{"id":51805,"date":"2019-03-22T13:31:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T11:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51805"},"modified":"2022-10-13T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T12:31:17","slug":"a-topsy-turvy-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-topsy-turvy-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Topsy-Turvy World"},"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":[583,364,503,453],"acf":{"old_id":"51805","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":50592,"related_cahpter":"181","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What if we didn\u2019t view success and failure as a zero sum game?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deuteronomy 28 contains a powerful litany of blessing and curses about what will happen or fail to happen if we do not obey God. \u00a0Among seemingly apocalyptic threats of skies turning to copper and soil to iron, twice, God threatens that if we fail to obey, the \u201cnatural pecking\u201d order will be reverse. \u00a0We are warned that the stranger in our midst will rise higher and higher, while we will sink lower and lower. The stranger will be the head and we will be the tail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a text that is consumed with fear that we will not get to be the ones in charge. \u00a0\u201cNatural order\u201d seems to dictate that the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ger<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the foreigner with no claim, should be beneath us, he should be powerless and vulnerable. \u00a0God forbid, the roles are reversed. This fear of the stranger rising to power is the same fear that animated Pharaoh&#8217;s drive to oppress the Israelites in the opening chapters of the Book of Exodus. \u00a0Pharaoh sees the Israelites growing in number and he says, \u201cLet\u2019s deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase.\u201d What is he so afraid of? He\u2019s afraid of this curse in Deuteronomy 28. He\u2019s afraid that as the Israelites rise higher and higher, the Egyptians will sink lower and lower.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The world of our Torah is one in which the stranger must be kept down for fear that he will rise up against the native. \u00a0But, this is not the world of the world to come. In Tractate Pesachim, we read the story of Rav Yosef, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi who became ill and nearly died. \u00a0When he recovers, his father asks him, what did you see as you were about to die? Rav Yosef answers, I saw an inverted world. Those above were below and those below were above. \u00a0Meaning, in the world to come, the powerful in this world are marginalized and the marginalized become the powerful. His father affirms his vision and says, \u201cMy son, you have seen a clear world.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if we didn\u2019t view success and failure as a zero-sum game? \u00a0What if we stopped worrying about who was the head and who was the tail and instead worked to create a society in which the dignity of all human beings was honored? \u00a0What if God\u2019s curse ceased to hold power over us?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image by: Alexas Fotos<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Pixabay<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51806,"id":51806,"title":"dt28-upside-down","filename":"dt28-upside-down.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt28-upside-down.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-topsy-turvy-world\/dt28-upside-down\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt28-upside-down","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51805,"date":"2019-03-22 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