Incarnation, Jews, Covenantal People

Pray to be known, to be understood and to be welcome -- Anthony Gittens

Throughout the many religious traditions the world has known, the idea of both incarnation and covenant have been frequently embraced. Looking at these as a sort of continuum one is able to see the relationship between them. Writing on both these subjects, the author, Peter Kreeft, discusses them in his book, The God Who Loves You. Proclaiming "G-d is love, the incarnation," Kreeft acknowledges that this topic is perhaps one of the most difficult in Western thought to grasp.

The subject, in its knowable, yet untouchable mystery, is the trinity of creation, where all is love. There is the Lover, the beloved and their creation, together forming a tri-partite relationship, one to the other. Kreeft writes:

• G-d is love.
• Love is G-d's essence.
• Love is one with G-d's personhood and being.
• Love requires a lover, a beloved, and the act of love.
• G-d is three parts of one.
• The three know and love each other.
• The processes of love are without beginning or end.
• The Creator loves by knowing, and by his will.
• The Creator loves both in time and in eternity.
• The Spirit is love between the Creator and his beloved creation.
• There is holiness, sacredness in human sex. Two make three.

G-d is love. Nowhere in the Tanakh does it say that G-d is justice or mercy itself, or that he is anything, but love itself. Love is G-d's essence. This is absolute; as the Tanakh tells it, everything else is relative to this love. "Love necessarily means three things: there is a lover, a beloved, and the act or creation of loving.

Thus for G-d to be love, he must somehow be all three. The Creator knows and loves his creation; his creation knows and loves his Creator. The Spirit which proceeds from this act of loving is sometimes called the Holy Spirit, or the Incarnate. This Spirit is the love between the Creator and his creation. Their knowledge of each other is through, and by this Spirit of love.

As the Creator knows his creation, he generates himself, his love by knowing him. So it is through knowing and the will that love comes into being. Thus the trinity may be also thought of as being, knowing and loving [by the will].

Creation loves both in eternity and in time. The relationship of the three is one of equality; creation is equal in love to creator and love, the spirit is equal to both. That is the force and power of love. In two come three; the Spirit of love is the ultimate origin of holiness or sacredness of human sexual love, says this tradition.

"The love of G-d has invaded our world, and we see with new eyes."
The love of the Spirit is a mystery, modern man has, tragically lost easy access into, or indeed, conception of. There is another ultimate dimension that ancient man found far easier to access. In this realm there is not science, empiricism, nor quantification, but rather it is a place of myth, imagination, analogy, and sacramentalism.
Since "G-d is the Creator, and since creation reflects and reveals the Creator, and since G-d is love, all creation somehow reflects and reveals this love," this Spirit.

Unlike ancient minds, "modern" man is enveloped by an overweening atmosphere of science and tangible proofs; in earlier times, the connections between individual and Creator were more obvious, for the simple reason that the ancient mind believed. The ancients viewed a beautiful landscape, sunset or night-time sky and were filled with the awe of the creation. Or for example, human sexuality was easily seen to be a part of the universal dimension, the wholeness or oneness of the world.

In today's English language, the pronouns he and she have been nearly stripped away. They are avoided, dis-used. Left in their place is a socio-political idea that rejects this very principle of universal oneness. There are labels and divisions, parsing the world into diverse units.
To the ancient mind, this is akin to tragedy. What could take the place of the Chinese idea of the yin and yang? Or the Hindu wedding ceremony in which bride and groom pronounce one to the other, "I am heaven, you are earth;" to which the bride responds, "I am earth, you are heaven."

Many modern minds, especially in the West will find these ideas unintelligible, in part thanks to science. Our rational mind does not allow us to go there. It is all myth, we say. Science, in its aims to reduce things to quantifiable matter fails, it cannot see cosmic love.

Rather, science ignores the "final cause" of creation. It cannot rationalize what something or someone was made for, its purpose, its goal, its end. This reason is the most important to creation. The Tenakh tells us that both the historical and in the ultimate dimension, G-d is the final cause, creation the ultimate end; it is the alpha and the omega, both the beginning and end.

In this ultimate dimension, we are freed "of the dirty little dungeon of a universe that the Enlightenment thinkers" of past centuries have placed us into wholesale. Enlightenment thought, thought in which rationality and science are the reigning sovereigns gives to modern minds, "a universe in which love and beauty, praise and value are mere subjective fictions," invented by the self spinning aloneness of a human mind.

And yet science through all its triumphs has not been able to extinguish an ancient, almost primordial instinct from the deepest places in our soul, to realize love as the highest wisdom and meaning in a life. So then the Judeo-Christian Bible, or Tanakh, in its entirety is then to be read with imagination, with myth and analogy as a divine love story, says Peter Kreeft.

In both the Jewish and Christian telling of the story, the Word contained in the book is a covenant, an agreement between G-d, the Lover and his beloved; the persons he created, the Jews and all who come to him in the Spirit of the Oneness (adonai echad).

The word of G-d is the Christ, the unity of G-d, the Creator. And to the Christian mind, among other names we may call this oneness, the Christ, love incarnate. Christ has proved G-d's love for his creation by the example of the Cross. He has come because of, and for love, alone. He comes out of love.

Other manifestations of love are found in the connection between the "fall" from the garden of Eden. The connection here is found between the fall and freedom. Love does not enslave; love makes free. Because you are the Beloved, you are free. We are not the Creator's pets; we are meant to be G-d's lover.

In the redemption, love manifests. G-d's love is powerful and in full display as soon as Adam falls. He makes a mistake, he falls away from the covenant that he made in free will with G-d to obey.
as covenantal people, Jews traditionally see the "law" of the Torah as an expression of G-d's will. It is their joy to learn, to know this will. Thus they see their holy book as a love making manual, if you will.
In the ten commandments, the main covenants presented to creation by G-d, the Creator, are laid out. In essence, they form the whole of the "covenant-contract." G-d is to have this agreement with his people, who in free will grow to abide by this contract, or rule. In following the way of G-d in divine law, more love is made. Human-kind is "fruitful and multiplies."

Caring for the garden, the world of Creation, is so that human persons may learn to be more like Creators. G-d wishes to teach love through loving the world and the soil it comprises, to raise a crop to the benefit of all of creation.
The Creator starts small and then moves through the world until his love reaches the ears of his perhaps, most complex creation, mankind. As a lover, G-d is not jealous. Sharing in oneness is the essence of all.

