts and a quiet atmosphere. Anyway, it depends where because the region is politically on fire. Also some Mongolian and Ainu people in Japan (Hokkaido).
There is no age to blossom up. It may happen only right out of a sudden because life is too difficult, eventually boring. For example, there is this wonderful socio-cultural tendency that is still very trendy and can bring people to repeated strokes, early Alzheimer, Parkinson: it consists in exercising strong pressure on the working manpower. This also drowns the management. This basically allows supporting medical research.
So this week, Shabbat Chayyei Sarah (the lives of Sarah), mainly reports about the death Abraham's wife. The texts of the reading portion are Bereishit 23:1-25:18 for the sidra and the First Book of the Kings (Malachim) 1:1-31. There are different points of similitude as always required for the haftarot (prophetic readings) de dame leh = for the sake of similarity (Megillat 29b). So there are some common points. Sarah, Abraham's wife and lifelong companion, is 127 years and the passes away. Compared with some TaNaKh records, it is still rather young, but let's accept that there happened a drastic life shortening of human life after the Flood - Mabul.
Now she was almost the same century-old when she bore little Yitzchak. With regards to Abraham's paternity, some Sages have questioned whether Abimelech eventually could have been the true progenitor (cf. the oath sworn by Abraham to Abimelech in Gen.1:22-24). But who counts?) When our theologians and scientists will get to retroactive DNA tests, maybe we would get some answer.
Abraham is indeed very important. He is the man of faith, total faith, that kind of faith that if we would only have the idea to make one or two of the tests he went through could bring us close to some cave and quietly die there. The Christian tradition insists on Abraham's unique acts of faith colored with some mixture of liberty and morals (Epistle to the Hebrews 6:3, repeated 21 times). Still he had envisioned the whole of the Torah. It does not mean that his lifestyle and intelligence of societal connections. In treatise Bava Bathra 145, Abraham's patience is mentioned by Satan who did not trust so much Job's faith in God.
There is something common with Job's different tests. Firstly, let's consider Sarah's destiny. To be honest, we almost know nothing about her life, personal background, family links with Abraham. They had left Haran together for the big journey through atmospheric mirages and human visions. I underscored in a previous article that his mom might have been quite something! But Sarah knows how to get her husband slammed, she governs her husband's sexual life in a rather late period of their life. And she takes the lead casting away poor Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness. Abraham successfully passed all divine tests. He always obeyed his wife til she departed.
It is not evident that there was some "Women Lib" group in the South, near Beer-Sheva at that time nor that matriarchs were suffragists and combat-addicted. From the most ancient times, the TaNaKh and the Jewish tradition - then (normally) followed by Christianity, chose womanhood, femininity, for the real conduct of a Jewish household. This is why there are so many clashes. This includes gentleness, tenderness, wit and gracefulness. Hebrew is naturally a plural form: "chayyei Sarah - the lifes of Sarah" that it is usual to translate as a singular. Sarah’s lives might have been the different levels she could accept such a husband, his tests with God and his projects. It is not sure that she could adhere to the full faith, whatever “laughter”. In this aspect, she has faced the attitudes of paganism and idolatry. It is easier to make a real account of Rebecca’s, Rachel’s and Leah’s biography. She brought her husband to get more out of him. The burial at the Cave of Machpelah is the founding of the Jewish nation. It was bought from the Hittite in a way that certainly could be perilous. Still, the memory developed till now into Eretz Canaan and Israel. Curiously, it includes the splits after the Sarah’s burial, Abraham’s marriage to Keturah and his decision to give all his heritage to Isaac alone.
In the haftarah, Melech David is getting very old. Thirty years ago, in Agron Street (Jerusalem), there was a nice “electrical heating devices” shop called “Shunammite”. It was a cute way to recall the exceedingly beautiful young “naarah – virgin/girl”, Abishag, who was brought to the King to give him some warmth. She became his “sochenet – attendant” or protection though “the king was not intimate with her – lo yad’eh” (! Kings 1:4). At least no heritage for Abishag! She is all the time “covering him” while a ruthless fight is ongoing among the true heirs. Now, things are very simple, just open the gazette and you will get the same dramas everywhere. There could be some arguments for the non-kosher presence of Abishag, but he was the king and knew that all his emotional and idolatry would prevent him from building the Temple in Jerusalem.
Adonijah, son of Hagit, had a standard rebellious idea: to gather a small party with Yoab, the priest Abiathar and they had a party. The Prophet Nathan did not participate to the sacrificial feast of meat, sheep. Nathan told Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, that her son might have some problems with the succession. She ran straight to the king, bowed down and down again. She explained her torment…she and Solomon feared to be considered as traitors. Covered by Abishag during thee explanations, the king saw the prophet Nathan coming in, bowing low his face to the ground.
The point of the week, let’s put it that way for a blog, is precisely the prophet Nathan. He was at the beginning of Melech David’s love story with Bathsheba. She was Uriah’s wife who had been intentionally sent in order to perish on the battlefield. There are different explanations. But their first baby died. Nathan firstly came to comfort the king, saying it was a miserable situation, but that the king was stronger, mightier… till God told him to stop that nonsense. Nathan was asked to oblige the king to repent. This was the real problem, because at that time – as in the present, advisors, counselors, think-tanks depend on the good will of the mogul of the time. And even being a prophet, Nathan could be sent to some remote place. Interestingly, King David did not write his psalm 51 of penance. He might have written some verses, but the prophet was also his secretary.
It is evident that Prophet Nathan’s intervention in view to get the confirmation that Solomon would reign as King of Israel came in due time. Still, he is afraid. And this is intriguing. Strangely how the older a ruler is, the more people can be scared of his decisions. The prophet Nathan “said – amarta”. The translation is not that simple: you said is basic. Indeed, he hesitates: have you said…? (Rashi). Or, you must have said that Adonijah will succeed you (1 Kings 1:24). He plays on suppositions. But the prophet, as any prophet in Israel had another duty. At this point, it is also clear that the prophet might have to prove that king did confirm his son Salomon as his heir. It is a prophetic action in that sense that he witnesses all the actions and misdeeds that still had not removed the king. There are times when the believers miss this courage of the faith.
“Up to Abraham’s days, there was no distinction in appearance of old age” (Sanhedrin 107b). The role of the prophet is “if your nation is decaying in faith, fence her = prevent her from being trodden”. (Berachot 9: 14c).
It is interesting to note that, in the early Church, the development of the communities happened through the Synagogues as “motherly breasts” and very strong-minded women, like Lydia who obliged Paul of Tarsus to accept her assistance He said “We could not refuse her invitation” (Acts of the Apostles 16:14).
Curiously, one must pay a lot of respect to old people. But at the same time, Israel’s experience recalls that great age may become a time of powerful temptation towards idolatry.
There is no age to blossom up. It may happen only right out of a sudden because life is too difficult, eventually boring. For example, there is this wonderful socio-cultural tendency that is still very trendy and can bring people to repeated strokes, early Alzheimer, Parkinson: it consists in exercising strong pressure on the working manpower. This also drowns the management. This basically allows supporting medical research.
So this week, Shabbat Chayyei Sarah (the lives of Sarah), mainly reports about the death Abraham's wife. The texts of the reading portion are Bereishit 23:1-25:18 for the sidra and the First Book of the Kings (Malachim) 1:1-31. There are different points of similitude as always required for the haftarot (prophetic readings) de dame leh = for the sake of similarity (Megillat 29b). So there are some common points. Sarah, Abraham's wife and lifelong companion, is 127 years and the passes away. Compared with some TaNaKh records, it is still rather young, but let's accept that there happened a drastic life shortening of human life after the Flood - Mabul.
Now she was almost the same century-old when she bore little Yitzchak. With regards to Abraham's paternity, some Sages have questioned whether Abimelech eventually could have been the true progenitor (cf. the oath sworn by Abraham to Abimelech in Gen.1:22-24). But who counts?) When our theologians and scientists will get to retroactive DNA tests, maybe we would get some answer.
Abraham is indeed very important. He is the man of faith, total faith, that kind of faith that if we would only have the idea to make one or two of the tests he went through could bring us close to some cave and quietly die there. The Christian tradition insists on Abraham's unique acts of faith colored with some mixture of liberty and morals (Epistle to the Hebrews 6:3, repeated 21 times). Still he had envisioned the whole of the Torah. It does not mean that his lifestyle and intelligence of societal connections. In treatise Bava Bathra 145, Abraham's patience is mentioned by Satan who did not trust so much Job's faith in God.
There is something common with Job's different tests. Firstly, let's consider Sarah's destiny. To be honest, we almost know nothing about her life, personal background, family links with Abraham. They had left Haran together for the big journey through atmospheric mirages and human visions. I underscored in a previous article that his mom might have been quite something! But Sarah knows how to get her husband slammed, she governs her husband's sexual life in a rather late period of their life. And she takes the lead casting away poor Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness. Abraham successfully passed all divine tests. He always obeyed his wife til she departed.
