{"id":61284,"date":"2019-08-18T13:47:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T10:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61284"},"modified":"2023-03-13T11:50:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T09:50:41","slug":"a-census-can-be-a-controversial-thing-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-census-can-be-a-controversial-thing-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"A Census Can Be A Controversial Thing- Then And Now"},"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":[689,366,834,384],"acf":{"old_id":"61284","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":60755,"related_cahpter":"287","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Many people can be hurt","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God\u2019s anger, usually directed against David\u2019s enemies, is a prominent theme in Samuel. In today\u2019s chapter, David surfaces both as an object and an instrument of this divine ire when he carries out a census, ostensibly a sensible act at a time of constant warfare. Not everybody agrees with David\u2019s assessment, though. Joab, the very man who had sent Uriah, Bathsheba\u2019s husband into certain death on the battlefield, objects immediately: \u201cMay God increase the number of the people a hundredfold, while your own eyes see it! But why should my lord King want this?\u201d (3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So why would God first tell David to do something, only to then punish him for the very act? In contrast to other divine retributions, here, God\u2019s ire is not even the result of one of David\u2019s many missteps. So, what is this? Is this a test, a moment where David is given free rein to make the right decision, and fails? Or, writing from the US where aspects of next year\u2019s national census are bitterly disputed, is the very idea of a census dangerous? Perhaps this episode, and Joab\u2019s warning, cautions us to not reduce humans to numbers, or to their legal status. Instead of assessing the potential size of his military, the army commander Joab implies, David should focus on the reasons for the census (that are not given in the text).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rashi confesses that he, too, is unsure what this means, and Radak notes the dilemma David finds himself in, pointing to the parallel text in Chronicles where it is Satan who incites David to carry out the census. But the key for understanding God\u2019s acts in Samuel, I think, lies in the punishments themselves. Famine, flight, or pestilence, the choices given to David as tools of penitence are all events in which his own strength, and that of the armies whose future might the census just asserted, would be useless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This, then, is the lesson for David, one that reverberates through so much of Tanakh: to rely on God, and God alone. One might think that David had learned this lesson earlier, ideally when God chose him, the youngest and least powerful son, to be king. But David, throughout his lifetime, is at the same time a spectacularly successful and frequently stumbling king, one who keeps making mistakes. Perhaps, if David had heeded the lessons doled out to him throughout his life, he might have been able to act according to the values they imparted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, God\u2019s acts here remain puzzling and are ultimately unknowable in our world. But this chapter reminds us that living with a divine presence in our lives means that day after day, we are called to examine our values, and to act accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61285,"id":61285,"title":"2sam24-census","filename":"2sam24-census.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam24-census.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-census-can-be-a-controversial-thing-then-and-now\/2sam24-census\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam24-census","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61284,"date":"2019-08-18 10:47:46","modified":"2022-08-29 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