{"id":56324,"date":"2019-05-28T21:03:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T18:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56324"},"modified":"2022-12-20T17:29:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:29:35","slug":"transgression-in-disguise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/transgression-in-disguise\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgression In Disguise"},"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":[501],"acf":{"old_id":"56324","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"229","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Unprovoked violence, theft, and idolatry belie the pious veneer","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stories are, by their nature, deceptive. Without pushing us to form the wrong expectations, they can\u2019t surprise, amaze, or devastate us by upending them. They can\u2019t generate wonder, angst or suspense. They can\u2019t, in short, be stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes stories lie by making us suspect the wrong character or expect the wrong outcome. Sometimes they lie by making us share a character\u2019s narrow perspective. And sometimes, like in Judges 18, they present negative developments in what appears, for a time, to be a positive light.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At first glance, the Danite enterprise in Judges 18 is a tikkun of past wrongs. The troubles of the Israelites in Judges started when they failed to complete the conquest of their lands. \u201cWhich of us shall be the first to go up (ya\u2019aleh) against the Canaanites and attack them,\u201d they asked in Judges 1:1, but then failed to follow through with their plans. The Danites seem to correct this tragic error: when the Danite scouts encourage their brethren to \u201cgo up (na\u2019aleh) at once and attack them,\u201d they use the same Hebrew root (ayin lamed he \u2013 to go up) that preceded the failure of their ancestors. But this time around, their tribe acts on these words.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, the Danite enterprise seems to correct an even older error: the Israelite response to Moshe\u2019s scouts in the desert. Back when those scouts discouraged the people from going to Canaan, Caleb used the root \u2018a.l.h to counter their advice: \u201cLet us by all means go up (\u2018aloh na\u2019aleh), and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.\u201d (Numbers 13:30) In Judges 18 all the scouts seem to take Caleb\u2019s position, and unlike in the desert, their tribe indeed \u2018goes up\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But this promising turn of events is a transgression in disguise. The Danites conquer, but their conquest isn\u2019t sanctioned. Instead of conquering the lands that were allotted to them, they march north and attack a peaceful people without God\u2019s approval or consent. They take what they want, be it an idol or land, and they don\u2019t hesitate to resort to unprovoked violence. They do what is right in their eyes, not in God\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The contrast between the positive veneer and the negative nature of the Danite enterprise draws our attention to an important distinction: the problem in Judges 1 was not the failure to conquer in and of itself. It was rather the failure to conquer when and what God said to conquer; it was the failure to act out God\u2019s plan.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56325,"id":56325,"title":"jud18-camouflage","filename":"jud18-camouflage.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud18-camouflage.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/transgression-in-disguise\/jud18-camouflage\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud18-camouflage","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56324,"date":"2019-05-28 18:03:33","modified":"2019-05-28 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