HUMAN COMMUNITY, BODY OF CHRIST, UNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

INTRODUCTION

This is the English text of the lecture that I gave in Moscow on September 29th last within the framework of the annual theological and social Conference organized by the Sretenye Brotherhoods. For many years, I used to send the text of my lecture by email and the Russian version was read by one of the Brothers. I have been in contact with most of the spiritual religious movements of the Orthodox Church over the past 30 years, to begin with in Scandinavia, then in Western Europe, especially focusing on the connections that exist between Judaism and Oriental Christianity.

In 1988, I had organized (to my knowledge this remains the only meeting on the subject) "988-1988 : Thousand years of Jewish Presence in the Slavic world" in order to celebrate the Millenium of the Baptism of the Rus' of Kiev and its subsequent impact on the Russian Orthodox Church, the Oriental Byzantine Churches. This took place at the multi-ritual monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, near Namur/Namen, a place that had been i.a. initiated by late Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky.

My whole service as a deacon and ordination as an Eastern Orthodox priest within the Russian tradition continued this call to serve for the betterment of a possible launching of encounter between Judaism and Christianity, in particular in view to assist the Israeli newcomers and other citizens that belonged to the Church and/or and together to some way to Jewish communities. Since 1998 - a bit earlier in fact - I was appointed to the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in order to carry out this very special task. All over the years, from Scandinavia down to Jerusalem, I met with the numerous hierarchs, clergy and lay people who finally got to some point of liberation that burst in 1989 and sometimes later in the different former communist countries, mainly in the former Soviet Union. This freedom for the Church that rose from the Catacombs launched a profound movement of renewal; it is deeply rooted in the old Russian and Slavic Traditions which has prevailed throughout history and need to be considered with much respect.

My task is not only to pray in Hebrew. I do not believe that this constitute a linguistic reality. There is much more: Hebrew challenges the Church as a living and constantly reviving tongue. Hebrew does not mean that we adopt some political attitude or concede to some ethnic national group. Hebrew is the language that God the Father chose to speak to all human beings through the TaNaCh and that always includes the Oral Law or Talmud put down after the destruction of the Temple in Hebrew and Aramaic.

Modern Hebrew is a complex "dialect" that is also very marked by the Jewish Ashkenazi world of the Yiddishkayt that frequented the Eastern Oriental Christian traditions, indeed with much hardships and mutual rejection. In 1842, before the birth of Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the reviver of Modern Hebrew, Hebrew was the Liturgical language used for the Divine Services at the Ecclesiastical Mission of the then-Moscow Synod. They had blessed the rich translation made by Fr. Levinson. I use this version till now because it is the only version that got the official blessing and recognition of the Orthodox Church.

Praying in Hebrew in the State of Israel is much more important than just making use of a specific language that directly connects with the Jews and the Modern Israeli speakers. It implies to get aware of cultural, social, behavioral, psychological attitudes and customs. Thus, the Christian soul that accepts to pray in Hebrew has to resolve more question about the identity given by God, the Divine Providence, Mystery of Redemption.

I never stepped down in serving in Hebrew, as also in other languages. Consequently, many groups from various countries contacted me and the different faithful that attend the Services. They wanted to share about the develop of liturgical koinonia/Communion in the Messiah and not only linguistic skills or acculturation. In terms of Hebrew in the Church everything has to be created because it cannot simply copy or duplicate any existing Eastern Orthodox tradition. It must include all of them because the faithful do come from many backgrounds. It must also be acceptable to the Church as the Body of the Resurrected Lord and somehow be also audible to Jewish scholars and simple Israeli citizens, not in terms of proselytism but linguistic and cultural consistency.

I am thus in contact with world-wide groups, praying in all sorts of languages. Finns, Macedonians, Georgians, Romanians and Moldovians/Bessarabians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians as well as Icelandic Scandinavian and English Eastern Orthodox and others come on a regular basis. The Arabs are also very interested in different places of Israel.

To begin with, I serve for Russian speakers. I started in Slavonic, then Ukrainian and Modern Russian. Hebrew has always been the main language I used. It is evident that the groups that consider it is normal to pray in Modern Russian came and discussed the matter with us. This is how I got in contact with Fr. Georgiy Kotchetkov whose work has to be be implemented slowly and much wisdom. Other "liberal groups" were evident to me for more than two decades (spiritual children of late Fr. Alexander Men). I do maintain that we can search ways to renew and innovate without getting astray from the Church as late Patriarch Aleksei II said "You have to sing in the choir". Eastern Orthodox choirs mirror the symphony of redemption in all languages. But the task is immense and requires a lot of patience. The main problem that exist in Russia with regards to Modern Russian is that the Modern tongue is not "contemporary Russian" but "Sovietskii iazyk/Советский язык - the Soviet language". Similarly, Modern Hebrew is the national language of Israel and the vernacular medium for Judaism that needs to be considered with more insights when referring to "Talmudic Semitic Hebrew" and mainly way of thinking.

I used to send my lectures to be read in Russian through emails! My lecturing was known to my spiritual Father. This year, I was told it was a bit ridiculous not to accept the invitation to join the conference in Moscow. I was reluctant for another reason: obedience. This aspect has curiously played a major role in all my pastoral life. Patriarch Theophilos III had not visited Russia since he was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem. For a long time, I considered I could not go there before he paid a visit. In the past months, Patriarch Kyrill, whom I had met several times in Jerusalem became the new patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia.

I asked for the oral blessing by Patriarch Theophilos and he accepted that I could participate in the conference. There is one more detail: I live in a very poor way. Some visitors do understand that, others are not aware or don't understand. I see all the time "spiritual guides and theologians of all sorts" that travel here and there and back and forth and use, misuse, abuse the financial hospitality they are proposed. I do not accept such a behavior. Things could be settled this year.

It also gave me the rare opportunity to consider the work accomplished the past thirty years in very difficult circumstances and restricted means of all natures and to meet wit those "pillars of the present Church" and those very precious friends who accompanied me and mines on this special way of the Cross and the faith in Resurrection. And, for the first time, Hebrew was used for ecphoneses at the Sunday Divine Liturgy in a monastery of the Kremlin.

The Russian version is a bit different - with a lot of improvised phrases and comments. But this text gives a picture of the topic I developed. It needs to be correctly interpreted and the members of the Conference did explain some aspects that could be obscure for those who do not know or understand our situation.

THE LECTURE

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to be with you this year after so many years of emailing and friendly if not “comradely” reading of my lectures by D. G.. I am also glad to share with your community, which means that we encounter and can participate together in a socializing act of understanding of being "a spiritual joint-venture". We try in this Conference to avoid being strangers or estranged within the Church.

I come from Israel; I am a priest within the Israeli society and among the Jewish communities. I put it in a plural form because though considering that Klal Israel/the Community of Israel is ONE, it is multi-faceted. I serve within the framework of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Greeks have inherited or they prolong in their ways the Early Church Hellenistic community, also known as "Ecclesia ex Gentibus -Church from the Gentiles" that succeeded - at times we can say superseded - the "Ecclesia ex Circumcisione - Church of the Circumcision" that totally disappeared with the 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicea II on September, 24, 787, exactly 1222 years ago.

Canon VIII (8) stressed that "camouflaged Jews should not be received into the ecclesial community unless they have made a total renunciation of their Jewish ways, especially of the Shabbat". We can explain this decision by the fact that the Fathers firstly wanted to condemn the conduct of the "Syrian" i.e. "Semitic emperors who had used iconoclastic propaganda". Then most Jews and Judeo-Christians abandoned the Byzantine Empire and got sheltered in the Arab empire, passing "over" to the new religion of Islam as "malawi". They belonged to the cast of the "Kuttab - scribes". Thus, they strongly influenced the Quran and the related texts by introducing elements of specific Judaeo-Christian character.

