{"id":47986,"date":"2019-01-23T10:50:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T08:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47986"},"modified":"2022-08-17T18:28:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T15:28:53","slug":"criticizing-in-all-the-wrong-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/criticizing-in-all-the-wrong-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticizing In All the Wrong Places"},"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":[622],"acf":{"old_id":"47986","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33859,"related_cahpter":"140","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The view from without, and those from within","content":"

The effusive praise God puts into Balaam’s mouth in chapter 23 starkly contrasts the bitter complaints and harsh punishments we’ve read of in previous chapters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam says: “How can I be angry when God isn’t angry?” But God has been exceedingly angry- repeatedly, violently angry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam says: “There is no <\/span>nachash<\/span><\/em> (literally- a snake) in Jacob and no sorcery in Israel”, and yet we just finished reading the story of the snake whose healing properties seemed quite magical.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam says: “He has seen no iniquity in Jacob, and has seen no tiresome sin in Israel,” but God and Moses have both complained about how tired they are of the Jews’ repeated misbehavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam says: “God is not a man that He should lie”- so how do we understand all these contradictions?<\/span><\/p>\n

In Israel there’s a saying- “things you see from here, you don’t see from there.” But what\u2019s strange is that this statement always seems to be used to silence criticism, rather than to offer it. It’s true that criticism coming from an outsider’s perspective can be problematic, opportunistic, hypocritical, destructive. The story of Balaam is the story of the ultimate outsider, with a well-trained evil eye, a penchant for noticing the negative. There is little good that can come of this, and God won’t tolerate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this doesn’t mean that criticism should not be delivered, just that it must originate from within. This is something the Torah models consistently and boldly, and that we tend to do a terrible job at. All too often, the forces within restrain themselves from criticizing, out of fear of embarrassing the community, airing dirty laundry, or similar excuses. <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps, if we would be braver when it comes to criticizing our own communities, and more honest when it comes to hearing, internalizing, and responding to that criticism, we would find that that which we had thought of as a curse can actually be turned into a blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":96748,"id":96748,"title":"ecc7-glitch self critique","filename":"ecc7-glitch-self-critique.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc7-glitch-self-critique.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/breaching-the-limits-of-self-critique\/ecc7-glitch-self-critique\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ecc7-glitch-self-critique","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":96747,"date":"2021-08-24 14:41:48","modified":"2022-08-17 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