{"id":54134,"date":"2019-04-21T19:01:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54134"},"modified":"2022-11-13T13:06:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T11:06:49","slug":"how-to-forget-the-torah-and-restore-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/how-to-forget-the-torah-and-restore-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Forget The Torah, And Restore It"},"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":[866,806,730,410],"acf":{"old_id":"54134","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":49419,"related_cahpter":"202","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And how to change dispossession to coexistence","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I like Joshua very much, and not only because we share a name. I like him because he\u2019s not perfect. I see him as an unwilling politician, forced into the role after being the devout disciple of Moses. Maybe anachronistically, I picture him as a dreamy-eyed rabbinical student, forced to make difficult political and military decisions, trying to please the various powerful tribes, and all the time trying to stay true to God and to his own truth. Sometimes failing, to be sure, but more or less surviving &#8211; and the last chapter ended with the words \u201cAnd the land had rest from war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, to split up the land, and get on with the task of living a normal life, building up the model society that the generation in the desert could only dream of. But the transition from Moses to Joshua, from ideal to reality, is difficult. The Talmud (Temurah 16a) tells a fantastic story about this transition:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the days of mourning for Moses, Joshua forgot three hundred laws and was overcome by seven hundred doubts, and the people of Israel were ready to kill him\u2026 nonetheless, Othniel son of Kenaz was able to restore them through his sharp reasoning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did the Talmud arrive at such a conclusion? In our chapter, verses 15 to 19, we read that Caleb offers his daughter in marriage to anyone who can capture the fortified city called Kiryat Sefer &#8211; literally, \u2018the city of the book.\u2019 Othniel is able to capture the city, and metaphorically, he can take control over the book of the Torah. While Joshua is troubled with doubts, and is pained by the lack of clarity that he had in the past, Othniel realizes that the only way forward is to reinterpret the Torah and continue the process of revelation in a new and relevant way. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This clash of ideal and reality comes around again at the end of the chapter. Reading through the long list of place-names, some foreign and some familiar, we imagine the tribe of Judah building up their ideal society afresh. But in the last verse, we see that they couldn\u2019t defeat the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. What to do? The ideal was to dispossess them. But the ideal can be reinterpreted to fit reality &#8211; \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">so the Judites dwell with the Jebusites in Jerusalem to this day.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d (15:63) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image by: Bracha Lavee, courtesy of the artist<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54135,"id":54135,"title":"jo15-jerusalem-bracha-lavee","filename":"jo15-jerusalem-bracha-lavee.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo15-jerusalem-bracha-lavee.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/how-to-forget-the-torah-and-restore-it\/jo15-jerusalem-bracha-lavee\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo15-jerusalem-bracha-lavee","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54134,"date":"2019-04-21 16:01:03","modified":"2019-04-21 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