{"id":64065,"date":"2019-10-06T11:45:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T08:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64065"},"modified":"2023-05-01T12:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T09:42:59","slug":"the-power-of-symbolic-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-power-of-symbolic-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power Of Symbolic Actions"},"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":[931,402,506],"acf":{"old_id":"64065","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"322","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But Elisha cannot sufficiently communicate the miraculous acts that will bring victory","content":"

The end of Elisha\u2019s life is a poignant teaching about both the power and the limitations of a great leader to influence events after his death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing that he will soon die, Elisha orders King Yoash to come to him with a bow and arrows. Placing his own hands over the king\u2019s hands that are grasping the bow, the prophet commands the king to shoot arrows from the window. Elisha declares that this symbolizes, \u201can arrow of victory for the Lord! An arrow of victory over Aram!\u201d (v17)<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the prophet asks the king to gather the arrows and strike the ground with them, which he did, three times. But Elisha became angry with the king, explaining, \u201cIf only you had struck five or six times, then you would have annihilated Aram. As it is, you shall defeat Aram only three times.\u201d The end of the chapter tells us that indeed, Yoash defeated Aram three times, just as Elisha had said.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are mysterious verses that give rise to several questions. What is the power of these symbolic actions? Why does Elisha get angry at Yoash? If he had wanted the king to strike the ground five or six times, why didn\u2019t he explicitly say so? And moreover if, as we commonly see in the Bible, the symbolic act is sort of a concrete, visual representation of the prophetic message, why does doing the symbolic action wrong matter? Isn\u2019t the prophecy the main thing with the act serving as merely a sort of graphic aid?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Elchanan Samet explains that the acts of shooting arrows and striking the earth with them are more than symbolic. Through these acts, it is as if Elisha, with his last energies, is actually engaging in the battles against Aram, even though they will take place after his death. This is the significance of the prophet placing his own feeble hands over the king\u2019s hands on the bow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If so, then perhaps we can understand his anger at Yoash failing to precisely fulfil his will. Maybe it is an expression of frustration that he cannot sufficiently communicate the miraculous acts that will bring victory. Elisha\u2019s reliance on Yoash as the deeply flawed living agent charged with fulfilling his plan after he dies inevitably creates a gap between the prophetic vision and its execution in reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Samet movingly depicts the extent of Elisha\u2019s love of Israel. With his dying breaths, the prophet tries to the utmost to safeguard their well-being after he will be gone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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