{"id":34092,"date":"2018-07-16T14:43:17","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=34092"},"modified":"2022-02-08T22:47:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:47:44","slug":"our-children-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/our-children-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Children, Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[381,386,385],"acf":{"old_id":"34092","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"4","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The seeds of violence and murder are to be found in reducing our loved ones to property","content":"

We all know the disastrous outcome of the sibling rivalry between the world\u2019s first twins, Cain and Abel. Most siblings have some level of tension, but rarely does it bubble up into bloodshed and murder as it did with them. The Torah offers us an alluring hint as to the earliest roots of the brokenness that erupted in killing.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Eve delivers the first of the two boys, she says, \u201cI have acquired a man with the Lord (4: 1),\u201d which Rashi explains as her affirmation that she and Adam are now God\u2019s partners in creating the next generation. Whereas she and Adam were created solely (soul-ly?) by God, from now on, human parents would be partners with the divine in bringing new life to emerge. That is a keen insight and a lofty sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the specific words she uses could also be read as acquisition: she now has “acquired a man.\u201d How often do parents, consciously or not, assume that their children will grow up precisely as they choose for them, in their own image. We often think that their initial dependence is a lifelong subservience, that we will work our happiness through them.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we do not own our children, nor should we. Life advances, of necessity, as each generation struggles to create its own independence, its own innovations, while at the same time retaining and cherishing what remains vibrant and good in their inheritance from the past. Perhaps if Eve had raised her children not as possessions, but as independent centers of creativity and novelty, if she had raised them to embrace their being different and distinct, then they could have extended that same openness to each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alas, that was not to be: Cain and Abel, raised as their parents\u2019 property, assume that each other should be useful to each other like something owned. The seeds of violence and murder are to be found in reducing our loved ones to property.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Our Children, Ourselves","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The seeds of violence and murder are to be found in reducing our loved ones to property","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34314,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34092\/revisions\/34314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}