Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Exodus: Gift of the Torah

After the revelation of the gift of the Sabbath, and the gifts of manna and quails, the people are given the Thora, they are given the Testimony. “The Lord said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandments, which I have written for their instruction.'”[footnote:Ex. 24:12.] The Lord speaks to Moses from Mt. Sinai, teaching the ten commandments and Laws concerning slaves, restitution, and justice.[footnote:Ex. 20--23.] Moses tells the people the words, records them, then goes up with the seventy elders and Aaron. “...and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heavens for its clearness.”[footnote:Ex. 24:10.] This verse calls to mind the vision of John in the book of Revelation, “...and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne...and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.”[footnote:Rev. 4:2,6.] And later, “And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered (...) standing beside the sea of glass (...) and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the lamb...”[footnote:Rev. 15:2--3.] There is something eschatological about Moses' ascension and encounter with God. Every time God reveals Himself, eternity is revealed, with the beginning and end of all things. The song of Moses is the song of the Lamb --- it is the song of the first victory and of the final victory, of the first liberation and the final liberation. It is the song of the Lord's triumph --- it is the song of Israel's triumph. Victory comes from the Lord.

So the tablets of the Law, the totality of the Thora, is given to the people from the heights of Mount Sinai. The revelation of the ten commandments is the revelation of both the real war --- between good and evil --- and the victory to be had through mercy and pardon, “The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, 'The Lord, The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...”[footnote:Ex. 34:6--7.] But the war between good and evil remains hidden to the eyes of men who do not have the revelation of God or the perspective of those who climb the mountain of God, “When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, 'There is a noise of war in the camp.' but he said, 'It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.'”[footnote:Ex. 32:17--18.]

And when the tablets of the Law are finally given to the people, they are given on the day of Pardon[footnote:La voix de la Thora, p. 404 vs. 1.] making them even more precious than the first set destroyed by Moses. Having Moses write this second set also signifies the importance of man's cooperation with the Word of God. Man receives the pardon of God by publishing His Word through his own hand. God's pardon is received through and effective desire to make God's Law, His Word, one's own. God's Law, the first set of tablets, was part of the work of Creation. Written with God's finger as when we read the heavens were the work of his hands.[footnote:Voix de la Thora: p. 380; Ex. 32: 16.] God's pardon is also given with His Law, His Word, yet requires man to apply himself to God's Law and word. As Saint Augustin put it, God created us without us, but will not save us without us. The covenant with God was broken by man when man broke the command of God (As Moses broke the tablets), but God renews the covenant by the gift of pardon, by His forgiveness and mercy. The love of God for man is stronger than man's sin, his love is full of mercy and forgiveness. Yet God desires man's fidelity to His covenant and Law. God's love is not without justice, but it is determined by His mercy. The mercy seat is raised above the ark of the testimony. The testimony, the Torah, is placed inside the ark, it is protected from the flood of sin and impurity of the men surrounding it. It is precious, it is the foundation of the Lord's covenant with Israel, and without it, the Lord's seat of mercy has no foundation. The Lord's presence is situated above the testament, upon the seat of mercy, and it is from the place of mercy that the Lord will meet His people. The Lord will speak to them and give them His commands from the place of mercy.[footnote:Ex. 25:21--22.]

Monday, May 23, 2011

Exodus: Gift of Quails

The people were not only given manna however, they were also given meat --- quails.[footnote:Ex. 16:8.] Rabbinical commentaries insist on the fact that quails were not given out of necessity, but because of the people's doubting hearts[footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode, p. 172; Ex. 16:6.]The demand for meat was itself unfitting: meat is not necessary for the life of man; the people had plenty of cattle they could have eaten; they did not ask to merely eat meat, but to gorge themselves. The inappropriateness is also hinted at by the inconvenience attached to the gift of this meat: small birds require lots of work to clean and many birds would be required to eat and be satisfied; the birds came in the evening, which required the people to work quickly --- while there was still light. Bread was the food given for the day, the time of grace, whereas meat was given as the shadows and darkness began to cover the earth.[footnote:ibid. Ex. 16:8.] The fact that God gives them meat anyway is surprising, but proves that God was able to completely provide the necessary and an overabundance even in the desert.[footnote:ibid. Ex. 16:6.]

