{"id":69543,"date":"2020-02-04T06:04:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T04:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69543"},"modified":"2023-08-30T09:14:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T06:14:23","slug":"impossible-or-merely-very-improbable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/impossible-or-merely-very-improbable\/","title":{"rendered":"Impossible? Or Merely Very Improbable?\u00a0"},"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":[552,571,400,699],"acf":{"old_id":"69543","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"408","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Of spiritual and physical falls\u00a0","content":"

\u201cDo [people] fall, and not rise up?\u201d (verse 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

A rhetorical question, and a strange one on the face of it. After all, don\u2019t all humans eventually fall and stay down?<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless, of course, the prophet is talking about spiritual falls, which the context indicates he is. Translation without interpretation being the challenge that it is, I have avoided translating the next piece of verse 4, but will let the commentator Metzudat David explain the whole thing: <\/span><\/p>\n

Will they fall in their sins and not be able to rise? Meaning, is repentance not effective, such that they will rise from their fall? And if one of them repents, will God not \u201crepent\u201d from His anger?<\/span><\/p>\n

In this reading, Jeremiah raises two rhetorical questions: (1) Is it impossible to rise from sin? Of course not; one can repent! (2) If one repents, will God stay angry? Of course not; He will, in turn, \u201crepent\u201d from his anger!<\/span><\/p>\n

(We will leave aside the philosophical questions of how God might possess a changeable attribute of anger, and allow the prophet his human terminology).<\/span><\/p>\n

In Metzudat David\u2019s reading, the verse emphasizes that no failure is permanent because change is always possible \u2013 a typical prophetic theme \u2013 and Jeremiah\u2019s rhetorical surprise is at those who don\u2019t realize that truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi, however, takes a different approach. \u201cIs it good for them that they bring themselves down in a fall from which they have no rise, so that if\/when they want to repent of their wickedness, God will not \u2018repent\u2019 of His decrees?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Rashi, the rhetorical question is not \u201ccan there be a fall from which one cannot rise?!\u201d but rather \u201cWhy would they let themselves fall such that they cannot rise?! What could they possibly hope to gain?!\u201d Apparently, there is such a thing as a moral\/spiritual fall from which one cannot rise, if one chooses to make it so \u2013 and the prophet\u2019s surprise is directed at those who would make such a choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWill they really let their own misbehavior get so out of hand?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe those who bring themselves down that far don\u2019t realize what they\u2019re doing. Maybe they didn\u2019t consciously choose the degree to which they\u2019ve messed up \u2013 and maybe they actually can still choose to make a change and rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of us have experienced some sense of our own misbehavior spiraling out of control \u2013 in the stereotypical party while the parents are away, for instance, or the more common small fib that keeps growing. In these situations, would we say it\u2019s not our fault, just like a physical fall from which we can\u2019t get up? Or do we recognize our own accountability at the heart of the mess?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once we\u2019ve recognized the role of our own choices, can we restore our own ability to make further choices, and take control of the situation?<\/span><\/p>\n

If so, then even in Rashi\u2019s portrayal, repentance was never really impossible. 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