|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||
|
Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
September 16, 2007
by Eugene Narrett, Ph.D.
it shall be a day of teruah for you." (Numbers 29:1)
Everything, all events, all of time, the root-sparks of every one of us are focused by the Temple Mount, specifically the foundation stone where the bedrock of God's holy hill emerges into light and the source-energies of the universe are visible. It is there, the sages teach that Adam was made of the dust of the ground and was created as a human being, b'tzelem Elohim, in the shadow of God; it was there that Jacob, on his way to Aram to find a wife to establish a holy family, rested his head and saw "a ladder set earthward and its top reaching to heaven, and angels of God were ascending and descending on it" (Genesis 28:12) [1]; around this rock was the innermost sanctum of the Jewish Temple, the holy of holies entered by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur to invoke the Holy Name and achieve freedom from sins (Numbers 29:7). This spot links the energies of Jacob's ladder (sulam) and Sinai with the eternal Torah and the sound of the shofar connected to it in hope, alarm and joy. "There was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the shofar was very powerful…all of Mt. Sinai was smoking and the sound of the shofar grew increasingly strong" and "the entire people saw the thunder and the flames, the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain" (Exodus 19:16-19, 20:15). Here the energies and structure of creation, running and returning in flashes of silence and sound, like the living beings of the chariot and the angels on the ladder, their sound itself was seen in the shofar that connects time and eternity [2]. The Temple Mount, Jacob's ladder, Sinai, the days of awe and the end of days intertwine in the strand of being from the beginning to the ingathering of Israel and the last days. Teka b'shofar gadol, "sound the great shofar to proclaim our freedom…and it shall be on that day that a great shofar shall be sounded and those who were lost in the land of Ashur and those banished to the land of Egypt shall come to Hashem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem" (Isaiah 18:3, 27:13). This will balance all energies for abundance and peace. The design of history outlined by Moshe in his last song will be completed as we sing it on Shabbat Shuvah. It is on the days of awe, in the seventh month on the first and tenth of the month that Jews, on behalf of themselves and all mankind blow the shofar and sound the teruah "with a cry of joy" but also one of persistent might in supplication and of grieving. Only on two other occasions, the days of destruction of the two Temples has this complexity of response been more intensely present for the Temple Mount is being destroyed now. A process begun mostly underground in 1999 has been renewed "in the face of the nations," on the very surface of the Mount and in spite of God Who designated "the Temple of the God of Jacob" to be "a House of Prayer for all peoples," a House from which Torah would go forth to all human kind establishing peace from its foundations, the integrity of Israel (Isaiah 2:2-5; Genesis 33:18-20, 35:1-15). The sages teach that 1 Tishrei was the birthday of humankind, day six of creation and its purpose. It is "a day of teruah" and intimately linked to Yom Kippur, 10 Tishrei and the awe that judgment, the consequences of our acts and need for mercy and rectification evokes. Thus it is written "praises to the people who know teruah; Hashem, in the light of Your countenance they walk" (psalm 89:16). Today, as the Temple Mount and remains of the Temple are being destroyed the Jewish people truly "call out from the straits to God" and pray that He answer their prayers, prayers for all the world with "expansiveness" by bringing the human family into a broad place of bounty and true freedom, just as the sound of the shofar begins at a point of constriction and emerges like spirit-fire of the energies that link the Creator and mankind (psalm 118:5). The Temple Mount is being destroyed; to put the same fact another way: the memory of civilization is being shattered and buried; the humanity of human beings is being debased and broken; the ultimate fact of the Eternal and Infinite One, the Creator is being charred and mocked; "nations are in turmoil, kingdoms totter" (Psalm 46:7). On open trench, up to four feet deep and thirteen hundred feet long has been dug across the surface of the Temple Mount. This is horrible for all the reasons noted above. But there also is within this malicious and suicidal desecration "a cry of joy" that may become "a shout of triumph" (l'hariah, remember this word), because the trench has exposed stones from the walls and courtyards of the Temples of David, Solomon, Zerubavel, Zechariah and Ezra. "Blow the shofar in Zion; decree a fast. Call an assembly…Why should they say among the peoples, 'where is their God?' Then Hashem will take up the cause of His land and take pity upon His people." (Joel 2:15, 17-18). "Does a shofar sound in a city and people not tremble?" (Amos 3:6). With the ongoing and now blatant destruction of the history, memory and integrity of humanity and of the energies and coherence of creation, the full range of meanings in the sounding of the shofar come into play to illuminate and vivify our days of challenge. Yes, the derekh, the way of Judaism is the way of remembrance and acknowledging God's sovereignty and knowing our divine origins and providence. The days of teruah are "a remembrance of the first day…concerning countries judgment is pronounced… all creatures are brought to mind, to remember them for life or death…For the remembrance of every living being comes before You -- man's deed and his task, the actions and movements of a mortal, the thoughts of a person and his schemes, and the motives for the acts of a man. Happy is the man who does not forget You… for the remembrance of all Your works comes before You…And it is stated, 'I will remember My covenant with Jacob, also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land'… and there is no forgetting before the Throne of Your Glory. