{"id":50177,"date":"2019-02-25T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=50177"},"modified":"2022-09-14T15:23:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T12:23:10","slug":"softening-our-necks-circumcising-our-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/softening-our-necks-circumcising-our-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"Softening Our Necks, Circumcising Our Hearts"},"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":[652,395],"acf":{"old_id":"50177","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":48078,"related_cahpter":"162","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The paradox of the yoke of heaven","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the expression appears a few times in Tanakh, it is in this chapter that \u201cstiff-necked people\u201d becomes Moshe\u2019s central chiding term to describe the people of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A metaphor for stubbornness, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stiff-neckedness<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an allusion to an ox used for plowing or harrowing, one which does not allow itself to be led. Like the analogy of the \u201cyoke of heaven,\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stiff-necked<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is derived from the biblical ideal of a master-servant relationship between God and the Israelites, where the Israelites\u2019 stubbornness is referring to their unwillingness to follow God\u2019s commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet, the yoke of heaven is not just any yoke\u2014and thus, the ox, though a familiar agricultural trope for the biblical Jew, is not a true depiction of our relationship with God. In fact, God broke the yoke that Israelites carried like animals under Pharaoh: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI am the Lord your God who brought you out from the Land of Egypt to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright\u201d (Lev 26:13). The yoke of heaven is one under which a Jew can stand straight, and perhaps ironically, independent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being upright and stiff-necked, however, does not allow us to be in relationship with God. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sforno comments (Deut. 9:6) that stiff-neckedness results in one\u2019s inability to see other opinions, or one&#8217;s own wrong: one cannot, will not, move her head. Unlike an ox, which is required to faithfully plow away, unable to turn its head under the yoke, rarely seeing its master, we need to be able to turn our heads, and thus ourselves, toward God. This turning\u2014teshuvah\u2014requires vulnerability and admission of weakness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In tomorrow\u2019s chapter, parallel to relaxing our stiff necks, we are required to circumcise our hearts. The rawness of the heart, together with the softness of the neck, guides us in carrying the yoke while standing upright.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: By Cgoodwin &#8211; https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=3894456<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":50180,"id":50180,"title":"Dt9-Bullock_yokes","filename":"Dt9-Bullock_yokes.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt9-Bullock_yokes.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/softening-our-necks-circumcising-our-hearts\/dt9-bullock_yokes\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt9-bullock_yokes","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":50177,"date":"2019-02-24 21:59:50","modified":"2019-02-24 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