It is not evident that there was some "Women Lib" group in the South, near Beer-Sheva at that time nor that matriarchs were suffragists and combat-addicted. From the most ancient times, the TaNaKh and the Jewish tradition - then (normally) followed by Christianity, chose womanhood, femininity, for the real conduct of a Jewish household. This is why there are so many clashes. This includes gentleness, tenderness, wit and gracefulness. Hebrew is naturally a plural form: "chayyei Sarah - the lifes of Sarah" that it is usual to translate as a singular. Sarah’s lives might have been the different levels she could accept such a husband, his tests with God and his projects. It is not sure that she could adhere to the full faith, whatever “laughter”. In this aspect, she has faced the attitudes of paganism and idolatry. It is easier to make a real account of Rebecca’s, Rachel’s and Leah’s biography. She brought her husband to get more out of him. The burial at the Cave of Machpelah is the founding of the Jewish nation. It was bought from the Hittite in a way that certainly could be perilous. Still, the memory developed till now into Eretz Canaan and Israel. Curiously, it includes the splits after the Sarah’s burial, Abraham’s marriage to Keturah and his decision to give all his heritage to Isaac alone.
In the haftarah, Melech David is getting very old. Thirty years ago, in Agron Street (Jerusalem), there was a nice “electrical heating devices” shop called “Shunammite”. It was a cute way to recall the exceedingly beautiful young “naarah – virgin/girl”, Abishag, who was brought to the King to give him some warmth. She became his “sochenet – attendant” or protection though “the king was not intimate with her – lo yad’eh” (! Kings 1:4). At least no heritage for Abishag! She is all the time “covering him” while a ruthless fight is ongoing among the true heirs. Now, things are very simple, just open the gazette and you will get the same dramas everywhere. There could be some arguments for the non-kosher presence of Abishag, but he was the king and knew that all his emotional and idolatry would prevent him from building the Temple in Jerusalem.
Adonijah, son of Hagit, had a standard rebellious idea: to gather a small party with Yoab, the priest Abiathar and they had a party. The Prophet Nathan did not participate to the sacrificial feast of meat, sheep. Nathan told Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, that her son might have some problems with the succession. She ran straight to the king, bowed down and down again. She explained her torment…she and Solomon feared to be considered as traitors. Covered by Abishag during thee explanations, the king saw the prophet Nathan coming in, bowing low his face to the ground.
The point of the week, let’s put it that way for a blog, is precisely the prophet Nathan. He was at the beginning of Melech David’s love story with Bathsheba. She was Uriah’s wife who had been intentionally sent in order to perish on the battlefield. There are different explanations. But their first baby died. Nathan firstly came to comfort the king, saying it was a miserable situation, but that the king was stronger, mightier… till God told him to stop that nonsense. Nathan was asked to oblige the king to repent. This was the real problem, because at that time – as in the present, advisors, counselors, think-tanks depend on the good will of the mogul of the time. And even being a prophet, Nathan could be sent to some remote place. Interestingly, King David did not write his psalm 51 of penance. He might have written some verses, but the prophet was also his secretary.
It is evident that Prophet Nathan’s intervention in view to get the confirmation that Solomon would reign as King of Israel came in due time. Still, he is afraid. And this is intriguing. Strangely how the older a ruler is, the more people can be scared of his decisions. The prophet Nathan “said – amarta”. The translation is not that simple: you said is basic. Indeed, he hesitates: have you said…? (Rashi). Or, you must have said that Adonijah will succeed you (1 Kings 1:24). He plays on suppositions. But the prophet, as any prophet in Israel had another duty. At this point, it is also clear that the prophet might have to prove that king did confirm his son Salomon as his heir. It is a prophetic action in that sense that he witnesses all the actions and misdeeds that still had not removed the king. There are times when the believers miss this courage of the faith.
“Up to Abraham’s days, there was no distinction in appearance of old age” (Sanhedrin 107b). The role of the prophet is “if your nation is decaying in faith, fence her = prevent her from being trodden”. (Berachot 9: 14c).
It is interesting to note that, in the early Church, the development of the communities happened through the Synagogues as “motherly breasts” and very strong-minded women, like Lydia who obliged Paul of Tarsus to accept her assistance He said “We could not refuse her invitation” (Acts of the Apostles 16:14).
Curiously, one must pay a lot of respect to old people. But at the same time, Israel’s experience recalls that great age may become a time of powerful temptation towards idolatry.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Pallal: Full moon temper and praying words
From Thursday till Friday, we went through "full moon" that basically corresponds to the middle of the Jewish month, e.g. Cheshvan 14. The fourteenth day of the month can be totally weird and super-bizarre. It can absolutely reverse and revolve, shake, quake, bounce up and down the mood of the folk. It is not a female phenomenon although it might, for some individuals, be connected with the machzor (menstrual period) that is so important physically and spiritually in the Middle-East. We already shared about this recurrent major event of what is going on in Israel and is linked to full moon.
Now, it happens that the religious world - especially in Jerusalem - encompasses all sorts of Christian monastics but also married men as well as Jewish males - I did not look into the Muslim culture but would presume the same exists. And they are also submitted, to some extent and manner that differs from the women, to this matzav ruach (mood / temper). This interesting point is also that this "rattling of the nerves" is very time-limited, especially before the 14th day of the Jewish month and decreases immediately afterwards. Some people would simply be honest and say they are or got affected by the date; others would have the nerve to pretend that nothing happened, which can also be said with true unawareness of the facts.
Interestingly, in Hebrew, the true word to say temper/mood is derech (way). In this sense, it refers to "way" as a "route, path" a set of conducts and attitudes that lead us to some place; it is rather similar to "morals" and even "ethics". But moods and social attitudes can be terribly complex. They can raise a lot of problems, in particular in this country because of a common physiology that can be submitted to calendar schedules or temperature, heat and cold weather changes. "Temper" is connected with "temperature", at least etymologically. It started with a human capacity to temperate, i.e. being equality sensitive to heat and cold and thus very moderate.
Moderation is something like a dreamy lunatic fairy tale among the Jews who are too anxious or too adventurous, too creative or ready to shelter and hide who they are. "Derech" implies to go along as on a lead, a rearing, training path; "Moral is the man who leads his sons on the right path" (Yevamot 62b). The Jewish soul constantly needs to be submitted to exhausting interrogation with a great variety of responses, if any. The scoop of this Cheshvan 14, 5768 is that the authoress of the universal best-seller "Harry Potter" gave a conference and explained in between that one of the major heroes is actually homosexual, gay – a boy and head of Harry Potter’s spiritual school. It has been recently noted by a serious journalist in Jerusalem that the only concern that can gather all the religious leaders of the Holy Land with the press and TV media is precisely gay pride. So the 'authoress' made her coup, certainly without being aware of the importance of Cheshvan 14, 5768 (a shemittah year!). All the web Harry Potter and characters' fan clubs immediately fell down, lower than the stock exchange after several blasts in Baghdad. The 'authoress' maintained her assertion and left the audience saying that at least the readers got something to gossip about for the coming years. This is a good example of the futility and true vanity of temper ups and downs. Still, they are very useful. They allow us to overcome moments of trouble, unease and boredom.
In Hebrew, derech Aretz refers to the “way of the land”, good manners and simple morals, secular occupation (trade) and sexual connection. Indeed the Torah incidentally teaches the proper conduct in life, e.g. to build a house and then create a family ...” (Tosefta Sota 7:20). On the other hand, derech haaretz is used to speak of some travelling on a long journey compared to marital life (Gittin 70a). Talmud Kiddushin 1,1 depicts the three ways to marry for a woman and accept a husband (isolation with the man; sexual intercourse; money). It specifies that “those who deviated from the way of the society (tzibbur) became heretics as they refused to comply with the ways of peace (the Law; cf. Proverbs 3:17). This is why Derech Aretz constitutes a twofold “Good manners” large (rabba) and small (zuta) treatise of the Talmud. Avodah Zarah 48b considers that losing temper is some signal that we fall into dracha achrona (another road).
This is how it may be difficult sometimes to find relaxing peaceful postures in the Jewish tradition. Yoga, Zen, the Tao (the “way”, by the way! But to Beijing), water lily peace with some taste of Hindu lassi salted milk glass sound far more healthy and refreshing than any other morals considered as obsolete or stringent and strict. Indeed physical postures can be very attitudinizing at the moment, a bit too posing. We may strut out as if constantly on air, filming, video-macerating. As if space, room and spirit, body could hardly match.
Israel has a long historical background and profound experience of worshiping God by means of words, silent words (not uttered but thought) or total silence (Hannah’s prayer is ambiguous because her lips were moving but no sound was to be heard). This became the model for Jewish prayer. Thus, it does not totally means that she formulated any structured prayer but addressed to the Lord. Anyway, this should prove that human sacrifices had been abandoned for quite a long time when the first avot (patriarchs) left idolatry. In the weekly Vayeira reading portion, it is said: “Vayitpallel Avraham leHaElohim – Abraham prayed to God” (Gen. 20:17).
The Semitic root Pallal should firstly be compared with Arabic falla (notch, edge of a sword) to get to the real spiritual meaning of the word. It is evident that, to begin with, “praying” was considered as a form of sacrifice, replacing self-mutilation in moments of ecstasy. Shamanism as initiating rituals would speak of spacing out the brains to reach some godly presence. Just as blood-gushing out (1 Kings 18:28) was normal in the account of Prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal. On the other hand, “cutting oneself, emasculate” is strictly forbidden (Deut. 14:1; 23:2). We are prompt at considering all this stuff as very barbarous.
