Repairing damages
The inhabitants of the State of Israel can be rough, rude, tough. They are basically nice, gentle, mild and ready to help. The statement is a bit abrupt. It depends what segments are considered to be so "cute" with some famous sabra coarseness. The youths can be very kind, “yeled melech/ילד מלך- a child is a king here" sort. Still people show some help to many people of all ages. Unbelievable in a country that is obsessed by connectedness, flirty-flirty wooing: the seniors as the youths can feel terribly loneless and left to their own own self!
Everywhere we go in the streets, buses, taxis, trains disabled people work in all possible fields of activities and they are normally protected by the law. Their rights and possibilities to be granted and enjoy a wide range of social and medical as well as "entertaining activities" could and should be developed.
Handicapped people, who are disabled since their early age, or as a consequence of genetic problems, are also accompanied by the great number of injured individuals who were shot and hardly survived with limited capacities. Others must be very strong to get to the level required by their bosses. Basically, Israel does respect those who were hurt by life. Endogamy and seemingly poor renewal of blood created a danger for some pious communities, who, on the other hand, show real caring love to their babies and grownups.
There are also the mentally disabled who seem to frighten an increasing part of the Israeli society at the present. This appeared in a recent survey realized by the Ministry of Social Affairs. “Pachadim\פחדים – fears, irrational panics” that also can technically depict the hypochondriac anxieties of the elderly. They are progressively knitted within our brains, along with the frightening events of our lives. “Mishley\משלי – the Book of Proverbs” alerts us about the dangers to be in frequent with strange people, thus considered as “forbidden” : “This will save you from the forbidden woman (= ishah zarah\אשה זרה; the one who is strange and alien) / “menachriyah amariyah hechalikahמנכריה אמריה החליקה\ = from the alien woman whose talk is smooth” (Prov. 2:16).
“Estrangement” to usual and common sense is a first step toward some kind of alteration that may drift us from others. It is very peculiar how suspicious we became and careless in other ways. Decades ago, we were taught in a very simple way: films, ads showed us how to take care if we find something on the floor. Take a stone, throw it on the object from afar; if it does not explode, it can eventually be yours. At the present, children are overprotected and would leave their rucksacks on the side. But if we see faces or people dressed in what is not usual for our usual group, we would more suspicious and shelter from them. Two reactions are then intriguing. Either to mock a group and run away, which is more than common among the teens and not very courageous or to avoid glances.Where in the world would it be possible to look at "foreigners" just because they wear "other clothes" and consider them like apes, chimpanzees, make crude remarks: "Dad, look what it it that guy? (sic)?".
And also afraid, cautious, over-prudent in meeting the others; we have "screen groups", not only on the net, but in daily life.
When the “war situation“ started ten years ago, it was even funny to see Jewish Israelis packed together at the bottom of the buses, some ghetto-like reaction to reach the farthest point. They felt safer while the Arabs were sitting on all seats. In 2001, there was a curious trend in Jerusalem. It showed immediately after the first terror attacks happened in the city. Increasing numbers of Arab women started to visit the center of the town and the big stores while the other inhabitants would keep aside or dubiously consider what to do, even the police at that time.
At the present, people are afraid to sit next to women, demonizing those who are life-birthing and still desperately searching how to get to some true identity that could allow over the map contacts. We live in a unique society that is emerging, dynamizing; we still to point out differences rather than points of togetherness.
“Zar\זר” comes from root “zarar\זרר = to smash, be smashed, scattered, rotten” as in Talmud Niddah35b, Hullin 12,3; useless ovulation of a woman or an “egg that fell from the nest and is rotten (Sanhedrin 82b). The appealing aspect of the word is that it corresponds, to some extent, with what happens with “goy\גוי – geviyah\גויה (corpse)”. Either it is oddly used by the Jews to speak of non-Jews.
Or, in Biblical language it both refers to “goy qadosh\גוי קדוש – holy people” (Ex. 19:6), i.e. the “reinvigorated corpses or bodies” who are called to sanctify God or the “simple goyei haaretz\גויי הארץ – nations (Gentiles of the earth)”. In the Talmud, “zar\זר” often refers to the simple children of Israel, the non-priests (Yoma 42a).
Thus, despise and alterity, that can turn to be royal and sublime! It may cause a sort of competition, as between the Jews and the Christians: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a chosen nation (Gr. “ethnos/εθνος”)” wrote the Apostle Peter-Kaipha (1 Peter 2:9); the Byzantine Liturgy of Saint Basil that strongly influenced the Fourth Order of the Latin Mass includes the reference as a replacement of the Jews, ignoring the commandment of fulfillment and unity, oneness in God given by Jesus.
How fascinating is it that those who should be considered as chosen by God show as alien to some and crazy to the others. Unity is not shown. It is mocked. Why should people replace others in God’s likeness? Because it is evidently easier to exclude and remove all kinds of inmates rather than integrating and assimilating them. Thus, it is more convenient to regard our diversity as a symphony (Gr. sun – with, phone – voice) and not a only splits. As Paul of Tarsus said: “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25).
These words are close to the saying of Hillel in the read in the Pirkey Avot-Sayings of the Fathers/פרקי אבות the Jewish communities. It climaxes with this famous quotation: “Seeing a skull floating on the surface of the water, he (Hillel) said: Even if they have drowned you because you drowned others, those who drowned you will themselves be drowned” (Pirkey Avot 2:6-8).
In Hebrew, a skull is not only the content of our brains, eyes, face and vertebrae. It is on a move, revolving, turning here and there, like “megilgul hazeh legilgul acher\מגילגול הזה לגילגול אחר = from one to another identity “transmigration, movement”(Prayer before retiring to sleep).
Hillel was right. We cannot touch to the integrity of a skull because death will haunt, in various ways those who want to kill the soul and cannot (which is one of the most important aspect of Hanukkah’s victory in the rededication of the Temple and the miracle of the light). It is thus the profound meaning of the Golgotha\גולגותא as the place of Calvary or of the Skull in the Gospel.
There is a significant link between the way a society respects, pays attention, takes care and monitor their handicapped or disabled. This is, in general, true for the respect due to any creature and being. Thirty years ago, when disabled were taken by car to the Western Wall, i was already possible for them to open up the wheelchair that was in the roof trunk and get by themselves to the Kotel. It was amazing. Curiously, the same could happen in Germany and the Netherlands to get to a supermarket. At the present, we see everywhere this kind of personal motorcycles with access to more and more places. We have a lot of injured, soldiers who were wounded. It is exact that many mentally "disabled" are visible in the Israeli society, maybe more openly present in caring arms of more pious Jewish families.
It maybe the consequence of recurrent war situations, rampant poverty and lack of medical assistance in different segments of the population; anyway disabled are basically not rejected or hidden as in some other continents. There is also a spiritual context which is naturally supportive. Walking along the administrative centre of Jerusalem and other cities, we can meet with heavily handicapped secretaries, executives and some groups of people of all age, joyfully “rushing” in their wheelchairs.
I saw once in the North, at a hospital, a whole village of deaf Arabs. At that time, they were given hearing aids that they carefully had stored in their rooms. The Kupat Cholim/Medical care center obliged them to check the devices but they said: we don’t need them because we are all deaf and understand each other perfectly. Other individuals would stay from time to time in hospitals, but the mentally sick are not systematically removed from the society.
God really trusts the humans. We don't trust God, not that really. Usually we would think that the humans hardly can trust in God. No, God entrusted His creation with defects that can profoundly interrogate or cause the despair of so many people. It is therefore very important never to despise any soul, human attitude.
