At 6pm. last Friday, we shall go down in procession to the Holy Sepulcher, with Patriarch Theophilos III and the members of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, to read for the last time during Great Lent the magnificent sequence of the "Theotokos - the Mother of God" as we did each Friday at the end of the day. We have seen that it could be possible to sketch out various possible connections between the Mother of Jesus Immanuel - i.e. "mother of God" - usually translated into Hebrew by "Yoledet El " although this expression sounds too much "foreign". The "Unespoused virgin" of the Theotokos hymnography rather corresponds in Semitic thought to the roots that derive from "almeyatho " as I tried to briefly explain in a previous note."Hebrew "Kallah - corresponds to the same notion of absolute purity, integrity at a physical as well as at a spiritual point of view.
The major question, with regards to these annual readings, is how avoiding being trapped by the rituals. On the contrary, it suggests how to envision and to understand the updates to which they relates beyond slight changes within societies of various moral and ethical tendencies. It is somehow useless to systematically contradict the "negation of virginity" as shown in present literature and thoughts coming mainly from the Anglo-Saxon world. Judaism - as Christianity - have experience too much "fear, fright, angst, attraction-repulsion toward sex" that led to a profound imprinting and misunderstanding of what sex means and purity proposes from God's Presence and Reign.
This task should be positively accomplished and it is quite a paradox in Judaism, e.g., that married rabbis and scholars could write down such stupid statements as those that are found in the description of the woman essential female and femnine menstrual cycle (Machzor, Tractate Niddah ). Let's say that there would be a sin - there is no original sin for the Jews as for the Eastern Orthodox Church - it is just clumsy and stubborn over generations to focus on the condemnation of half of humanity - i.e. women because of some apparently picturesque sharing of a wrong fruit, namely an "apple" which - according to the Torah is definitely not mentioned and in the Mishna is the "fig - tenah " that corresponds to the tree of teaching, as comparable with the "pip'l" in the Buddhist tradition.
Negative judgmental positions against women, their stand and role in the society although they can be venerated and almost falsely venerated as goodesses on the other hand shows a deep lack of spiritual comfort and ease everywhere. It is not only a matter of patraiach or matriarch tradition. It deals with the purity of life seed (zera'im ) as described in the first treatise of the the Mishnah. Chanting the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church corresponds in some way to the fulfillment of the Song of the Song: "do not wake dont awaken love till it finds its pleasure", which doe not relate to sole and exclusive sexual, sensual, physical but all-encompassing emotions that clutch God to mankind. Such binding is only possible through women. And of course without exclusion of any human gender.
At this point our society is profoundly sick, deeply insane. In our generation, and in the State of Israel - somehow also in Palestine and the neighboring countries, life standards are very high and people can grow very old. There is no special requirement for early sex or physical experience, except a tragic feeling of mechanical loneliness. People hardly can share on the long-term and physical emotions turn in showing a real "Angst vor Leben - life anxiety". Thus, it would be essential to show the backgrounds and roots of the Theotokos hymnography and the song that could explain with realism the way that can lead to authentic purity.
Mariam the Egyptian was born in Alexandria and lived in the 4-5th century. It is essnetial that the Eastern Orthodox tradition dedicates the last Sunday before Lazarus Sunday to such a saint. She was supposedly 12 years old when she started to live as a prostitute. The interesting point is that she explained to Saint Sozymas that she was so eagerly driven by her passion for lust that she did not even wanted to be paid by her clients and preferred to beg for her living. This aspect of a "teen age" woman (girl) can show at the present the same it did for her in the first Christian centuries. She was certainly more mature than usual girls of her age, though this does not mean a lot in our region where it is frequent to marry at 15 years old.
Lust should not only be understood as a devilish passion without control or that loses any control. Just as men should never been left alone and God had the wisdom to repair Adam's solitude, women need extreme respect and true "untouched" love because of the huge amount of possible emotions that they have in their insides, hearts and feelings, intuition and rational wisdom too.The miracle that happened to Mary of Egypt as she decided to enter the Holy Sepucher and could pass the gate by some invisible barrier, led her to the icon of the Virgin, where she prayed and then entered freely the sanctuary. Such accounts should be read with insights in order to understand God's salvific pedagogy. She fled to the desert near Jordan, the monastery of Saint Nicholas where she met with saint Zozimas who brought her each year the Eucharist - in fact he found her lying dead at the place where he had communicated her the first year. Her body was not corrupt.
Again, the same for the rabbis. Most Church Fathers wrote unbelievable accounts about female temptation capacities. Malehood has not more insights in spiritual life. I have always been "shocked" in a way by saint Augustine's attitude: he had a wife or say a women he lived with for the better part of his life and a son. He never really took care of her or of his son although, at that time, he could anyway have become the priest, bishop and spiritual leader. There is a sort of permanent disdain or mocking towards women liberation movements. This is definitely not interesting here. Mariam does not want to be a man. She was ready to seduce any man to get her drops of lust. And this is very dangerous in ethical life. Israeli society will come to Pesach 5768 within a few day in a year of remittance for the land and release of the debts (shmittah ). Instead, former president Katzav as other probable ministries and high ranking personalities show themselves a in sex-obsessed, raping society that is totally the opposite of why the Hebrew could leave Egypt and after a sin of idolatry enter le Land of Canaan.
When Zosimas found Mary in the wilderness to give her the Communion, she was lying dead and nude. She was also nude when she had met him and had asked for his cover. She was apparently nude: she had to the extreme gotten away from the world and brought, in her nakedness the newness of love. In terms of newness, it is definitely time for men to get more perceptive of the very human and achieving nature (physis = acting force) of women’s redemption role. Judaism and Christianity have shown that at length and got stiff-headed responses from males. The distance that cannot be reduced from the women side to maleness causes a long, very long-term absence of balance, whereas God proposed unity and equity.
These are not simple feelings. They are difficult to explain and put into words that people can accept and make theirs, for their betterment, for being more gentle and capable to feel aat ease in their civilization.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 14, 2008 - 9 de'Nissan 5768
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sheket: Silence
Is it possible to compare what is happening at the present in the Near and Middle-East to some "fading of faith, disappearance of faith, fading of faith as salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13; Mk 9:50)? This would expand from Turkey down to Ethiopia through the traditional regions that link Mesopotamia to Egypt as the birth cradle of faith in One Living God.
I would believe with all my faith that we are only witness to the dawn of faith in God and that, more than any "magushe - Magi" - we only approach to the cradle of Christendom. This presupposes that our eyes are open and in alert and not stiff or lame by the burden of history.
We usually consider that we live in a Westernized civilization. This has been the case since the apparent conquest of the Europeans that spread over the planet in the past two thousand years. Before that period, and the Roman Empire per se, Sumer has been the cradle of a civilized think-tank that developed toward the West of Mesopotamia and to the East.Faith in the One God cannot avoid a profound reflection upon Zaratushtra and the ethical questions of "good and evil", acceptable or damageable.I have a Syrian Orthodox picture of a 5th century Cross that clearly shows a portrait of Buddha as image of Christ as both the Awaken and Jesus and Nazareth hold the same instruments of power, the scepter and the scroll.In the past two thousand years, the good news of salvation spread throughout the world because of the Jews and the Christians, from a specific local place based in the Mediterranean region. But It has hardly been the work of the Western Church alone for some very clear reason:the soldatesque combat of faith against Evil often became too refined in its psychological ways and pretence. On the other hand, the methods that spiritually allow to reach to a God making all things divine have been deprived by useless techniques. Love cannot be technical. As some Jesuits have noted with much insights before the time of the perestroika, the fall of communism in former Soviet Union, (Fr. Rouleau, sj), Christianity is poor in the West. This is a humbling reality that we would not easily be accepted. The West cannot forget that it did not generate the Bible or the Gospel and the Epistles. They firstly only exist or seem to exist in their Greek original forms based on a Semitic way of thinking and announcement. The Fathers of the Church wrote in Greek but also in Syriac, Coptic, later Armenian, Gheez, Georgian and Arabic. The Yemenite peninsula, facing Ethiopia combined for a time the Talmudic, Nestorian, Syriac, "Jacobite" traditions while the West was systematically destroying the most ancient local mythologies. The same process showed also by the time of the Baptism of the Rus.
True Westerners do know that they are indebted to the Oriental traditions and rooted in them. In the present, this also supposes the capacity to humble and not pretend that spiritual or superpower models may continue to lead the world because of irrefutable business developments that extended some spiritual "overcome" or pre-supposed "victories". Westerners pathetically need to constant referring to the traditions of the Fathers. They can only be understood in a full and positive parallelism with the Jewish traditions that developed in the Mesopotamian academies and regions. On the other hand, the Eastern Church maybe confused by the fact that Revelation took place locally and in cultural realms that continue to develop or rise again unexpectedly.