This specific date and Church Canonic decision is still in force in the Eastern Orthodox Church and put an end to the theological Schools of Antioch and Alexandria that had played an immense role in the development of the Church for fully seven centuries. As a consequence, Empress Theodora obliged the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople of 834 to institute the Feast of the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" with a procession of icons and celebrating the Church's victory over all heresies. Subsequently, the Ecclesia ex Circumcisione was wiped out from the Unity of the One Church and seemingly erased from the living memory of the One Church.

I serve within the Rum Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and you also belong to the same Rum-Orthodox Church. In Russia, it is an later extension of what firstly started with the five original patriarchates and subsequently developed inside of the Roman Eastern and Western Empire and also till the Rus' of Kiev just a few years ((in fact it took a long time and it is not certain that it succeeded to overcome paganism) before the Great Schism of 1054. The center of the Church later moved to the Rus' of Moscow.

We still live in a conception of RUM ROMAN EMPIRE CHURCH though the Church is "one, holy, catholic (kafolicheskaia/кафолическая) and apostolic", gathering in "people of all races, nations, tongues" and expands to the ends of the Earth. The Church as the RISEN BODY OF JESUS CHRIST AND IMAGE OF THE HOLY TRINITY has no human or spiritual borders or limits. It is definitely universal. Nobody is a stranger in the Church just as it is said in the Psalm "ולציון יאמר איש ואיש יולד בה... - Indeed it shall be said of Zion, "every man was born there" (Psalm 87:5). True, the Church expanded beyond the limits of the Roman empire: in Semitic Churches, then other Churches in the East, Persia till India and China.

Still, serving in the Church of Jerusalem as a Rum-Orthodox priest I have to seriously take into account the essential decision of the 8th Canon of the Nicea II Council. It has not been abrogated, neither by the Eastern Orthodox Church (I prefer to mention this in the singular form) nor by the Roman Catholic Church that encompasses more than 10 different rites beside the Latin rite.

Please note that the Roman Catholic "Nostra AEtate" document voted in 1964, deals with Judaism and Islam as other religions. It is positive toward a further recognition of Judaism, but it did not correct or remove the final decision of the 7th Council of Nicea II at all! We do not pay much attention to that. “Nostra AEtate” was accepted by the participants of the Second Council of the Vatican, but the Oriental Patriarchs did not proceed to confirm the decision in their own oriental-rite patriarchates. Then, only a full Ecumenical pan-Orthodox Council AND TOGETHER with the entire Roman Catholic Church would eventually be entitled to change or remove this historic decision. I prefer not to mention the "Protestant Churches" that do not take these decisions into account the same way we do. In the event of any desire to change this 8th Canon tracking back to 787, thus in very exceptional circumstances that we cannot anticipate at the present, it is more than certain that such a decision should also be submitted to the opinion of the Jewish Communities, which simply shows the depth, width, breadth and length of such an unforeseeable decision at the moment.

The decision taken during this Ecumenical Council is of major importance: it is the last Ecumenical Council that is common before the "split" that affected the One Church of the Roman empire whose we are the heirs and faithful. The decision, that was then taken, broke the community shared with the Jewish roots and spiritual Tree of Life.

It also envisioned the community of Israel with much suspicion, rejection, later a desire or understanding that Jews should be converted to the faith. We continue, in particular in our Eastern Orthodox Churches, to measure, "judge" each other. At times we "suspect" the exactitude of the Creed and the faith confessed by our fellow believers. We love to check, verify and interrogate who the believers are, how close, far, foreign, and even enemies they can be, provided that "my" community is the right one, and the other ones are or can be heretics.

You try to determine how we can build up authentic "communities, societies, brotherhoods" united by the reality of the Holy Trinity that reigns over the universe and overshadows all of us. You face problems as local Church members.

In the Church of Jerusalem, we are called not to judge each other but to see that there every believer is born, continues to be born into the ONE MOTHER OF ALL THE CHURCHES OF GOD. Do not worry! I don't dream! This is a huge, terrible, exceptional challenge, a real and truth-testing, faith-experiencing challenge. Beyond any human will, Jerusalem and Israel encompasses all creeds and faiths from the Western Wall to the Holy Sepulcher/Anastasis (Place of the Resurrection).

I would never dare exclude any soul or nation, God forbid! – Still, I minister inside Israel and not the Arab world though it is evident that I do not make any difference and this is perfectly felt by the local clergy and faithful. I mean that we have a local and universal call. But we cannot mix all people, nations etc. into indefinite entities. I serve in a special Church as you also do. The important point is to recognize that we serve God in determined conditions relating to space, time, age.

But it is important to point out that the above mentioned decisions are "crucial" and will require centuries to be corrected. It will take centuries to correct total and ongoing process of estrangement as defined by Hans Urs von Balthasar who wrote a very interesting book "Einsame Zwiesprache mit Buber - Lonely (“monologue”) dialog with Buber". We cannot improvise some correction right out of the blue. We have to be aware of history and this is something that is sometimes very confused. We have not right to supersede the identity of believers – at the same time, it is indeed very hard to upgrade the life of ancient traditions.

And YOU, YOU ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND WE SHARE IN COMMON EVERYTHING or should as mentioned in the Edenic verse of the Acts of the Apostles.: “And the multitude of the them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own: but they had all things in common “ (Acts of the Apostles 4:32).
If we theologically approach the mystery of the Ecclesia or Kahal or the Church in her totality, we can indeed speak of the daily problems we have to face. They are not new with regards to history of faith and religions.

But what I would like to point out is the intimate conviction that the BODY OF THE RESURRECTED LORD still cannot be torn, broken or ignored. It is the Sacramental Presence of God in our age of history. It ran throughout long ages and should endure till the ends of time, the eschaton; and eschaton does not belong to us but depends on God’s will.

This reality can cure those faithful or those who consider themselves as believers because they have to accept the fact that the Church requires faith but cannot oblige anyone to believe; moreover the Church runs in unexpected ways and moves toward directions that are mainly unknown to us. The Church compels to take into account the value of time, also in terms of “communities”. This can also help the members of the Church whenever and wherever they are located and in whatever conditions they must witness that the Kingdom of God is close to every soul and human being.

Now, there is in Biarritz (French border with Spain) a famous Russian "sobor/собор -cathedral". In this church, there is an interesting icon: on a full gold background, different Saints of different ages, periods and locations are shown. It shows the diachronic and synchronic reality of the Church. I often notice in Jerusalem that we do meet - if we pay attention to people - individuals of different "ages" and "cultural historic attitudes". Indeed the Church relies upon history.

In Jerusalem, it is possible to encounter people whose cultural, psychological, linguistic and spiritual behaviors show us this sort of "unifying and fulfilling icon of redemption", i.e. some can be of the 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 19th and present century. This is the fascinating aspect of the mental and religious life-witnesses who share the same period of history. People meeting without encountering, "speaking without talking". They/we get united beyond their unlikeness and disagreements. This is the point: The Divine Presence and the Holy Trinity overshadow them.

The “Pirqey Avot/פרקי אבות – Saying of the Fathers”(Avot 3:4) state: “If three have eaten at a table and uttered words of Torah there, it is as if they had eaten at the Table of God, for it is said : « זה השולחן אשר לפני ה' – this is the table which is before [the countenance of] God» (Psalm 23:5; Introduction to the Zimmun leBirkat HaMazon\זימון לברכת המזון – first prayer and portion said before sharing a meal, part of the Graces after Meal).

The same saying is uttered by Jesus Christ: “[Again, I say unto to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father Who is in heaven]; For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). This is the positive aspect of the “community, assembly gathered in by the Holy Trinity”. The other aspect is also very human as described by Jesus: “For wheresoever the carcase (corpse) is, the vultures (eagles) will be gathered together”. (Matthew 24:28).

I come from a country, Israel, where the sense of resurrection is deeply felt by the citizens of Jewish origin. I say that because I have always been aware of being essentially and unwillingly a member of the community of Israel. Other Jews are fully entitled to have other views than mine or to position in different ways. Is it possible for a Jew to pretend to be Christian and to belong to both the Community of Israel and the Church? The problem is that of the CHURCH AS A TOTALITY. In this time of history, we can only pave the way to come close and to open a dialog, without any pretence that cannot be confirmed by any religious community as a “legal” reality.