"And the forbidden fruit of Adam and Eve is to teach the Beloved the reality of pure, "blind," love." If they had been told that the reason (a rational idea) was that the fruit was poison, would not Adam and Eve have obeyed; not from a trusting, free love, but from a selfish fear?
Yet G-d did command them, and asked for their love in return for no other reason than love itself. This is covenant. When we "fall," we lick our wounds, we gain a sense of the real, we dust ourselves off and remain in the moment, rather than a self-serving, spinning mind.
Thus we again realize the fall as a direction back to the source, back to the Creator and we, are his Beloved. This love is not sentimental, it is not cheap, easy or compromising. This love is in totality.

You are the deepest secret of G-d's heart. --Peter Kreeft

Arthur Szyk's Pesach

"Blessed are you, Lord our G-d Sovereign of the Universe who has kept us in life, sustained us and who has enabled us to reach this season." --A prayer from the Szyk Haggadah

In the 1930s Jewish artist, Arthur Szyk, living in his native Poland set to work to create a beautiful Haggadah, a religious book used during the Passover meal. Passover or Pesach, has been observed by the faithful since antiquity. It is an experience that is near universal in the faith life of Jews the world over. With beautiful calligraphy, stunning imagery, Szyk (pronounced Schick) created what some regard as a masterly and most meaningful work of its era.

A prominent Jewish artist during the 1930s rise of Fascism in Europe, his book was an offer of hope to the Jews in that dark time. Using the tradition of the Haggadah as his guide with illuminated text, Szyk created a testament and visual commentary on the struggle for human freedom. The major figures of Torah are depicted from Moses to Ruth, triumph over the injustice and oppression around them. A volume of the original The Szyk Haggadah translated into
English, in re-print, now allows English speakers to come to know the work and vision of its creator, Arthur Szyk.

Pesach, that spring time festival of hope, renewal and redemption begins well in advance of the day. There are a number of preparations to be made. It is a spiritual pilgrimage; it has to be made. Pesach doesn' t just happen. A home based festival, it is one of cleaning out and cleaning up both of one's home and of one's spirit. The night of the meal, the Seder is special; it is a meal, an experience of hope, an education, a time for prayer and for communal sharing.

More than food needs to be prepared before the Seder meal. Each individual must prepare spiritually for the observance. Contemplating how each of us may be liberated from those things spiritual and material which enslave us is a principle task. What those things are leads to a discovery of how they may be either managed or eliminated so that one may shine as the truest work of G-d's creation. Following this or any Haggadah is a path to the spiritual progress of human freedom. It entails both the profound, the sacred and the mundane, the cleaning of the home, the heart and the prayers of freedom.

Purim, a Jewish Spring Time Festival

"The joy of Purim demonstrates Israel’s eternal holiness." --unknown Rabbi

For Jews world-wide the upcoming festival of Purim celebrates the ancient Persian Jews deliverance from the wicked Haman. While the festival is ancient, it is little known outside of Jewish circles.
Esther, a Jewess and Queen in the ancient world, is credited for saving the lives of thousands of others. This joyous festival takes place in the early spring months and is determined each year by the moon as to its exact calendar date. In the Jewish calendar it occurs on the 14th of Adar. It will begin this year on March 15 of the Roman calendar..

We find details of the Purim story in an ancient text known as the Megillah. Esther becomes the Queen consort to the Persian king, Ahasuerus, in a tribute to her brother, Mordecai, who once saved the king's life.
In her day Esther was considered very beautiful. After the death of the king's first wife, Vashti, she is selected from among hundreds to be his consort.

The courtier Haman is charged with the responsibility of apprehending and executing those responsible for the foiled threat to the king. Instead he decides that there is an opportunity to exterminate the Jews in the Kingdom. Unaware that Esther is a Jewess, he launches his plan. Meanwhile Esther reveals to the king, her husband, that she is Jewish and that Haman plots to kill all Jews in the Kingdom of Persia. The king apprehends Haman and hangs him, thereby saving thousands. For this, the festival is celebrated with much joy.

The day includes the reading of the scroll of Esther, the blotting of Haman's name, games, merriment and a Purim meal which includes sweets and other delicacies. Also on this occasion giving to the poor and other charities is highly encouraged.

Several Jewish denominations have web pages with Purim themed information:

http://www.aish.com/h/pur/

http://www.uscj.org/JewishLivingandLearning/ShabbatandHolidayInformation/Holidays/JewishHolidays/Purim/default.aspx

http://www.reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/purim

The Human Self, One, Irreplaceble

"I would know you in order to know myself."

The word person has great significance. "Today our way of thinking about people is defined in quantity...so many thousands, millions...yet there is always one, human person indivisible." That person is unique, irreplaceable, the creation of which remains a metaphysical mystery.
Persons may be described and regarded as form, physical bodies, not unlike other bodies, both animate and inanimate. However in the individual a development takes place. The development of thought, knowledge and intellect takes place on a deeper level in the person.
All are on the developmental plane as persons. Even the least gifted person whom we may meet belongs to this great human reality of the person in development.

Is each human person really created in the image and likeness of God, the Creator? While man may not deny his link to nature, and resemblance to the world known in past times as the animal world, it is not possible to integrate all that a person possesses without recognition of the "something more" that defines him.
The something more which defines him may be called the conscience. A person is, in the view of theologian and philosopher, Karol Wotjyla in fact, conscience. The conscience provides the definitive structure which differentiates the person from other elements in the created world. It is the basis of the definitive and unrepeatable I.

A story that comes out of the World War II era, one from a Polish concentration camp, recounted by Max Kolbe regarding his own execution by a camp executioner. Both he and the executioner were human beings, each presumably with a conscience. On one hand, one is one admired and esteemed for his faith and courage in horrible circumstances; the other is a person to be rejected by others of every faith, scorned and repudiated.