Pallal also means to judge or arbitrate and hitpallel developed into another deeper meaning showing a human can cut oneself in worship and still be very connected with those who pray. The act of interceding implies that a praying person is making the sacrifice of his/her time in order to obtain specific favors and blessings from God that will change the lives of others, known or unknown people. In this view, mitpallel really constitutes a act of prophecy that introduces into the realm of unforeseeable though expected divine loving-kindness. As it is said: “You did plead, did pray and your prayer rose and blossomed for the benefit” (Shabbat 55b). Treatise Berachot 5,1 confirms that “It is important to delay and be tardy, slow in putting the words together in meditation before uttering the prayer”.
Hebrew does not use many words. We can say things very quickly, promptly, short. Sometimes, it makes the demands too short. Look into the first prayers (Shma’ Israel/Hear Israel, the basic benedictions of the Amidah). The blessings are clear-cut. Curiously, the Festive prayer-books are far most extensive, including endless sequences of superlatives and long phrases. The tendency is rather the same in all religions, even if the Quakers would pray in silence and say “Amen”. There is a sort of pil-pul (cf. palpal and pallal) argumentative, disputing brainstorming attitude in praying. It is always on the move. Intercession means that a soul reaches out to accurate and real healing or repair of a situation. Thus, it cannot be reduced to some stylized repeatedly read or pronounced demands. The richness and uniqueness of the Hebrew prayers consist in that they are always new and renew the demands. The same happens in any tongue as said in Sota 1,7. The Rebbe of Breslov who composed the set of psalms into a Tikun klali (total/general repair) was aware that it is important to pray in one’s mother tongue and he used to ask the believers to say them in Yiddish, without excluding other languages.
Prayer as an act of pallal (cf. tefillah / prayer, supplication, demands) is often very trying and requires a pouring of the soul and with a physical flexibility. In theory, all the Christian faithful can or could pray with any Jewish prayer-book and the matter has been studied theologically because it is an interesting feature. This of course pre-supposes the total absence of any spirit of replacement theology directed against the Jews. On the other hand, Christian prayers refer to other modus operandi and access to God. On the one hand, Jesus entrusted his first disciples with a totally Jewish prayer that, also in theory, could be pronounced by any Jew, i.e. “Our Father – Avinu shebashayim – Avun divshmaya” (Matthew 6:9-13). The perception of intercession and of time in Christianity creates a point of separation. We are rarely aware of the connections that exist or miss in prayers with regards to space, location, time and generation.
Finally, Israeli society certainly owes, in a way that is difficult to be perceived, to women prayers often written down in simple words in a manner that is full of veracity and close to the Broslover Rebbe’s mood and suggestions.
Now, it happens that the religious world - especially in Jerusalem - encompasses all sorts of Christian monastics but also married men as well as Jewish males - I did not look into the Muslim culture but would presume the same exists. And they are also submitted, to some extent and manner that differs from the women, to this matzav ruach (mood / temper). This interesting point is also that this "rattling of the nerves" is very time-limited, especially before the 14th day of the Jewish month and decreases immediately afterwards. Some people would simply be honest and say they are or got affected by the date; others would have the nerve to pretend that nothing happened, which can also be said with true unawareness of the facts.
Interestingly, in Hebrew, the true word to say temper/mood is derech (way). In this sense, it refers to "way" as a "route, path" a set of conducts and attitudes that lead us to some place; it is rather similar to "morals" and even "ethics". But moods and social attitudes can be terribly complex. They can raise a lot of problems, in particular in this country because of a common physiology that can be submitted to calendar schedules or temperature, heat and cold weather changes. "Temper" is connected with "temperature", at least etymologically. It started with a human capacity to temperate, i.e. being equality sensitive to heat and cold and thus very moderate.
Moderation is something like a dreamy lunatic fairy tale among the Jews who are too anxious or too adventurous, too creative or ready to shelter and hide who they are. "Derech" implies to go along as on a lead, a rearing, training path; "Moral is the man who leads his sons on the right path" (Yevamot 62b). The Jewish soul constantly needs to be submitted to exhausting interrogation with a great variety of responses, if any. The scoop of this Cheshvan 14, 5768 is that the authoress of the universal best-seller "Harry Potter" gave a conference and explained in between that one of the major heroes is actually homosexual, gay – a boy and head of Harry Potter’s spiritual school. It has been recently noted by a serious journalist in Jerusalem that the only concern that can gather all the religious leaders of the Holy Land with the press and TV media is precisely gay pride. So the 'authoress' made her coup, certainly without being aware of the importance of Cheshvan 14, 5768 (a shemittah year!). All the web Harry Potter and characters' fan clubs immediately fell down, lower than the stock exchange after several blasts in Baghdad. The 'authoress' maintained her assertion and left the audience saying that at least the readers got something to gossip about for the coming years. This is a good example of the futility and true vanity of temper ups and downs. Still, they are very useful. They allow us to overcome moments of trouble, unease and boredom.
In Hebrew, derech Aretz refers to the “way of the land”, good manners and simple morals, secular occupation (trade) and sexual connection. Indeed the Torah incidentally teaches the proper conduct in life, e.g. to build a house and then create a family ...” (Tosefta Sota 7:20). On the other hand, derech haaretz is used to speak of some travelling on a long journey compared to marital life (Gittin 70a). Talmud Kiddushin 1,1 depicts the three ways to marry for a woman and accept a husband (isolation with the man; sexual intercourse; money). It specifies that “those who deviated from the way of the society (tzibbur) became heretics as they refused to comply with the ways of peace (the Law; cf. Proverbs 3:17). This is why Derech Aretz constitutes a twofold “Good manners” large (rabba) and small (zuta) treatise of the Talmud. Avodah Zarah 48b considers that losing temper is some signal that we fall into dracha achrona (another road).
This is how it may be difficult sometimes to find relaxing peaceful postures in the Jewish tradition. Yoga, Zen, the Tao (the “way”, by the way! But to Beijing), water lily peace with some taste of Hindu lassi salted milk glass sound far more healthy and refreshing than any other morals considered as obsolete or stringent and strict. Indeed physical postures can be very attitudinizing at the moment, a bit too posing. We may strut out as if constantly on air, filming, video-macerating. As if space, room and spirit, body could hardly match.
Israel has a long historical background and profound experience of worshiping God by means of words, silent words (not uttered but thought) or total silence (Hannah’s prayer is ambiguous because her lips were moving but no sound was to be heard). This became the model for Jewish prayer. Thus, it does not totally means that she formulated any structured prayer but addressed to the Lord. Anyway, this should prove that human sacrifices had been abandoned for quite a long time when the first avot (patriarchs) left idolatry. In the weekly Vayeira reading portion, it is said: “Vayitpallel Avraham leHaElohim – Abraham prayed to God” (Gen. 20:17).
The Semitic root Pallal should firstly be compared with Arabic falla (notch, edge of a sword) to get to the real spiritual meaning of the word. It is evident that, to begin with, “praying” was considered as a form of sacrifice, replacing self-mutilation in moments of ecstasy. Shamanism as initiating rituals would speak of spacing out the brains to reach some godly presence. Just as blood-gushing out (1 Kings 18:28) was normal in the account of Prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal. On the other hand, “cutting oneself, emasculate” is strictly forbidden (Deut. 14:1; 23:2). We are prompt at considering all this stuff as very barbarous.
Pallal also means to judge or arbitrate and hitpallel developed into another deeper meaning showing a human can cut oneself in worship and still be very connected with those who pray. The act of interceding implies that a praying person is making the sacrifice of his/her time in order to obtain specific favors and blessings from God that will change the lives of others, known or unknown people. In this view, mitpallel really constitutes a act of prophecy that introduces into the realm of unforeseeable though expected divine loving-kindness. As it is said: “You did plead, did pray and your prayer rose and blossomed for the benefit” (Shabbat 55b). Treatise Berachot 5,1 confirms that “It is important to delay and be tardy, slow in putting the words together in meditation before uttering the prayer”.
Hebrew does not use many words. We can say things very quickly, promptly, short. Sometimes, it makes the demands too short. Look into the first prayers (Shma’ Israel/Hear Israel, the basic benedictions of the Amidah). The blessings are clear-cut. Curiously, the Festive prayer-books are far most extensive, including endless sequences of superlatives and long phrases. The tendency is rather the same in all religions, even if the Quakers would pray in silence and say “Amen”. There is a sort of pil-pul (cf. palpal and pallal) argumentative, disputing brainstorming attitude in praying. It is always on the move. Intercession means that a soul reaches out to accurate and real healing or repair of a situation. Thus, it cannot be reduced to some stylized repeatedly read or pronounced demands. The richness and uniqueness of the Hebrew prayers consist in that they are always new and renew the demands. The same happens in any tongue as said in Sota 1,7. The Rebbe of Breslov who composed the set of psalms into a Tikun klali (total/general repair) was aware that it is important to pray in one’s mother tongue and he used to ask the believers to say them in Yiddish, without excluding other languages.
