{"id":53170,"date":"2019-04-04T20:54:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T17:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=53170"},"modified":"2022-10-28T15:25:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T12:25:14","slug":"what-is-the-point-of-a-monument-that-no-one-can-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-is-the-point-of-a-monument-that-no-one-can-see\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is The Point Of A Monument That No One Can See?"},"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":[384,405],"acf":{"old_id":"53170","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"191","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Indeed, what is the point of all our other acts great and small that go unnoticed and unremembered?","content":"

A second wall of water allowing the children of Israel to pass toward freedom on dry land. This time the miracle isn\u2019t that of the Reed Sea and Passover, but rather the Jordan River marking the boundary into the Promised Land, the Land of Israel. And to mark this miracle in the consciousness of the people, God commands Joshua that representatives of each tribe should take a stone from the very center of the Jordan River bed, where the Priests were standing with the Ark, and carry those stones with them to the other side, creating a memorial in the site of their first encampment in the Land. This memorial was to teach the unity of the twelve tribes and the significance of Torah (fulfilling the earlier command to Moses \u2013 Deuteronomy 27:1-9 \u2013 that the words of the Torah were to be painted onto the public marking stones).<\/span><\/p>\n

But in far stranger act, Joshua takes 12 stones \u2013 one per tribe \u2013 and creates a similar memorial in the middle of the Jordan River, at the very spot where the Priests were standing. The odd detail is that with the return of the Jordan\u2019s water, this memorial is now submerged. No one can see it; no one knows its location. Odder still: there is no record of God commanding this underwater monument. It appears that Joshua did it under his own initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the point of a monument that no one can see?<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps we are invited to take an honest look at our own lives. What is the point of good deeds that don\u2019t earn us fame and status? What is the point of hard work that isn\u2019t celebrated or public? What is the point of acts of caring and nurture if they are forgotten?<\/span><\/p>\n

Turns out that most of what we do with our lives are not remembered, neither by the recipients of our efforts, nor by subsequent generations. Perhaps we are invited to realize that the significance of what we do, how we contribute to the greater good, is found in our own satisfaction and in God\u2019s memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human praise is fickle and ephemeral. To close one\u2019s eyes at the day\u2019s end knowing we have done our best, made a positive difference, advanced the goal just a little bit \u2013 well, that is what we are offered as reward, and it suffices. <\/span><\/p>\n

God knows. It is enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

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