Israel shows the evidence of a dangerous and persistent temptation for all believers: faith and culture have been intermingled, mixed up and led to more confusion. This may explain why foreign Christians - in particular - may adopt some attitudes of partisanship in facing the others (Jews, Islam). The Easterners may not be able to distinguish between faith and culture. No culture or tongue can encompass the wholeness of the Revelation. Thus, it is not possible, for any of us at this stage, to judge who a soul is, provided that the mystery of Election given to Israel by humbleness of God calls any soul to do things "greater that the Lord Jesus Himself". This is the core point of humans on their way to become God Whom they receive.
There might be at the moment a process of confusing mixture - a mishmash - in which Christians look at each other as wolves AND sheep. but they cannot be both! The miracle in which we are called to participate is that the Western and Oriental Churches should accept and recognize why each survived and did not develop; they grew and disappeared; they wanted power and got the mark of martyrdom = witnesses. Who could have thought with clarity that the Eastern Churches would rise from the stake of atheism or dictatorships in their original countries and get on the path of a witnessing action: man is called to be sanctifying?
Some people would call that "struggle for life"; it is different from "Drang auf Leben that, in German, rather underscores impulsive forces allowing life to grow and fight for the good combat. "Russian "Bor'ba za zhizn" is a fighting effort, often at pains, to preserve and save life. What makes the spiritual destiny of Israel totally unique is that it comes back to a home whose leasing contract does not exist except in the Oral and Written Laws transmitted flawlessly down the generations till we reach this "instant" inside our history. Jews are or can be back. Or they reject and deny that just as others can back this story and then turn against and erase the idea that they could even support such a project.
Because this history is mainly comparable to the spiritual splits that affected the Churches over the past two thousand years. Some stiff cultural attitudes do trace back to the Great Schism of 1054 between Western and Eastern parts of the Undivided Church. A difference of alphabet can maintain very strong barriers even in very educated circles. But what was totally unexpected is such a gathering-in at the utmost universal sense of the human image and stand while the Mediterranean Churches broke down and down again. They had the desire and strong will to achieve this full unity.
Indeed, we go through fascinating times because they revolve what we would think predictable and will open the way to others: India, China, Africa are only at the dawn of experiencing what Passover may imply. Thus, if we are sincere, we are like children that, year after year stare at the marvels of saving nights.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
I would believe with all my faith that we are only witness to the dawn of faith in God and that, more than any "magushe - Magi" - we only approach to the cradle of Christendom. This presupposes that our eyes are open and in alert and not stiff or lame by the burden of history.
We usually consider that we live in a Westernized civilization. This has been the case since the apparent conquest of the Europeans that spread over the planet in the past two thousand years. Before that period, and the Roman Empire per se, Sumer has been the cradle of a civilized think-tank that developed toward the West of Mesopotamia and to the East.Faith in the One God cannot avoid a profound reflection upon Zaratushtra and the ethical questions of "good and evil", acceptable or damageable.I have a Syrian Orthodox picture of a 5th century Cross that clearly shows a portrait of Buddha as image of Christ as both the Awaken and Jesus and Nazareth hold the same instruments of power, the scepter and the scroll.In the past two thousand years, the good news of salvation spread throughout the world because of the Jews and the Christians, from a specific local place based in the Mediterranean region. But It has hardly been the work of the Western Church alone for some very clear reason:the soldatesque combat of faith against Evil often became too refined in its psychological ways and pretence. On the other hand, the methods that spiritually allow to reach to a God making all things divine have been deprived by useless techniques. Love cannot be technical. As some Jesuits have noted with much insights before the time of the perestroika, the fall of communism in former Soviet Union, (Fr. Rouleau, sj), Christianity is poor in the West. This is a humbling reality that we would not easily be accepted. The West cannot forget that it did not generate the Bible or the Gospel and the Epistles. They firstly only exist or seem to exist in their Greek original forms based on a Semitic way of thinking and announcement. The Fathers of the Church wrote in Greek but also in Syriac, Coptic, later Armenian, Gheez, Georgian and Arabic. The Yemenite peninsula, facing Ethiopia combined for a time the Talmudic, Nestorian, Syriac, "Jacobite" traditions while the West was systematically destroying the most ancient local mythologies. The same process showed also by the time of the Baptism of the Rus.
True Westerners do know that they are indebted to the Oriental traditions and rooted in them. In the present, this also supposes the capacity to humble and not pretend that spiritual or superpower models may continue to lead the world because of irrefutable business developments that extended some spiritual "overcome" or pre-supposed "victories". Westerners pathetically need to constant referring to the traditions of the Fathers. They can only be understood in a full and positive parallelism with the Jewish traditions that developed in the Mesopotamian academies and regions. On the other hand, the Eastern Church maybe confused by the fact that Revelation took place locally and in cultural realms that continue to develop or rise again unexpectedly.
Israel shows the evidence of a dangerous and persistent temptation for all believers: faith and culture have been intermingled, mixed up and led to more confusion. This may explain why foreign Christians - in particular - may adopt some attitudes of partisanship in facing the others (Jews, Islam). The Easterners may not be able to distinguish between faith and culture. No culture or tongue can encompass the wholeness of the Revelation. Thus, it is not possible, for any of us at this stage, to judge who a soul is, provided that the mystery of Election given to Israel by humbleness of God calls any soul to do things "greater that the Lord Jesus Himself". This is the core point of humans on their way to become God Whom they receive.
There might be at the moment a process of confusing mixture - a mishmash - in which Christians look at each other as wolves AND sheep. but they cannot be both! The miracle in which we are called to participate is that the Western and Oriental Churches should accept and recognize why each survived and did not develop; they grew and disappeared; they wanted power and got the mark of martyrdom = witnesses. Who could have thought with clarity that the Eastern Churches would rise from the stake of atheism or dictatorships in their original countries and get on the path of a witnessing action: man is called to be sanctifying?
Some people would call that "struggle for life"; it is different from "Drang auf Leben that, in German, rather underscores impulsive forces allowing life to grow and fight for the good combat. "Russian "Bor'ba za zhizn" is a fighting effort, often at pains, to preserve and save life. What makes the spiritual destiny of Israel totally unique is that it comes back to a home whose leasing contract does not exist except in the Oral and Written Laws transmitted flawlessly down the generations till we reach this "instant" inside our history. Jews are or can be back. Or they reject and deny that just as others can back this story and then turn against and erase the idea that they could even support such a project.
Because this history is mainly comparable to the spiritual splits that affected the Churches over the past two thousand years. Some stiff cultural attitudes do trace back to the Great Schism of 1054 between Western and Eastern parts of the Undivided Church. A difference of alphabet can maintain very strong barriers even in very educated circles. But what was totally unexpected is such a gathering-in at the utmost universal sense of the human image and stand while the Mediterranean Churches broke down and down again. They had the desire and strong will to achieve this full unity.
Indeed, we go through fascinating times because they revolve what we would think predictable and will open the way to others: India, China, Africa are only at the dawn of experiencing what Passover may imply. Thus, if we are sincere, we are like children that, year after year stare at the marvels of saving nights.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
Tazria: Seeds for childbirth
We continue our trip to late Pesach 5768 in this Shabbat "Tazria' (Woman in childbirth-bringing forth seed) - Metzora". Two parashiyot / weekly portions are read, i.e. a full coherent text about physical morals from the Book of Vayikra/ Leviticus 12:1-13:59-14:1-15:33.
Shabbat Shemini, last week recounted the awareness of how we are called to acknowledge God's holiness and try to become holy or sanctify His Name in such a way that morals, and the overwhelming highness of the Mitzvot / Commandments, can surpass any discouragement.
We hardly can meet our souls. It could be strange or funny. Some people would be likely to figure out what their souls look like because of the shape of their body. It does not mean that their appreciation about their shape is correct in terms of beauty or ugliness. Yes, our soul is in our body and not the body in our soul. How curious that most spiritual teachings in Judaism assume that the whole Oneness of God is visualized like the "bassar achat = one flesh" (= mental capacity to valuate news). We continuously break down our mental and physical life into two different, slice-fragmented parts that supposedly would not co-function in harmony. Tazria deals with human body as an active seed birthing shrine of the soul. It starts with birthing a male and ends with all sorts impurities that may affect womanhood. Both reading portions are linked to show us what the Kahal rav is, the holy congregation as a whole.
