Clarity

 There are some things in the Bible that are quite clear. Do not murder or steal, those are pretty clear. There are other things that are not completely clear. In Judaism in contrast to Christianity, understanding all the fine print is important, and that is why Judaism has a vigorous tradition of study and debate and dialogue. The Talmud for instance is a book where rabbis of different time periods are quoted together in commentary on the Mishnah, which is itself intended to flesh out the troublesome bits of the Torah. So it is in essence a time spanning debate on a commentary on the Torah, layers upon layers. 

All in pursuit of clarity! ;) This is one reason why I tend to favor the attitude of Karaite Judaism, which is that there is no one authoritative rabbinical commentary on the Torah. You can read and seek to understand such commentaries, but only the Torah is authoritative and sometimes the Torah is hard to interpret. The interpretation of it is each person's responsibility and that responsibility cannot be deferred to rabbis.

This debate concerning what the Torah means about certain things for me comes to a head on the topic of the Sabbath. You do not work on the Sabbath.

BUT EVERYTHING IS WORK! Breathing is working. Standing up is working. Thinking burns energy, so it is also work. Living beings labor in some form continually. If my heart would stop pumping blood for the Sabbath, that would be it for me. The old rabbis had their interpretations, but those interpretations are hard to reconcile with the modern world too. It says not to light a fire: is turning on a lightbulb lighting a fire? Yes and no.

So with the Sabbath as with other puzzling things in the Torah, I go to the core meaning. What is the core meaning of the Sabbath? There is some mention of the Sabbath being connected with the seventh day of Creation, but the core meaning that rings true for me is connected to the Exodus itself. What were the Israelites in Egypt? Slaves. Well the Sabbath is a day when no one is a slave, not even slaves are to be slaves on that day according to the Torah. So the core meaning is, you don't engage in any economic activity on that day. You don't work, you don't make your employees work, you don't make other people work. You don't order delivery pizza, for instance, because that would be making the person that makes the pizza and the person who delivers it work. Anything that relates to whatever you normally do for a living, you don't do that and you don't make anyone else do it either. You do not buy or sell.

There are other deeper meanings to the Sabbath, but in terms of your conduct that is what you should not be doing. Is that the complete meaning of the Sabbath? No! But it is the external observation of it.

Another one, and one in which I disagree with the rabbis, is the passage about not boiling a kid in its mother's milk. For the sake of this one sentence, observant Jewish households have two complete sets of cooking utensils and in some cases (Jewish schools for instance) actually two completely separate kitchens! Imagine how much ink has been spilled, and how much the ironmongers have profited, off this one sentence!

For me, the sentence is clear and has more to do with the value of all life than the contamination of dishes. Don't kill a baby animal until it has weaned. Let the baby goat or sheep or cattle finish up its babyhood. Don't be so selfish with the mother's milk that you kill her offspring before it has even finished infancy. It has nothing to do with ritual contamination. Don't boil a kid in its OWN mother's milk.

Now the Christian approach to such things is to just throw the Jesus blanket over it. "Jesus, And It's All Good." Problem is, we don't do that with the Ten Commandments (or 9 of them anyway) and we don't do that with proscriptions against homosexuality and cross dressing. What defines the difference between the Law that you get to be picky about and the Law you can shrug off? Christians are involved in interpreting the Law too, or else they are forced into some sort of New Age Christianity where there is no Law and EVERYTHING is okay. So you can't not interpret the Law and interpretations involve uncertainty.

I think this is actually kind of deep. It is like we are on a stationary bicycle of holiness, where we have to keep working on getting there but we never quite get there in this life, but in the meantime we build our muscles. The effort itself is part of the Law then: we are meant to try to struggle to understand the mind of G-d, but we can't quite. Christians throw the blood of Jesus on the struggle and Jews or Rabbinical Jews anyway just refer to their rabbis for definitive interpretations. Both approaches foreclose our inquiry, they foreclose something that shouldn't be completely foreclosed in all situations. The Talmud is like photos taken of a hologram: the thing itself contains much more information than our snapshots of it. We engage in the reasoning and questioning and debate in order to conform ourselves to the hologram, not because any judgment or decision or word we will ever say is perfect.

On the one hand G-d wants a Law for us that is clear and easily interpreted and obeyed; on the other hand the world is always changing and the Torah is very old, so we have to interpret some. On the whole, the Law of G-d is very clear and is meant to be. That is my governing principle in interpreting the Torah: what is the clearest most essential core meaning? But there is a lot of stuff there and in the Tanakh as a whole, so we must always be inquiring. Not as the World would inquire, not skeptically, but knowing there is meaning there and that it is our own shortcomings that separate us from understanding that meaning better.

And then we pray that the spirit of G-d, which alone can enlighten minds and hearts, will shed its light on us.

Yom Kippur 2021

 This is a troubled year and these are troubled times. Personally I am doing fine, but many aren't. Yom Kippur is a time of personal repentance, but it is also a time of collective repentance so in addition to praying for correction for my own shortcomings I will pray that the people of G-d will seek atonement with Him and in so doing find safety, adequate sustenance and peace.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, At-One-Ment. The holiest day in Judaism. Basically a day for seeking to bury the hatchet with G-d. The sins that separate you from G-d, you seek to make penance for. It's kind of a prefigurement of the Day of Judgment.

