{"id":48358,"date":"2019-01-28T18:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48358"},"modified":"2022-08-21T14:10:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T11:10:53","slug":"a-harvest-of-normal-boring-and-wonderful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-harvest-of-normal-boring-and-wonderful\/","title":{"rendered":"A Harvest Of Normal: Boring And Wonderful!"},"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":[401,551],"acf":{"old_id":"48358","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"143","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Boring? Not if one of the names is yours, or someone you love","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Numbers 26 is one of those sections that gives the Hebrew Bible a bad rap. A second census is called for, and instead of just letting us know that it was successfully concluded, the Torah decides to share each and every name from every single tribe, down to the clans, the families, the individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every year, I resolve to read more slowly, to pour over every word of every parashah, and this is the one that defeats me each time. However noble my intention, by the third or forth clan, my eyes glaze over, my attention drifts, and I find myself skimming quickly just in case the Torah smuggled in something interesting in this smothering blanket of endless names.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a book that is famous for its sparse descriptions and its tight use of words, why do we need an entire chapter that reads like roll call?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Years ago, one of my teachers, Rabbi Burton Visotzky, offered a pithy piece of wisdom: he said that this parasha was boring, unless your name was one of the names listed. I think about that now as a rabbi. Plaques with the names of the deceased seem endless and dreary, unless you are looking for the plaque of your loved one\u2019s name. Honor rolls of prize winners are dull and repetitive, unless one of those prize winners is you, and any fundraiser can recount how very important it is to each donor that their name and gift be properly enumerated in any public donor recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, answer number one is that the detailed names matter for those who know and love the individuals listed. And the Torah invites us to so love those who have gone before us, whose wanderings brought us to the place of promise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I think there is a second response worth sharing too. Life isn\u2019t all glamor and glitter. As we age, we come to cherish days in which there is nothing to report \u2013 no big headliner of news, good or bad. Just a day filled with the blessings of simply living: same breakfast, same tasks, same companions, same dinner, same evening, same bedroom and bedtime. A life rich with the quotidian, the everyday, a harvest of normal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the Torah lavishes so many words to remind us to cherish those little moments of uneventful. After all, stack enough of them in a line, and that\u2019s constitutes a life.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":48359,"id":48359,"title":"stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920","filename":"stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-harvest-of-normal-boring-and-wonderful\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48358,"date":"2019-01-28 15:59:55","modified":"2019-01-28 16:00:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/stumbling-blocks-2524032_1920-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A Harvest of Normal: Boring and Wonderful!","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Boring? 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