There is a Jewish daily blessing: “Blessed are You Lord of the Universe/ Who gathers in the exiled of (His) people Israel (מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל = meqabetz nidchey ammo Israel ). The word is of the same root as “Kibbutz”. To begin with, people had to share everything. As in the Gospel, it lasted the time of a short verse. But we cannot pretend that the spirit or desire to sharing everything did not or doesn’t exist. In daily life, I only see people who mostly look for themselves, can be terribly self-centered, in particular in the Church and there is definitely not sense of the Church being the “Body of Christ”, i.e. we are all together to build together. It is the consequence of faith being perceived as a strictly personal experience.

We have a tremendous problem of identity because – even the local Arab Christians of any denomination – would think they can be asked to prove that they belong to a Church as a living Body of the Risen Lord. The usual experience will be that “we do and go to whom and where we want : the less it costs, the more simple a procedure is and often the shorter, the better it is”. Just as in some American Evangelical groups, “Christians” does not mean “I belong to the Church”; it means: am I a true believer? The question goes on by constantly testing the faith of the others. True faith implies and leads to trust. “In God we trust” as written on the US Dollars, still firstly God trusts in us and it requires a lot of insights to get to that point.

Our question today is in fact a sort of reflection upon “Who is my neighbor? And You shalt love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:19). Jesus summarizes the Torah in two commandments of “Loving God with all our soul, heart and strength = resources” and “Loving your neighbor as yourself”. These words are present in the Synoptic Gospel (Deuteronomy 6:5-11:13 – 30:6 and Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 along with Lev. 19.18).

You belong to the Russian Federation that was created out of the Union of the Soviet Republic. Till now, your country encompasses numerous nations, people, of numerous cultural, religious, linguistic traditions. For political of ideological, religious or ethnic reasons – whether rational or not – many nations and individuals would require at the present some sort of “self-ruled autonomy and/or independence”. One of the new trends is the requirement of micro-entities to get “self-ruled or autonomous” as given by the example of the Abkhaz Orthodox Church that recently declare that she wanted to be “independent”.

We have the right in the Church to be who we are. This is why I mentioned, to begin with, the most-affecting, in-depth-harming decisions of Canon 8 at the Second Council of Nicea. We cannot dream out how we would like to implement the concepts of independence or unity in our communities. I am a member of the Israeli society and a priest, I serve in that community and State, being an Eastern Orthodox member of the clergy and thus called to bear the witness for the Holy Trinity in Jerusalem, in that and not another local Church.

Thus, I have the obligation which concerns each of us in the Church, in Jerusalem or here in Russia, “to sing in the choir “ (a reminder of late Patriarch Aleksei II), together with people, clergy, cultures, traditions that should not be split because of human misunderstanding of desire for power. I have chosen – whatever price it may cost – to remain faithful to the local Church that is recognized as such by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Kingdom of Jordan.

Frankly, when I was appointed there 14 years ago, some European and local hierarchs and clergy together with lay people said with some irony: “he (= I…) got what he was looking for”. The work is known to be an “impossible mission”. They did not prevent me about the situation and the dangers, though I was aware of them. I said: if we are the people of the Church and do trust that we belong to a specific local Church because of what or who we are, we have to keep the good work. In our case in Jerusalem, it is like “playing chess on a six dimensional basis” as an Israeli expert declared.

I may not see the development of an “Israeli acculturated and Hebrew-praying Church”, but it is our duty to pave the way to the future generations. 160 years ago, Hebrew was used in Orthodox celebrations in Jerusalem, long before Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the reviver of Modern Hebrew had started his project. At the present, there is no doubt that the move shall grow, slowly and in various and unexpected ways, it is a reality for tomorrow and even the present. Points of rejection are not relevant because faith consists in measuring what future generations will build up and how. And, as a matter of fact, Israeli Christian communities exist, but not in the way we would define them according to traditional Roman Empire Church patterns.

We do not choose each other in the Church. Never. We are chosen and called to gather in together with others and join the ONE BODY OF CHRIST. Why? Because “friendship, brotherhood” are the fruit of God’s forgiveness and definitely not some human capacities to cope with some or other people. Let’s read again and with true insights the meaning of the Gospel: “I call you not servants; for the servant does not know what his lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” (John 15:14-16).

Indeed, we cannot choose each other in the Church. When Jesus Christ says that He “chose and ordained his disciples and made them “friends””, He is not acting with some “druzhba\дружба spirit”. This is at times very difficult to declare, especially in Russia and in the Russian culture, because of the immense credit of the “druzhbaдружба-/friendship feelings”.

But “חבר =chaver” in Modern Hebrew means “friend, often a boy (girl)friend”. In the rabbinical tradition “a chaver” is a “ordained member of the community” in order to serve in a Jewish “congregation”. At the Talmudic period, the “chaverim” were ordained and given a letter of ordination. This is why the “chavurah – חבורא\חבורה” is a “religious association”. In a rather ironic way, the “chevra qaddisha” is today the example of love and assistance to our fellow people: they are in charge of burying the Jews with much humanity and decency. There is a Yiddish saying stating that a cemetery is a wonderful model of the world-to-come because it gathers people who are quiet, peaceful and repose in the hands of the Most High.

We all face the constant and very questioning problem of how God can or does redeem us. How does He allow us to be “one and diversified” without fencing ourselves. Viktor Frankl , the famous Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who witnessed to his experience in the Nazi period and concentration camps stated that the following pattern of two human attitudes seems to abide and govern human nature in the best and worse situations. He wrote (Man’s search for meaning, p. 123): “If a prisoner felt that he could no longer endure the realities of camp life, he found a way out in his mental life – an invaluable opportunity to dwell in the spiritual domain, the one that the SS were unable to destroy. Spiritual life strengthened the prisoner, helped him adapt, and thereby improved his chances of survival”.

I have been visiting the sick for more than 30 years, in particular the children. Children are “infants” which means that they are not able to “speak, explain” with words what they feel. If a child faces death directly and is saved “in extremis” it becomes unbeatable. Nothing can seriously affect his “Drang an Leben – force to go ahead of life”. In fact, it does not consist in being “survivors”. It means we can feel we have been saved and called to participate in the process of redemption.

There is no reason for me to be present today with you and participate in your fraternal Conference. It appears that for historic reasons I had no perspective to be born. I nearly died at birth and again 15 years ago. A Russian woman, a professor at the Hebrew University – born in Israel – told me many years ago that I can minister in Israel because I feel at home to the full. True. But also because God gave me to face death in such a close way that life is definitely full of His grace and joys. It leads to patience and consider with a certain sense of time what we can build and what others will eventually build. Fraternity does not consist in mirroring ourselves and ours. It calls to see how we are the heirs of previous people and how we can transmit our experience for the benefit of the Church in her totality.
We experienced the reality described by Viktor Frankl in the Gulags, the labor camps, the extermination camps.

Why moral values in the Church can seeming be affected by the behavior of the faithful? Beyond all sorts of visible separations, misunderstanding, competition and real hatred disguised in the rags of fake love, the Church is still the BODY AND THE VINEYARD that calls to go beyond who and what we think we are.
“Jerusalem built up, a city knit together/ Yerushalayim habnuyah k’ir shechuvrah lah yachdav -
ירושלם הבנויה כעיר שחוברה לה יחדיו (Psalm 122,2, Hebrew version).
“Christ is in our midst! He is and will be unto the ages of the ages”.

Archpriest Alexander Winogradsky (Jerusalem)
September 22/09, 2009 – 4 deTishrei 5770

Sagesse et patience

07.09.09



La société israélienne passe régulièrement par des sortes de “douleurs de l’enfantement”. Il est vrai qu’à force de faire des bébés tout le temps, la société peut finir par ressentir des contractions sociales sensibles. Cette situation est normale, ce qui reste une énigme à l’étranger. Chez nous, il ne faut jamais s’inquiéter comme me répète ma “coach en société israélienne” de 26 ans qui revient de son voyage de noces en Italie où la petite famille a trouvé les paysages splendides, mais les gens franchement nerveux. “Av, al-tidag\אב, אל-תדאג = surtout ne t’inquiète de rien”, affirme avec aplomb cette jeunesse qui servit comme analyste psychologue dans l’armée.