In the genocides that developed over the twentieth century, killings aimed at extirpating any mark of God’s image and likeness. Thus, the disabled and mentally sick were either to be murdered or to endure inhuman experiences as if they were toys for sadists. It may happen that our Israeli society is going through the terrible times of wasting money and lacking care and “love to the neighbor, other”.
There is a slide-down that may physically affect the sick. We reach a sort of borderline as Shoah survivors can hardly get the money they are due to receive. They are the ones who are Israel's most patent victims and suffered the ignominious reality of death camps, pogroms, assassinations. For decades, we have lived on German money that creates a special connection between the survivors and the State. There is much of a spiritual act of mutual recognition from Germany and Israel and vice versa that we would must acknowledge.
The way the disabled are treated questions along the same line, and even more with regards to the mentally sick. It is easy to insult somebody whom one considers as alien and run away. This is not the attitude of faith. Silence, disdain and haughtiness would exert a sort of impulsive censure and reprove.
There are two Hebrew words for “disability = mum\מום and nachut\נכות”. “Mum\מום = something, anything but as compared to “klum\כלום = nothing” (Nedarim 66b). It also means “repulsive” in the Talmud as referring to mamzer/bastard (Kiddushin 3, 64). But “Never reproach the mum\מום (handicap, defect) of your neighbor with a defect that you have in common”(Bava Metziah59b).
Nachah/nachi - נכה\נכי means “to be lessened, reduced”. It paves the way to some perception of alterity that can develop into foreign and estranged suspicions. The problem with disabilities and handicaps is that they question individuals and society by requiring a lot of care, patience, hope without any certitude of healing, over time. Thus they test the faithful about their real commitment with the absence of any response to suffering. My daughter is now 28 years-old and was born with no real diagnosis of a muscular and cerebral disease. She went to the gates of death and came back totally death-proof, which is psychological “rule”. My wife and I have spent 20 years helping her to socialize and to be in contact, often educated by others because they had a different experience of her. It took 10 years to know the defect and the disease. It took 10 more years for the social and medical institutions as well as the families to understand how she could live in an adequate environment. It will take 10 more years – and will not be applicable to her generation – to replace the defective cells and genes and repair, correct. Then, it is quite probable that some 10 additional years will slowly allow eradicating the syndrome.
The disabled people allow a society to measure its stand and never lie or use pious words about suffering, value of each life. With much prudence and respect, every soul embodies Hillel’s words to the faithful read this week: “Do not set yourself apart from the community; do not be sure of yourself till the day of your death. Do not judge your fellow man till you have been in his position…” (Pirkey Avot 2:5).
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The land and culture of Milking
The land and culture of Milking
Forty-six years ago, studying the links between Yiddish and the Old Germanic tongues, I was making my living on board Scandinavian ships that were sailing from Reykjavik (Iceland) to the Faroe Islands and then The Orkney and Shetland Islands down to Bergen, taking a lot of fish. We were cruising in the North Atlantic Sea where the Soviet fleet was fishing herring..., anchored put in the same area for nine months. Rain was daily, usual. It was not evident to have a Jewish life in these areas. On the other hand, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Bible as a whole was and remains a living source of spiritual renewal. People would spontaneously understand that I would not eat pork – which was rather difficult because of the local fascination for sausages/pølser. On the other hand, the seamen were nice, also in the islands and would help for the use of different utensils.
We were a handful of Jews over there, with of course different levels of practicing all sorts of traditions. Nonetheless, on board a ship, the team would always say the prayers as it was a rule in every “sjómannsheim – seamen home” and I often was asked to read the Tehillim\תהלים by portion (Hallel or some psalms of ascent) in Hebrew, which I mostly did with a full Ashkenazi Yiddish pronunciation. Some local scholars perfectly knew about the difference between the /a/ and the /o/ pronunciation that distinguishes Western from Eastern Aramaic. Hebrew was naturally a tongue for the Divine Services, and, undoubtedly, a native language of the Church.
Today, people there seem to be terribly interconnected through the web. Oh, they would be in contact first with their own people scattered throughout the world: Icelanders, Faroese, Danes and Norwegians would get some “buddies” and “contacts” in Honolulu, Brisbane, China. Wisconsin is still very Norwegian and pious (Lutheran). In some villages Icelandic remains the national language. The funny thing is that most buddies live next door! Say that the North Icelandic city is like any other town: online buddies meet on the net, in town, at work, in the restaurant, on board some ships and organize live rallies for “friends only”. Well, the Israeli society has the same thirst of connection. The Jews have the Chabad everywhere and the same way which is definitely an excellent system to web again the tissue of the Jewish faith, among other groups.
Now, on the Feast of Shavuot some people would come and give me cheese cakes. Not the local “ostakakur” that are fat and a bit Dutch-tasty. They could prepare a sort of Russian-like “tvorog – a special cheese paste” that is often used by the Eastern Jews for “Shvi’es – Shavuot\שבועות”. It is quite a heavy stuff that can be kosher. The Russian Orthodox as well as the Poles would use it for the “Passkha” or big pyramidal cake made with this “tvorog” also used for the cheese cake or “vatrushka”.
The more you leave the East for the West, the lighter the cheese seems to taste till it becomes the usual German Käsekuchen. Of course, there were no Mizrachi or Oriental Jew in this North Sea area, though I am quite sure that a Yemenite Israeli spent some months as a taxi driver in some Islands. There was something evident: the situation was not very kosher. I was worse when the ship was sailing the North till Nuuk (Godthåb) in Greenland. People were nice… with usual limitations.
An educated Scandinavian, “White Caucasian” as they say on the net, introduced me once to a smiling overweighed Eskimo Greenlander and added: “Is this really a human being?” Normal question for standard patterned educated people in a colonial system that more or less drifted them aside along the decades. I heard the same, a few years later: in Nazareth, a very pious and devout Scottish nurse-in-chief showed a group of local natives (Galilean Arabs): “Are these really human?” By the way, the two persons apparently showed the same comprehensiveness of their existing environment. What, in their opinion, could make a soul be a “human being”?
It is quite curious to put these refenrence into today's article on upcoming Shavuot and considering the fact that the Jerusalem Orthodox Church celebrates the Ascension Day. Strangely enough, one of my Facebook friend, journalist Yasmin Levy, mentioned today in a short paper how ugly it sounds for her that some many individuals could be mistreated and despised in our society. Yiddish has "oysvorf" to speak of such "social or racial or whatsoever outcasts".
Indeed cultural backgrounds are terribly different and may lead to ignorance, despise, disrespect, misunderstanding or fancies on racial purity or cleansing.. Assisting the poor often let people think they may say such stupidities because of the care they provide to what remains “a third world”. Today things have drastically changed in the Christian world, in the Middle-East. And things also developed in Scandinavia and/or Greenland, with the emergence of the autonomous Nunavut region of Canada for the Inuits.
In 1966, it was normal for any Scandinavian Lutheran believer to produce a certificate of baptism. It was considered as an honor. It was not a certificate proving that a Church recognized the human dignity of the concerned person. But I heard the question clearly pronounced for the first time then, because the woman was a young Eskimo/Inuit; indeed a Danish citizen, i.e. real citizen, but questioned about her belonging to the citizenship of heaven, i.e. a true Christian according to the rule governing the local Church at that time. Paul of Tarsus states: “So you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones (cf. the inhabitants of Jerusalem) and the members of the household of God (cf. Bney Israel)” (Ephesians 2:17-19).