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Exodus: Gift of Manna

If God's desire to belong to Israel is clear from the way He gives them a special place, a special land, for them to dwell in together, it is also clear that He wants this desire to be reciprocal. The Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years --- long enough for an entire generation to pass away, and for an entire generation to have lived the bulk of their lives on a journey. The memory of Egypt had to be purged, and the desire to be fully consecrated to the Lord had to grow. God gives a new gift to the people of Israel on their journey: the manna. “It was now necessary for the people to entrust the task of each and every person's subsistence --- as families --- to divine Providence and in conformity to the law of the Shabbat.”[footnote:La voix de la Thora : l'Exode, p. 170°1.] As slaves, the Israelites would depend upon their masters for food. Now that they are free, they must depend upon God for their subsistence. God will show them that they can, and must come to depend upon His gift --- His providence. “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”[footnote:Ex. 16: 4.] The ability to follow the law of the Lord is rooted in the trust we have in His providence. The first and fundamental consecration to the Lord is trusting that if we go out to gather what is needed for the day, the Lord will not fail to provide it, to give it to us. But if the Lord gives providentially, even to those who do not trust Him, He does so with a deeper consecration in mind: adhering or clinging to His Law. This is clear not only from the verses that follow regarding the Sabbath, but from the quality of the bread provided:

This “bread from heaven,” enveloped with dew, constitutes, according to the opinion of R. Aquilia, the food of angels (Yoma 75b) or the bread emanating from the kingdom of angels (Haguiga 12b; cf. Targoum Ps. LXXVIII, 25). Created at the very end of the work of Creation (Aboth V, 6), it was reserved to the just and fervent disciples of the Thora for future ages (Haguiga ibid.). The Torah was only given to be studied by those who consumed the manna, said R. Simon ben Yohaï (Hekilta). For food, explains the Zohar, is one of the factors upon which hinges man's aptitude for knowing the eternal truths. Unclean and fatty foods makes “the heart insensible.” (Yoma 39b), but the slighter the food, the more it renders the spirit apt to rise up to the knowledge of God. Therefore, one of the first measures taken for the future people of the Thora, immediately following their liberation, was changing foods. The people would now eat unleavened bread, which, having not risen, is slighter than ordinary bread. Once the people “had finished t heir provision of crackers” (Rachi), the children of Israel were nourished by an even more ethereal bread. This bread was the manna, so slight that it didn't even contain matter which needed to be evacuated from the body by the usual ways. (Yoma 75b)...[footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode, p 170--171; 16: 4.]

God doubles His providential gift of the manna on the sixth day --- yet the people are not obliged to work harder to gather more. What has been gathered on the sixth day will also suffice for the seventh, the Sabbath. The only additional concern was preparing half the manna gathered on the sixth day for consumption on the Sabbath, and, interestingly enough, holiness was always manifest in Israel at times when the precepts of this preparation were taken seriously.[footnote:ibid., 16: 5.] Holiness, turning towards God, was therefore the aim of the Sabbath, to give thanks for God's abundance and to allow hearts left unsatisfied by the manna to be satisfied by the Lord, by the study and reading of the Thora.[footnote:ibid., p. 175; Ex. 16: 23.] The importance involved in keeping the Sabbath also touches the fruitfulness in the lives of the people. The Sabbath is itself a gift[footnote:Ex. 16: 29.] whose reception requires the observance of certain laws or commandments. In order to fully know the good of the Sabbath as a gift, certain attitudes and preparations are necessary. The gift of the Sabbath is not only for the people to rest and enjoy the Lord, but the Sabbath is also given so that the people might become gifts for one another. When the Lord commands everyone to stay in their place, Rabbinical commentaries understood it as encouraging not only the inward journey, the journey towards God, but also the return towards family and neighbor.[footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode; p. 177, Ex. 16: 29.]