Ce n’est pas toujours évident in situ: on est allé chercher des Ethiopiens, les voilà citoyens et, en ce moment, ça swingue très fort : à Petah Tiqwah, Les écoles religieuses plutôt ashkénazes refusent les écoliers car ces Ethiopiens ne sont pas “totalement juifs” selon la Halakhah/Loi juive. Restons calmes, ça va passer, et c’est vrai. Soudain, un haut responsable druze est directement attaqué avec une forme de racisme qui inquiète les médias et les spécialistes locaux. Ce n’est pas comme chez vous du tout. Le regard porté sur le Proche-Orient et Israël conduit souvent à un jugement pessimiste et négatif par définition. Le mot “racisme” a une pigmentation aggressive par définition. Ici, c’est différent : l’identité de chacun est déterminée par des critères existentiels qui peuvent facilement déraper, par leurs références apparemment “génétiques”, vers des exclusions racistes. Le temps de comprendre que Dieu est bien au-delà de tout génome.

C’est pourquoi il faut souligner que la Terre de Canaan fut toujours une région d’extrême tolérance. En 7000 ans, elle a accueilli des gens de “toutes races, langues, peuples et nations”. Il faut sans doute y voir une vocation à l’universel humain, la plénitude de la reconnaissance de l’autre. Mais, dans des moments-charnières il y a des contractions. La société israélienne tente d’expliquer aux citoyens qu’il y va de la décence civique. Elle repose sur des principes de foi et de droit. C’est peu compris. Cela ne ne s’apprend, pas dans les livres, ça se vit.

Au seuil de cette année 5770, les propos d’Albert Einstein peuvent être médités en profondeur. En 1938, il émit de grandes réserves sur la création d’un Etat juif. Il évoqua les formes étroites de nationalismes qui ont historiquement miné les propres rangs du judaïsme en l’absence de tout Etat. En revanche, il affirma que si des circonstances particulières contraignaient les Juifs à accepter ce fardeau, encore faudrait-il le faire “avec patience (tact) et sagesse”. Khokhma vesavlanut (Sagesse et patience) est sans conteste la devise et le slogan national d’Israël.

Le mois de Ellul est un temps de retournement spirituel. Les prières de Selihot\סליחות expriment cette dimension. Comme d’ailleurs, dans le même temps, les prières du Ramadan.

Le judaïsme se prépare à célébrer l’anniversaire de la création du monde. Avant la création, Dieu avait beaucoup réfléchi et pris l’avis de Son Conseil où siégeait en particulier la Teshuva\תשובה = la Pénitence ou Réponse à Dieu (Nedarim 39b/Pessahim 54a). Il faut dissiper un malentendu. La pénitence ne consiste pas à se tordre les os et l’esprit pour s’accuser avec moulte culpabilité réelle ou feinte de trangressions, de fautes dramatiques ; ni à se composer un look de propreté bon marché. A cet égard, tout clergé a tendance à exiger une humilité que lui-même peine à incarner.

Il y a une blague juive : deux ennemis se rencontrent dans leur synagogue au jour de Yom Kippour/Grand Pardon. Le premier s’avance vers son ennemi de toujours et lui dit: “Je te souhaite tout le bien que toi-même me souhaiteras”. L’autre lui répond: “Ne recommence pas maintenant, veux-tu!” - La Réponse à Dieu consiste à pivoter parce que “shuv\שוב = à nouveau” indique un pivotement sur nous-mêmes. Le grec metanoïa indique un retournement de la conscience.

Il est normalement prévu pour tous les travailleurs de faire un bilan de santé annuel. Ellul, les prière de pardon/Selihot, le Nouvel An et les 10 jours de Teshuva avant Kippour permettent une rencontre franche et ouverte avec autrui et donc avec Dieu. Il ne s’agit d’impressionner personne, ni Dieu d’ailleurs, mais mettre en perspective notre raison d’exister. Il faut du temps pour conjurer l’orgueil et les haines tenaces.

Le judaïsme orthodoxe américain a suggéré d’instaurer un National Apology Day, une jour de demande de pardon qui viserait aussi une démarche des non-Juifs. L’Orthodoxie chrétienne conserve le magnifique office de demande de pardon : chacun se met à genoux et demande pardon au début du Grand Carême qui mène à la Pâque.

Il y a un aspect très dynamisant à pareille attitude. Il ne s’agit pas seulement de demander pardon, mais aussi de prendre conscience des bonnes actions ou mitzvot (ou commandements positifs de l’Eglise en comparaison). Tout n’est pas noir. Il est utile de repérer les points positifs d’une année.

A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

02 septembre 2009
A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

Je dois dire que cela se produit très rarement. Depuis le début de mon action en tant que prêtre orthodoxe dans la société israélienne - il suffit de lire ce blog - ce sont les dificultés qui sont pointées et les encouragements rares, à la limite de la suspicion. “Une mission impossible” comme me le disent de nombreux amis, ennemis et visituers, parfois des personnes bien intentionnées. Il est vrai que l’histoire montre qu’il s’agit d’une tâche limite. Il y a les nostalgiques de la permanente incompréhension; il y a ceux qui prennent des partis politiques ou autres qui ne m’intéressent en rien. J’ai lancé ces chroniques dans Le Monde car elles permettent, en peu de mots ou à lettres comptées de formuler des points de repères que je recueille dans ma fréquentation directe avec un peu tous les milieux israéliens.

Léon-Marc Lévy est aussi un chroniqueur abonné au Monde. Il se consacre désormais à l’oenologie. Comme d’autres, il m’a demblée témoigné son intérêt pour les chronique que j’essaye d’écrire régulièrement une fois par semaine; en raison du 1er septembre 1939, j’ai commis une deuxième publiée aujourd’hui. Mais il faut savoir se limiter.

Je tiens à le remercier très vivement pour ses mots positifs et chaleureux. Il a aussi compris ce que je tente de faire ici; de le faire dans la joie en dépit de tout, d’un isolement sinon un confinement que j’arrive à dépasser mais que je ne souhaite à personne, des moyens non seulement limités mais qui ont parfois été volontairement supprimés pour des raisons irraisonnées. Et pourtant, non seulement cela continue, mais qui plus est, cela se développe dans des directions tout à fait étonnantes.

Un grand merci à Léon-Marc Lévy que vous pouvez retrouver dans les Chroniques du Monde.fr.


A propos des chroniques venues de Jérusalem

par Léon-Marc Levy

01.09.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES



L‘équipe du « Monde.fr » a la bonne idée de nous gratifier, à intervalles réguliers, de chroniques venues de Jérusalem, signées Av Aleksandr, prêtre orthodoxe. J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de dire ici, par quelques réactions, le plaisir toujours renouvelé que procure la lecture de ces petites perles : morceaux de vie, frais, colorés, complexes, pétillants, fondamentalement optimistes et drôles, venant d’une région du monde où il est pourtant si difficile de croire au bonheur et à la fraternité entre les peuples. Eclats de lumière déchirant l’obscurité, un peu comme en écho aux beaux films venus d’Israël, ou aux textes superbes des grands poètes palestiniens. Mais au-delà du seul plaisir narratif, je suis frappé par le fait qu’à travers ces chroniques, ce « murmure culturel », se dessinent, peu à peu, comme des évidences cachées qui sortiraient de l’ombre, des territoires qui pourraient s’avérer très vite les espaces clés de l’avenir.



