{"id":43968,"date":"2018-11-14T09:05:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T07:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43968"},"modified":"2022-06-08T22:09:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:09:59","slug":"hard-to-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hard-to-breathe\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard To Breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":[727,616,668],"acf":{"old_id":"43968","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36149,"related_cahpter":"90","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Moments of spiritual intensity, of prayer saturated air, are cyclical","content":"

Yehuda Amichai, the great twentieth-century bard of Jerusalem, opens his poem, \u201cThe Ecology of Jerusalem,\u201d by describing the Holy City\u2019s air as \u201csaturated with prayers and dreams.\u201d As Amichai goes on to qualify this metaphor, it becomes clear that the prayer-saturated Jerusalem atmosphere can be more of a curse than a blessing: \u201c\u2026as the air above industrial towns. It\u2019s hard to breathe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the very end of Exodus, Moses has accomplished his goal of building a sanctuary for God. What should be the climactic moment capping a book absorbed by Tabernacle construction, is instead an anti-climactic letdown:<\/span><\/p>\n

The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. (Exodus 40:34-35)<\/span><\/p>\n

Spiritual intensity can function this way. Sometimes, a sacred encounter with the Divine becomes so overwhelming that it smokes us out of the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

Exodus concludes with three verses that seem like a non sequitur, but which can be read as a consolation:<\/span><\/p>\n

When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys; but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift.
\nFor over the Tabernacle a cloud of the LORD rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys.<\/p>\n

Moments of spiritual intensity, of prayer saturated air, are cyclical. Sometimes the cloud descends on the Tabernacle, telling the Israelites to rest, and barring their entry to the Tent of Meeting, and sometimes it lifts, pointing the way to new destinations.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":80735,"id":80735,"title":"ps13-sukkah","filename":"ps13-sukkah.jpeg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-chesed-and-davids\/ps13-sukkah\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps13-sukkah","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":80734,"date":"2020-09-30 15:39:17","modified":"2022-06-08 19:09:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":801,"height":598,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-150x150.jpeg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-300x224.jpeg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":224,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-768x573.jpeg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":573,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","large-width":801,"large-height":598,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","1536x1536-width":801,"1536x1536-height":598,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","2048x2048-width":801,"2048x2048-height":598,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","post_full_size-width":801,"post_full_size-height":598,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-563x420.jpeg","home_baner-width":563,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Hard To Breathe","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Moments of spiritual intensity, of prayer saturated air, are cyclical","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":80735,"id":80735,"title":"ps13-sukkah","filename":"ps13-sukkah.jpeg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-chesed-and-davids\/ps13-sukkah\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps13-sukkah","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":80734,"date":"2020-09-30 15:39:17","modified":"2022-06-08 19:09:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":801,"height":598,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-150x150.jpeg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-300x224.jpeg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":224,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-768x573.jpeg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":573,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","large-width":801,"large-height":598,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","1536x1536-width":801,"1536x1536-height":598,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","2048x2048-width":801,"2048x2048-height":598,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah.jpeg","post_full_size-width":801,"post_full_size-height":598,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps13-sukkah-563x420.jpeg","home_baner-width":563,"home_baner-height":420}},"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":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968"}],"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\/50634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105571,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43968\/revisions\/105571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}