Talmud Sukka 28a says “that in Vayikra/Leviticus 23:42 “ezrach\אזרח” means every native, male or female”. The verse of Leviticus is: “(you shall all live in booths), all citizens in Israel (“kol ha’ezrach beIsrael\כל האזרח בישראל”)). “Ezrachut\אזרחות” means to be a full member of the citizenship of heaven, also in that context, as we had seen in a previous article. It is the mark, imprint and document, eventually a Identity Card/Passport or any paper proving the validity of who a person claims to be. As a spiritual caretaker, I have always been very careful to require proofs and evidences, documents.
People can be very reluctant to show them and would say that this question only concerns their own person (never conscience!) and God in Persona. In Israel, one must ask such documents only with much respect and without suspicion because of the tragic lifepaths of most newcomers. Many had to change or hide some or part or the whole of their identity and this must be handled with compassion and esteem.The problem is that we live in very difficult upside down times. How many Jews can definitely produce the required documents stating that they are duly belonging to the Jewish people according to the Halachah? This can be a tremendous problem for a whole community, especially those whose archives have been destroyed in Europe, totally in Eastern Europe, but also some Middle-Eastern countries.
Shavuot\שבועות (Yid.: Shvi’es, Feast of the Weeks, Pentecost) is a major Feast of Judaism. It celebrates the Giving of the Written and Oral Torah at Mount Sinai that, thereafter, was transmitted, without discontinuity, until our generation. It is a feast that underscores the fulfillment of all God’s living Paroles, Commandments and Mitzvot\מצות. It is the day of closure and plenitude of Pesach/Passover. It could be called a “ra’ava dera’avin\רעבא דרעבין”(as the “seudah shlishit\סעודה שלישית”, third Shabbat meal instituted by Jacob), a time of highly abounding divine gifts. Some maybe baked in the shape of triangular burekas-like cheese cakes because cheese is a solid aliment, also made of the primary milk. The Christian tradition considers that the Holy Spirit was spread over the people present in Jerusalem on the day of Shavuot: “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were amazed, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretan and Arabs, speaking in their own tongues the mighty acts of God” (Acts of Apostles 2:1-11).
We shall review this aspect in the next article, for the coming Pentecost and Day of the Holy Spirit. But it should be noted who are these citizens of God in the Gospel. Anyway, triangular cheese cakes can refer to the achievement of the TaNaKh\תנ''ך as the Books of the Law, the Prophets and the Ketuvim/Historical Accounts. Or, it may recall that it is a kingdom of priests (Kohanim\כהנים) (Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9), of Leviim and Children of Israel. We may live in Israel in a confusing situation of permanent suspicion and misunderstanding: God’s Gifts are definitely not properties with sealed ownership certificates.
Israeli society is indeed very flexible. Any person who would, to some extent, try to show a link with Judaism would be allowed to become a full citizen of the country. The problem is even pending in terms of self-responsibility and recognition of a personal dignity/identity. Let’s compare that to the anecdotes related from Scandinavia or Greenland, or to the fact that secularization in the Jewish communities do not allow to ban anybody. Instead, the ability to exclude or pronounce a cherem (ban) upon a Jew proves, in return, a more real capacity to exist as Jews, thus in totally different groups usually placed under the control of the Orthodox leadership. The same appear in the Christian world. Progressively, different groups have almost reached a point of non-return: if a group rejects all the others in the name of the presupposed authenticity of its existence as a body of faithful, it may no more be existent.
It is important today to discover the richness of cross-ways and trust in the mighty deeds of God. There is a famous Chassid Ummot HaOlam-חסיד אומות העולם / Righteous among the Nations, whom I knew as a child. Mr. “l’Abbé Glasberg” was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity before arriving to Europe. Firstly, he was accepted as a seminary student without any proof of who he was! In his case, there was more: being a Jew, a Ukrainian, how would be possibly be a Christian and then belonging to which Church. When World War II was over he welcomed and helped the rescued from the concentration camps and then brought to Israel the better part of the Iraqi Jews. Still, he is considered as a non-Jew by the Israeli authorities in accordance with the Halachah governing the Jews who become Christians. His journey through the Christian world would show he was on a borderline for the sake of being totally humane and witness for God’s citizenship.
Tomorrow, Sivan 4th, will be the commemoration day of the mass murder perpetrated by the Chmielnicki's Cosacks that killed ca. 300 000 Jews and much more were assassinated from Hamburg to the Ukraine in 1948. it strongly made sense for a lot of Jews to pack all belongings and try to make their way to Eretz Israel at the call of false Messiah and spiritual genius Shabtai Tzvi (cf. Gerschom Scholem's works on the subject).
Intriguingly, the Israeli Radio Reshet Bet again broadcast tonight something about Met. Andrii Sheptytsky of Lviv of the Greek-Catholics in Ukraine. He was definitely considered as a member of the Polish nobility, thus first of Ukrainian origin. He became alien to the Poles when he adopted the Byzantine Ukrainian rite and returned to the Ukraine. He then questioned the Russians while seemingly accepting the presence of the Nazis that he fought. In fact, he was considered as a general enemy of all when he systematically saved the Jews during the Shoah. Kurt Lewyn, the son of the assassinated Rabbi of L'viv with whom he used to discuss, has led a very steadfast battle for the recognition of the exceptional and heroic merits of the Metropolitan, both by the Catholic Church and the Jewish authorities, in particular Yad VaShem. Things are still on hold there, and as a matter, on both sides. Documents show that he directly protested against Hitler and Himmler which remains a unique action. His universality is often reduced to his own nationality, which, in a way, allows rejecting the bigger part of his actions.
As Prof. Gutman declared and again Mr Redlich, of the Beersheva University, who endlessly backs the recognition of Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky, the man was outstanding, beyond all possible and acceptable standards and norms. This is a true sign of real holiness and it will take time to just accept this sort of "beyond all borders" actions for redemption and faith.
This is the challenge of Shavuot: we can be citizens of heaven, at least real mentchen, and help share cheese cake, sufganiot, milk and barley times.
av aleksander Winogradsky Frenkel
Forty-six years ago, studying the links between Yiddish and the Old Germanic tongues, I was making my living on board Scandinavian ships that were sailing from Reykjavik (Iceland) to the Faroe Islands and then The Orkney and Shetland Islands down to Bergen, taking a lot of fish. We were cruising in the North Atlantic Sea where the Soviet fleet was fishing herring..., anchored put in the same area for nine months. Rain was daily, usual. It was not evident to have a Jewish life in these areas. On the other hand, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Bible as a whole was and remains a living source of spiritual renewal. People would spontaneously understand that I would not eat pork – which was rather difficult because of the local fascination for sausages/pølser. On the other hand, the seamen were nice, also in the islands and would help for the use of different utensils.
We were a handful of Jews over there, with of course different levels of practicing all sorts of traditions. Nonetheless, on board a ship, the team would always say the prayers as it was a rule in every “sjómannsheim – seamen home” and I often was asked to read the Tehillim\תהלים by portion (Hallel or some psalms of ascent) in Hebrew, which I mostly did with a full Ashkenazi Yiddish pronunciation. Some local scholars perfectly knew about the difference between the /a/ and the /o/ pronunciation that distinguishes Western from Eastern Aramaic. Hebrew was naturally a tongue for the Divine Services, and, undoubtedly, a native language of the Church.
Today, people there seem to be terribly interconnected through the web. Oh, they would be in contact first with their own people scattered throughout the world: Icelanders, Faroese, Danes and Norwegians would get some “buddies” and “contacts” in Honolulu, Brisbane, China. Wisconsin is still very Norwegian and pious (Lutheran). In some villages Icelandic remains the national language. The funny thing is that most buddies live next door! Say that the North Icelandic city is like any other town: online buddies meet on the net, in town, at work, in the restaurant, on board some ships and organize live rallies for “friends only”. Well, the Israeli society has the same thirst of connection. The Jews have the Chabad everywhere and the same way which is definitely an excellent system to web again the tissue of the Jewish faith, among other groups.