We shall celebrate Pesach: the first step of a delivery for a nation birthed by God. We came from serfdom to freedom, with a persistent taste of groping around in the wild. This fierce emptiness - safe God's Presence - continues to quest the ethical Jewish entity. Bound to God and thus tempted to look backwards and perish. Is idolatry appetizing as a golden calf?
I once had a very interesting discussion with a specialist of anthropological arts. He would not consider that circumcision has any corporeal and genuine basis in the Jewish backgrounds. Purity, full cleanness of skin has proven to be essential among the Nations. The Shoah survivors were tattooed systematically, but not all of them were circumcised nor even considered as Jews according to the Halachah. This is one of the most striking paradoxical points of "identity / counter-identity" of the Israeli society.
Pesach/Passover is the feast of offering the first fruits. It develops till the chag haBikkurim/first fruits) on Shavuot/Pentecost. Thus, reading portion Tazria’ starts as follows: "Ishah shetazria' veyaldah zakhar - a woman who will bring forth (birth) the seed and bear a male (son)... shall be unclean seven days; on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised - beyom shemini yimol bassar orlato" (Lev. 12:1-4). And during 33 days, the woman shall remain in a state of "damei taharah - blood cleaning process".
Two key factors appear in the first verse of the reading and are developed as a whole throughout the Shabbat meaning: God extends our call to do our best as humans in order to reach holiness and sanctify our life in our bodies. The woman is thus the place of sacredness, breeding and growing of the seeds (Zera'im is the first Order of the Mishnah). Before speaking of rash, eruption, tzora'at is not "leper"; it is a generic word for all skin abnormalities, peculiarities or diseases, the portion focus on the fact that we are submitted to physical and sexual morals or total absence of accepting moral laws in sex. The same way we are submitted to exercise a moral and conscious mental attitude toward God. "Skin" as "o'r" is a parallel facet, showing the same amplitude as or mental ability to be sanctifying God's name. "O'r (with initial "ayin") = "skin" but the word is not only in opposition with or (with initial alef) = light because it would covers a nudity that proves that Adam and Eve had infringes God's commandment to eat of the fruit of the tree (a fig-tree/te'enah in the rabbinic tradition). "whether awake or asleep, man and woman are stirred up to live" (Bava Kamma 2:5; Niddah 12a, Shabbat 55b referring to the Song of the Songs that is so pregnant every week and on Pesach). "I am asleep and negligent in observing the Mitzvot, but my heart is awake for charities and good deeds and love" (Shir Rabbah 5:2). "My heart is awake as I the Lord is anxious (awake) to redeem me" (Pessikta Rabbah 15). "When she woke up, she read and found it was her get/bill of divorce" (Gittin 8:2 (78) about a miracle).
Now, as the Temple is not existent at the present but women continue to observe the "cleansing mitzvot" of Talmud tractates Nidda and Negaim about "skin purity".
As concerns males, they all have to be circumcised. Interestingly, the commandment is definitely repeated this week in the Book of VaYikra (Leviticus), i.e. how to reach sanctity. Indeed, we have to comply with Abraham's sign of Covenant as "brit milah" = covenant of destruction ("cutting" idolatry away from our flesh). Again, the commandment is repeated after the Exodus and Moses circumcised his son because his non-Jewish wife reminded him of his obligation. The "cutting" of the foreskin is a basic act that a male can advance on the way of sanctity by having the life-giving member as in constant "erection or life transmission". This is a major mitzvah and only a mitzvah that, through Avraham Avinu (our father Abraham) integrates us to the seed of life, the rising of the dry bones. This is not a hygienic surgical act. It is not physically clean or eventually safer against diseases (as AIDS). Say, it might, in some case. True, the Christian Anglo world does practice the circumcision, because Jesus was circumcised. A Jewish male receives this cut/mark because he must be educated in order to also sanctify his physical intercourse, usually with a woman. "The cutting of the prepuce (orlah; like a fruit) where there is no doubt about the health of the child, supersedes the Shabbat" (Shabbat 134b). Daily news show too much criminal sexual aggressions that were basically less present in the Jewish communities: incest, rapes, same-sex early relationships and brutalities, disappearance of true respect due to women and the outrageous attitude towards the agunot/women who are not given their get (divorce) and thus can't marry.
On this Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, The Easter Orthodox Church shall reflect upon Saint John Klimakos and the Ladder. The Ladder that correspond to slowly understanding of ups and downs, sowing seeds of sanctity. We need the Shabbat as the Church readings pathetically in the present. Only spiritual love in physical and mental relationships can remove the thorns and suggest that lilies or little roses can, as in the Song, sustain and protect love to the fullest.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 3rd, 2008 - 27 deAdar II 5768
Shabbat Shemini, last week recounted the awareness of how we are called to acknowledge God's holiness and try to become holy or sanctify His Name in such a way that morals, and the overwhelming highness of the Mitzvot / Commandments, can surpass any discouragement.
We hardly can meet our souls. It could be strange or funny. Some people would be likely to figure out what their souls look like because of the shape of their body. It does not mean that their appreciation about their shape is correct in terms of beauty or ugliness. Yes, our soul is in our body and not the body in our soul. How curious that most spiritual teachings in Judaism assume that the whole Oneness of God is visualized like the "bassar achat = one flesh" (= mental capacity to valuate news). We continuously break down our mental and physical life into two different, slice-fragmented parts that supposedly would not co-function in harmony. Tazria deals with human body as an active seed birthing shrine of the soul. It starts with birthing a male and ends with all sorts impurities that may affect womanhood. Both reading portions are linked to show us what the Kahal rav is, the holy congregation as a whole.
We shall celebrate Pesach: the first step of a delivery for a nation birthed by God. We came from serfdom to freedom, with a persistent taste of groping around in the wild. This fierce emptiness - safe God's Presence - continues to quest the ethical Jewish entity. Bound to God and thus tempted to look backwards and perish. Is idolatry appetizing as a golden calf?
I once had a very interesting discussion with a specialist of anthropological arts. He would not consider that circumcision has any corporeal and genuine basis in the Jewish backgrounds. Purity, full cleanness of skin has proven to be essential among the Nations. The Shoah survivors were tattooed systematically, but not all of them were circumcised nor even considered as Jews according to the Halachah. This is one of the most striking paradoxical points of "identity / counter-identity" of the Israeli society.
Pesach/Passover is the feast of offering the first fruits. It develops till the chag haBikkurim/first fruits) on Shavuot/Pentecost. Thus, reading portion Tazria’ starts as follows: "Ishah shetazria' veyaldah zakhar - a woman who will bring forth (birth) the seed and bear a male (son)... shall be unclean seven days; on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised - beyom shemini yimol bassar orlato" (Lev. 12:1-4). And during 33 days, the woman shall remain in a state of "damei taharah - blood cleaning process".
Two key factors appear in the first verse of the reading and are developed as a whole throughout the Shabbat meaning: God extends our call to do our best as humans in order to reach holiness and sanctify our life in our bodies. The woman is thus the place of sacredness, breeding and growing of the seeds (Zera'im is the first Order of the Mishnah). Before speaking of rash, eruption, tzora'at is not "leper"; it is a generic word for all skin abnormalities, peculiarities or diseases, the portion focus on the fact that we are submitted to physical and sexual morals or total absence of accepting moral laws in sex. The same way we are submitted to exercise a moral and conscious mental attitude toward God. "Skin" as "o'r" is a parallel facet, showing the same amplitude as or mental ability to be sanctifying God's name. "O'r (with initial "ayin") = "skin" but the word is not only in opposition with or (with initial alef) = light because it would covers a nudity that proves that Adam and Eve had infringes God's commandment to eat of the fruit of the tree (a fig-tree/te'enah in the rabbinic tradition). "whether awake or asleep, man and woman are stirred up to live" (Bava Kamma 2:5; Niddah 12a, Shabbat 55b referring to the Song of the Songs that is so pregnant every week and on Pesach). "I am asleep and negligent in observing the Mitzvot, but my heart is awake for charities and good deeds and love" (Shir Rabbah 5:2). "My heart is awake as I the Lord is anxious (awake) to redeem me" (Pessikta Rabbah 15). "When she woke up, she read and found it was her get/bill of divorce" (Gittin 8:2 (78) about a miracle).
Now, as the Temple is not existent at the present but women continue to observe the "cleansing mitzvot" of Talmud tractates Nidda and Negaim about "skin purity".