- Le territoire du marchand : Av Aleksandr pointe ce village palestinien (Deir Abou Meshal, à l’ouest de Ramallah) dont les femmes cousent depuis longtemps les « kippoth » de leurs voisins Juifs. Le commerce, c’est l’espace de l’échange par excellence, qui depuis des millénaires est partout à l’origine de l’avancée des Lumières. Juifs, chrétiens, musulmans ont construit leur génie, leur culture, leur richesse dans une parfaite synergie commerciale autour de la Méditerranée, quelles que fussent les périodes sanglantes d’intérêts divergents. Les voyageurs des uns travaillaient pour les marchands des autres, les comptables pour les artisans, les banquiers pour les explorateurs de terres nouvelles, en un tissu serré de vie et d’intelligence dont l’Espagne de l’Age d’Or fut un parfait exemple. Aujourd’hui, demain encore, ce territoire sera porteur, inéluctablement, de rapprochement, de compréhension et d’élan commun.

- Le territoire de la langue : Babel s’éloigne. Les jeunes Palestiniens d’Israël parlent tous l’hébreu. Les jeunes Juifs d’Israël ne parlent encore que peu l’arabe. Mais les temps changent nous disent Av Aleksandr et bien d’autres témoins, et le mouvement s’inverse. La rencontre symbolique de deux langues partagées sera forcément une route ouverte vers la rencontre tout court.

- Le territoire de la création artistique et culturelle : Tout le monde reconnaît aujourd’hui le formidable dynamisme de la production moyen-orientale et en particulier palestino-israélienne : cinéma, musique, arts graphiques, BD, littérature. Or ce qui frappe dans cette vague, c’est le mélange inextricable de gens issus de toutes les cultures, de toutes les religions. Regardez la distribution d’un film israélien : acteurs, actrices, techniciens sont indifféremment juifs, arabes ou chrétiens. L’univers culturel, et intellectuel, dans les grandes villes en particulier, est de plus en plus « mixte », véritable creuset d’une culture naissante israélo-palestinienne.

- Le territoire du sexe : De la « chair » dit Av. Même si cela reste encore un sujet sulfureux en Israël, les couples « mixtes » se multiplient et les barrières tombent une à une. Av nous annonce l’arrivée prochaine d’un « baby-boom d’enfants sémitiques », ni Juif, ni arabe, Juif et arabe. Bonne nouvelle pour les « colombes » et… les cigognes ! Mauvaise nouvelle pour les faucons, de tous les camps.

Dans l’interligne des chroniques d’Av Aleksandr, on sent que, décidément, la question de la paix passe par les territoires. Mais les territoires décisifs ne seront pas faits seulement de géographie, de frontières compliquées et de rapports de force. Il en est d’autres, plus essentiels, qui façonnent lentement, tous les jours, avec une force encore insoupçonnable, l’espace d’une rencontre inévitable, la naissance d’une Nation improbable il y a peu et impensable pour beaucoup aujourd’hui encore.

La route sera longue et le fracas des haines encore largement dominant. Mais que j’aime la petite chanson que fredonne Av Aleksandr !

Je suis aussi très touché et étonné par cette réaction mise en ligne sur Le Monde.fr:

Vos réactions

Barukh F. :

Très belle chronique! Témoigner de la réalité des Hommes dans un contexte difficile et offrir une possibilité de dialogue par-delà les différences toujours dépassionée, voilà le cadeau qu’Av nous fait dans ses textes.
Il faut avoir du cran pour pouvoir vivre pleinement, humainement, spirituellement et sans perdre le Nord (le Temple) le quotidien d’Av Aleksandr. Mais même la personne la plus tenace a besoin du réconfort de la reconnaissance! Merci pour cette main posée sur son épaule!

Se souvenir pour en dire le moins possible - 70 ans?

01.09.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES

Cette chronique est écrite à Jérusalem en ce 1er septembre/19 août (cal. julien) - 12 Ellul 5769 alors que la lune atteint sa plénitude mensuelle. Nous avançons donc, à travers ce mois juif de Ellul consacré à la réflexion, à l’amélioration de la qualité d’une vie personnelle vers l’année 5770, (18 septembre prochain). C’est le Ramadan qui incite aussi par le jeûne et la prière à comprendre le sense de sa vie et de la destinée humaine au regard du Dieu Miséricordieux. Enfin, dans la tradition des Eglises byzantines orientales, le 1er septembre marque le renouveau de l’année liturgique orthodoxe selon les occidentaux, donc ce sera le 14/09 à venir pour l’Eglise de Jérusalem.

J’écris dans divers blogs et dans Le Monde. Cela suffit largement. D’autant que le propos n’est sûrement pas de faire le perroquet, mais d’apporter et de partager des idées sur la foi dans la société. Le 31/08 au soir, je rappelle incidemment en anglais et en hébreu que, voici 70 ans, l’Allemagne nazie attaquait la Pologne avec l’aide de slovaques. Les médias israéliens commencent une longue nuit et journée de mémoire: l’attaque de la Pologne a véritablement signifié le lancement du processus de la Shoah, même si les camps existaient déjà. Le 17 septembre, l’Armée Rouge envahissait la Pologne provoquant la mise en pièce de la réalité polonaise dont les frontières furent toujours contestées et révisées au gré des péripéties séculaires.

Israël se souvient de manière très incarnée de cette date : elle a marqué la ruine d’une civilisation. Il est très actuel, en Israël, de revenir au yiddish. Les médias locaux ont diffusé des dizaines de commentaires sur ce jour et ceux qui suivirent. Les rescapés ont décrit l’extrême fragilisation de la communauté juive lors de l’invasion. La Pologne incluait alors une partie de la Lithuanie, de la Biélorussie devenue Belarus et l’Ukraine. La Prusse orientale semble rayée des mémoires aujourd’hui. C’est sans doute une erreur pour l’avenir geo-stratégique. Curieusement la terre et les hommes sont liés par une mémoire que l’on ne peut nier sans pudeur.

Le président Shimon Peres est lui-même, comme la plupart des membres fondateurs de l’appareil politique de l’Etat d’Israël, un homme de langue, de culture est-européennes et polonaise, frontalière de la Russie et de l’Ukraine transcarpathique. Les médias israéliens ont rappelé aujourd’hui l’abandon historique de la Pologne par la France et de la Grande-Bretagne au moyen d’accords de pacotille. En 1938, la France avait renvoyé en Pologne les mineurs du Nord, les poussant à un charbon dont peu survécurent. La Grande-Bretagne comme l’Union Soviétique ont alors défini des positions de grandes puissances que les Alliés continuent aujourd’hui d’incarner par une sorte de scission constante géographique et humaine de l’Europe telle qu’elle marqua son empreinte au 11ème siècle. L’Europe ne parvient pas à sortir de cette fracture de Velehrad où les Francs latins persécutèrent Cyrille et Méthode, apôtres de Slaves.

Le monde yiddish est célébré cette année en raison du 150è anniversaire de Schalom Aleichem (souvenez-vous: “Un violon sur le toît”). La langue, la civilisation d’un judaïsme yiddish ayant fréquenté le monde polonais et l’Orient chrétien jusqu’à partager des intuitions fortes (hassidisme et hésychasme) furent alors anéanties. Or, elle a survécu par notre hébreu contemporain issu de ces régions dévastées. Il en a hérité la manière d’exprimer les idées. L’hébreu moderne est une sorte de “langage” néo-hébraïque profondément imprégné de yiddishismes et de comportements talmudiques en milieux slaves. De 1880 à ce jour, les vagues d’immigrants n’ont cessé de nourrir, de manière ininterrompue et très particulière, l’embryon de la société israélienne.

En Israël, le 1/09 est largement traité ici comme élément historique crucial dans la destinée juive d’Europe. En revanche, il semble que, par exemple en France, les rafles d’août 1942 ou la rentrée difficile des scolaires en Israël prennent le dessus, dans certains milieux concernés, sur le fait que la catastrophe fut lancée voici précisément 70 ans, en Europe christianisée, ce que les commentateurs ont rappelé en Terre Sainte.

70 ans ont passés. On construit une Europe pluri-nationale, un Euro unique… Ici, nous avons le Shekel, la plus ancienne monnaie en circulation. Ici, nous avons la visite de Madonna qui est en Kabbale. Ici, nous avons les haredim qui attaquent notre police et ses chevaux en les traitant de “Nazis”. Ici, le Grand Mufti, comme en 1939, continue de faire des émules. Mais le Ramadan est paisible.

