{"id":76102,"date":"2020-06-16T11:13:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T08:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76102"},"modified":"2020-06-16T11:13:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T08:13:50","slug":"the-law-and-the-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-law-and-the-land\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law And The Land"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here, the prophet resumed his rebuke of his own generation (as opposed to the remarks at the close of the previous chapter, which, as we noted, were words of future consolation), accusing them of \u201cfalse swearing, dishonesty, and murder; theft and adultery are rife; crime follows upon crime\u201d (2). The consequence of their iniquities will be that \u201cthe earth will wither and everything that dwells upon it will languish\u201d (3).<\/span><\/p>\n

Radak again took the exegetical lead in explaining the connection between the land and the sins of its inhabitants:<\/span><\/p>\n

[God] has a [legal] case against the inhabitants of the Land of Israel because He gave it to them on the condition that they observe righteousness and justice, and that He would be on constant vigilance to see that these were carried out. Since they acted in a contradictory manner by false swearing and dishonesty, He will act in contradiction to His promise: “I\u00a0 shall conceal My face from them\u201d (Dt. 31:17), \u201cthe earth will wither and everything that dwells upon it will languish\u201d (Hosea 4:3) \u201cfor there is no truth\u201d (4:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

His citation of a verse from Deuteronomy is a reminder that the idea that the fate of the Jewish people and their land are linked inextricably originated in the Torah, where God explicitly warned them: \u201cObserve all My statutes and laws and practice them, lest the land to which I am bringing you to reside therein shall spew you out\u201d (Lev. 20:22).<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as the observance and practice of righteousness are concerned, Radak also took note that Jeremiah prophesied: \u201cRoam the streets of Jerusalem, Search its squares, Look about and take note: You will not find a man, There is none who acts justly, Who seeks integrity\u2014 That I should pardon her\u201d (5:1), and David wrote: \u201cThey have left Your servants\u2019 corpses as food for the fowl of heaven, and the flesh of Your faithful for the wild beasts\u201d (Ps. 79:2). And lest we imagine that all Israelites were irredeemable sinners, Radak concluded with: \u201cThere were righteous men among them, however few, but they had gone into hiding from the evil majority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The question of whether the Land of Israel or the Law of Israel takes precedence is perennial. Rashi began his Torah commentary with a midrashic citation to the effect that the Torah begins with Creation to justify Israel\u2019s implicitly unconditional possession of its land. Ramban countered Rashi by inferring that the inclusion in Genesis of the many stories of human foibles and failures was intended to demonstrate that possession was conditional on proper and pious behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Law And The Land","main_caption":"False swearing, dishonesty, and murder, theft and adultery are rife; Crime follows upon crime! For that, the earth is withered: Everything that dwells on it languishes","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76103,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76102\/revisions\/76103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}