Je lis depuis longtemps et avec intérêt le forum orthodoxe "Parlons d'Orthodoxie" ("http://www.egliserusse.eu/blogdiscussion/Le-president-russe-et-le-roi-de-Jordanie-parlent-cooperation-bilaterale_a2508.html?com#com_3122795") qui est régulé par le Patriarcat de Moscou et donc je connais la version française qui est ouverte et surtout permet d'échanger sur des sujets vastes. "Vladimir" a laissé un commentaire sur la visite de Vladimir Putin, soulignant qu'il s'était "aussi" (sinon principalement pour commencer) rendu dans l'Etat d'Israël. Ceci était et reste absent des commentaires "russes" en géénral, surtout de la presse religieuse. C'est pourquoi je me suis lancé dans une explication que je compte prolonger car cette visite laisse entrevoir bien des développements futurs sur le plan local.
(en partie comme réponse aux mots de Vladimir)
J'hésite depuis "longtemps" à intervenir sur ce forum. Il est riche dans l'échange et la liberté des échanges et donc une source de déploiement pour l"Eglise orthodoxe, en particulier celle de tradition slave, mais vous abordez toutes les traditions.
Ma tâche est apparemment "poly-limitrophe" ou au contraire un point d'ouverture comme Abraham qui accueillait tous au "plus chaud du jour" (Gen. 18,1). Archiprêtre au Patriarcat grec/roum orthodoxe de Jérusalem, j'ai la charge de développer l'assistance spirituelle auprès des membres de la société israélienne: Offices, Divine Liturgie, Sainte Confession et tous les autres Sacrements en hébreu, en slavon, russe, ukrainien, roumain et d'autres langues.
Depuis maintenant près de 15 ans, j'ai ainsi pu assurer chaque semaine ces célébrations liturgiques avec la bénédiction du Patriarche grec-orthodoxe de Jérusalem. Aujourd'hui, c'est Sa Béatitude Theophilos III de Jérusalem.
J'exclus tout esprit partisan sur le plan politique ou idélogique, national, nationaliste ou phylétiste. La grâce qui m'est faite, c'est malgré d'inévitables incompréhensions ou même agressions venant de toutes parts, de donner à l'Orthodoxie de Jérusalem, le sens de cette symphonie linguistique et spirituelle dans un lieu unique, source de la rédemption et but du rassemblement eschatologique final.
En Israël, je suis chez moi, dans mon pays. Mais servant dans une église proche du patriarcat où habitent des Arabes, des Roumains, des Syro-orthodoxes, tous viennent volontiers car "tout être humain est chez lui dans l'Eglise". Je le dis souvent aux nombreux "passants d'ici ou de pays étrangers: "Vy zdes' doma/Вы здесь дома т.е. у себя". Souvent cela intrigue. Mais les Arabes me font participer à leurs activités car, disent-ils "nous savons, abuna, que tu ne fais aucune différence". Beaucoup sont étonnés d'entendre la Divine Liturgie en hébreu, d'autant que le texte a reçu la bénédiction en 1841 du Synode orthodoxe russe de Moscou. J'ai demandé avec le responsable (nastoiatel') de la Mission ecclesiastique du Patriarcat de Moscou (archimandrite Isidor) au Patriarche Theophilos qu'il bénisse quelques célébrations en hébreu, slavon et autres langues à la Mission du Patriarcat russe, ce que nous avons fait, avec l'accord de Sa Béatitude voici un an.
Car Israël existe... nous pouvons le rencontrer, même si cela n'est pas évident pour des pèlerinsvenant d'horizons nouveaux, en pleine mutation, tout comme dans ce pays qui redéploie sa culture juive est en pleine dynamique. En revanche, comme chrétiens orthodoxes venant de tous pays (y compris d'Argentine, d'Afrique du Sud etc.), à partir du moment où nous participons à cette société israélienne, il devient impératif de dépasser nos juridictions d'origine et montrer à l'Eglise locale qui est traditionnellement grecque que nous existons et pouvons le faire avec harmonie.
Certains immigrants ont choisi la culture arabe; de fait, elle a le mérite d'être une tradition ancienne. En hébreu, il faut tout créer, inculturer et surtout ne pas se comporter comme des "Zoulous".
Mais Israël existe. Le Président Vladimir Putin est venu dans un pays à "micro-climats" humains, spirituels, culturels, linguistiques, confessionnels. Il en est parfaitement conscient. Oui, il est allé en Palestine bien que certains parlent de Territoires palestiniens, d'autres encore de Judée-Samarie. Mais, quelles que soient les positions intellectualo-idéologiques, c'est bien l'Etat d'Israël qui, aujourd'hui est en dialogue avec les Eglises et donc avec la Mère de toutes les Eglises de Dieu qu'est officiellement le Patriarcat grec/roum orthodoxe de Jérusalem.
Ici, nous avons le devoir qui répond tant au commandement biblique qu'évangélique d'aimer notre prochain et aussi celui qui semble être notre ennemi. Il ne faut pas que nous devenions étangers ou ennemis à nous-mêmes. Le renouveau des Eglises orthodoxes est immense, en particulier pour l'Eglise russe de Moscou ou de l'Eglise Hors-Frontières qui se sont réunies. Les Eglises roumaine, serbe, géorgienne, toutes ont des mémoires historiques anciennes sur cette terre habitée par Dieu. Vingt ans ne sont rien pour s'entendre, discuter, trouver la voie d'une communion d'autant plus nécessaire que, précisément ici, nous sommes jugés sur notre amour.
Israël crée un hapax - une situation sans précédent - pour l'Eglise pour autant que l'on situe les enjeux sur l'assistance spirituelle réelle envers les fidèles et les familles mixtes qui habitent dans cette société novatrice. Il faut dépasser bien des malentendus, soyons francs des haines séculaires et réciproques, des altérités.
Le Président Putin est venu et les media ne peuvent limiter, sélectionner à leur guise les lieux et les personnes. Il a effectivement rencontré des israéliens, des juifs pieux (Mur Occidental) tout comme l'avait fait, dès sa nomination le défunt Patriarche Aleksei (mémoire éternelle). Le Président Putin n'a pas seulement vu des palestiniens ou des jordaniens. Certes oui, mais pas seulement. Ici tout est imbriqué et "trans-national" par définition.
Il a permis - c'est simplement un fait - que le Patriarcat de Moscou et l'Eglise Hors-Frontières fassent le pas historique d'un processus de réunion qui ne fait que commencer, notamment à l'instigation de Vladyka Mark de Berlin.
Il est possible que sa venue, qui comporte de multiples aspects, soit aussi comme le prélude à la venue du Patriarche Kyrille de Moscou. Le chef de l'Eglise de Moscou avait l'habitude de venir très souvent avant son élection, en particulier en raison de ses fonctions "internationales".
Certains désireraient changer les ordres hiérarchiques en Terre Sainte, Israël, Palestine, Jordanie. Il ne peut y avoir ici, localement, d'Eglise israélienne ou arabe, russe ou roumaine, serbe ou nord-américaine. Ici, il y a des situations nouvelles où chacun est libre d'adhérer à la communauté qu'il considère comme la sienne. Les immigrants qui sont arrivés n'appartiennent plus (en grande partie) à leur pays et même Eglise d'origine. Ils doivent témoigner, dans un climat particulièrement étonnant, de la créativité du Christ dans leurs vies et leurs groupes. Il y a ainsi une ouverture à l'hébraïté de l'Eglise orthodoxe comme à sa traditionnelle arabité.
Nul doute à cet égard que cette visite du chef de la République Fédérative de Russie peut ouvrir sur des enjeux spirituels créatifs qui ne peuvent être absents du Patriarche de l'Eglise russe. Dans le respect de tous, ce qui implique la difficile reconnaissance de l'histoire et des Dons de Dieu.
http://https://sites.google.com/site/hebrewinchurch/home
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Awareness beyond irrationality
Awareness beyond irrationality
Shall they go marching in? Or not? Maybe? Early evening event of a night of summer equinox, equity deals this week in Jerusalem, with the gay and lesbian pride or parade or social protest demonstrations, for others, provocation. Our one-sex society makes males a bit too feminine and females a bit too masculine or "butch". It removes or adds hair of any color, waxing up skins, making-up faces, or reduces any difference in clothing, mostly pants here, in particular jeans and daily comfortable dress.
Unisex is also forbidden by the Jewish tradition and, normally, a woman should clearly be dressed or look different from a man, and vice versa. The same applies for the Eastern Orthodox Churches in general. This is far from being obvious when you walk through the streets of Jerusalem. We can compare with any city in this country or even abroad, but there seems to be a problem with Jerusalem.
The problem dealt with “Sanctity”. True, the city is pious and has a lot of very religious (all faiths) inhabitants or passers-by, tourists, pilgrims. Some long hair male can be terribly effeminate. Some may spend hours in combing their hair. Some yeshive bechurim or students would automatically curl their peyses/pe'ot-פיאות (hair locks) with their index in a way that is "between" malehood and feminity: some ambiguous and equivocal swing of the hips. But the walk/gang-גאנג has a spiritual meaning. The same shows in traditional Churches where celibacy has been a rule for centuries. Curiously, Oriental nuns would retain a strong sense of womanhood while men often tend to some sort of effeminate behavior, just as shown at the present in all Western societies.
The combat for equality and supposed equal rights has developed and continues to evolve in some sort of "androgynous" character that is rather pregnant in our generation. It is difficult to frankly distinguish some attitudes that swing between male and female acquired tendencies and the trends of daily new objects or products of consumption. With regards to the gay and lesbian pride, it is banned by definition from our awareness and judgments are only based on arguing and not explaining the various theological and ethical fundaments of their attitude. They often relate, without any awareness to some "panem et circences" pagan societal common behaviors.