As concerns males, they all have to be circumcised. Interestingly, the commandment is definitely repeated this week in the Book of VaYikra (Leviticus), i.e. how to reach sanctity. Indeed, we have to comply with Abraham's sign of Covenant as "brit milah" = covenant of destruction ("cutting" idolatry away from our flesh). Again, the commandment is repeated after the Exodus and Moses circumcised his son because his non-Jewish wife reminded him of his obligation. The "cutting" of the foreskin is a basic act that a male can advance on the way of sanctity by having the life-giving member as in constant "erection or life transmission". This is a major mitzvah and only a mitzvah that, through Avraham Avinu (our father Abraham) integrates us to the seed of life, the rising of the dry bones. This is not a hygienic surgical act. It is not physically clean or eventually safer against diseases (as AIDS). Say, it might, in some case. True, the Christian Anglo world does practice the circumcision, because Jesus was circumcised. A Jewish male receives this cut/mark because he must be educated in order to also sanctify his physical intercourse, usually with a woman. "The cutting of the prepuce (orlah; like a fruit) where there is no doubt about the health of the child, supersedes the Shabbat" (Shabbat 134b). Daily news show too much criminal sexual aggressions that were basically less present in the Jewish communities: incest, rapes, same-sex early relationships and brutalities, disappearance of true respect due to women and the outrageous attitude towards the agunot/women who are not given their get (divorce) and thus can't marry.
On this Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, The Easter Orthodox Church shall reflect upon Saint John Klimakos and the Ladder. The Ladder that correspond to slowly understanding of ups and downs, sowing seeds of sanctity. We need the Shabbat as the Church readings pathetically in the present. Only spiritual love in physical and mental relationships can remove the thorns and suggest that lilies or little roses can, as in the Song, sustain and protect love to the fullest.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 3rd, 2008 - 27 deAdar II 5768
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Dai: Looking for Trebitsch desperately
Wednesday Apr 02,2008
Did you see the Dalai Lama recently, I mean in Israel? I am not sure that all these People magazines have given some updates about any arrival of His Holiness in HaAretz? The Knesset is definitely right to courageously try to launch the debate about the Armenian mass murder or genocide that also concerns other nations and religious Christian denominations as the Syrian Orthodox, the Nestorians/Assyrians and some Greeks). With regards to the Armenians, it is a normal question at the eve of a new decade anniversary of the State of the Jews. The Armenian Church and people have many points in common in a tragic history. Their permanence is a quest for all the nations and it would really be beautiful for Israel to finally recognize the singularity of the Armenian extermination. It would also allow to giving a push to the numerous studies that are on hold about the Oriental Churches, located on the Persian side of the deployment of Christian faith along with Jewish caravans.
It was so unbelievable to begin with. In the year 2000, the war had not started. The world was swarming up to Jerusalem and the "Holy Land" after some time of hesitation from the part of Governments ( e.g. both the Israelis and the Palestinians). Bill Clinton was the President of the US and Al Gore, the Vice-President, rather close to acting Buddhism and life care before turning to "anti-warming-up". Today, you can go anytime or almost, to the Holy Sepulcher, it is overcrowded with tons of pilgrims and visitors arriving for one to three days from Russia, then back to some Turkish beach or home. The Empty Tomb and then a refreshing meal (some light diet in case of Great Lent as for the Eastern Orthodox at the present) and cu soon. "See you soon" means that people have money when the US Dollar is on the verge of full depreciation and economical collapse. Atmospheres change, you know. In 2000, African Black groups were wildly swinging around the Tomb inside the Church of the Resurrection. The Greeks, Latins and Armenians, inter alia, were stunned. The Christian heads of the States had shown with some piety that was much appreciated. President Alyaksandr Lukashenko of Belarus also went to the Tomb and visited every parcel of the place, smiling at the "recent" baptism of his collaborators. He said he did not believe at all. He knew much more than usual faithful do. It was strange to accompany a "dictator" in a place where all might and power have been overcome by death and resurrection.
And, I was normally having my usual afternoon kafe afuch / cappuccino when some people started bling blinging that the Dalai Lama was also going to the Holy Sepulcher. The Tibet was in danger, of course. But Tibet has been imperiled since it was invaded by the Chinese in 1949. Basically this is a link between Israel and Tibet. And these shakras that either open up or close down are very similar to our "S'hma - Hearing" capacities. For the millenium, the Dalai Lama visited Israel and the Holy Sepulcher. He has a lot of adepts in the country and usually rabbis would not condemn Buddhism as they ban the monotheistic religion. It is more a question of morals, ethics.
This year, when some Jewish intellectuals are in search of some connections between Tibetans and Jews, His Holiness is pressured by the Chinese. There are so many links between the Boen Tibetan Tantric traditions and Abraham's insights . I hope the Chabad will have a safe Seder Pesach in Lhassa as in Kathmandu. The Lubavitch "Tanya - Book of Study" and the Tantra tradition are very close, indeed. It has crossed through centuries because we only focus on the West. I met the Dalai Lama on several occasions, in particular for conferences. He smiles, laughs all the time. This allows his translators all kinds of midrash-like interpretations/explanations. Now, just googelize for a minute and look at a map of the Christian world from the 2nd to the 14th century, out of Persia. The "ever dying out" Assyro-Chaldean Church of Iraq was introduced by some faithful accompanied by Judeo-Persian-speaking Jews into Tibet and Manchuria, Sin Kiang, Kai Feng and Kiu-Shu (Japan). Lhassa was a Christian metropolis of the Assyrian Church and the Jews were normally merchandizing in the region. The Dalai Lama was laughing a lot when I recalled that to him. Surprise? Was he Asian shy in facing past events that are supposedly unknown?
How curious life paths are till the Beast dies. The Behemot (an Egyptian word) is the beast reserved for the righteous in the world to come (Leviticus R. 29)... a water-ox/pe-we-mau. At this point of international confusion, we might be in need of some normal, simple Jewish man like Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln. We had a lot of special ones of that kind till Queen Victoria’s Empire was still real and not starving out as nowadays.
The zealous yeshiva student born in 1879 at Pacs (Hungary) became a Presbyterian missionary in Canada before WWI and aka Timothy Lincoln a Liberal member of the House of Commons in London. In time of hardships he developed his business with Central Europe and Great-Britain and settled in Shanghai. In 1941, he wrote a bizarre warning letter to Hitler requiring stopping the war. He was a strict Buddhist monk, Chao Kung, agent of the Japanese government, lecturing with much success. Before World War II, he asked for the resignation of all governments and pretended to be the reincarnation of both the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama, a question that is still pending... He would have conquered Tibet but the action was interrupted for unknown reasons. His last interview was published in Unzer Leb'n , the Yiddish news of Shanghai (Nov. 1943) where many Jews were sheltered as refugees. He would have created a Jewish home on Buddhist territory owned by Shanghai City!
All these borderline life paths and still acting people, so numerous and with various bios show the price of what has been developed over the past sixty years, maybe over centuries of messy wandering. The real problem is that of the "dai - enough, now!" - God has also the right to get rid of our recklessness. Sheer madness can be healed. But healed people are not always welcome home. They prove that healthy stand exists and it may itch at times.
Chodesh Nisan tov
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 2, 2008 – 26 deAdar II 5768
Contact: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
Did you see the Dalai Lama recently, I mean in Israel? I am not sure that all these People magazines have given some updates about any arrival of His Holiness in HaAretz? The Knesset is definitely right to courageously try to launch the debate about the Armenian mass murder or genocide that also concerns other nations and religious Christian denominations as the Syrian Orthodox, the Nestorians/Assyrians and some Greeks). With regards to the Armenians, it is a normal question at the eve of a new decade anniversary of the State of the Jews. The Armenian Church and people have many points in common in a tragic history. Their permanence is a quest for all the nations and it would really be beautiful for Israel to finally recognize the singularity of the Armenian extermination. It would also allow to giving a push to the numerous studies that are on hold about the Oriental Churches, located on the Persian side of the deployment of Christian faith along with Jewish caravans.
