{"id":37266,"date":"2018-07-09T18:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T15:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1004\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T08:00:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T06:00:56","slug":"wall-1004","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1004\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20220227-to-20220305"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1004","date_from":"20220227","date_to":"20220305","book":"Genesis","books_group":"Torah","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"40128","color":"#faeed8","size":"2","name":"Genesis 16-20: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview ","post_title":"Genesis 16-20: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview","slug":"genesis-16-20-the-weekly-video-summary-and-overview","old_id":"40128","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1004","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

https:\/\/youtu.be\/CI0924XhrX8<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Whiteboard Library","tile_main_caption":"Genesis 16-20: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CI0924XhrX8","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1004"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"102610","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Pekudei: Combining Laws And Generosity ","post_title":"Pekudei: Combining Laws And Generosity","slug":"pekudei-combining-laws-and-generosity","old_id":"102610","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":49419,"post_title":"Josh Weiner","slug":"josh-weiner","old_id":"49419","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Weiner ","description":"Rabbi Josh Weiner has worked as a social worker, tour guide and kindergarten teacher. He is currently the assistant rabbi at the Adath Shalom community in Paris, teaches halacha at the Zacharias Frankel college, a new conservative rabbinical seminary in Berlin, and supports entrepreneurial Jewish education in both cities. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Rabbi Josh Weiner is currently the assistant rabbi at the Adath Shalom community in Paris and teaches halacha at the Zacharias Frankel college in Berlin.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":49420,"alt":"","title":"josh weinder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","width":360,"height":448,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","large-width":360,"large-height":448,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","1536x1536-width":360,"1536x1536-height":448,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","2048x2048-width":360,"2048x2048-height":448,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","post_full_size-width":360,"post_full_size-height":448,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-338x420.jpg","home_baner-width":338,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1004","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Like the mishkan that was built of laws and gifts, the paradoxes of the shmita system allow kindness to re-enter our economic lives. \r\n","post_main_content_content":"

This week\u2019s parasha concludes the construction of the Mishkan - the portable center of ritual life as the Israelites traveled through the desert. Several chapters dealt with God instructing Moses in how to build the Mishkan, followed by several chapters describing Moses telling the Israelites what to do. Now, in our parasha, they actually do it - everything is put together and completed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Mishkan is constructed using two types of funds: taxes and donations. Everyone, rich and poor, was required to give half a silver shekel towards the running of the Mishkan. In addition, everyone was invited to give whatever materials and however much they wanted. This combination of law and generosity is a theme that comes up in the shmita year too. While shmita is primarily concerned with ecological and social concerns around letting the land rest, there is one aspect that applies throughout the Jewish world today: <\/span>shmitat kesafim<\/span><\/em>, the remittance of debts. The basic law is simple - at the end of the shmita year, all open debts are supposed to be canceled and forgiven. We know the crippling stress that debt puts on individuals, families and even countries. The possibility to have a fresh start every seven years is liberating and beautiful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, over time, the rabbis saw that people had stopped lending money at all because of fear of the shmita year. In order to encourage them to do so, they proposed a legal loophole called the <\/span>Prozbul<\/span><\/i>. Just thinking of these two laws together opens up a delicious paradox: Jewish tradition thinks that debt is a problem, and thinks that the solution to that problem is a problem too, which is solved in order to encourage the possibility of debt again. But there\u2019s another twist, even if the <\/span>Prozbul <\/span><\/i>is not employed: the Mishnah says that \u2018the spirit of the Sages is pleased\u2019 if someone repays their debts after they were canceled. Here\u2019s a second paradox. Forgiving debts is a commandment, but giving back the money as a gift is encouraged.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jacques Derrida, a French-Jewish philosopher, wrote about the impossibility of a true gift in our world. A gift is the opposite of a transaction, but if we expect any kind of compensation for our gift - reciprocity, thanks, acknowledgement - then it becomes a transaction again. The halachic system that allows for loans of money to be repaid as true gifts is a law that makes room for kindness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Like the mishkan that was built of laws and gifts, the paradoxes of the shmita system allow kindness to re-enter our economic lives. Alongside our call for climate justice this year, let us push for economic justice and gifts of kindness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This year is the shmita year: Shmita means a sabbatical year for the Earth but also for ourselves, our communities, and our world. Each week we continue to share thoughts on how the weekly parsha can help guide our thinking around shmita themes of work and rest, wealth and debt, responsible land use, fair labor practices, private and public property ownership, and physical and spiritual revitalization.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

