{"id":36436,"date":"2018-07-31T00:47:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T21:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=36436"},"modified":"2022-02-21T13:49:41","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T11:49:41","slug":"too-much-of-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Much Of A Good Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[360,435],"acf":{"old_id":"36436","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34009,"related_cahpter":"13","type_929":"2","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What do Sodom, Egypt and the Garden of Eden have in common? Abundance - and threat","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Water is the source of life everywhere on the planet, for too many a resource taken for granted. In the ancient Middle East control of a fresh water spring or well, of a river, was the source of economic power, culture, civilization, empire. In light of that, water in the Tanach becomes a &#8220;mythic&#8221; symbol.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shepherds of Abraham and his nephew Lot are at odds over water and grazing lands for their large flocks. The family that came together from Babylon must separate. Abraham proposes that Lot move to the fertile valleys in the north of Israel, more suitable for grazing and that he would stay in the less arable south \u2013 or if Lot so chooses, he would take the trouble to travel to the north.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lot chooses to go elsewhere, to the east, to the plain of the Jordan River blessed with plentiful water before the cataclysm that turned it into empty barren land. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We know well what Lot will find there \u2013 Sodom and Gomorrah. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Torah&#8217;s description of the fertile expanse links it to the source of life: &#8220;like the garden of the Lord [of Eden], like the land of Egypt [watered by the mighty Nile].<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what connects these three areas in the Tanach&#8217;s spiritual geography? Yes &#8211; All three are blessed with bountiful water so needed for survival and the flowering of civilization. Yet each in its own way symbolizes human failure \u2013 decadence, self interest, exploitation of the weak, cruelty, slavery and death. The Garden teaches that God blesses the world with abundance but it is always accompanied by the challenge of the snake, and the greater the blessing, the more menacing is the venom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two alternative civilizations proliferate side by side &#8211; the pagan empires on the rivers and the Abrahamic family in the hills watered mostly by water from heaven. Together they make two very different statements concerning the source of life and the nature of the human spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thomas Friedman in his book, &#8220;Hot, Flat and Crowded&#8221; wrote that societies with easily accessible energy resources are often totalitarian dictatorships while those with less available resources are often more democratic because of the need to develop human creativity. Nearly four thousand years earlier the Torah defines the basic challenge to the human spirit in similar terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paganism, as theology and as morality, derives from the human predilection to use rich natural resources as a base for power and empire, exploitation and conquest \u2013 Sodom, Egypt and yes, the Garden. Alternatively, the belief that those resources are a Divine gift, and that human creativity in a spirit of humility can afford personal fulfillment for all humanity, can create a blessed planet \u2013 the &#8220;Abrahamic revolution.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":36452,"id":36452,"title":"shutterstock_161025986","filename":"shutterstock_161025986.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/shutterstock_161025986\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_161025986","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":36436,"date":"2018-07-30 23:44:14","modified":"2022-02-21 11:48:48","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":3898,"height":3898,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shutterstock_161025986-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Too Much Of A Good Thing","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"What do Sodom, Egypt and the Garden of Eden have in common? 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