Now, on the Feast of Shavuot some people would come and give me cheese cakes. Not the local “ostakakur” that are fat and a bit Dutch-tasty. They could prepare a sort of Russian-like “tvorog – a special cheese paste” that is often used by the Eastern Jews for “Shvi’es – Shavuot\שבועות”. It is quite a heavy stuff that can be kosher. The Russian Orthodox as well as the Poles would use it for the “Passkha” or big pyramidal cake made with this “tvorog” also used for the cheese cake or “vatrushka”.
The more you leave the East for the West, the lighter the cheese seems to taste till it becomes the usual German Käsekuchen. Of course, there were no Mizrachi or Oriental Jew in this North Sea area, though I am quite sure that a Yemenite Israeli spent some months as a taxi driver in some Islands. There was something evident: the situation was not very kosher. I was worse when the ship was sailing the North till Nuuk (Godthåb) in Greenland. People were nice… with usual limitations.
An educated Scandinavian, “White Caucasian” as they say on the net, introduced me once to a smiling overweighed Eskimo Greenlander and added: “Is this really a human being?” Normal question for standard patterned educated people in a colonial system that more or less drifted them aside along the decades. I heard the same, a few years later: in Nazareth, a very pious and devout Scottish nurse-in-chief showed a group of local natives (Galilean Arabs): “Are these really human?” By the way, the two persons apparently showed the same comprehensiveness of their existing environment. What, in their opinion, could make a soul be a “human being”?
It is quite curious to put these refenrence into today's article on upcoming Shavuot and considering the fact that the Jerusalem Orthodox Church celebrates the Ascension Day. Strangely enough, one of my Facebook friend, journalist Yasmin Levy, mentioned today in a short paper how ugly it sounds for her that some many individuals could be mistreated and despised in our society. Yiddish has "oysvorf" to speak of such "social or racial or whatsoever outcasts".
Indeed cultural backgrounds are terribly different and may lead to ignorance, despise, disrespect, misunderstanding or fancies on racial purity or cleansing.. Assisting the poor often let people think they may say such stupidities because of the care they provide to what remains “a third world”. Today things have drastically changed in the Christian world, in the Middle-East. And things also developed in Scandinavia and/or Greenland, with the emergence of the autonomous Nunavut region of Canada for the Inuits.
In 1966, it was normal for any Scandinavian Lutheran believer to produce a certificate of baptism. It was considered as an honor. It was not a certificate proving that a Church recognized the human dignity of the concerned person. But I heard the question clearly pronounced for the first time then, because the woman was a young Eskimo/Inuit; indeed a Danish citizen, i.e. real citizen, but questioned about her belonging to the citizenship of heaven, i.e. a true Christian according to the rule governing the local Church at that time. Paul of Tarsus states: “So you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones (cf. the inhabitants of Jerusalem) and the members of the household of God (cf. Bney Israel)” (Ephesians 2:17-19).
Talmud Sukka 28a says “that in Vayikra/Leviticus 23:42 “ezrach\אזרח” means every native, male or female”. The verse of Leviticus is: “(you shall all live in booths), all citizens in Israel (“kol ha’ezrach beIsrael\כל האזרח בישראל”)). “Ezrachut\אזרחות” means to be a full member of the citizenship of heaven, also in that context, as we had seen in a previous article. It is the mark, imprint and document, eventually a Identity Card/Passport or any paper proving the validity of who a person claims to be. As a spiritual caretaker, I have always been very careful to require proofs and evidences, documents.
People can be very reluctant to show them and would say that this question only concerns their own person (never conscience!) and God in Persona. In Israel, one must ask such documents only with much respect and without suspicion because of the tragic lifepaths of most newcomers. Many had to change or hide some or part or the whole of their identity and this must be handled with compassion and esteem.The problem is that we live in very difficult upside down times. How many Jews can definitely produce the required documents stating that they are duly belonging to the Jewish people according to the Halachah? This can be a tremendous problem for a whole community, especially those whose archives have been destroyed in Europe, totally in Eastern Europe, but also some Middle-Eastern countries.
Shavuot\שבועות (Yid.: Shvi’es, Feast of the Weeks, Pentecost) is a major Feast of Judaism. It celebrates the Giving of the Written and Oral Torah at Mount Sinai that, thereafter, was transmitted, without discontinuity, until our generation. It is a feast that underscores the fulfillment of all God’s living Paroles, Commandments and Mitzvot\מצות. It is the day of closure and plenitude of Pesach/Passover. It could be called a “ra’ava dera’avin\רעבא דרעבין”(as the “seudah shlishit\סעודה שלישית”, third Shabbat meal instituted by Jacob), a time of highly abounding divine gifts. Some maybe baked in the shape of triangular burekas-like cheese cakes because cheese is a solid aliment, also made of the primary milk. The Christian tradition considers that the Holy Spirit was spread over the people present in Jerusalem on the day of Shavuot: “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were amazed, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretan and Arabs, speaking in their own tongues the mighty acts of God” (Acts of Apostles 2:1-11).
We shall review this aspect in the next article, for the coming Pentecost and Day of the Holy Spirit. But it should be noted who are these citizens of God in the Gospel. Anyway, triangular cheese cakes can refer to the achievement of the TaNaKh\תנ''ך as the Books of the Law, the Prophets and the Ketuvim/Historical Accounts. Or, it may recall that it is a kingdom of priests (Kohanim\כהנים) (Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9), of Leviim and Children of Israel. We may live in Israel in a confusing situation of permanent suspicion and misunderstanding: God’s Gifts are definitely not properties with sealed ownership certificates.
Israeli society is indeed very flexible. Any person who would, to some extent, try to show a link with Judaism would be allowed to become a full citizen of the country. The problem is even pending in terms of self-responsibility and recognition of a personal dignity/identity. Let’s compare that to the anecdotes related from Scandinavia or Greenland, or to the fact that secularization in the Jewish communities do not allow to ban anybody. Instead, the ability to exclude or pronounce a cherem (ban) upon a Jew proves, in return, a more real capacity to exist as Jews, thus in totally different groups usually placed under the control of the Orthodox leadership. The same appear in the Christian world. Progressively, different groups have almost reached a point of non-return: if a group rejects all the others in the name of the presupposed authenticity of its existence as a body of faithful, it may no more be existent.
It is important today to discover the richness of cross-ways and trust in the mighty deeds of God. There is a famous Chassid Ummot HaOlam-חסיד אומות העולם / Righteous among the Nations, whom I knew as a child. Mr. “l’Abbé Glasberg” was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity before arriving to Europe. Firstly, he was accepted as a seminary student without any proof of who he was! In his case, there was more: being a Jew, a Ukrainian, how would be possibly be a Christian and then belonging to which Church. When World War II was over he welcomed and helped the rescued from the concentration camps and then brought to Israel the better part of the Iraqi Jews. Still, he is considered as a non-Jew by the Israeli authorities in accordance with the Halachah governing the Jews who become Christians. His journey through the Christian world would show he was on a borderline for the sake of being totally humane and witness for God’s citizenship.
Tomorrow, Sivan 4th, will be the commemoration day of the mass murder perpetrated by the Chmielnicki's Cosacks that killed ca. 300 000 Jews and much more were assassinated from Hamburg to the Ukraine in 1948. it strongly made sense for a lot of Jews to pack all belongings and try to make their way to Eretz Israel at the call of false Messiah and spiritual genius Shabtai Tzvi (cf. Gerschom Scholem's works on the subject).