One can regret the absence of real and serious theological arguments that may not be even understood or accepted by those whosoever they can be who protest against their pride. Is it a parade or a provocation? We could also think in terms of a “farce”, a way to play the jester that curves up and down sexes and confuse them.
Many people consider that such open behaviors express some words of profound human(e) truth that are spoken out in jest as the clown could call to the king and mock him without being punished. Religions have too often played with the sex of the angels among the humans, or they have denaturized human beings and imposed illegal postures and situations. We should always keep in mind that gays and lesbians were deported as such to the extermination camps and used as playmates by masochist gangsters. The recent passing away of Gad Beck, the supposedly last Jewish and gay resistant wh owas deported to a concentration camp and survived show this kind of questioning. On the one hand, he was in an unique position, a Zionist, an Israeli then he returned to Germany and defended the samesex groups.
Some Jews would think it is not possible to recall him as a "gay". Sort of shame and there is more: the man could be very provocative. He was not alone to behave like that. Many Shoah survivors would consider life and survival as both a sign of Providence and a jester play that also copes with the general attitude of many samesex people. As if life cannot be good or bad or even in-between. So many teens and youths have been mishandled, raped, used as "playtoys", both men and women that life could only be a play for them and not a sign of authentic development of redemption. This is why Jewishness and Mosaic tradition do bring compassionate loving-kindness and openness to Divine Providence.
This week, the reading portion is “Chukkat\חוקת = this is the ritual, non-rational commandment” in Bemidbar/Numbers 19:1- 22:1. To begin with, the reading portion deals with the red cow or “parah adumah\פרה אדומה – red heifer” that was bred and then slaughtered mixed with cedar tree branches, hyssop and crimson stuff (scarlet); its ashes were mixed in a huge cistern whose waters were precisely handled by young children who had never been in contact with death.
We do have our own way to separate young males from any danger of corruption. Judaism can be obsessed by any kind of sin, i.e. corruptibility through the contact with death. Now, this commandment regarding the red heifer has no rational basis or explanation. It contradicts all usual commandments as explained by the rabbis in the Gemara.
The Mishna does include a very small tractate Parah\פרה (Cow, heifer) as a part of the larger tractate Taharot\טהרות (purifications). It is evident that there is no rational basis to the fact that if some black hair would be found on this very sacrificial and penitential cow, she would become non-kosher. This tracks back to no explainable law. One, two black hairs and the cow could not be slaughtered to produce the ashes that could save the people from their sins.
This week, we face in the reading portion the problem of how waters spring out to be drunk by the congregation and their beasts. Then we read how anomalies can turn to save the sinful. In terms of biology, it is not normal and not natural to get a “parah adumah\פרה אדומה – a red heifer”. The animal is a rarity and in some way a reverse of natural cow colors. Cows are cows: we love them in this country. Black and white, they are sweet milking beasts. Brown cows in some areas and other countries.
Many restaurants show ensigns in shape of a red heifer. But the red cow was not edible. It was meant to purify, was slaughtered at the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and its blood sprinkled out in the direction of the West, i.e. to the world and the Temple. It is said in tractate Parah 2,1 that only eight red heifers might have be slain from the time of Moses till the destruction of the Temple. Other Jewish traditions would consider there were nine of them.
Thus, it is considered as a “chok\חוק = non-rational commandment/mitzvah” that has to be perpetually fulfilled, especially with regards to the Yom Kippur ritual of purity. Nobody can show any evidence as concerns the coherence of the commandment. It is the same chok that only has to be accepted and accomplished by faith and confidence (emunah shlemah\אמונה שלמה) as the Sha’atnez\שעטנז (Lev. 19:19), the prohibition to mix wool and linen, except, for instance, in the girdle the High Priest (Yevamot 4b-5b). It is a very important and pending question at the present because, the people should be purified in case of building-up the Temple…
The principle of a “chok/chukka\חוק-חוקא” corresponds to this: “I will leave to my sons a due share (a fixed living)” (Erubin 54a). These laws without reason are engraved, drawn like circles in order to remind God’s will: “He ordered a mark to be put on his (Abraham’s) flesh” (Shabbat 137b). In these quotations, as in a general stand, “a chok” is full of meaningfulness in God’s eyes and His decrees are totally founded. In our society, it seems that we are at times in a situation of absence of any coherence, as if we were shapeless.
There are also some trends to lead us to social or emotional lack of structural egos, destruction or lessening of consistency. Call it bozo for a while, there are times that lead people to reduce their reactions and spiritual forces. “Timtem\טמטם” means this kind of tendency as in ‘troubles obstruct the heart, making a man dull (Pessahim 42a).
Thus, “sin blunts the understanding of human beings (Yoma 39a), “till man become a shapeless mass” (Hallah 1c). The example of the dough is often used because bread be “kneaded” in various shapes that may make sense or not, without reason. Yiddish and the Jewish folklore tradition have considered that “timtum\טנטום” are those without clear sexual orientation, not necessarily a condemnation of homosexuals as this can be the case at the present and has been over centuries. We forget that it is the Giving of the Torah that allowed distinguishing between correct and "non-correct" moral practice.
Samesex people, both male and female, represent a growing identity and marketing group and target. The problem is rather a sort of grin at shapeless souls, which is indeed a lack of compassion.
God convoked Moses and Aaron and told them to give water from the rock to let the congregation and their beasts drink a lot of water. Moses took his rod and addressed the “morim/rebels” to get copious water.
He stuck the rock twice and not only once as usual. And God said to Moses and Aaron that because they, personally, did not obey to God’s Commandments, they will not lead the congregation into the given land!!! At this point, today, any normal guy in this country would immediately rush to the Supreme Court and make a scandal!! And they would cc/forward a note to the chief rabbinates, the members of the Knesset and eventually contact The Hague and Geneva, if not the numerous “heretics”. This is the usual way we behave at the present toward God but we hardly notice that because we are framed in our "ego's" both as actors and mirrors.
At the mey Merivah/Meribah waters\מי מריבה, the congregation did quarrel with the Lord as He affirmed His sanctity in and through them. Such a rebellion is not acceptable. Good enough, so the rebels could die in the wilderness. We had seen that the “nassi\משיא: leader, ruler, head of the nation” will not be pardoned his sin like the other members of the congregation.. He must atone in a specific way in his quality of leader.
The chok seemingly extends as a law without reason that condemned Moses and Aaron not to enter the Land of Canaan. There is definitely no explanation in the Chumash\חומש (Five Books of Moses). In the reading portion of this week we only know about the death of Aaron. This would eventually be more understandable. The High priest shaped the golden calf to provide a deity to the congregation as Moses did not seem to come back from the mountain. He did commit the sin of idolatry. And now he apparently dies because of copious waters? After having served as priest all over the trip throughout the wilderness?
As for Moses who never quarreled with God. This is this interesting point. He also accepted God’s decisions. He would intercede for the others, never on his own behalf. Indeed, chokkim\חוקים – laws without reason or rational basis- show that God naturally speaks to the heart of His servant and to those who do follow Him. It is an indisputable evidence.
This question has always been a terrible spiritual problem for the rabbinic leadership as for the leaders of all the Churches and Muslim guides. This is a horrible quest indeed for the monotheistic believers.
We need men of conscience. It is not a matter of politics. Not even of morals and ethics. It is beyond that, an attitude that is so evident that is implemented as a commandment that does not appeal to understanding or judgment. Yes, people have the right to err. And they are free to do whatever would not harm or restrict their true own freedom. With regards to societal errors, the leadership – whenever religious or governmental – mostly lacks the close intimacy that existed between God and His obedient servants Moses and Aaron.
“We have reached the stage of being led by people without any self-respect, leaders who attempt to save themselves at the expense of the sins, omissions and errors made by those under them, who acted under their leadership. This is unlike the faithful shepherd that the Jewish people had, who, when the people died as a result of their sins, died with them, even though there was no sin on his part”, wrote, in 1986, Rav Y. Leibowitz (Yoke of heaven, p. 148). It was courageous. Curiously, he then wrote a sort of Jewish and somehow Christian-like statement about Moses.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Shall they go marching in? Or not? Maybe? Early evening event of a night of summer equinox, equity deals this week in Jerusalem, with the gay and lesbian pride or parade or social protest demonstrations, for others, provocation. Our one-sex society makes males a bit too feminine and females a bit too masculine or "butch". It removes or adds hair of any color, waxing up skins, making-up faces, or reduces any difference in clothing, mostly pants here, in particular jeans and daily comfortable dress.
Unisex is also forbidden by the Jewish tradition and, normally, a woman should clearly be dressed or look different from a man, and vice versa. The same applies for the Eastern Orthodox Churches in general. This is far from being obvious when you walk through the streets of Jerusalem. We can compare with any city in this country or even abroad, but there seems to be a problem with Jerusalem.
The problem dealt with “Sanctity”. True, the city is pious and has a lot of very religious (all faiths) inhabitants or passers-by, tourists, pilgrims. Some long hair male can be terribly effeminate. Some may spend hours in combing their hair. Some yeshive bechurim or students would automatically curl their peyses/pe'ot-פיאות (hair locks) with their index in a way that is "between" malehood and feminity: some ambiguous and equivocal swing of the hips. But the walk/gang-גאנג has a spiritual meaning. The same shows in traditional Churches where celibacy has been a rule for centuries. Curiously, Oriental nuns would retain a strong sense of womanhood while men often tend to some sort of effeminate behavior, just as shown at the present in all Western societies.
The combat for equality and supposed equal rights has developed and continues to evolve in some sort of "androgynous" character that is rather pregnant in our generation. It is difficult to frankly distinguish some attitudes that swing between male and female acquired tendencies and the trends of daily new objects or products of consumption. With regards to the gay and lesbian pride, it is banned by definition from our awareness and judgments are only based on arguing and not explaining the various theological and ethical fundaments of their attitude. They often relate, without any awareness to some "panem et circences" pagan societal common behaviors.
