{"id":56271,"date":"2019-05-28T06:56:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T03:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56271"},"modified":"2022-12-19T13:23:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T11:23:30","slug":"lawless-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/lawless-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawless Times"},"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":[429],"acf":{"old_id":"56271","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"228","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Chronological and real anarchy, with a twist of surprising syncretism","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter raises a most grievous issue: idolatry. Micah, or Michayhu, was a man from the Ephraim hill country (v.1) about whom we know nothing save that his wealthy mother gave 200 silver pieces that she had dedicated to God to a silversmith to fashion a graven image and a molten image (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pesel u-masekha<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 3-4). Micah set up a private sanctuary, fashioned priestly vestments (<em>ephod<\/em>) and paraphernalia (<em>terafim<\/em>), appointed his son as priest (5), and later hired a professional holy-man, a Levite, to augment his clergy (12), creating a kind of sacral oxymoron: a Levi-Kohen (13).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this juncture, there are several things we need to recall. First, Ephraim has played an outsized role thus far in the book. Ehud\u2019s posse came from Ephraim (chapter 3), Deborah lived in the Ephraim hill country (chapter 4) as did the later judge Tola ben Puah (10), Gideon\u2019s army came from Ephraim (7-8), and Jephthah\u2019s failure to use Ephraimite soldiers led to a civil war (12). It will also help to recall that we have encountered something similar earlier in Judges apropos Gideon. In chapter eight, we read that Gideon instructed his followers to turn over the golden earrings they had taken as spoils (24) and he fashioned from them a \u201cgolden <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ephod<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d (apron?), \u201cand all Israel went astray after it, and it became an obstacle to Gideon and his family\u201d (27).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How could Micah, the Levite, or anyone else involved in our chapter reconcile a private sanctuary, priestly vestments, etc., with dedication to God? Was there not an obvious\u2014and odious\u2014clash with the Tabernacle at Shiloh? The answer seems to arise out of verse 6 (which repeats itself in 18:1 and 21:25, the closing verse of the book): \u201cIn those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.\u201d According to rabbinic chronology, the events reported in the final chapters of the Book of Judges actually transpired at the very beginning of that era, preceding those of Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, etc. The absence of authority\u2014political or religious\u2014allowed for what scholars call \u201csyncretism,\u201d the specious combination of genuine religious devotion and superstitious practice. As to the chronological anarchy, we shall have more to say about it in the next chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56273,"id":56273,"title":"jud17-lawlessness","filename":"jud17-lawlessness.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud17-lawlessness.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/lawless-times\/jud17-lawlessness\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud17-lawlessness","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56271,"date":"2019-05-28 04:03:25","modified":"2021-03-28 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