{"id":68457,"date":"2020-01-13T01:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=68457"},"modified":"2023-08-06T11:28:09","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T08:28:09","slug":"teetering-on-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teetering-on-the-brink\/","title":{"rendered":"Teetering On The Brink"},"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":[662,378],"acf":{"old_id":"68457","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"392","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But then doing the right thing: turn back your foot!","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you return your foot because of Shabbat\u2026\u201d (Isaiah 58:13) \u2013 what a strange phrase! It\u2019s no surprise that some translations render it less literally, attempting to offer readers straightforward meaning: \u201cIf you refrain from trampling the sabbath,\u201d in the JPS 1985 version, \u201cFrom pursuing your affairs on My holy day; if you call the sabbath \u2018delight\u2019\u2026\u201d \u2013 and in the second half of the conditional, \u201cThen you can seek the favor of the LORD\u2026\u201d (verse 14).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Straightforward, to be sure: observe Shabbat, and God will be happy with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It frequently happens in the Bible, however, that there is deeper meaning to be found in the literal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you return your foot because of Shabbat\u201d \u2013 What specific aspect of Shabbat might the prophet be alluding to here? What challenges must be overcome to delight in it, and how does that earn God\u2019s favor?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we assume the verse is referring to literal footwork that has relevance to Shabbat, we might consider the laws of \u201ctechum Shabbat\u201d \u2013 the Shabbat limit. There is a rule which, generally speaking, states one may not walk more than 2000 cubits (about a kilometer) on Shabbat, and the Talmud (Eruvin 52b) analyzes our verse in its attempt to rule on a case where one finds oneself with one foot past the boundary and one foot within it: May he reenter, or is he stuck there, unable to take that step outside the boundary even for the purpose of coming back?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do we define his current location based on where the majority of his body is, so that even if one foot is out, he\u2019s never really left? Or do we place such importance on that one step past the line that it\u2019s as if he\u2019s crossed it entirely already? (Different scholars actually quote our verse in support of both sides of the debate, but that\u2019s not our real focus.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prophets don\u2019t often engage in detailed analysis of practical halacha, and so it seems reasonable to consider Isaiah\u2019s allusion to this scenario in metaphorical terms \u2013 and to read that case of \u201ctechum Shabbat\u201d back into the context in Isaiah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metzudat David explains: \u201cIf you have [accidentally] continued on the path to go past the techum, and you remember that it is Shabbat, and you turn back your foot for the sake of Shabbat\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are teetering on the brink, on the verge of error, out at the very boundary \u2013 where presumably no other human will know if you take that step or turn back \u2013 and you choose to turn back simply \u201cbecause of Shabbat,\u201d because it is the right thing to do \u2013 \u201cthen you can seek the favor of the Lord.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or, in a more literal rendering of verse 14, \u201cthen you will delight with the Lord.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giving up on that final step might be a loss in many ways, but will result in increased inner satisfaction, a true delight of the soul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":68459,"id":68459,"title":"is58-foot","filename":"is58-foot.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-foot.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teetering-on-the-brink\/is58-foot\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is58-foot","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":68457,"date":"2020-01-12 23:01:32","modified":"2020-01-12 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