{"id":63202,"date":"2019-09-19T14:01:18","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63202"},"modified":"2023-04-14T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T11:21:22","slug":"passing-the-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/passing-the-torch\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing The Torch"},"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":[858,931,806,402,390],"acf":{"old_id":"63202","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":62571,"related_cahpter":"311","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Sometimes fresh approaches are deemed necessary, even by God. Time for someone not so jaded!","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The text describes the \u201cpassing of the torch\u201d from mentor to mentee, teacher to student, Elijah to Elisha. While the teacher attempted to gradually accustom his student to his impending departure by suggesting that the latter stay behind during each of three missions which Elijah has been commanded to undertake, Elisha plaintively states: (Ibid. 2, 4, 6) \u201c\u2026I will not leave you\u201d\u2014until he had no choice, and had to helplessly watch his mentor\u2019s ascent to Heaven upon a chariot and a whirlwind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transitions such as the one involving Elijah and Elisha have occurred throughout human history, as a result of either human frailty and mortality, or burn-out and the need for change. Requiring a younger person to step up and fill an older, more experienced individual\u2019s shoes is often a daunting proposition, particularly within a traditional context. When a premium is placed upon doing things in a time-honored manner, inevitably the new person will first think of things to ask when there is no longer anyone with institutional memory around. He will normally be beset with doubts and uncertainties, and often will think to himself: \u201cIf only I could ask my predecessor for advice, for assurances that I am approaching these challenges correctly, as he himself would have.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But of course, it is too late.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there are times when new and fresh approaches are deemed necessary, even by God. Elijah, like Moses well-before him, had over time become increasingly critical of the Jewish people. \u201cI am moved by zeal for the LORD, the God of Hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they are out to take my life\u201d (19:10, 14). While Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written, \u201cGod\u2019s Prophets are realists, not optimists,\u201d nevertheless in order to serve as appropriate conduits for God\u2019s prophecy, these highly spiritual individuals must recognize at least the potential within the Jewish people for repentance and improvement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If instead, they consign their charges to hopelessness and perdition, God replaces them with others who are not yet jaded, and who hopefully will be able to inspire hope for redemption and improvement, hence Joshua and Elisha.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that this cycle understandably plays out over and over down through human history, clearly conveys the importance of studying the past in order to better understand the present and the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63203,"id":63203,"title":"2kings2-passing the torch","filename":"2kings2-passing-the-torch.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/passing-the-torch\/2kings2-passing-the-torch\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings2-passing-the-torch","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63202,"date":"2019-09-19 11:01:06","modified":"2020-12-22 12:13:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1024,"height":571,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch-300x167.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":167,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch-768x428.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":428,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch-1024x571.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":571,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch.png","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":571,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch.png","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":571,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch.png","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":571,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings2-passing-the-torch-753x420.png","home_baner-width":753,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Passing The Torch","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Sometimes fresh approaches are deemed necessary, even by God. 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