{"id":51174,"date":"2019-03-11T13:29:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T11:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51174"},"modified":"2022-10-02T14:13:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T11:13:02","slug":"shofetim-trees-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shofetim-trees-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoftim &#8211; Trees and People"},"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":[368,369],"acf":{"old_id":"51174","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46171,"related_cahpter":"173","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen in your war against a city you have to besiege a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees\u2026. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city?\u201d (Deut. 20:19). Trees are not to be \u201cpunished\u201d in a battle to conquer a city. Moreover, the Israelites were not to destroy the natural resources in a besieged country, but were to refrain from hewing trees and desolating the land. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why does this chapter create a link between trees and humans? What is the meaning of the words quoted above: \u201cAre trees of the field human\u201d? Or as some translate it, a statement: \u201cfor the human being is like the tree in the fields,\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avner Moriah\u2019s painting, which was clearly influenced by the ancient relief sculptures of Near Eastern warfare scenes that were carved on the walls of early Assyrian palaces, help us understand this suggested link between humans and nature. The right-hand side of the painting figures a hill topped with five rows of trees, of which the bottom two rows are fruit trees. The scene is devoid of people, perhaps to take us back to Third Day of Creation: \u201c\u2026from the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food\u201d (Gen. 2:9). To the left, paralleling the tree-lined hill, we see two men, standing among stumps of felled trees, about to fell the rest of the grove. Seeing the trees covering the hill and the men cutting them down juxtaposes the notions of whether trees are to serve people\u2019s destructive needs or whether it is our responsibility to \u201c till and tend\u201d them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To the left of this scene we see an image of a besieged city. One man is carrying a ladder. Several more ladders are leaning against the city wall and men are climbing them to reach the top; above the wall we see the defenders wielding stones to throw at the attackers. The need for trees for such a battle is obvious, but the Israelites are cautioned to remember the importance of trees, especially fruit trees: \u201cOnly trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed\u201d (Deut. 20:20).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The laws concerning the besieging of a city clearly echo the importance ascribed to trees, beginning with Creation and moving on to Leviticus 19:23, where the Israelites are told to plant fruit trees when they come into Canaan. The fruits of these new trees are not to be eaten for the first three years, as they are considered \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">orlah<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d As the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">orlah<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also the foreskin removed in a circumcision, we have here an association between the laws regarding the fruit of a new tree and the Jewish covenantal ceremony of circumcision, which augments the idea, introduced in this chapter, of a parallel between humans and trees.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51176,"id":51176,"title":"48 Shoftim","filename":"48-Shoftim.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shofetim-trees-and-people\/48-shoftim\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"48-shoftim","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51174,"date":"2019-03-11 11:29:16","modified":"2019-03-11 11:29:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2500,"height":1597,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-300x192.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":192,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-768x491.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":491,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-1024x654.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":654,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":981,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1308,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-1200x767.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":767,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-657x420.jpg","home_baner-width":657,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Shoftim - Trees and People","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Parallels, Connections, Responsibilities","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":51176,"id":51176,"title":"48 Shoftim","filename":"48-Shoftim.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shofetim-trees-and-people\/48-shoftim\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"48-shoftim","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51174,"date":"2019-03-11 11:29:16","modified":"2019-03-11 11:29:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2500,"height":1597,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-300x192.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":192,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-768x491.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":491,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-1024x654.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":654,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":981,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1308,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-1200x767.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":767,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/48-Shoftim-657x420.jpg","home_baner-width":657,"home_baner-height":420}},"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\/51174"}],"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=51174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108341,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51174\/revisions\/108341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}