Prayer as an act of pallal (cf. tefillah / prayer, supplication, demands) is often very trying and requires a pouring of the soul and with a physical flexibility. In theory, all the Christian faithful can or could pray with any Jewish prayer-book and the matter has been studied theologically because it is an interesting feature. This of course pre-supposes the total absence of any spirit of replacement theology directed against the Jews. On the other hand, Christian prayers refer to other modus operandi and access to God. On the one hand, Jesus entrusted his first disciples with a totally Jewish prayer that, also in theory, could be pronounced by any Jew, i.e. “Our Father – Avinu shebashayim – Avun divshmaya” (Matthew 6:9-13). The perception of intercession and of time in Christianity creates a point of separation. We are rarely aware of the connections that exist or miss in prayers with regards to space, location, time and generation.
Finally, Israeli society certainly owes, in a way that is difficult to be perceived, to women prayers often written down in simple words in a manner that is full of veracity and close to the Broslover Rebbe’s mood and suggestions.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Nissayon: Chik-chak or long-term saddling?
When I started my present spiritual activities in Israel, I decided to systematically visit all sorts of people and situations that I had known in my "secular" professional activity of international consultancy and psycho-analysis specializing in interfaith and socio-cultural issues. The point is that mind-searching, linguistic surveys and approaches are nil compared to the dynamics of a soul in spiritual seeking. Israel has also faced too many problems and slowly takes her time in order to resolve the societal problems that break out. On the other hand, it makes it a unique mental and cultural laboratory of the seeds of life, provided that it is developed in order to get to the heart of human nature.
Thus, I visited, inter alia, a lot of places where people could stay for some time or on holiday. For example, hotels constitute a good social activity with a regular, standardized clientèle coming for holidays from all over the world. Other hotels and guest-houses are regularly "commandeered" by the Sochnut - Jewish Agency or another administration to lodge some newcomers / olim chadashim for a certain period of time. I also visited some caravans that, strangely enough, have not totally disappeared. The main purpose was to see how people were living, making their living or staying put without any activity and their will or reluctant to get involved into Israeli society.
In the top-ranking hotels, I found some former-Soviet young men and women who were very eager to assimilate into Israeli society. We have a wonderful youth, both ready to help, make their way and spare their time. Their respect for the legal aspect of society is sometimes very striking. Before the second Intifada started, I wanted once to give a small glass on which was written in Hebrew Lechayim (Cheers) to a Russian young girl who had only spoken Hebrew with me, but had heard me speak Russian all the time on the phone. Her Hebrew was perfect; she would continue to speak Russian with the personnel and was a bit astounded we never exchanged anything in this language. She was nice and ready to help: I am a survivor with a minimal amount of intestine and meals are a major daily concern. On the other hand, it allowed and continues to oblige me - also with the help of the Providence with regards to the related costs and expenses - to be very careful with food and mainly eat in restaurants. These places are essential in the development, changes, restructuring of food tastes and trends in the country.
Okay. So I had never said a word to this young Russian woman, except that it was evident she was trying to find the right dish at the right time. She refused the gift saying that it was not legal! I told her it was a bit ridiculous and that her reaction was nice professionally, but a bit too much. She did not reply and ciao - poka - lehit! I told her later in Russian that frankly a Lechayim mini-glass was not that pathetic and that she could accept such a miniature "present".
She grinned and said she would speak with the top manager. She came back rather quickly with a smile and told me the director had told her she could take the present and had burst into laughter. He wanted to know why I wanted to give her such a Lechayim tiny glass. I told her that, 70 years ago, she and I would have eventually met in a closed wagon en route to some extermination camp. She would never have shown any kindness to me – we might not have tried to save our lives if not our souls and she would not have fed me nicely and with wit because we simply would only have been mincemeat to be reduced into dust. Then, I added that we could at least both make our lives in Israel, for the best of our fellow people and others by participating in building up a world to set up, just the opposite of a world that passed away, olam she-avar. She suddenly looked at me and said she was grateful. She took the present.
At Lod Ben Gurion airport Terminal 3 – Arrivals, there is a huge picture that welcomes the travelers. A photograph showing the ner tamid (light for the children that perished in the concentration camps) reflected 1 million and a half time at the Yad VaShem Memorial. Those who pass by are of all origins and backgrounds. These days, there are a lot of Russian clergy, wearing cassocks, breast crosses. On Sunday, this will be the 150th anniversary of the presence of the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church in the Holy Land.
In May, on the Day of Ascension, the two major branches of the Russian Church, i.e. the Russian Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad, got unified after 80 years of division. Interestingly, the Church Abroad has been vehemently struggling against communism and the Patriarchate of Moscow and claimed, everywhere in the world, to be strictly faithful to the true Russian Christian Orthodox faith. During these decades of separation, the Church Abroad was recognized by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Serbian Church. The showing of the clergy in full and normal clerical dress at the airport, facing this photograph of the “children murdered by Hitler” (cf. Matthew 2:16-18, the murder of the Children killed by Herod) raises questions about our society and how we meet with each other. It shows the real trip, or flight-landing process as proposed in the parshat hashavua – weekly reading portion of Vayeira (the Lord appeared to Abraham at Mamre) (Bereishit 18:1-22:23). The prophetic portion is read in the Second Book of the Kings 4:1-4:37 (Ashk. Yemenites) -23 (Sephardim).
I tried to sketch out some points about this major Shabbat reading in the previous blog. It includes the text that requires much insightful reading capacities to get to its profundity: the Akedat Yitzchak – (the Binding of Isaac on the wood). The nissayon (trip, temptation, test) par excellence. This text is read daily in Judaism and constantly meditated with regards to Jesus’ putting at the stake. It can gather. It may rebuke. The haftarah (prophetic portion) shows how Prophet Elisha saves a widow from poverty. Then he told the Shunamite woman that she would bear a son, a situation comparable to the Angels words said to Sarah. She did bear a son who became sick and died. So “she had her donkey saddled – vetichavosh ha’aton” and urged the servant to bring the beast to the prophet. Elisha “mounted (the bed) and placed himself over the child. He put “his mouth on his mouth – piv al-piv – his eyes on his eyes. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes” (2 Kings 4:24-37).
The Shunamite saddled her donkey (aton - same word used for Balaam’s ass who compelled the man not to curse but to bless Israel). It is somehow connected with Jesus entering in Jerusalem on an ass (Luke 19:30). At least, the “saddling” of the donkey corresponds to the reading portion. Chavashah (saddling) referred to a specific state firstly experienced by Abraham: “Let Abraham’s act of harnessing (anxiety to obey to the full and solely to God’s behest) come and stand as a sign of protection against Balaam’s harnessing (anxiety to curse)” states Bereishit Rabba 55. The spiritual anxiety of what is unknown but definitely fundamental in our lives can turn into a torment that will not pass or be too difficult to overcome. Both Abraham and Balaam confided in God – Abraham is the one who never failed. But in the end, the point is to walk unharmed through the perilous journey of human tests and temptation. The haftarah brings forth the messianic-prophetic aspect of the resurrection of the boy. Zarar (to smash, sneeze) relates to scattering away the power of death and the piv al piv (mouth to mouth) act performed by the man of God reverses the anxiety of harnessing by re-opening the gates of this world for the boy who had departed. In the prophetic portion the boy sneezes seven times; in the Gospel, the resurrected young girl is told to go and get some food (Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:41).
This was the other conversation of the week. A restaurant manager explained to me how employees are hardly reliable. Indeed, an instant generation: “I want now, what I want, not what the others want”, money, wages, bye! He called that the katzar (short-term) look. This is exactly the opposite of Abraham’s experience or meaning of the test of mouth-to-mouth that may resurrect. Theology without history does not mean anything. Thus, Judaism is the historical experience of multi-faceted developments through generations that lead to more hope, morals, prayer and faith. “The supreme effort” required for every Jew does not consist in reducing our forces to what pleases us. It often implies to accept to cross the road with some opacity and “meet others without encountering them” as at Ben Gurion airport terminal 3.
Who could ever think that so many lively elements would raise and show in our generation? As years pass, the joy of liberation (former communist countries) or the burden of war may fade in daily hope that can mutate and concentrate on shortsightedness. With regards to Christian presence or anniversaries and Judaism, times may be near for mutual crossing and respectful recognition. We are often confused by ignorance and lack of in-depth contacts. On October 27-28, the Armenians celebrate the Holy translators of the Scripture, the Russian Orthodox Church their long tradition of pilgrimages and presence in the Holy Land and the Greeks the Okhi (No Day) of protest against the Nazis.
This gives a certain density to our survival beyond all kinds of trials and attempts to give up.
Thus, I visited, inter alia, a lot of places where people could stay for some time or on holiday. For example, hotels constitute a good social activity with a regular, standardized clientèle coming for holidays from all over the world. Other hotels and guest-houses are regularly "commandeered" by the Sochnut - Jewish Agency or another administration to lodge some newcomers / olim chadashim for a certain period of time. I also visited some caravans that, strangely enough, have not totally disappeared. The main purpose was to see how people were living, making their living or staying put without any activity and their will or reluctant to get involved into Israeli society.
