{"id":54216,"date":"2019-04-22T15:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T12:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54216"},"modified":"2022-11-13T13:52:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T11:52:58","slug":"luz-a-hard-nut-to-crack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/luz-a-hard-nut-to-crack\/","title":{"rendered":"Luz \u2013 A Hard Nut To Crack"},"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":[490,523,430],"acf":{"old_id":"54216","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"203","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"City of Immortality, between the House of God and Shangri-La","content":"

The extensive description of Joshua\u2019s allotment of areas of the Promised Land to the various Israelite tribes (Joshua, Chapters 13-22) continues in our chapter: \u201cThe allotment for the sons of Joseph [i.e. the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe] ran from the Jordan at Jericho , from the waters of Jericho east of the wilderness up into the hill country to Bethel. It went on from Bethel (i.e.to Luz) \u2026 ending at the Sea\u201d (verses 1-3). <\/span><\/p>\n

In the midst of this meticulous geographic mapping, one city stands out, according to both biblical and rabbinic tradition. Bethel (Beit-El) was the place near where Abram stayed and built an altar on his way to Egypt and on his return (Genesis 12:8, 13:3). Later Jacob, fearing the wrath of his brother Esau fled there, dreams of a ladder stretching from Heaven to Earth with angels ascending and descending. Standing above is God, who promises Jacob the land of Canaan. When Jacob awakes he cries out: \u201c\u2018How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven\u2026 \u2018 He called that place Beit-El [House of God], though the city used to be called Luz\u201d (see also Genesis 28:10-18, 35:6-8). <\/span><\/p>\n

Significantly, \u201cLuz\u201d is also the Hebrew word for hazelnut (or almond, see Genesis 30:37). Because of the physical similarity of this nut to a human bone, its name became the Hebrew term for the \u201ctail-bone\u201d (coccyx) at the base of the spine. This small bone was regarded by the Rabbinic Sages and others as \u201cindestructible\u201d, in that it was said to never decay like the rest of the post-mortem remains and from which the new human body will be formed at the time of resurrection (Genesis Rabbah 28:3 and parallels). This chain of associations led to the Talmudic tradition (Talmud Bavli Sotah 46b) that the Angel of Death cannot take the life of those living in the city of Luz. Elsewhere (Sanhedrin 97a), the city of Luz is referred to as Kushta\u2019 (\u201cTruth\u201d in Aramaic), for no one there died unless they did not tell the exact truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

The very human aspiration for finding a utopian \u201cCity of Immortality\u201d finds expression in the Far-Eastern legend of Shangri-La, made popular in the West through the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by the English writer James Hilton (and 1937 movie directed by Frank Capra), in which Shangri-La is depicted as an imaginary lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet. Subsequently, in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the US presidential retreat “Shangri-La”, later renamed Camp David. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, the first Israeli military missile was named \u201cLuz\u201d, perhaps in the expectation that this technical development would assist in granting \u201cimmortality\u201d to the Jewish State!<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54217,"id":54217,"title":"jo16-nuts","filename":"jo16-nuts.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo16-nuts.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/luz-a-hard-nut-to-crack\/jo16-nuts\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo16-nuts","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54216,"date":"2019-04-22 12:28:07","modified":"2019-04-22 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