One can regret the absence of real and serious theological arguments that may not be even understood or accepted by those whosoever they can be who protest against their pride. Is it a parade or a provocation? We could also think in terms of a “farce”, a way to play the jester that curves up and down sexes and confuse them.
Many people consider that such open behaviors express some words of profound human(e) truth that are spoken out in jest as the clown could call to the king and mock him without being punished. Religions have too often played with the sex of the angels among the humans, or they have denaturized human beings and imposed illegal postures and situations. We should always keep in mind that gays and lesbians were deported as such to the extermination camps and used as playmates by masochist gangsters. The recent passing away of Gad Beck, the supposedly last Jewish and gay resistant wh owas deported to a concentration camp and survived show this kind of questioning. On the one hand, he was in an unique position, a Zionist, an Israeli then he returned to Germany and defended the samesex groups.
Some Jews would think it is not possible to recall him as a "gay". Sort of shame and there is more: the man could be very provocative. He was not alone to behave like that. Many Shoah survivors would consider life and survival as both a sign of Providence and a jester play that also copes with the general attitude of many samesex people. As if life cannot be good or bad or even in-between. So many teens and youths have been mishandled, raped, used as "playtoys", both men and women that life could only be a play for them and not a sign of authentic development of redemption. This is why Jewishness and Mosaic tradition do bring compassionate loving-kindness and openness to Divine Providence.
This week, the reading portion is “Chukkat\חוקת = this is the ritual, non-rational commandment” in Bemidbar/Numbers 19:1- 22:1. To begin with, the reading portion deals with the red cow or “parah adumah\פרה אדומה – red heifer” that was bred and then slaughtered mixed with cedar tree branches, hyssop and crimson stuff (scarlet); its ashes were mixed in a huge cistern whose waters were precisely handled by young children who had never been in contact with death.
We do have our own way to separate young males from any danger of corruption. Judaism can be obsessed by any kind of sin, i.e. corruptibility through the contact with death. Now, this commandment regarding the red heifer has no rational basis or explanation. It contradicts all usual commandments as explained by the rabbis in the Gemara.
The Mishna does include a very small tractate Parah\פרה (Cow, heifer) as a part of the larger tractate Taharot\טהרות (purifications). It is evident that there is no rational basis to the fact that if some black hair would be found on this very sacrificial and penitential cow, she would become non-kosher. This tracks back to no explainable law. One, two black hairs and the cow could not be slaughtered to produce the ashes that could save the people from their sins.
This week, we face in the reading portion the problem of how waters spring out to be drunk by the congregation and their beasts. Then we read how anomalies can turn to save the sinful. In terms of biology, it is not normal and not natural to get a “parah adumah\פרה אדומה – a red heifer”. The animal is a rarity and in some way a reverse of natural cow colors. Cows are cows: we love them in this country. Black and white, they are sweet milking beasts. Brown cows in some areas and other countries.
Many restaurants show ensigns in shape of a red heifer. But the red cow was not edible. It was meant to purify, was slaughtered at the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and its blood sprinkled out in the direction of the West, i.e. to the world and the Temple. It is said in tractate Parah 2,1 that only eight red heifers might have be slain from the time of Moses till the destruction of the Temple. Other Jewish traditions would consider there were nine of them.
Thus, it is considered as a “chok\חוק = non-rational commandment/mitzvah” that has to be perpetually fulfilled, especially with regards to the Yom Kippur ritual of purity. Nobody can show any evidence as concerns the coherence of the commandment. It is the same chok that only has to be accepted and accomplished by faith and confidence (emunah shlemah\אמונה שלמה) as the Sha’atnez\שעטנז (Lev. 19:19), the prohibition to mix wool and linen, except, for instance, in the girdle the High Priest (Yevamot 4b-5b). It is a very important and pending question at the present because, the people should be purified in case of building-up the Temple…
The principle of a “chok/chukka\חוק-חוקא” corresponds to this: “I will leave to my sons a due share (a fixed living)” (Erubin 54a). These laws without reason are engraved, drawn like circles in order to remind God’s will: “He ordered a mark to be put on his (Abraham’s) flesh” (Shabbat 137b). In these quotations, as in a general stand, “a chok” is full of meaningfulness in God’s eyes and His decrees are totally founded. In our society, it seems that we are at times in a situation of absence of any coherence, as if we were shapeless.
There are also some trends to lead us to social or emotional lack of structural egos, destruction or lessening of consistency. Call it bozo for a while, there are times that lead people to reduce their reactions and spiritual forces. “Timtem\טמטם” means this kind of tendency as in ‘troubles obstruct the heart, making a man dull (Pessahim 42a).
Thus, “sin blunts the understanding of human beings (Yoma 39a), “till man become a shapeless mass” (Hallah 1c). The example of the dough is often used because bread be “kneaded” in various shapes that may make sense or not, without reason. Yiddish and the Jewish folklore tradition have considered that “timtum\טנטום” are those without clear sexual orientation, not necessarily a condemnation of homosexuals as this can be the case at the present and has been over centuries. We forget that it is the Giving of the Torah that allowed distinguishing between correct and "non-correct" moral practice.
Samesex people, both male and female, represent a growing identity and marketing group and target. The problem is rather a sort of grin at shapeless souls, which is indeed a lack of compassion.
God convoked Moses and Aaron and told them to give water from the rock to let the congregation and their beasts drink a lot of water. Moses took his rod and addressed the “morim/rebels” to get copious water.
He stuck the rock twice and not only once as usual. And God said to Moses and Aaron that because they, personally, did not obey to God’s Commandments, they will not lead the congregation into the given land!!! At this point, today, any normal guy in this country would immediately rush to the Supreme Court and make a scandal!! And they would cc/forward a note to the chief rabbinates, the members of the Knesset and eventually contact The Hague and Geneva, if not the numerous “heretics”. This is the usual way we behave at the present toward God but we hardly notice that because we are framed in our "ego's" both as actors and mirrors.
At the mey Merivah/Meribah waters\מי מריבה, the congregation did quarrel with the Lord as He affirmed His sanctity in and through them. Such a rebellion is not acceptable. Good enough, so the rebels could die in the wilderness. We had seen that the “nassi\משיא: leader, ruler, head of the nation” will not be pardoned his sin like the other members of the congregation.. He must atone in a specific way in his quality of leader.
The chok seemingly extends as a law without reason that condemned Moses and Aaron not to enter the Land of Canaan. There is definitely no explanation in the Chumash\חומש (Five Books of Moses). In the reading portion of this week we only know about the death of Aaron. This would eventually be more understandable. The High priest shaped the golden calf to provide a deity to the congregation as Moses did not seem to come back from the mountain. He did commit the sin of idolatry. And now he apparently dies because of copious waters? After having served as priest all over the trip throughout the wilderness?
As for Moses who never quarreled with God. This is this interesting point. He also accepted God’s decisions. He would intercede for the others, never on his own behalf. Indeed, chokkim\חוקים – laws without reason or rational basis- show that God naturally speaks to the heart of His servant and to those who do follow Him. It is an indisputable evidence.
This question has always been a terrible spiritual problem for the rabbinic leadership as for the leaders of all the Churches and Muslim guides. This is a horrible quest indeed for the monotheistic believers.
We need men of conscience. It is not a matter of politics. Not even of morals and ethics. It is beyond that, an attitude that is so evident that is implemented as a commandment that does not appeal to understanding or judgment. Yes, people have the right to err. And they are free to do whatever would not harm or restrict their true own freedom. With regards to societal errors, the leadership – whenever religious or governmental – mostly lacks the close intimacy that existed between God and His obedient servants Moses and Aaron.
“We have reached the stage of being led by people without any self-respect, leaders who attempt to save themselves at the expense of the sins, omissions and errors made by those under them, who acted under their leadership. This is unlike the faithful shepherd that the Jewish people had, who, when the people died as a result of their sins, died with them, even though there was no sin on his part”, wrote, in 1986, Rav Y. Leibowitz (Yoke of heaven, p. 148). It was courageous. Curiously, he then wrote a sort of Jewish and somehow Christian-like statement about Moses.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Second President Vladimir Putin arrives in Jerusalem 5772/2012
On the wake of the arrival of President Vladimir Putin to Jerusalem and Israel, it is intriguing to re-read the article written by Aluf Been for HaAretz on his trip, the first one ever made by a head of any Russian State (April 27, 2005).
"http://www.haaretz.com/news/putin-hardens-line-on-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.157046"
He will come back in the same position of the president he was then. Since then, only 7 years have passed, but PM. Ariel Sharon is "on hold" (though did not pass away in any sense bec. of the political choices of Israel); Hosni Mubarak stepped down and is dying. Fuel-oil agreements have changed in many ways both in FSU areas Russia and Caucasus, also for Israel and the region. The war in Iraq did not stop, Afghanistan is going on, Syria, frailty of Lebanon, Kuwait, Yemen and also Saudi Arabia show very problematic. In the meanwhile, crowds of Russian and Slavic workers are employed in the Arab Emirates. They require spiritual assistance that Moscow tries to get from Antioch - the traditional Arab line. The Russian Orthodox are insecure in Lebanon/Syria and Egypt. They create big facilities and centers for studies and reconnecting of the Russian presence in the Holy Land in the Palestinian Territories (some building in East-Jerusalem) via oil tycoons. Some FSU Jewish and often Israeli oil tycoons came to Israel with ccontrasted projects and programs.
Little real support is given to the Arab Palestinian Orthodox who are under the authority of the Mother Church of Jerusalem, which the Russian State and Russian Orthodox Church will hardly deny or directly attack.