See here for more information on the Hazon Shmita project, and its blogs.<\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":81608,"alt":"","title":"shmita","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","width":711,"height":708,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","medium_large-width":711,"medium_large-height":708,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","large-width":711,"large-height":708,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","1536x1536-width":711,"1536x1536-height":708,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","2048x2048-width":711,"2048x2048-height":708,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","post_full_size-width":711,"post_full_size-height":708,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-422x420.jpg","home_baner-width":422,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"A Weekly Series: The \"Shmitah Parasha\" Blog","tile_main_caption":"Vayakhel: Some Striking Shabbat And Shmita Parallels","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"in conjunction with Hazon.org","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":81608,"alt":"","title":"shmita","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","width":711,"height":708,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","medium_large-width":711,"medium_large-height":708,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","large-width":711,"large-height":708,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","1536x1536-width":711,"1536x1536-height":708,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","2048x2048-width":711,"2048x2048-height":708,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita.jpg","post_full_size-width":711,"post_full_size-height":708,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shmita-422x420.jpg","home_baner-width":422,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1004"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":3,"id":"36706","color":"#f6f5de","size":"1","name":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take I ","post_title":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take I","slug":"the-original-handmaids-tale-take-i","old_id":"36706","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36147,"post_title":"Aaron Koller","slug":"aaron-koller","old_id":"36147","first_name":"Aaron","last_name":"Koller","description":"Aaron Koller is professor of Near Eastern studies at Yeshiva University, where he is chair of the Beren Department of Jewish Studies. His last book was Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press), and his next is Unbinding Isaac: The Akedah in Jewish Thought (forthcoming from JPS\/University of Nebraska Press in 2020); he is also the author of numerous studies in Semitic philology. Aaron has served as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and held research fellowships at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research and the Hartman Institute. 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\u2026 Sarai called Hagar in after breakfast, in a manner the teenager had never seen before. Normally imposing, regal, commanding, Sarai was now tentative, almost deferential. It made Hagar feel strangely sure of herself to see her mistress so unsure. The feeling got stronger when she heard was Sarai wanted from her: Hagar was to try to have a child with Abram. There was a fine line between serving someone and doing something that person couldn\u2019t do alone, and Hagar knew she had just crossed it. She felt a tingling feeling, a sense that she had, for the first time in her life, just a bit of power.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

That feeling disappeared that night. She had long dreamed of what a relationship with a man would be like, and this was not it. No one asked her what she wanted, no one was attentive to her needs. The fact that this was her first time with a man was on no one\u2019s mind. She was ushered in by Sarai, and ushered out a few minutes later, also by Sarai. She felt confused. She felt used. She felt abused.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar had never really thought that her body was her own, but she thought that had limits. Her hands, her legs, even her head \u2013 those were all in the control of others. But she had imagined that being a mother would be something all her own, or to be shared with a partner of her choosing or done alone. But now even that was taken from her. She was to be a reproductive machine with no identity of her own, a vessel for her master\u2019s seed and her mistress\u2019s child. The most wondrous of live-giving experiences was stripped of its beauty, and Hagar was turned into a machine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As she felt the stirrings of life within her, Hagar felt empowered and betrayed. She <\/span>was<\/span><\/em> Atum, creating life from her body, but she was not even Hagar. The child growing within her \u2013 <\/span>her<\/span><\/em> child! \u2013 would not be hers. She would have to serve her own child, never hearing him call her \u201cMut,\u201d never being allowed to hug him before bed or kiss him when he got back from a trip. This was all too much to bear.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar began to make comments to Sarai that she knew she would regret. \u201cAre you looking forward to being a mother?\u201d \u201cWill all your friends be so happy that you\u2019re finally having a baby?\u201d \u201cSo, what will you name my child?\u201d Sarai was silent, always silent. Hagar felt terrible, but it was the only weapon she had.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Then the beatings began. \u2026<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":36809,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1088812106","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","width":4684,"height":6504,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-737x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":737,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-737x1024.jpg","large-width":737,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","1536x1536-width":1106,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","2048x2048-width":1475,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-864x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":864,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take I","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Everything was taken from her to create life for others","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":36809,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1088812106","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","width":4684,"height":6504,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-737x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":737,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-737x1024.jpg","large-width":737,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","1536x1536-width":1106,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106.jpg","2048x2048-width":1475,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-864x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":864,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812106-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"16","chapter_main_number":"16","date":"20250921","wall_id":"16"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"445","name":"Fiction","old_id":"845"}]},{"order":4,"id":"36708","color":"#efefef","size":"1","name":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take II ","post_title":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take II","slug":"the-original-handmaids-tale-take-ii","old_id":"36708","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34235,"post_title":"Marc Gitler","slug":"marc-gitler","old_id":"34235","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Gitler","description":"Rabbi Marc Gitler, a recipient of the Wexner Fellowship, was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and earned an MPA from NYU . 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Head down Abraham slowly approaches the tent.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Abraham: Hagar can I come in?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar: yes you may. Asking, that is ironic.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Abraham: Hagar, I am so so sorry, I never...<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar, Interrupting: Don\u2019t call me that. My name is Asheyet, that is the name my parents gave me, a princess of Egypt. I responded to Hagar, because I had to act like a ger<\/em>, like a stranger to myself to continue with all the oppression I went through.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Abraham: I am sorry Asheyet, I just didn\u2019t know, I didn\u2019t understand until I watched tonight. Until I saw June\u2019s pain. It was a different time, there were different rules and regulations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar: But you were so kind to strangers who showed up at your door. So merciful to the wicked of Sodom, so ahead of your time, where was your intuition, your prescience with me?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Abraham: You are right. All too often we are compassionate to those at a distance, and so cruel to those closest. We just wanted a son. We left our homeland, followed God\u2019s promises. But nothing happened. Sarah just thought that when you came into our lives it was God\u2019s way of finally granting us a son. And then it worked, we named the son \u201cYishmael,\u201d believing that it had worked that God had granted us the child. I am so so sorry, that you were just a tool for us to realize our dreams, and sorrier that more than 3,000 years have passed before I realized our error: when women don\u2019t control their bodies, then they are not equal.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hagar: I suffered and endured, but I listened to God. The child was named \u201cYishmael,\u201d but not due to your cries, or Sarah\u2019s tears but because God heard <\/span>my suffering<\/b>. I listened to the angel and went back and absorbed the suffering. Was it worth it, that is not for today, and anyway I see Sally Hemmings is at my door.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":36811,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1088812118","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","width":4809,"height":6692,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-736x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":736,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-736x1024.jpg","large-width":736,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","1536x1536-width":1104,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","2048x2048-width":1472,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-862x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":862,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Original Handmaid's Tale: Take II - A Look Back","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Blessed be the fruit?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":36811,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_1088812118","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","width":4809,"height":6692,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-736x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":736,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-736x1024.jpg","large-width":736,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","1536x1536-width":1104,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118.jpg","2048x2048-width":1472,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-862x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":862,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1088812118-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"16","chapter_main_number":"16","date":"20250921","wall_id":"16"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"445","name":"Fiction","old_id":"845"}]},{"order":5,"id":"36712","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Sarah\u2019s Projection ","post_title":"Sarah\u2019s Projection","slug":"sarahs-projection","old_id":"36712","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36151,"post_title":"Ariel Milan-Polisar","slug":"ariel-milan-polisar","old_id":"36151","first_name":"Ariel ","last_name":"Milan-Polisar","description":"Ariel Milan-Polisar is a 3rd year rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. 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In Genesis 16, we learn that Sarai is barren, and she gives Hagar to her husband Abram so that they might have children. \u00a0As one might expect, Sarai quickly regrets this decision upon learning that Hagar is pregnant. In expressing the reason for her regret, she uses unexpected language - \u05d5\u05d0\u05e7\u05dc \u05d1\u05e2\u05d9\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4 (V\u2019ekal b\u2019eineha<\/em>), \u201cI am lowered in her eyes.\u201d \u00a0Sarai believes that Hagar thinks less of her, because she allowed her husband to impregnate Hagar. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

