{"id":78796,"date":"2020-08-13T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T12:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78796"},"modified":"2020-08-13T15:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T12:28:16","slug":"want-to-hear-about-the-fish-i-caught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/want-to-hear-about-the-fish-i-caught\/","title":{"rendered":"Want To Hear About The Fish I Caught?"},"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":"78796","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46656,"related_cahpter":"546","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The use of exaggeration to spur the imagination\r\n\r\n","content":"

I\u2019ve considered <\/span>the role of humor in Tanach <\/span><\/a>(Isaiah 14), and <\/span>the use of parables <\/span><\/a>(II Samuel 12), and this chapter of Zephaniah got me asking: is Tanach rife with exaggeration?<\/span><\/p>\n

Zephaniah opens his discourse with this prophecy from God, \u201cI will totally destroy everything from the face of the earth\u2026. I will destroy man and beast\u2026the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea.\u201d By which Zephaniah really means that the wicked will perish with the destruction of the land and the rest of the nation will be exiled (Radak).<\/span><\/p>\n

Our sages are generally in agreement that Zephaniah used this grand exaggeration to drive home the message of the severity of the calamity about to occur, in hopes of convincing the nation to change their ways before it is too late.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rambam, in his <\/span>Guide for the Perplexed<\/span><\/em> speaks of imagination as a faculty in itself, alongside the faculty of reason, but with a distinct purpose. As explained by Rabbi Jos\u00e9 Faur (<\/span>Maimonides on Imagination: Towards a Theory of Jewish Aesthetics<\/span><\/em>) imagination is employed to link disparate and incompatible things and ideas. Or, as explained by Rabbi Yossi Paltiel (InsideChassidus.org, <\/span>Exaggeration in Torah?<\/span><\/em>), \u201cThe tool that bridges the wisdom of God and the comprehension of man is imagination.\u201d And, according to Rambam, exaggeration is a tool of imagination.<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of exaggeration in Tanach is evident in many instances where the people need to be convinced to accept an idea or adopt a behaviour. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n