{"id":82032,"date":"2020-10-25T12:38:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T10:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=82032"},"modified":"2020-10-25T12:38:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T10:38:51","slug":"praise-the-human-raison-detre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/praise-the-human-raison-detre\/","title":{"rendered":"Praise: The Human Raison D’\u00eatre\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There appears to be a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between the introductory verse of this psalm – “A psalm of David. A song for the dedication of \u201c<\/span>Ha-bayit<\/span><\/i>\u201d (the house) – usually understood as a reference to the preliminary rituals for the Temple, and the rest of the psalm that references sickness and death: “O LORD, my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O LORD, You brought me up from She\u2019ol (the underworld,) preserved me from going down into the pit (the grave)” (3-4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim (Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel Wisser; 1809 – 1879) proposes that the \u201chouse,\u201d referred to in the initial verse, can be metaphorically understood as the human body, which constitutes the external trappings and structure of one\u2019s soul and organs. Understanding \u201chouse\u201d in this manner, makes later references to human sickness and mortality properly contextual. The \u201cdedication\u201d and \u201cre-dedication\u201d of one\u2019s body then can be thought to symbolically take place each time one recovers from illness and is spared death.<\/span><\/p>\n

One verse that particularly resonates with me is v. 10: “What is to be gained from my death, from my descent into the pit? Can dust praise You? Can it declare Your faithfulness?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The underlying assumption of this verse appears to be that the raison d’\u00eatre for the creation of a human being is his being able to give praise to his Creator, something that can best be done during one\u2019s lifetime, while he embodies the body-soul, i.e., material-physical, \u201csuspension.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Numerous verses in the bible convey the idea that Divine angels are tasked with regularly exalting God: “Seraphs stood in attendance on Him\u2026. And one would call to the other: Holy, holy, holy! The LORD of Hosts! His presence fills all the earth!\u201d (Is. 6:2-3). And: “Then a spirit carried me away, and behind me I heard a great roaring sound: Blessed is the Presence of the LORD, in His place” (Ez. 3:12).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this is not so with respect to human beings. While articulating praise of God appears to be part of organized prayer in general, and the explicit recitation of Psalms in particular, one can also extrapolate from<\/span> Perek Shira<\/span><\/a> (a traditional text that describes the praises of the natural world) that the mere existence of human beings attests to God\u2019s greatness and creative power. Just as the Creator is indirectly praised by the continued ubiquity of the various components of the natural world that surrounds us, e.g., the heavens, the seas, vegetation, and the animals, so too the presence of living humanity in the world, regardless of their individual beliefs and behaviors, serve as a \u201cdeclaration of God\u2019s faithfulness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Praise: The Human Raison D'\u00eatre\u00a0","main_caption":"\u201cDedication\u201d and \u201cre-dedication\u201d of one\u2019s body take place each time one recovers from illness and is spared death","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\/82032"}],"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=82032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82036,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82032\/revisions\/82036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}