{"id":67826,"date":"2019-12-29T10:04:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T08:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67826"},"modified":"2023-07-23T12:36:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T09:36:31","slug":"humility-and-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/humility-and-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Humility And Responsibility"},"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":[783,570,619,412],"acf":{"old_id":"67826","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64460,"related_cahpter":"382","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Are we spectators in our dramas - or do we write the script?","content":"

One of the perennial philosophical problems is the question of just how much control we have over our lives. Is everything which happens to us determined by forces outside us? Are we free to carve out our own path in life? Or does the answer lie somewhere between these extremes?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the most part, Isaiah 48 seems to side decisively with determinism: <\/span><\/p>\n

Long ago, I foretold things that happened, from My mouth they issued and I announced them; suddenly I acted and they came to pass\u2026I told you long beforehand, announced things to you before they happened.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Israel seems to be a spectator in its drama; while \u201cnew things, well-guarded secrets\u201d may suddenly come to be, their appearance was inevitable. Even Israel\u2019s own character seems beyond its control: <\/span><\/p>\n

I refine you, but not as silver, I test you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake do I act \u2026 I will not give glory to another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Israel may change as a result of the experience of exile and return, it seems that rather than learning and growing, the Israelites are merely <\/span>reshaped<\/span><\/em> by God. According to this vision of Isaiah, God is the only real subject of history \u2014 the rest of us are only pawns (or, put less harshly, actors. See also Jeremiah 18:6).<\/span><\/p>\n

While this vision of divine domination has appealed to many thinkers in the tradition, there have been others to whom such a picture is unacceptable. Maimonides is the most prominent of these voices: how could it be, he asks, that the Torah issues commands to people with no ability to choose their own fates? It must be the case, he concludes, that we are in some sense really free. Despite the overall tone of this chapter, we can find support for this second point of view as well. Near the end of the chapter, the prophet states: <\/span><\/p>\n

I am the LORD your God, instructing you for your own benefit. Guiding you in the way you should go. If only you would heed my commands! Then your prosperity would be like a river, your triumph like the waves of the sea.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This seems to support Maimonides\u2019 position: God is longing for a future in which Israel <\/span>listens<\/span><\/em> to divine instruction and obeys <\/span>on its own<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may be that the problem is intractable \u2014 sometimes it seems as if our roles are written for us, and sometimes that we are the shapers of our own fates. Perhaps, rather than taking either of these positions as mutually exclusive pictures of the world, we would do better to treat them as complementary visions. Read this way, Isaiah counsels both humility \u2014 I am not at the center of things, and for the most part I act in circumstances decided for me by others \u2014 and responsibility: if I really wish it, I do have the power to listen to God\u2019s word, and to live my life according to it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":67827,"id":67827,"title":"is48-drama","filename":"is48-drama.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/humility-and-responsibility\/is48-drama\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is48-drama","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":67826,"date":"2019-12-29 08:04:24","modified":"2022-03-28 19:10:31","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":1256,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-300x196.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":196,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-768x502.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":502,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-1024x670.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":670,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1005,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1256,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-1200x785.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":785,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-642x420.jpg","home_baner-width":642,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Humility And Responsibility","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Are we spectators in our dramas - or do we write the script?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":67827,"id":67827,"title":"is48-drama","filename":"is48-drama.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/humility-and-responsibility\/is48-drama\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is48-drama","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":67826,"date":"2019-12-29 08:04:24","modified":"2022-03-28 19:10:31","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":1256,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-300x196.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":196,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-768x502.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":502,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-1024x670.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":670,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1005,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1256,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-1200x785.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":785,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is48-drama-642x420.jpg","home_baner-width":642,"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\/67826"}],"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=67826"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116778,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67826\/revisions\/116778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}