{"id":65680,"date":"2019-11-13T17:25:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T15:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65680"},"modified":"2023-06-06T12:05:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T09:05:37","slug":"when-mercy-is-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-mercy-is-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"When Mercy Is Justice"},"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":[476,867],"acf":{"old_id":"65680","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37561,"related_cahpter":"350","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The obligation to extend radical hospitality to those in need","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is an ongoing debate in the United States, and other countries, about admitting refugees and caring for immigrants who flee violence and migrate in search of a better life. One side claims that refugees and immigrants could bring violence and disease with them, causing destruction in our country like the destruction plaguing the countries they fled. The other side claims that these are people in need, and that we have a moral imperative to provide them life-saving shelter and aid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For better or for worse, United States politicians have not consulted the Hebrew Bible for answers on how to address the situation. If they did, however, they would find ample support for the second position, that we are obligated to extend our hands to the stranger and the oppressed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chapter imagines the eventual downfall of Moab, and exhorts the Judeans to welcome and offer support to the Israelites who flee their country. This is no small ask: though the Israelite tribes of the north and the Judeans of the south were all part of the same nation, they had a contentious relationship and were often in conflict with one another. Nonetheless, the prophet demands in the name of God that the Judeans welcome the Israelite refugees who come to them. The verse assures the Judeans that the danger has passed, and that violence will not threaten them if they take in these refugees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chapter takes the exhortation to have mercy even further, imagining the Moabites wailing over the destruction of their cities and fields. And, like the Midrash in which God chastises the Israelites for rejoicing over the death of the Egyptians after the Israelites escape from Egypt, this chapter imagines God lamenting their destruction and pain. Commentators from Rashi to Radak, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of God sympathizing with the destroyed Moab, claim that the verse represents the Moabites speaking in first person. Nonetheless, the description of their emotional state after their downfall strikes an emotional chord. We cannot read the poetic descriptions of their lament without considering for ourselves how we would feel if our own cities and livelihoods were destroyed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Either way you read it, the chapter is clear. We must not gloat in the downfall of other people, but instead imagine the pain they experience and extend our hospitality to those in need, no matter who they are or where they came from.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65681,"id":65681,"title":"is16-refugees","filename":"is16-refugees.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is16-refugees.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/when-mercy-is-justice\/is16-refugees\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is16-refugees","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65680,"date":"2019-11-13 15:23:08","modified":"2019-11-13 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