{"id":78685,"date":"2020-08-11T18:19:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T15:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78685"},"modified":"2020-08-12T07:04:04","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T04:04:04","slug":"we-were-as-dreamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/we-were-as-dreamers\/","title":{"rendered":"We Were As Dreamers!?"},"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":"78685","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"544","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Habakkuk and Honi share a sense of horror and disorientation at the Babylonian exile, before and after the event\r\n\r\n","content":"

Our chapter begins with Habakkuk dramatically declaring \u201cI will stand on my watch. Take up my station at the post and wait to see what He will say to me.\u201d (Hab. 2:1) Habakkuk declares that he will not move from where he stands until God answers his question of why the wicked Chaldeans are flourishing and poised to swoop down and destroy the weak.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi raises the stakes of the prophet\u2019s appeal still higher, adding that Habakkuk drew a circle, stood in it, and refused to leave until God answered.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is reminiscent of one of the most famous Talmudic stories. Honi the Circle Drawer did just this when he implored God for rain in a drought. The Talmud\u2019s telling of the episode specifically invokes Habakkuk as Honi\u2019s role model. <\/span>(Ta\u2019anit 23a)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There is a further fascinating similarity between Honi and Habakkuk: their preoccupation with exile. God answers Habakkuk, saying \u201cwrite the prophecy down, for there is yet a prophecy for a set term.\u201d Rashi and others explain that while God does not answer the question of why the wicked will succeed in exiling Israel, at least Habakkuk is offered the consolation of knowing that the exile will have a fixed duration and endpoint \u2013 70 years. It is the uncertain timespan of exile that makes its prospect terrifying; removing that renders it bearable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conversely, Honi standing on the other side of the Babylonian exile marvels at the strangeness of that period of 70 years, as Rabbi Yochanan said \u201cAll his days, the saintly Honi was bothered by the verse, “A Song of Ascents: when God brought back the exiles of Zion, we were like dreamers.” (Psalms 126:1) How could people sleep away seventy years in a dream? Honi, wondered. How could we have been as dreamers, sleeping away the period of the Babylonian exile?<\/span><\/p>\n

In dreams much can happen in a short span of real time. For seventy years, the Jews lived a slave existence in Babylon, cut off from their land removed from self-government, no longer the authors of history. They were wrenched away from their land and its rhythms. Yet without their active participation, political processes unfolded that led them to return to Israel to find, no doubt that while they had been away, life had moved on in their absence. Cities had grown or, more likely, decayed, children had been born, jackals had overrun deserted towns. Uprooted from their land, the people had been away from all this. The gemara is suggesting that the disorientation felt on being away from history and then rejoining it, so to speak, is comparable to Honi’s confusion on awakening from a sleep of seventy years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honi and Habakkuk share a sense of horror and disorientation at the Babylonian exile, before and after the event. And, relatedly, they are pioneers of an uncompromising kind of prayer, that refuses to accept \u201cit\u2019s God\u2019s plan; don\u2019t ask,\u201d and demands relief and salvation for God\u2019s people now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":78689,"id":78689,"title":"hab2-dream","filename":"hab2-dream.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/we-were-as-dreamers\/hab2-dream\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hab2-dream","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":78685,"date":"2020-08-11 15:19:37","modified":"2022-04-03 10:39:56","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":1224,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-300x191.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":191,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-768x490.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":490,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-1024x653.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":653,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":979,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1224,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-1200x765.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":765,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hab2-dream-659x420.png","home_baner-width":659,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Habakkuk and Honi - 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