{"id":40955,"date":"2018-09-26T12:55:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T09:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=40955"},"modified":"2022-04-10T16:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T13:36:05","slug":"god-in-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-in-exile\/","title":{"rendered":"God in Exile"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":[366,432,384,510],"acf":{"old_id":"40955","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":40752,"related_cahpter":"46","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A message for all the wandering generations to come","content":"

Are we ever home?<\/span><\/p>\n

When Jacob returned to the land of Canaan, the land promised to his fathers, he decides to settle down; to welcome himself into his new home. Or at least this is how the rabbis hear it between the lines: \u201cAnd Jacob dwelled in the land of his fathers\u2019 dwelling in the land of Canaan\u201d (Genesis 37:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rabbis sense something ominous in this embrace of domesticity. Rashi, channeling the Rabbis, tells us that \u201cJacob desired to dwell in peace \u2013 but then the terror of Joseph surprised him.\u201d The God that promised him the land has other plans for the world-weary Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so several chapters and a terrible famine later, the elderly patriarch agrees to go down to Egypt:<\/span><\/p>\n

So Israel set out with all that was his, and he came to Beer-sheba, where he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God called to Israel in a vision by night: \u201cJacob! Jacob!\u201d He answered, \u201cHere.\u201d And He said, \u201cI am God, the God of your father. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation. I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back; and Joseph\u2019s hand shall close your eyes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He stops at one of the homes of his fathers, Beer Sheba, he sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac, and God assures Jacob that He is not wandering alone. God will be with him as he descends into Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to hear this as a message for all the wandering generations to come. As you take your children in tow and pack up all that you know into a few bags and go out into the unknown, know this: I am with you, I go down with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

God can be found in exile, in fact he is more often found in Exile, in the confusion and fog of wandering \u2013freely chosen or forced- than within the peace and tranquility of an imagined home. It is the imagining of home, perhaps, that gives us the dreams that power our journeys away and towards those homes and allow us to create new spaces and find space for other wanderers, others who have lost all that they once knew, and now need shelter and welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":71333,"id":71333,"title":"jer31-home","filename":"jer31-home.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer31-home.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/marking-the-way-back-home\/jer31-home\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer31-home","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":71332,"date":"2020-03-07 21:11:11","modified":"2022-04-10 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