There is no way for us to know that this is the case, because Hagar never says this outright. Therefore the only way we know what Hagar is feeling, is through Sarai\u2019s assumption. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, I don\u2019t believe that Hagar actually thought less of Sarai. Rather, Sarai is projecting. Sarai saw herself as less-than, and was thus disappointed in herself. However, instead of acknowledging that, she projected her own feelings onto Hagar. We do this all the time. In moments of personal insecurity, we often tell ourselves that other people will think ill of us. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In reality, we are the ones who are feeling or thinking this way. It is much easier for us to put those feelings of disappointment on others, than to face disappointing ourselves. Perception is reality; if we don\u2019t check our perceptions, they can damage and alter our reality, our relationships, and our self-perception. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

We must learn from Sarai and be introspective; when we assume others are judging us, we should look inward and figure out from where these feelings come. \u00a0Perhaps if Sarai knew that it was she who felt disappointed, not Hagar, she might not have treated Hagar harshly. This type of negative ripple effect is important to avoid in order to maintain honest and open relationships with ourselves and with others.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":37331,"alt":"","title":"hagar-abraham","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","width":629,"height":209,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham-300x100.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":100,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","medium_large-width":629,"medium_large-height":209,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","large-width":629,"large-height":209,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","1536x1536-width":629,"1536x1536-height":209,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","2048x2048-width":629,"2048x2048-height":209,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","post_full_size-width":629,"post_full_size-height":209,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","home_baner-width":629,"home_baner-height":209}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Sarah\u2019s 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Sarah\u2026","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":37331,"alt":"","title":"hagar-abraham","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","width":629,"height":209,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham-300x100.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":100,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","medium_large-width":629,"medium_large-height":209,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","large-width":629,"large-height":209,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","1536x1536-width":629,"1536x1536-height":209,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","2048x2048-width":629,"2048x2048-height":209,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","post_full_size-width":629,"post_full_size-height":209,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/hagar-abraham.jpg","home_baner-width":629,"home_baner-height":209}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"16","chapter_main_number":"16","date":"20250921","wall_id":"16"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"386","name":"Psychology","old_id":"786"},{"term_id":"427","name":"Sarah","old_id":"827"}]},{"order":6,"id":"36697","color":"#f6edf6","size":"2","name":"Abraham 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Muslim View of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael","post_main_content_content":"