Intriguingly, the Israeli Radio Reshet Bet again broadcast tonight something about Met. Andrii Sheptytsky of Lviv of the Greek-Catholics in Ukraine. He was definitely considered as a member of the Polish nobility, thus first of Ukrainian origin. He became alien to the Poles when he adopted the Byzantine Ukrainian rite and returned to the Ukraine. He then questioned the Russians while seemingly accepting the presence of the Nazis that he fought. In fact, he was considered as a general enemy of all when he systematically saved the Jews during the Shoah. Kurt Lewyn, the son of the assassinated Rabbi of L'viv with whom he used to discuss, has led a very steadfast battle for the recognition of the exceptional and heroic merits of the Metropolitan, both by the Catholic Church and the Jewish authorities, in particular Yad VaShem. Things are still on hold there, and as a matter, on both sides. Documents show that he directly protested against Hitler and Himmler which remains a unique action. His universality is often reduced to his own nationality, which, in a way, allows rejecting the bigger part of his actions.
As Prof. Gutman declared and again Mr Redlich, of the Beersheva University, who endlessly backs the recognition of Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytsky, the man was outstanding, beyond all possible and acceptable standards and norms. This is a true sign of real holiness and it will take time to just accept this sort of "beyond all borders" actions for redemption and faith.
This is the challenge of Shavuot: we can be citizens of heaven, at least real mentchen, and help share cheese cake, sufganiot, milk and barley times.
av aleksander Winogradsky Frenkel
Saturday, May 19, 2012
The challenge of being and contacting
One of the most specific questions that a priest who dedicates his life to bridging Judaism and Christianity/Eastern Orthodoxy by acting respectfully in the Israeli society has to face is how to get into the society and then be present adequately. It deals with human, spiritual and moral credit and full repect without stepping down with regards to striking "issues".
It have spent my life in such actions. In the course of the past 15 years, I progressively developed contacts with the Jewish Israeli society as it grows up somehow; it was not that too difficult in the traditional and "dati" circles though it can be surprising. I feel at home in the country, do answer and discuss the same way the Israelis do. I would never be ashamed of hearing insults or even personal attacks. I had been trained and the Jews themselves had told me very clearly how I should behave. Late Prof. Fr. Kurt Hruby has been a real "educator" because he had no fancy about who is a Jew, who is not a Jew, who is a Christian and that in Israel, no one should even dare have any sort of pretence.
In a world that pathetically longs after love, compassion, "Mitgefühl", loving-kindness, rudeness is the reaction a priest - moreover a member of the Orthodox Church - must expect. Treason is treason, betrayal does exist for the Jews, there can be "slips, mental slips" that happen quite often when some Jews would opine the priest has offended Judaism though, on the contrary, he tried to explain it and to describe its position.
This is the consequence of century-old sufferings that are totally unknown to the Christians, opaque to them for the better part, even when they show compassion and interest. The gap is immense and, as Fr. Kurt Hruby used to say and this became my motto "it will take centuries to repair centuries of hatred and distrust, ignorance".
Some 9_10 months again, I got very interested in the Tel Aviv "Tents of Justice" movement. To begin with, I did not know how to do. I decided that there are a lot of proficient and efficient women involved in the movement. I decided to contact them and then through them to get some contacts with men journalists, reporters, actors inside of the Israeli society. I had been in contact with some writers and poets because of the book Shoshana Vegh had dedicated to me (Kontris Sheli).
I would not really pretend I am accepted. Tolerated is more realistic. Sometimes, because people are very frank till rude in this country, the question is uttered of who and why I am where I am and acting as I do. But this does not concern me alone; it is not an isolated action. It took about 6 years to convince some Israelis that it does make sense to pray in Hebrew in the Orthodox Church as it started some 170 years ago, even before T. Herzl and E. Ben Yehudah. When they discovered it does exist inside of a Church tradition that is profoundly reluctant to Jewishness, Hebrew, Israeli culture and style etc... and that my task is not a personal matter but try to pave the way to a much longer activity and future, they got interested. Perseverence helped. I also can intervene anywhere because I am among "mines" even if we got a bit aside, just a bit and not too much in fact.
Among some writers or new friends on Facebook - to some extent also in real life so far they are not too scared to get into real contact (it may take a lot of time) - and also from many social networks, I try to share in Hebrew the richness and depth of some reflection, activities, thoughts and actions, ideas that do influence Israeli society from inside. This reality does not appear in any Christian media; Christian clergy does not write in Israeli papers on a regular basis. I had a weekly blog on the Jerusalem Post for years and intervene in more "Orthodox Jewish medium".
On the other hand, I can access very rich writings, full of insights and sensitivity. On the Live Journal I had been for years in contacts with Israeli bloggers that preferred to write in Russian. It has been very instructive to get the information of the way they understand their participation in the Israeli "civilization". Hebrew was merely a "dry" language with "short clearcut words" compared to the "wealth of the Slavic lexicon, grammar, phrases and sounds". I still face this because of my Service.
There are also people who do write in the same prfound and insightful way in Hebrew and it is important at least to try to propose it online. It is not that important to know how many would read them in the Christian world. I got involved in Yiddish research and Wikipedia, many Jewish men and women share and are somehow interested in the fact that - no way, just no way but the Holy Land will always be a Christian area in a Jewish and Israeli society and country, geographical and historical context.
It is a challenge. There is no partisanship in such activities. It simply shows that we do exist even when people would be ready to deny or reject or show deep opacity.
We all need each other in a society. Israel is multi-faceted by nature, essence and it may work because of the spirit of prophecy that inspires all the inhabitants when they accept to go and march in.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Yom Yerushalayim 5772
It have spent my life in such actions. In the course of the past 15 years, I progressively developed contacts with the Jewish Israeli society as it grows up somehow; it was not that too difficult in the traditional and "dati" circles though it can be surprising. I feel at home in the country, do answer and discuss the same way the Israelis do. I would never be ashamed of hearing insults or even personal attacks. I had been trained and the Jews themselves had told me very clearly how I should behave. Late Prof. Fr. Kurt Hruby has been a real "educator" because he had no fancy about who is a Jew, who is not a Jew, who is a Christian and that in Israel, no one should even dare have any sort of pretence.
In a world that pathetically longs after love, compassion, "Mitgefühl", loving-kindness, rudeness is the reaction a priest - moreover a member of the Orthodox Church - must expect. Treason is treason, betrayal does exist for the Jews, there can be "slips, mental slips" that happen quite often when some Jews would opine the priest has offended Judaism though, on the contrary, he tried to explain it and to describe its position.
This is the consequence of century-old sufferings that are totally unknown to the Christians, opaque to them for the better part, even when they show compassion and interest. The gap is immense and, as Fr. Kurt Hruby used to say and this became my motto "it will take centuries to repair centuries of hatred and distrust, ignorance".
Some 9_10 months again, I got very interested in the Tel Aviv "Tents of Justice" movement. To begin with, I did not know how to do. I decided that there are a lot of proficient and efficient women involved in the movement. I decided to contact them and then through them to get some contacts with men journalists, reporters, actors inside of the Israeli society. I had been in contact with some writers and poets because of the book Shoshana Vegh had dedicated to me (Kontris Sheli).