In the top-ranking hotels, I found some former-Soviet young men and women who were very eager to assimilate into Israeli society. We have a wonderful youth, both ready to help, make their way and spare their time. Their respect for the legal aspect of society is sometimes very striking. Before the second Intifada started, I wanted once to give a small glass on which was written in Hebrew Lechayim (Cheers) to a Russian young girl who had only spoken Hebrew with me, but had heard me speak Russian all the time on the phone. Her Hebrew was perfect; she would continue to speak Russian with the personnel and was a bit astounded we never exchanged anything in this language. She was nice and ready to help: I am a survivor with a minimal amount of intestine and meals are a major daily concern. On the other hand, it allowed and continues to oblige me - also with the help of the Providence with regards to the related costs and expenses - to be very careful with food and mainly eat in restaurants. These places are essential in the development, changes, restructuring of food tastes and trends in the country.
Okay. So I had never said a word to this young Russian woman, except that it was evident she was trying to find the right dish at the right time. She refused the gift saying that it was not legal! I told her it was a bit ridiculous and that her reaction was nice professionally, but a bit too much. She did not reply and ciao - poka - lehit! I told her later in Russian that frankly a Lechayim mini-glass was not that pathetic and that she could accept such a miniature "present".
She grinned and said she would speak with the top manager. She came back rather quickly with a smile and told me the director had told her she could take the present and had burst into laughter. He wanted to know why I wanted to give her such a Lechayim tiny glass. I told her that, 70 years ago, she and I would have eventually met in a closed wagon en route to some extermination camp. She would never have shown any kindness to me – we might not have tried to save our lives if not our souls and she would not have fed me nicely and with wit because we simply would only have been mincemeat to be reduced into dust. Then, I added that we could at least both make our lives in Israel, for the best of our fellow people and others by participating in building up a world to set up, just the opposite of a world that passed away, olam she-avar. She suddenly looked at me and said she was grateful. She took the present.
At Lod Ben Gurion airport Terminal 3 – Arrivals, there is a huge picture that welcomes the travelers. A photograph showing the ner tamid (light for the children that perished in the concentration camps) reflected 1 million and a half time at the Yad VaShem Memorial. Those who pass by are of all origins and backgrounds. These days, there are a lot of Russian clergy, wearing cassocks, breast crosses. On Sunday, this will be the 150th anniversary of the presence of the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church in the Holy Land.
In May, on the Day of Ascension, the two major branches of the Russian Church, i.e. the Russian Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad, got unified after 80 years of division. Interestingly, the Church Abroad has been vehemently struggling against communism and the Patriarchate of Moscow and claimed, everywhere in the world, to be strictly faithful to the true Russian Christian Orthodox faith. During these decades of separation, the Church Abroad was recognized by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Serbian Church. The showing of the clergy in full and normal clerical dress at the airport, facing this photograph of the “children murdered by Hitler” (cf. Matthew 2:16-18, the murder of the Children killed by Herod) raises questions about our society and how we meet with each other. It shows the real trip, or flight-landing process as proposed in the parshat hashavua – weekly reading portion of Vayeira (the Lord appeared to Abraham at Mamre) (Bereishit 18:1-22:23). The prophetic portion is read in the Second Book of the Kings 4:1-4:37 (Ashk. Yemenites) -23 (Sephardim).
I tried to sketch out some points about this major Shabbat reading in the previous blog. It includes the text that requires much insightful reading capacities to get to its profundity: the Akedat Yitzchak – (the Binding of Isaac on the wood). The nissayon (trip, temptation, test) par excellence. This text is read daily in Judaism and constantly meditated with regards to Jesus’ putting at the stake. It can gather. It may rebuke. The haftarah (prophetic portion) shows how Prophet Elisha saves a widow from poverty. Then he told the Shunamite woman that she would bear a son, a situation comparable to the Angels words said to Sarah. She did bear a son who became sick and died. So “she had her donkey saddled – vetichavosh ha’aton” and urged the servant to bring the beast to the prophet. Elisha “mounted (the bed) and placed himself over the child. He put “his mouth on his mouth – piv al-piv – his eyes on his eyes. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes” (2 Kings 4:24-37).
The Shunamite saddled her donkey (aton - same word used for Balaam’s ass who compelled the man not to curse but to bless Israel). It is somehow connected with Jesus entering in Jerusalem on an ass (Luke 19:30). At least, the “saddling” of the donkey corresponds to the reading portion. Chavashah (saddling) referred to a specific state firstly experienced by Abraham: “Let Abraham’s act of harnessing (anxiety to obey to the full and solely to God’s behest) come and stand as a sign of protection against Balaam’s harnessing (anxiety to curse)” states Bereishit Rabba 55. The spiritual anxiety of what is unknown but definitely fundamental in our lives can turn into a torment that will not pass or be too difficult to overcome. Both Abraham and Balaam confided in God – Abraham is the one who never failed. But in the end, the point is to walk unharmed through the perilous journey of human tests and temptation. The haftarah brings forth the messianic-prophetic aspect of the resurrection of the boy. Zarar (to smash, sneeze) relates to scattering away the power of death and the piv al piv (mouth to mouth) act performed by the man of God reverses the anxiety of harnessing by re-opening the gates of this world for the boy who had departed. In the prophetic portion the boy sneezes seven times; in the Gospel, the resurrected young girl is told to go and get some food (Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:41).
This was the other conversation of the week. A restaurant manager explained to me how employees are hardly reliable. Indeed, an instant generation: “I want now, what I want, not what the others want”, money, wages, bye! He called that the katzar (short-term) look. This is exactly the opposite of Abraham’s experience or meaning of the test of mouth-to-mouth that may resurrect. Theology without history does not mean anything. Thus, Judaism is the historical experience of multi-faceted developments through generations that lead to more hope, morals, prayer and faith. “The supreme effort” required for every Jew does not consist in reducing our forces to what pleases us. It often implies to accept to cross the road with some opacity and “meet others without encountering them” as at Ben Gurion airport terminal 3.
Who could ever think that so many lively elements would raise and show in our generation? As years pass, the joy of liberation (former communist countries) or the burden of war may fade in daily hope that can mutate and concentrate on shortsightedness. With regards to Christian presence or anniversaries and Judaism, times may be near for mutual crossing and respectful recognition. We are often confused by ignorance and lack of in-depth contacts. On October 27-28, the Armenians celebrate the Holy translators of the Scripture, the Russian Orthodox Church their long tradition of pilgrimages and presence in the Holy Land and the Greeks the Okhi (No Day) of protest against the Nazis.
This gives a certain density to our survival beyond all kinds of trials and attempts to give up.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Chomriyut: Beyond saddling a donkey
In modern Hebrew, "chomriyut" means "materialism". It also relates to the physical reality, to the concrete, pragmatic material and substance that can be touched, moved, displaced, changed in a visible way. The "CH-M-R" root in Hebrew as also in Aramaic, and most Semitic languages suggests that the words built upon this radical are "loaded", weighed", heavy or difficult to pile up: "a balanced load (chamar) is like supporting a thing with the thumb on top and the little finger below" (Zevachim 53a).
But the word also refers to "passing a regulation, a law" that can be restrictive. "When they placed themselves under greater restrictions than required by the law, they made a usage of a law = nobody cannot extend any adopted usage only because of analogy or apparent similarities of the situations", states Tractate Niddah 66a.
The perfect example of the radical developed in "chammar = the attendant of beasts of burden, in particular the "chamor = donkey" that is the most exciting clone of materialism as burdening dullness, point of gravity and heaviness. Things may seem to move, but very slowly. The donkey has the right "to rest on the seventh day/Shabbat" and not to be coveted by others (Ex. 20:9-14).
The standards of "chomriyut" are shown in the coming sidra of the week on the Shabbat "Vayera” that includes the reading portion of Bereishit / Genesis accounting the supreme test that Abraham had to face: to offer, slaughter his son Isaac. This is the famous report of the Akedat Itzchak - Binding of Isaac on the wood (Gen. 22:1-19). In response to this test, certainly the heaviest and painful in a human point of view, Abraham did not say a word. He did not moan or groan. “He saddled his ass – yichavesh et-chamoro” (Bereishit 22:3) as reports Bereishit. The word “chavesh” means both “to saddle” and “to imprison, put chains”. At first glance it might seem that the imprisoned creature is the one that is saddled, i.e. the chamor – ass-donkey. This sounds materialistically true and a matter of realism. Abraham’s ass was burdened with the “split wood for the olah – burnt-offering (binding of Isaac). This reading is an essential part of the revelation, our private and public devotion and faith in the God of Israel.
When Abraham “imprisoned” his donkey with a saddle and the loads, he accepted the physical and natural burden of life with the intimate conviction that it is a “light yoke or sacrifice”. This is the meaning of “olah – a sacrifice that climbs up into the air” as of “ol’ – yoke as in ‘Ol’ HaShamayim = the yoke of heaven / the compliance with the Mitzvot”. This burden is light. It does not mean that it makes the way cool, fully understandable and equal. This is a major test for any generation to get to the point. The Gospel brings forth some confirmation of what testing Commandments may be in reality: Jesus also said “My yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11:30). He does refer to the same realm of the Jewish Mitzvot as they were observed in his time.
Let’s say that Abraham was not light-minded; he was not carefree or frolicsome. He was full of equanimity and light-heartedly faced events and tests with insight. The whole of the event consisted indeed in a “vision – Adonai yera’e” (Gen. 22:14) and a provision given by God in supplying a ram. But it is evident that this account is usually firstly considered as a fairy tale with some ethnological-anthropological societal interpretations on the seemingly rather primitive background of an impossible challenge. We eagerly thirst for some in-depth encrypted meaning of profound spirituality that borders esotericism and hidden key clarification provided with passwords acquired on a credit line. This is the best of our virtual world at the moment.
