{"id":76818,"date":"2020-07-02T17:25:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T14:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76818"},"modified":"2020-07-02T17:38:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T14:38:29","slug":"now-thats-a-funny-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/now-thats-a-funny-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Now That\u2019s a Funny Desert"},"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":"76818","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"516","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Uncultivated grassland is more like it\r\n\r\n","content":"

The book of Joel describes a terrible plague of locusts, which decimates all plant life in the land, and all the animals and people who depend on those plants. This plague comes as a divine punishment, and so Joel tells the people to fast and repent. When they do, God has compassion on the people and the land (Joel 2:18).<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the plague, God announces that the produce destroyed by the locusts will be restored: \u201cI will grant you the new grain, the new wine, and the new oil, and you shall have them in abundance.\u201d (2:19). And nature itself need not fear any more:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFear not, O soil, rejoice and be glad; for the LORD has wrought great deeds. Fear not, O beasts of the field, for the pastures in the wilderness are clothed with grass. The trees have borne their fruit; fig tree and vine have yielded their strength.\u201d (2:21-22).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hebrew word for \u201cwilderness\u201d in the above verse is <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>. <\/span>Midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>is also frequently translated as \u201cdesert.\u201d So for example, <\/span>Midbar Sinai<\/span><\/em> is translated as either the Sinai Desert or the Wilderness of Sinai.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our image of a desert is a barren land – arid, hot, and full of sand. However, in the vision of Joel, the <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is \u201cclothed with grass.\u201d That doesn\u2019t seem much like the deserts we\u2019re familiar with.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, that view of a <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0seems to be inaccurate in many cases. According to linguists, the original meaning of the word was “a place where cattle were pushed forward to graze.” We see this in an early verse about Moses:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God\u201d (Exodus 3:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

If Moses drove his flocks there, the land was not entirely barren. So some say that the main characteristic of a <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is that it is an uninhabited or uncultivated region (in which case \u201cwilderness\u201d might be a good translation). Other scholars go even further, and say that <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0should be translated as \u201cgrassland\u201d \u2013 and use the verse from Joel as proof.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sinai <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0that sustained the Israelites for 40 years also fits the definition – it was uninhabited, but could support the nomadic tribes (with some help \u2018from above\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

So while certainly a <\/span>midbar<\/span><\/em>\u00a0can be a desert, it can also be a wilderness. But even then, a wilderness in the Middle East may look different from the wilderness you\u2019re familiar with from other parts of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

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