It was so unbelievable to begin with. In the year 2000, the war had not started. The world was swarming up to Jerusalem and the "Holy Land" after some time of hesitation from the part of Governments ( e.g. both the Israelis and the Palestinians). Bill Clinton was the President of the US and Al Gore, the Vice-President, rather close to acting Buddhism and life care before turning to "anti-warming-up". Today, you can go anytime or almost, to the Holy Sepulcher, it is overcrowded with tons of pilgrims and visitors arriving for one to three days from Russia, then back to some Turkish beach or home. The Empty Tomb and then a refreshing meal (some light diet in case of Great Lent as for the Eastern Orthodox at the present) and cu soon. "See you soon" means that people have money when the US Dollar is on the verge of full depreciation and economical collapse. Atmospheres change, you know. In 2000, African Black groups were wildly swinging around the Tomb inside the Church of the Resurrection. The Greeks, Latins and Armenians, inter alia, were stunned. The Christian heads of the States had shown with some piety that was much appreciated. President Alyaksandr Lukashenko of Belarus also went to the Tomb and visited every parcel of the place, smiling at the "recent" baptism of his collaborators. He said he did not believe at all. He knew much more than usual faithful do. It was strange to accompany a "dictator" in a place where all might and power have been overcome by death and resurrection.
And, I was normally having my usual afternoon kafe afuch / cappuccino when some people started bling blinging that the Dalai Lama was also going to the Holy Sepulcher. The Tibet was in danger, of course. But Tibet has been imperiled since it was invaded by the Chinese in 1949. Basically this is a link between Israel and Tibet. And these shakras that either open up or close down are very similar to our "S'hma - Hearing" capacities. For the millenium, the Dalai Lama visited Israel and the Holy Sepulcher. He has a lot of adepts in the country and usually rabbis would not condemn Buddhism as they ban the monotheistic religion. It is more a question of morals, ethics.
This year, when some Jewish intellectuals are in search of some connections between Tibetans and Jews, His Holiness is pressured by the Chinese. There are so many links between the Boen Tibetan Tantric traditions and Abraham's insights . I hope the Chabad will have a safe Seder Pesach in Lhassa as in Kathmandu. The Lubavitch "Tanya - Book of Study" and the Tantra tradition are very close, indeed. It has crossed through centuries because we only focus on the West. I met the Dalai Lama on several occasions, in particular for conferences. He smiles, laughs all the time. This allows his translators all kinds of midrash-like interpretations/explanations. Now, just googelize for a minute and look at a map of the Christian world from the 2nd to the 14th century, out of Persia. The "ever dying out" Assyro-Chaldean Church of Iraq was introduced by some faithful accompanied by Judeo-Persian-speaking Jews into Tibet and Manchuria, Sin Kiang, Kai Feng and Kiu-Shu (Japan). Lhassa was a Christian metropolis of the Assyrian Church and the Jews were normally merchandizing in the region. The Dalai Lama was laughing a lot when I recalled that to him. Surprise? Was he Asian shy in facing past events that are supposedly unknown?
How curious life paths are till the Beast dies. The Behemot (an Egyptian word) is the beast reserved for the righteous in the world to come (Leviticus R. 29)... a water-ox/pe-we-mau. At this point of international confusion, we might be in need of some normal, simple Jewish man like Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln. We had a lot of special ones of that kind till Queen Victoria’s Empire was still real and not starving out as nowadays.
The zealous yeshiva student born in 1879 at Pacs (Hungary) became a Presbyterian missionary in Canada before WWI and aka Timothy Lincoln a Liberal member of the House of Commons in London. In time of hardships he developed his business with Central Europe and Great-Britain and settled in Shanghai. In 1941, he wrote a bizarre warning letter to Hitler requiring stopping the war. He was a strict Buddhist monk, Chao Kung, agent of the Japanese government, lecturing with much success. Before World War II, he asked for the resignation of all governments and pretended to be the reincarnation of both the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama, a question that is still pending... He would have conquered Tibet but the action was interrupted for unknown reasons. His last interview was published in Unzer Leb'n , the Yiddish news of Shanghai (Nov. 1943) where many Jews were sheltered as refugees. He would have created a Jewish home on Buddhist territory owned by Shanghai City!
All these borderline life paths and still acting people, so numerous and with various bios show the price of what has been developed over the past sixty years, maybe over centuries of messy wandering. The real problem is that of the "dai - enough, now!" - God has also the right to get rid of our recklessness. Sheer madness can be healed. But healed people are not always welcome home. They prove that healthy stand exists and it may itch at times.
Chodesh Nisan tov
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
April 2, 2008 – 26 deAdar II 5768
Contact: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Lo tsiwwah: the paradox of the living
Thursday Mar 27, 2008
This week of Shabbat 'Shemini-Parah', the Torah portion to be read is Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1-11-46. It begins with the new account of the consecration/ ordination (semichah) of Aaron and his two sons; Moses ordered Aaron to offer a calf and a ram, lamb without blemish, in front of the Tent of the Meeting. Aaron did offer the calf and his sons brought him the blood that he put at the corners of the altar (cf. daily memorial prayer of "Shacharit - morning prayer"). He dipped his fingers into the blood. Now, the whole thing is strictly and absolutely a bloody blood stuff. Thus, we must be very careful, in this country, in any Jewish society. We are required to showing a spirit of prudence accompanied by wise insights.
Once anointed as priests, Nadab and Abihu, put each a pan, put fire in it and incense and the "fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them (vatochal otam); vayamutu lifnei HaShem - and they died in the Face of the Lord" (=at the instance) (Lev. 10:2). And then, Moses said to Aaron: "This is what the Lord meant when He said: Through those near to Me I show myself Holy / bikrovai ekadesh - and gain glory before all the people." And Aaron was silent/ Vayadom Aharon (Vay.10:3). Aaron remained silent, in a silence that is "dom" and not "sheket - quiet silence". Why did his sons suddenly perish, speedily, swallowed by the fire they came to offer? Was it for the sake of the merits? Were they in a situation of some "Kiddush HaShem - Sanctification of the Name" in which instant death and rush to God is a sign of holiness for the assembled elders and the Israelites? No or maybe yes, because "the Lord had not commanded them to offer this fire", so they offered a "esh zarah - alien fire" (10:1). R. Y. Leibowitz underlined an ancient tradition that is more than important in our present situation, especially this year of anniversary. They were "lo tziwwah - not commanded"; a special cantillation mark (merchah kefulah) is under the /L - lamed/ of lo, suggesting a real command not to perform the offering, but still they could not refrain from doing that. And this is true. We may have in front of us the most impure object but our inner desire to tend to God is so powerful but mistaken that we are overcome and seized by off-beam feelings. Instead of worshipping God the right way, we behave like the pagans and practice idolatry (Avodah Zarah 5b). This is why freedom from slavery also applies in worshipping, sacrifice of the offerings and of our prayers. This is why it is so difficult to act without any spiritual pressure exercised by the society or formal reasons of civilities.
As God took them "in His Face - by instance", these verses maybe suggest other subtleties of our souls and life choices. There are people who are not mature enough to achieve a task or a certain way of living and still they will be given the abilities to get across the intricacy of the challenge. And then they bifurcate. Say, God might have called Aaron's sons to change their route abruptly and with love. At the instance, Aaron's silence shows that he got to his priesthood. He reached the place where a man is in the position of total obedient and silent presence in the Face of God. He went to accomplish the duty that he had accepted, i.e. to be nothing, nil, nigh in order to open the ways of God. This is the Jewish priesthood and way to holiness, wherever the Temple exists or not, for all time, any place (maybe compared to Jesus harsh words: "Follow me and let the dead bury their dead" (Matthew 8:22)).
In the Song of the Song, we are called to become like tender flesh of the sweetest beasts. Animals can be terribly anxious, on guard, as the "gazelles and deer of the fields". Jews have often experienced this feeling. David Ben Gurion accounted that on Friday 5th of Iyar 5748/May 14, 1948 when he proclaimed the independence of the State of Israel. Yes, sixty years ago. "I feel no gaiety in me, only deep anxiety as when I was a mourner at the feast" (D.Ben Gurion, The Peel Report and the Jewish State, p. 86). This "Yiddishe angst - feeling of anxiety mixed with fear and rejoicing" runs throughout the Bible. Joy always prevails.
The Jewish Communities are proposed this week to read how they are called to be holy or to sanctify their lives in order to witness that true holiness is indeed their part. In one month, on the 27th of Nissan, the State of Israel that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. Some citizens should be educated to get deeper involved into what and how things happened in a Christened Western and Eastern Europe that hardly can define the Christian fundamentals of the European Community. On Nissan 27, any citizen of this State has the duty to keep silent... remain in silence for the blessed memory of those who perished only sixty years ago. The Christians can join this prayer of memory. The Shoah happened, for a part that is too difficult to measure at the present, because of "the teaching of despise", irrational blood libel accusations, forced conversions and theological contests between Judaism and Christianity. Still this day cannot belong to any Church nor can it be "seized" by any denomination. On the other hand, it will take centuries for the Jews and the Christians to get closer to a real and reciprocal dialogue. But dialogue cannot be imposed like touring travels with bed and breakfast, and some flashing ideas, if any.
