{"id":89497,"date":"2021-02-27T22:38:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T20:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89497"},"modified":"2021-02-27T22:38:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T20:38:59","slug":"intentional-ambiguity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/intentional-ambiguity\/","title":{"rendered":"Intentional Ambiguity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":"89497","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":49419,"related_cahpter":"686","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u05de\u05b4\u05db\u05bc\u05b8\u05dc\u05be\u05de\u05b0\u05dc\u05b7\u05de\u05bc\u05b0\u05d3\u05b7\u05d9 \u05d4\u05b4\u05e9\u05c2\u05b0\u05db\u05bc\u05b7\u05dc\u05b0\u05ea\u05bc\u05b4\u05d9 \u05db\u05bc\u05b4\u05d9 \u05e2\u05b5\u05d3\u05b0\u05d5\u05ba\u05ea\u05b6\u05d9\u05da\u05b8 \u05e9\u05c2\u05b4\u05d9\u05d7\u05b8\u05d4 \u05dc\u05b4\u05d9\u05c3<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have gained more insight than\/from all my teachers, for Your decrees are my study<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;ve come to associate Psalm 119 with funerals, shivas and prayers, turning the recitation into a performative language that reaches out to the beyond, a way of saying something &#8211; anything! &#8211; to fill silence and darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What a pleasure now to actually see the words themselves, and explore their mysterious content. In fact, that\u2019s what much of the psalm deals with &#8211; a love of Torah (whatever that means here), and the relationship with God expressed through it. That\u2019s how this section begins (119:97): \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">O how I love Your teaching! It is my study all day long.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All these verses start with the letter <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mem<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which can mean two things as a prefix: \u2018from\u2019, or \u2018more than\u2019. This leads to interesting translation debates. The beginning of verse 99, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mikol Melamdai Heskalti<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, can either be read as a humble \u2018I have learned from all my teachers\u2019, or a defiant \u2018I have learned more than all my teachers.\u2019 The rabbis in Pirkei Avot (4:1) used the first reading, many later translations use the second. The same happens with verse 100, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mizkeinim Etbonan<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: either \u2018I gained understanding from my elders\u2019 or \u2018I have more understanding than my elders.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maybe the ambiguity is intentional. Both these readings resonate with me as true: I\u2019ve been humbled by my teachers, and I\u2019ve been proud and cocky and dismissive. Sometimes the same teachers. At best, I\u2019m learning with my teachers, and the love for Torah and God is present all around.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"\u05de","main_caption":"Intentional Ambiguity","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"99. I have gained more insight than all my teachers, for Your decrees are my study","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\/89497"}],"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=89497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89498,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89497\/revisions\/89498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}