We Muslims revere the Prophet Abraham: \"Ibrahim Abuna,\" Abraham our Father. For us, he is the father of all prophets. For that reason we mention his name in all five daily prayers. As everyone knows, he was born and lived much of his life in present-day Iraq, and called to cease the worship of statues and stars, and believe solely in the one God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Nimrod, the king of Iraq, commanded that our Prophet Abraham of blessed memory, be burned, but God saved him from the furnace. King Nimrod released him, and Abraham left Iraq for the holy blessed soil of the Holy Land (Israel-Palestine). His wife Sarah accompanied him on the journey.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From there Abraham went down to Egypt, and there confronted Pharaoh who tried to molest Sarah. God saved Sarah from Pharaoh, who released the two of them, and gave Sarah Hagar as a handmaiden. The three of them then returned to the Holy Land.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Since Abraham was old, and Sarah was beyond child-bearing years, Sarah allowed Abraham to marry Hagar. When Hagar became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Ishmael, Sarah became jealous of Hagar. God commanded Abraham our Father to take Hagar and her son Ishmael to the desert. There he left them, because God wanted to bless Ishmael and make him the leader of a very great nation. Abraham our Father fulfilled God's wishes. He would visit them frequently there in the desert, concerning himself with their well-being, until he died and was buried in Hebron.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Abraham Father of Us All","tile_main_caption":"We Muslims revere the Prophet Abraham: \"Ibrahim Abuna,\" Abraham our Father. For us, he is the father of all prophets.","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"16","chapter_main_number":"16","date":"20250921","wall_id":"16"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"418","name":"Abraham","old_id":"818"},{"term_id":"446","name":"Islam","old_id":"846"}]},{"order":7,"id":"37195","color":"#efefef","size":"2","name":"Looking Back at Lot's Wife ","post_title":"Looking Back at Lot's Wife","slug":"looking-back-at-lots-wife","old_id":"37195","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37187,"post_title":"Rebecca Newberger Goldstein","slug":"rebecca-newberger-goldstein","old_id":"37187","first_name":"Rebecca","last_name":"Newberger Goldstein","description":"Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher and a novelist. She received her PhD in philosophy from Princeton, and is the author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction. She has received numerous awards, including both a Guggenheim and a MacArthur Fellowship. in 2015 she received the National Humanities Medal for \"bringing philosophy into conversation with culture.\"","short_description":"Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher and a novelist.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37190,"alt":"","title":"rebecca n goldstein","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","width":265,"height":328,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691-242x300.png","medium-width":242,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","medium_large-width":265,"medium_large-height":328,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","large-width":265,"large-height":328,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","1536x1536-width":265,"1536x1536-height":328,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","2048x2048-width":265,"2048x2048-height":328,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-e1533674875691.png","post_full_size-width":265,"post_full_size-height":328,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/rebecca-n-goldstein-315x420.png","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"19","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"She was turned into salt either because God couldn\u2019t forgive her this desire . . . or because He could","post_main_content_content":"

Rabbi David Kimchi (a thirteenth-century exegete known by the acronym Radak) points out that in Genesis it is sulfur and fire that are said to have rained down on Sodom. But in Deuteronomy, when Moses, before dying, warns the children of Israel not to repeat the sins of the past, he speaks of sulfur and salt as having been poured onto the doomed city. In the course of explaining the discrepancy, Radak says that in fact all the people of Sodom became pillars of salt. The outcome of the physical devastation wrought upon Sodom was that the place itself became sulfur, while the people became salt.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hence\u2014at least if one follows Radak\u2014it seems that Lot\u2019s wife was not the spectacular aberration I had always thought. Her fate was continuous with those who had been left behind. Suddenly I felt the whole story of Lot\u2019s wife shifting.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

She was told not to look and she looked, says the Bible. And her punishment came swift and horrible, added my teacher, following the traditional interpretation I, too, had thought inevitable. But I read the story differently now: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

She looked back to see if her two firstborn daughters were following, and she saw that they weren\u2019t and what had become of them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In such a moment of grief one knows only one desire: to follow after one\u2019s child, to experience what she\u2019s experienced, to be one with her in every aspect of suffering. Only to be one with her. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And it was for this desire that she was turned into a pillar of salt. She was turned into salt either because God couldn\u2019t forgive her this desire . . . or because he could.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(Excerpted and reprinted with permission from the essay \u201cLooking Back at Lot\u2019s Wife,\u201d in: <\/span>Reading Genesis Beginnings<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Beth Kissileff, editor, Bloomsbury, 2016, p. 113).<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61050,"alt":"","title":"2sam21-grief","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Looking Back at Lot's Wife","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"She was turned into salt either because God couldn\u2019t forgive her this desire . . . or because He could","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61050,"alt":"","title":"2sam21-grief","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"19","chapter_main_number":"19","date":"20250924","wall_id":"19"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"366","name":"Commentators","old_id":"766"},{"term_id":"428","name":"Parent","old_id":"828"},{"term_id":"459","name":"Forgiveness","old_id":"859"}]},{"order":8,"id":"36912","color":"#f2e9df","size":"2","name":"It Cuts Both Ways ","post_title":"It Cuts Both Ways","slug":"it-cuts-both-ways","old_id":"36912","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36149,"post_title":"Shai Secunda","slug":"shai-secunda","old_id":"36149","first_name":"Shai ","last_name":"Secunda","description":"Shai Secunda occupies the Jacob Neusner chair in Judaism at Bard College, where he directs the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions program. He is the author of The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Sasanian Iran (Philadelphia, 2014), and The Talmud\u2019s Red Fence: Menstruation and Difference in Babylonian Judaism and its Sasanian Context (Oxford, 2020), and writes regularly for the Jewish Review of Books on Jewish scholarship and culture.","short_description":"Shai Secunda is a professor of Jewish studies at Bard College, and writes regularly for the Jewish Review of Books on Jewish scholarship and culture. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36150,"alt":"","title":"Shai Secunda","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599.jpg","width":1202,"height":1287,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-280x300.jpg","medium-width":280,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-768x822.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":822,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-956x1024.jpg","large-width":956,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599.jpg","1536x1536-width":1202,"1536x1536-height":1287,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599.jpg","2048x2048-width":1202,"2048x2048-height":1287,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-1121x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1121,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Shai-Secunda-e1532842797599-392x420.jpg","home_baner-width":392,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"17","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Your people claim you in birth and in death","post_main_content_content":"

