READING 8 - APPENDIX - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
extermination, reduction to nothing]. As some Jewish writers pointed out [Manes Sperber and Elie Wiesel], KHURBAN refers to the total destruction of the Temple as the Holy of Holies. On this day, the mourning prayer of the Kaddish [prayer of Sanctification close to the Prayer of the Lord] is recited for the six millions who died for the unique reason that they were Jews.
There is a link to the destruction of the Temples. As Christians we should pay attention to that. Saint Paul wrote: "You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If a man defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" [1 Corinthians 3:16 -17].
Inside the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, there are at present two Temples: the Har HaMikdash, or Temple Mount where the Temple[s] were "living" [entities] and the Anastasis or the Holy Sepulchre, the place of the Resurrection of the Lord for the Christians. The Temple Mount is of great importance for the Christians, especially the Orthodox faithful. Jesus was praying and preaching every day as well as the first Judaeo-Christian community headed by the first Bishop of Jerusalem, Jacob-James [this Israel] whose successor is today the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Ireneios I.
But the will to destroy the Jewish people and erase it as a human entity is comparable to what happened at the time of the siege led by king Nebuchadnezzar some 2500 years ago. As every Christian is a body and soul in the image of God, the Jewish Community can recall those who were murdered as witnesses of God through the Written and Oral Tradition received at Sinai and which developed into the Community of Jesus the Messiah.
THERE SHOULD NOT BE - WHICH IS VERY DIFFICULT IN OUR AREA - ANY KIND OF POLITICAL CONTEST ABOUT THIS PROBLEM WHICH IS A SPIRITUAL ISSUE. According to the Jewish tradition, the Destruction of the First Temple was due to the sin of "lashon haraah" [slander] and the Second Temple was destroyed because of the sin of "sinat khinam" [irrational hatred] among the priests who were serving in the Temples.
Living in this country, the Israeli Orthodox believers should become aware of the specific destiny of the Jewish people. Father Michel Remaud, a well-known Catholic Professor at the Institute of Ratisbonne, wrote about the Shoah: "The Shoah is an epiphany. A reversed epiphany in some way, since the Servant is going through suffering and not glory. Nonetheless, this is an epiphany in which History and the Word of God witness to show God's Chosen One. Chosen by God as, one should point out, this is the choice of God and not of the sufferers who consecrate Israel as the Servant of God. It is not because he went through suffering and pain that Israel became the Servant. The Scriptures would rather suggest that, because it is the Servant, all the sufferings of the world fall upon him and that, through him, suffering can be drawn from nonsense" [Chretiens devant Israel, Serviteur de Dieu, p.77].
Can we eradicate nonsense from the world? We do confess as Christians that this has been totally and definitely accomplished through the death and the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. "In his death, He destroyed the wall of hatred" [Ephesians 2:14-16].
Living in the Holy Land, it is also our plight to witness for such a lovingkindness received from God as a sign of His permanent Grace as shown by all the readings of this week.
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