{"id":45069,"date":"2018-12-02T19:50:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T17:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45069"},"modified":"2022-06-26T17:35:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T14:35:24","slug":"godless-rituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/godless-rituals\/","title":{"rendered":"Godless Rituals"},"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":[754,384,363],"acf":{"old_id":"45069","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34285,"related_cahpter":"102","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The midrash replaces what is missing in the text: God, and God\u2019s presence and intimacy","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God\u2019s presence permeates the whole of the book of Leviticus. The priests direct the cultic service of God, who resides at the center of the camp. And yet, God is largely absent&#8211; in an immediate sense &#8212; from the book. God is impersonal and removed, in whose presence the only proper response is silence. No one, not even Moses, speaks to God, although God speaks to humans. The High Priest, who gains access to the holiest depths of the sanctuary on the holiest day of the year, does not confront God directly. In Leviticus, the average person achieves forgiveness just by performing the required ritual acts. Atonement does not depend on the will of God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contrast this with the portrait of God which emerges in the Midrash on Leviticus 12. In response to the opening verse, \u201cWhen a woman conceives and bears a male child,\u201d Leviticus Rabbah highlights the missing character in that verse: God. In the Midrash, God is the personal, providential caretaker of each human being, From the earliest stage of life as \u201cthe whitest drop,\u201d God provides for each person\u2019s needs, overcoming all obstacles in the path of a healthy birth. In focusing on the fetus, the rabbis frame the relationship between God and each human being as always already present, even as the person himself is still in formation. In the Midrash, God\u2019s involvement is exquisitely intimate. The relationship with God is imagined within that impossibly small space&#8211; the womb&#8211; drawing God into the personal universe of each and every human being. God is man\u2019s companion, friend, nurturer, parent, and caregiver.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Leviticus, God resides in the details of the cult. Drawing from the verses, the Midrash invites its readers to feel God more intimately in their lives. Rather than focus in Leviticus 12 on the mother and her postpartum rituals, the Midrash directs us to our common origin as a fetus. From there we can recover the site of our earliest relationship with God. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we allow it, those recovered memories can catalyze even deeper closeness and intimacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>illustration: Michal Ben Hemo<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":45004,"id":45004,"title":"\u05d5\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0_\u05d9\u05d1","filename":"\u05d5\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0_\u05d9\u05d1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d5\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d0_\u05d9\u05d1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-102\/%d7%95%d7%99%d7%a7%d7%a8%d7%90_%d7%99%d7%91-2\/","alt":"","author":"4","description":"\u05d0\u05d9\u05d5\u05e8: \u05de\u05d9\u05db\u05dc \u05d1\u05df \u05d7\u05de\u05d5","caption":"","name":"%d7%95%d7%99%d7%a7%d7%a8%d7%90_%d7%99%d7%91-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":44945,"date":"2018-12-02 08:17:19","modified":"2018-12-02 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