{"id":86561,"date":"2021-01-13T17:25:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=86561"},"modified":"2021-01-13T17:25:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:25:59","slug":"wonders-for-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wonders-for-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonders For The Dead"},"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":"86561","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36535,"related_cahpter":"655","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Hell is the inability to share your sense of wonder with others\r\n\r\n","content":"

I think about wonderment a lot. I\u2019m grateful that I still have a sense of wonder whenever I learn a new piece of knowledge or have a new realization about a text I\u2019ve read a million times. I thrive on discovering a whole new discipline I never knew about, and being able to completely immerse myself in the deep sea of knowledge it contains. I excitedly call friends with the results of random rabbit holes I\u2019ve recently traversed. I\u2019m acutely aware that I\u2019m an aberration in this sense.<\/p>\n

As such, my eye was drawn to two phrases in Psalm 88. The first is where the depressed psalmist questions in 88:11 \u201cDo you create wonders for the dead?\u201d And the second is 88:13 \u201cAre your wonders known in the darkness?\u201d Many translators translate \u201cdarkness\u201d as a metonym for the netherworld, in line with much of the other macabre imagery of the psalm.<\/p>\n

The sense of wonder seems to be associated with the living. But more than only that, wonderment doesn\u2019t happen in a vacuum. While alone in the deep, dark place (88:7), the psalmist feels distanced from his friends, an abomination to them.<\/p>\n

Wonderment is social. In 88:12, the psalmist asks if the dead (\u201cthe grave\u201d) recount God\u2019s kindness. It returns us to 88:6, where the psalmist feels like he is surrounded by the forgotten dead. There is a sense of disconnect and isolation, surrounded by those who have no desire or ability to recount the wonders they\u2019ve encountered.<\/p>\n

The psalmist recounts the wonders daily in his prayers (88:14), but they seem to go unheard and unheeded (88:15). And in 88:19, he concludes the psalm with a reassertion of his isolation from the people he knows and loves.<\/p>\n

Hell is the inability to share your sense of wonder with others. Being the only one fascinated by a subject, constantly surrounded by the apathetic, devoid of curiosity (an admittedly very metaphorical translation of 88:18), is psychologically distressing.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve completely parted with the literal translation of this psalm already steeped in metaphor, the reference to being surrounded by water in 88:18 and to being isolated in the depths of pit (let\u2019s suppose) of water in 88:5-7, I can\u2019t not be reminded of the connection of water and wisdom in Proverbs 18:4.<\/p>\n

Imagine being surrounded by knowledge, and not being able to share it with anyone else. Our psalmist may consider that tantamount to being dead. Who am I to disagree with that?<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":86562,"id":86562,"title":"Ps88-EButler","filename":"Ps88-EButler.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Ps88-EButler.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wonders-for-the-dead\/ps88-ebutler\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps88-ebutler","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":86561,"date":"2021-01-13 15:25:43","modified":"2021-01-13 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