{"id":75192,"date":"2020-05-25T17:08:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T14:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75192"},"modified":"2020-05-25T17:08:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T14:08:33","slug":"prophecies-to-the-land-from-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophecies-to-the-land-from-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophecies To The Land – From Elsewhere"},"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":"75192","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64460,"related_cahpter":"488","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Ezekiel\u2019s contradictory impulses about the homeland\r\n\r\n","content":"

One of the more striking features of the prophecy delivered in the 36th chapter of Ezekiel is its audience. The addressee here is neither the leaders of Israel nor the people as a whole, not even any of the nations with which Israel is in conflict. Rather, the prophet is commanded to speak to the land <\/span>itself <\/span><\/i>\u2014 \u201cto the mountains and the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys\u201d (36:6). Though the land may currently lie desolate and depopulated, Ezekiel assures it that in the days to come \u201c you shall be tilled and sown,\u201d that God will \u201csettle a large population on you, the whole House of Israel; the towns shall be resettled, and the ruined sites rebuilt\u201d (36:9-10). The redemption of the physical<\/span> land <\/span><\/i>or Israel seems to be inextricably bound to the redemption of the <\/span>people<\/span><\/i> Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

We could interpret Ezekiel\u2019s address to the land as an extended example of the rhetorical device known as \u2018apostrophe,\u2019 in which a speaker addresses herself to an absent person or\u00a0 inanimate object for effect. Really, Ezekiel is addressing the people, but in order to convey his point he speaks <\/span>as if<\/span><\/i> he is addressing the land itself. While this interpretation is possible, it is equally plausible, and perhaps more interesting, to take Ezekiel\u2019s address more literally. Numerous texts in the Bible, including ones associated with priestly thinking (as is Ezekiel), seem to conceive of the land of Israel as a kind of agent, even as a third party in the covenant between God and the descendants of Jacob. In a number of places in the Book of Leviticus, for example, we find warnings that if the Israelites stray from God\u2019s laws, the land<\/span> itself <\/span><\/i>will \u201cvomit\u201d them out (Leviticus 18:28 and 20:22). Ezekiel is thus one of the founders of a tradition which attributes a special metaphysical status and even agency to the land of Israel. This tradition would go on to have an important afterlife in Jewish thought, animating the work of the medieval philosopher Judah Halevi and much of the Kabbalah as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, it is also in Ezekiel\u2019s writing that the seeds of a counter-tradition are to be found. One of the most significant characteristics of Ezekiel is precisely that he is a prophet <\/span>of exile<\/span><\/i>, who delivers his oracles outside of the land. In his own day, many would have believed such prophetic activity to be impossible. Even in the Middle Ages, Judah Halevi had a hard time admitting that prophecy could take place outside the land, and maintained that oracles like Ezekiel\u2019s, delivered in exile, were only possible because they were <\/span>about<\/span><\/i> the land.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On this issue (as on so many) Ezekiel seems to embrace contradictory impulses \u2014 he elevates the land of Israel to a unique metaphysical status at the same time as he insists that the people of Israel can enjoy an intimate relationship to their God in whatever country they may dwell.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75193,"id":75193,"title":"ez36-contradictory","filename":"ez36-contradictory.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophecies-to-the-land-from-elsewhere\/ez36-contradictory\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez36-contradictory","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75192,"date":"2020-05-25 14:08:18","modified":"2022-10-15 10:29:54","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-300x200.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-768x512.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-1024x683.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-1200x800.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez36-contradictory-630x420.png","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Prophecies To The Land - 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