L’Europe a mal à son âme. Ses neurones flanchent et se disperseraient volontiers parmi des mémoires difficiles à rassembler. Il y a 70 ans commençait des conflits que des apprentis sorciers ont peine à maîtriser.

On ne peut exiger de personne le pardon ou la conscience d’atrocités historiques. Il faut une grande patience pour que le temps et un peu de foi réunissent les vivants.

Ces looks qui passent les murailles

30.08.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES


On est toujours très mode à Jérusalem (oserait-on écrire “Jéru”?). Tout est dans le paraître. Il est captivant de constater combien une ville si centrée sur la finalité de l’être, de l’âme, de l’essence humaine et divine s’égare ou même s’abîme dans l’habillage, le maquillage et un look qui cachent trop bien ce que l’on ne saurait voir pour mieux le deviner, le rechercher et surtout ces derniers temps, se tromper gravement.

Tout d’abord, il y a les couvre-chefs. Il est préférable de se concentrer sur quelques exemples pratiques. Il est vrai que, vu le climat, il vaut mieux sortir couvert. Soyons simples : les Juifs portent des calottes ou kippot ou encore yarmulkes (terme turco-yiddish). Une kippa peut être ronde, plus ou moins carrée (version boukhare-ouzbek), petite, grande. Cette année, la tendance est aux grandes kippot de grosse laine qui enserrent une grande partie de la tête. Certaines femmes portent aussi ce genre de coiffes; cette vogue semble faire très “égalité hommes-femmes” (ou vice versa; chez nous on lit de droite à gauche). La fabrication des kippot vient de passer en tête des productions textiles des femmes palestiniennes depuis la chute des réseaux chinois…

Il y a les shtreimels faits de queues de visons, les Stetson et autres. Ces deux chapeaux se portent au-dessus de la kippa. Le shtreimel est d’origine polonaise - la noblesse portait fourrure : les Enfants de Dieu se doivent de faire de même. Le Stetson est évidemment moderne et ne se trouve pas dans les Ecritures.

Les femmes portent des voiles très seyants qui laissent entrevoir le haut de leur chevelure. Les femmes pieuses chrétiennes orthodoxes (russes, roumaines) s’empressent de tout recouvrir. Juives et chrétiennes aiment les longues jupes noires serrées. Il y a des version Jean’s très “chromatiques”. Les religieuses catholiques préfèrent la coupe neutre.

Entre chrétiens, on se repère au chapeau : cylindrique chez les Grecs (proche de celui du grand-prêtre dans le Temple), Plutôt losange pour le clergé russe. Deux fentes latérales pour les Roumains. Les Ethiopiens sont en galabiah arabe avec poches et porte un plaid, le clergé grec en soutane, les latins - ça dépend et il y a surtout les robes de bure (Franciscains) tandis que les vardapets (prêtres arméniens) ont une longue coiffe moirée noire en pointe. Les moines syro-orthodoxes et coptes ont un voile noir orné de 12 croix (les Apôtres); une 13ème derrière la tête représente le Christ. Le col romain sur chemise claire est très prisé, mais les catholiques préfèrent souvent l’anonymat. Les évêques anglicans portent chemise rose.

Les femmes raffolent des cheveux frisés style “brebis du désert biblique néo-prophétiques”, ou bien tendance red, voire le crâne rasé. La mode est de saisir la chevelure, de faire et défaire les chignons, en haut, en bas, puis accessoirement de cacher le tout sous une perruque pour cause de mariage. Encore faut-il avoir de la piété. Les moines orientaux ont les mêmes tics : cheveux longs à la manière “messie” et ces mêmes chouchous qui permettent de faire et défaire d’amples chevelures longeant des barbes souvent longues et touffues. Les visages glabres ne sont pas orientaux. En Occident, on coupe les cheveux en quatre et plus… Ici aussi, mais dans l’autre sens ! Têtes et visages sont des “champs”. Les papillottes (peyses\פיות-פיותות en yiddish) sont très longues et bouclées. Alors on moissonne régulièrement ou jamais.

En hébreu: “beged\בגד = vêtement” est un terme courant. Bien que la racine ne soit pas confirmée comme étant commune, ce mot est très proche de “begidah\בגידה = duperie, déguisement, trahison”. Dans une ville comme Jérusalem, que signifie “l’habit ne fait pas le moine”?

L’habit exprime viscéralement une identité. Cette identité, en Israël et dans les Territoires comme dans le Proche-Orient est avant tout une référence claire et normalement précise à la religion, et, secondairement, à la nationalité, sûrement pas la citoyenneté.

Les hijabs (et quelques burqas) très fashion actuels s’accommodent de la modernité de Jean’s à fleurs. Lors des vagues d’attentats, on a trouvé plus d’habits juifs (y compris des châles de prière) chez les assaillant(e)s que des soutanes ou des vêtement arabes. Curieusement, les repères vestimentaires ne signifient pas grand chose pour une génération qui vit en repli et tend à ignorer les “autres”. Ceux qui gardent leurs signes distinctifs se cloîtrent souvent dans une frilosité exclusive.

Le judaïsme affirme: “Sache devant Qui (= Dieu) tu te trouves”. On commence par croiser des êtres humains et il est important qu’une société se connaisse pour se reconnaître. Lorsque Jésus est moqué par les gardes, ceux-ci tirent au sort sa tunique (Jean 19,23). Elle ne sera pas déchirée et les croyants y voient un signe d’unité. Dieu ne se laisse pas fragmenter ou dépouiller dans Sa dimension divine.

Tout le combat consiste alors à se débarrasser de ses oripeaux et donner au paraître la force d’exprimer ce qui est et existe vraiment.

Où as-tu mis le corps?

25.08.09
LE MONDE CHRONIQUES


Ca y est ! Il fait 29-30° à Jérusalem ! Les températures sont “en chute” et on supporterait sa petite laine… On sent surtout que l’année 5769 s’en va… tout doucement sans faire de bruit. Les rumeurs, le chaos, ce sont les autres. Que ferait-on si l’on ne pouvait plus médire en paix pour faire un peu, beaucoup, passionnément la guerre, en évitant de s’attaquer à ses propres déviances ?


Ce 25/12 août, l’icône de la Vierge sera portée en procession jusqu’au pied du mont des Oliviers, dans la tombe où aurait reposé la Mère de Jésus avant d’être enlevée au ciel (Dormition, le 28/8 = Assomption). Ici, il est naturel de “monter”, ce qui, en hébreu se dit “aliyah: montée, aller au pupitre faire la lecture biblique, immigrer en Israël, pousser, s’ériger, érecter”. Comme si, lors de la mort, l’âme se séparait d’un corps voué à disparaître. C’est impensable pour la foi orthodoxe et juive qui refuse l’incinération des corps humains. Le catholicisme et d’autres chrétiens adoptent des positions moins incarnées sur la future résurrection des êtres.

Le prêtre russe Georgiy Florovsky souligna (comme les Pères de l’Eglise) que “l’âme habite le corps”. Sans cela, nous serions des “fantômes”. Je passe mon temps à expliquer le plus sérieusement du monde que notre vie spirituelle existe précisément parce que notre âme est hébergée dans notre corps et non l’inverse. Cela nous dessine dans un espace, une culture, un pays, à un moment de l’histoire, pour être et paraître. Nous ne sommes pas des automates. Notre corps n’est pas logé dans notre âme/esprit. Dans la tradition juive, la vie charnelle incite à admirer la beauté . Certes, il est primordial que le corps ne s’enflamme pas par une hypophyse en surchauffe. Il peut être utile de faire bon usage du genre que l’on a reçu, au fond, comme un appel à la vie.