The greatness or smallness of a person is first developed within his conscience. When considering this notion, we must look to the ends of its development, that is in death. Is then death the full ends of a person? Is it in fact a defining reality? The materialism of the world sees death as an end, so much so that a person's life is a steady progression towards its inevitable end in death, beyond which there is nothing.
The Judeo-Christian tradition teaches in the Tanakh or Old Testament book, Genesis, "You are dust, and to dust you will return."
But if death is really the final end, then what happens to lead one to a final heroic act of faith and courage, and another to play the part of executioner, halting a life?
What about good and evil?
The French thinker and writer, Jean Paul Sartre wrote that man aspires to that which he defines as God, "even if this is an empty word, so that it is a useless passion." Yet persons are multidimensional. They develop slowly, unevenly; they develop judgment and wisdom over time. That development is the beginnings of eternal life.
In the course of a person's development he comes to know that there is a tree, if you like, of good and evil; he finds that at any turn he may choose good or evil. This knowledge, these decisions, and actions are of value. They present a person with either the good, or the evil as value.
Indeed human life is lived between good and evil. Human beings are great because they can freely choose, they possess what Augustine of Hippo called, free will.
 Despite the will and the ability to choose, man, in knowledge, has chosen evil; he has played the executioner. In a certain sense, the ability to choose evil testifies to man's greatness in freedom.

Yet freedom calls, requires something of the chooser. It exacts a price. In evil we are cut off from the source of life, from love, from co-union with the Creator. The created are then exceeded in the bounds of the "tree."
The God of the Bible remains steadfast in regard to his creations. He does not cut himself off from them; he is more like the story of a lover seeking his beloved, the Song of Songs, his lost child. He looks everywhere for him.
His first and last thoughts are for the Beloved, his creation. The precepts of the Bible, of the Buddha, have come into the world to lead the Way to our redemption, our enlightenment, to our peace, our joy, our rest in the One.
--paraphrased from The Way to Christ by Karol Wojtyla

Jim Elliot, Waiting On God

"Surely God is good to his Israel." Jim Elliot

In 1945 with the world war now behind, the nation turned herself to other matters; a young man, Jim Elliot commenced his studies at Wheaton College, an esteemable Protestant Christian bible college located in Wheaton, Illinois. Apart from Bible scholarship, Wheaton is perhaps best known for its conservative views, prohibiting drinking, dancing and smoking among its students.
As a protestant, Christian institution it offers a solid education in bible learning, Greek, Latin and other modern languages as well as subjects which support christian missionary activities and ministries. His education prepared him well for the experiences which were about to come to him.

Against this backdrop, Elisabeth Elliot edits her husband's journals, including their chronicle of his later work in South America in the high Andes, The Journals of Jim Elliot. She writes in the foreword that what becomes most prominent in these journals is his dedication to his Lord, his ministry and his "consuming thirst to do what he saw as the will" of the Creator.
He reminds us not to "bind down the word of God... it's (the Spirit of the Lord) free to say what it will." He also makes it clear that quiet and solitude are important to develop ones' spiritual, inner life.

While his life was cut short, in his 29 years, he demonstrated a remarkable young faithfulness and other character traits such as determination and sensitivity to the working of the Spirit as he recognized them.
Indirectly, he asks the questions of trust or mercy, faith or belief which many before and many after him have also pondered.
And he addresses the great question of love.
Like many others before, he met his end steadfastly and ignominiously as a Christian, martyred in the wilds of the Andes by members of the Auca Indians, natives to the region in which Elliot felt called to minister.

Contrasting the sincere devotion of Elliot there are those persons, past and present who represent a different face of Christianity. Some may come to accept their particular views, while others may not.
Recently this Simple Mind had the occasion to hear the speech of a radio preacher.
Clearly a person involved in a segment of the Protestant Christian tradition as opposed to the Orthodox-Catholic Christian traditions, he was in the midst of espousing the abhorrence of "meditation as an evil" due to its apparent complicity with the evil spirits and demons of the world.
Using a bible verse and applying an interpretation of said verse, this man claimed that the Bible was clear, that meditation was evil due to its tendency to free the mind of extraneous thoughts, thereby giving evil the opportunity to enter and possess a soul.

Now, is one to accept this thinking because "we say so," or is one to further study its source or implication to determine true motive? Will Relativism or political correctness accept his thinking because it's his thinking, thus one can't judge, or are we to act to discern the meaning and intention of such a claim?

If this claim is true for the limits of the particular individual, then it is not unreasonable to presume that this person is also contemptuous against all denominations of Buddhism, much or all of the mystical Judeo-Christian tradition and Hinduism, for starters. Well, what's does that leave off the list? His speech sounds like an exercise in Calvinism, possibly or Puritanism, also related to Calvinists.

The take away for this Simple Mind is that truly there are those of many different stripes; the prime commandment for the Christian is not to demonize but to "love your neighbor as yourself, to love one another -- even your enemy." Anything less falls short of the disciples which the Christ called for and commanded. A Simple Mind questions this preacher and his (lack of) education. Ironic, isn't it?

Judaism, I Asked For Wonder*

"The gods attend to great matters; they neglect small ones..." --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.E.-43 B.C.E.), ancient Roman Statesman

Responding to one of the great figures in the Hellenistic world Jewish theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel writes "in the theology of the common good, according to Aristotle, the gods are not at all concerned with the dispensation of good and bad fortune, or external things. To the Hebrew prophet, however, no subject is as worthy of consideration as the plight of man. Indeed G-d Himself is described as reflecting over the plight of man rather than as contemplating eternal ideas. His mind is preoccupied with man, with the concrete actualities of history, rather than with the timeless issues of thought."

In the Nevi'im, or Prophet's message, nothing that has bearing upon "good and evil is small or trite in the eyes of G-d. The teaching of Judaism is the theology of the common deed. The Torah, or Bible, insists that G-d is concerned with the everydayness, the trivialities of life.
Thus the great challenge does not lie in organizing solemn demonstrations, but in how we manage the commonplace. The prophet's field of concern is not the mysteries of heaven, the glories of eternity, but the blights of society, the affairs of the marketplace.
He addresses himself to those who trample upon the needy, who increase the price of grain, use dishonest scales and sell the refuse of corn or wheat (see Nevi'im, Amos 8:4-6). The predominant feature of the biblical pattern of life is unassuming, unheroic, inconspicuous piety, the sanctification of trifles, attentiveness to details."

The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning (Torah, Leviticus 19:13,18).
Love your fellow as yourself; I am the Lord. When you encounter your enemy's ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him.
When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him (Torah, Exodus 23:4-5).

