{"id":61643,"date":"2019-08-21T00:17:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T21:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61643"},"modified":"2023-03-17T15:37:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T13:37:09","slug":"the-demographics-of-israel-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-demographics-of-israel-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Demographics Of Israel \u2013 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":[415,538,830,627],"acf":{"old_id":"61643","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"291","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Numerous as the sands of the sea, and getting moreso","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter begins with the statement: \u201cKing Solomon was now king over all Israel\u201d (I Kings 4:1). This is followed by a listing of Solomon\u2019s officials, including his \u201ctwelve prefects governing all Israel\u201d (verses 1-19). It ends on a positive demographic note: \u201cJudah and Israel were as numerous as the sands of the sea. They ate and drank and were content\u201d (verse 20).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mishnah Baba Metzia 7:1 alludes to this verse in a story from Talmudic times. Rabbi Yohanan ben Matia\u2019 told his son to hire laborers and the son supplied them with food. His father said to him: My son! Even if you were to prepare for them a banquet like the one King Solomon, in his time, prepared for the people of Judah and Israel (4:20), you would not have fulfilled your obligation to the laborers, for they are the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elsewhere, the Talmud Bavli Baba Metzia 28a employs this verse to clarify opposing rulings on when to begin praying for rain in the Land of Israel in Rabbinic times (Mishnah Ta\u2019anit 1:3, Talmud Bavli Ta\u2019anit 6a, 10b). The anonymous ruling of the Mishnah is that praying for rain should begin on the third of the month of Marheshvan. But Rabban Gamliel rules that praying for rain should be postponed until the seventh of the same month, fifteen days after the end of the Sukkot holiday, to allow the last of the pilgrims to Jerusalem from Babylon to return safely back over the Euphrates. Babylonian Talmud Baba Metzia 28a explains that the extended postponement reflects the period of the First Temple, when the Jewish people were very numerous and widely dispersed, as it is written \u201cJudah and Israel were as numerous as the sands of the sea\u201d (I Kings 4:20). While the shorter postponement reflects the period of the Second Temple, when the Jewish people were not so widely dispersed, and therefore the pilgrims needed less time to return home after the Sukkot festival. This difference in halakhic rulings is related to the difference between the apparently innumerable Jewish population in the time of King Solomon, compared to the limited Jewish community, as suggested by what is written referring to Second Temple times: \u201cThe sum of the entire community was 42,360\u201d (Ezra 2:64).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shortly after the modern State of Israel was founded in 1948, it had a population of about one million. While presently, the population of Israel has grown to about nine million, with an annual growth rate of two percent, more than <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Demographics_of_Israel\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three times the annual growth rate <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of populations in the OECD and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldometers.info\/world-population\/us-population\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the USA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61644,"id":61644,"title":"1kings4-sands","filename":"1kings4-sands.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1kings4-sands.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-demographics-of-israel-then-and-now\/1kings4-sands\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings4-sands","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61643,"date":"2019-08-20 21:17:32","modified":"2019-08-20 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Demographics of Israel \u2013 Then and Now","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Numerous as the sands of the sea, and getting moreso","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":61644,"id":61644,"title":"1kings4-sands","filename":"1kings4-sands.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1kings4-sands.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-demographics-of-israel-then-and-now\/1kings4-sands\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings4-sands","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61643,"date":"2019-08-20 21:17:32","modified":"2019-08-20 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