One final remark about the gift of manna has to do with verse 31 of chapter sixteen of Exodus. The mysterious bread was named by the women. “מן food (received) shared by God (מן is derived from מנה, gift, as in Leviticus 7:20 and מנה, a share, as in Psalm XVI, 11).”[footnote:ibid. p. 178.] “The women are the ones responsible for keeping up the spirit of trust in God, of sobriety and peaceful assurance in the future that the gift of the manna kindled. It is also worth note that the women were the first to designate the manna as the providential gift assuring each one his portion.”[footnote:ibid. p. 178; Ex. 16:31.] Recognizing the manna for what it is --- God's providential bread --- and naming it as such was a very astute way to keep the faith and hope of Israel alive. The gestures of God's love do not always come from Him in an obvious way, the role of the faithful is to “call a spade a spade,” in other words, when God provides providentially even though it may not be obvious, it is important to recognize and proclaim the gift of God. It is perhaps especially the woman's role to remind the family of God's providential gifts --- to remind the family of the presence of God's hand in our daily lives.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Exodus: Gift of Land, the Sabbath, and the Law

The children of Israel are becoming a sign for all nations of the one true God. They are becoming a people consecrated to the Lord, set apart for Him, “And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites (...), as He swore to your fathers, and shall give to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the first-lings of your cattle that are males shall be the Lord's”[footnote:Ex. 13:11--12.] The gifts of God to the children of Israel are both signs of their consecration to Him, and ways to become effectively consecrated to Him. It is the wedding bond God will establish with Israel. The gifts of God are the gifts of a lover to a beloved: they anticipate an unconditional response of love and preference. The gifts of God come with expectations of love, the expectations of a total loving response from the one who receives them. When the gifts of God are received selfishly (ex. Is. 47:8,10) the jealousy of God is kindled. Receiving the gift without recognizing the giver cuts the gesture off at its source. The gifts of God are given freely, He does not revoke them, but they are given by Him so that the children of Israel might form a common life with him and establish a reciprocal relationship.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Exodus: Gift of Light

As the people of Israel are leaving Egypt, the Lord is present as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.[footnote:Ex. 13:21.] This is a very touching gesture, He does not just lead Moses, or tell Moses where to go, the presence of the Lord is manifest --- visible --- for the whole people. The Lord is not the “light at the end of the tunnel,” He is the light that immediately illuminates and guides along the path. The Lord is not at the end of the journey, the Lord is present as a guide. The Lord does not refuse to be with His people until they go out to meet Him, He is already present, but guides His people towards a new plenitude, the possession of His gift. In order for the children of Israel to enter into possession of the gift of God --- the promised land --- they must be guided by the Lord. The Lord Himself is present along the way in order to prove, in a manner of speaking, the sweetness of life with Him and the goodness of the gifts He has to give. The pillar of cloud, according to Rabbinical tradition, made the painful and burdensome desert life more pleasant: “What is that coming up from the desert like a cloud of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of the merchant.”[footnote:The Song of Songs, 3:6; Voix de la Thora: l'Exode, p. 139; Ex. 13:21.] The Lord gives a destination to the journey, but He does not simply wait for the people in the promised land. The children of Israel are going to Canaan to worship the Eternal, but not because that is where He lives.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Exodus: Gift of Favor