I would not really pretend I am accepted. Tolerated is more realistic. Sometimes, because people are very frank till rude in this country, the question is uttered of who and why I am where I am and acting as I do. But this does not concern me alone; it is not an isolated action. It took about 6 years to convince some Israelis that it does make sense to pray in Hebrew in the Orthodox Church as it started some 170 years ago, even before T. Herzl and E. Ben Yehudah. When they discovered it does exist inside of a Church tradition that is profoundly reluctant to Jewishness, Hebrew, Israeli culture and style etc... and that my task is not a personal matter but try to pave the way to a much longer activity and future, they got interested. Perseverence helped. I also can intervene anywhere because I am among "mines" even if we got a bit aside, just a bit and not too much in fact.
Among some writers or new friends on Facebook - to some extent also in real life so far they are not too scared to get into real contact (it may take a lot of time) - and also from many social networks, I try to share in Hebrew the richness and depth of some reflection, activities, thoughts and actions, ideas that do influence Israeli society from inside. This reality does not appear in any Christian media; Christian clergy does not write in Israeli papers on a regular basis. I had a weekly blog on the Jerusalem Post for years and intervene in more "Orthodox Jewish medium".
On the other hand, I can access very rich writings, full of insights and sensitivity. On the Live Journal I had been for years in contacts with Israeli bloggers that preferred to write in Russian. It has been very instructive to get the information of the way they understand their participation in the Israeli "civilization". Hebrew was merely a "dry" language with "short clearcut words" compared to the "wealth of the Slavic lexicon, grammar, phrases and sounds". I still face this because of my Service.
There are also people who do write in the same prfound and insightful way in Hebrew and it is important at least to try to propose it online. It is not that important to know how many would read them in the Christian world. I got involved in Yiddish research and Wikipedia, many Jewish men and women share and are somehow interested in the fact that - no way, just no way but the Holy Land will always be a Christian area in a Jewish and Israeli society and country, geographical and historical context.
It is a challenge. There is no partisanship in such activities. It simply shows that we do exist even when people would be ready to deny or reject or show deep opacity.
We all need each other in a society. Israel is multi-faceted by nature, essence and it may work because of the spirit of prophecy that inspires all the inhabitants when they accept to go and march in.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Yom Yerushalayim 5772
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Beyond Logic and Nonsense
Beyond logic and nonsense
As we come closer to the Feast of Shavuot, the Jewish communities get into more intense and pregnant "scanning" of the TaNaCH and the reading of the Psalms/Tehillim. Some people will read the whole of the Scripture during Shavuot/שבועות. And the Christian denominations - in particular the ancient local Churches - will gather, for the Feast of the Ascension (Jesus ascended to heaven and blessed his disciples), at a round mosque located at the top of the Mount of Olives.
Eastern Orthodox, Armenians, Syrian-Orthodox, Coptic faithful and the clergy of Oriental Churches will also somehow be joined with the Roman Catholic of different rites for this special day. The Jewish tradition is on a permanent move to some perilous human or physical survival that obliges us to face climbing challenges. The better part of it are certainly the "shirey hama'alot/שירי המעלות = the psalms of ascents (Tehillim 120-134)”. They are not called "ascent" in Hebrew, but "ma'alot/מעלות - degrees, ascents" - a plural form. And they look like degrees, temperatures, levels to attain. They corresponded to the steps that were in front of the Temple (Yoma 23a) and these psalms are said on Shabbat (mainly at Vespers in the Byzantine Christian Orthodox traditions, in various ways in the West).
“The rise of the righteous is a rise without decline (BeMidbar Rabba 15). “Ma’alei shmisha\מעלי שמישא” (Aramaic in Daniel 6:15) means “sunset” which corresponds to the “coming in and entering of the sun, or for a husband the visiting of his wife (Targum Yerush. 2 on Ex. 21:10). In opposition to “neilah\נעילה – closing, ending” (end of Yom Kippur), the Aramaic word does not presuppose and end, but a rising development that would seemingly go forth without ending.
As often in the Jewish tradition, paradoxical elements are connected etymologically or make sense because of their multi-faceted connotations. Thus, “he made improper use (ma’al\מעל) of sacred properties” (Meilah 14b).
The word is linked to “ma’il\מעיל”(coat, cover, covering from above) and means “to defraud”, in particular in sacred matters or marriage. It firstly seems evident to go up, climb, ascend. “Aliyah\עליה” covers a wide range of realities in the Jewish and monotheistic realm. From birthing to immigrating to Eretz Israel, go up – make an aliyah to read at the bema/lectern in the middle of the synagogue. On the other hand, Modern Hebrew has “yordim\יורדים – those who descend = leave the country”. The word sounds negative and judgmental. “Yeridah\ירידה – descent” matches with the spiritual downfall that leads some people to specific mental or faith tests, temptations or questioning.
The ancient Greek, Indo-European, Germanic, Slavic and Sanskrit mythologies are profoundly interwoven in a pattern that also shows the linguistic and cultural connections. It is rather strange that the collection of the German “fairy tales” by the Brothers Grimm, the scientific comparative surveys carried by Georges Dumézil about Indo-European rites and divinities (as also his studies about the Caucasian and Georgian backgrounds) were made only recently, as Martin Buber, by some insightful intuition collected the Chassidic tales. The patterns are similar in the Jewish and the Gentile civilizations. Well, say that everywhere 1 + 1 = 2, more or less.
Yiddishkayt and Talmud would explore other footsteps: say that 1 + 1= 3 or 4, though, okay, we agree about 2. Or that writing from left to right is abnormal, on the verge of a mental borderline irrationality, but still, why not? And who can or cannot write that way? For a Jew, it is evident that we write from right to left. Would it make sense to do otherwise? Trebitsch Lincoln was a very special man, a Russian Jew who became British and served in the Army in China. He became a Tibetan monk and explained that Chinese as Japanese are wisely written from right to left and from the top to the bottom of a page. Vu iz di chochme/ווו איז די חכמה – why would it be correct? The same as the manuscripts and steles in Manchu and Syrian-Orthodox or Nestorian chart rooted in the Hebrew alphabet: right to left but top to bottom.
Judaism has often been fractured and it is such a challenge to mending the bones and giving the opportunity for the marrow to circulate and be active. A Jew is a male or female, baby, teen, young adult or grownup whose ocean of traditional backgrounds and futurist envisioning bounce to flourish in numerous ways. Before getting to his own view, any Jew is supposed to inquire into all the sayings of the Oral and Written Laws and the sheilot\שאלות (questions) – teshuvot\תשובות (responses) all throughout history, in all time and place.
Wow! Today, just click and you get all that stuff with a good series of CDs and DVDs (Bar Ilan University made a mammoth and pilot work in that field). Still, there is a know-how. It may take decades for a Jew to understand that, in his brains from right to left primarily. It is a sort of spiritual non-substantial Presence of the Torah. It may cost a lot to leave this orientation to adopt a foreign style. Many Jews are fascinated by alien identities and would put on whatever clothing to escape who they are. On the other hand, some would feel the broken down or fractured, split elements with intensive lifetime pain. But how to make the difference when things would seemingly be equal? Ahavah-אהבה/love but mainly “kibbud-כבוד/respect” that failed to exist among R. Akiva’s students. Oh, we have tons of students here, in different parts of the world. Learning for competition does not make sense; Jews can quarrel at length and even pronounce “cherem\חרם – exclusion from the community”, this remains healthy as long as it does not harm our pretence to be one whole community.
Some two years there were still, in Kabul, two Jews. They could not stand each other and prayed alone in there own synagogue. Logic or irrationality? Both passed away, each in his superb isolation. On the other hand, it seems that the Israeli society is never dramatically interrogated about its future. Other Jews would always secure themselves elsewhere in the world, out of fear of real mass destruction. Israeli citizens may spend some years or more abroad; basically the society will endure. We were born here. Nothing may affect us. It is indeed difficult explaining such a cool stand to foreigners… and the press. But, as decades pass, the number of Jewish citizens born in the country increases, augmented by those who came back three centuries ago. The prodigious transfer of people, mixing into a new Israeli soil that corresponds to the Father’s choice, allow much more stability and reason than many Jews would firstly apprehend from abroad.
