Cedars, April 27, 2006

Thursday, April 27, 2006 World & Campus News C EDARS InternationalNews Sara Eplin, Joe Dugan, Bethany Sibbitt Canada Passover: Symbolism Beyond Tradition As Christians across the globe prepared to celebrate Easter this spring, Jewish homes were also enveloped in the aura of celebration. This year, the first night of the eight-day Passover fell on the Wednesday preceding Easter. As the sun set on April 12, Jews around the world took part in the Passover Sed- er, the same feast Jesus and His disciples shared the night before His crucifixion. It is a meal wrapped intricately in tradition, many of the same traditions that Christ and His disciples would have observed in the upper room. Within the traditional Seder, Yeshua Meshiac, or Jesus the Messiah, is viv- idly pictured. His redeeming work is even foreshadowed. Christ partook of the Seder meal knowing that during the next three days He would fulfill the many promises that the nights’ celebration antici- pated. The Seder is permeated with rich historical mean- ing for the Jewish people. The feast relies heavily on elements of symbolism. The bitter herbs and salt water, for example, symbolize the bitterness of slavery in Egypt and bring to mind the tears shed by the Israelite slaves. Far frommere ritualism, these symbols point worshipers to God, helping them to refocus their direction toward God’s promises through the ages. Messianic Jew and Cedar- ville junior Michael Anfang said, “Passover is a time of remembering the freedom the LORD brought my people.” It commemorates the plagues, as well as the night the Jews were delivered from the hand of the Egyptians, and reflects God’s provision in the wilder- ness. These meanings do not change for those Jews who worshipChrist as theMessiah. Anfang noted, however, that the traditional Seder “takes deeper, hidden meanings for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.” For example, in the Jewish culture yeast repre- sents sin; thus, bread without · Amanda Acker · Religion Beat leaven, called matzo, pictures sinless perfection, an accurate symbol of Christ. Matzo is a central element in the Seder meal. During the service three matzos are placed inside a napkin, while the middle piece is broken in half. This piece is called afiko- men , a Greek word which can be translated “that which is coming.” For Messianic Jews and Christians celebrating the Passover, this piece of matzo is seen as a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection. Ac- cording to Anfang, the afiko- men is “broken, hidden away, and brought again later, just as Jesus the final sacrifice was broken, His body hidden, to be returned later.” For Anfang, one of the most meaningful Passover Seder traditions is the Day- enu , a word meaning “it would have been enough.” During this time the leader of the house makes a series of statements regarding the Lord’s provisions; those pres- ent respond, “ Dayenu !” Thus the proceedings follow this pattern: “Had he brought us forth from Egypt, and not carried out the judgments,” “ Dayenu !” “Had he destroyed our idols, and not slain their first born,” “ Dayenu !” “Had he led us into the land of Is- rael and not built the Temple,” “ Dayenu !” “Through [the Dayenu ] segment I am reminded of what great grace was shown to me and my people,” said Anfang. For both Jews and follow- ers of Christ, the Passover af- firms God’s grace throughout human history. Passover has existed for millennia, but re- mains relevant to two of the world’s major religions. It de- picts a perfect, sinless, Mes- siah. It memorializes God’s faithfulness through times of suffering. The traditions set down in the Old Testament law and rabbinical teachings remain constant, imbued with ancient meanings that continue to de- fine the faith of today’s wor- shipers. Passover carries the faithful back to God, remind- ing them that the God of their past is also the God of their present and future. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper barred media coverage of the return of four soldiers’ bodies to Canada, in- citing controversy. Harper’s mandate mirrors a Bush Administration policy prohibitingcoverageofsoldiers’ bodies returning to the States. Canadian Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor attributed the mandate to privacy con- cerns. “When the bodies return to Trenton, where the families receive the bodies for the first time and they come face to face with the reality that their loved ones are dead, this is for their private grief,” said O’Connor. In addition to the privacy mandate, Harper has banned the lowering of Canadian flags to half-staff after the deaths of soldiers. Political opponents have suggested that thismove is his attempt to downplay the ef- fects of the ongoing war effort. O’Connor insists that the policy has nothing to do with concealment, but rather reflects a desire to restore the tradition of lowering the flags only once a year, on Remembrance Day (November 11). Ujjal Dosanjh, a member of Parliament, disagreed. “If I dropped dead tomorrow walk- ing the street, that flag would be lowered,” he said. “I think we owe the soldiers that we’ve sent into harm’s way that kind of respect.” ISRAEL On Tuesday, Israel launched a highly accurate imaging satellite that will improve its ability to spy on Iran’s nuclear program. The satellite, called Eros B, can reportedly take clear photographs of objects on the ground as small as 70cm (2 ft). Eros B will be joining an earlier version of the satellite, launched in December 2005. The Eros satellites will supplement the work of Ofek 5, Israel’s spy satellite, which regularly passes over Arab nations. Shimon Eckhaus, chief executive of ImageSat International, the satellite’s