{"id":75646,"date":"2020-06-07T14:48:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T11:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75646"},"modified":"2020-06-07T14:48:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T11:48:57","slug":"the-importance-of-strict-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-importance-of-strict-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance Of Strict Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":"75646","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":70717,"related_cahpter":"497","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"So that yesterday\u2019s unimaginable act does not become today\u2019s \u201cnot that bad\u201d\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 wide; the bath a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the shekel shall weigh 20 gerahs: Ezekiel 45 is full to the brim with exact and precise measurements. Other than providing opportunities for elementary school math problems, what is the purpose of the exact details for the measurements?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThus said the Lord God: Enough, princes of Israel\u2014remove violence and ruin and act with justice and righteousness. Cease your acts of expulsion against my people. Have honest balances and an honest ephah, and an honest bath\u201d (vv. 9-10). God provides the future princes with a general outline of how to deal with the Israelites, and it seems fairly simple: act justly and righteously and do not commit violence or deception. Yet the next few verses are occupied with the specific details of the measurements rather than the larger issues of how to behave justly and righteously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These values are not only meant for the prince, or the king, or those in power, but are guidelines for all of us. Radak relates on verse 10 that \u201cWhat the nation does is the transgression of the kings for they do not protest it.\u201d In order to have an equitable and just society each of us must hold ourselves to a precise standard, and we must make sure that those around us are also behaving justly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Modern psychological studies have found that small ethical transgressions (whether financial transgressions, cheating on a test, or lying) can over time lead to larger and larger transgressions as people become comfortable with the small transgressions and rationalize them. None of us sets out to do something terrible. We are good people, we tell ourselves, so this small thing we are doing is really okay. It\u2019s not <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bad. Yet, soon enough we may find ourselves doing things that we would never have imagined we would do. Yesterday\u2019s unimaginable act has become today\u2019s \u201cnot <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bad\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exacting measurements in Ezekiel 45 give us the signposts, the warnings that we have crossed the line. They give us the opportunity to turn ourselves around before minor transgressions snowball into larger ones, before we let ourselves become someone we don\u2019t even recognize. So next time we think about crossing an ethical boundary just a little bit, let\u2019s remember that the exact boundary is there to keep us on the path of righteousness and justice.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75647,"id":75647,"title":"ez45-lines","filename":"ez45-lines.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-importance-of-strict-standards\/ez45-lines\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez45-lines","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75646,"date":"2020-06-07 11:48:33","modified":"2020-06-07 11:48:52","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":1279,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-1024x682.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":682,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1023,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1279,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-1200x799.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":799,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez45-lines-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The 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