{"id":70680,"date":"2020-02-25T11:33:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T09:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70680"},"modified":"2023-10-17T15:19:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:19:42","slug":"an-open-heart-does-not-come-naturally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-open-heart-does-not-come-naturally\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Heart Does Not Come Naturally"},"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":[447,578,410],"acf":{"old_id":"70680","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46656,"related_cahpter":"424","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"We must ask for help\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

Chapter 24 of Jeremiah may be short on words, but it contains a powerful idea. In the midst of a parable about good figs and bad figs, with the good representing those of the Jewish nation who God will redeem from exile, God says, <\/span><\/p>\n

And I will give them the understanding to acknowledge Me, for I am the LORD. And they shall be My people and I will be their God, when they turn back to Me with all their heart (7).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides the reiteration of the promise of a reciprocal relationship with God (which I touched on in <\/span>Jeremiah Chapter 11<\/span><\/a>), the promise to \u201cgrant them the heart to know Me\u201d is a powerful statement about our natural ability to draw close to God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer does not come naturally for me<\/span>. For the most part I say the words, try to understand and feel their meaning, inevitably drifting into thinking about mundane daily necessities: work problems, shopping lists, family needs\u2026 But there is one phrase in the daily prayer that always brings me back: \u201cPetach libi b\u2019Toratecha<\/em> \u2013 Open my heart to Your Torah.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an idea that comes up repeatedly in Tanach. On Shabbat when we remove the Torah scroll from the Ark, we say \u201cMay it be Your will to open my heart to the Torah.\u201d And in Deuteronomy 30, when God is renewing His covenant with the Jewish people and speaking of eventual redemption, it is with the words, \u201cAnd the Lord, your God will open up your heart and the heart of your offspring (to love God).\u201d And the corollary is when God \u201chardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart\u201d in Exodus, so that he couldn\u2019t recognize God\u2019s miracles, even though they were right in front of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, is this to be understood that having an open heart towards God is not a natural state? Psychologists might think so, in their theory of negativity bias that describes the predisposition that when confronted by both negative and positive events of equal intensity, humans will naturally ascribe more importance to, and be greater affected by the negative event rather than the positive one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We recognize all too well hardships and roadblocks in our lives and give them much more attention than we give our blessings and good fortune. Both come from God, but we do, in fact, need to ask for God\u2019s help and be open to receiving and recognizing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70681,"id":70681,"title":"jer24-heart","filename":"jer24-heart.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-open-heart-does-not-come-naturally\/jer24-heart\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer24-heart","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70680,"date":"2020-02-25 09:33:27","modified":"2020-02-25 09:33:38","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":1285,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-768x514.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":514,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-1024x685.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":685,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1028,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1285,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-1200x803.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":803,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer24-heart-628x420.jpg","home_baner-width":628,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"An 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