The great American novelist, Philip Roth, had a complex relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people. To begin with, he was an atheist (though one of Judaism\u2019s secrets is its uncanny ability to absorb an endless array of permutations, including professing against the faith). As for peoplehood, Roth\u2019s early work was seen by the American Jewish community as a betrayal; it had the unforgivable timing of appearing only shortly after six million Jews were exterminated in Europe. Yet Roth\u2019s voice remained a Jewish voice, documenting the aches and breaks of the American Jewish immigrant experience, and weighing in on Jewish life, most successfully through the ventriloquism of fiction. In this way, Roth took on the specter of circumcision and its meaning for secular Jews with sharp profundity:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Circumcision makes it clear as can be that you are here and not there, that you are out and not in \u2013 also that you\u2019re mine and not theirs...Quite convincingly, circumcision gives the lie to the womb-dream of life in the beautiful state of innocent prehistory, the appealing idyll of living \u2018naturally,\u2019 unencumbered by man-made ritual. To be born is to lose all that. The heavy hand of human values falls upon you right at the start, marking your genitals as its own.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I often think of this passage, from <\/span>The Counterlife <\/span><\/i>(1986), when reading God\u2019s demand that Abraham and his male progeny circumcise themselves. It may seem that the cited approach here is a modern re-interpretation of an ancient ritual, but to my mind, it perfectly captures <\/span>milah<\/span><\/em>\u2019s<\/em> early, primitive truth. Circumcision reminds us of the persistent, primal claims that traditions, like Judaism, make of its people, whether they like it or not.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Roth died this spring and was buried in the Bard College cemetery. Supposedly, he chose that Hudson Valley idyll as his final resting place in order to be close to Hannah Arendt \u2013 another great Jew who had a tortured relationship with the Jewish people. Roth\u2019s funeral was a thoroughly secular affair, and yet I am confident that pilgrims to his grave will practice the Jewish custom of placing rocks on his tombstone, just as they do for Arendt. During life, we have the freedom, or at least its illusion, to chart our own path. But your people claim you in birth and in death.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":37126,"alt":"","title":"roth's books","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","width":3961,"height":2247,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-300x170.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":170,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-768x436.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":436,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-1024x581.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":581,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":871,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1162,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-1200x681.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":681,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-740x420.jpg","home_baner-width":740,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"It Cuts Both Ways","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Your people claim you in birth and in death","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":37126,"alt":"","title":"roth's books","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","width":3961,"height":2247,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-300x170.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":170,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-768x436.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":436,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-1024x581.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":581,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":871,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1162,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-1200x681.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":681,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/roths-books-e1533652582527-740x420.jpg","home_baner-width":740,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"17","chapter_main_number":"17","date":"20250922","wall_id":"17"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"384","name":"God","old_id":"784"},{"term_id":"445","name":"Fiction","old_id":"845"},{"term_id":"448","name":"Ritual","old_id":"848"}]},{"order":9,"id":"37234","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"The Birth of Jewish Continuity ","post_title":"The Birth of Jewish Continuity","slug":"the-birth-of-jewish-continuity","old_id":"37234","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33859,"post_title":"Avidan Freedman","slug":"avidan-freedman","old_id":"33859","first_name":"Avidan","last_name":"Freedman","description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. He is an activist advocating for moral limits on Israeli arms exports, and on behalf of African refugees, and a proud husband and father of 5. He received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, and from the Israeli chief rabbinate.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. ","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33860,"alt":"Avidan Freedman","title":"Avidan Freedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","width":856,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-251x300.jpg","medium-width":251,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-768x919.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":919,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-856x1024.jpg","large-width":856,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","1536x1536-width":856,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","2048x2048-width":856,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-351x420.jpg","home_baner-width":351,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"20","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Jewish continuity can also be ensured by turning outwards and beyond ourselves","post_main_content_content":"

A mundane story of misunderstandings seems to hold the key to Jewish continuity. God promised Abraham the child who will continue his mission a full five chapters ago. So what's the hold up? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The rabbis have a fascinating insight. The birth of Isaac is immediately preceded by chapter 20's story of the encounter with Abimelech, reminiscent of the story with Pharaoh in chapter 12, but with some significant differences. Most striking, perhaps, is that in chapter 12, people speak to each other, but there is no real conversation. Abraham speaks to Sarah, Pharaoh to Abraham, but we never hear any response. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Chapter 20, on the other hand, there is real dialogue. God warns Abimelech, Abimelech responds with his own criticism, and God explains Himself. Abimelech criticizes Abraham, but also questions him, and Abraham responds. The dialogue begins harshly, but gradually softens, culminating with Abraham turning in prayer to God on behalf of Abimelech and his family. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The midrash teaches suggests that it was this prayer, this ability to empathize with the suffering of an Other, and even one who caused great anguish, is what opens the door for Abraham and Sarah's own prayers for a child to be answered. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

We often feel that the key to Jewish continuity needs to be a turn inwards, and even a certain closing off from the outside, and certainly there is truth and wisdom in this stance. But Abraham teaches us that, paradoxically, Jewish continuity can also be ensured by the confidence and faith that it takes to transcend our own needs and to turn outwards and beyond ourselves in prayer and action. <\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52336,"alt":"","title":"dt32-chain","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","width":1920,"height":1002,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-300x157.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":157,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-768x401.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":401,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-1024x534.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":534,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":802,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1002,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-1200x626.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":626,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-805x420.jpg","home_baner-width":805,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"

