{"id":37335,"date":"2018-08-09T10:51:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T07:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37335"},"modified":"2022-03-05T22:39:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T20:39:47","slug":"jealousy-spite-or-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jealousy-spite-or-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Jealousy, Spite &#8211; or Survival?"},"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":[430,427],"acf":{"old_id":"37335","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37333,"related_cahpter":"21","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How did living in this harsh landscape shape the lives of people in biblical times?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Driving from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea is like entering another world. The urban bustle of Jerusalem quickly gives way to stark rolling hills, as the road descends towards the lowest point on earth. Within a few minutes, the roadside vegetation just about disappears, replaced by smooth pale rock. At the beginning of the desert, the road winds down steeply through this landscape, barely changed since biblical times. The harsh rock glints in the strong sun, its smoothness belying the unforgiving nature of this landscape, the lack of water, the inescapable heat. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I read the Torah, I often find it difficult to imagine the lives of our patriarchs and matriarchs. They lived in such a different world. They were nomadic: wandering from place to place. Theirs was a world of tents and wells and camels, so removed from our modern world of houses, running water, cars and planes. Yet somehow, being in Israel, the very place where these stories happened, makes it easier to imagine. In the desert, I am repeatedly struck by the thought: How did living in this harsh landscape shape the lives of people in biblical times?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Genesis Chapter 21, we learn quite a lot about Sarah, our matriarch. When she and her husband Abraham were very old, Sarah gave birth to a son, Isaac \u2013 so unbelievable that she laughed. Yet after this miraculous and joyous event, Sarah banishes Hagar, who had given birth to Abraham\u2019s son Ishmael. While this seems unkind, it is difficult to know what Sarah was thinking. We can never really know what\u2019s going on in another person\u2019s head. All the more so when this person lived thousands of years before us. Yet, travelling through the desert landscape, we can begin to imagine the harsh reality of their lives. Perhaps Sarah\u2019s decision was simply one of survival. Perhaps it was out of jealousy or spite. Or perhaps, she was simply following God\u2019s plan that Isaac be Abraham\u2019s heir. However uneasy we may find Sarah\u2019s banishment of Hagar today, the harsh desert landscape always reminds me just how different their world was from ours, and how little of it we can really understand.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54849,"id":54849,"title":"jo24-desert","filename":"jo24-desert.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/summary-of-the-journey-and-one-final-challenge\/jo24-desert\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo24-desert","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54848,"date":"2019-05-04 20:18:18","modified":"2023-08-14 07:29:14","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1442,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-768x577.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":577,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-1024x769.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":769,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1154,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1442,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-1200x901.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":901,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jo24-desert-559x420.jpg","home_baner-width":559,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Jealousy, Spite - 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