{"id":54570,"date":"2019-04-30T19:04:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T16:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54570"},"modified":"2022-11-22T17:56:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T15:56:54","slug":"a-witness-now-and-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-witness-now-and-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"A Witness Now And Forever?"},"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":[679,525,870],"acf":{"old_id":"54570","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37333,"related_cahpter":"209","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"An altar to peace, to preserve a memory -  and a hope","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, our way of recording and measuring human experience has changed immeasurably. The digitisation of our world means that instead of annual or occasional photographs, we now take daily, if not hourly, pictures. Instead of schlepping heavy photo albums to show loved ones our holiday photos, or setting up the slide projector in a living room for blurry travel snaps, we instantly share any moment on social media, to the chorus of a thousand and one (or perhaps zero) likes. Capturing a moment, a place, a person through a camera lens has become so ubiquitous that getting the perfect shot is often more important than experiencing the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet, there are other ways to mark time, to capture a moment, to remember an event. Taking a photograph is but one method. As we near the end of the Book of Joshua, we read of a dispute between tribes assigned land on either side of the Jordan River. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh find themselves in the country of Gilead, on the opposite bank of the Jordan from the rest of the Israelites. We read that these tribes build \u2018a great and conspicuous altar\u2019 (Joshua 22:10), a place for sacrifice and worship of God. But, building this altar in Gilead causes the rest of the Israelites to plan a war against them, for to them it is rebellion against God (Joshua 22:12,16). In the confrontation with the tribal elders, the tribes in Gilead explain that the altar is a \u2018witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the Eternal\u2019 (Joshua 22:27). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is, their monument becomes a witness to their agreement, a stone marking their resolved misunderstanding. They name the altar <em>&#8216;<\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ed<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, witness, so that it \u2018shall be a witness between us that the Eternal is God\u2019 (Joshua 22:34). A monument to remind them that this is true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hebrew word for witness, \u05e2\u05d3 &#8216;<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ed<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, contains the same letters as \u05e2\u05d3 <em>&#8216;<\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ad<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, eternity: the idea of preserving something forever. Our methods may have changed, but our contemporary obsession with instant, digital capturing of events stems from the same desire. The desire to keep something that cannot be kept. The urge to save every moment for eternity. The wish to spend just one more second in the sun\u2019s warm embrace. No matter how futile this exercise is, we persevere, chasing the rainbow, forgetting that we can simply enjoy the pot of gold right in front of us.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54608,"id":54608,"title":"jo22-eternity","filename":"jo22-eternity.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-witness-now-and-forever\/jo22-eternity\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo22-eternity","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54570,"date":"2019-04-30 16:04:29","modified":"2019-04-30 16:04:40","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A Witness Now and Forever?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"An altar to peace, to preserve a memory -  and a hope","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":54608,"id":54608,"title":"jo22-eternity","filename":"jo22-eternity.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-witness-now-and-forever\/jo22-eternity\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo22-eternity","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54570,"date":"2019-04-30 16:04:29","modified":"2019-04-30 16:04:40","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo22-eternity-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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\/54570"}],"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=54570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109417,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54570\/revisions\/109417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}