-- taken from I Asked for Wonder, A Spiritual Anthology by Abraham Joshua Heshel

* A SimpleMind Zen reader favorite which first appeared here in 2009.

Sukkot, The Festival of Booths

"The etrog is the original fruit in the garden of Eden."  Why Hebrew Goes Right to Left --by Ronald Isaacs

In his interesting and useful book about all things Jewish, author Ronald Issaacs notes that it was the etrog, a citrus fruit, not an apple that was the fruit eaten in the garden of Eden. At one time in history it was customary during the Sukkot festival for women to bite off the top of this fruit and spit it out, thereby symbolizing their resistance of the Evil one. This year the festival commences at sundown on September 30.

While many are familiar with the Jewish YomKippur and the occasion of Rosh Ha-Shonah, beyond Jewish circles, it is the joyful and less known Festival of Booths, Sukkot, that occupies this article today. The Sukkot is an ancient harvest festival celebrated annually at a time determined by the full moon in the Hebrew month of Tishri. A sukkah booth or tabernacle is built in a characteristic three sided form and traditionally occupied in a celebratory fashion by adherents. The structure is often made with local materials, easily available. Here in the United States, corn stalks are a favored material. In other areas tree branches or palms are equally favored. The festival dictates that one spend considerable amount of time in their booth, eating, socializing, napping, singing or other activities. However at the most basic, constructing and eating meals within the sukkah satisfies the ancient tradition.

Its spiritual significance is related to the Biblical story of the 40 years of wandering in exile in the desert; the structure like their faith sheltered the people through many years of uncertainty. Each home may construct a Sukkot; often communities will construct a larger shelter for a festival celebration. It is traditional to refrain from any labor on certain days of the eight day festival and to enjoy sweets such as fruits. When eating a traditional meal in the sukkah, a prayer is recited which perhaps speaks to the heart of the observance:
Blessed are you, G-d our Creator of time and space, who enriches our lives in holiness, who commands us to dwell in the sukkah.

Explore one tradition of rejoicing in the harvest season with a sukkah. For those in the southern hemisphere, the festival occurs at the earliest of spring time. Still it remains an agricultural festival to be appreciated.

Tales of the Hasidim and Emotional Ties

"Awe is what moves us forward."  --Joseph Campbell

The soul, wrote Martin Buber in Tales of the Hasidim, is like the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, where in the Temple, the High Priest recites the Avodah, עבודה‎, the prayer of remembrance, "and thus he spoke." For he had not forgotten the time his soul was in the body of a High Priest of Jerusalem, and he had no need to learn from the outside how they had served in the temple.
Once he himself related, " I have been ten times in this world: I was a priest, a prince, a king, an exilarch, rosh galut ראש גלות. I was ten different kinds of dignitary. But I never learned to love mankind perfectly. And so I was sent forth again and again in order to perfect my love. If I succeed this time, I shall never return again."
Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber

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Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are, but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to the mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine... to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing, the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.

Who Is Man? by Abraham Joshua Heschel

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 In Visions: Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung writes, "When face to face with such wholeness, a moment of near eternity, one is speechless, for it scarcely can be comprehended. The objectivity that I experienced in the dream, the bliss, and the visions form part of a completed individuation. It signifies detachment from valuations and what we call emotional ties".
"In general emotional ties are very important to human beings... Emotional relationships are relationships of desire... something is wanted, expected of the other person and this binds us... Something else came about as a result of my long illness: an affirmation of things as they are, an unconditional 'yes,' an acceptance of the conditions of existence as I see them and understand them, an acceptance of my own nature..."

'When one lives ones own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain. Life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee, not for a single moment, that we will not fall into error or stumble into mortal peril. We may think there is a sure road, but that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens anymore--at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead...'

'I understand how important it is to affirm one's own destiny. We must forge a self which can withstand the trials of the world, a self that withstands the winds and seasons of the world, one that endures the truth, that does not break down; a self that is capable of coping with fate. Then, to experience defeat is also to experience victory...'

'I realize that one must also accept the thoughts that go on within oneself of their own accord as part of ones reality. The categories of true and false are, of course, always present... the thoughts are more important than our subjective judgements of them, for they exist as part of our wholeness."

-- Visions: Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung

What About the Soul?

"Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole."-- Ratzinger

The word soul conjures for most things like: immutable, essence, animating, spiritual; also leader, fervor, exemplification or personification. Some say there is no such thing while others say it is as the wind--known by feeling, not by sight.
and while a majority of the world's people may admit themselves to the notion of an afterlife or an idea of reincarnation, what about the soul?

In the west, the soul is given often as a separate entity from the body. However within some of the great religions (great in terms of world wide adherence), be it Judeo-Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian, some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism and others, there not only is a well developed sense of reincarnation but also of the corresponding soul, which ascends.

In recent times there is increasingly talk about a soul but a clear confusion, even avoidance of what it means. It seems more frequent that people wish to talk around it whenever possible. Ratzinger writes: Some Christian denominations try to persuade that it is actually a Pagan conception and somehow not within the Christian realm. This thinking is indeed at odds with the basics of Christian thought for it involves the splitting of the body from its spirit; in this way there cannot be unity for all manifestations of creation joined with the Creator for which we may take part.  Paraphrased

While the concept of the soul may be present in many, many cultures, within the Christian tradition, it is a part of faith, a part of the way of the Christ. He who has come into the world, has come both in a body and a spirit so that we may know the Creator and our part in the creation. Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole.

And if we are to set aside the notion of soul as some would do, then the body is alone, robbed of its dignity and without exaltation as both a creator and the product of Creation itself. It bears no part in the Creation of the world.
Many times people have fallen to speculation that a body has indeed fallen from its spirit, that the spirit roams about unattached. Indeed in Chinese folklore, for example, these spirits are often referred to as hungry ghosts who roam about looking to attach them self to matter. Many times as a result, the living are abhorrent to enter a cemetery for fear of possible entrapment by these spirits. And for those who say the disembodied soul is an absurdity, perhaps they have not understood the teachings on the matter of faith, as it were.

In at least the Christian tradition, the people of the Lord are known as the Body of the Christ; within this body there is the one Lord, whole and unified.  They are the people of the Christ; believers who cannot be lost as spirits, for theirs is contained within the greater body of this Christ!