On the other hand, a huge amount of FSU citizens arrived as newcomers in Israel and are not considered as "Russian" anymore, but as Israelis, which is also an interrogation. among them, crowds of born, new baptized Orthodox Christians did not fin at the present, the adequate spiritual assistance that would basically require the recognition of Israel, Israeli society, culture, spirituality, roots and prospects that link Judaism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The process has started, very very slowly but it will take much time. Undoubtedly, Pres. Putin's visit paves the way to the canonical visit that Patriarch Kirill of Russia should soon pay to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and the Holy Places as well as to Patriarch Theophilos and the members of the Israeli government as late Patriarch Alexey had done.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
"http://www.haaretz.com/news/putin-hardens-line-on-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.157046"
He will come back in the same position of the president he was then. Since then, only 7 years have passed, but PM. Ariel Sharon is "on hold" (though did not pass away in any sense bec. of the political choices of Israel); Hosni Mubarak stepped down and is dying. Fuel-oil agreements have changed in many ways both in FSU areas Russia and Caucasus, also for Israel and the region. The war in Iraq did not stop, Afghanistan is going on, Syria, frailty of Lebanon, Kuwait, Yemen and also Saudi Arabia show very problematic. In the meanwhile, crowds of Russian and Slavic workers are employed in the Arab Emirates. They require spiritual assistance that Moscow tries to get from Antioch - the traditional Arab line. The Russian Orthodox are insecure in Lebanon/Syria and Egypt. They create big facilities and centers for studies and reconnecting of the Russian presence in the Holy Land in the Palestinian Territories (some building in East-Jerusalem) via oil tycoons. Some FSU Jewish and often Israeli oil tycoons came to Israel with ccontrasted projects and programs.
Little real support is given to the Arab Palestinian Orthodox who are under the authority of the Mother Church of Jerusalem, which the Russian State and Russian Orthodox Church will hardly deny or directly attack.
On the other hand, a huge amount of FSU citizens arrived as newcomers in Israel and are not considered as "Russian" anymore, but as Israelis, which is also an interrogation. among them, crowds of born, new baptized Orthodox Christians did not fin at the present, the adequate spiritual assistance that would basically require the recognition of Israel, Israeli society, culture, spirituality, roots and prospects that link Judaism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The process has started, very very slowly but it will take much time. Undoubtedly, Pres. Putin's visit paves the way to the canonical visit that Patriarch Kirill of Russia should soon pay to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and the Holy Places as well as to Patriarch Theophilos and the members of the Israeli government as late Patriarch Alexey had done.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The price of patience and self-control
The price of patience and self-control. The heat of our days (and nights) seems to overcome many individuals in the country. Summer time brings its temptations, attempts to go to conflicts. They maybe war or side-"tiny" wars but here each soul is beyond all measurements of human value, just as the nature is, animals, the soil that so often cried along the centuries from the beginning of conscious history in this area.
My real name is Abraham, the one I was given and that tracks back to this adamah/soil and land that has been given to those I consider as mines because I belong to their history and destiny and clutch to it; others left or deprived, drifted away and quit. Two days ago, I was given a small box of Alcamol (anti-headache and fever) and inside there are pieces of the trunk of the said or so-called terebinth or oak at Mamre.
It is definitely not sure these Mamre's Oaks are the ones "paleo-grandpa & ma" Abraham and Sarah had contemplated. But it makes sense as one of the major tasks I could accomplish was to have a Memra (Mamre Oak and Divine Word) association and seminar that over more than 15 years gathered around 200 persons per week to study the spiritual, psychological and human daily significance of Semantic Hebrew and Aramaic in the Scriptures, Bible and New Testament, Synagogue and Church traditions and the Talmud.
Tammuz is a special month. it starts tomorrow night. A month that deploys in Summer here in our hemisphere and Winter for the South Hemisphere, in South africa. It has attached our genealogies, pedigrees and theological, spiritual, cultural "mental identity" to the Sumerian civilization. The one that showed in Mesopotamia and connected, continues to link - a bit in a desperate way - Ancient Egypt and present-day Iraq, Ancient Babel/Babylone. It extended to Persia and the creed developed by a certain Zaratushtra whose adepts are currently "dying off", though things are not defined with much precision.
All that goes on, Tammuz after Tammuz, i.e. year after year that trace back to specific Middle-Eastern and local Land of Canaan, Land of Israel and the monotheistic traditions. Things and events slide down, slowly and are driven to other regions of the planet.
Still, the newness of Israel allows the gathering-in of special individuals and societal groups in the way the Churches have tried to expand: Jews of all races and tongues, countries, looks and non-Jews as well arrive here to meet the descent of "unknown or unrecognized parentage". Tammuz is the time of the destruction of the Temples, the concealment of the Divine Presence. A Period of return to God because there should be some awareness of transgressing Divine principles or Mitzvot or Commandments.
At the present, we are more embattled in some renewed process of "conscious hatred" (destruction of the First Temple) and "baseless unfounded hatred (destruction of the Second Temple). We are more in a sort of a soup that mixes up all the required ingredients into a hideous and tantamount test to join love and hatred into some unprecised troublesome turbulence. Very close to the tsunamis, earth-quakes... Believers would know that these are only very small signs and that we can surface over the waves with faith and calm.
Other peoples do suffer in terrible ways. They do, especially in this region where the Don Quixotic dream or nightmare of unity and full Love constantly interrogates our brains and conscience so far we think we are humane indeed.
History only starts tomorrow with the numerous shakes that make our societies stumble and hope ahead and beyond any despair. Suffering is at the heart of all living destinees and tomorrow peace does begin, maybe not that much tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow and even later as "tomorrow" means in Arabic "fil buqra", an indefiniteday or period or season, but there is hope beyond hope and comfort must be brought to each individual. It is far more questionable how to do.
The South African turtoise goes ahead, also in the heat because even winter is hot there in some places... slowly, slowly that memory could shape the future we may want to avoid both in blessings and "unknownness".
My real name is Abraham, the one I was given and that tracks back to this adamah/soil and land that has been given to those I consider as mines because I belong to their history and destiny and clutch to it; others left or deprived, drifted away and quit. Two days ago, I was given a small box of Alcamol (anti-headache and fever) and inside there are pieces of the trunk of the said or so-called terebinth or oak at Mamre.
It is definitely not sure these Mamre's Oaks are the ones "paleo-grandpa & ma" Abraham and Sarah had contemplated. But it makes sense as one of the major tasks I could accomplish was to have a Memra (Mamre Oak and Divine Word) association and seminar that over more than 15 years gathered around 200 persons per week to study the spiritual, psychological and human daily significance of Semantic Hebrew and Aramaic in the Scriptures, Bible and New Testament, Synagogue and Church traditions and the Talmud.
Tammuz is a special month. it starts tomorrow night. A month that deploys in Summer here in our hemisphere and Winter for the South Hemisphere, in South africa. It has attached our genealogies, pedigrees and theological, spiritual, cultural "mental identity" to the Sumerian civilization. The one that showed in Mesopotamia and connected, continues to link - a bit in a desperate way - Ancient Egypt and present-day Iraq, Ancient Babel/Babylone. It extended to Persia and the creed developed by a certain Zaratushtra whose adepts are currently "dying off", though things are not defined with much precision.
All that goes on, Tammuz after Tammuz, i.e. year after year that trace back to specific Middle-Eastern and local Land of Canaan, Land of Israel and the monotheistic traditions. Things and events slide down, slowly and are driven to other regions of the planet.
Still, the newness of Israel allows the gathering-in of special individuals and societal groups in the way the Churches have tried to expand: Jews of all races and tongues, countries, looks and non-Jews as well arrive here to meet the descent of "unknown or unrecognized parentage". Tammuz is the time of the destruction of the Temples, the concealment of the Divine Presence. A Period of return to God because there should be some awareness of transgressing Divine principles or Mitzvot or Commandments.
At the present, we are more embattled in some renewed process of "conscious hatred" (destruction of the First Temple) and "baseless unfounded hatred (destruction of the Second Temple). We are more in a sort of a soup that mixes up all the required ingredients into a hideous and tantamount test to join love and hatred into some unprecised troublesome turbulence. Very close to the tsunamis, earth-quakes... Believers would know that these are only very small signs and that we can surface over the waves with faith and calm.
Other peoples do suffer in terrible ways. They do, especially in this region where the Don Quixotic dream or nightmare of unity and full Love constantly interrogates our brains and conscience so far we think we are humane indeed.
History only starts tomorrow with the numerous shakes that make our societies stumble and hope ahead and beyond any despair. Suffering is at the heart of all living destinees and tomorrow peace does begin, maybe not that much tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow and even later as "tomorrow" means in Arabic "fil buqra", an indefiniteday or period or season, but there is hope beyond hope and comfort must be brought to each individual. It is far more questionable how to do.
The South African turtoise goes ahead, also in the heat because even winter is hot there in some places... slowly, slowly that memory could shape the future we may want to avoid both in blessings and "unknownness".
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Who is hot and who is in the heat?
The heat is waving here and there tough and dry air. In Jerusalem, the air can still be very slightly refreshed towards the end of the day by a swift wind that remains still imperceptible in the bigger part of the country. One of the consequences of such a heat is a sort of "siesta - hesychia (Greek)" atmosphere. Either people would really have a nap in the afternoon or some slowdown of their activities. Sleeping - not only to have a nap - is a major creative activity along the Great Sea (Mediterranean Sea) that resembles to some relaxing sojourn, for a limited number of hours, in the belly of the Big Fish, supposedly the "whale", that hosted Jonah before he went to Nineveh (Mesopotamia).He was onboard a ship when a terrible tempest broke up and the sailors got so scared that they suspected one of them, namely cast the lots and got to the idea that the "Jonah the Hebrew" was the initiator of the storm. Jonah thus declared when he was heaved overboard after they had cast the lots: "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of Heaven, who made both sea and land - Ivri anochi veHaShem Elokei hashamayim ani yare" (Jonah 1:9). The seamen cried out to the Lord an intriguing prayer: "Lord, do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O Lord, have brought this about"(Jonah1:14). The Book of Jonah is read every Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement as the reminder that Jonah, against his will to begin with, accepted to proclaim the yoke of Heaven and after having reposed in the Big Fish throughout the city of Nineveh that converted to God.