The Bible actually says that Yom Kippur is to be a day when you voluntarily "afflict" yourself. Generally that has been taken to mean that you fast from sundown to sundown. You like that coffee in the morning? Don't have it. Like your food? On this day you aren't eating it. Sex is also abstained from. It's a Sabbath, even though it doesn't fall on the Sabbath Day, so no work.

This will be the first year that I am attempting to do Yom Kippur right. That means I will be fasting, I won't be drinking coffee or anything but plain water. My track record with fasting isn't great, but nevertheless I am going to undertake it.

Repentance is very unfashionable these days. Atonement is unfashionable. The modern idea is that we are all peachy keen just the way we are. Self-esteem first and foremost. Unconditional self-acceptance is practically a modern commandment.

I look around the world: is this what peachy keen looks like? This is NOT what peachy keen looks like. And we will never get there in this world or even close until we conform our lives to G-d first and foremost.

Now, and I am not proud to say this, one thing I will probably not be abstaining from this Yom Kippur is tobacco. I go quite crazy when I can't smoke, and I think being crazy will make this already somber occasion unmanageable. For people with medical issues and the elderly, not going full out on Yom Kippur is acceptable. But while my condition may prohibit me from putting down the smokes, nothing prevents me from not eating so I will do that.

I was born and raised a Gentile, so there may be aspects of Yom Kippur that I may not get. Also among the Jews it is almost always a collective event, Jews gather together and suffer together and repent together. I am alone, I do not ascribe to Rabbinical Judaism exactly and even if I did, there is likely not an orthodox community within 80 miles of me. So that is also different from the typical Jewish experience of Yom Kippur.

Nevertheless, I will do it the best I can, and I hope it will be acceptable to G-d.

May your name be written in the Book of Life.

Maurycy Gottlieb - Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur

Why Wear Tzitzit?

 

 First, what ARE tzitzit? They are the fringes on the corners of a garment referred to in the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. They are most often worn in the edges of a tallit or prayer shawl, but as I live in a hot humid climate I have clip-on tzitzit that clip onto my belt loops.

Why do I wear them? Well the most typical answer would be to say "because G-d said so!" There are reasons however, as there are reasons to all things that G-d commands.

The LORD said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages: let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the LORD and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you will be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I the Lord your God.

~Numbers 15:37-41 JPS Tanakh

So the tzitzit is a visible reminder of G-d's commandments. Something that, if temptation comes your way you have a visible reminder of what the commandments are. Clearly though the tzitzit is also a visible marker of G-d's people, a sign that sets them aside as a holy people.

As far as being a visible reminder of the Commandments, I personally am barely conscious of wearing them these days so I am not sure how well that works on a conscious level. Unconsciously, you know you are wearing a sign that says "I belong to G-d" so your mind understands that certain things are incompatible with that even if you don't consciously think about the tzitzit.

Now probably most of the people who might read this blog, to the extent that I have readers, are Christian and they might ask why they would want to wear tzitzit. I cannot answer that, I can only give my answer which is that I definitely want to feel included in G-d's own and I want to do what He says. Even if you think that a lot of the legalese in the OT was wiped out in Jesus' death, well, did G-d ever command anything superfluous? Were there good reasons for the tzitzit once? Might there still be good reasons?

Also, while I don't generally get involved in matters of specifically Christian theology, for Christians what outward sign do you present that you are a member of G-d's people? A cross? Lots of people wear crosses, some for fashion and some for some sort of goth sensibility and some just to be perverse and wear a symbol of something they definitely do not believe in. Almost nobody wears a tzitzit for fashion, thank goodness. People hardly know that tzitzit are a thing. It is an outward sign of your inward membership in G-d's community.

Also if someone ever asks what those things are on your belt loops, that's an opportunity to talk about the Bible. My long hair (also biblical) is also such a sign. The commandment that applies to everyone in the Bible is not to cut the corners of your hair. Well my head has no corners. ;) I don't know how to apply that for certain, I just know how Jews historically interpreted it. We also know that some people chosen by G-d do not cut their hair at all, either as part of a temporary commitment or permanently in the case of people like Samson and the prophet Samuel. So I don't cut mine at all.

So I wear tzitzit, an outward sign of my inward membership in G-d's kingdom.

 

 

 

Renunciation

 Much as I do not ascribe to a central tenet of Christianity, that someone besides G-d was also G-d -

- at heart I am at least as much a Christian as a Jew. More so, since while I was never a bona fide (Rabbinical) Jew, I once was a bona fide Christian. Christian concepts work their way into my thinking all the time, for which I have to go back to the Tanakh sometimes and sort out how much they are justified based on it.

