{"id":79221,"date":"2020-08-24T22:49:43","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T19:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79221"},"modified":"2020-08-24T22:49:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T19:49:43","slug":"there-were-few-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/there-were-few-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"There Were Few Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The chapter begins with both <\/span>Joshua the high priest<\/span> and the Satan standing before God. Satan stands ready to accuse Joshua, but is stopped by God before he can speak, declaring that Joshua is “a brand plucked from fire”. <\/span>Joshua\u2019s filthy garments are replaced, he has a “pure diadem” added to his outfit, and he is told that if he walks in the Lord\u2019s ways, God will allow him to serve in His house. The chapter concludes with the cleansing of the land from iniquity, and everyone will share in good neighborly relations under the traditional biblical symbol of prosperity and peace, a vine and a fig tree (see 1 Kings 5, Micah 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the meaning behind all of symbolic visions? Discussing the soiled clothing, Rashi and most of the traditional commentators quote the Talmud that this alludes to the fact that Joshua’s sons married gentile women (Sanhedrin 93, based on Ezra 9). If so, one can imagine the Satan’s indignation that this person was chosen to be the new High Priest. Surely someone more worthy, whose children were not a betrayal of Jewish tradition could have been found. To understand why God insists on Joshua despite this, we have to look at another symbolic phrase \u2013 the declaration Joshua is a \u201cbrand plucked from fire\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Talmud (brought by Rashi) understands this phrase literally, describing how Joshua was thrown into a fiery furnace and with two false and adulterous prophets called Ahab and Zedekiah (see Jeremiah 29:21-23). As Joshua was not sinful, God saved him from the fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, other commentators understand the phrase symbolically. After all, this would have made Joshua extremely elderly at the time when Zechariah received this vision. However, the Tanakh tells us that Joshua’s grandfather Ido was executed (2 Kings<\/span> 25:18-21) and his father Berechiah was exiled (1 Chronicles 5:41) \u2013 making Joshua a first and second-generation survivor. So what was the fire that Joshua was saved from? Everything from the destruction of the original Jewish community and the burning of the Temple to the exile to Babylon. Very few Jews survived the cataclysm \u2013 even fewer chose to leave the comforts of exile to return to the barren land of Judah to rebuild the nation. The imagery is poignant and heartbreaking: one of the few survivors has returned to the land to lead his people and to attempt to rebuild the Temple. From this perspective \u2013 we can only declare \u2013 how dare the Satan accuse him?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My teacher, Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein <\/span>ztz\u201dl<\/span><\/i> once noted in one of his lectures, that in the post-Holocaust world, Joshua’s story is our story. Despite his imperfections, Joshua perseveres, and ultimately he is appointed to leadership because of his experiences and willingness to persevere. Similarly, we have neither the privilege nor the right to judge Holocaust survivors for their shortcomings \u2013 only show to respect and at times accept their leadership, whatever their shortcomings may be.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"There Were Few Survivors","main_caption":"One of them has returned to the land to lead his people and rebuild the Temple \u2013 how dare the Satan accuse him?","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\/79221"}],"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=79221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79222,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79221\/revisions\/79222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}