{"id":72609,"date":"2020-03-30T17:18:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=72609"},"modified":"2020-03-30T17:18:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:18:55","slug":"pain-and-suffering-public-and-private","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/pain-and-suffering-public-and-private\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain And Suffering, Public And Private"},"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":"72609","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"448","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Then, as now, people needed to share their sorrows, along with their joys\r\n\r\n","content":"

In the course of a lengthy description of the disasters in store for Moab, Jeremiah exclaims, apparently redundantly, \u201cOn all the roofs of Moab and in its squares, there is naught but lamentation\u201d (48:38).<\/span><\/p>\n

Why mention roofs and squares specifically, and why both?<\/span><\/p>\n

We could simply read the verse as describing an outpouring of grief; Moab is being destroyed, and its citizens\u2019 pain pushes past the walls and roofs of their homes. Mentioning roofs and squares together portrays a grief that pours out in every direction, enhancing the reader\u2019s sense of just how bad things could be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Radak explains, \u201cOn all the roofs of Moab \u2013 in the open. Lamentation will be on the roofs, where people will see them; and similarly, in the squares.\u201d For Radak, the significant detail about roofs and squares is their openness, and he is careful to note that the point is the same for both.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading this verse in the midst of COVID-19 and \u201csocial distancing,\u201d however, I was struck not by the similarity but by a difference between \u201croofs\u201d and \u201csquares\u201d: A roof is part of one\u2019s house and might still be isolated from others, while public squares, these days, are off-limits. We sit apart from each other, confined to our own homes and avoiding the mass gatherings that might take place in a \u201csquare.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But that is precisely where Radak\u2019s point about the similarity becomes crucial.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason the openness of roofs and squares is important, says Radak, is that they are \u201cseen.\u201d It\u2019s a modern buzzword, to talk about one being \u201cseen\u201d in one\u2019s pain, but it seems the human need for that visibility is ancient. Radak\u2019s comment suggests a sorrow that bursts out of the Moabite homes to be seen \u2013 to be shared. It\u2019s a shared pain both because everyone is suffering it and because they see each other suffering it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as we sense the painful difference between lamenting on one\u2019s own rooftop and coming together in the square, perhaps Radak has a point: Both roofs and squares are visible to others. Even in Radak\u2019s day, even in Jeremiah\u2019s \u2013 and certainly with today\u2019s world wide web of connection \u2013 individuals in crisis could be visible to each other, could see each other, could be with each other even while physically separate.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not only lamentation that can be shared from rooftop to rooftop. The image of each Moabite lamenting alone on a rooftop echoes the balcony wedding celebrations and other socially-distant gatherings that have taken place in recent weeks, people sharing their joy from balcony to balcony in the same way Moabites might have shared their lamentations from rooftop to rooftop.<\/span><\/p>\n

There will always be joys to celebrate, and creative ways to display and share our joys as well as our sorrows \u2013 on each rooftop for now, and similarly, when we can finally descend and join together again in the public squares.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":72611,"id":72611,"title":"Jer48-cityscape","filename":"Jer48-cityscape.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/pain-and-suffering-public-and-private\/jer48-cityscape\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer48-cityscape","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":72609,"date":"2020-03-30 14:18:40","modified":"2020-03-30 14:18:52","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jer48-cityscape-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Pain 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