As we enter the month of Tammuz on Friday 15th of June, we shall go along the days of heat. They pave the move to the penitential act of conversion: the destructions of Jerusalem, deportation to Babylon, the extermination of the two Temples. There are different days of fast during that period, that starts on Tammuz 15th and leads to Av 9th (Destruction of the Temples).
How curious that this area of the world is so inhabited by an intense and effective power of death. It is maybe more sensitive because of the message of hope and resurrection, afterlife, world-to-come that spread from Jerusalem and Eretz Israel till the ends of the world. As if heat could be a sign of life and, at the same time, call to quarrels and fencing hatred. It is thus quite amazing how millions of people have fought in the name of God in this area and got embattled in harsh conflicts, full of passions, bloodsheds, assassinations. The cause of God is like a permanent war against death. Still, deathly eradication and destruction, extinction and extirpation from this world would seem the most fascinating and appealing trace of divine Presence “underneath”. It is correct that we live very strange times of mental strangulation and ruthless sophisticated manslaughter in the Middle-East. We are living in a region where there is just a switch between life and death. It is obvious everywhere, a bit more here. The rule is simple and tragic or, on the contrary, magnificent: every minute should be a full breath of gratitude or marvel, down-to-earth gladness. The paradox of Eretz Israel, at this point, is that the society is exceptionally dynamic although it lacks real time of peace and suspension of constant death threats. There can be mobs in Paris and its suburbs, at times terrorists in Europe and in particular in Germany or Italy. Any guy can so quietly enter any supermarket in the United States – it is even a sort of recurrent symptom – and just shoot down the clientele and the employees, the manpower; thus, this a different attitude toward the real challenges of life and death. South American people can be totally fascinated by death. A famous Russian Jewish film avant-garde found a shelter in Mexico during World War II because he was married to a Mexican painter, a hot-tempered colorful native. She actually used to clash with him and threatened to kill him with a huge knife, a dramatic scene – just because she could not refrain this profound call for blood that never happened. Whatever unbelievable killings were committed during the conquista of Latin America, in particular by the Churches, we can only be stunned by the numerous and century-long human sacrifices offered by the Amerindians who used to remove the hearts of the victims as a sign of life-giving! The same occurred in Africa, Asia with repulsive savage masochism.
The Israeli society is at pain with a kind of uncertainty. Yes, we ought to back the survival of Israel, but in a way that is so diverse and unclear that everybody could think s/he is entitled to do anything except harming his/her own self. Or not really protest in case of obvious violations of human rights.
Abraham was a wandering Aramean (Deut. 26:5). He used to sit “b’chom hayom – in the very heat of the day”, under an open tent and to welcome those who were passing along the way (Gen. 18:1). He was peacefully giving hospitality to those who needed a rest when the heat was reaching its peak. On the other hand, Saul slaughtered the Ammonites till the heat of the day (1 Samuel 11:11; cf. 2 Sam. 4:5). Heat can also be a matter of remuneration as in Jesus’ parable to give one talent pay to all the workers, those who bore the burden of the day and those who came for on hour (Matthew 20:11; cf.Avodah Zarah 10b).
“Cham = hot, hot-tempered, warm, boiling” is a basic Semitic and thus Hebrew word, rooted in “H-H-M – hot, warm, to boil”, mainly referring, in the Talmud, to water and cleansing activities or to special colors (as “red”, the same as today some women would love to have red hair or, in between, some strawberry dye close to red). It may relate to rituals: “The bathers began to heat the water on the Shabbat (Shabbat 40a). Teaching: “Warm yourself by the fire of the scholars and try to associate with them (Avot 2,10). “Hammam = Turkish baths, the sort of sensual Oriental vaporous bath and massaging” that is upgraded in our SPA’s.
In terms of heating as healing processes, “chacham” turns to “chum = heat and heal, excite” as also “to be hot, covet, carnally excited”. “I had a desire for his embrace” (Niddah 20b) and “He got so hot that he was (healed) by his pollution, though not once but again and again (Niddah 43b). On the other hand, “This is a land which all great men were anxious to possess (Tanhumah Mishpatim 17) connects carnal desires and hotline with a deeper feeling of anxiety and insecurity, which is quite frequent.
The word is very intriguing, indeed. “Chum” swindles from heat to departure. “Arouse the feeling of the people when delivering my funeral address for my soul (I) shall be present” (Shabbat 153a, about a righteous man because people were speaking warmly of his memory). “b’khol chumma’o = in his full heat = youth”. Curiously, this heat that is the sign of daytime and life dynamics, including confrontations, implies, in the Semitic realm, some need for limitation of space and accessibility.
The Old City of Jerusalem is partly surrounded by the “chomot – Walls (of the Old City)” that are much frequented from the different places where one can climb up and down along the Gates. We have a very poor historic and cultural memory; say, we prefer not to know. From the time of Abraham to Jericho, everything in this region was a matter of fortification, walls of protection. And each time, throughout history, the main issue is to know how to cool down the fever (chamah), quench excitement (chamad /chamda) and reduce anger (chemah, cf. Daniel 3:13.19). “It is not possible to live without (moral) protection”, states Talmud Yevamot 62b (cf. Jeremiah 31:21). “Chomah = fortification” is currently used in Talmud Megillah (1:1- 5b) to designate walls or a “protecting lake” that serves as fortifications. This is something we do not accept easily and that is totally misunderstood abroad for various reasons. The essence of Judaism is to be in need of protection. Firstly, Jewishness requires to be protected by God or the Divine Presence, the Shechinah. Then, there is a permanent lack of comprehension. Pious Jews, the world of “Jews in prayers” cannot mix in any way with the non-Jewish or Gentile world, and somehow some part of secularized Judaism. This is even ridiculous to pretend that a “Non-Jew” can enter that world freely and deliberately. There is an immeasurable gap between pious Jewishness and any connection between this society segment and the Non-Jews. There is an earth-to-heaven line that cuts it as an invisible wall of fortification. Something we often see here in microclimates and rain: rain on your left, no rain on your right! But people often misunderstand that because they think in terms of framing and ghettos created by hatred against pious Jewries. Decades ago, Fr. Marcel Dubois, a Dominican, who was the first Christian to teach Christian Philosophy at the Hebrew University, wittingly answered that “every Catholic congregation were usually fenced in”, i.e. that those who are not members of that specific community are not allowed to enter the bigger part of the monastery, or very rarely. We never think in terms of “positive” separation and thus often consider situation with much framed points of view.
“In the very heat of day”, Abraham was pretty much exposed to killings, alienation. His tent was open. In this region, we are still living on the pattern of this radical “cham/chum”. Are there some linguistic “reality words”? “Cham = father-in-law” (from the same root) and “chamot = mother-in-law”. This is amusing because this parentage is supposedly very inquisitive and even nosy in their children’s lives. Some are delicious; and good that they exist because, their grandchildren’s parents often have to rely on them financially and in learning how to reach adulthood. There is a meaningful example of the presence of such a Semitism in the Gospel when Jesus started preaching and met with Shimon-Kaipha whose “mother-in-law was laying sick with a fever” (Aramaic “eshata – fire” lines with Greek “puressousa –had a fire = fever”). In Hebrew, the specificity of the “chom/cham” is present twice, i.e. redundantly : chamuto = his mother-in law, “chom = fever”. And the “wall of sickness” is lifted up. (Mark 1:29).
There is a stimulating deutero-canonical (apocryphal) Book – not recognized by the Jewish and Protestant Bible, but accepted and rather widespread in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches: Tobit; a fragment of the book was found at Qumran. It deals with God’s Tovah/tobiyah, goodness. Tobit is a kohen (priest) who strangely spends his time collecting and burying the dead slain by Sennacherib in Nineveh. At the present, it seems bizarre because the kohanim are not allowed to be in contact with the dead. The point is that it had not always been like that in the Jewish tradition even if we must accept the present development. When the Temple was existent, the priests were offering the daily sacrifices. They had no properties and no tribe territory. They were given the charities of the sacrifices. And thus, they were indeed in contact with burnt-offerings, i.e. with dead animals slaughtered for the sanctification of the Name.They were making their living with dead animals.
Our messy situation in the Middle-East is going through fire, anger, fever and irrationality. It is marked by law infringements and lack of true respect for human beings and souls. Abraham’s hospitality in the very heat of the day at Mamre’s Oaks (Marc Chagall’s painting is the icon I chose for this blog) seems to be a real mitzvah as also to assist all the dead that multiply and loosen unclear fences that pull off at the moment.
av aleksnadr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
As we enter the month of Tammuz on Friday 15th of June, we shall go along the days of heat. They pave the move to the penitential act of conversion: the destructions of Jerusalem, deportation to Babylon, the extermination of the two Temples. There are different days of fast during that period, that starts on Tammuz 15th and leads to Av 9th (Destruction of the Temples).
