{"id":47393,"date":"2019-01-13T11:01:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T09:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47393"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T11:42:38","slug":"the-change-of-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-change-of-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Change Of Heart"},"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":[394,447,598,386,585],"acf":{"old_id":"47393","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34004,"related_cahpter":"130","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Far from being an isolated incident this story gives expression to profound movements in the Israelite soul","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The narrative of the Spies, with its tragic aftermaths, lies at the very heart of Sefer Bamidbar\u2014at the very heart, we might say, of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">midbar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the wilderness, itself. This is the critical point, the great failure, that radically changes the future history of the people. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A delegation of princes is sent to spy out the Land. The Spies bring back a report that reduces the people to terror and tears and the cry, &#8220;Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?&#8230; Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!&#8221; (Num. 14:3-4). Beginning as a wish, the idea of returning to Egypt becomes, for the first time, a concrete proposition. Rashi connects this moment with the very beginning of the Exodus from Egypt: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it was when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, &#8220;The people may have a change of heart when they see war and return to Egypt&#8221; (Exod. 13:17). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rashi: If they had traveled by the direct route they would have returned [immediately]. Even so, in spite of the fact that God took them by the circuitous route, they said, &#8220;Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!&#8221;\u2014If He had taken them by the direct route, how much more so! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an unusual narrative move, the Torah informs us of what God said to Himself; God communicates His thoughts to no one. In soliloquy, God articulates a reality in which the desire to return to Egypt is bound, at some point, to erupt. Returning to Egypt is, in effect, a core fantasy of the people; from the outset, it secretly organizes their inner world. Sooner or later, in reaction to the fear of war, it will inevitably disrupt the project of the Exodus. And indeed when the people cry, &#8220;Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!&#8221; they give a newly political expression to an old desire, till now never so fully articulated. Something has been waiting to crystallize. Even God&#8217;s strategy, the roundabout route out of Egypt, has been able only to delay an inevitable crisis. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The change of heart that God foresaw is realized in the Spies story. The roots of the narrative therefore reach back into the past. Its impact is felt, moreover, far into the future. According to a classic mishnah, this narrative is dated the ninth of Av, which is to become a fatal date in Jewish history. Time after time, catastrophes will fall on this day, so that it will be institutionalized as a national fast day, accumulating its own complex history of cataclysmic loss. Far from being an isolated incident, then, this story gives expression to profound movements in the Israelite soul. It becomes the rootstock of many future national sorrows. <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":100778,"id":100778,"title":"2chron25-torn heart","filename":"2chron25-torn-heart.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron25-torn-heart.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/good-but-not-good-enough-not-totally-good\/2chron25-torn-heart\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2chron25-torn-heart","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":100776,"date":"2022-01-17 10:44:51","modified":"2023-02-15 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