The End, Another Fairy Tale Ending

Posted by Mina Drezner on 8:03 PM comments (0)

Basically the Book of Job ends as expected. Job, fulfils his task, he does not betray God, and in return greatness and reward come to him. THE END
Mi last comment is that finally we find a covenant where both sides can be proven worthy and grand. Both justified their actions in the way they responded to the other’s actions. For example, Job stayed true to his belief in God, and God repaid all the torture with great blessing and honor.
And the narrator ends the story like this, “So Job died, being old and full of days” ( The Book of Job 42:17) 

Let your life be full of days as well. Auf Wiedersehen*
*Goodbye in German

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Love Hurts

Posted by Mina Drezner on 6:54 PM comments (0)

We left off where Job curses the day of his birth, saying that he was born in dark rather tan light. And the relatively long discussion with his friends about the issue of his unfair punishments. So far, Job has not fallen for Satan’s bet and has not cursed the all mighty God. Even worse than he already is his friends turn hypocritical and start saying that he deserves these punishments. That God does no punish innocent individuals, and he had all of this coming, some even say that he deserves worse punishment.

Hypocrisy is one of the recurrent themes in these set of chapters. Not only from behalf of his friends but as well for behalf of God (in the initial bet). Friends are supposed to be supportive and Job’s friends where the contrary. Telling your friend he deserves suffering? Really? If you ask me, those are some lousy friends.
Nevertheless, not all are bad weeds. There is this particular friend, Elihu, who does give a kind approach to the situation. He says that God’s torture is a way of showing his appreciation, and making sure of this “unbreakable” vow man has made to him.
And Elihu said:
”How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands”( The Book Of Job 34:19)
In this text citation, you can see how Elihu states that God does not have any preference for rich, poor, princesses or slaves. That they should all be judged the same, they are equal, and all must be tested the same way. He was spared, and he was even lucky to be chosen by God for this test. He must thank he was chosen, and as I suspect that he passed.

It is strange how Job can be thankful for suffering. It means someone has been paying attention. 




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The DONTS

Posted by Mina Drezner on 6:11 PM comments (0)


My assignment was to write a reflective blog entry but actually there is only one specific thing on my mind right now. The 10 commandments, those 10 phrases that could define a religion, a life style, maybe even justify an uncalled for action. In my complete lack of imagination I offer to you my opinion of some of the 10 commandments.

Ladies and gentlemen, the 10 commandments:

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' Ok this one I can stand, but isn't tolerance and acceptance of differences an important part of life. The idea after the creation of the world, make it all together as one. With guidelines and prohibitions as inflexible and strict at these the riots due to difference could increase, and probably have.

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'


THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' This one is completely logical. But going back to the stupid belief of writing God as G-d, it refers to different times, and to me it is more of a blasphemy to write it with the line as to write it normal. It is a proper name, an important proper name and to write it wrong would be a complete insult. If I am aggravated by the misspelling of my simple name, God is to be spelled correctly at all times. Don't get God pissed.

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' Keep the Sabbath, I can live with this one. I actually keep it most Fridays. Obviously I don't exaggerate the idea of going to the synagogue at all times, and not touching any electricity nor money, or staying at my house completely bored. It is nice to keep traditions.

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' It is already a moral code to treat everyone nicely. We all love our parents.

SIX: 'You shall not murder.' One word: Duh. I have always wondered, is suicide murder?

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' Ew.

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' We all steal at one point of our lives, even though it is not right we all do it. It is a fault/mistake for some of us. For others it is a sport, a way of life. Anyways it is always wrong.

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.' To want something is bad in some religions, to desire and feel greed and envy is seen as a sin as bad as murder. The less you desire, the happier you are. But my way of seeing it is that without any desire of some sort, and that envy we feel, most of all wouldn't go for something we think we want. Holding back takes nothing, but it is the malicious and "illegal" side of a desire that gives you the push to go for it. That selfish desire to have it for yourself, "you deserve this".Finito (:

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Test

Posted by Mina Drezner on 5:08 PM comments (0)


Test after test we have all seen the story of the Bible transform more into some sort of an obstacle race for humans. We can say it started out relatively easy, just a simple prohibition (Do not eat for the tree), then came the complex ideas as to manage an arch and collect millions of animals to mate. Maybe one can recall when a task of freeing the Jewish community was set. Chapter after chapter, story after story we see how each time God shows more of distrust or maybe even more trust to humans. Give them what they can bare, or maybe show them how powerful He can strike. Sometimes one might even believe he gives them trust. In this particular story we encounter Job, a common man that does nothing but worship God with all his strength.

One day God meets up with Satan, the unholy spirit of the universe, living Hell. It starts with a heavy dare, but OH, He cant deny a good dare from his "enemy". Satan challenges God to prove to him that Job is an authentic believer. That he loves God unconditionally and nothing can ever change that. God agrees. Satan says that this is so because Job is so used to being blessed that by not knowing disgrace, he will continue believing in God.