The next moment we see the gift of God appear in Exodus is when the people are leaving Egypt. Exodus 12:36, “... and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.” The word favor could also be translated grace. According to the Targoum, this grace given to the Israelites caused their adversaries to give them over and beyond what they asked for. The Egyptians see their slaves in a new light --- the light of God, a light given by God --- and as the Egyptians see them in this new way, they give the Israelites twice as much as they ask.[footnote:Pentateuch with Rachi: Exodus, p. 88; Ex. 12:36.] Israel does not escape from Egypt, they are released and even thrown out --- and yet there is no violence --- no war or battle. Yet, without violent means, Israel receives twice the goods they asked for from their former masters and enemies. Israel leaves Egypt in complete dignity, and their oppressors recognize the favor that comes to them from the Lord, and in a certain way the Egyptians pay homage by giving their wealth away freely to the children of Israel. God promises this in Exodus 3:21. And we see that before the last plague, grace is given abundantly to Moses, causing him to appear great among the people of Egypt.[footnote:Ex. 11:3.] This is quite shocking and miraculous for Moses to appear such before a nation plagued at his hands, Moses was in no way an object of terror or collective hatred. His face was, on the contrary, such that the people, even the king's servants, revered his extraordinary personality and recognized his wisdom, his loyalty, and the righteousness of his cause. Neither Pharaoh nor his subjects dreamed of laying a hand on him.[footnote:Voice of the Thora: Exodus, p. 104; Ex. 11:3.]

Friday, May 13, 2011

Exodus: Introduction

Exodus presents a very different side of God's gift. The Hebrews left the land they were promised because of famine, and took up residence in Egypt. We find out at the beginning of Exodus that the people of Israel have become strong and numerous, and that a king who does not remember Joseph enslaves the people.[footnote:Ex. 1:8--10.] The problem of Exodus is how God will enable the Israelites to come into the possession of the land of promise. When Abraham first sojourned in that land, the Hebrews were not mighty enough or numerous enough to truly possess the land --- they did not inhabit it. When Jacob finally returns to Canaan it would seem like the time has finally come for peace and settlement of the country of Canaan, but as God foretold when speaking to Abram, “Know this, your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not their own...”[footnote:Gn. 15:13.] For one thing, the promised land is still impure because of the Amorites[footnote:Gn. 15:16.] --- but God respects even the freedom of those who oppose His will. If God gives the Amorites four-hundred years to “fill the measure of sin,” it isn't because He wants their sin to worsen. Meïr Simcha of Dunabourg comments on Rachi, “Either the Amorite will fill up the measure of his perversion --- then his [Abram's] descendants will be allowed to conquer his [the Amorite's], or he [the Amorite] will come back to God and obey on his own the divine will, giving the land to the children of the Patriarch, in conformity with the ancestral tradition held since the days of Noah.”[footnote:La Voix de la Thora: Genèse, p. 152; Gn. 15:16.]