Isaac Isaacsz, Pharaoh Returns Sarah to Abraham (Abimelech, King of Gerar, Restores Sarah to Abraham), 1640. Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Accessed at: https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/en\/tools\/image-gallery\/a\/abraham-sarah-pharaoh<\/p>","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Birth of Jewish Continuity","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Jewish continuity can also be ensured by turning outwards and beyond ourselves","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":52336,"alt":"","title":"dt32-chain","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","width":1920,"height":1002,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-300x157.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":157,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-768x401.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":401,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-1024x534.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":534,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":802,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1002,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-1200x626.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":626,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-chain-805x420.jpg","home_baner-width":805,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Isaac Isaacsz, Pharaoh Returns Sarah to Abraham (Abimelech, King of Gerar, Restores Sarah to Abraham), 1640. Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Accessed at: https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/en\/tools\/image-gallery\/a\/abraham-sarah-pharaoh","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"20","chapter_main_number":"20","date":"20250925","wall_id":"20"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"418","name":"Abraham","old_id":"818"},{"term_id":"433","name":"Other","old_id":"833"},{"term_id":"437","name":"Prayer","old_id":"837"}]},{"order":10,"id":"36906","color":"#f6f5de","size":"1","name":"Are Women Excluded From the Covenant? ","post_title":"Are Women Excluded From the Covenant?","slug":"are-women-excluded-from-the-covenant","old_id":"36906","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36841,"post_title":"Efrat Gerber-Aran","slug":"efrat-gerber-aran","old_id":"36841","first_name":"Efrat ","last_name":"Gerber-Aran ","description":"Efrat Gerber-Aran is an analyst, a writing seminar facilitator and social activist, who holds an undergraduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies and a Master\u2019s Degree in literature. Her research interests are in modern women\u2019s midrashim as an expression of modern Orthodox feminism in Israel.\r\n","short_description":"Efrat Gerber-Aran is an analyst, a writing seminar facilitator and social activist","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36842,"alt":"","title":"efrat gerber-aran","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","width":150,"height":150,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","medium-width":150,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":150,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","large-width":150,"large-height":150,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":150,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":150,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":150,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/efrat-gerber-aran.png","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":150}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"17","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Blessed is the Circumcision of the Heart","post_main_content_content":"

It is not that I am in favor of female circumcision (I am against it), but when I read Genesis Chapter 17, I cannot ignore the gender problem that arises from the commandment to perform circumcision. \u00a0Women do not participate in the covenant between God and the children of Abraham, and I would like to propose a midrash that will give an alternative understanding of circumcision.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the Torah of Moses we are told \u201cevery male among you shall be circumcised\u201d (Genesis 17:10), and it says, \"that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you\" (17:11). \u00a0Our (male) Sages said: \u201cJust as circumcising the foreskin applies only to males, so too does the covenant that is \u2018between Me and you\u2019 apply only to males.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our female Sages objected: \u201cDoes the covenant really apply only to men? About Sarah the Torah states: \u2018I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations\u2019 (17:16), in order to teach us that God\u2019s blessing applies to both males and in females.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The men concurred with the women sages and said: \u201cCircumcision of the foreskin applies only to males, while the covenant \u2018between Me and you\u2019 applies to males and females alike.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And what is the covenant that applies to both males and females?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is <\/span>milat halev<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> the circumcision of the heart, as it is written: \"Cut away, therefore, the foreskin of your hearts\" (Deuteronomy 10:16).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And what does <\/span>milat halev<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>circumcision of the heart mean? \u00a0This is prayer, as it says: \"What is the service of God that is performed in the heart? It is prayer\u201d (Taanit 2a). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

From now on, do not say, \"Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your hearts,\" but rather \"and you shall verbalize (make into \u2018milah<\/em>\u2019 a word, instead of a circumcision, \u2018milah<\/em>\u2019) your heart.\" In other words, by virtue of the words we utter, our heart becomes a heart that feels and understands. \u00a0It sees the people around us and understands their pain.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

