Well, I woke up this morning with my mind… pondering To Dream in the City of Sorrows. A good friend called me regarding the strange story of how Ziporah rescues either Moses or their son on the way to see Pharoah in Egypt. She asked my point of view on this “Bridegroom of Blood” story, and I happened to have an Etz Chaim handy, which agrees on the strangeness of this story, so I pulled it out and agreed -it is odd! Looking at those three verses that tell this story, I was struck by how differently her commentary (a Christian commentator whose name I do not recall at the moment) approached this question. While the Etz Chaim commentary (a commentary by committee, I believe) focused on analyzing the words which connect this story to others, and the symbolism of blood in various Ancient Near Eastern societies, her commentator focused on symbolisms leading to a more other-worldly set of focii. Not surprising, but rather different from other conversations she and I have had, where we both brought our own personal perspectives to the story more strongly. Both of us were members of the Jr. ROTC at an inner city DC high school famous for many reasons, historically and in the 80´s, when we attended, and both of us have fought through struggles in our lives. How interesting that while both strongly committed to our respective faiths, we were able to enjoy discussing our common books from the different perspectives of those two faiths, yet perhaps due to our shared backgrounds, we understand these books in ways that most other people seem not to be able to do. Much like Valen synthesizing Jesuit and Minbari religious thought.
I have had only one other good friend who was such a devout Christian and yet able to share so intently (this time the medium was Babylon 5, to which Ros introduced me, ok, after Rich did, but she re-introduced the show to me from a faith-based perspective that simply blew me away with the difference that that new perspective made…). Ros too has fought through stunning adversity, and presents another example of committment and cooperation with other points of view. We love discussing the differences in our faiths, but seen through the lens of a shared core perspective, Community Cooperation, that allows us to find the meaningful interlocking peices which bring beauty to those differences.
Since so many of these conversations find their way onto FaceBook, I wonder if one day FaceBook will be used to aggregate and publish as autobiographies, the lives of ordinary people?
Peace,
Community Cooperation Shira,
Gregorian Date: Monday, 1 September, 2014
MEOW Date : Friday, 1 September, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era, aka Human Era)