Friends with God

  " Unchained from Judaism, the parent of Christianity, one easily comes to the idea that God doesn't care what you do, or what your will be..."  -- a Simple Mind

Writing with a very different understanding of the cosmos, author, Neale Donald Walsch in his book, Friendship With God, writes: "God does not care what we do because of why we are here." Some will easily argue that his conception of the universe and the cosmos is incomplete, therefore flawed by the standards of current scholarship. For example, while in Walsch's view, God acknowledges himself as the creator of life, but then he (Walsch) adds that he created us in his image so that we could be creators as well. At first this sounds possible. We are conceived and people do conceive further... However, he continues, writing: "God has no special will for us: ". . . your will for you is God's will for you . . . I have no preference in the matter . . . I do not care what you do . . ."

Whoa. Here we hit the skids. The Decalogue is shot. In many references, the Torah tells of an attentive and caring Lord.  It writes of covenants, agreements made between God and the people, Israel. Not so in Walsch: God continues on, saying that we are not here to learn lessons, but only "to remember, and re-create, who you are." This came about because God, who originally was all that existed, longed "to know what it felt like to be so magnificent" and was not satisfied unless there was a reference point through which God could know his magnificence..."

Has anyone picked up a book on philosopher and mathematician Gotfried Leibnitz's idea of the Monad lately? It's all in there. Here it is in ungarbled form: Monism most simply argues for the idea that there is unity, only unity and not dualism. Many, if not most all of the world religions address this issue. Now review the writing of Walsch once more after reading Leibnitz's ideas. It is less clear to this Simple Mind what Walsch's point really is.

 For more views on this topic, one writer's thoughts Marcia Montnegro's, and the thoughts of University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point philosophy professor, Joseph Waligore:
christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_BookreviewWalsch.html
spiritualcritiques.com/author-criticisms/neale-donald-walsch/

Melchizedek, a Jew and other Torah Figures

Melchizedek-- Heb. meaning, "the god Zedek is king."


The Hebrew name Melchizedek appears in many current documents as if something new to humankind is being uncovered. In fact the name means in English, the god Zedek is King. It is also the name of the ‘mysterious’  (Greek word meaning ‘the initiate(d)’) personage mentioned in Genesis 14:18-20.

He is also mysterious because little is actually known of this person whom the Bible records as being a priest and king. In the book of Hebrews 7, he is presented as one who presages the appearance of the Christ come into the world. Here the name Melchizedek, owing back to its original Hebrew, takes the additional connotation of ‘the king of justice.’

There are three main points of resemblance between Melchizedek and the Christ who it may be said later fulfills his oracle. Both men were both priest and king; both offer bread and wine as sacrifice to G-d; both derive their priestly state directly from the ancient Hebrew tribe of Aaron, because neither man is from the tribe of Levi, another branch which served a different priestly function.

Who and why are the tribes of Israel important to the story of Melchizedek? First of all, the bible records for history that the ancient tribes of Israel performed several distinct functions in their society and that this ordering reflected well upon their religion which in time comes to us as Judaism. While the Torah records many tribes from far and wide, the tribes most important to the story of Melchizedek are the Levites, those men who were the hereditary priests, or sacred ministers with duty to offer sacrifices at the altar of the holocausts (Leviticus 1:3-4); they also entered the place of worship morning and evening to offer incense at the golden altar. See Psalms 99 and 110:4, also Hebrews 7:1-17.  The significance of the “order of Melchizedek” is that his authority arose by means different than the traditional hereditary one of other priests. They were made priests on the mandate of G-d, the Creator. Nothing more is made of their priestly state.

Aaron was a member of the tribe of Levi (Exodus 4:14-16 and 7:28-30) and the brother of Moses; he was the designated tribal spokesman before the Egyptian Pharaoh. The Levite priests were also charged with several other duties, including the care and cure of Lepers in their communities. Luke 1 and 5. They officiated at the temple, and all the Tribe of Levi along with those of Aaron ministered together during the great festivals. Their dress was a long, light linen tunic worn with a decorated sash and turban. Compare this with the modern, Orthodox Christian practice owing its tradition back to the Hebrews, in all ways of the priests. So it is the priest of modern day who presides as Melechizedek's descendant, anointed with Holy Chrism.

Rosh Ha-Shanah, New Year

In recognition of the recent conclusion of the Jewish New Year 5771 observances, Rosh Ha-Shanah, and the High Holy days occurring annually about September each year, the Simple Mind revisits a most beautiful piece of literature contained within the Jewish Cannon, Sh'ir Ha-sh'irim also known as the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. Each new year is commenced by days of reflection, alms giving and repentance. The observance of Rosh Ha-Shanah, itself is also a reflective time for believers. As a covenental faith, Judiaism proclaims a just and merciful G-d, a passionate, loving G-d as reflected in the 'Song.'

"The author of the Song, using the same literary figure, paints a beautiful picture of the ideal Israel, the chosen people of the Old and New Testaments, whom the Lord led by degrees to an exalted spiritual union with himself in the bond of perfect love. When the Song is thus interpreted, there is no reason for surprise at the tone of the poem which employs in its descriptions the courtship and marriage customs of the author's time. Moreover, the poem is not an allegory in which each remark, in the dialogue of the lovers, has a higher meaning. It is a parable in which the true meaning of mutual love comes from the poem as a whole."

"Although the poem is attributed to Solomon in the traditional title, the language and style of the work, among other considerations, point to a time after the end of the Babylonian Exile, 538 B.C as that in which an unknown poet composed this masterpiece. The structure of the Song is difficult to analyze; it is regarded as a lyric dialogue, with dramatic movement and interest. The Lord speaks of Israel as a new spiritual people, purified by the Babylonian captivity and betrothed anew to her divine Lover "in justice and uprightness, in love and mercy."
Quoted text source: various authors, USCCB.

Song of Songs, Sh'ir Ha-Sh'irim, Chapter 2

    I am a flower of Sharon,
    a lily of the valley.
     As a lily among thorns,
    so is my beloved among women.

     As an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
    so is my lover among men.
    I delight to rest in his shadow,
    and his fruit is sweet to my mouth.

      He brings me into the banquet hall
    and his emblem over me is love.

    Strengthen me with raisin cakes,
    refresh me with apples,
    for I am faint with love.

    His left hand is under my head
    and his right arm embraces me.