Is it wit or folly that, the fall of the communist regime in the former Soviet Union corresponded to a full and open renewal of the Eastern Orthodox Churches (as in all communist states, with various other Churches and denominations). And, at the same time, a lot of Jews first thought to get baptized – then they discovered, out of a sudden, that as Jews they could make their aliyah to Israel. The same appears with some Christian movement based in North America. How things combine in order to avoid mind-splitting, cultural estrangement and full disparity in the civilization of Jewishness? Or is it a sort of financial + spiritual opportunism when money, cash or power would avoid participating in the immense travail of grafting back to the homeland? “Ayyekkah/איכה – what – where are you?” called God out to the man at the breezy time as He was moving around in the cool (Bereishit 3:9). The word should be translated as “How! How can it be explained?” It sounds like a bunch of interrogations, astonishments, fears, lamentations. All the tribulations and turbulences that the Jewish faced brought them back to this divine question and statement. How? How can you explain such things? Was the nachash\נחש (snake) wise or shrewd, prophetic or seductively betraying God’s projects? The “nachash nechoshet\נחש נחושת – copper serpent” made by Moses in the desert cured anyone who had been bitten by a snake (Numbers 21:9).
Semitic brains function by paradoxes, constant questioning. The coherence of events or situations that would be foolish, mad or rational are not important for the Jewish tradition. This is precisely what R. Yeshayahu Leibowicz described as the tragedy of Modern Judaism: the loss of the daily acceptance or study of the Mitzvot. It was his German cultural response to a defect that is much sensitive at the present. The Rebbe Menachem Mendel deployed the Lubavich Chassidic movement by referring to the basic prayer: “(Lord) You give the grace of knowledge (da’at/דעת) to human being, You teach discernment (binah\בינה) to the weak human, and give us wisdom (chochmah\חכמה), discernment (binah\בינה) and knowledge (da’at\דעת)”. This embodies the capacity to “distinguish, make distinction, appraise”.
There still can be a lot of confusion in our appraisals, but God allows the humans getting discernment, i.e. to make a distinction “beyn leveyn\בין לבין – between and between”. The root is “bun\בון – pierce” = to piercing what is not clear to get to what is real, substantial”. Targum Job 32:8 has more: reflection induces teaching, thus wisdom and “yevaynun dina\ויבינו דינא = to exercise a correct and full explanation of the Law”. This is at the very core of the Jewish soul and Christian faith. “Nithbonan\נתבונן” underscores that understanding obliges reflecting upon things and persons carefully (Bava Kamma 27b).
Paul of Tarsus wrote: “That, rooted and grounded in love (= God, God’s Attributes), may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones (inhabitants of Jerusalem) what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” (Ephesians 3:8). Indeed, “Understanding – binah\בינה” leads to comprehensiveness. The root is also linked to “build”, i.e. make a project nice, beautiful, meaningful.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Emmanuel Levinas was a Russian Lithuanian born Jewish and French philosopher who would, quite often, speak Yiddish and Russian, which was not evident for his French students. His “Nine Talmudic Teachings” are published in Hebrew. In the after-war desert of true Judaism in Western Europe, in particular in France, his reflection was essential to confronting sense and nonsense. It would thus be difficult to compare his open-minded lectures to Israeli thinkers. As already mentioned in another context, he was very surprised (which would have not astonished any simple Yiddishland rabbi) that the first morning prayer is God’s blessing / “Who gave to the sechvi (rooster) to distinguish between night and day”. How come that that animal is God’s alarm to wake up?!! At times it does not crow in time or too often and repeatedly. E. Levinas was a great philosopher, but to trust God’s time via a cock or a rooster seemed irrational or absurd to him, not evident. Maybe animals are more on alert than humans? “Watch, you don’t know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight or at cockcrow...” (Mark 13:35). Jesus thus said to Peter-Kaipha: “This very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” (Matthew 26:34). “Peter began to curse… and immediately a cock crowed.” (Matthew 26:74). “Sechvi” also means “conscience” in Hebrew. It is less humiliating than a cock in the prayers translations. Ayyekkah… How to explain?
Within some days, Israel reached, for the first time as a free state, the Holy of Holies, the Temple Mount. It was 45 years ago. It was a moment of stupor, incredulity… These 40 years are today like the time spent in the wilderness during the exodus for a tiny state that merges all the spaces of the world with our so specific Israeli time. And who would really understand the degrees, steps or levels of blessings, sufferings, God’s Providence and injustice? Faith implies to confide in time-building.
As we come closer to the Feast of Shavuot, the Jewish communities get into more intense and pregnant "scanning" of the TaNaCH and the reading of the Psalms/Tehillim. Some people will read the whole of the Scripture during Shavuot/שבועות. And the Christian denominations - in particular the ancient local Churches - will gather, for the Feast of the Ascension (Jesus ascended to heaven and blessed his disciples), at a round mosque located at the top of the Mount of Olives.
Eastern Orthodox, Armenians, Syrian-Orthodox, Coptic faithful and the clergy of Oriental Churches will also somehow be joined with the Roman Catholic of different rites for this special day. The Jewish tradition is on a permanent move to some perilous human or physical survival that obliges us to face climbing challenges. The better part of it are certainly the "shirey hama'alot/שירי המעלות = the psalms of ascents (Tehillim 120-134)”. They are not called "ascent" in Hebrew, but "ma'alot/מעלות - degrees, ascents" - a plural form. And they look like degrees, temperatures, levels to attain. They corresponded to the steps that were in front of the Temple (Yoma 23a) and these psalms are said on Shabbat (mainly at Vespers in the Byzantine Christian Orthodox traditions, in various ways in the West).
“The rise of the righteous is a rise without decline (BeMidbar Rabba 15). “Ma’alei shmisha\מעלי שמישא” (Aramaic in Daniel 6:15) means “sunset” which corresponds to the “coming in and entering of the sun, or for a husband the visiting of his wife (Targum Yerush. 2 on Ex. 21:10). In opposition to “neilah\נעילה – closing, ending” (end of Yom Kippur), the Aramaic word does not presuppose and end, but a rising development that would seemingly go forth without ending.
As often in the Jewish tradition, paradoxical elements are connected etymologically or make sense because of their multi-faceted connotations. Thus, “he made improper use (ma’al\מעל) of sacred properties” (Meilah 14b).
The word is linked to “ma’il\מעיל”(coat, cover, covering from above) and means “to defraud”, in particular in sacred matters or marriage. It firstly seems evident to go up, climb, ascend. “Aliyah\עליה” covers a wide range of realities in the Jewish and monotheistic realm. From birthing to immigrating to Eretz Israel, go up – make an aliyah to read at the bema/lectern in the middle of the synagogue. On the other hand, Modern Hebrew has “yordim\יורדים – those who descend = leave the country”. The word sounds negative and judgmental. “Yeridah\ירידה – descent” matches with the spiritual downfall that leads some people to specific mental or faith tests, temptations or questioning.
The ancient Greek, Indo-European, Germanic, Slavic and Sanskrit mythologies are profoundly interwoven in a pattern that also shows the linguistic and cultural connections. It is rather strange that the collection of the German “fairy tales” by the Brothers Grimm, the scientific comparative surveys carried by Georges Dumézil about Indo-European rites and divinities (as also his studies about the Caucasian and Georgian backgrounds) were made only recently, as Martin Buber, by some insightful intuition collected the Chassidic tales. The patterns are similar in the Jewish and the Gentile civilizations. Well, say that everywhere 1 + 1 = 2, more or less.
