{"id":71495,"date":"2020-03-10T14:18:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T12:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71495"},"modified":"2020-03-10T14:27:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T12:27:07","slug":"measure-for-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/measure-for-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Measure For Measure"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"71495","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38322,"related_cahpter":"434","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Failure to grant liberty leads to the loss of liberty\r\n\r\n","content":"

Over a half a millennium after the Israelite liberation from Egypt the Jews arrive at a nadir of moral deterioration. Jeremiah 34 relates an incident that occurred approximately in the spring of 588 BCE, as Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Realizing that something may have been amiss internally to providentially warrant such an impending catastrophe, King Zedekiah issues a proclamation to abide by the law of emancipation which apparently had been ignored by the Jewish slave-owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

The incident is bracketed by the initial decree demanding \u201cdror\u201d (release\/liberty) for the slaves (v.9) and at the end by a punitive \u201cdror\u201d (v.17) in its metaphorical sense of a divine <\/span>release<\/span><\/i> of the Israelites to destructive forces. This indicates a measure for measure justice aimed at the evils perpetrated by the slave-owners- <\/span>You did not obey Me and proclaim release, therefore I will proclaim your release<\/span><\/i>. They will be exposed to \u201csword, pestilence, famine,\u201d and made \u201ca horror to all the kingdoms of the earth\u2019 (34:17). In other words, they will be defenseless before natural disaster at the hand of the Supreme Master, and to invasion by enemy human masters. This finely measured justice precisely mirrors the slave experience of relentless vulnerability to the capricious whims of his master.<\/span><\/p>\n

A litany of ills follows, including the total devastation of Israel\u2019s political structures and forced exile. Refusal to liberate slaves is the cardinal sin eliciting a total loss of political sovereignty. The Jews, as a nation, suppressed individual autonomy and so they lose political autonomy. The term \u201cdror\u201d, according to a rabbinic opinion, signifies the freedom to \u201clive wherever one wishes and transport one\u2019s wares throughout the country\u201d (B. <\/span>RoshHaShanah <\/span><\/i>9b). Slavery quashes the essential constituents of individual fulfillment- mobility that traverses an entire community, ability to sustain oneself, and free market exchange. Thus, the state, an institution necessary for flourishing on a national scale, is dismantled in turn. Failure to grant <\/span>dror<\/span><\/i> leads to the loss of <\/span>dror<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The immediate revocation of emancipation after the Babylonian threat subsided reflects the dismal state to which the Israelites had sunk. The slave owners did not simply restore the status quo, but rather, according to its vocalized variant (qeri), <\/span>vayachbishum, <\/span><\/i>based on the root <\/span>to conquer\/subjugate, <\/span><\/i>intensified their oppression. This act of \u201cconquering\u201d resonates with a reversion to that primordial human state whose unmitigated exercise of power over the environment, \u201cfill the world, and <\/span>conquer<\/span><\/i> it,\u201d (Gen 1:28) lacked the balance of the second creation placing man in service of his environment, \u201cto serve it and conserve it\u201d (Gen 2:15). The term \u201cserve\u201d (<\/span>le\u2019ovdah<\/span><\/i>) is from the same root as the term \u201cslave\u201d (<\/span>eved<\/span><\/i>) suggesting an ethical model which demands assuming a posture of subservience for oneself rather than imposing it on others. Late in biblical history the Israelites regress, instituting that very brutality of domination unchecked by a moderating dimension of subservience and humility, from which they themselves were originally liberated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo by: Wally Gobetz, Liberty Bell, Philadelphia PA, 2008 \/ flickr<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":71496,"id":71496,"title":"jer34-liberty bell","filename":"jer34-liberty-bell.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer34-liberty-bell.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/measure-for-measure\/jer34-liberty-bell\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer34-liberty-bell","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":71495,"date":"2020-03-10 12:18:16","modified":"2022-07-13 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