It is amazing to see that God allows the free will of people who are not Abraham's offspring, who are not heirs or members of the covenant to “interfere” with the realization of His promises --- with Him giving the gift of a land. If human gestures must be realized within a lifetime, the gestures of God often span a much longer period. God acts with wisdom, He acts at the most favorable time and in the most significant way to reveal as deeply as possible His love. It is not the material gift of land to the sons of Abraham that is important, it is the way God gives that land to them. God gives them that land in order to establish and develop a relationship with them. Their motivation for getting back to Canaan is a strange mixture of things. Whereas Abram left his land to go to the land God wanted to give him, the Israelites are stuck in a land that is not their own --- slaves in a foreign land. Now the people cry out to the Eternal for help and God responds.When God does respond to Israel however, He does not respond by immediately changing their circumstances; He responds by drawing closer to them.[footnote:Ex. 2:24.] The compassion of God, or closeness of God is described by four verbs which, according to the commentator Maharal, represent four degrees of divine help:1. Hears, means that their imploring has been “perceived” and that the wall separating creature from creator has fallen. 2. Remembers, is a higher degree: God will not forget, because he holds on to the memory of their father's merits. These first two stages are due to the divine grace accorded to the children of Israel suffering in exile. 3. The next stage brings with it a new progression, “God saw the people of Israel,” which implies that their distress was brought before His eyes and that His intervention becomes, consequentially, no longer an act of grace, but and act of justice. 4. Finally, God knew, He alone, the secrets which have not been made known openly, which include both the intimate sufferings unknown to others and the deep feelings of repentance and return to God that are born in the depths of the heart. [footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode; p. 23, °24 ] The beginning of God's help is God coming closer to those who cry out to Him. The beginning of God's help is compassion. The beginning of God's help is an intensification of His presence. From the last passage we also learn what attracts God's presence and saving help. God draws close to those who cry out, to those with whom He has made a covenant, to those who are victims of injustice, to those who repent and return to Him. And yet, if we compare the reaction of Got to the reaction of a man confronted with evil, there is a troubling difference. A human reaction to the suffering of a loved one is immediately active and involves doing everything in one's power to eliminate or reduce that suffering. God is certainly in a position of power high enough to immediately remove the suffering of Israel --- and God has also revealed His preference and love for Israel. There are two points which may help understand how God could allow the suffering to continue: First, the Egyptians, who are oppressing Israel, are also created by God and created free. If God has willed them to be free, He will not go back on it. Second, without changing the free will of Pharaoh, God could still make it impossible, naturally, for Egypt to oppress Israel --- which He does, only not right away. So, if God allows so much time to pass before delivering Israel from oppression, it is because Israel's suffering is not an absolute evil. Israel's suffering causes them to call out to God, to return to Him --- and God, in turn, comes down to Israel. God does not want suffering for its own sake, but He allows it because He created men free, and because it causes Israel to reassess what is truly essential in their lives --- their covenant with the Lord.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Genesis: Gift of Heirs

The final gift I want to look at in Genesis is the gift of offspring. Though children are considered a blessing from God, they are given through the natural process of conception and generation. In other words, if the nature of the individuals trying to have a child is not damaged, there is no reason to suppose that they will not eventually have one. So, since generation is a fundamentally natural vital operation, it can be difficult to understand each child as a gift from God and not simply a natural result of God's creation. Of course, being in the modern world, we are much more easily tempted to separate the work of God from the work of nature than they were in ancient times. Every problem with the natural world has a scientific  explanation, and the medical sciences seek to fix these problems with procedures and technology that restores or repairs natural deficiencies. The more ultimate question of why nature is sometimes broken does not surface nearly as often as the unchecked hope we have in being able to fix the brokenness when it appears. In the ancient world, when nature does what it ought to do, it is a sign of God's blessing --- and when it doesn't, it is considered a curse. One of the most terrible curses is sterility, especially the sterility of a woman. It goes directly against the command of God to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth...”

So when we look at the cases of sterility in Genesis we are faced with something traumatic and incomprehensible. Sarai is sterile, but God has made it clear to Abram that he would give the promised land to his descendants.[footnote:Gn. 12:7.] And God further clarifies that it will be Abram's own son who will be his heir.[footnote:Gn. 15:3.] Sarai is convinced at this point that in order for God's promise to be fulfilled, he must take a different wife --- Sarai is convinced that the Lord has prevented her from having children. Abraham even laughs at God when God says that He will give him a son by Sarah. But this promise is made after God changes their names. Sarai --- my princess --- becomes Sarah, which means “princess for all” --- no longer belonging to Abram alone.[footnote:Pentateuch avec Rachi. I: La Genèse, p. 97 v. 15 comm.] Sarah will not be fruitful for Abram alone, she will be fruitful because of a special gift of God, and not by mere
natural capacity. This child, Issac, is a miraculous conception in the womb of a woman who was sterile. With the change of Sarai's name comes the opening of her womb. And the name of her child will be a constant reminder of how surprising and miraculous the conception of this child was. The Lord gives the true heir not just through Abraham, but through Abraham and his wife Sarah. God reveals that the true lineage passes by the true spouse. The one who will inherit the fullness of God's promises to Abraham must be born of his true spouse.

