{"id":63464,"date":"2019-09-25T14:10:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T11:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63464"},"modified":"2023-04-23T13:43:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T10:43:47","slug":"a-tainted-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-tainted-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tainted Miracle?"},"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":[755,373,362,403],"acf":{"old_id":"63464","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"316","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The poetess Rachel argues with the messiah","content":"

This astounding deliverance from the Aramean army emerges from an unexpected source. Ironically, the prophet is not the instrument of salvation; he may know the timing of the collapse of the siege but he seems unaware precisely how it will conclude and who will be the instrument of relief. The Aramean retreat is discovered accidentally, by a group of unsuspecting lepers. What is the story telling us by granting these inglorious outcasts the historic role of heralding the nation’s freedom?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The modern Hebrew poet Rachel wrote a poem based upon this chapter. It is a bold statement of refusal to accept a tainted miracle. She writes:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a long while, the dreadful enemy <\/span>
\n<\/span>Brought Samaria to siege; <\/span>
\n<\/span>Our lepers to her brought tidings. <\/span>
\n<\/span>To her brought the tidings of freedom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Samaria besieged, the entire land, <\/span>
\n<\/span>The famine is unbearable. <\/span>
\n<\/span>But I do not want to receive news of redemption <\/span>
\n<\/span>From the lips of a leper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pure will bring news and the pure will redeem, <\/span>
\n<\/span>And if his hand won’t be there to redeem, <\/span>
\n<\/span>Then I will choose to die from the suffering of the siege, <\/span>
\n<\/span>On the eve of the day of the great tidings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel is an idealist. She dreams of a pure, unblemished redemption, and she prefers to die in the suffering and squalor of the siege rather than receive the tidings of salvation from the unworthy. Does Rachel’s poem express a classic Jewish perspective? Fascinatingly, the Talmud relates a scene in which the Messiah himself is a leper sitting at the gates of the city:<\/span><\/p>\n

Yehoshua b. Levi met Elijah standing by the entrance of R. Shimon b. Yochai’s tomb…. He asked him, “When will the Messiah come?” “Go and ask him,” was his reply. “Where is he sitting?” “At the entrance to the city.” “And by what sign may I recognize him?” “He is sitting among the poor lepers. All of them untie [their bandages] all at once, and reapply them together, whereas he unties and reapplies each [bandage] separately, thinking, ‘Should I be called [if it is time for my appearance as the Messiah], I must not be delayed [through having to reapply all the bandages].” (Sanhedrin 98a)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On this basis we would say that Judaism does not always present redemption as pristine or flawless. For the Talmud, unlike for the poet Rachel, redemption may arrive precisely by means of a leper!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind, Maggid Books, 2019, Siege and Salvation\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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