How curious that this area of the world is so inhabited by an intense and effective power of death. It is maybe more sensitive because of the message of hope and resurrection, afterlife, world-to-come that spread from Jerusalem and Eretz Israel till the ends of the world. As if heat could be a sign of life and, at the same time, call to quarrels and fencing hatred. It is thus quite amazing how millions of people have fought in the name of God in this area and got embattled in harsh conflicts, full of passions, bloodsheds, assassinations. The cause of God is like a permanent war against death. Still, deathly eradication and destruction, extinction and extirpation from this world would seem the most fascinating and appealing trace of divine Presence “underneath”. It is correct that we live very strange times of mental strangulation and ruthless sophisticated manslaughter in the Middle-East. We are living in a region where there is just a switch between life and death. It is obvious everywhere, a bit more here. The rule is simple and tragic or, on the contrary, magnificent: every minute should be a full breath of gratitude or marvel, down-to-earth gladness. The paradox of Eretz Israel, at this point, is that the society is exceptionally dynamic although it lacks real time of peace and suspension of constant death threats. There can be mobs in Paris and its suburbs, at times terrorists in Europe and in particular in Germany or Italy. Any guy can so quietly enter any supermarket in the United States – it is even a sort of recurrent symptom – and just shoot down the clientele and the employees, the manpower; thus, this a different attitude toward the real challenges of life and death. South American people can be totally fascinated by death. A famous Russian Jewish film avant-garde found a shelter in Mexico during World War II because he was married to a Mexican painter, a hot-tempered colorful native. She actually used to clash with him and threatened to kill him with a huge knife, a dramatic scene – just because she could not refrain this profound call for blood that never happened. Whatever unbelievable killings were committed during the conquista of Latin America, in particular by the Churches, we can only be stunned by the numerous and century-long human sacrifices offered by the Amerindians who used to remove the hearts of the victims as a sign of life-giving! The same occurred in Africa, Asia with repulsive savage masochism.
The Israeli society is at pain with a kind of uncertainty. Yes, we ought to back the survival of Israel, but in a way that is so diverse and unclear that everybody could think s/he is entitled to do anything except harming his/her own self. Or not really protest in case of obvious violations of human rights.
Abraham was a wandering Aramean (Deut. 26:5). He used to sit “b’chom hayom – in the very heat of the day”, under an open tent and to welcome those who were passing along the way (Gen. 18:1). He was peacefully giving hospitality to those who needed a rest when the heat was reaching its peak. On the other hand, Saul slaughtered the Ammonites till the heat of the day (1 Samuel 11:11; cf. 2 Sam. 4:5). Heat can also be a matter of remuneration as in Jesus’ parable to give one talent pay to all the workers, those who bore the burden of the day and those who came for on hour (Matthew 20:11; cf.Avodah Zarah 10b).
“Cham = hot, hot-tempered, warm, boiling” is a basic Semitic and thus Hebrew word, rooted in “H-H-M – hot, warm, to boil”, mainly referring, in the Talmud, to water and cleansing activities or to special colors (as “red”, the same as today some women would love to have red hair or, in between, some strawberry dye close to red). It may relate to rituals: “The bathers began to heat the water on the Shabbat (Shabbat 40a). Teaching: “Warm yourself by the fire of the scholars and try to associate with them (Avot 2,10). “Hammam = Turkish baths, the sort of sensual Oriental vaporous bath and massaging” that is upgraded in our SPA’s.
In terms of heating as healing processes, “chacham” turns to “chum = heat and heal, excite” as also “to be hot, covet, carnally excited”. “I had a desire for his embrace” (Niddah 20b) and “He got so hot that he was (healed) by his pollution, though not once but again and again (Niddah 43b). On the other hand, “This is a land which all great men were anxious to possess (Tanhumah Mishpatim 17) connects carnal desires and hotline with a deeper feeling of anxiety and insecurity, which is quite frequent.
The word is very intriguing, indeed. “Chum” swindles from heat to departure. “Arouse the feeling of the people when delivering my funeral address for my soul (I) shall be present” (Shabbat 153a, about a righteous man because people were speaking warmly of his memory). “b’khol chumma’o = in his full heat = youth”. Curiously, this heat that is the sign of daytime and life dynamics, including confrontations, implies, in the Semitic realm, some need for limitation of space and accessibility.
The Old City of Jerusalem is partly surrounded by the “chomot – Walls (of the Old City)” that are much frequented from the different places where one can climb up and down along the Gates. We have a very poor historic and cultural memory; say, we prefer not to know. From the time of Abraham to Jericho, everything in this region was a matter of fortification, walls of protection. And each time, throughout history, the main issue is to know how to cool down the fever (chamah), quench excitement (chamad /chamda) and reduce anger (chemah, cf. Daniel 3:13.19). “It is not possible to live without (moral) protection”, states Talmud Yevamot 62b (cf. Jeremiah 31:21). “Chomah = fortification” is currently used in Talmud Megillah (1:1- 5b) to designate walls or a “protecting lake” that serves as fortifications. This is something we do not accept easily and that is totally misunderstood abroad for various reasons. The essence of Judaism is to be in need of protection. Firstly, Jewishness requires to be protected by God or the Divine Presence, the Shechinah. Then, there is a permanent lack of comprehension. Pious Jews, the world of “Jews in prayers” cannot mix in any way with the non-Jewish or Gentile world, and somehow some part of secularized Judaism. This is even ridiculous to pretend that a “Non-Jew” can enter that world freely and deliberately. There is an immeasurable gap between pious Jewishness and any connection between this society segment and the Non-Jews. There is an earth-to-heaven line that cuts it as an invisible wall of fortification. Something we often see here in microclimates and rain: rain on your left, no rain on your right! But people often misunderstand that because they think in terms of framing and ghettos created by hatred against pious Jewries. Decades ago, Fr. Marcel Dubois, a Dominican, who was the first Christian to teach Christian Philosophy at the Hebrew University, wittingly answered that “every Catholic congregation were usually fenced in”, i.e. that those who are not members of that specific community are not allowed to enter the bigger part of the monastery, or very rarely. We never think in terms of “positive” separation and thus often consider situation with much framed points of view.
“In the very heat of day”, Abraham was pretty much exposed to killings, alienation. His tent was open. In this region, we are still living on the pattern of this radical “cham/chum”. Are there some linguistic “reality words”? “Cham = father-in-law” (from the same root) and “chamot = mother-in-law”. This is amusing because this parentage is supposedly very inquisitive and even nosy in their children’s lives. Some are delicious; and good that they exist because, their grandchildren’s parents often have to rely on them financially and in learning how to reach adulthood. There is a meaningful example of the presence of such a Semitism in the Gospel when Jesus started preaching and met with Shimon-Kaipha whose “mother-in-law was laying sick with a fever” (Aramaic “eshata – fire” lines with Greek “puressousa –had a fire = fever”). In Hebrew, the specificity of the “chom/cham” is present twice, i.e. redundantly : chamuto = his mother-in law, “chom = fever”. And the “wall of sickness” is lifted up. (Mark 1:29).
There is a stimulating deutero-canonical (apocryphal) Book – not recognized by the Jewish and Protestant Bible, but accepted and rather widespread in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches: Tobit; a fragment of the book was found at Qumran. It deals with God’s Tovah/tobiyah, goodness. Tobit is a kohen (priest) who strangely spends his time collecting and burying the dead slain by Sennacherib in Nineveh. At the present, it seems bizarre because the kohanim are not allowed to be in contact with the dead. The point is that it had not always been like that in the Jewish tradition even if we must accept the present development. When the Temple was existent, the priests were offering the daily sacrifices. They had no properties and no tribe territory. They were given the charities of the sacrifices. And thus, they were indeed in contact with burnt-offerings, i.e. with dead animals slaughtered for the sanctification of the Name.They were making their living with dead animals.
Our messy situation in the Middle-East is going through fire, anger, fever and irrationality. It is marked by law infringements and lack of true respect for human beings and souls. Abraham’s hospitality in the very heat of the day at Mamre’s Oaks (Marc Chagall’s painting is the icon I chose for this blog) seems to be a real mitzvah as also to assist all the dead that multiply and loosen unclear fences that pull off at the moment.
av aleksnadr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
Thursday, June 14, 2012
On the last day of the feast of the Lights - Jerusalem
On the last day of the feast of the Light-Jerusalem
"Dancing queen" or what!? at the corner of the street, Direction Blue to the Holy Sepulcher via the Coptic houses from Jaffa Gate; here alone, she came to be surrounded by crowds of all possible Israelis and visitors. The last picture of the Feast of the Light; next week, i.e. on Sunday, new events will start in different places. I took the picture as the sadran/סדרן - steward and security man asked me to which Church I belong. He firstly though of the Copts. I told him always to look at the hats: they make the difference as usually explain to which denomination we belong. The conversation was very free as we together also guided the visitors. He was from Jerusalem and his co-worker was obviously from the Soviet Union.
We turned to Russian and he told me that he was from Nikolaiev, near Odessa down on the Black Sea; we were "zemliaki-земляки/of the same earth and city, compatriots"! It evolved into Ukrainian and some Yiddish and we noted the changes that had happened in the course of the years for the feast. Undoubtedly, lots of Jews and Arabs came together and could share and speak.
A sort of short encounter that only shows they know they have to live together, volens nolens. This is why it is so catching to get into the groups and the people were nice this year. The natural arrogance or chutzpah was on air, of course, but so many people were glad to ask people they never meet in their daily life. Frankly, in the Old City, the Christians do not meet with anybody except the same tribes they perfectly know. The natives - Arab Christians do cope with the Israelis outside of the Old City bec. they work outside, esp. the women but also men who love to go and frequent the new "Jewish" areas, not only Mamilla, but outside Jerusalem till Tel Aviv, Eilat, Haifa. People are on the move and we could feel it clearly this year during the feast of the Light that is totally secular. People come, get a program but still no explanations. They do not know the history of the places they walk through.
The Arabs who came to visit - just as the Jews from the whole of the country - were more back-laid and did not speak that much in general. Muslim families, happy to buy ice-creams or other accessories. This year the Israeli visitors loved to connect. I spent some time talking about the history of a place, a building, a street and for the first time in years the discussion directly started in Hebrew or in Russian. Surprisingly many young "Russian" couples did speak Hebrew together and had switched to the language without some exceptions, usually about food or special matters.
There were some clashes, but few. Some shops closed down, true, but they usually close rather early in the area. Protest? Lack of interest; this is more probable because when the locals want to close down, they just close, period! They are often asked or commanded to close quickly by the Muslim organizations...
