{"id":79266,"date":"2020-08-26T16:15:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T13:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79266"},"modified":"2020-08-26T16:15:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T13:15:45","slug":"the-personification-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-personification-of-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Personification of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a bizarre twist of events reminiscent of Harry Potter attempting to gather all of his acceptance letters to Hogwarts when they inundated the Dursley’s fireplace, the first line of this chapter sees the prophet Zechariah looking up and seeing a \u201c<\/span>megilah afah<\/span><\/em>\u201d – a flying scroll, flapping its way towards him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inquiring about the contents of this strange, supernatural object, God explains to Zechariah that this scroll contains curses: on one side of the parchment, for those who have stolen, and on the other, for those who have taken God\u2019s name in vain.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you thought that things couldn\u2019t get any weirder, it appears that our prophetic protagonist is in the middle of a vision, with an angel then showing another object approaching – an <\/span>eifah<\/span><\/em>, or tub with a leaden disk covering the top, holding a woman crouching inside. Zechariah is told that this woman is the literal embodiment of Wickedness, and the leaden disk sealing her in, silencing her forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

This tub, with the body of Wickedness within it, is then carried away by two other women – described as having wings, and the wind in their hair – to the land of Shinar, where it will be used to erect a shrine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Putting aside the obvious difficulty of women representing wickedness, a common enough trope throughout our ancient biblical texts (think of the Book of Lamentations, where the feminine is used to embody sin and wrongdoing) there are lessons to be gleaned from this short episode which we can take into our modern lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

We live today in an age of misinformation and miscommunication, where it is easy to access a world-wide web full of factual inaccuracies, that become wedged inside the hearts and minds of those who consume them, much like the curses lodged themselves in the homes of the accursed, consuming them down to every last timber and stone (Zechariah 5:4).<\/span><\/p>\n

As we move forward into a new Jewish year, particularly in the world in which we currently find ourselves, let us be mindful and critical of what we read or watch, and where it comes from. In this small way, we might subsequently play our part in removing wickedness from our midst, turning poison into praise, and malintent into magic.<\/span><\/p>\n

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