manufacturer, said, “The satellite covers every square kilometer worldwide, including Iran.” The satellite arrives in the wake of Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz’s comment Monday that Iran’s nuclear program posed the biggest threat to Israel since the Holocaust. The Iranian government, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel several times, denies allegations that it is creating a nuclear bomb, stating instead that its focus is on energy production. The satellite was launched from Svobodny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia. It will circle the globe about every 95 minutes at a height of about 310 miles. Nepal MEXICO International Culture Spotlight: Peru Several centuries ago, the Incan peo- ple rose up from what is today southern Peru, and over the course of a hundred years, established one of the world’s largest empires—about the size of the 13 original U.S. colonies. At its height, this empire stretched from Colombia in the north to Chile and Argentina in the south, covering most of the Andes moun- tain range. Part of the success of the Incas’ con- quest lay in the strategic decision to adopt the Quechua language as their own and disseminate it throughout newly acquired regions. The Incas realized that Quechua was already spoken by a large number of people north of the empire’s center (Cuz- co) and saw the strategic political, eco- nomic, and social benefits of establishing a common tongue, much like Alexander the Great and the Grecians had centuries before. Howeber, the Incan Empire was short-lived. Less than one hundred years after the na- tion’s conception in 1438, Francisco Pizarro, infamous Spanish con- quistador, assas- sinated Emperor Atahualpa and the vast Incan empire fell in 1533. The gold- and g l o r y - h u n g r y Spaniards ab- sorbed the riches of the Incas and introduced Ro- man Catholicism as well as the Spanishlanguage, tightly ruling the colony for almost three hundred years. Interestingly, Spain did not forcefully impose the use of Span- ish among the Andean peoples; instead, as social anthropology researcher Olinda Celestino explains, in order to reach the goal of converting the masses, “the Gos- pel had to be preached in the indigenous language as well as in Spanish,” thereby preserving the already centuries-old Quechuan language. Even though Spain did not require the indigenous people to learn Spanish, it was the language of bureaucracy and was therefore learned out of interest for self- advancement and preservation. Along the way, speaking Quechua became as- sociated with the lower class, and eventu- ally the Peruvian state practically ignored the language even though it is still spoken by approximately 10million people in the Andean region (including Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia) and is actually one of Pe- ru’s official languages. Not surprisingly, efforts to make the teaching of Quechua compulsory in primary and secondary schools have not been successful due to a lack of consensus on the subject. But thedescendantsof the Incasdonot let a lack of consensus stand in the way of using, developing, and transferring their language to future generations. In this way, the Incan empire-from Colombia to Peru to Bolivia to Argentina to Chile-still stands: in the sounds of Quechua. · Elizabeth Korver · Int’l Culture Beat 2 | C EDARS MANTRAV.COM/PERU.SHTML “People Power Wins.” This mantra echoed through the streets of Katmandu, Ne- pal this Tuesday. It comes at the cessation of weeks of pro-democracy protesting against the current monarch, King Gyanendra, who final- ly reinstated Parliamentary control of government. His reinstatement is a key step in a convoluted path to- ward democracy that began in the 60s. Opposition lead- ers prefer to replace Gyanen- dra with former Prime Min- ister Girija Prasad Koirala. Koirala was a forerunner for the democratic movement in decades past. Gyanendra stated that the Maoist alli- ance will now “bear the re- sponsibility of taking the na- tion on the path of national unity and prosperity.” Re-establishing the lower house of Parliament is a cen- tral component of the alli- ance’s demands. The lower house oversees creation of an interim government in- tended to set up special elec- tions for an assembly. This assembly would eventually be responsible for issuing a new constitution for the country of Nepal. Monar- chial opposition favors a constitution that would cre- ate a ceremonial monarchy, like England, or abolish the monarchy altogether. President Bush spoke out on the immigration contro- versy Monday, countering recent demands for the de- portation of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. Bush spoke to an assem- bly of businesspeople in Ir- vine, California. “Massive deportation of the people here is not going to work,” he said. “It’s just not going to work.” Bush emphasized the need for Congress to instead institute a guest worker pro- gram. Bush observed that illegal immigrants are often placed in a compromising position, desperate to provide for their families but forced to violate border laws in order to do so. Many resort to costly illegal smuggling to cross in and out of the country. Bush crit- icized this situation. “I know this is an emotional debate,” he said. “But one thing we can’t lose sight of is that we are talking about human be- ings, decent human beings.” Shifting his focus, Bush went on to praise authori- ties who have captured and deported six million illegal immigrants since his inau- guration. Bush noted that the solution to the problem is a change in legislation, not a decrease in border security. “You can be a nation of law and be a compassionate na- tion at the same time,” he said.