Mais cette chair si charnelle : on joue aux Lego, Meccano, comme s’il était possible de débrancher l’âme. Ou bien, on coupe le corps dans une sublimation souvent délirante : comment toucher autrui sans le faire tout en le faisant et sans que personne ne le sache. Sinon le psy, le maître spirituel, le gourou, le coach ? Les “toits s’envolent” comme nous disons à Jérusalem à propos de certains êtres… Ca décoiffe dans le vide, ce qui paraît souvent une perte de temps.

Tenez, on parle de quoi ? La Shoah ; elle reste “inégalée”. Mais c’est quoi, la Shoah ? On prend des êtres. On les déclare “non-êtres”, donc à détruire. Ainsi, la chair doit être tuée et, surtout, pas de traces ! Disons que nous traversons une période naturellement morbide qui est exacerbée par cette chair qui cherche sa fitness libératoire.

“Le Verbe s’est fait chair et a habité parmi nous plein de grâce et de vérité (Noms divins en hébreu)” (Jean 1,14). L’Eglise orthodoxe requiert que ce texte soit lu, premièrement en hébreu, à Pâque : “bassar\בשר = chair, viande, bonne nouvelle, joie, [ré]jouissance”. Dans le contexte cela veut dire: “Le Verbe s’est fait “juif” et a habité parmi nous”. Ca peut mettre tout le monde mal à l’aise. Il y a eu un choix, divin. On peut vouloir effacer, nier, détester, jalouser ou s’approprier ce fait. Regardez, ce “on” indéfini et collectif: il peut conduire aux pires meurtres, aux orgueils les plus intolérables. “Le salut vient des Juifs”, dit Jésus à la Samaritaine (Jean 4,22). Mais alors, pourquoi pas des Galapagos ? L’ouverture aux Nations à un sens et ce n’est en rien du nombrilisme hypertrophié.

En ce début de 21ème siècle, l’âme retrouverait le corps qui se mirerait dans une âme en recherche d’équilibre. Alors partout ! Partout, on cherche les ossements. D’autres donnent dans l’ADN, mais elle serait clonable ! Il y a des trafics d’ovaires. Les juifs ne touchent pas les morts ; les orthodoxes chrétiens font un “baiser d’adieu (le premier fut celui du mariage)”. Aucun média normal (ou autre d’ailleurs) n’a remarqué que le Rabbinat d’Israël s’apprête à décider si la Loi juive autorise ou réprouve les dons d’organes… Les vents contradictoires prétendent alors que le pays se lancerait dans la vente d’organes, selon une rumeur digne de la rencontre entre les sagas et les contes des mille et une nuits.

Curieusement, le “sexe” n’existe pas en hébreu. C’est court, mais le mot n’a aucun sens en hébreu. “Sexe = couper, séparer; appartenir à un genre masculin ou féminin… il faudrait ajouter “autre” car le vivant est imprévisible”. Le grec “Hexis = lifestyle, mode de vie”. L’hébreu et les langues sémitiques sont bien plus subtiles: “MiN\מין = qui? questionnement sur l’origine = d’où?” Tout comme “la manne = MaNHU\מנהו(א) = qu’est-ce-que c’est?”. Du coup, les relations intimes prennent une autre dimension, chargée de dynamisme et de sens des responsabilités. Il y a même plus: “MiN/qui-MaN/quoi” renvoie à “le’HeMiN\להמין = avoir foi, faire un acte de foi”.

La vie intime et mentale conduit à de tels actes. Ils est plus facile de les décrier que de leur donner pleine mesure car cela exige confiance, effort et don de soi.

“S’il te plaît, dessine-moi un mouton”.

