{"id":41866,"date":"2018-10-11T18:37:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T15:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=41866"},"modified":"2022-05-07T23:24:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T20:24:53","slug":"the-paradox-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-paradox-of-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paradox of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[376,413,637],"acf":{"old_id":"41866","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33859,"related_cahpter":"66","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":" Decision-making is a gift, but it can also lead to paralysis and dissatisfaction","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the bitter things God gave us to sweeten a bitter world (see more on that in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.929.org.il\/lang\/en\/page\/65\/post\/41826\">my piece in chapter 15<\/a>) is the capacity to choose. In modern Hebrew, they don&#8217;t refer to &#8216;making a decision&#8217; but to &#8216;receiving a decision&#8217; (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lekabel hachlata)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Decision-making is a gift. But in our reality of infinitely expanding choices, whether it&#8217;s how we want to look, or what device we want to purchase, or who we want to marry, or countless other decisions large and small, we&#8217;ve come to realize that choice is a double-edged sword. It can bring a person to paralysis and dissatisfaction as much as it can bring bliss and fulfillment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s called the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Paradox_of_Choice\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">paradox of choice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;, and the Jewish people first experience it in chapter 16. They remember fondly the rations their Egyptian taskmasters would grant them, but in response God refuses to take the place of those masters. He insists that the people go out and collect the manna themselves, and that they assess their family needs and collect accordingly. The text testifies that, whether miraculously or by calculation, everyone gets home with exactly the right amount. If that amount had been forced upon them, it might have been easier to make peace with it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when it&#8217;s your own decision, then the torments of your choices, and especially of the alternatives not taken can begin to haunt you. You second guess yourself. Did I take enough or too much? Maybe this is more than I need? Will there be more tomorrow? You look over your shoulder at your neighbor, and look for some way to roll back your decision, perhaps by saving some of what is really the perfect amount for tomorrow. Moses can get upset, but ultimately the choice has been granted by God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that&#8217;s another troubling element of choice- why allow the people a choice when they might choose incorrectly? Why open the door to failure? And fail they do, though it doesn&#8217;t do them much good. Perhaps God is testing us. Perhaps we&#8217;re testing him. But why do we need all this testing? That&#8217;s a question for chapter 17.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70536,"id":70536,"title":"jer21-choice","filename":"jer21-choice.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer21-choice.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-age-of-agency-begins\/jer21-choice\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer21-choice","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70535,"date":"2020-02-22 14:06:13","modified":"2022-07-05 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