It would be very sad if the 60ieth anniversary of the State of the Jews systematically would focus on the uttering/chewing of the Shoah catastrophe. It is correct that the Jewish community has paid a special price to sufferings. Ever since, each nation might not compete but find some analogies in the way they have been destroyed or victimized. Strange how Jews need to compare their fate with others in terms of "catastrophes". Right now, the problem is to know if the Tibetans may have something of that Jewish angst and pain. There is a kind of desire to adopt the others because we finally got home. But this is quite unusual for the Jews and even weird for the non-Jews. So if it happened, it is only because they suffered beyond any rate. This is a pagan way of thinking. There is no measure, no middah-system that can allow us to valuate both rejoicings and sufferings. We need a rate because it is convenient. Such comparisons are full of vanity.
Then, there is this above rationality commandment: "Lo tsiwwah - (you are) not commanded". Indeed, we feel sometimes like compelled to do things though we perfectly know it makes no sense to perform them and that they will not clarify who we are. Churban? Shoah? Holocaust-Catastrophe? But this is human, all too humane. Nobody can force anyone to get through extermination via some virtual process. We can be tempted to do that. But the priestly call is rather to explain why priests have to lead to holiness and not cursing or idolatry. This combat is an ongoing war, everywhere, anyhow, whatever cultures and faiths.
This Sunday is dedicated to the Cross in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition. Kneeling down and rising up again, the faithful sing 40 times "Kyrie, eleison - Mar, rachem na" - Lord, have mercy!" The Romans used crosses for killing and torturing, gallows. We have quick shots. But the question is still pending: why are we still here? Here, in Eretz Israel, after 4000, 3000, 2000 years? That means much more than any passion. It is the paradox of coherent lives without possessions.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 27, 2008 - 20 deAdar II 5768
Facebook contact: Av Aleksandr: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
This week of Shabbat 'Shemini-Parah', the Torah portion to be read is Vayikra/Leviticus 9:1-11-46. It begins with the new account of the consecration/ ordination (semichah) of Aaron and his two sons; Moses ordered Aaron to offer a calf and a ram, lamb without blemish, in front of the Tent of the Meeting. Aaron did offer the calf and his sons brought him the blood that he put at the corners of the altar (cf. daily memorial prayer of "Shacharit - morning prayer"). He dipped his fingers into the blood. Now, the whole thing is strictly and absolutely a bloody blood stuff. Thus, we must be very careful, in this country, in any Jewish society. We are required to showing a spirit of prudence accompanied by wise insights.
Once anointed as priests, Nadab and Abihu, put each a pan, put fire in it and incense and the "fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them (vatochal otam); vayamutu lifnei HaShem - and they died in the Face of the Lord" (=at the instance) (Lev. 10:2). And then, Moses said to Aaron: "This is what the Lord meant when He said: Through those near to Me I show myself Holy / bikrovai ekadesh - and gain glory before all the people." And Aaron was silent/ Vayadom Aharon (Vay.10:3). Aaron remained silent, in a silence that is "dom" and not "sheket - quiet silence". Why did his sons suddenly perish, speedily, swallowed by the fire they came to offer? Was it for the sake of the merits? Were they in a situation of some "Kiddush HaShem - Sanctification of the Name" in which instant death and rush to God is a sign of holiness for the assembled elders and the Israelites? No or maybe yes, because "the Lord had not commanded them to offer this fire", so they offered a "esh zarah - alien fire" (10:1). R. Y. Leibowitz underlined an ancient tradition that is more than important in our present situation, especially this year of anniversary. They were "lo tziwwah - not commanded"; a special cantillation mark (merchah kefulah) is under the /L - lamed/ of lo, suggesting a real command not to perform the offering, but still they could not refrain from doing that. And this is true. We may have in front of us the most impure object but our inner desire to tend to God is so powerful but mistaken that we are overcome and seized by off-beam feelings. Instead of worshipping God the right way, we behave like the pagans and practice idolatry (Avodah Zarah 5b). This is why freedom from slavery also applies in worshipping, sacrifice of the offerings and of our prayers. This is why it is so difficult to act without any spiritual pressure exercised by the society or formal reasons of civilities.
As God took them "in His Face - by instance", these verses maybe suggest other subtleties of our souls and life choices. There are people who are not mature enough to achieve a task or a certain way of living and still they will be given the abilities to get across the intricacy of the challenge. And then they bifurcate. Say, God might have called Aaron's sons to change their route abruptly and with love. At the instance, Aaron's silence shows that he got to his priesthood. He reached the place where a man is in the position of total obedient and silent presence in the Face of God. He went to accomplish the duty that he had accepted, i.e. to be nothing, nil, nigh in order to open the ways of God. This is the Jewish priesthood and way to holiness, wherever the Temple exists or not, for all time, any place (maybe compared to Jesus harsh words: "Follow me and let the dead bury their dead" (Matthew 8:22)).
In the Song of the Song, we are called to become like tender flesh of the sweetest beasts. Animals can be terribly anxious, on guard, as the "gazelles and deer of the fields". Jews have often experienced this feeling. David Ben Gurion accounted that on Friday 5th of Iyar 5748/May 14, 1948 when he proclaimed the independence of the State of Israel. Yes, sixty years ago. "I feel no gaiety in me, only deep anxiety as when I was a mourner at the feast" (D.Ben Gurion, The Peel Report and the Jewish State, p. 86). This "Yiddishe angst - feeling of anxiety mixed with fear and rejoicing" runs throughout the Bible. Joy always prevails.
The Jewish Communities are proposed this week to read how they are called to be holy or to sanctify their lives in order to witness that true holiness is indeed their part. In one month, on the 27th of Nissan, the State of Israel that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. Some citizens should be educated to get deeper involved into what and how things happened in a Christened Western and Eastern Europe that hardly can define the Christian fundamentals of the European Community. On Nissan 27, any citizen of this State has the duty to keep silent... remain in silence for the blessed memory of those who perished only sixty years ago. The Christians can join this prayer of memory. The Shoah happened, for a part that is too difficult to measure at the present, because of "the teaching of despise", irrational blood libel accusations, forced conversions and theological contests between Judaism and Christianity. Still this day cannot belong to any Church nor can it be "seized" by any denomination. On the other hand, it will take centuries for the Jews and the Christians to get closer to a real and reciprocal dialogue. But dialogue cannot be imposed like touring travels with bed and breakfast, and some flashing ideas, if any.
It would be very sad if the 60ieth anniversary of the State of the Jews systematically would focus on the uttering/chewing of the Shoah catastrophe. It is correct that the Jewish community has paid a special price to sufferings. Ever since, each nation might not compete but find some analogies in the way they have been destroyed or victimized. Strange how Jews need to compare their fate with others in terms of "catastrophes". Right now, the problem is to know if the Tibetans may have something of that Jewish angst and pain. There is a kind of desire to adopt the others because we finally got home. But this is quite unusual for the Jews and even weird for the non-Jews. So if it happened, it is only because they suffered beyond any rate. This is a pagan way of thinking. There is no measure, no middah-system that can allow us to valuate both rejoicings and sufferings. We need a rate because it is convenient. Such comparisons are full of vanity.
Then, there is this above rationality commandment: "Lo tsiwwah - (you are) not commanded". Indeed, we feel sometimes like compelled to do things though we perfectly know it makes no sense to perform them and that they will not clarify who we are. Churban? Shoah? Holocaust-Catastrophe? But this is human, all too humane. Nobody can force anyone to get through extermination via some virtual process. We can be tempted to do that. But the priestly call is rather to explain why priests have to lead to holiness and not cursing or idolatry. This combat is an ongoing war, everywhere, anyhow, whatever cultures and faiths.
This Sunday is dedicated to the Cross in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition. Kneeling down and rising up again, the faithful sing 40 times "Kyrie, eleison - Mar, rachem na" - Lord, have mercy!" The Romans used crosses for killing and torturing, gallows. We have quick shots. But the question is still pending: why are we still here? Here, in Eretz Israel, after 4000, 3000, 2000 years? That means much more than any passion. It is the paradox of coherent lives without possessions.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 27, 2008 - 20 deAdar II 5768
Facebook contact: Av Aleksandr: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
Next year in Ur-Kasdim or Lhassa?
