{"id":65099,"date":"2019-11-03T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T10:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65099"},"modified":"2023-05-28T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T15:24:27","slug":"prophets-of-today-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophets-of-today-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophets of Today: Courage"},"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":[519,378,327],"acf":{"old_id":"65099","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33990,"related_cahpter":"342","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Prophecy is the opposite of conformity. It is the courage to say something and to act on it even though that opinion is not popular","content":"

I would like to dedicate my choice of \u201cProphets\u201d to a quality rather than a specific person: courage. I believe that to be a prophet is to stand up for something that you believe in and fight for in spite of potential criticism or rejection from segments of your own community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a little while, 929 will begin studying the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied about the upcoming destruction of the Temple. We can imagine how unpopular his words must have sounded to the people of Jerusalem who had been spared destruction in the past and imagined Jeremiah to be a troublemaker, if not a lunatic. He was criticized and even imprisoned for his prophecy. Yet, he did not stop to preach and to warn.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tendency of many people today is to conform; conform with social norms, cultural norms and even religious norms. If you do what everyone else does, you are protected – no one will criticize you. Prophecy is the opposite of conformity. It is the courage to say something and to act on it even though that opinion is not popular. We all need to have opinions. Sometimes those opinions will be wrong and sometimes they will be unpopular. But, we can\u2019t be afraid to have opinions. It is the prophetic piece in all of us that encourages us to have opinions and to fight for those opinions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a \u201cprophet\u201d was Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein. Rabbi Goldstein was a rabbi in the 1920s in Harlem and he recognized that most of the members of his congregation were going to work on Saturday morning instead of coming to synagogue. In those days, the United Staes had a six day work week and if you didn\u2019t work on Saturday, you had to find a new job on Monday. Rather than reprimand these men publicly, Rabbi Goldstein tried another approach. He began to deliver his sermon during Friday night services when everyone could attend. Before long, the synagogue was packed on Friday night and he added a kiddush after services to encourage a social element to his community. These people may have gone to work the next morning but they had a nice sermon in the minds and some delicious kosher food in their bellies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Goldstein was criticized by some other rabbis for this approach. \u201cHow can you condone the desecration of the Sabbath?\u201d they asked. Yet, Rabbi Goldstein was a prophet. He understood that he could not prevent these people from going to work on Saturday morning. However, if they received their \u201cdose of Shabbat\u201d on Friday night, they would remain committed to the idea of Shabbat and transmit that commitment to Shabbat to their children and grandchildren.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us all channel that prophecy within ourselves to help make the world a better place.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65102,"id":65102,"title":"is8-courage","filename":"is8-courage.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophets-of-today-courage\/is8-courage\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is8-courage","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65099,"date":"2019-11-03 10:31:57","modified":"2019-11-03 10:32:10","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":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is8-courage-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Prophets Of Today","main_caption":"Courage","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Prophecy is the opposite of conformity. 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