{"id":65083,"date":"2019-11-02T19:52:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T17:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65083"},"modified":"2023-05-28T10:08:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T07:08:15","slug":"the-consequences-of-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-consequences-of-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consequences of Catastrophe"},"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":[478,506,573,491],"acf":{"old_id":"65083","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"341","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Or: Why bad things happen to good people","content":"

In our comments to chapter 6<\/a>, we noted that the threefold repetition of \u201cHoly!\u201d served the interests of Christians who saw in it an allusion to the Trinity. Another such \u201cchristological\u201d verse appears in this chapter: \u201cAssuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman (`<\/span>almah<\/span><\/i>) is with child and about to give birth to a son, let her name him Immanuel\u201d (14). Due to the faulty translation of `<\/span>almah<\/span><\/i> as a virgin, Christians interpreted this as a prophecy about the birth of Jesus. Traditional Jewish exegetes, however, agreed that this refers to either Isaiah\u2019s wife or King Ahaz\u2019s wife, observing that both <\/span>na`arah <\/span><\/i>(maiden) and `<\/span>almah<\/span><\/i> signify an adolescent, whether virgin or married. Indeed, we find [the composite term] \u201ca virgin maiden\u201d (<\/span>na`arah betulah<\/span><\/i>, Judges 21:12), which implies the existence of a married maiden (<\/span>na`arah be`ulah<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The prophet then returned to the subject at hand of the impending Assyrian invasion of Judah, and said: \u201cIn that day, my Lord will cut away with the razor that is hired beyond the Euphrates\u2014with the king of Assyria\u2014the hair of the head and the hair of the legs, and it shall clip off the beard as well\u201d (20). Malbim,* with his typical distinction among apparent synonyms, explained:<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was customary in those days to shave the hairs of the head and it was disgraceful to let them grow wild (which is why the priests were warned not to let their hair grow wild, and a king had to have his hair cut daily). Hairy legs were also ugly but not as much, because they were covered, but beards were grown long and considered respectable and decorative. Accordingly, [the prophet] used the metaphor of the razor\u2014the King of Assyria\u2014who would shave the hairs of the head, representing the very wicked, whose ugliness and sinfulness are well-known. [It would also remove] the hairs of the legs [representing] those who sin in secret whose ugliness is hidden.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, \u201conce [God] granted permission for the destructive force, it does not distinguish between good and wicked\u201d [Mekhilta], and the same razor will shave the beard\u2014which represents the righteous\u2014which is why this activity is attributed [in the verse] to the razor itself and not to God.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim is addressing the age-old conundrum of why bad things happen to good people. Indeed, when a great catastrophe occurs, whether a natural disaster or one man-made, righteous people suffer along with the wicked. Borrowing a midrashic expression, he noted that this is the inevitable consequence of disaster, per se, and does not refute divine justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65084,"id":65084,"title":"is7-stones suffering","filename":"is7-stones-suffering.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-consequences-of-catastrophe\/is7-stones-suffering\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is7-stones-suffering","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65083,"date":"2019-11-02 17:51:22","modified":"2022-05-07 22:56:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1315,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-300x205.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-768x526.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":526,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-1024x701.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":701,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1052,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1315,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-1200x822.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":822,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-613x420.jpg","home_baner-width":613,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Consequences of Catastrophe","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Or: Why bad things happen to good people","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":65084,"id":65084,"title":"is7-stones suffering","filename":"is7-stones-suffering.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-consequences-of-catastrophe\/is7-stones-suffering\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is7-stones-suffering","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65083,"date":"2019-11-02 17:51:22","modified":"2022-05-07 22:56:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1315,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-300x205.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-768x526.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":526,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-1024x701.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":701,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1052,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1315,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-1200x822.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":822,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is7-stones-suffering-613x420.jpg","home_baner-width":613,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115583,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65083\/revisions\/115583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}