READING 7 - THE ORTHODOX READINGS - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Unfortunately the argument concerning the shabbat is still pending in the relations between the Church and the Jewish Community. We prefer sometimes to reduce the Jewish tradiion to a letter than to understand its spiritual behaviour, which influenced Jesus Christ in His miracles and actions, especially on that day.
The shabbat is a resting day, a holy period to refresh. God fulfilled on the seventh day all the task that He had conveyed [Vaykhal Elohim beyom hashevii malakhto asher assah] and He rested on the seventh day [VaYishbot beyom hashevii] [Genesis 2:2], fulfillment, action of creation and rest. But Verse 3 is also remarkable: God blessed it because He rested [shabat] of all the task that He - God - had been creating in order to be achieved [asher assah la'asot]. God rests though He continues to be active. He takes a break and thus starts again. The Hebrew word "shabbat" suggests this renewal since "shuv" means "anew" and is of the same origin.
Therefore, it has been always considered as a normal duty to "transgress" the rest of the shabbat in order to safe a life. Moreover, spiritual life should never be reduced to some administrative rules and behaviours as it is, halas, the case in many churches or synagogues.
The woman had been in a "spirit of infirmity" [Aramaic: "ruha dekhurhana"; Hebrew: "ruah hali"], which refers to a defect inside her personality that affected her body. She had been crippled for 18 years. This number appears often in the Gospel [The marriage at Cana], because in Hebrew KH-Y means "Life, God as Lifegiver" and its numerical value is precisely 18. At the wedding in Cana there are 3 measures of 6 liters, which has been considered as well as relating to 3 times the 6 days of creation leading to a fulfillment, thus a healing. In Israel today, the shabbat is really respected - some people would like to allow some activities. But on the other hand, one can feel in this day, especially in the hospitals and emergency services, security, army and police and governmental checkings the importance of going beyond a "letter-like" commandment. This rule of a "Pikuah Nefesh" is based on the principle of "removing a person's debris or from under the ruins and saving an endangered life [Talmud Tractate Ketubot 5a]. In present day computer language, this would imply "to repair" somebody for God's sake, which is evident in the Hebrew word "Tikun" [repairing act through prayer or various actions].
We are also in danger, deeply imperiled in our spiritual life, when we do not move on and forward. It is said in the Gospel of Saint John 5:17: "My Father works hitherto and I work," showing a permanent action in the sense that we have described.
We are not allowed and should not dare to administrate as clerks do the enormous life potentialities that God permanently gives to mankind. Then we make obstructions to God's constant actions, which is the means and will of Satan, the Devil.
Finally, it may be important to stress that everything is possible to God and that everything - even apparently destroyed - can be repaired, set up anew, which some people might really not believe or conceive as something real and true in our societies.
THE JEWISH READINGS
Shabbat MIKETZ [At the end] - Eighth Day of the Feast of Hanukkah
Portion of the Torah - Parshat Torah: Bereshit [Genesis] 41:1 - 44:17
Prophetic Portion - Haftarah: Malakhim A' [First book of Kings] 3:15 - 4:1
We have discussed in Reading 6 about the importance of the Light of Hanukkah connected with a total abandonment into the hands of God's Will. Human nature and body, spirit, mind are frail but show a tremendous will to be powerful and take the lead.
The portion of the week shows how Joseph who has been sold as a slave - taken out of a pit - by his brothers is attaining the rank of first advisor to Pharoah. This is also due to a freeing action of God. Joseph is in jail and gamblers are playing around him but would not accept his presence. He is a young man, i.e. a "fool, not a person who has grown up". Moreover, he is not speaking their language and is therefore a foreigner, which, in prison, can be very dangerous because it is a world without any sense of mercy towards those who cannot be understood. Finally, he has no right to get to the royal court and be dressed like a king's counselor.
But this is the freeing power of interpreting dreams. Dreams make us free from daily pressure. In Slavic countries and mentalities, it is a very important factor because it shows the capacity to fly away from any constraints. And this brings Joseph to explain Pharoah's dreams and save the country from the famine.
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