{"id":88424,"date":"2021-02-06T22:57:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T20:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=88424"},"modified":"2021-02-06T22:57:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T20:57:54","slug":"sin-and-sinners-in-a-perfect-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/sin-and-sinners-in-a-perfect-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin And Sinners In A Perfect World"},"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":"88424","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":70715,"related_cahpter":"671","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What should the balance be between admiring creation as if it were already perfected and recognizing that we have not yet done our part to make it so?\r\n\r\n","content":"

Why the moralistic buzzkill?<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout almost all of Psalm 104, the psalmist\u2019s gorgeous poetry describes how divine wisdom is reflected in the formation and continued operation of a teeming yet well-ordered world.\u00a0 And in a few opening and closing words, the poet marks this loving perception of the universe as personal and subjective, telling us that the rhythms of the natural order deserve to be accompanied with chants and song, but also with the joy of prayer articulated in multiple forms: in words, as described in the first clause of verse 34, and in wordless devotion, referred to in verses 1 and 35 as blessing coming not from the lips or even from the heart but from the depths of the human soul.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why then did the writer add the first phrase of the final verse: \u201cMay sinners disappear from the earth, and the wicked be no more\u201d? Even if eliminating evil is a commendable objective, the inclusion of a wish for the eradication of sinners (or of sin, see Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 10a) in a poem otherwise focused on the world as the experienced embodiment of divine perfection seems to interfere on a profound level with the uplifting impact of the psalm\u2019s dominant message.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What gives?<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider how the nineteenth century Chassidic master known as the Mei Hashiloach reads this psalm. According to his commentary on the opening passage of Leviticus (vol. II, 1), Psalm 104 reflects the themes of the entire Torah. If so, and if the Torah does not only provide an understanding of the nature of the world but also reveals a divine plan for how to live in it, then going beyond a description of creation by adding a hope for the moral elevation of the world makes sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But why then, assuming that the banishment of evil is a particularly important Torah goal, do only seven of the Hebrew words in this 270-word psalm refer to this value?\u00a0 Perhaps, in contemplating the world as it appears and as it could be, the writer of this chapter wonders exactly that \u2013 what the proper balance is between admiring creation as if it were already perfected and recognizing that its inhabitants have not yet done their part to make it so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Sin And Sinners In A Perfect World","main_caption":"What should the balance be between admiring creation as if it were already perfected and recognizing that we have not yet done our part to make it so?","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\/88424"}],"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=88424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88425,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88424\/revisions\/88425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}