At a covenantal birth ceremony, whether for a girl or a boy, we should pray - \"May it be Your will, that You circumcise the thickening of our hearts so that we shall see the other, the weak and the estranged, who are nevertheless created in Your image according to Your likeness. \u00a0Grant this baby girl or baby boy a heart that feels and understands. Blessed are You, God, who circumcises our hearts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":68454,"alt":"","title":"is58-heart-hand","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","width":1280,"height":1230,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-300x288.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":288,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-768x738.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":738,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-1024x984.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":984,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1230,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1230,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-1200x1153.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1153,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-437x420.png","home_baner-width":437,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Are Women Excluded From the Covenant?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Blessed is the Circumcision of the Heart","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":68454,"alt":"","title":"is58-heart-hand","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","width":1280,"height":1230,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-300x288.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":288,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-768x738.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":738,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-1024x984.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":984,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1230,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1230,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-1200x1153.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1153,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is58-heart-hand-437x420.png","home_baner-width":437,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"17","chapter_main_number":"17","date":"20250922","wall_id":"17"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"365","name":"Gender","old_id":"765"},{"term_id":"386","name":"Psychology","old_id":"786"},{"term_id":"447","name":"Heart","old_id":"847"}]},{"order":11,"id":"36985","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"What\u2019s the Real Reason Sarah Laughed? ","post_title":"What\u2019s the Real Reason Sarah Laughed?","slug":"whats-the-real-reason-sarah-laughed","old_id":"36985","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33942,"post_title":"Hagit Bartuv","slug":"hagit-bartuv","old_id":"33942","first_name":"Hagit","last_name":"Bartuv","description":"Hagit Bartuv is the project and content leader of the Srigim initiative on Israeli moshavim whose goal is to enrich moshavim with more Jewish-Israeli culture. In 2013, as a modern Orthodox woman, she challenged the conversion court in Israel after she refused to accept their demand that she send her adopted child to an ultra-Orthodox pre-school. In the end, the court ruled in her favor and agreed to convert the child even though he would be educated in a secular preschool.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Hagit Bartuv is the project and content leader of the Srigim initiative on Israeli moshavim","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33944,"alt":"","title":"\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea \u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","width":335,"height":335,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","medium_large-width":335,"medium_large-height":335,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","large-width":335,"large-height":335,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","1536x1536-width":335,"1536x1536-height":335,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","2048x2048-width":335,"2048x2048-height":335,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","post_full_size-width":335,"post_full_size-height":335,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/\u05d7\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea-\u05d1\u05e8\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1.jpg","home_baner-width":335,"home_baner-height":335}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"18","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"To return to the place in a woman\u2019s soul where motherhood is born","post_main_content_content":"

\"I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!\" (Genesis 18:10). Why was this bit of news necessary?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Imagine that you received such a message: that what you had hoped for, and had cried for, and was upset about, and lost your temper about, and despaired of, is about to happen in the face of all logic and nature. What would you feel, what kind of emotional turmoil would you find yourself in? And of what is the benefit of Sarah entering this tension of excitement and anxiety and hope and preparation for disappointment and joy and distrust? Every fertility doctor will tell you that this emotional intensity is not what it takes to get pregnant. If Sarah had become pregnant without this news, it would have been clear to her and to Abraham and to the entire world that this was a miracle from God. \u00a0So why did God take the trouble to deliver this news?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When God delivered the news to Abraham and Sarah overhead it, she laughed; for what else could she do in this emotional frenzy?! \u00a0It is surprising, then, that God called her to task for laughing and demanded that she explain her laughter.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps the reason is that God wanted to open in Sarah's heart a place to continue yearning for a child, a place that had already been closed up and sealed, so that she could make room for this miraculous pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Sarah laughed and God insisted on discussing this laughter with her, maybe God wanted to force her to ask herself: really, why did I laugh? Perhaps God wanted to compel her to examine the complex emotions that such news engenders and thus enable her? Perhaps God wanted to help her to believe in life once again.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":94002,"alt":"","title":"job10-mother baby 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37013,"alt":"","title":"leah sarna","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401.jpeg","width":1532,"height":2001,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-150x150.jpeg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-230x300.jpeg","medium-width":230,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-768x1003.jpeg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1003,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-784x1024.jpeg","large-width":784,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401.jpeg","1536x1536-width":1176,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401.jpeg","2048x2048-width":1532,"2048x2048-height":2001,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-919x1200.jpeg","post_full_size-width":919,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/leah-sarna-e1533548528401-322x420.jpeg","home_baner-width":322,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"18","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Leave your own needs at the door","post_main_content_content":"

Just out of surgery, Abraham sits at the entrance to his tent. \u00a0Like any sick person, he feels not just the physical hurt, but the existential anxiety of being off schedule-- there is work to be done, and here he is, sitting around, healing. And then God appears: a visitor. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Sotah 14b, Rabbi Hama b. Rabbi Hanina ponders what the verse means when it commands us to walk in the ways of God, and concludes that it means to emulate God\u2019s attributes. As an example, Rabbi Hama points to our chapter and recommends: God visited the sick, so too we should visit the sick.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

God appeared to Abraham in this chapter to give neither commandment nor covenant, but comfort. \u00a0And, as far as we know, no words were exchanged. God appeared, and then there were others guests to attend to\u2014and that\u2019s the end of the visit as the Torah tells it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This does not seem like a particularly dignified visit. Abraham left the presence of God to go speak to some other, flesh and blood visitors?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And yet\u2014this is what it means to visit the sick. To show up in the worst of times and, sometimes, to leave quickly, at the convenience of the visited, even if the visitor feels unfulfilled. It helps as a visitor to remember that this is the way of God. Show up for the other; leave your own needs at the door. 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A story about daughters and their father, and about Israel and two neighbor nations<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Are Lot's nameless daughters mad or sane? Getting their father drunk so they can couple with him and steal his sperm?! Leaving aside, momentarily, the question what they thought was happening in the rest of the world, and why they thought this was the only chance for them to procreate, I'll focus on the matter of them raping their father.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

