{"id":78182,"date":"2020-07-28T10:35:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T07:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78182"},"modified":"2020-07-28T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T07:35:06","slug":"micah-and-the-thought-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/micah-and-the-thought-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Micah And The Thought Police"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the opening verse of this chapter, Micah issued the following rebuke: \u201cAh, those who plan iniquity and design evil on their beds; when morning dawns, they do it, for they have the power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi, Kara, and Ibn Ezra took this simply as plotting evil overnight, and Radak added the observation that such plotting occurs at night because \u201cwhen people lie in bed at night they do more thinking because they are not using their other senses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While it is certainly a crime\/sin to perpetrate an evil deed, is it prohibited to harbor an evil thought? Is it not a rule in talmudic jurisprudence that \u201cmatters of the heart do not count\u201d (Kiddushin 49 b, etc.)? Malbim appears to have had this in mind when he wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

While they lie on their beds, by themselves, they are unable to steal and rob; they can only think evil thoughts. However, these people both plot robbery and theft and carry them out. That is why he described their crimes as rising at the crack of dawn to perpetrate [their evil] because they have the power. Therefore, their contemplation of evil is tantamount to practicing it, since they let nothing interrupt between the plotting and its exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the close of the chapter, Micah offered a brief word of consolation, drawing upon the pastoral imagery that we have encountered on previous occasions:<\/span><\/p>\n

I will assemble Jacob, all of you; I will bring together the remnant of Israel; I will make them all like sheep of Bozrah, like a flock inside its pen\u2014 they will be noisy with people. One who makes a breach goes before them; they enlarge it to a gate and leave by it. Their king marches before them, the LORD at their head. (12-13)<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as a ram or he-goat will break through a pen and release the remaining sheep or goats, so will Israel follow its leader\u2014its king\u2014to freedom. <\/span>As we have noted Micah\u2019s fondness for plays on words <\/span><\/a>(in Chapter 1), it is likely that his choice of <\/span>poretz<\/span><\/em> (the \u201cone who makes a breach\u201d) is intended to invoke the Davidic monarchy, which was descended from Peretz.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78183,"id":78183,"title":"mic2-thief","filename":"mic2-thief.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mic2-thief.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/micah-and-the-thought-police\/mic2-thief\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"mic2-thief","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78182,"date":"2020-07-28 07:34:46","modified":"2020-11-01 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