WEEK 2 - THE ORTHODOX READINGS - [Continued from page 2]
THE ANCESTORS OF JESUS CHRIST WERE SAINTS BECAUSE OF THIS STEADFAST HOPE OF SALVATION SHOWN IN THE FLESH AND HOSTED IN THE TEMPLE, SHELTER, TABERNACLE OF THE YOUNG WOMAN, IMMACULATE AND EVER-VIRGIN WHO BORE THE SAVIOUR IN WHICH WE CONFESS THE ONLY LIFE-GIVING TABERNACLE.
Six days after the confession of Saint Peter-Kaipha at Caesarea [Matthew, 16:16], the Transfiguration of Our Lord [Matthew 17] happens as the Apostles see Jesus in the presence of Moses and Elijah and they want to build booths because it was the time of THE FEAST of Sukkot. The tabernacles shelter the active personalities of the Law [Moses] and the Prophecies [Elijah]. At the end, only Jesus is to be seen, for a very short time, whiter, purer than anyone in this world, paving the way to eternity.
How do we accept and confess the everlasting virginity of the Mother of God? How do we accept that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Her and covered Her with the Holiest Life-giving Presence of The Creator of all things? Are we participants in this history or is it too "holy" and not of concern to us sinners? When we are in Church, do we feel that we are sheltered like the Jews in the desert in order to open our brains, souls, flesh to the Will and projects of God in our lives? Do we respect women, every Daughter of Eve, as the image and "sister" of Our Lady who bore Jesus Christ? Are we ready to respect them as receptacles of life, strength, vigor and dynamics to lead us from this world into the everlasting one?
IN THE JEWISH TRADITION, THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, OR HAG HASUKKOT, IS CALLED "HEHAG": "THE FEAST", i.e. the major Feast of the liturgical cycle which might at first seem rather unexpected. During the eight days of the Feast of Sukkot, the Jewish Community is supposed to hallow and proclaim the Glorious Name of the Reign of the High King, God, Acting Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all visible and invisible things [in Hebrew Boreh HaKol Yakol].
THE JEWISH READINGS
The parashah [pericope, reading portion] of the Feast is in the Book of Leviticus 22:26 - 23:44 and only pragmatically describes what a Faithful should do during the Festival. Every Jewish person, family, member of a quarter or a city should be given the possibility to leave his/her home and to find a shelter under booths. Poor and wealthy shall dwell, eat, sleep and study the Word of God in a sukkah in memory of the forty years that the Jewish people spent in the Desert. In Hebrew, the desert is not a "place of emptiness", but "midbar", the place where God speaks [medaber].
This is a time of joy: "Z'man Simkhatenu" [Epoch, period of our Joy] and is considered as the last Festival of ascent and pilgrimage to Jerusalem, one of the Shelosh Regalim [three Pilgrimages ascending on foot to the Holy City and the Temple Mount]. You feel much better the Presence of God through your aching feet, in pain but physically reaching the ingathering place. The reading from the Book of Leviticus points out the importance of a certain number of positive mitzvot called "Qorbonot", the Temple offerings which are still pending but not performed since the Temple is no more a "Living Body" [qayam].
This Feast is also one of the three "moadim" [appointed festivals] and the major one, which reminds us of the creation of the world, when God set "lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs [otot], for seasons [moadim, appointed time of witness], and for days and years" [Genesis 1: 14].
The booth should be simple, with a roof sheltered by branches that let the light come in so that the sky could always be seen. It is a transit place and the Hebrew root SHaKHaKH means "to cover, overshadow" with a specific reference to the Holy Spirit and the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence that accompanies the people throughout their tribulations in the desert, and abode in the Temple, then continued Her way with the exiled in the various diasporas. It is therefore called "MEQOMO SHEL OLAM", THE PLACE OF GOD IN THIS WORLD AND HIS ETERNITY. One may feel the transition of our destiny but also long for the final revelation of all things, which is perfectly determined by the Greek word "Eschaton" [eschatological]. In Hebrew, "HaMaqom" refers to the womb of a woman as readily seen concerning Mary, Mother of God and the Temple of Jerusalem.
And most interestingly for the Christian Orthodox believers, it is said that during these days the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, as well as Moses and Aaron, and Elijah and Elisha come to visit the faithful, eating and drinking, studying the Scriptures, sharing the same way as Saint Peter said to Jesus to dwell in the Tabernacles at the time of the Transfiguration. These are the "Ushpizin" [Guests, an Aramaic word] who share the booth under the shadowing Presence of God, as said in the Greek translation of the Seventy: "tou skiazein auto", "to put oneself in the shadow" of the sukkah, which hosts all the Righteousness and Saints of the history of Salvation.
Each of the Shelosh Regalim [Three "Jogging" Feasts] makes use of special agricultural species: Pessah [Passover] is connected with barley, Shavuot [Pentecost] with cheese, Sukkot is known for the use of fruits, plants and trees because they were create before human beings and serve the entire creation. It should be noted that the Orthodox Church shows a deep respect for the vegetation and agricultural realm. As concerns the Jews they are obedient to the commandment stated in the Book of Leviticus 23:39-40: "And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days; the first day shall be a shabbat. And you shall take on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days".
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