Still, some years ago, some Christian monks got rightly fascinated by the fact that the celebration of the Eucharist (Bread and Wine becoming the Body and Blood = living body of resurrected Jesus) in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions is definitely rooted in the Seder Pesach, the Ordinance of the account and celebration of the Jewish Passover. The roots are evident. They are far more difficult to explain and understand. Thus, they called, in a spirit of dialogue, a chief rabbi in order to get the correct comments. They asked the rabbi to explain the meaning of the Eucharist. The chief rabbi had frequented the Christians, but the Eucharist could hardly mean any reality in his own life. The monks spoke with him of the spiritual heavenly bread; he answered that the paschal lamb had to be slaughtered in accordance with the laws of the shechitah (kosher slaughtering of animals) and then cut into pieces after having been roasted. He did say but simple stuff: to take a knife and slaughter the animal as was done in ancient times. The monks suddenly visualized in the slaughtering that there was a real problem of dialogue and understanding of spiritual experience that got estranged.
Now, in what sense is it comparable with the “primitive” text about the Akedat Itzchak – Binding of Isaac? True! A donkey is reputed to be dull. Abraham was maybe performing some odd ritual inherited from pagan human sacrifices. A vision that turns to be resolved by a divine provision of a ram in replacement of a 38-year-old boy to be slaughtered, just for a test? We love tests and find them everywhere in magazines or professional human resource controls. If the scene was to happen in the present – even in the vicinity of Mount Moriah or elsewhere else – the police, army, ambulance and other assistance services might be called. We may be tempted to reduce the authentic challenge of spirituality to any “materialistic or psychologically explainable framework”.
It is normal, in Jerusalem – but this is an international phenomenon that shows in different ways – to see godly people. Many years ago, I incidentally saw two Jesus, each of them accompanied by the twelve apostles and the following women. They started to shriek, cry and fight till the police, totally untouched by the quarrel, obliged them to cool down. That was long before the present war situation began. Today, spirituality requires “being clearly defined and predetermined”…
Abraham left his “own self” to find that God alone supports, nurtures, sustains and accomplishes His will. This is why, along the ages, the Jewish Shaharit – Morning prayer that is often a private prayer, included specific texts that would recall the urging necessity to uplift our souls, looking for more freshness: “Do not make your prayer routine, but address free supplications and petitions to God” (Berachot 28b). Shaharit is built like a rising sun four level structure allowing the soul to refresh from the dark and sleep at dawn. The “Binding of Isaac” reading became then a daily reading included in this rising up morning service. The text aims at elevating the soul from the heaviness, dullness of the material physical reality in order to accept God’s will in our own lives. But this sounds, at first, like a donkey speech repeatedly written or hooked down in a parrot fashion. Clerics of all religions have a sort of innate expertise in proposing easy-going yokes that turn to become real burdens.
There is maybe more. Struggling against thick apathy and physical weightiness requires getting rid of worldly enjoyments. This is maybe why the Israelis love to tour in the monasteries. The Old City of Jerusalem remains an unequaled area where crowds cross crowds and people “meeting without encountering”, just like people exchanging glance in a short glimpse of time that refreshes as from old. It is so intriguing to note that the account of the Binding of Isaac is read everyday during the Jewish Morning prayer and also constitutes an essential element of reflection for the Christians with regards to Jesus’ sacrifice. A true Christian soul would not really come to the same conclusions as the Jews when reading this account. The experience is biased by spiritual practice and experiment. But for the main part, the supreme effort that allows struggling and going beyond oneself and pass through death into the Life of the world-to-come remains the major challenge. It presupposes the capacity to face total solitude without being submitted to despair.
We belong to a generation that loves to be connected and still “prefers to keep loose ties” and unchained bonds. We are an unsaddled generation buying one-portion dishes, pleasuring in one-shot experiences that may be shared by numerous anonymous egos. We may click and quit, fall in love and cast away. This cannot help: solitude is not loneliness. It is not a lonesome silence full of anxiety. It is when we feel that we intrinsically share the same human experience that traces back and extends historical proofs.
Twenty nine years ago, on October 16, 1978, the Roman Catholic Church elected Karol J. Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II. He was born in Wadowice, in the diocese of Cracow where he had been assigned as archbishop. Auschwitz-Birkenau is located in his territory. He had been to school with Jews, Gypsies, Armenians, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Slovaks. In October 1986, the first ecumenical assembly at Assisi gathered the representatives of the major religions of the world. In this year of the 800th anniversary of Francis of Assisi, a new international prayer will take place at Napoli (Italy). Pope Benedict XVI is also rescued from the Nazi cancer. Bartholomeos I, Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, has also been educated in the international context of Istanbul (Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Syrian-Orthodox). The first Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Tikhon, firstly served in the United States, backed the translation of the prayers into the Aleutian language (Alaska), and then became a metropolitan in Vilnius where he frequented all the various local believers.
Abraham’s saddling of his donkey continues to be the prevailing question of how to reach the supreme effort that goes beyond physical weight and apathy.
But the word also refers to "passing a regulation, a law" that can be restrictive. "When they placed themselves under greater restrictions than required by the law, they made a usage of a law = nobody cannot extend any adopted usage only because of analogy or apparent similarities of the situations", states Tractate Niddah 66a.
The perfect example of the radical developed in "chammar = the attendant of beasts of burden, in particular the "chamor = donkey" that is the most exciting clone of materialism as burdening dullness, point of gravity and heaviness. Things may seem to move, but very slowly. The donkey has the right "to rest on the seventh day/Shabbat" and not to be coveted by others (Ex. 20:9-14).
The standards of "chomriyut" are shown in the coming sidra of the week on the Shabbat "Vayera” that includes the reading portion of Bereishit / Genesis accounting the supreme test that Abraham had to face: to offer, slaughter his son Isaac. This is the famous report of the Akedat Itzchak - Binding of Isaac on the wood (Gen. 22:1-19). In response to this test, certainly the heaviest and painful in a human point of view, Abraham did not say a word. He did not moan or groan. “He saddled his ass – yichavesh et-chamoro” (Bereishit 22:3) as reports Bereishit. The word “chavesh” means both “to saddle” and “to imprison, put chains”. At first glance it might seem that the imprisoned creature is the one that is saddled, i.e. the chamor – ass-donkey. This sounds materialistically true and a matter of realism. Abraham’s ass was burdened with the “split wood for the olah – burnt-offering (binding of Isaac). This reading is an essential part of the revelation, our private and public devotion and faith in the God of Israel.
When Abraham “imprisoned” his donkey with a saddle and the loads, he accepted the physical and natural burden of life with the intimate conviction that it is a “light yoke or sacrifice”. This is the meaning of “olah – a sacrifice that climbs up into the air” as of “ol’ – yoke as in ‘Ol’ HaShamayim = the yoke of heaven / the compliance with the Mitzvot”. This burden is light. It does not mean that it makes the way cool, fully understandable and equal. This is a major test for any generation to get to the point. The Gospel brings forth some confirmation of what testing Commandments may be in reality: Jesus also said “My yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11:30). He does refer to the same realm of the Jewish Mitzvot as they were observed in his time.
Let’s say that Abraham was not light-minded; he was not carefree or frolicsome. He was full of equanimity and light-heartedly faced events and tests with insight. The whole of the event consisted indeed in a “vision – Adonai yera’e” (Gen. 22:14) and a provision given by God in supplying a ram. But it is evident that this account is usually firstly considered as a fairy tale with some ethnological-anthropological societal interpretations on the seemingly rather primitive background of an impossible challenge. We eagerly thirst for some in-depth encrypted meaning of profound spirituality that borders esotericism and hidden key clarification provided with passwords acquired on a credit line. This is the best of our virtual world at the moment.
Still, some years ago, some Christian monks got rightly fascinated by the fact that the celebration of the Eucharist (Bread and Wine becoming the Body and Blood = living body of resurrected Jesus) in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions is definitely rooted in the Seder Pesach, the Ordinance of the account and celebration of the Jewish Passover. The roots are evident. They are far more difficult to explain and understand. Thus, they called, in a spirit of dialogue, a chief rabbi in order to get the correct comments. They asked the rabbi to explain the meaning of the Eucharist. The chief rabbi had frequented the Christians, but the Eucharist could hardly mean any reality in his own life. The monks spoke with him of the spiritual heavenly bread; he answered that the paschal lamb had to be slaughtered in accordance with the laws of the shechitah (kosher slaughtering of animals) and then cut into pieces after having been roasted. He did say but simple stuff: to take a knife and slaughter the animal as was done in ancient times. The monks suddenly visualized in the slaughtering that there was a real problem of dialogue and understanding of spiritual experience that got estranged.
Now, in what sense is it comparable with the “primitive” text about the Akedat Itzchak – Binding of Isaac? True! A donkey is reputed to be dull. Abraham was maybe performing some odd ritual inherited from pagan human sacrifices. A vision that turns to be resolved by a divine provision of a ram in replacement of a 38-year-old boy to be slaughtered, just for a test? We love tests and find them everywhere in magazines or professional human resource controls. If the scene was to happen in the present – even in the vicinity of Mount Moriah or elsewhere else – the police, army, ambulance and other assistance services might be called. We may be tempted to reduce the authentic challenge of spirituality to any “materialistic or psychologically explainable framework”.