 This being so God challenges Job, he kills his 10 children, his cattle and some of his most precious "objects" and Job still believes. Then again Satan challenges God to keep bringing misfortune upon Job. Once again God accepts and challenges Job, nevertheless Job still believes. He and his wife discuss the idea of cursing God, getting the suffering and pain over with. She said dying is greater than living in such misery.

To such idea Job answers:
"Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips." (The book of Job 2:10)

Job did not listen to his wife, he met up with his friends and then cursed the day he was born. He spoke out his fears and all he had held back, he wish he was born in the light side of life and not in the dark and cold side of sorrow.

We can say we all have a breaking point, or maybe that God loves to play games with all us. But as this teaching suggests if we have faith, the reward of getting through could be the greatest one could have.

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Free Me From The Replay

Posted by Mina Drezner on 7:55 PM comments (0)

In this reading of Exodus, the story of Pesaj is being narrated. I, being an unorthodox Jew, celebrate this suffering every year, and nevertheless I am not in much agreement with the celebration itself. The way I see it, we are celebrating the getaway from the malicious Pharaoh, and almost everyone I hear says, “oh we suffered through the days of drought, we where brought misfortune.” According to this reading almost all, if not all of the punishments and “gruelling tortures” that the Jewish community had to overcome was because they brought it on themselves. They did not listen after Moses freed them, after he proved to all, even the disbelieving Pharaoh that there was a God. Makes me wonder, if He did such thing as to free you from the devil claws of slavery times then why would they dare defy his commands?

The punishments and attacks that God places upon the Egyptians made it clear to them that there was a power that would defend the Jewish community. That they were going to be rescued. But isn’t this what we see in most places today. Miserable pay and almost no benefits in demand for excellence in work. Aren’t these unjustified actions that create the backbone to everything we have today?

The answer is yes. Workers, nurses, drivers, cleaners, you name it. How would we live if it weren’t to those we slap with unjustified actions with daily? If you take away the magical aspect and almost fantasy qualities of the story on might say that it is an accurate description of today.

Take this passage, the narrator does identify the pain and suffering of the people: “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Exodus 3:7)

I thereby wonder where is this voice of hope that reassures the happiness and fulfilment of some of those who do deserve it. God, if he perhaps can hear us, He has done his part and showed us that there must be a helping hand. The laws he has given are for us to obey and not replay that story.

Unfortunately we are constantly playing the part of fools, over, and over again.

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Stuck In A Cliché

Posted by Mina Drezner on 7:11 PM comments (0)

Abraham and Sarah’s life spam are coming to an end. Abraham is given a faraway land to burry his Sarah, her grave is now some sort of a “revisited” space through the following chapters in the Book of Genesis. The range passed through a lovers pick up in a well, how Isaac inherits all of what once belonged to his father, the death of Abraham, the deceit of Isaac, among others.

Nevertheless the particular story that caught my interest is the one where the servant picks up Rebekah and she being her kind and gracious self, offers food and stay for the tired servant. Then after her humble hospitality she is taken away by the servant to meet Isaac to whom she is to spend the rest of her life with. The story is itself a bit of a cliché, someone just knows this person is right for you is a recurrent idea in almost all love movies. Just leave aside some of the drama and you have yourself a biblical text.

The idea that the cliché of love at first sight can be ridiculed to the idea that holy Abraham and other important main characters can have millions of concubines and “casual sex” for child making is funny. And even though it might not be as obvious the idea of hiding your lover as your sister to protect her, could be categorized under a cliché as well. But maybe if you think about it, the idea that this text was a relatively old text in comparison to today’s stories does not make it a cliché at all.

Basically what one could say is that since it could be the origin to some of the several clichés that would appear later on, it is not a cliché, but the founder of such.

Again when you see the impostor of a brother setting in as the other to get the father’s blessing. The idea of pretending to be someone else is a theme of duel and confrontation today and in most popular movies, books, or character stories this duality is found.

Take for instance the following moment:
“And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him” (27:41)

This leaves an open question, is the bible a source for today’s clichés? 

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Covenants

Posted by Mina Drezner on 7:42 PM comments (0)


And the narrator says:
“And to all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger were to be circumcised with him.” Genesis 17, passage 27.
Then again this is an example of another covenant among God and his so called disciple, Abraham. Covenants are somehow more recurrent now after the throwing out of Eve and Adam. My guess is probably because after the deception of these individuals a set promise must be made, assuring that neither God nor the other part of the covenant break the deal. Making it stable and “easier” to carry through.
If you refer to the initial citation you can see an example of the covenant among Abraham and God making a sacrifice of skin to keep the covenant alive and running.

