{"id":67708,"date":"2019-12-25T10:17:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T08:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67708"},"modified":"2023-07-20T13:30:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T10:30:15","slug":"god-the-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"God The Mother"},"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":[835,381,604,428],"acf":{"old_id":"67708","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":67068,"related_cahpter":"380","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"God\u2019s love is maternal love amplified: dynamic, volatile, and keenly attentive","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Jewish liturgy, the most prominent metaphor used to describe the relationship between God and the Jewish people is that of kingship. A king, however, is distant and stands apart from his nation. He has the power to punish or reward them, and it is their job to serve Him. Chapter 46 of Isaiah offers an alternative metaphor, one that is far more intimate. God says to the Jewish people (46:3-4): \u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listen to Me, O House of Jacob, All that are left of the House of Israel, <\/span><strong>Who have been carried since birth, Supported since leaving the womb:<\/strong>Till you grow old, I will still be the same;\u00a0<strong>When you turn gray, it is I who will carry; I was the Maker, and I will be the Bearer; And I will carry and rescue [you]<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>.\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In these verses, God is described as the mother who gave birth to the Jewish people. Since their birth, God has looked after them, cared for their needs, and carried them wherever they might need to go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The metaphor works so powerfully because a mother is distinctly tied to her children, and as a result, she gives of herself totally to them. This dynamic is explored powerfully in Mara Benjamin\u2019s <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She describes from her own experience of motherhood that, \u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No sooner had this baby, this stranger, appeared than she held a claim on me. I was now responsible for addressing her needs and wishes, for seeking out the meaning of her unfamiliar body and its often cryptic language.\u2019 In the same way, she explains, God acts towards the Jewish people. Despite all of their whining and complaining, their miscues and their failures, God feels an enduring commitment to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For God, this maternal obligation is also a manifestation of love. Not love in the romantic sense but something more complex: a love that often knows frustration and even anger. A mother is aware that her child can shower affection upon her one minute only to reject her in the next. A mother\u2019s love lives not in grand gestures but in the day to day acts of care and compassion that she provides for her children. As Benjamin describes it, \u2018God\u2019s love for his people is maternal love amplified: dynamic, volatile, and keenly attentive.\u2019 It is this maternal love that binds God and the Jewish people together, and as Isaiah remind us, it is a bond that cannot be broken.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":67709,"id":67709,"title":"is46-shechina2","filename":"is46-shechina2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-mother\/is46-shechina2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is46-shechina2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":67708,"date":"2019-12-25 08:17:08","modified":"2019-12-25 08:17:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":640,"height":404,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2-300x189.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":189,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":404,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","large-width":640,"large-height":404,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","1536x1536-width":640,"1536x1536-height":404,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","2048x2048-width":640,"2048x2048-height":404,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","post_full_size-width":640,"post_full_size-height":404,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","home_baner-width":640,"home_baner-height":404}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"God The Mother","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"God\u2019s love is maternal love amplified: dynamic, volatile, and keenly attentive","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":67709,"id":67709,"title":"is46-shechina2","filename":"is46-shechina2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/god-the-mother\/is46-shechina2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is46-shechina2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":67708,"date":"2019-12-25 08:17:08","modified":"2019-12-25 08:17:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":640,"height":404,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2-300x189.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":189,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":404,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","large-width":640,"large-height":404,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","1536x1536-width":640,"1536x1536-height":404,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","2048x2048-width":640,"2048x2048-height":404,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","post_full_size-width":640,"post_full_size-height":404,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is46-shechina2.jpg","home_baner-width":640,"home_baner-height":404}},"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\/67708"}],"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=67708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116751,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67708\/revisions\/116751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}