{"id":56411,"date":"2019-05-29T23:42:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T20:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56411"},"modified":"2022-12-21T16:19:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T14:19:47","slug":"the-three-great-sins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-three-great-sins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Great Sins"},"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":[379,400],"acf":{"old_id":"56411","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"230","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Can the Israelite family, and society, be recreated on better, firmer ground?","content":"

“Each unhappy family” states Leo Tolstoy in the opening sentence of Anna Karenina, “is unhappy in its own way.” And indeed, each of the families we encountered since Judges 6 experienced its own brand of unhappiness. Gideon’s family dissolved into bloodshed and fratricide after his death. Jephthah’s brothers disowned him, and he doomed his only daughter in turn. Samson\u2019s wives were pressed to betray him, leading to his first wife\u2019s \u2013 and his own \u2013 violent deaths. Micha stole money from his mother, but his story also broke the bloody trend: his mother forgave him, bringing about a reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

After watching families collapse into bloodshed along three different fault lines (purposeful violence between siblings, inadvertent harm caused by parents, and betrayals-under- pressure between conjugal partners) it was refreshing to read a story where none of the family members died. And at first glance, it seems as though the family we encounter in Judges 19 will continue this pleasantly-surprising trend: despite the concubine\u2019s infidelity, the nameless Levite seeks reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we read on, however, the story takes a darker turn. It revisits and repeats each of the fault lines we explored in previous chapters; each unhappy family may be unhappy its own way, but the people in this story are unhappy in all the ways we saw so far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Jephthah, the concubine\u2019s father dooms his daughter with well-meant words: by repeatedly inviting his daughter and his son-in-law to \u2018stay and tarry\u2019, he causes their late departure, and inadvertently sets the stage for their fateful stay in Gibeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Samson\u2019s wives, the Levite man betrays his partner under pressure. When the men of Gibeah threaten to rape him, he sacrifices his concubine to save himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israelites will respond to this atrocity by waging war against their Benjaminite kin. Like Abimelech, they will purposefully use violence against the people they call brothers in Judges 20. Through their actions, the collapse of the Levite man\u2019s family will evolve into the collapse of the Israelite family at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the biblical storyteller revisits and underscores these familial fault lines because they epitomize the three great sins, or problems, that undermine the Israelite \u2018home\u2019 throughout the book of Judges: the Israelites betray their covenant with God, just like a faithless spouse; <\/span>they fail to pass down their knowledge and their memories<\/span><\/a>, thus dooming their children to forget God and suffer yet again; and like Abimelech and Jephthah\u2019s kin, <\/span>they don\u2019t take responsibility for one another<\/span><\/a>. By ending the book of Judges with a story that delineates all of these problems and their consequences, the text leaves us with a resounding question: can the Israelite family be recreated on better, firmer ground? <\/span><\/p>\n

It will be up to 1 Samuel to take up the challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56420,"id":56420,"title":"jud19-three","filename":"jud19-three.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud19-three.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-three-great-sins\/jud19-three\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud19-three","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56411,"date":"2019-05-29 20:57:05","modified":"2023-10-29 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