    I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles and hinds of the field,
    Do not arouse, do not stir up love
    before its own time.
     Hark! my lover-here he comes
    springing across the mountains,
    leaping across the hills.

    My lover is like a gazelle
    or a young stag.
    Here he stands behind our wall,
    gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattices.

    My lover speaks; he says to me,
    "Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
    and come!
    "For see, the winter is past,
    the rains are over and gone.

    The flowers appear on the earth,
    the time of pruning the vines has come,
    and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

    The fig tree puts forth its figs,
    and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
    Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
    and come!
    "O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
    in the secret recesses of the cliff,
    Let me see you,
    let me hear your voice,
    For your voice is sweet,
    and you are lovely."

Translation: New American Bible

The World of Jesus' People

"Thus...Rome established or supported friendly kings... thereby governing through subsevient agents in lands where Rome itself did not choose to rule... Friends of Caesar." Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity by Jacob Neusner


The ruler of the Bible,Herrod and his sons, were local Jews selected by the Romans to rule. Developing the region as they wished for political and economic gain, Roman rule brought changes to the land of the biblical Jesus. They built new cities, ports, aqua ducts, roads; they divided the territory into taxing districts, collected the rents and public due from the populace by means of an established and efficient bureaucracy.

Not regarding Roman rule as wholly legitimate, Jews of the period regarded the taxation imposed upon them as robbery, writes religious historian, Jacob Neusner in his book, Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity. Furthermore he writes, "No Gentile (non Jew) could ever take valid, legal possession of land [since it was ultimately deeded from God in the Jewish mind]; even if a Gentile bought land from a Jew, Gentiles held it as sharecroppers."

Many people, Neusner writes, received a religious education, rich and poor alike. "This education centered on religious learning, was sufficiently broad to impart civilizing and humanizing lessons." Typically Jews of the period learned about their forefathers, such as Moses, Abraham and Jacob. Their tradition was sufficiently old so as to take a look backward into history and observe those peoples of history who no longer existed.

They were instructed about their obligations to the temple, the poor, children and widows, to care for the sick and to bury the dead. God was there for the Jew to be the One Lord, that they should not regard any other, nor idolize as had been done in days long ago. The Jews of the time of the Christ learned to do justice, love mercy and its practice, and mostly to walk humbly with their God.

Thus to these ancients, a comet, a flood, an earthquake or a scientific calculation all conveyed truths equally. They did not readily discriminate among them. Yet socially they were widely stratified. Among the residents of the city Jerusalem, there were those of great wealth, merchants, scholars and men of the Temple. Apart from these were the skilled trades, the money changers, the bankers and the tax collectors. In the countryside, land owners took p residence, with shepherds near or at the lowest rank.

Also present in the countryside were centers established by groups who purposefully separated themselves from the wider society.
The Roman, Philo, describes these groups principally as the Essenes who went outside of the Polis seeking purity and hoping for eternity; the Sadducees, another group who lived outside the Polis, stood for strict adherence to the written word, and practiced conservatism in both ritual and belief as spelled out in the Torah.


Finally the much maligned group of the New Testament, the Pharisees were a group who lived as deliberate Separatists, avoiding contact with those outside their group. Together these groups formed what is now thought of as early monastic practice in which they lived, worked and worshiped together in community. The Pharisees in particular, writes Neusner, adhered to the writings of Jewish philosopher, Hillel, who wrote, "Do not separate yourself from the community."

Thus supposes Neusner, it was the Pharisees who actively fostered their philosophies within the larger society, both Jews and Gentiles alike, greatly able to influence large masses of persons. Some joined with the urban Pharisees and formed urban communes, living, working and carrying out the religious traditions under Pharisaical direction. These groups frequently lived and worked among those who did not know or hold their views. Teaching by example, was an early model followed by those disciples who would later come to follow the Christ; in just the same way, they remained in community at one another's side.

The Paraclete, the Divine Healer

"Resting in God is a term I like." --Thich Nhat Hanh
 
Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, writes in his book, Living Buddha, Living Christ, that real love never ends. He says, "In Judaism, we are encouraged to enjoy the world as long as we know that it is God himself." Jewish belief is the forebear of Christianity; its patrimony is unmistakable, joyful, loving, creative. "The Ten Commandments... of the Judeo-Christian heritage help us know what to do, and what not to do in order to cherish God throughout our daily life."

"All precepts, commandments are about love and understanding." Jesus gave this commandment first to the Apostles his disciples, to 'love God with all your mind, with all your strength, and most importantly, to love your neighbor as yourself.' In the Jewish world of the Christ, this was very well known verse. It appears a number of times in the Torah. In the Bible chapter, First Corinthians (Corinthians 1), it declares the principle message of the bible and its eastern, Jewish roots: Love is patient, love is kind, love is not arrogant, envious or rude. Love does not rejoice in the wrong, it is not irritable or resentful. Love does not insist on its own way. Love rejoices in the truth.

These are very close to the teachings of Buddhism, continues Thich Nhat Hanh. He comments that, "Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Love is born and reborn... To take good care of yourself and the environment is the best way to love God. This love is possible when you understand that you are not separate from other beings, or the environment. This understanding cannot be merely intellectual. It must be experiential, insight gained from deep touching and deep looking in a daily life of contemplation, prayer and meditation." Real love never ends. It can be born and reborn within you, again and again.

When you pray with your heart, your love, the Holy (whole, unified) Spirit is within you. Nothing more is necessary. The Spirit is a force, a power within you and in the world. Spirit comes, lighting the Way in the darkness. The force of Bodhichitta is alive. You can see things deeply, understand deeply, love deeply. Hanh writes, "if you practice this way, the Lord's Prayer comes alive in you. It brings real change: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven... This is like the water that touches the wave, which is its own nature.

This touching removes fear, anxiety, anger, craving... give us our daily bread, and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us... lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, every evil...have mercy upon us, and protect us from anxiety..." Deeply looking, meditating on this prayer shows the light of the Spirit, the loving God, is loving the living beings that "we see and touch in our daily life.

If we can love them, we can love God. "Thus the Holy Spirit continues on in you. You are one, both the wave and the water, the raft and the shore. Your mindfulness will bring this about, sharing with others.