Continuing to the following chapters in Genesis, one sees how God carry’s through with the covenant, again when he makes promise of delivering a son to Sarah, he carries through despite her old age. He makes Abraham live through the obstacle of the “stealing” king.
Lot fulfilling his duty to the city, is reluctant to go :
“And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken”. Genesis -Chapter 19. 21.
In this passage we also see the will power and loyalty to a belief from a rather interesting individual. What surprises me is that the devotion, for once, is not towards God but towards a holy place for Lot. He does not leave the city to save himself as other did but he stays because he promised loyalty to it, and he shall die with it if necessary.

This surprises me because he had the correct principles to match with God in a way, but he gently let him down. Lot thought for himself and that is highly appreciated.





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Can I Buy Your Love?

Posted by Mina Drezner on 5:00 PM comments (0)

Why not talk about love in this passage? Maybe even cheap bribe?  I, being a secular Jew was struck by the idea that LORD promised material reward in return for complete and absolute devotion to him. Make him altars, worship him for in return getting land and wealth.

According to the online dictionary, such acts meet the definition of bribe:

1. Something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person's views or conduct.

Who would have ever considered the possibility of the absolute creator bribing people? Shame on you for this unholy conduct! Bribing Abram for him to make him an altar, pray for him and follow his orders in return for land and cattle. Then bribing the servant to go to Abram and make him a child in return to “spread her seed” and some wealth. Lame.

And as for love. I consider the idea of your husband mating with another woman to have kids relatively weird. Look at today’s people it is an option for insemination, an alternative for those who aren’t “blessed with fertility”.  That could be love from behalf of the one willing to watch her/his mate do such acts, but isn’t it hypocritical for the corresponding side to carry through.

For me, some textual ideas don’t make any kind of sense, what happened to values, the ability to think for yourself, freedom of worship, of choice? Yes, these are other times. 

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A Poem Not Funny At All

Posted by Mina Drezner on 5:57 PM comments (0)

Naked he gave me his hand
Sistene Chapel
My space of freedom, my own land
With a homosexual grasp a void he left unfilled
A promise he ought to someday fulfill

My cold naked body seeks warmth
Shivers, as if shot by a dart
Give me strength to bare misfortune
But let us look forward to seek fortune

I know that the poem is not funny 
But neither is the picture nor some moments in life, honey
Maybe this poem doesn't even rhyme
But as a wise man said, there is rain before shine. 

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Perfect Imperfection

Posted by Mina Drezner on 6:55 PM comments (0)

The story of the beginning of the universe. People used to live for a really long time and where punished for violence. If the flood punishment was applied to us, we would have drowned about 20 times by now.

The idea that Adam and Eve where expelled form Eden basically gave start to all of the following punishments through the next chapters. When Adam and Eve disobey the direct orders from God they prove they are flawed, they are evil and curious. Beside the obvious dilemma of the “stealing of the fruit” other characteristics that prove to be negative are projected in a less open way. For example when Adam is not willing to take the blame for Eve, and makes her guilty of stealing the fruit alone.  

Then again when they start breeding, the “divine creation” creates all the evil and violence. It comes from the breeds themselves. Even though the chain is long they are still connected. And the flawed humans must once again prove worthy of God’s aid. This happens when they reach to Noah, the chosen one to make the world survive. Sacrifice to start over and reach a long sought perfection.

Noah is tested to see if he deserved to have his life, if he was worthy of saving the world. The collection of the paired animals and the survival of the long and tiring hours without land, simply floating around. God lost all confidence in his creation, he needed to assure that he was not going to be betrayed once more.

The story itself is full of shifts once more. Again the name of God, Lord and Lord God shifts so much that is seems as if they where separate characters, different. They even shift in the same chapter and appear to have different functions within the performed actions. To me it is confusing and barely understandable.  Besides this confusing fact the contradiction of time and story merge is again present. The story does not change significantly but the order does.

Noah dies at the end. Nearly perfect, but perfectly mortal. 

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One Beginning Two Approaches

Posted by Mina Drezner on 4:02 PM comments (0)

The first introduction to Genesis is very confusing and contradictory, in a way that what is being said in a first part is completely twisted in the next one. Nevertheless one supposes that the chapters are not necessarily in chronological order but are more in a dispersed way. For example the idea of this organization is very possible if the events are separated from their story and merged into the other one.  Or maybe the creation of this miracle garden is separate, made uniquely to show its importance. 
The beginning of men and women, it is definitely a point one should try to have stand out.

Even thought the organization is quite confusing the title for God swifts in a strange manner. I believe that this shift represents in someway the difference of the events’ circumstances. Maybe in the second part the Lord could show that now he has created a definite species that owe him worship. For as they are alive because of him. In the initial part, the beginning of men and women is broad, there are no names for such, and they aren’t really “alive” yet.

 Once the name for Adam is given and he is gifted everything around him, the circumstance is somewhat real. It become the story of how men and women where created. The gift of the Garden of Eden makes Adam repay God’s gift. He is his master, his lord. 

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