mydinatuurwetten: oude & nieuwe milieuprofeten ...

AND HE CALLED THE MULTITUDE & SAID UNTO THEM, HEAR, AND UNDERSTAND!


The
prescription of
washing hands before
a meal was not generally
binding in those days for the simple reason
that it was one of those rules of purification that did not affect all Jews:
it was only incumbent upon those particular groups of Jews who had accepted them
as an obligation for life, the degree and extent
of this obligation
varied.

The Pharisees
were a society whose rules of ritual purity
were still much looser than those of the Essene community.
It would have been natural, therefore, that in the debate on washing of hands,
Yeshu enlarged the scope of our whole problem of ritual purity by saying,
"not what goes into the mouth defiles a man
but what comes out of the mouth
this defiles a man"
{Mat 15:10/11}.
WAYIKRA EL-HA'AM WAYOMER LAHEM SHIMU WEHAVINU: LO HABA EL-HAPEH YETAMEE ET-HA'ADAM KI IM-
HAYOTSEE MIN-HAPEH HU METAMEE ET-HA'ADAM!

By the way,
this dictum is completely compatible with the Jewish legal position:
a person's body does not become ritually impure even when one has eaten animals forbidden by
the Law of Mosheh!
What Yeshu said, thus,
has nothing to do with a supposed abrogation of Judaic law,
but is part of the criticism directed at the Pharisees:
the general truth that strict observation of ritual purity
can encourage moral laxity
was applicable in
Yeshua's day.

A Jewish writer
of those days certainly had the Pharisees in mind
when he spoke of
"pestilential and impious men ...
Hypocritical ...
And although their hands and minds are occupied with things unclean,
they will make a fine show in words, even saying,
Do not touch me, lest you
pollute me
..."!

Here,
as with Yeshu,
the contrast between morally unclean thought and speech,
& the craving for ritual purity
is stressed.

Yeshu spoke
on this topic on another occasion,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity?!
You blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup & plate,
so that the outside also
may become clean"
{Matai 23:25/26}
OY LACHEM HASOFRIM WEHAPRU-SHIM HACHANEEFIM KI METAHARIM ATEM PNEI-HAKOS WEHAKEARAH MICHUTS WETOCHAN MALEE GAZEEL UFRITSUT: PARUSH IWEER TAHEER BARISHONAH ET-TOCH HAKOS LEMA'AN TITAHEER GAM-MICHUTS!
...

He also called them
"blind guides, straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel!"
{Mat 23:24}
MENAHALIM IWRIM HAMESANANIM ET HAYATUSH UVOLIM ET HAGAMAL!
This last saying sounds like a proverb:
perhaps Yeshua's terminology about internal and external purity was not invented by him either.
If we are right in thinking that this saying is an important one we ought to inquire
into the precise meaning it had for Yeshu himself:
following the custom, Yeshu used to pronounce a blessing
over wine and bread.
Could he,
at the same time,
believe that material things are in themselves religiously neutral?
A few decades later Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to his pupils,
"In life it is not the dead who make you unclean, nor is it water,
but it is an ordinance of the King of kings.
"G d" 'has said',
'I have established My statute.
I have settled My ordinance.
No man has the right to transgress
My ordinance!'

For it is written,
'This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded!'"
It is important to note that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai
was speaking about a biblical commandment,
whereas the washing of hands was merely a late precept,
and the purification precepts of the Pharisees
were voluntary.

Yeshu would not
have spoken thus ~ for one thing, it is too rationalistic?!
We may say ~ provisionally ~ that for Yeshu, moral values
far overshadowed all ritual values,
but that is far from
the whole truth.

Would Yeshu,
in any case, think in such sharply defined
theoretical categories?

On
the matter
of washing hands
[see also the important extra-canonical history
of the clash between Yeshu and the Pharisaic high priest
in the forecourt of the Temple!]
and plucking heads of grain,
it was the disciples, not the master,
who were less strict in their observance of the law.
[A similar situation is described about Rabban Gamaliel,
the grandson of ShaulPaul's teacher, who instructed his disciples
in a more lenient understanding of a matter of law,
while he himself maintained
a more strict practice
for himself.

When
the disciples challenged him
to set aside his more strict understanding
of the precept for his wedding night,
he responded,
"I will not heed you to cancel for myself
the kingdom of heaven
even for one hour"!]

Even
this is
not usually noticed:
when his disciples' negligence was pointed out
to the master, he not only came to
their defense, but replied with
far more force that
it would seem
the case
merits.



Typisch
menselijk 'gedoe'
door alle eeuwen:
de onderwerpen veranderen,
maar de achterliggende motivaties
komen overeen?!

Nu
hebben we
het over ons
hele milieu &
schoon water in alle landen:
over gouden handdrukkers, bolussen
& bonussen, riolering & rechtvaardigheid,
inkomensverdeling & ouderdomspensioen,
huichelende grootgrutters & boevenbankiers,
reinheid in kippen-, varkens- & koeien~
hokken & stallen, mestkalveren &
de bontindustrie!?

Atoomafval,
biologische wantoestanden,
chemische vuilstortplaatsen in arme landen,
kankerverwekkers, automobilisme, grondstoftekorten,
vrouwenhandel &
kinderarbeid
...