Renunciation of the World, in the sense that it is a concept in the writings of St. John, does not have an exact translation into the terms of the Tanakh. The best and most evocative parallel in the Tanakh is circumcision, both literal and metaphorical. In Leviticus, Jeremiah and Ezekiel it speaks of uncircumcised hearts, which is the most relevant form of uncircumcision. Your willingness to deal with the physical issue is merely a token of your willingness to deal with the spiritual issue.

What does circumcision symbolize? That you are willing to part with something near and dear (albeit useless) and endure pain, for the sake of G-d. For the sake of holiness. The visible passes away in a flash of steel and blood: the invisible is affirmed. Of course for most people that decision is taken at an age when you have no involvement in whether you are circumcised or not; but as with many things in Judaism physical circumcision is a pact the community and family makes, not just the individual. Long story short, St. John's "do not love the world" does not translate perfectly into Jewish, but there are connections.

Complicating matters further is that Judaism as it originally existed was in many ways legitimately a warlike and confrontational religion, while Christianity (originally) is not. On this topic the child is not very much like its parent. Judaism's response to evil is "sweep out the evil from among you." Capital punishment, albeit with an early form of due process, is a frequent response to evil within, whereas absolute destruction is the usual response to evil outside the community (the Canaanites.) Christianity says "turn the other cheek" and "do not resist an evil person."

Paradoxically it seems rather hard to renounce the "World" while you are making war on it. We find it much harder to synthesize godliness AND violence than perhaps Joshua and the Judges did. There is no doubt however that according to the Tanakh, people like Joshua were able to harmonize both godliness and ultraviolence somehow. Better men than you and me, perhaps.

There is some debate about the degree to which Christianity is a "world-denying" religion, or a religion which tends to think of the world as evil. I would say there is a bit of both: the physical world itself is good or at least originally good: the powers of the "World" are evil. The real neutral or originally benevolent world is a stage on which "The World" plays itself out, powers of spiritual darkness in high places. There is less debate about Judaism: Judaism seems to say eat, drink, have sex, enjoy yourself but keep the law and love G-d.

Of course, those things can come into conflict. Perhaps good food, wine, women and jollity are not bad in themselves, but love of the same can lead you astray.

I have to confess though, I am very sympathetic to St. John's more ascetic worldview. This topic arises for me because while I was out and about today in the "World" (physical and otherwise,) quotes from the New Testament came to mind repeatedly. This presents a problem in that I don't believe any man was ever G-d and so the NT, in so far as it asserts that a man was G-d, is not scripture for me. I feel myself pulled however towards John's gospel; perhaps that is a symptom of weakness rather than wisdom, but it is there nonetheless. I would like to check out of the whole ball game honestly. Stop posting confrontational content online, stop getting in debates with and trying to pwn the libs (who are genuinely lost in evil, but I'm not going to save them,) stop fighting the "World" at all. Attend to the Kingdom within.

Resign from "The World." Stop fighting it and focus on the only thing I can change. Me.


"Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves." 
~ Matthew 10:16


Joshua, Elijah, King Josiah and many others in the Tanakh, even Moses, were not at all harmless! They didn't hesitate to kill a b*tch, more frequently than most men. In fact, Moses starts out the story of Exodus killing a dude, the Egyptian. Terminate, with extreme prejudice.

They were ass-kickers. Judaism, is an ass-kicking religion, a fact that has tended to fade from view as the Hebrews sadly got their own behinds booted on repeatedly since Biblical times.

This is not a resolvable conflict. Either the Tanakh is right, or the New Testament is. Christians all the time state that Christianity is not a pacifistic religion, but they state that on the basis of the Tanakh, which is scripture for them too. If you take what Jesus literally says as primary, ignoring the Tanakh, it absolutely is a pacifistic religion. "Don't resist an evil person," how do you reason your way out of that? Turn the other cheek. "If someone takes away your shirt, give them your coat as well."

Christianity and Judaism cannot be easily reconciled on this, and that is a real problem for me because right now I am uncharacteristically feeling more on Jesus' side. Maybe that will pass, maybe this is as I suggested previously, a moment of weakness. I am feeling fatigued from constantly being in inward and outward turmoil against the evil of this world. 

It is no coincidence however that the same Jesus who said "do not resist an evil person" also said "take up your cross." The one follows kind of logically from the other. If you do not comply with the World and do not resist the World either, you can find yourself a lamb to the slaughter. It was no coincidence they crucified the man. If you renounce and hate the World but aren't prepared to make war on it too if need be, you are a crucifixion magnet. If you renounce the World AND are prepared to kill to defend yourself doing it, at least the World's agents will think twice. The World's people are very scared of death. If they are not afraid of you, well, the minions of the World are just creaming themselves thinking of all they could do to you. That is our reality. We are cattle to them, unless we resist them.

How do you inwardly have the heart of Jesus, and outwardly have the heart of Joshua, King Josiah and Elijah? Can you be both? Saint AND warrior? Or is it only Saint OR warrior?

This is the question that haunts me today.


EDIT: And a voice came saying:
"You cannot have the perfect peace you seek on Earth. Only in Heaven."

And so on Earth we can never be altogether done with war, and other strife. However much we wish to be.