{"id":47701,"date":"2019-01-17T17:05:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T15:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47701"},"modified":"2022-08-11T16:56:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T13:56:21","slug":"here-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/here-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Here And Now"},"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":[820,383],"acf":{"old_id":"47701","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"136","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From religions of death and the hereafter, to a religion of life, of people, today","content":"

Born in part out of the sweltering heat of Egypt, with its human hierarchies and its obsession with the afterlife luxuries afforded the rich and the powerful, ancient Israel broke with the pathologies of its oppressors and fashioned a religion that minimized social privilege, articulating a notion of covenant that includes the entire people and a God who cares for all Israel, all humanity, all creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of that radical reorientation, the Torah also goes to great length to shift the focus of religion away from an afterlife, and toward this world. Whereas the Egyptian religion, though its Book of the Dead and its endless incantations and sacrifices, drives home the notion of a world to come that is dangerous, terrifying, and difficult to attain, the Torah says precious little about an afterlife and focuses instead on narratives and practices that enrich life in the here and now, creating a society in which everyday blessings can help each of us thrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a brilliant move to cement this shift in focus to life in this world, the Torah also prevents death from being the focus of our ritual attention. \u201cOne who touches the corpse of any human being shall be unclean for seven days (Numbers 19:11).\u201d By making contact with a corpse a primary source of <\/span>tum’ah<\/span><\/em> (ritual impurity, uncleanness), Jewish law forces us to limit such contact, and with it, the focus of our spirituality. Jews are commanded to care for the dead by cleaning the body, burying the remains promptly and with dignity, and then our attention shifts back to life: the wellbeing of the mourner, helping them to process their grief and return to the world of the living.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ancient Israel\u2019s \u201cclergy,\u201d the priests, were prohibited from contacting corpse impurity. The average Israelite was directed to minimize such contact. And with that, the Torah turns our gaze, our aspirations, and our energy toward this world, person, this day, this moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The time is now. The task is great. Pay attention to what is before us, and make a difference today.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Here And Now","main_caption":"From religions of death and the hereafter, to a religion of life, of people. The time is now. The task is great. Pay attention to what is before us, and make a difference today.","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"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\/47701"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47701"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107137,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47701\/revisions\/107137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}