Tuesday Mar 25, 2008
Times runs, we are done with time. Try to think but short, clean and clear cut and a bit Chinese. It means more images we can interpret in various ways. We need to make profits even if the price is total recession and the Western world will get very soon to that. Normally it would imply a war. A real conflict with this "ideogram pictured system"; the enemy is flexible, nowhere, like on a screen. We bomb something like USDollars 3000 billion; the enemy shows again on the screen out of some isolated cave. He drank camel milk and ate dates with the fighters. No sophisticated arms: the westerners had given all the weapond: knives, guns, simple stuff and it works much better than any Hollywood equipment. So, over more than two centuries, from Caucasus, down to Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and India-China local resistants, apparently obedient to all sorts of colonials (British, Russian, Americans, Dutch Petroleum Shell and other Cos, Germans, some French and Japanese, were given some arms to maintain a very special order. Some people get mad with diamonds, others can't look at oil when it starts flooding.
The news is no good at all: frankly, this is the kind of recession in which any normal nation should just drown for ever. It appears that Taiwan never felt so close to continental Zhong Guo (mainland China, Country of the Middle). I wonder what will happen when the Chinese will definitely refuse to pay their debts to the US. It happens very often in history: a collapse, a fall, bankrupt.
The Western superpowers have systematically organized their sucking profits, avoiding any liberal and free State to be created in the name of their common ancestral values I have participated many years ago in some aspect of the inculturation process of the Aramaic - Assyrian Church believers that had left Chaldea (Iraq) during the first war against Saddam Hussein. They settled for example, in a famous, very top-to-the-minute subsurb near Paris that encompasses around 90 ethnics. Traditionally a highly Jewish Oriental town. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was one of them before he head the International Monetary Fund. And, he made it: allowed the Chaldean Assyrian Church to get visas, settle and have two wonderful churches of ancient Middle-East Style.
The French government recently offered 500 visas to those members of the most ancient Church and faith tradition, speaking and praying the language of Jesus. The deal is simple. The situation is so messy, some come to the European Community and will get assistance... the other will try to settle the recession and the balagan, well the mess. But forget about your home country.
Let's say that they will arrive from Mosul, they will have to develop huge efforts to maintain their heritage. The real scholars of the Church were asked to travel to Iraq during the first war with any Vatican passport, a simple protection! The care of "the ancient and venerable Churches" is that the youths can meet, but hamburger is a hamburger and a shashlik is a shashlik. Then, there is more: Would Jews say every year at Pesach: "Next year in Ur-Kasdim, the paternal place of Abraham Avinu?" Or course not! Abraham maintained a family link with Chaldea till the third generation in order to marry his sons. The living memory of the Mishnah deploying towards the East, entering Tibet and China till the Kyu-Shu island of Japan is one of the most dramatic internal murders perpetrated by Western Christians (mainly the Portuguese) against Oriental Christians. Churches are superpowers and as such definitely not know how to get out of the dramas that split Christian faith thoroughly and without appeal. In 1927, the Anglican Episcopalian archbishop of Shanghai, the Russian Jewish Christian Schereschewsky canonized by the Church who had met with the descents of the Chinese Jews that still spoke some Judean-Persian at Kai-Feng.
In 1947-53, when a (Jewish) Righteous among the Nations, Fr. Alexandre Glasberg (Yad VaShem) brought by miracle the Iraqi Children Jews to Israel, he deeply imperiled their and his lives. But it made full sense. The same happened with some Iranian Jews who spoke the same dialect. He saved children and a lot of parents because it was a situation of emergency. No use to waste billions for parading charity actions. When the Chabad climbs up the Hamalayan and invites all the Jews to partake in a Serder Pesach on the roof of the world, it may sound like a parallel of Noah's Ark creatures reaching out of Egypt in Kathmandu. And they know how to dig here and there and look where Jews have passed through history, as in the Ukraine. Lhassa had an Assyrian metropolitan before the Dalai Lama had always to compose with the Chinese.
On March 25th, Greece celebrates its Independence day fixed to the date on which the Great Revolution started on Annunciation Day 1821. It marked the starting point of a long battle to deliver many western countries who were under Ottoman control. That suddenly fainted in 1918. "You father was a wandering Aramean" (Devarim 26:25) recalls ech year to Jews they are pilgrims and foreigners. They are the "Light of the world" and the light never forgets from where it came... Do remember please: Ur-Kasdim, the launching of civilization and consciousness.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 25, 2008 - 18 de Adar II 5768
You can contact Av Aleksandr on his Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
Times runs, we are done with time. Try to think but short, clean and clear cut and a bit Chinese. It means more images we can interpret in various ways. We need to make profits even if the price is total recession and the Western world will get very soon to that. Normally it would imply a war. A real conflict with this "ideogram pictured system"; the enemy is flexible, nowhere, like on a screen. We bomb something like USDollars 3000 billion; the enemy shows again on the screen out of some isolated cave. He drank camel milk and ate dates with the fighters. No sophisticated arms: the westerners had given all the weapond: knives, guns, simple stuff and it works much better than any Hollywood equipment. So, over more than two centuries, from Caucasus, down to Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and India-China local resistants, apparently obedient to all sorts of colonials (British, Russian, Americans, Dutch Petroleum Shell and other Cos, Germans, some French and Japanese, were given some arms to maintain a very special order. Some people get mad with diamonds, others can't look at oil when it starts flooding.
The news is no good at all: frankly, this is the kind of recession in which any normal nation should just drown for ever. It appears that Taiwan never felt so close to continental Zhong Guo (mainland China, Country of the Middle). I wonder what will happen when the Chinese will definitely refuse to pay their debts to the US. It happens very often in history: a collapse, a fall, bankrupt.
The Western superpowers have systematically organized their sucking profits, avoiding any liberal and free State to be created in the name of their common ancestral values I have participated many years ago in some aspect of the inculturation process of the Aramaic - Assyrian Church believers that had left Chaldea (Iraq) during the first war against Saddam Hussein. They settled for example, in a famous, very top-to-the-minute subsurb near Paris that encompasses around 90 ethnics. Traditionally a highly Jewish Oriental town. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was one of them before he head the International Monetary Fund. And, he made it: allowed the Chaldean Assyrian Church to get visas, settle and have two wonderful churches of ancient Middle-East Style.
The French government recently offered 500 visas to those members of the most ancient Church and faith tradition, speaking and praying the language of Jesus. The deal is simple. The situation is so messy, some come to the European Community and will get assistance... the other will try to settle the recession and the balagan, well the mess. But forget about your home country.
Let's say that they will arrive from Mosul, they will have to develop huge efforts to maintain their heritage. The real scholars of the Church were asked to travel to Iraq during the first war with any Vatican passport, a simple protection! The care of "the ancient and venerable Churches" is that the youths can meet, but hamburger is a hamburger and a shashlik is a shashlik. Then, there is more: Would Jews say every year at Pesach: "Next year in Ur-Kasdim, the paternal place of Abraham Avinu?" Or course not! Abraham maintained a family link with Chaldea till the third generation in order to marry his sons. The living memory of the Mishnah deploying towards the East, entering Tibet and China till the Kyu-Shu island of Japan is one of the most dramatic internal murders perpetrated by Western Christians (mainly the Portuguese) against Oriental Christians. Churches are superpowers and as such definitely not know how to get out of the dramas that split Christian faith thoroughly and without appeal. In 1927, the Anglican Episcopalian archbishop of Shanghai, the Russian Jewish Christian Schereschewsky canonized by the Church who had met with the descents of the Chinese Jews that still spoke some Judean-Persian at Kai-Feng.
In 1947-53, when a (Jewish) Righteous among the Nations, Fr. Alexandre Glasberg (Yad VaShem) brought by miracle the Iraqi Children Jews to Israel, he deeply imperiled their and his lives. But it made full sense. The same happened with some Iranian Jews who spoke the same dialect. He saved children and a lot of parents because it was a situation of emergency. No use to waste billions for parading charity actions. When the Chabad climbs up the Hamalayan and invites all the Jews to partake in a Serder Pesach on the roof of the world, it may sound like a parallel of Noah's Ark creatures reaching out of Egypt in Kathmandu. And they know how to dig here and there and look where Jews have passed through history, as in the Ukraine. Lhassa had an Assyrian metropolitan before the Dalai Lama had always to compose with the Chinese.
On March 25th, Greece celebrates its Independence day fixed to the date on which the Great Revolution started on Annunciation Day 1821. It marked the starting point of a long battle to deliver many western countries who were under Ottoman control. That suddenly fainted in 1918. "You father was a wandering Aramean" (Devarim 26:25) recalls ech year to Jews they are pilgrims and foreigners. They are the "Light of the world" and the light never forgets from where it came... Do remember please: Ur-Kasdim, the launching of civilization and consciousness.