In some shops and areas, it is striking to see how the datiim/pious Jews, now always Orthodox Jews but still, freely pass through the streets and spontaneously discuss with the Arab shop-keepers. There is a sort of "installed" familiarity and habit to get together. It does not mean that the problems and "alienation/estrangement" does not exist, nor some aggressivity. Basically this go ahead. It also depends on how we all behave and apprehend such "exceptional annual cross roads".
The absence of the Church members as such and the Christians as such is a matter that will be interesting to be followed-up in the coming years. Nonetheless, many Catholic sisters/nuns were crossing here and there. More the Western ones; the Easterners are not that likely to mix with all these visitors. But is keeping away a good and "clever" way. Maybe a reluctance that is so difficult to overcome... it may also destroy. While life is marching in... av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel
The absence of the Church members as such and the Christians as such is a matter that will be interesting to be followed-up in the coming years. Nonetheless, many Catholic sisters/nuns were crossing here and there. More the Western ones; the Easterners are not that likely to mix with all these visitors. But is keeping away a good and "clever" way. Maybe a reluctance that is so difficult to overcome... it may also destroy. While life is marching in... av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel
Monday, June 11, 2012
On the fourth day of the Light Of Jerusalem Festival
A very special impression this year; to begin with, there are more and more visitors. They come the same way: groups from different parts of the country and the Jerusalem suburbs. Same youth, young and elderly, couples, Jews and arabs. More and more Arab families from outside of Jerusalem who are likely to speak Hebrew. There are moments, circumstances like these when people are on a sort of child-like kindergarten party and there is a cease-fire though the fire changes and ceased to be what the others may think. Alterity changes. Reluctance changes. The Arab girl that lost her family came to me as I was sitting between Jewish moms and Arab youngsters and the Police spoke to all and finally the mom and the dad came and they spoke perfect Hebrew though could keep on in Arabic. This is new. The "datim, pious, Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox" are astounded to see a priest, but this year there are also Catholic sisters. They did not show last year.
I am convinced that two thousand years ago, the Early Christians - who also were good are splitting among themselves - would have taken part in the festival and not only to try to convince that Jesus is... Just they were evident participants of the society. Today, the estrangement is huge, tantamount. The Christians think from abroad and not from the future of the Israeli reality. Some get into this new society. They do not come to the keys of a society that is also and mysteriously a part of the Church or at least the Great Assembly.
The local youths and young generation progressively share the same sorts of problems in daily life, economics, societal affairs. They look forward to how to stay or go and this concerns both Jews and Arabs.There are always strong-minded individuals or groups on all sides to contest and fight back, refuse to cope together. In these days, as years pass and the festivals take place, everywhere all components of Israeli and Arab peoples do meet more and more to visit "their" sites. Each has "their sites", but at least it is also very clear that, in this part of the Old City, the action is positive. It may take a long time before reporters and religious people accept to speak of positive aspects.
In this sense, it is evident that Jerusalem and the Old City plays an immense bridging role for the future and this future does not depend anymore on the Christian or the multi-deniminational trends. This requires to come back to the fundamentals of the Teaching.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
"https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3925573014233.2165044.1126861596&type=1&l=5e716d3b50"
I am convinced that two thousand years ago, the Early Christians - who also were good are splitting among themselves - would have taken part in the festival and not only to try to convince that Jesus is... Just they were evident participants of the society. Today, the estrangement is huge, tantamount. The Christians think from abroad and not from the future of the Israeli reality. Some get into this new society. They do not come to the keys of a society that is also and mysteriously a part of the Church or at least the Great Assembly.
The local youths and young generation progressively share the same sorts of problems in daily life, economics, societal affairs. They look forward to how to stay or go and this concerns both Jews and Arabs.There are always strong-minded individuals or groups on all sides to contest and fight back, refuse to cope together. In these days, as years pass and the festivals take place, everywhere all components of Israeli and Arab peoples do meet more and more to visit "their" sites. Each has "their sites", but at least it is also very clear that, in this part of the Old City, the action is positive. It may take a long time before reporters and religious people accept to speak of positive aspects.
In this sense, it is evident that Jerusalem and the Old City plays an immense bridging role for the future and this future does not depend anymore on the Christian or the multi-deniminational trends. This requires to come back to the fundamentals of the Teaching.
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
"https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3925573014233.2165044.1126861596&type=1&l=5e716d3b50"
Friday, June 1, 2012
Divine hugs to warm up spirits and hearts
We are on Shabbat Naso\נשא in which is read the longest reading portion in the Book of Bemidbar-במדבר/Numbers 4:21-7:89. It deals with the laws governing the service inside the Tent of the Meeting, also the status of “nazir\נזיר – nazarite” (who goes away or aside from the society, abstains from drinking wine. He gets God’s crown on his head and a total spirit of freedom.
This has always been a major life choice in Judaism, but too often confronted with Christian monastics views as lifeless. R. Shimon bar Yochai was a nazirite – so? Longhair down to thighs – eyes of burning interiority or hippy-yuppie trekking to some isolated mount (Bhutan as Phuket island in Thailand are en vogue with a drop in Thailand). Eastern Orthodox monks have the same look while, in the West, shaven skulls are humbly “clean-cut”. Jewish ancient nazarites as Christian monks are called to control their desires and get thus free – also from counting and polishing their hair constantly.
We often seem to ask the right question: whom God decided to chose and to whom did He gave or more accurately did He entrust the Torah and the Oral Law? At the present, the competition is just wild, nuts, berserk, frantic, infuriated. True. Shavuot\שבועות – together with Christian new wave Western style Pentecost – are bonkers (cf. British naval slang: slightly drunken” with some touch of lightly crazy sexual fire).
We have the same in Jerusalem for Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles. But it is far more under control. Charismatic Shavuot and Western Christian New wave believers dance, scream, rock ‘n roll Hebrew psalms, speak in tongues. Long robes, white to orange through all sorts of rainbow truly beautiful clothes, makeup of essential products, shofar, harps, lyres, cymbals, and there it goes “Hallelujah, Blessed be the Lord, Baruch HaShem, yom-yom\ברוך ה' יום יום – everyday”.
Right, Israel pathetically needs supporters or just feels the nation needs contacts, desperately and joyously at the same time. Then, we face an ethical issue. Can we play the fool with God Himself? The show can be gorgeously joyous; the same people would not miss their flight to some other continent and this ecstatic blowout will change to desperate rave-in from one airport to another. In the meanwhile, they would cross – but not meet – Orthodox Jews (they often give them a spit or two), Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia (long-beards and hair covers for women, Slava Tebe, Gospodi/Слава Тебе Господи (exactly the same as our “Baruch HaShem…).
This year a large Brazilian group of visitors; it is going to be winter time there and it is better to warm up here. No. This year, “the Big Hug”, apparently run by some Dutch-speakers from Belgium seems to fade away as years pass. Not a Shavuot/Pentecost-linked movement. They met on the net. They could gather and get acquainted in Jerusalem. Indeed, the dilemma’s are basically the same: what to do with your mouth? To do or listen? Or, to speak and repeat the same truisms, with more or less conviction? We love to hug in Israel. Shoulders call upon shoulders and cheeks kiss other tanned fresh cheeks sometimes with a lot of friendship and joyfully.
This very American behavior was also largely development by late Diana, the Princess of Wales. We need warmth, people need warmth, Jews need warmth and even the goyim (Nations) need warmth. There is really something like shravi\שרבי (wilderness wind) pep and dash these days. Is it mainly due to the development of conflicts at every level of the ruling leaderships, killings, snipers, bulldozers, tanks? “Dash\ד''ש = דרישת שלום” is the word in Hebrew for this hugging kissing warmth that makes you feel a “chosen” for a short while.
“Hug” comes from Old Norse “hugur – soul, mood, thought” – “hugsa – to think, remember, mind, comfort” – Germ. “Hegen – to cherish, cf. to make a hedge”. I recently met a nice group of sociologists or so that reflected in Dutch on "verheugen/memorizing and thinking and get clsoe"“Dash” is Hebrew is just sweet; it was “dashdesh/dashesh\דשדש-דשש – to stamp upon”… “tramp a drunken person”, states Targum Isaiah 19:14.
When the Spirit was spread over Jerusalem at Pentecost, it is said that people looked a bit “drunk” (Acts of Apostles 2:13). This group gathered with a real question – nothing to do with porn or sex: human beings are supposedly 37,2C in the morning and can show some comforting warmth, which became also a psychological assistance method in this country.
Incidentally, during the Eastern Byzantine Divine Liturgy, the priest pours hot water into the cup of red wine (cf. blood) because Jesus is considered as risen from the dead and thus has a “humane” temperature (besides all other cultural explanations).
Still, the reading portion of the week does not only focus on all that. Firstly, there is the verse of Bemidbar/Numbers 6:22-27 called the “Birkat Kohanim\ברכת כהנים – Priestly Blessing”. The blessing is recited daily and has been throughout the age in most peculiar places of the world.
This year, we want to climb up the Temple Mount. Then we must be aware that this blessing is the last priestly and sacrificial act perpetually performed by the Jews and inherited from the Temple Service.
It implicitly extends God’s blessing to all the Nations and the kohanim are totally overshadowed by their prayer-shawls, they separate their fingers to let the Shekhinah come through and reach out to the people. Chosen? Yes, but not for themselves. Someway, spirituality always stumbles between low-profiled humility and high-tech arrogance.
Luther had translated with a rare exactitude the Massoretic verse of Num. 7:89: “Moses…would hear the Voice “spoken him - meddaber elav\מדבר אליו –redend zu sich” from above the cover (kaporet) of the Tent”. This is a grammatical quiz that is very intriguing. R. Leibowitz traced back to Maimonides as to Rashi. “meddaber\מדבר” is a reflexive “mitdaber\מתדבר, shortened into meddaber\מדבר”. It means that God was speaking to Himself when meeting with Moses. This is the quiz, a permanent quiz.