It is normal, in Jerusalem – but this is an international phenomenon that shows in different ways – to see godly people. Many years ago, I incidentally saw two Jesus, each of them accompanied by the twelve apostles and the following women. They started to shriek, cry and fight till the police, totally untouched by the quarrel, obliged them to cool down. That was long before the present war situation began. Today, spirituality requires “being clearly defined and predetermined”…
Abraham left his “own self” to find that God alone supports, nurtures, sustains and accomplishes His will. This is why, along the ages, the Jewish Shaharit – Morning prayer that is often a private prayer, included specific texts that would recall the urging necessity to uplift our souls, looking for more freshness: “Do not make your prayer routine, but address free supplications and petitions to God” (Berachot 28b). Shaharit is built like a rising sun four level structure allowing the soul to refresh from the dark and sleep at dawn. The “Binding of Isaac” reading became then a daily reading included in this rising up morning service. The text aims at elevating the soul from the heaviness, dullness of the material physical reality in order to accept God’s will in our own lives. But this sounds, at first, like a donkey speech repeatedly written or hooked down in a parrot fashion. Clerics of all religions have a sort of innate expertise in proposing easy-going yokes that turn to become real burdens.
There is maybe more. Struggling against thick apathy and physical weightiness requires getting rid of worldly enjoyments. This is maybe why the Israelis love to tour in the monasteries. The Old City of Jerusalem remains an unequaled area where crowds cross crowds and people “meeting without encountering”, just like people exchanging glance in a short glimpse of time that refreshes as from old. It is so intriguing to note that the account of the Binding of Isaac is read everyday during the Jewish Morning prayer and also constitutes an essential element of reflection for the Christians with regards to Jesus’ sacrifice. A true Christian soul would not really come to the same conclusions as the Jews when reading this account. The experience is biased by spiritual practice and experiment. But for the main part, the supreme effort that allows struggling and going beyond oneself and pass through death into the Life of the world-to-come remains the major challenge. It presupposes the capacity to face total solitude without being submitted to despair.
We belong to a generation that loves to be connected and still “prefers to keep loose ties” and unchained bonds. We are an unsaddled generation buying one-portion dishes, pleasuring in one-shot experiences that may be shared by numerous anonymous egos. We may click and quit, fall in love and cast away. This cannot help: solitude is not loneliness. It is not a lonesome silence full of anxiety. It is when we feel that we intrinsically share the same human experience that traces back and extends historical proofs.
Twenty nine years ago, on October 16, 1978, the Roman Catholic Church elected Karol J. Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II. He was born in Wadowice, in the diocese of Cracow where he had been assigned as archbishop. Auschwitz-Birkenau is located in his territory. He had been to school with Jews, Gypsies, Armenians, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Slovaks. In October 1986, the first ecumenical assembly at Assisi gathered the representatives of the major religions of the world. In this year of the 800th anniversary of Francis of Assisi, a new international prayer will take place at Napoli (Italy). Pope Benedict XVI is also rescued from the Nazi cancer. Bartholomeos I, Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, has also been educated in the international context of Istanbul (Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Syrian-Orthodox). The first Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Tikhon, firstly served in the United States, backed the translation of the prayers into the Aleutian language (Alaska), and then became a metropolitan in Vilnius where he frequented all the various local believers.
Abraham’s saddling of his donkey continues to be the prevailing question of how to reach the supreme effort that goes beyond physical weight and apathy.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Lamah: Why a way is hidden?
The parshat hashavua / Torah reading portion of the week is "Lech lecha - Go, march out, reach yourself" said to Abram in Bereishit 12:1-17:20. God insists to make him leave his native land; go out from his father's house and homeland. The words clearly mean that Abram is called by God to "become a great nation, be blessed... and all the families of the earth (mishpechot hadamah) shall bless themselves by you”. This also implies that these humans shaped and structured in families out of the earth - adamah like the Adam haqadmon, address themselves a blessing and not a cursing. They cannot restrict their benedictions to themselves but extend them to each other, nation to nations, family of the earth to any other nation of the earth.
"Lech lecha" sounds beautiful and like a challenge in Hebrew. "Halach - to go, march in/out, go forth" has this short imperative form and the shortened "l-" from "el, al, if not halach" shows something irrepressible. This is a major Shabbat and week in the Jewish cycle of the readings. In this portion, Abram accepts God's call to a move that, in his cultural and social environment could only look frightful, dangerous and hopeless, without significant goal.
Humans are like walkmen, people on a walk with a multitude of tunes: not used to wearing sandals, a tunic (at least some pants and a T shirt). Credit cards? A pocket toothbrush? Just call me Ape and my password is "God with us"; this can be declined from “Immanu-El” to "Gott mit uns" as it was written on the Nazi belts. Fear is worse than any anxious ignorance. Fear that we may discover when life can be set in a series of dangers imperiling our freedom, freewill, change our points of views or, on the contrary, widen them unexpectedly. There is much courage in Abram's response to God as he finally left his homeland and marched out. Did he come out as an adult? He did it twice because, when he firstly tried to leave his father's house, he got so scared according to the Tradition that he ran back or maybe did not even look too far.
Abram belongs to a male civilization. We know nothing about his mom. Let's even think that the man is a character composed of different personalities that lived at a certain period in the same region of Sumer, the cradle of reflection and conscience, culture, awareness that life is not vain. He had a mother like you and I and she might have been quite a character too! Abram does not leave his father's house, homeland. This is what we are told, but we know that he sent Eliezer to his father's home in order to find a suitable wife for his son Isaac. And Jacob did the same. The third and last patriarch of Israel always chose his home tribe and parentage to prolong and develop Abraham's call to become a great nation.
The point is that Abram left his mom when he understood that he had to break the ties that existed in his father's house. He did not kill anyone, like Moshe, for instance, who killed an Egyptian, thus showing a bluffing solidarity with the Hebrews, his people. He accepted the price not to enter Eretz Canaan that had been promised to Abraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Indeed, Abram, leaving Ur-Kasdim and the area of Haran, firstly combated and overcame idolatry, destroying the mother-like natural nourishing and nurturing idols whose natural flavor he had suckled from his mother’s breasts. It is difficult to struggle and to go beyond the reach of this very gregarious experience. Abram has always been obedient to God… and to Sarai (Sarah) to some extent when he was not about to “give” her to Pharaoh as his sister. This kind of problem of fear lines with some existential anxiety that she could resolve for a while. Sarah made Abram really quit his father’s house and anticipate the serfdom bondage in Egypt when she proposed him to get a child with her maidservant Hagar, an Egyptian. From Mesopotamia to the Nile, Abraham and Sarah dug down to the heart of the Semitic and universal call: “Vehifreti otcha bimeod meod / I shall make you exceedingly fertile – unetatecha legoyim / and make nations of you” (Bereishit 17:6). This fertility is meant as “bimeod meod – in the very too much = totally human as Adam, using the same consonants as when God saw that His creation was “tov meod – very good” (Gen. 1:31).
The haftarah read for the Shabbat “Lech lecha” is a portion of the Book of Prophet Isaiah 40:27-41:16, common to the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. There can be some differences between the various Jewish rites or minhagim. In fact, chapter 40 of the book begins with the famous consolation words: “Nachmu, nachmu ammi – comfort, comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1). Some scholars presume that the Prophet was born around 765 BCE and was called to be a prophet in 740 in the Temple of Jerusalem. Isaiah was a talented prophet whose tongue profoundly imprinted the spirit of the nation. Prophets are men – and occasionally women – of speech. In his case, he summarized and “embodied” the vertical, transcendental call addressed by God to His people and to all the Nations. It is a time of danger for Israel that was seduced by idolatry and content with her own “self” and “divine Service”. The Babylonians would, in some short time of two centuries, destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and deport the Jews. Thus, it is usually considered that the haftarah portion read this week could not have been written by Isaiah. Instead, it is thinkable that chapters 40-55 were included because of the great zeal and faith shown by a sort of “gilgul acher – another shadow or double” of the great Prophet who always referred to sanctity and confidence in God. The scientific exegetes conducted by the Christian theologians suggested the existence of a “Second Isaiah” who produced this “Book of the consolation”. The Prophet Isaiah was supposedly slaughtered under Manasseh according to the Jewish tradition. His impact on the “revelation of the Messiah” – the coming in and out of the Mashiach/Moshiach – has been very powerful and continues to be of great importance in the debates between Judaism and Christianity.
On the other hand, “nachmu nachmu ammi” can also be read as “nachmu immi – comfort together with Me”. This sounds in harmony with Abram’s intercession and dialogue with God about the necessity of saving Sodom if there were a few righteous living in the city. We are God’s co-workers, co-builders. This might sometimes be a bit bizarre in Jerusalem. We c an often meet people who would contact us “because they need to minister in the Holy Land”. The kind of comfort that is suggested is an open-minded and realistic hope. “God gives strength to the weary, fresh vigor to the spent. Youths may grow faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but they who trust in the Lord shall renew their strength as eagles grow new plumes” (Isaiah 40:30-31; cf. Tehillim 103:3). “Melech shebe’ofot nesher – the king of the birds is the eagle” states Hagigah 13b. The animal is unclean (Hullin 60b) but very kind to his young ones (Peah I, 15d). “God shall give the righteous wings like those of the eagles and they shall soar” (Sanhedrin 92b), even if “nesharim” refers to “the powerful heathen Romans” (Sanhedrin 12a).