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 25, 2008 - 18 de Adar II 5768
You can contact Av Aleksandr on his Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
Let's be mamash, true, substantial
Thursday Mar 20, 2008
What kind of crazy things will we imagine on this Purim? When logics prefer to turn to nonsense, right to left and left to north and reality to dazzling reality? We maybe living in New Zealand, Alaska, Europe, Jews rocks between Sumer and the Mesopotamian civilization and Egypt. On the one hand, the birthplace of Abraham and in, along the Nile, the fight for surviving and getting freed. And, here, in Eretz Israel, we are in between: shifting from there to here and swinging like on seesaw. Getting in and out and back again.
Strange times: The Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah is retiring. In Israel, as by the time of the Ottomans, the first Church is the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, not the Catholic patriarchate restored in the 19th century. Michel Sabbah was born in Nazareth, he speaks Hebrew quite well. He is a "Palestinian". He will be replaced by a Jordanian archbishop who served in North Africa. Michel Sabbah has been the first Arab local clergyman to be a Latin Patriarch since the 14th century. Then, it is evident that we try to measure if it was good or bad for the Jews or bad and good who somebody else, maybe the Arab Christians and their Muslims brothers? It happens that Michel Sabbah considers that the best moments of his ministry, quietest moments were during the festivities of the Millennium of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in 2000. Upon his retirement, he made some very clear statements about the "occupation" and the general attitude of the Israelis. He also said that the Israelis can be afraid by peace. This is very true. The problem is that Jews should be convinced that when he says that, he does not reject them. But indeed, Jews are afraid to live in a peaceful atmosphere, secure. A normal Jew is at least mentally sitting on some suitcases, ready to wander around the world. When the Jews are aware of such a thing, they get panicked. Israelis are not panicked because they got home and they return to their home. Michel Sabbah sounds right, but he cannot really accept that Jews are fully at home here because of Eretz Israel. The same as for Elie Wiesel. He is the model of the Flying Jew.
Both Michel Sabbah and Elie Wiesel have spent their lives with knives in their backs. Or they thought they could be victimized by nature, innate negative fate. It is terrible how overcome with much difficulties the terrible experience that is imprinted or sealed in our memories.
Let's speak of Yaakov. There are plenty of evidences showing that he was worth taking over his brother's birthright and receiving the paternal blessing. He cheated but was cheated in return, in particular by Laban. Then, Yaakov was given another blessing and identity, Israel, during a very special dark and enlightened fight in the night. The new name he got was far more that any lentil stew deal. His very "essence or being" changed to carry over the task of blessing. It would be possible to speak of a "positive transgression" of the Law that had not been given yet to Moses but paved the way to Law-giving. "Averah" is a "transgression" that can be worth and helpful, as in the case of "Pikuach nefesh" (the requirement to save a life, which has numerous implications). "Avar" also means "to be pregnant/"me'uberet", which shows the passing from the womb to outside world; connected with "ivri" as in Bereishit Rabba 42: "The whole world was on one side (idolaters), thus Abraham passed the banks of the rivers". He trespassed the rules of the idolaters in order to receive God's blessings.
Judaism speaks of mamash, mamashut = reality, substance of our lives and beings. In Yiddish mamoshes appeals to the very substance of what exists. There is no reason to oppress oneself or others if we really know who we are in-depths. The problem is to be and to exist to the full whatever circumstances.
The problem of the very nature of reality and objects, humans is that we got confused. This word, in Yiddish (mamushes) totally covers the realm of what is taught about God's Presence in Judaism and Christianity. But it is a normal copy right for the Jews and became a copy left for the others. Faith never requires any disguising, except to show that the worst tragedies will pass because humans are born to rejoice. But how can we rejoice with you, yes you over there - whoever you are and I don't even understand who you are (normal question of a usual tourist here)? You superseded our birth right, our original copy right and captured also any copy left. No copy belongs to you and not to me or vice versa. Because "mine is yours says the tzaddik" (Pirkey Avot). Jesus declared the same to His and Our Father (John 17:10). In cities with walls, let's this year lift our internal rejections and pardon because "purim calls k'purim", "like lots" cast to rejoice and not to mourn. The megillah will continue to be unscrolled... for the best of life. L'chayim!
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 20, 2008 - 12 deAdar II 5768
You can contact Av Aleksandr on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
What kind of crazy things will we imagine on this Purim? When logics prefer to turn to nonsense, right to left and left to north and reality to dazzling reality? We maybe living in New Zealand, Alaska, Europe, Jews rocks between Sumer and the Mesopotamian civilization and Egypt. On the one hand, the birthplace of Abraham and in, along the Nile, the fight for surviving and getting freed. And, here, in Eretz Israel, we are in between: shifting from there to here and swinging like on seesaw. Getting in and out and back again.
Strange times: The Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah is retiring. In Israel, as by the time of the Ottomans, the first Church is the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, not the Catholic patriarchate restored in the 19th century. Michel Sabbah was born in Nazareth, he speaks Hebrew quite well. He is a "Palestinian". He will be replaced by a Jordanian archbishop who served in North Africa. Michel Sabbah has been the first Arab local clergyman to be a Latin Patriarch since the 14th century. Then, it is evident that we try to measure if it was good or bad for the Jews or bad and good who somebody else, maybe the Arab Christians and their Muslims brothers? It happens that Michel Sabbah considers that the best moments of his ministry, quietest moments were during the festivities of the Millennium of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in 2000. Upon his retirement, he made some very clear statements about the "occupation" and the general attitude of the Israelis. He also said that the Israelis can be afraid by peace. This is very true. The problem is that Jews should be convinced that when he says that, he does not reject them. But indeed, Jews are afraid to live in a peaceful atmosphere, secure. A normal Jew is at least mentally sitting on some suitcases, ready to wander around the world. When the Jews are aware of such a thing, they get panicked. Israelis are not panicked because they got home and they return to their home. Michel Sabbah sounds right, but he cannot really accept that Jews are fully at home here because of Eretz Israel. The same as for Elie Wiesel. He is the model of the Flying Jew.
Both Michel Sabbah and Elie Wiesel have spent their lives with knives in their backs. Or they thought they could be victimized by nature, innate negative fate. It is terrible how overcome with much difficulties the terrible experience that is imprinted or sealed in our memories.
Let's speak of Yaakov. There are plenty of evidences showing that he was worth taking over his brother's birthright and receiving the paternal blessing. He cheated but was cheated in return, in particular by Laban. Then, Yaakov was given another blessing and identity, Israel, during a very special dark and enlightened fight in the night. The new name he got was far more that any lentil stew deal. His very "essence or being" changed to carry over the task of blessing. It would be possible to speak of a "positive transgression" of the Law that had not been given yet to Moses but paved the way to Law-giving. "Averah" is a "transgression" that can be worth and helpful, as in the case of "Pikuach nefesh" (the requirement to save a life, which has numerous implications). "Avar" also means "to be pregnant/"me'uberet", which shows the passing from the womb to outside world; connected with "ivri" as in Bereishit Rabba 42: "The whole world was on one side (idolaters), thus Abraham passed the banks of the rivers". He trespassed the rules of the idolaters in order to receive God's blessings.
Judaism speaks of mamash, mamashut = reality, substance of our lives and beings. In Yiddish mamoshes appeals to the very substance of what exists. There is no reason to oppress oneself or others if we really know who we are in-depths. The problem is to be and to exist to the full whatever circumstances.
The problem of the very nature of reality and objects, humans is that we got confused. This word, in Yiddish (mamushes) totally covers the realm of what is taught about God's Presence in Judaism and Christianity. But it is a normal copy right for the Jews and became a copy left for the others. Faith never requires any disguising, except to show that the worst tragedies will pass because humans are born to rejoice. But how can we rejoice with you, yes you over there - whoever you are and I don't even understand who you are (normal question of a usual tourist here)? You superseded our birth right, our original copy right and captured also any copy left. No copy belongs to you and not to me or vice versa. Because "mine is yours says the tzaddik" (Pirkey Avot). Jesus declared the same to His and Our Father (John 17:10). In cities with walls, let's this year lift our internal rejections and pardon because "purim calls k'purim", "like lots" cast to rejoice and not to mourn. The megillah will continue to be unscrolled... for the best of life. L'chayim!
Alexander Winogradsky Frenkel
March 20, 2008 - 12 deAdar II 5768
You can contact Av Aleksandr on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1126861596
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