We could summarize what God has done for Abraham by looking at the witness given by his servant. Laban hears from Abraham's servant, who has come to bring a wife back for Issac --- Rachel --- the extraordinary things the Lord has done for Abraham. At the end of his witness, the servant says that the Lord, “Has given him (Abraham) all that He has.[footnote:Gn. 24:36.]” In other words, the Lord has shown to Abraham and Sarah the act of giving.[footnote:Rashi: Genesis, 151.] The Lord has held nothing back in this gesture. The Lord has given all the goods of the earth, the goods of land, and of posterity, to Abraham. And Abraham ends his life with the same generosity, the same act of giving: “Abraham gave everything he owned to Issac.[footnote:Gn. 25:5.]” Abraham did not split up his possessions among all his children, which shows that the gift of God is not simply material --- it cannot be divided up into pieces. Rabbi Nehemia said while commenting that verse, “[Abraham gave Issac] the gift of hereditary blessing. The blessings of the Lord are yours to give to whom you please: be a blessing.[footnote:Gn. 12:2.]”[footnote:Rashi: Genesis 159.] God gives to Abraham to make Abraham a gift for humanity. And the gift (blessing) given to Issac by Abraham is nothing less than the gift of God.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Genesis: Gift of Land

When the Lord appears to Abram, the Lord promises to give land to his descendants.[footnote:Gn. 12:7] Then, the Lord says He will give the land to Abram and his descendants, and finally, the Lord says, “...walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”[footnote:Gn. 13:17.] This land, the  Promised Land, is the first land explicitly given to man by God since he was kicked out of the Garden of
Eden. Noah is invited, like the first man, to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill all the earth.”[footnote:Gn. 1:28, 9:1.] But Abram is invited by God to go beyond his own country and land to the land that God will show him. God does not ask Abram to make a sacrifice, He asks Abram to trust Him and promises three blessings, three gifts: children, prosperity, and fame --- the three goods that a nomadic life would otherwise decrease.[footnote:Le Pentateuque avec Rachi I: La Genèse, p 69.] By giving Abram land, we can also see that this is a way by which God intends to give Himself. The Lord of Heaven becomes the Lord of the earth by the witness of Abraham within the promised land, and his teaching the creatures therein to proclaim His name.[footnote:
Le Pent. avec Rachi I, p. 145.] Man (Adam) cuts God off from the earth by his sin, but God begins His own pilgrimage to earth, progressively reconciling it to Himself. Abraham freely accepts the gift of God, God's promise of land and descendants, and opens the way --- by his faith --- to a new communion between God and man. Abram can be seen as an image of the Word, who is sent forth from the bosom of the Father to dwell in the land of promise --- in the heart and the womb of the Virgin Mary. God reveals that the way He intends to reestablish communion with man is to journey with man, on a path similar to the one man must take himself. The Promised Land, which is given by the Eternal to Abraham and his descendants, is something which must progressively be taken possession of by the chosen people. To truly possess a land one must live on it, one must cultivate it, one must be able to defend it, etc. --- and to truly possess the promised land, everything and everyone in it must be consecrated to the Lord. And this consecration --- setting apart --- to be a holy people is characterized by the Sabbath. The more the chosen people possess the land and  consecrate themselves to the Lord, the more deeply they receive the gift of God, and the more profoundly God is present in their midst.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Genesis: Gift of Food

Light brings fullness of life to plants, and plants are food for the animals. Light is given to the earth for the plants who become food --- mediators of life --- for all with the breath (spirit) of life. Moving beings are also given as food to man, only not to be eaten while the blood --- the life --- remains in the flesh. Life does not feed on life, living beings feed on the fruits of the green plants and on the flesh of the moving beings.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the construction of modern myths will notice that the myth of the  vampire has been the object of reconstruction lately. From Twilight to all the various television series, there is a modern fascination with the idea of “good vampires.” What makes this a modern myth? It has to do with blurring the lines between good and evil. The whole drama of nature vs. person is set to redefine the problem of good and evil. Can someone be evil by nature? Can someone be good or evil simply by obeying their nature? Is it right to choose to live in accord with one's nature when one's nature is profoundly broken?
Is it right to negate one's nature in the attempt to rise above it? Is it even possible to rise above one's nature? Heroes are not all good, villains are not all evil --- humanity is as profoundly good as it is broken. Virtue is gone, and since no one is truly virtuous, the only good thing left to do is hope that love will be strong enough to conquer evil most of the time.

