{"id":55596,"date":"2019-05-15T16:58:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T13:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55596"},"modified":"2022-12-07T18:51:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:51:35","slug":"parables-biblical-and-rabbinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/parables-biblical-and-rabbinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Parables \u2013 Biblical And Rabbinic"},"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":[363,704],"acf":{"old_id":"55596","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"220","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From Yotam to Yohanan Ben Zakkai - the pedagogy of the \u201cmashal\u201d","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter tells how Abimelech seizes power in Shechem by killing off his rival brothers, except for Yotam, who escapes to Mount Gerizim from where he shouts down to the people below the following suggestive story. The trees once went out to anoint a king to rule over them. After having approached first the olive tree and then the fig tree, they said to the vine, \u201cCome and reign over us\u201d. The vine replied: \u2018Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?\u201d So finally, the trees said to the bramble: \u201cReign over us.\u201d And it was only the lowly, thorny bramble that agreed to be king of the trees (Judges 9:9-15). The \u201cmoral\u201d (<em>nimshal<\/em>) of Yotam\u2019s parable (<em>mashal<\/em>) is that those willing to accept authority and to even violently pursue power, like Abimelech, tend to impose corrupt rule, leading eventually to their own destruction and the suffering of those who accept their domination (verses 16-56).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the first of several biblical parables. These include the story of the poor man who raised a single lamb that a wealthy neighbor took to set before a guest (2 Samuel 12:1-4), which illustrates the sin David committed with Bathsheba, Uriah&#8217;s wife and the story of the farmer whose work succeeds in proper order (Isaiah 28:24-29), as God carries out his wonderful plan with magnificent wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Significantly, \u201c<em>Mashal<\/em>\u201d becomes one of the \u201cThirty-Two Rules by which the Torah may be Interpreted\u201d, which is exemplified by Yotam\u2019s parable (see <em>Midrash Sheloshim u-Shetayim Middot<\/em>, Chapter 2). Indeed, parables comprise a significant genre of rabbinic pedagogy. Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai is said to have studied parables and fables together with Mi\u1e33ra, Mishnah, Halakah and Aggadah (Talmud Bavli Bava Batra 134a). And Rabbi Meir\u2019s lectures were composed of one third Halakhah, one third Aggadah and one third parables. But of his three hundred \u201cfox fables\u201d, only three were preserved by others (Sanhedrin 38b).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One Talmudic parable (Sanhedrin 91a-b) tells of a king who &#8212; like a modern-day detective &#8212; re-enacts how a lame man and a blind man cooperate to reach the high-hanging fruit in the royal garden. The perceptive king places the lame man on the shoulders of the blind man, thus judging them as one. This parable illustrates how, in the Day of Judgement, God will reunite the body and the soul, separated at death, which together are held responsible for human sin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A rabbinic tradition (Song of Songs Rabbah 1:1) underscores &#8212; by means of another parable &#8212; the exegetical seriousness of such midrashic metaphor (<em>mashal<\/em>), which may sometimes seem unnecessarily imaginative. There is a parable about a king who lost a gold coin in his palace. Does he not find it by the light of a candle bought for only an Issar (a small bronze coin)?! Similarly, this parable should not be of little value in your eyes. For by means of parables one may \u201cstand on\u201d (i.e. understands) words of Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 46th emblem from Johann Theodor de Bry&#8217;s <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emblemata saecularia<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1596), the Blind Man and the Lame \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55597,"id":55597,"title":"jud9-parable","filename":"jud9-parable.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/parables-biblical-and-rabbinic\/jud9-parable\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud9-parable","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55596,"date":"2019-05-15 13:58:42","modified":"2019-05-15 13:58:54","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":651,"height":851,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable-229x300.jpg","medium-width":229,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","medium_large-width":651,"medium_large-height":851,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","large-width":651,"large-height":851,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","1536x1536-width":651,"1536x1536-height":851,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","2048x2048-width":651,"2048x2048-height":851,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable.jpg","post_full_size-width":651,"post_full_size-height":851,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-parable-321x420.jpg","home_baner-width":321,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Parables \u2013 Biblical And Rabbinic","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"From Yotam to Yohanan Ben Zakkai - 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