Yiddishkayt and Talmud would explore other footsteps: say that 1 + 1= 3 or 4, though, okay, we agree about 2. Or that writing from left to right is abnormal, on the verge of a mental borderline irrationality, but still, why not? And who can or cannot write that way? For a Jew, it is evident that we write from right to left. Would it make sense to do otherwise? Trebitsch Lincoln was a very special man, a Russian Jew who became British and served in the Army in China. He became a Tibetan monk and explained that Chinese as Japanese are wisely written from right to left and from the top to the bottom of a page. Vu iz di chochme/ווו איז די חכמה – why would it be correct? The same as the manuscripts and steles in Manchu and Syrian-Orthodox or Nestorian chart rooted in the Hebrew alphabet: right to left but top to bottom.
Judaism has often been fractured and it is such a challenge to mending the bones and giving the opportunity for the marrow to circulate and be active. A Jew is a male or female, baby, teen, young adult or grownup whose ocean of traditional backgrounds and futurist envisioning bounce to flourish in numerous ways. Before getting to his own view, any Jew is supposed to inquire into all the sayings of the Oral and Written Laws and the sheilot\שאלות (questions) – teshuvot\תשובות (responses) all throughout history, in all time and place.
Wow! Today, just click and you get all that stuff with a good series of CDs and DVDs (Bar Ilan University made a mammoth and pilot work in that field). Still, there is a know-how. It may take decades for a Jew to understand that, in his brains from right to left primarily. It is a sort of spiritual non-substantial Presence of the Torah. It may cost a lot to leave this orientation to adopt a foreign style. Many Jews are fascinated by alien identities and would put on whatever clothing to escape who they are. On the other hand, some would feel the broken down or fractured, split elements with intensive lifetime pain. But how to make the difference when things would seemingly be equal? Ahavah-אהבה/love but mainly “kibbud-כבוד/respect” that failed to exist among R. Akiva’s students. Oh, we have tons of students here, in different parts of the world. Learning for competition does not make sense; Jews can quarrel at length and even pronounce “cherem\חרם – exclusion from the community”, this remains healthy as long as it does not harm our pretence to be one whole community.
Some two years there were still, in Kabul, two Jews. They could not stand each other and prayed alone in there own synagogue. Logic or irrationality? Both passed away, each in his superb isolation. On the other hand, it seems that the Israeli society is never dramatically interrogated about its future. Other Jews would always secure themselves elsewhere in the world, out of fear of real mass destruction. Israeli citizens may spend some years or more abroad; basically the society will endure. We were born here. Nothing may affect us. It is indeed difficult explaining such a cool stand to foreigners… and the press. But, as decades pass, the number of Jewish citizens born in the country increases, augmented by those who came back three centuries ago. The prodigious transfer of people, mixing into a new Israeli soil that corresponds to the Father’s choice, allow much more stability and reason than many Jews would firstly apprehend from abroad.
Is it wit or folly that, the fall of the communist regime in the former Soviet Union corresponded to a full and open renewal of the Eastern Orthodox Churches (as in all communist states, with various other Churches and denominations). And, at the same time, a lot of Jews first thought to get baptized – then they discovered, out of a sudden, that as Jews they could make their aliyah to Israel. The same appears with some Christian movement based in North America. How things combine in order to avoid mind-splitting, cultural estrangement and full disparity in the civilization of Jewishness? Or is it a sort of financial + spiritual opportunism when money, cash or power would avoid participating in the immense travail of grafting back to the homeland? “Ayyekkah/איכה – what – where are you?” called God out to the man at the breezy time as He was moving around in the cool (Bereishit 3:9). The word should be translated as “How! How can it be explained?” It sounds like a bunch of interrogations, astonishments, fears, lamentations. All the tribulations and turbulences that the Jewish faced brought them back to this divine question and statement. How? How can you explain such things? Was the nachash\נחש (snake) wise or shrewd, prophetic or seductively betraying God’s projects? The “nachash nechoshet\נחש נחושת – copper serpent” made by Moses in the desert cured anyone who had been bitten by a snake (Numbers 21:9).
Semitic brains function by paradoxes, constant questioning. The coherence of events or situations that would be foolish, mad or rational are not important for the Jewish tradition. This is precisely what R. Yeshayahu Leibowicz described as the tragedy of Modern Judaism: the loss of the daily acceptance or study of the Mitzvot. It was his German cultural response to a defect that is much sensitive at the present. The Rebbe Menachem Mendel deployed the Lubavich Chassidic movement by referring to the basic prayer: “(Lord) You give the grace of knowledge (da’at/דעת) to human being, You teach discernment (binah\בינה) to the weak human, and give us wisdom (chochmah\חכמה), discernment (binah\בינה) and knowledge (da’at\דעת)”. This embodies the capacity to “distinguish, make distinction, appraise”.
There still can be a lot of confusion in our appraisals, but God allows the humans getting discernment, i.e. to make a distinction “beyn leveyn\בין לבין – between and between”. The root is “bun\בון – pierce” = to piercing what is not clear to get to what is real, substantial”. Targum Job 32:8 has more: reflection induces teaching, thus wisdom and “yevaynun dina\ויבינו דינא = to exercise a correct and full explanation of the Law”. This is at the very core of the Jewish soul and Christian faith. “Nithbonan\נתבונן” underscores that understanding obliges reflecting upon things and persons carefully (Bava Kamma 27b).
Paul of Tarsus wrote: “That, rooted and grounded in love (= God, God’s Attributes), may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones (inhabitants of Jerusalem) what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” (Ephesians 3:8). Indeed, “Understanding – binah\בינה” leads to comprehensiveness. The root is also linked to “build”, i.e. make a project nice, beautiful, meaningful.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Emmanuel Levinas was a Russian Lithuanian born Jewish and French philosopher who would, quite often, speak Yiddish and Russian, which was not evident for his French students. His “Nine Talmudic Teachings” are published in Hebrew. In the after-war desert of true Judaism in Western Europe, in particular in France, his reflection was essential to confronting sense and nonsense. It would thus be difficult to compare his open-minded lectures to Israeli thinkers. As already mentioned in another context, he was very surprised (which would have not astonished any simple Yiddishland rabbi) that the first morning prayer is God’s blessing / “Who gave to the sechvi (rooster) to distinguish between night and day”. How come that that animal is God’s alarm to wake up?!! At times it does not crow in time or too often and repeatedly. E. Levinas was a great philosopher, but to trust God’s time via a cock or a rooster seemed irrational or absurd to him, not evident. Maybe animals are more on alert than humans? “Watch, you don’t know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight or at cockcrow...” (Mark 13:35). Jesus thus said to Peter-Kaipha: “This very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” (Matthew 26:34). “Peter began to curse… and immediately a cock crowed.” (Matthew 26:74). “Sechvi” also means “conscience” in Hebrew. It is less humiliating than a cock in the prayers translations. Ayyekkah… How to explain?
Within some days, Israel reached, for the first time as a free state, the Holy of Holies, the Temple Mount. It was 45 years ago. It was a moment of stupor, incredulity… These 40 years are today like the time spent in the wilderness during the exodus for a tiny state that merges all the spaces of the world with our so specific Israeli time. And who would really understand the degrees, steps or levels of blessings, sufferings, God’s Providence and injustice? Faith implies to confide in time-building.
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