{"id":79843,"date":"2020-09-12T21:01:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T18:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79843"},"modified":"2020-09-12T21:01:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T18:01:48","slug":"the-hidden-god-can-still-teach-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hidden-god-can-still-teach-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden God Can Still Teach Us"},"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":"79843","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":45752,"related_cahpter":"567","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"God has patience, God has mercy, God kvells. As we should with our families\r\n\r\n","content":"

Baruch Hashem,<\/em> the edgy Passover comedy I directed, <\/span>When Do We Eat?,<\/span><\/em> became a cult classic. The film opens with a pair of verses from our chapter (23-24):<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus sayeth the Lord: Behold I send you the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, and he will turn back the hearts of the fathers to their sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers\u2026 or I will come and strike the land with utter destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

The verses appear on screen as we travel <\/span>into<\/span><\/em> Mt. Sinai, with the children of Israel encamped all around. As the verses fade out, the superheated core of the mountain dissolves into the burning ember of a joint held by a teenager who\u2019s avoiding a call from his mom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our verses tie the coming of the Messianic Age to family relationships. If it\u2019s indeed in our power to hasten the Final Redemption, we might have expected that God wants us to end war and hunger. What is this awful rift between parents and children, and why does its healing carry world-changing significance?<\/span><\/p>\n

We find a hint a few verses back: \u201cFor I am the LORD\u2014I have not changed; and you are the children of Jacob\u2014you have not reached the end\u201d (3:6)<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi renders it, \u201c<\/span>Although I keep back My anger for a long time, My mind has not changed …\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Talmud, Rabbi Chaggai expounds \u201cslow to anger,\u201d one of the 13 attributes of God we sing on Yom Kippur (Eruvin 22a B.T. regarding Ex. 34:6). The Hebrew phrase is \u201c<\/span>erech apayim<\/span><\/em>,\u201d better translated as \u201clong-suffering.\u201d Rabbi Chaggai says the phrase is plural because God is long-suffering on two counts: He withholds punishment from the wicked <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> reward from the righteous.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wait takes an emotional toll on the Almighty. We know God is emotional because He says so in the Torah, telling us that our sacrifices provide a pleasing aroma and that our sins, particularly idolatry and mistreating the vulnerable, spark His anger. So why does God hold back reward and punishment? Because the whole point of this world is to hide God\u2019s presence: if all those deeds had immediate consequences, He would not be hidden. Were His overwhelming presence to be revealed, we would no longer have free will. We would thus not be ourselves, and God desires the righteous deeds of free human beings, not the forced choices of slaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though God waits to bestow reward and punishment, He pays attention to our deeds, not only watching but <\/span>feeling<\/span><\/em> them, just like a mom <\/span>kvells<\/span><\/em> when her kids do good. And nowhere does this apply more than within the family, where the majority of malfeasance occurs because we spend more time with them than anyone else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we learn to treat our families with the same mercy and fairness we wish God would bestow upon us from His hiding place, He might just finally come out.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":79844,"id":79844,"title":"mal3-litvak","filename":"mal3-litvak.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hidden-god-can-still-teach-us\/mal3-litvak\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"mal3-litvak","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79843,"date":"2020-09-12 18:01:15","modified":"2020-09-12 18:01:45","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":931,"height":552,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak-300x178.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":178,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak-768x455.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":455,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak.png","large-width":931,"large-height":552,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak.png","1536x1536-width":931,"1536x1536-height":552,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak.png","2048x2048-width":931,"2048x2048-height":552,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak.png","post_full_size-width":931,"post_full_size-height":552,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-litvak-708x420.png","home_baner-width":708,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Hidden God Can Still Teach Us","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"God has patience, God has mercy, God kvells. 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