{"id":58479,"date":"2019-06-28T08:31:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T05:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58479"},"modified":"2023-01-23T09:54:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T07:54:12","slug":"jonathan-and-david-a-model-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jonathan-and-david-a-model-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan And David: A Model Friendship"},"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":[834,891,381],"acf":{"old_id":"58479","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46656,"related_cahpter":"252","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Today, can we leverage the power of social media for purposeful friendship?","content":"

Chapter 20 of the Book of Samuel ends with a powerful declaration of friendship between David and Jonathan: \u201c<\/span>We have sworn both of us in the name of God, saying, ‘May God be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.\u201d We have seen this deep friendship between a poor shepherd and the heir to the throne develop over the past few chapters, and now Jonathan cements it not just between him and David but for generations to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though there are other instances of allegiances and partnerships in Tanach, none are representative of a pure unencumbered friendship such as this. Adam and Eve were partners, but then there was no-one else but them. Moses worked closely with his brother Aaron, and Ruth left her people to accompany her mother-in-law, Naomi. But those are relational alliances, which are an entirely different dynamic than \u201cjust friends\u201d. We may have a better understanding of the Torah nature of friendship if we look to the halls of Torah learning, typified by the model in which two people engage in intensive study for the purpose of both partners growing in their breadth and depth of understanding and spirituality. It\u2019s no coincidence that this learning model is called \u2018chavruta\u2019 from the same word meaning \u2018friendship\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Dan Roth of Aish HaTorah, in his article <\/span>Friends <\/span><\/i>for Life: A Jewish Perspective on Friendship<\/span><\/em>, refers to the commentators on the Mishna who describe the purpose of a friend being to have someone to learn and grow from; someone who encourages us to grow while being honest about our weaknesses; \u201cto expand our personalities and broaden our way of thinking.\u201d Bringing that thinking to today, if we could focus on broadening how we think and how we see the world, rather than embed ourselves in the echo-chamber of our fast-held opinions, we could truly leverage the power of social media for purposeful friendship. The collective growth of spirituality could be exponential with that basis for friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the song lyrics, of unknown origin say (with apologies for those who will now have this stuck in their heads all day):<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t walk in front of me, I may not follow.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Don\u2019t walk behind me, I may not lead.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Just walk beside me and be my friend,<\/span>
\n<\/span>And together we will walk in the ways of Hashem.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":58480,"id":58480,"title":"isam20-social media","filename":"isam20-social-media.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jonathan-and-david-a-model-friendship\/isam20-social-media\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam20-social-media","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":58479,"date":"2019-06-28 05:31:16","modified":"2019-06-28 05:31:27","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":1300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-300x203.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":203,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-768x520.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":520,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-1024x693.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":693,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1040,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-1200x813.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":813,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam20-social-media-620x420.jpg","home_baner-width":620,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Jonathan 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