Monotheism and John Paul

Christian, spiritual leader to more than a billion of the world's population, Pope John Paul II led the Catholic Church into new, modern territory. Some think that among his vast flock, he will be long regarded as 'the good Pope.' He was an important architect of the renovation and reform of the Church in 1962 through 1964. Finding the new age to have wants of its own and recognizing the need for change and relevance, She (the Church) set upon the sweeping reforms widely known as 'Vatican II.' Churchmen, laity, religious monks, brothers and nuns, were one and all swept into the 'body of Christ.' Playing his part, the young bishop of Krakow, Poland Karol Wotjyla, surprised the convocation by finding a voice in that great assembly. Thoroughly modern, he called for another way.

Recollecting his time as a Cleric and his views as Pope John Paul II, Karol Wotjlya, wrote in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, "the Church has a high regard for for the Muslims, who worship one God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. As  a result of their monotheism  believers in Allah are particularly close to us... some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran [Qur'an], but he is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only majesty, never Emmanuel, God is with Us. Islam is not a religion of Redemption... Jesus is mentioned, but only as a Prophet... for this reason, not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity."

The Council [Vatican II] has also called the Church to have a dialog with the followers of the Prophet." And She has done so. "To work toward mutual understanding, as well as the preservation and promotion of social justice, moral welfare, peace, and freedom for the benefit of all mankind." John Paul continues his thoughts to express concern for countries "where fundamentalist movements come to power, human rights and the principle of religious freedom are interpreted... make reciprocal contacts very difficult... the Church remains open to dialog."

Regarding the Jewish people, John Paul speaks of them as "our elder brothers in the faith." And in a typically Christian way, he interprets the Covenant of Abraham, the Covenant at Sinai, the Prophets, the sacred Scripture, as the old versus the new covenant. "The one whom God would send in the fullness of time," Galations 4:4. Yet for the Jewish believer, there is only One Covenant; it is outlined and inscribed in the Tenakh. And the Church remains a powerful voice for monotheism today.

Judaism, a Theology of the Common Deed

"The gods attend to great matters; they neglect small ones..." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.E.-43 B.C.E.), ancient Roman Statesman

Responding to one of the great figures in the Hellenistic world Jewish theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel writes "In the theology of the common good, according to Aristotle, the gods are not at all concerned with the dispensation of good and bad fortune, or external things. To the Hebrew prophet, however, no subject is as worthy of consideration as the plight of man. Indeed G-d Himself is described as reflecting over the plight of man rather than as contemplating eternal ideas. His mind is preoccupied with man, with the concrete actualities of history, rather than with the timeless issues of thought."

In the Nevi'im, or Prophet's message, nothing that has bearing upon good and evil is small or trite in the eyes of  G-d. The teaching of Judaism is the theology of the common deed. The Torah, or Bible, insists that G-d is concerned with the everydayness, the trivialities of life. Thus the great challenge does not lie in organizing solemn demonstrations, but in how we manage the commonplace. The prophet's field of concern is not the mysteries of heaven, the glories of eternity, but the blights of society, the affairs of the marketplace. He addresses himself to those who trample upon the needy, who increase the price of grain, use dishonest scales and sell the refuse of corn or wheat (see Nevi'im, Amos 8:4-6). The predominant feature of the biblical pattern of life is unassuming, unheroic, inconspicuous piety, the sanctification of trifles, attentiveness to details."

The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning (Torah, Leviticus 19:13,18). Love your fellow as yourself; I am the Lord. When you encounter your enemy's ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him. When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him (Torah, Exodus 23:4-5).

-- taken from I Asked for Wonder, A Spiritual Anthology by Abraham Joshua Heshel

The Songs: What is Really in the Bible, Anyway?

The simple mind is away from the computer. this article was posted here previously, March 9, 2009.
"I sought the one I love" --Tanakh, Shir Ha-Shirim


Reflecting on the often forgotten or overlooked patrimony of the Christian, the father of whom is Yaweh, el, adonai, G-d, among other names, we in the modern world sometimes feel a disconnect from this vital source of our being. As Catholic and Orthodox Christians, to a varying and lesser degree, Protestant Christians, our heritage of joy, creativity and love owes itself to this very Jewish of fathers: Yaweh, G-d of the Tanakh, or "Old Testament."

Remembering our father ancestor is vital in understanding the whole of the Christian mind. Jesus was a Rabbi, a teacher of the Jewish people. He lived a Jewish life in a Jewish world. The earliest Christians who came to follow him, thought of themselves as very Jewish; they had seen and found the way to G-d's salvation in the Christ. Yet others, Jew and Gentile alike, in their Greek and Roman world, were unconvinced.

Over a period of time, Christian-Jews found themselves persecuted and misunderstood by many; excluded from many Temples, and engaging in new religious devotions, these Christians moved away from their Jewish center. By the first centuries in the Common Era (also referred to as A.D., after death) Christianity emerged from the home of her father, and went forth into the Gentile world. For its part, Judaism very nearly succumbed to a process of "Hellenization," that is, Jews were nearly completely subjugated to Greek rule and life; all but losing themselves in the process.

The early Christian church was largely of a Greek or Roman (Latin) character. As time progressed, the more unified Christian church split into what today is referred to as the Orthodox Church, Greek, and the Roman Catholic Church, Roman. However, long before all this happened, there were the Jews and their books, the Tanakh, guiding all their lives in a joyful and loving presence of Yaweh, G-d, our father.

The Jews, as "the people of the book," have been faithful to that book for more than 5,000 years now. What Christians refer to as the Bible, or the "Old Testament," Jews call the Tenakh (תנ״ך). It is divided into Torah (תּוֹרָה), Nev'im (נביאים), and Kethuvim (כְּתוּבִים). The Torah contains the five books of Moses; the Nev'im contains the writings of the Prophets, and the Kethuvim contains other writings also included within the Jewish Canon.

When we speak of this Jewish father, we read in the Tenakh stories that point to a bold, justice loving, creative, powerful, demanding, covenant making, passionate, tender presence. His love is a free love, a father regarding his creation, a shepherd tending his sheep, a devoted one sacrificing his only son. However, over time, for Christians, among the many, many stories of Yaweh that are contained within the book, writings in Kethuvim are the possibly the most challenging and engaging. To the early Christians, stories such as Lamentations, Job, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, or Shir Ha Shr'im stand out as examples of G-d's character and inspiration.