On one hand, is this not an act of revenge against their own father who was willing to throw them to the howling mob for the sole purpose of gang rape? But \u2013 why would <\/span>their<\/span><\/em> raping their sorry excuse for a father satisfy that need? Seeing it thus would, at most, present the <\/span>poetic<\/span><\/em> justice of their acts, \"measure for measure\", meted out to the \"Righteous Man of Sodom\", but would not give a victim the lost sense of protection and vindication she needs.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Aside from the obvious fact that this story is clearly told from a male perspective, we must recognize that its purpose is external to itself: Abravanel says: \u00a0\"This story was told to teach the closeness of these two nations, Ammon and Moab, with Israel, and therefore [i.e., lest we get too chummy with them] The Blessed One commanded \"No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord ... \" (Deut. 23:4).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We can bring proof for this understanding of the story of Lot and his daughters from the preceding verse in Deuteronomy 23:2 which states that \"no one <\/span>misbegotten<\/span><\/em> shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If so, the story in Genesis 19 is not about the pursuit of justice revenge by the daughters of Lot, but an etiological story which explains the necessary future estrangement, and frequently, animosity, between Israel and its two cousin \u2013 nations. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Lot and His Daughters by Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1635-38 \/ 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","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34232,"alt":"","title":"Jeremy Benstein","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Presentation1-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"20","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"\u05d1\u05e2\u05dc - Ba\u2019al - Storm God, Master, Owner - Husband?","post_main_content_content":"

Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, \u201cYou are to die because of the woman that you have taken, for she is \u05d1\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05ea \u05d1\u05e2\u05dc, <\/span>be\u2019ulat ba\u2019al<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> a married woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

You'd think that linguistic vestiges of pagan gods would have been eradicated in monotheistic Judaism, and in its tribal language Hebrew, long ago. But Ba\u2019al, the ancient Canaanite sky god (<\/span>see eg I Kings 18, for the duel at high noon between Elijah and the prophets of Ba\u2019al<\/span>), actually crops up in a number of surprising contexts.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For instance, given that the land of \u00a0Canaan\/Israel has no Nile or Tigris or Euphrates to depend on for water, Ba'al was a pretty significant god, a sort of Zeus-like head cheese of the Near Eastern pantheon. To this day in Israel, non-irrigated or rain-fed crops are called <\/span>chaklaut ba'al<\/span><\/em> \u2013 \"baal agriculture.\" So much for the eradication of paganism!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The word <\/span>ba'al<\/span><\/em> sometimes was used in combination, as in the demonic Beelzebub, from <\/span>ba'al zevuv<\/span><\/em> (see 2 Kings 1), meaning literally \"Lord of the Flies,\" which inspired the William Golding novel of that name.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What do gods do? They fight, conquer, take possession, and rule. And when the sky god is male (as most are), and the personification of earth is female (just think Mother Earth), it's no coincidence that this image was taken for the title and role of the traditional husband, and more generally, an owner or master of anyone, or anything.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The act of \u05d1\u05e2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d4 <\/span>be\u2019ilah<\/em> <\/span>means \"to have carnal relations with,\u201d and it can have both positive connotations of love and devotion, or negative ones, of conquest. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

For instance, in the following, <\/span>be\u2019ilah<\/em> <\/span>means redemption: \u201cNevermore shall you be called \u2018Forsaken,\u2019 Nor shall your land be called \u2018Desolate\u2019; But you shall be called <\/span>cheftzi-bah<\/em> <\/span>\u2018I delight in her,\u2019 And your land <\/span>be'ulah<\/em> <\/span>\u2018Espoused.\u2019 For the LORD takes delight in you, And your land shall be espoused\u201d (Isaiah 62:4). This verse gives us the English given name Beulah.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

On the other hand, while \u201cespousal\u201d is nice (certainly better than \u201cforsaken\u201d and \u201cdesolate\u201d), the word <\/span>ba\u2019al<\/em> <\/span>is left both with its pagan connotations, and the idea of ownership. \u05d1\u05e2\u05dc \u05d4\u05d1\u05d9\u05ea, <\/span>ba\u2019al habayit<\/span><\/em>, is \u201cowner of the house,\u201d the lord of the manor, as it were. <\/span>In Yiddish, pronounced <\/span>balabus<\/span><\/em>, this acquires the additional connotation of middle-class, bourgeois gentry. The woman of the house is the <\/span>balabuste<\/span><\/em>, \"<\/span>hausfrau<\/span><\/em>,\" a strong, competent, often dominant, woman (only coincidentally sounding remarkably like \"ball-buster\").<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Those looking for non-patriarchal terminology need go no further than the prophet Hosea. His version of redemption goes like this: \u201c\u2018And in that day,\u2019 declares the LORD: \u2018You will call [Me] Ishi <\/em>(i.e., \u201cmy man,\u201d) And no more will you call Me Ba\u2019ali <\/em>(my lord). For I will remove the names of the Ba\u2019alim from her mouth, And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name\u2019\u201d (Hosea 2: 18-19). This has been a great prooftext for reformers of contemporary Hebrew to use less sexist terminology.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ba'al<\/em> <\/span>can also refer to possessing different qualities or attributes. For instance, a newly-religious Jew is known as a <\/span>ba'al teshuvah<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> a \"master of repentance,\" or \"BT\" for short. The founder of the 18th century movement of Hasidism was the Ba'al Shem Tov, \"master of the Good Name,\" probably meaning that he knew how to magically use God's name in working miracles. But Mrs. Ba'al Shem Tov might have married him just to have \"a husband with a good name.\"<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":102544,"alt":"","title":"-621df2a91d1ca--621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi baal.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","width":960,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","large-width":960,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":960,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":960,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":960,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"MiliMiliM - 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