{"id":84245,"date":"2020-11-29T16:36:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T14:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=84245"},"modified":"2020-11-29T16:36:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T14:36:30","slug":"fraud-deceit-treachery-perfidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/fraud-deceit-treachery-perfidy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraud, Deceit, Treachery, Perfidy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Psalm 55, in addition to revisiting the psalmist\u2019s oft-mentioned sense of being persecuted by enemies, and along with the wish that God would intervene and demonstrate who is truly righteous, adds the dimension of describing whose perfidy is most devastating among those who turn out to be enemies. While an individual will always expect to have detractors who openly declare their opposition to him\/her, those who portrayed themselves initially as supporters, when in fact they were plotting to destroy a person, have the capability of doing the most harm, not only physically, but even emotionally:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMalice is within it; fraud and deceit never leave its square. It is not an enemy who reviles me \u2014I could bear that; it is not my foe who vaunts himself against me \u2014I could hide from him; But it is you, my equal, my companion, my friend; Sweet was our fellowship; we walked together in God\u2019s House\u2026 He harmed his ally, he broke his pact; His talk was smoother than butter, yet his mind was on war; his words were more soothing than oil, yet they were drawn swords (12-15, 21-22).<\/span><\/p>\n

The classical commentator Rashi, in his explanation of v. 14, writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026And it is well-known that it is more difficult for an individual to suffer the insults of a \u201cfriend\u201d than those of an enemy. Furthermore, he can hide from his enemy, but cannot do so with respect to his \u201cfriend,\u201d once he has confided in him all of his personal thoughts and experiences \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Radak in his first interpretation, and Malbim specifically identify the individual being described in Psalm 55 as the treacherous Achitophel (see II Kings 15-7,) who initially served as one of David\u2019s chief advisors and confidants, only to switch loyalties and serve the rebellious prince Absalom.<\/span><\/p>\n

A contemporary example of the type of behavior that the psalmist abhors, apparently takes place within the context of the strategy game \u201cDiplomacy.\u201d In an episode of the podcast <\/span>This American Life<\/span><\/i>, entitled \u201c<\/span>Absolutely Stabulous<\/span><\/a>,\u201d David Hill describes how \u201cDiplomacy\u201d is played, along with his memorable experiences interacting with its world-class players. Once participants are assigned countries during the geopolitical period of World War I, the relatively straight-forward object of play is to make alliances, to win another\u2019s trust and confidence, only to often \u201cstab in the back\u201d one\u2019s ally(ies) in order to drive them from the game and score points. Whether or not real-life diplomacy operates in this manner\u2014there is every indication that it may\u2014Hill, like the psalmist, admittedly does not possess the personality that would allow him to play \u201cwell,\u201d and therefore summarily drops out.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to choose not to play a game. However, when such things occur in real life, the cynicism and \u201cdrop-out\u201d mentality that is engendered, leave deep emotional scars that handicap a person from properly going forward and reaching their potential.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Fraud, Deceit, Treachery, Perfidy","main_caption":"While one will always expect to have detractors, those who portrayed themselves initially as supporters have the capability of doing the most harm","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\/84245"}],"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=84245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84246,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84245\/revisions\/84246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}