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who remembers the covenant" (afternoon service for Rosh Hashanah; Leviticus 26:42) [3]. Tekiah -- Teruah -- Tekiah….. The shofar sounds and we all must remember its history and implications. Their very sounds are termed "sovereignties" and "remembrances," just what the modern State wishes to abolish; just why the powers increasingly target the Jews and their history. "Blow the shofar at the moon's renewal, at the time appointed for our festive day; because it is a decree for Israel, a judgment [day] for the God of Jacob" (psalm 81:4-5). "Put a shofar to your palate for the enemy swoops upon the Temple of Hashem" (Hosea 8:1). "Remember; don't forget" (Ex. 17:14-16; Deut. 25:17-19; cf. Rambam, Melachim 1:1 passim)! Teruah can mean to shout or cheer. In its form, l'hariah, noted above, it can mean "to shout in triumph" but l'hatriah is "to sound the alarm or warn" and, as a noun, hatra'ah means "warning or alert" [4]. This range of possibilities alludes to the scope of human freedom and the range of deeds, thoughts, intentions and judgments tempered by mercy and remembrance. Judaism is based on the understanding that "the wheel will come full circle," that events, thoughts, words, intentions all have consequences unfolding their logic and truth in the overall context or 'hard drive' of divine providence. The shofar is calling out to all of us today not only about ourselves but about the ground, the literal ground of our existence and the integrity of the universe in which our freedom coheres within the parameters of mercy and justice; in which human beings must recognize their contingency and honor what is passed down through all generations by an entire people who are witnesses to the Creator. The enmity of the tents of Kedar to the Children of Israel has been clear for a long time (psalm 120; Genesis 16:12, 21:9). The servility to Edom of the client regimes in David's capital has been clear for decades, grossly clear as it allows the gutting and scarring of the Temple Mt which even in purely secular terms is the world's greatest historical and archaeological site. But in a world bent on forgetting, Judaism, the Jewish people and their holiest sites must be shattered and buried. In the UN, "all the nations gather against Jerusalem" and the EU, NATO, and Kedar prepare for spoil (Joel 4:1-21; Zechariah 14:2). Because of their Hamas ("violence") in Judah the Eternal One "shall sound the shofar, go forth like lightning and rise like a southerly storm wind" (Zech. 9:14-15). The foretold climax of history appears in our eyes; we can practically see the sound, eternity intersects time as the days of teruah enfold us. Mt. Zion cannot be glad nor can the daughters of Judah rejoice, as commanded until they are able to "walk about Zion and encircle her; mark well her ramparts and raise up her palaces that you may recount it to succeeding generations" (psalm 48:12-14); there cannot be genuine remembrance, teaching and mindfulness of ourselves, and the One, the Unborn, Undying and Infinite Creator unless the "House of God," Mount Moriah and the Temple return to their commanded purpose, the permanent resting place of the Mishkan built in the wilderness. For this is the crown of the "fairest of sites, joy of all the earth, Mt. Zion by the northern side of the great king's city; in her palaces God is known as the Stronghold" (48:3-4). It is here that all people are to stream to "the Temple of the God of Jacob" going up and commingling with the pure stream that will open in it, giving access to the "milk and wine…the kindness and pieties" of Judah and David that rejuvenate the soul (Zech. 13:1-3, cf. Genesis 49:11-12; Isaiah 55:1-5). The nations want to prevent fulfillment of the covenant of the Creator with the Jewish people. They want it made clear that they can 'give the lie' to the Creator. This is the end game of all the efforts to revise and erase Jewish history and the book of books. In Hebrew the root-word for repentance and return are one and the same. Repair of the world, perfection of oneself, being "mindful that we are dust" with a spark of divinity requires that Jews return to the Temple Mount and return it to its original beauty and purpose. And this in turn requires that they return to their entire inheritance that the Eternal One gave them in an everlasting covenant, a covenant always remembered. If this is forgotten there is no balance and wholesome forgiveness in the world; remember, return, and act. When this happens, the milk and wine of Judah and kindnesses of David will flow out in liquid light as a healing stream to all people. NOTES: 1. See my essay, "Jacob's Ladder." 2. As is oft-noted, in Hebrew the numeric value of the words sulam and Sinai is identical Also see my essay, "Jacob's Ladder." Tehillim 130, one of the "psalms of ascent" for Sukkot stresses the Eternal One's mercy and forgiveness and the longing for His complete redemption of Israel and rectification of the world. 3. Machzor for Rosh Hashanah, Nusach Arizal arranged by R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi, English translation by R' Nissen Mangel (Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, 1997), 135-6. 4. A. Soldminick and D. Morrison, Maskilion I, Hebrew-English Dictionary of Verb-Roots (Milah, 1996). For the psalms my primary source is Tehillim, translated and annotated by Rabbi Hillel Danziger (Mesorah, NY 1988; 2000). Dr. Eugene Narrett is a writer and teacher in Massachusetts and is the author of Gathered Against Jerusalem: Essays on a False Peace (Dec. 2000). His book, Israel Awakened: A Chronicle of the Oslo War (2001), is currently available at www.1stbooks.com/bookview/7421. His latest book, WW III: the War on the Jews and the Rise of the World Security State (2007), is available at www.lightcatcherbooks.com. Visit his website at www.israelendtimes.com.
|
|||||||||||||
|
Religion Resource Center Main Page |
|||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
||
|
|
||
[Homepage] [Newsletter] [Search] [Support the Academy] [Link to Us] [Contact the Academy] [Citing Articles from Our Website] [Privacy Policy & Disclaimer]
Copyright 1998-99, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2004-05, & 2006-07 by The Radical Academy. All Rights Reserved.