{"id":67422,"date":"2019-12-22T12:19:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T10:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67422"},"modified":"2023-07-16T11:56:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T08:56:50","slug":"we-need-god-but-god-needs-us-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/we-need-god-but-god-needs-us-as-well\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need God, But God Needs Us As Well"},"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":[384,539,870],"acf":{"old_id":"67422","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":67068,"related_cahpter":"377","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"To be in relationship is to bear great responsibility","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seventy years after the destruction of the Temple and exile in Babylonia, Isaiah\u2019s prophecy comes to affirm the covenant between God and the Jewish people once more. God reassures them that their relationship has not permanently ruptured: (43:1-4) \u2018Fear not, for I will redeem you; I have singled you by name\u2026 I will be with you\u2026 Because you are precious to Me, and honored, and I love you.\u2019 In many ways, it would be easy to view God as the dominant partner in the relationship, for God is the creator of the world, and the one who punished the Jewish people for their sins. However, the rabbis construct a radical theology of covenant from a suggestive verse in this chapter (43:10): \u2018My witnesses are you \u2014declares the Lord\u2014 My servant, whom I have chosen.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sifrei Devarim<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (346) being God\u2019s witnesses means that not only do the Jewish people need God, but God needs them as well. In fact, God\u2019s glory is fundamentally dependent on the Jewish people and can only be made known in this world through the actions of the Jewish people. If the Jewish people live a life of faith, service, mitzvot, these actions will testify to God\u2019s greatness for all of humanity. As the rabbis describe it, \u2018when the Jewish people are God\u2019s witnesses, God is God. When they are not God\u2019s witnesses it is as if God is not God.\u2019 The midrash goes on to give further examples of this phenomenon from other Biblical verses. In Exodus (15:2) Moshe proclaims, \u2018This is my God and I shall glorify Him,\u2019 to which the rabbis explain that when the Jewish people voice appreciation of God, God is glorified, but when they fail to do this, it is as if God\u2019s glory is absent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the most powerful example of the Jewish people serving as God\u2019s witnesses, speaks not only of their attitude towards God, but their relationship with each other. In Deuteronomy (33:5) Moses declares, \u2018Then He became King in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people assembled, The tribes of Israel together.\u2019 According to the midrash, this means that when the Jewish people are unified, God will be crowned king, but if they are separated into competing factions as is so often the case in Jewish history, God\u2019s kingship will be absent in this world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The notion that the Jewish people serve as God\u2019s witnesses reminds us that to be in a relationship with God is to bear great responsibility. 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