The person who is called to read the “haftarah – additional/completing (prophetic) reading” is called a “maftir – implementing/carrying out utensil-person”. His task is to break through – “patar” (Berachot 8, 1, 46a). He would seemingly discharge and dismiss the community with one more reading that would be related to some birthing (Ketubot 12, 5). “Petar” means altogether: “to free, dismiss, let go and divorce”. The maftir has the awesome privilege to be the last of those called up to conclude with the prophetic reading. During a very long period, the Book of the Prophets could conclude all the readings by a sort of personal choice made by the maftir (reader) himself. There was no specific order. Interestingly, Jesus of Nazareth acted as maftir when he read in the synagogue from the Book of Prophet Isaiah: “He was handed over a scroll of the prophet, unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, thus He has anointed me to bring good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind and let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling back the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.” (Luke 4: 16-30; cf. Isaiah 42:1.sq). He then delivered a speech about the meaning of the text as the lesson that should be also given by the maftir.
The quotation makes sense in the context of New Year seasons as also the citation of the daily morning blessings kept in the Jewish tradition about the liberation of the captives and the recovery of the sight to the blind.
On the coming Monday, the Eastern Orthodox Church will celebrate the memory of the Righteous Abraham and Lot, showing the very ancient roots of how to quit oneself for God’s sake and redemption. I often wonder why there is no synagogue, no “ohaley shalom – tents of peace”, place of meditation or church, chapel at Sodom. Beyond this small ocean of salt (it preserves and revives at times) and its industrial importance, the place is at the heart of all ethical and spiritual combats for righteousness: from sex to societal rejection, moral blindness and fenced horizons for which Abraham interceded like a plume-renewing eagle.
"Lech lecha" sounds beautiful and like a challenge in Hebrew. "Halach - to go, march in/out, go forth" has this short imperative form and the shortened "l-" from "el, al, if not halach" shows something irrepressible. This is a major Shabbat and week in the Jewish cycle of the readings. In this portion, Abram accepts God's call to a move that, in his cultural and social environment could only look frightful, dangerous and hopeless, without significant goal.
Humans are like walkmen, people on a walk with a multitude of tunes: not used to wearing sandals, a tunic (at least some pants and a T shirt). Credit cards? A pocket toothbrush? Just call me Ape and my password is "God with us"; this can be declined from “Immanu-El” to "Gott mit uns" as it was written on the Nazi belts. Fear is worse than any anxious ignorance. Fear that we may discover when life can be set in a series of dangers imperiling our freedom, freewill, change our points of views or, on the contrary, widen them unexpectedly. There is much courage in Abram's response to God as he finally left his homeland and marched out. Did he come out as an adult? He did it twice because, when he firstly tried to leave his father's house, he got so scared according to the Tradition that he ran back or maybe did not even look too far.
Abram belongs to a male civilization. We know nothing about his mom. Let's even think that the man is a character composed of different personalities that lived at a certain period in the same region of Sumer, the cradle of reflection and conscience, culture, awareness that life is not vain. He had a mother like you and I and she might have been quite a character too! Abram does not leave his father's house, homeland. This is what we are told, but we know that he sent Eliezer to his father's home in order to find a suitable wife for his son Isaac. And Jacob did the same. The third and last patriarch of Israel always chose his home tribe and parentage to prolong and develop Abraham's call to become a great nation.
The point is that Abram left his mom when he understood that he had to break the ties that existed in his father's house. He did not kill anyone, like Moshe, for instance, who killed an Egyptian, thus showing a bluffing solidarity with the Hebrews, his people. He accepted the price not to enter Eretz Canaan that had been promised to Abraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Indeed, Abram, leaving Ur-Kasdim and the area of Haran, firstly combated and overcame idolatry, destroying the mother-like natural nourishing and nurturing idols whose natural flavor he had suckled from his mother’s breasts. It is difficult to struggle and to go beyond the reach of this very gregarious experience. Abram has always been obedient to God… and to Sarai (Sarah) to some extent when he was not about to “give” her to Pharaoh as his sister. This kind of problem of fear lines with some existential anxiety that she could resolve for a while. Sarah made Abram really quit his father’s house and anticipate the serfdom bondage in Egypt when she proposed him to get a child with her maidservant Hagar, an Egyptian. From Mesopotamia to the Nile, Abraham and Sarah dug down to the heart of the Semitic and universal call: “Vehifreti otcha bimeod meod / I shall make you exceedingly fertile – unetatecha legoyim / and make nations of you” (Bereishit 17:6). This fertility is meant as “bimeod meod – in the very too much = totally human as Adam, using the same consonants as when God saw that His creation was “tov meod – very good” (Gen. 1:31).
The haftarah read for the Shabbat “Lech lecha” is a portion of the Book of Prophet Isaiah 40:27-41:16, common to the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. There can be some differences between the various Jewish rites or minhagim. In fact, chapter 40 of the book begins with the famous consolation words: “Nachmu, nachmu ammi – comfort, comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1). Some scholars presume that the Prophet was born around 765 BCE and was called to be a prophet in 740 in the Temple of Jerusalem. Isaiah was a talented prophet whose tongue profoundly imprinted the spirit of the nation. Prophets are men – and occasionally women – of speech. In his case, he summarized and “embodied” the vertical, transcendental call addressed by God to His people and to all the Nations. It is a time of danger for Israel that was seduced by idolatry and content with her own “self” and “divine Service”. The Babylonians would, in some short time of two centuries, destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and deport the Jews. Thus, it is usually considered that the haftarah portion read this week could not have been written by Isaiah. Instead, it is thinkable that chapters 40-55 were included because of the great zeal and faith shown by a sort of “gilgul acher – another shadow or double” of the great Prophet who always referred to sanctity and confidence in God. The scientific exegetes conducted by the Christian theologians suggested the existence of a “Second Isaiah” who produced this “Book of the consolation”. The Prophet Isaiah was supposedly slaughtered under Manasseh according to the Jewish tradition. His impact on the “revelation of the Messiah” – the coming in and out of the Mashiach/Moshiach – has been very powerful and continues to be of great importance in the debates between Judaism and Christianity.
On the other hand, “nachmu nachmu ammi” can also be read as “nachmu immi – comfort together with Me”. This sounds in harmony with Abram’s intercession and dialogue with God about the necessity of saving Sodom if there were a few righteous living in the city. We are God’s co-workers, co-builders. This might sometimes be a bit bizarre in Jerusalem. We c an often meet people who would contact us “because they need to minister in the Holy Land”. The kind of comfort that is suggested is an open-minded and realistic hope. “God gives strength to the weary, fresh vigor to the spent. Youths may grow faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but they who trust in the Lord shall renew their strength as eagles grow new plumes” (Isaiah 40:30-31; cf. Tehillim 103:3). “Melech shebe’ofot nesher – the king of the birds is the eagle” states Hagigah 13b. The animal is unclean (Hullin 60b) but very kind to his young ones (Peah I, 15d). “God shall give the righteous wings like those of the eagles and they shall soar” (Sanhedrin 92b), even if “nesharim” refers to “the powerful heathen Romans” (Sanhedrin 12a).
The person who is called to read the “haftarah – additional/completing (prophetic) reading” is called a “maftir – implementing/carrying out utensil-person”. His task is to break through – “patar” (Berachot 8, 1, 46a). He would seemingly discharge and dismiss the community with one more reading that would be related to some birthing (Ketubot 12, 5). “Petar” means altogether: “to free, dismiss, let go and divorce”. The maftir has the awesome privilege to be the last of those called up to conclude with the prophetic reading. During a very long period, the Book of the Prophets could conclude all the readings by a sort of personal choice made by the maftir (reader) himself. There was no specific order. Interestingly, Jesus of Nazareth acted as maftir when he read in the synagogue from the Book of Prophet Isaiah: “He was handed over a scroll of the prophet, unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, thus He has anointed me to bring good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind and let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling back the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.” (Luke 4: 16-30; cf. Isaiah 42:1.sq). He then delivered a speech about the meaning of the text as the lesson that should be also given by the maftir.
The quotation makes sense in the context of New Year seasons as also the citation of the daily morning blessings kept in the Jewish tradition about the liberation of the captives and the recovery of the sight to the blind.
On the coming Monday, the Eastern Orthodox Church will celebrate the memory of the Righteous Abraham and Lot, showing the very ancient roots of how to quit oneself for God’s sake and redemption. I often wonder why there is no synagogue, no “ohaley shalom – tents of peace”, place of meditation or church, chapel at Sodom. Beyond this small ocean of salt (it preserves and revives at times) and its industrial importance, the place is at the heart of all ethical and spiritual combats for righteousness: from sex to societal rejection, moral blindness and fenced horizons for which Abraham interceded like a plume-renewing eagle.
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