Everything comes from Him and returns to Him (cf. John 13:3). Mishley\משלי/Proverbs16:4 stated likewise that “God makes everything for Himself”. Thus, it means that from Moses to us and ahead of us God only discusses with Himself and shares what humans are able to understand, cope with, deny at times or rediscover fortuitously.
This Saturday-Sunday, the Eastern Orthodox and local Oriental/ancient Christian Churches will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and the Spreading of the Holy Spirit. One of the very interesting decisions taken by the Roman Catholic Church during the Second Council of Vatican (1965) was to reintroduce, as a consequence of common studies and dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, various prayers to the Holy Spirit during the liturgies.
We pretend to commemorate the Second Vatican Council. Pretend because it is not possible to shorten the decision to the sole Catholic and Latin world and act as if the whole of the faithful should do the same. Is it wise and "meaningful" to have an international so-called "interfaith broadcasting" at a minor Oriental Catholic church in Jerusalem just on the day the "Mother of all Churches" and the Orthodox plus Oriental Churches celebrate the Giving of the Holy Spirit in their own communities and according to their "most venerable traditions"... and more than that on this year as it falls on the celebration day of SS Constantine and Helena, those who "regulated" Christianity from the finding of the True Cross down to our days... Simple goodwill does not suffice, it may rebuke in times of hardships. The Spirit unites, does not divide according to our "wandering desires".
Oriental Churches have always been very Spirit-oriented as the “Ruah Elokim merachefet\רוח אלהים מרחפת, the Spirit of God was sweeping as the eagle over the water” (Gen. 1:2). Pentecost is Greek for Arabic Hamsin (sounds like sharav!) = 50. It seems to be confusing for some Jews abroad. The Russians call the Feast “Most Holy Troytza/Пресвятая Троица” which underscores the very complex definition of the Trinity vs. One God. Monday is more specifically the “Day of the Holy Spirit”.
Somehow, Shavuot and Pentecost, in multi-faceted ways in the Jewish and Christian traditions, point out that we are reinvigorated by God’s Gifts Who blows into our nostrils the soul of warmth and comfort. Maybe we get to cuddling hugs that warm us up, eh like good pastries, look around and have a question: “Can we tame each other, which means that we can respect each other and the immense value of our being alive?”
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
This has always been a major life choice in Judaism, but too often confronted with Christian monastics views as lifeless. R. Shimon bar Yochai was a nazirite – so? Longhair down to thighs – eyes of burning interiority or hippy-yuppie trekking to some isolated mount (Bhutan as Phuket island in Thailand are en vogue with a drop in Thailand). Eastern Orthodox monks have the same look while, in the West, shaven skulls are humbly “clean-cut”. Jewish ancient nazarites as Christian monks are called to control their desires and get thus free – also from counting and polishing their hair constantly.
We often seem to ask the right question: whom God decided to chose and to whom did He gave or more accurately did He entrust the Torah and the Oral Law? At the present, the competition is just wild, nuts, berserk, frantic, infuriated. True. Shavuot\שבועות – together with Christian new wave Western style Pentecost – are bonkers (cf. British naval slang: slightly drunken” with some touch of lightly crazy sexual fire).
We have the same in Jerusalem for Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles. But it is far more under control. Charismatic Shavuot and Western Christian New wave believers dance, scream, rock ‘n roll Hebrew psalms, speak in tongues. Long robes, white to orange through all sorts of rainbow truly beautiful clothes, makeup of essential products, shofar, harps, lyres, cymbals, and there it goes “Hallelujah, Blessed be the Lord, Baruch HaShem, yom-yom\ברוך ה' יום יום – everyday”.
Right, Israel pathetically needs supporters or just feels the nation needs contacts, desperately and joyously at the same time. Then, we face an ethical issue. Can we play the fool with God Himself? The show can be gorgeously joyous; the same people would not miss their flight to some other continent and this ecstatic blowout will change to desperate rave-in from one airport to another. In the meanwhile, they would cross – but not meet – Orthodox Jews (they often give them a spit or two), Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia (long-beards and hair covers for women, Slava Tebe, Gospodi/Слава Тебе Господи (exactly the same as our “Baruch HaShem…).
This year a large Brazilian group of visitors; it is going to be winter time there and it is better to warm up here. No. This year, “the Big Hug”, apparently run by some Dutch-speakers from Belgium seems to fade away as years pass. Not a Shavuot/Pentecost-linked movement. They met on the net. They could gather and get acquainted in Jerusalem. Indeed, the dilemma’s are basically the same: what to do with your mouth? To do or listen? Or, to speak and repeat the same truisms, with more or less conviction? We love to hug in Israel. Shoulders call upon shoulders and cheeks kiss other tanned fresh cheeks sometimes with a lot of friendship and joyfully.
This very American behavior was also largely development by late Diana, the Princess of Wales. We need warmth, people need warmth, Jews need warmth and even the goyim (Nations) need warmth. There is really something like shravi\שרבי (wilderness wind) pep and dash these days. Is it mainly due to the development of conflicts at every level of the ruling leaderships, killings, snipers, bulldozers, tanks? “Dash\ד''ש = דרישת שלום” is the word in Hebrew for this hugging kissing warmth that makes you feel a “chosen” for a short while.
“Hug” comes from Old Norse “hugur – soul, mood, thought” – “hugsa – to think, remember, mind, comfort” – Germ. “Hegen – to cherish, cf. to make a hedge”. I recently met a nice group of sociologists or so that reflected in Dutch on "verheugen/memorizing and thinking and get clsoe"“Dash” is Hebrew is just sweet; it was “dashdesh/dashesh\דשדש-דשש – to stamp upon”… “tramp a drunken person”, states Targum Isaiah 19:14.
When the Spirit was spread over Jerusalem at Pentecost, it is said that people looked a bit “drunk” (Acts of Apostles 2:13). This group gathered with a real question – nothing to do with porn or sex: human beings are supposedly 37,2C in the morning and can show some comforting warmth, which became also a psychological assistance method in this country.
Incidentally, during the Eastern Byzantine Divine Liturgy, the priest pours hot water into the cup of red wine (cf. blood) because Jesus is considered as risen from the dead and thus has a “humane” temperature (besides all other cultural explanations).
Still, the reading portion of the week does not only focus on all that. Firstly, there is the verse of Bemidbar/Numbers 6:22-27 called the “Birkat Kohanim\ברכת כהנים – Priestly Blessing”. The blessing is recited daily and has been throughout the age in most peculiar places of the world.
This year, we want to climb up the Temple Mount. Then we must be aware that this blessing is the last priestly and sacrificial act perpetually performed by the Jews and inherited from the Temple Service.
It implicitly extends God’s blessing to all the Nations and the kohanim are totally overshadowed by their prayer-shawls, they separate their fingers to let the Shekhinah come through and reach out to the people. Chosen? Yes, but not for themselves. Someway, spirituality always stumbles between low-profiled humility and high-tech arrogance.
Luther had translated with a rare exactitude the Massoretic verse of Num. 7:89: “Moses…would hear the Voice “spoken him - meddaber elav\מדבר אליו –redend zu sich” from above the cover (kaporet) of the Tent”. This is a grammatical quiz that is very intriguing. R. Leibowitz traced back to Maimonides as to Rashi. “meddaber\מדבר” is a reflexive “mitdaber\מתדבר, shortened into meddaber\מדבר”. It means that God was speaking to Himself when meeting with Moses. This is the quiz, a permanent quiz.
Everything comes from Him and returns to Him (cf. John 13:3). Mishley\משלי/Proverbs16:4 stated likewise that “God makes everything for Himself”. Thus, it means that from Moses to us and ahead of us God only discusses with Himself and shares what humans are able to understand, cope with, deny at times or rediscover fortuitously.
This Saturday-Sunday, the Eastern Orthodox and local Oriental/ancient Christian Churches will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and the Spreading of the Holy Spirit. One of the very interesting decisions taken by the Roman Catholic Church during the Second Council of Vatican (1965) was to reintroduce, as a consequence of common studies and dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, various prayers to the Holy Spirit during the liturgies.
We pretend to commemorate the Second Vatican Council. Pretend because it is not possible to shorten the decision to the sole Catholic and Latin world and act as if the whole of the faithful should do the same. Is it wise and "meaningful" to have an international so-called "interfaith broadcasting" at a minor Oriental Catholic church in Jerusalem just on the day the "Mother of all Churches" and the Orthodox plus Oriental Churches celebrate the Giving of the Holy Spirit in their own communities and according to their "most venerable traditions"... and more than that on this year as it falls on the celebration day of SS Constantine and Helena, those who "regulated" Christianity from the finding of the True Cross down to our days... Simple goodwill does not suffice, it may rebuke in times of hardships. The Spirit unites, does not divide according to our "wandering desires".
Oriental Churches have always been very Spirit-oriented as the “Ruah Elokim merachefet\רוח אלהים מרחפת, the Spirit of God was sweeping as the eagle over the water” (Gen. 1:2). Pentecost is Greek for Arabic Hamsin (sounds like sharav!) = 50. It seems to be confusing for some Jews abroad. The Russians call the Feast “Most Holy Troytza/Пресвятая Троица” which underscores the very complex definition of the Trinity vs. One God. Monday is more specifically the “Day of the Holy Spirit”.
Somehow, Shavuot and Pentecost, in multi-faceted ways in the Jewish and Christian traditions, point out that we are reinvigorated by God’s Gifts Who blows into our nostrils the soul of warmth and comfort. Maybe we get to cuddling hugs that warm us up, eh like good pastries, look around and have a question: “Can we tame each other, which means that we can respect each other and the immense value of our being alive?”
av aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
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