Some Christians, and some Christian communities, have lost touch with this ancestor. Their mind has turned to other sources beyond the Tenakh for inspiration, and the Church has split, time and time again. These communities have moved far from this very Jewish father.

In this approaching season of Easter and Pesach, or Passover, the reading of Shir Ha Shir'im (שיר השירים), the Song of Solomon, is traditional. Curiously it is one of two books in which the name of G-d is not mentioned. Song of Songs, Song of Solomon, two of its several names, is often seen quite simply as an intensely erotic love song or story, hence its name.
"The book reveals the warm and innocent satisfaction the ancient Hebrews drew from the physical and emotional relationship of a man and a woman. For the Jews, this relationship has been seen as Yaweh or G-d, the lover and his people, Israel, the Beloved. Christians have often likened the Song to G-d's love for the Church, his Beloved. The Judeo-Christian mystical tradition has viewed the Song a groom, and his passionate love for a bride," notes the Catholic Encylopedia by Peter Stravinskas.

Song Of Songs, Shir Ha-Shr'im
"Upon my couch at night
I sought the one I love--
I sought, but found him not.

I must seek the one I love.
I sought but found him not.
I met the watchmen
who patrol the town.
Have you seen the one I love?
Scarcely had I passed them
when I found the one I love.
I held him fast,
I would not let him go.

Do not wake or rouse
Love until it please!
Who is she that comes up from the desert
like columns of smoke

There is Solomon's couch
Encirlcled by 60 warriors
of the warriors of Israel
All of them trained in warfare.

King Solomon made him a planquin
of wood from Lebanon

Within it was decked with love
By the maidens of Jerusalem
Wearing the crown that his mother
gave him on his wedding day
On his day of bliss

Ah, you are fair, my darling,
Ah, you are fair.
Your eyes are like doves
Behind your veil.
Your lips are like crimson thread
Your mouth is lovely
your breasts are like two fawns
There is no blemish in you
From Lebanon come with me!

You have captured my heart,
my own, my bride.
You have captured my heart.
with one glance of your eyes,
with one coil of your necklace.
How sweet is your love,
My own, my bride!

My beloved took his hand off the latch
and my heart was stirred for him.
I rose to let in my beloved;
my hands dripped Myrrh
I opened the door for my Beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
I was faint because of what he said.
I sought him, but found him not.
I called, but he did not answer.

If you meet my beloved, tell him
that I am faint with love.

I am my beloved's
And his desire is for me.
Come, my beloved,
Let us go into the open;
Let us see if the vine has flowered,
If the pomegranates are in bloom.
There I will give my love to you.

If only it could be as with a brother,
Then I could kiss you
when I met you in the street,
and no one would despise me.
I would let you drink of the spiced wine.

Let me be a seal upon your heart,
like the seal upon your hand.
for love is as fierce as death,
Passion as mighty as Shoel;
its darts are darts of fire,
a blazing flame.

Vast floods cannot quench love,
Nor rivers drown it.
If a man offered all his wealth for love,
He would be laughed to scorn.

O, you who linger in the garden,
A lover is listening;
Let me hear your voice.
Hurry, my beloved,
Swift as a gazelle or a young stag,
To the hills of spices!"
--Translation from Tanakh, the Holy Scriptures
The Jewish Translation Society,1985

Rahamim, Compassionate Forgiveness

"For He knows how we are formed, remembers that we are dust. Our days are like the grass; like flowers of the field, we blossom. The wind sweeps over us and we are gone; our place knows us no more. But the Lord's kindness is forever, toward the faithful from age to age." --Torah, Psalm 103:14-18

In recognition of this the Jewish day of the New Lunar year, 5770, Rosh Ha-Shon'ah is again upon us with all its great blessings and preparations for the coming New Year. Ever important to the full understanding of Jewish wisdom are the extensive teachings about kindness, compassion and forgiveness. At the New Year these thoughts are again forefront in the Jewish mind. Canadian Rabbi, Stuart Rosenberg writes in his book, More Loves Than One about the force and authority of love. Love, he writes, is communal, it is familial, it is Eros, and above all, it is patient and forgiving.

Rahamim, is described by the author, as "a humane nearness of G-d to the offender, a willingness to accept and affirm that person as a person, while standing firmly opposed to his wrongdoing... is profoundly related to much of the ethos" of Torah. He says that the word, rahamim, is accurately translated as 'compassionate forgiveness.' Rosenberg asserts that nothing greater can happen to a human being than to be deeply and wholly forgiven. "And there can be no greater love of things, ideas, or persons without the central, ethical role which forgiveness plays in human affairs."

In this view, a 'first step' consists of perhaps excusing the transgression once, while awaiting the next fault, or mistake so as to pounce again, since it can't be a mistake twice, the Rabbi writes. In this hard, rational mind, these persons of the 'first step' draw conclusions quickly before learning of all the factors; yet mature love asks, and needs, patience. It "bids us to wait and tolerate."

And sometimes we think we have learned the meaning of forgiveness when we have really only achieved a sort of truce or cease fire. "Too many of us," writes Rabbi Rosenberg, "pardon our neighbors, but seek to exact tribute. "Gleefully, we set down a catalog of pre-conditions for our compassion. But forgiveness is incomplete if we can only offer punishments fitting the crime, and not true love," or Maitreya. Forgiveness that is complete and whole exacts no tribute, it requires no moral barter.

The forgiveness, Rabbi (Rabbi, a Hebrew word meaning teacher) Rosenberg writes of is biblical, not pragmatic; it is extravagant, not quid pro quo; it is mindful, not forgetful, and it is life changing and healing to all involved, not only to 'transgressors.' "Forgiveness is the Divine answer" to the utter imperfection implied in human existence. It is a free-will act, liberating all who engage. "This is why no man truly loves who cannot accept forgiveness as a way of life. The deeper our experiences of forgiveness, the deeper and fuller our love experience."

In this radical viewpoint, forgiveness is a wild, bold risk, and a healing, freeing opening to a new day. Its wisdom lies in recognition of our mutual clumsiness and imperfection. Forgiving means reconciliation "in spite of estrangement, reunion in the face of hostility, acceptance of the unacceptable, receiving the rejected. If we are not to kill the things we love, we must learn to accept help rather than reject, receive rather than to defy, embrace rather than to revile those whose lives connect to our own."

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