Be strong and courageous

Part 1 With what profits will we remember of year 5769? Is it possible to understand anything and to detect God's projects that so many would eventually deny? Our civilization is divided into the speediest instant messengers, some up-to-the-second thrilling tempo of life and a burden-like, often shameful and scandalous waste of time and competences. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been sleeping since the 4th of Tevet 5766 (January 4, 2006). Precisely one year ago, the world was about to sink in the worst financial collapse since 1929. It appeared that the corruption of the trading world and stock exchanges had then reached a borderline if not a deadline. Traders are again overpaid, again States fund and fund again banking institutions that waste the money again and again and further again! It then appeared that Iceland and Ireland had sold their souls. Iceland had developed to a very prosperous and wealthy countries in the past decades. I remember how we lived on a very high level there and people used to work intensively. Today, the country is on sale and was about to be captured by the Russian Federation, I mean at least that such money were about to be injected that the Icelandic State would be a sort of satellite. They had been growing bananas, oranges because of their geysers and the assistance of the American presence... Today people sell their houses and - unheard - they have needy in the streets... The same is happening with Ireland. Moreover, it appeared that the educational system of the Catholic institutions in this very religious had been rotten for decades by the local clergy, sexual abuses, rapes and humiliation of the pupils for several generations. Along with that, America's collapse is going on, California is on the verge of bankrupt, also unheard for the State that simply could sustain the whole or at least some areas of the other States of the Union. Germany turns 60 years new style. This started in 1949; there was the split into two entities: the Western Federal and the Eastern Democratic republics that reunified only 20 years ago as the prelude to the fall of the communist regimes. Whatever blind we can be and want to stay, Germany as Poland have been cut from huge national territories. It would be a mistake or a sort of misunderstanding to think that the Prussian refugees have no memory and that the cities of Koenigsberg and Memel belong to the past or turned "post-Soviet" or "Russian". Europe cannot find the right way and errs, as in the first beginnings, with a Euro and increasing numbers of candidates. The Second World War started exactly 70 years ago. Europe cannot overcome the period and is at pains with her soul. There is a document at the Vatican Library dating back to the 11th century. It shows how the schism developed between Rome and Constantinople. The anathemas took much more time to be in force. In some areas, it is even difficult to think that they ever were in force. But Catholicism and Orthodoxy do not care and don't have any sense of living memory to really and decently correct a situation that traced back to the then one Roman Empire era. Rabbi S. Aviner (Ateret Cohanim) has a very insightful question that he shares with other decisioners: Is the Jewish people allowed or entitled to return to the places of death from where they were murdered and extorted till hteir memory disappeared? When Abraham intervened for Sodom, God listened to him. When he decided to destroy the two cities, he told Abraham and Lot not to look back, which is also a provision uttered by Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 9:62). It is a pending question: what do the Jews have to do in Europe as communities? The move has been constant throughout history and long before Christianity. The Jews were praying in Greek in Athens and Rome while the Mizrachim/מזרחים or Oriental Jews never cam back from Iraq, Persia, South Arabia and Yemen until our generation. The Jews of Alexandria (Egypt) who simply lived for centuries next door to Israel could not or hardly decide to return home in 1948-52. The main problem is to know whether it is permitted or not to leave Israel once a Jew returned and rooted his future here. It is even interesting in a legal point of view: the "aliyah/עליה " starts when Jews ascend to Zion for ever. At the present, it becomes a huge theological rabbinical question as people can come and get an Identity Card and then leave again or back and forth. This is very likely to be compared to Abraham before he had to settle and bury Sarah his wife. But look back: the whole thing is like a blurred picture and we wait for some clarification that may only come from time unveiling new times and epochs. Israeli society is very dynamic. But it develops in a context of constant blackmailing speech. In 1967, Jews knew who was who. Today, things are indeed blurred. But the process of melting is ongoing and will not stop. The Jews have the right to be more and more suspicious and extremists are as right and the most forward leftists and Israeli human right movements. This is a paradox, but it shows how life is complex. Former Soviet newcomers are also at pains to get into the society but they do, as the Ethiopians do. The result is that generations will breed a new Israeli culture that has to be strongly rooted in Judaism. It also shows the terrible fall of the Christian Churches and their lack of confidence as well as local credit. The Churches pathetically need to turn to the Jewish AND Israeli culture and society.This is the difficult way of having been trained by centuries of dualities. Today the situation is confusing for the ecclesiastical communities. We do assist to an extravagant revolving process of the Church history. But History is ongoing by nature; faith is different. Nobody is allowed to betray a single soul for the sake of faith or usurping the pretence that faith can lead to abandon true faith. In the Gospel, the disciples were in the house with closed doors "by fear of the Jews". Today, the disciples and hierarchies are in the same situation because of their own panic and fright to lose their goods and properties. The general situation did not help Israeli society this year. It could manage in a very special way to overcome the international crisis. This shows the existence of reliable and real networks of Israeli developing activities that also sustain different regions of the world. On the other hand, "exclusion" and forms of "racism" that always existed among the Jewish communities mirror at the present the way most nations behave and appear to be framed. It will pass. It is a very strangulating period of stress and distrust. For the first time in history, the visit of the Pope of Rome showed how constrained the Churches are and certainly will be under the control of the Israeli authorities. There is a real problem of justice and righteousness. Even if it sounded a bit arrogant (it was not and only a real question), the fact that the Rabbinate of Israel could require from the Pope to give explanations about those Jews who could not join back their Jewish communities after World War II constitutes a rare if not unique event that should humble Christendom. Indeed, there are a lot of missionaries while other denominations are openly anti-Semitic or frightened to do anything. It will take a long time to get settled. It is never good for Israel to feel that alone. It is not normal for Christian communities to get so estranged in their own requirements and the encounter with the Jews. It may happen some time and there are some tiny signs. It does not that we can encounter in depth. It only means that new measures will be used in the future for the Jews to apprehend Christianity. Maybe the Churches do not get so easily to that point. In the coming year, the real problem maybe how to face the emergence of Israel as a State collecting people from all the nations; and how this can be a source of some dialogue with the Christians. The dialogue with Islam has a long history that should be taken into account by all groups. Part 2 In the course of 5769, we roved here and there and rambled in the search of some long-term solution. Our ancestors were wandering from Ur-Kasdimאור כסדים down to Egypt and back to the Land of Canaan. Abraham erred - because he was seeking God or it would be more adequate to say that God took him on a journey. He was - as we often shared it here - "bekhom hayom\חום יהיום - in the very heat of the day". Together with Sarah, he was struggling along throughout wide spaces and unknown people, but he did it consistently, cheating at times but overcoming all the "nissayonot - נסיונות/ tempting tests proposed by God while Sarah could have a grin or some laugh. No real problem: it was still prophetic. We read quite the same with Moses’ story. He constantly remained a man of faith in the context of impossible challenges. Elie[zer] Wiesel’s first account written after his experience in the concentration camp of Auschwitz echoes this profound darkness and abandonment: “Di Nacht\די נאכט – the Night = ''און די וועלט האט געשוויגען''\And the world kept silent”. The young survivor of a “Nacht und Nebel – night and fog” period could hardly describe what is beyond any description. As numerous survivors, it took time before he could only smile. Thousands of pious Jews got away from their ancestors’ faith in the living God and until today, it remains a very painful and open wound for a great number of souls. It is an act of divine loving-kindness that some men and women, survivors and their children could surface after the Churban\חורבן (Extermination) with something parallel to the seeded steadfast, inflexible though not rigid emunah-אמונה / confidence-faith of Abraham, Moses or Job. In this respect, the rather joyous spiritual traditions experienced by the Sephardim and Oriental Jewries do reinvigorate and everywhere allow curing the scars left by history. Indeed, sarcastic and cynical attitudes mirror how the twentieth century had thickly been marked by darkness and despair. True, the communist terror and various forms of genocides in different countries (South Africa, Turkey, Cambodia, Rwanda) would also enter in some sort of conflict with the light shown at Mamre’s oaks. The Russian Eastern Orthodox monk, saint Silouane the Athonite, declared: “Keep your soul in hell and do not despair”, which definitely links the Oriental tradition with the powerful rise and revival of Judaism. “Night” is en vogue. It makes sense because it allows showing that people who dedicated their lives to God could – like anybody else – be terribly affected by some total privation or defect of God’s Presence. A young French Catholic nun, saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who died at the age of 26 years-old, was the first to describe with remarkable insights her experience of “night, or divine apparent absence” as a spiritual test. Jewish and Christian, Muslim renewal and sometimes stiff attitudes contrast and might come into conflict with this experience of a spiritual “eclipse / tzimtzum-ציצום” that affected the last century in many aspects. Nonetheless, there is a profound gap between the Jewish and Christian approaches with regards to this darkness or “night”. The reading portion of this week is a twofold one; the second portion is usually read after Rosh HaShanah. These Shabbat readings “Netzavim-Vayelech\נצבים וילך” are thus to be found in Devarim-דברים / Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20 and 31:1-30. Our memory is short-minded and sighted. This is true in our own lives and records. We may be swirling in a world of pictures, takes, shots, videos and films. Images are stored en masse and fade. Days pass, disappear and change. They apparently may give the impression of some déjà-vu. Fashion swings that way. There is a special way for Jewishness to apprehend tenses. But Judaism cannot focus on any positive “night or darkness, absence of eclipse / tzimtzum of God”. Christianity has it as a part of natural Gentile and “heathen-rooted” tendency. It turns to be a positive experiment because it shows that God chooses and man may feel as left aside, abandoned. The most difficult part for Jews is to admit that such a spiritual posture is not linked to idolatry and that faith in God may show as “ from under ashes or dust” (cf. Gen. 3:19; “Al efer tashuv\אל עפר תשוב – you shall return to dust”). The so-called “culture of death” has reigned over too many events that affected Christianity in the past century. On the other hand, Jews may forget that they are proposed two ways, once again, for the last time before Autumnal New Year: blessing or curse. Indeed we ask that the year end with its curses and that New Year start with God’s blessings. Does it mean that we enjoy any real free will and free choice? Pre-destination and absence of free will or conscience have prevailed throughout the Christian history and that souls are at stake. The Catholic Church revised this essential point during the last Council that ended in 1965. The Oriental and Orthodox Churches are less flexible until now, though they mainly focus on conversion, return to God and resurrection. Indeed, our freedom depends, as concerns Judaism, on how the Mitzvot are so real and abide our souls that everything only depends on God. The reading portion proposes a set of choices to which we are submitted beyond any personal decision. True, we are called to bless, to build, support, save, cure and help. Daily life may be rather a burden that too much misses simple justice. We have seen that during the year: “shuv\שוב – again, return, renew” is the main spiritual and human tendency. Judaism is shaped to value life and not death. Life supersedes anything and this is the exceptional spiritual plus that Judaism brought and maintains, and somehow sustains among the Nations. It is the real challenge of the hardships faced in the timid development of a dialogue with the Christians. This is the terrible difference between Jews and Christians. Just as the night would seemingly be considered as a positive sign of humbleness, death may be a temptation to see if survival is possible. Judaism focuses on a choice: take the good measure of your days and nights and why should God extend them? “Veshavta ad HaShem\ושבתעד-ה' – you will return to (= until) the Lord” (Deut. 30:2). Hebrew says “ad\עד – until” because God expects that the believers or humans in general turn, convert, respond in a swiveling and revolving move toward God until they reach Him in the “ad\עד = eternity, world-to-come, forever” and not only for a while, say even a “year”. And the same verse continues: “You (gather) them again (“shav\שב”) those that were scattered (“shvutecha\שבותך – deported that you call back and return”). Jesus also spoke of newness, of making all things new. But this is at the core of what Rosh HaShanah and the reading portions want to teach us this week. This kind of newness that is a perpetual call to all human being that has a breath of life: indeed things are new. Then, it is true that there are different schools. Either people are too scared to place their bets or would say they don’t care. There are tons of clichés, if any: life is too short; I do what I want; this is my decision. The real challenge in the “teshuvah\תשובה – conversion, penance, response, revolving return forever to God” is that it requires that every soul is ready to invest the maximum, more than anything they think to possess in order to get to that point. This is the highest effort that surpasses every effort. That’s the point. It sounds not inhumane and still it shows the price of life. “Remember us for Life, King Who desires Life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, Living God”. av aleksandr [Winogradsky Frenkel] September 8/Augt 26 2009 - 20 deEllul 5769 - כ' דאלול תשס"ט