Without looking more deeply at the myth about vampires, and its modern spin, why does the Word of God specifically disallow consuming flesh while it still contains the blood? The scriptures reject feeding on blood in the flesh because of what it symbolizes and implies practically speaking. Blood is the symbol of life, and the lives of animals have not been given to man for his consumption --- the life must be drained from the body before it can be considered food given by the Creator to man. Jesus gives us his flesh as true food and his blood as true drink --- but the two are separated. If blood symbolizes the soul of the living being in the Bible, with the heart at the vital center, the gift of Christ's blood to us as true drink reveals God's desire for us to be nourished by his very life --- His heart is opened to us.

The gift of every moving thing as food --- with the exception of man of course --- is given to Noah and his descendants. For anyone who kills a man shall be killed by men. Both man and beast are held accountable for the shedding of blood. The blood of man has something sacred about it because man is made in the image of
God.[footnote: Gn. 9: 5--6.] So why does God give the animals as food to Noah? Noah saved God's creation at His command, and offered a pleasing sacrifice of these animals before the Lord. As a response to this, God gives the animals of creation to man in a new way, as food. And this itself is connected to God lifting the curse of the ground. Indeed, it is already a kind of prophesy where the Word of God promises to bear the brokenness of humanity, “The Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.’”[footnote:Gn. 8: 21.]

Chasidic thought provides another reason as to why God gives the flesh of animals as food after the flood. This reason has to do with the natural qualities of flesh as food itself. Just an aside, but it is interesting to note that in the Eucharist, the Body (flesh) of Christ is given under the appearance of bread, the manna which is flesh indeed. According to Chasidic thought, creation itself reaches a new degree of subtlety after the flood
--- one “theological-empirical” explanation for why there weren't any rainbows in the sky until then --- and therefore matter itself loses its coarser edge and becomes more supple. The underlying spiritual revolution at the time of the flood is a general predisposition among men for repentance. Meat is a coarser food and would have plunged the pre-flood era into a hedonistic physicality void of conscience. The purification of the world by the flood is both physical and spiritual --- the physical becoming more refined, the spirit of man becoming
disposed to repentance.[footnote:See “The Gutnick Edition Chumash: Genesis” p 59.] The importance of this idea has to do with the increasing subtlety of the food given by God: from the plants, to flesh, to the manna and the quails, to the Word of God (the Thora), to the Word made flesh (the Eucharist).

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Genesis: Gift of Light

At the very beginning of the scriptures, in the book of Genesis, we get a first glance at the gift of God. The first gift revealed by God is the gift of light. God creates, and His creation is realized in the light and in the cycle between night and day. Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the gift of light is that it is a mediated gift. The first principle of God's government revealed in Genesis is that He gives to His creation by means of the mediators He has created. God is not the physical light of creation, a light which is nonetheless His gift and a metaphor for the true light of which He is the source. God created the lights in the heavens to give light upon the earth.[footnote: Gn. 1: 15, 17.] God gives light by creating other luminous realities. From the very beginning of creation, God creates mediators --- in fact, God's creation is itself a mediation of God's goodness, “And God saw that it was good.”[footnote: Gn. 1: 12, 18, 21, 25, 31. ]

Light is given by the heavenly bodies to all the earth. As we know from experience, living beings depend upon light in a very radical way. Plants depend upon light in order to live and grow. The plants become the food for everything that has the breath of life. [footnote: Gn. 1:29--30. ]