{"id":62807,"date":"2018-07-09T17:44:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1062\/"},"modified":"2023-04-14T13:36:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T10:36:54","slug":"wall-1062","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1062\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20230409-to-20230415"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1062","date_from":"20230409","date_to":"20230415","book":"II Kings","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"44888","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Aaron's Silence, Aaron's Comfort ","post_title":"Aaron's Silence, Aaron's Comfort","slug":"aarons-silence-aarons-comfort","old_id":"44888","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34285,"post_title":"Tammy Jacobowitz","slug":"tammy-jacobowitz","old_id":"34285","first_name":"Tammy ","last_name":"Jacobowitz ","description":"Dr. Tammy Jacobowitz is the chair of the Tanakh department at the SAR High School in Riverdale, NY, and is the founding director of Makom Ba'Siach at SAR, an immersive adult education program for parents. She has taught Bible for the Wexner Heritage program, and she is also an adjunct faculty member of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, where she teaches the Pedagogy of Tanakh. \r\nShe received her BA in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, is a graduate of the Drisha Institute's Scholars Circle, and completed her PhD in Midrash at the University of Pennsylania in 2010 as a Wexner Graduate fellow. Dr. Jacobowitz is currently at work on a parsha book, geared towards parents reading to young children. Her research interests include the spiritualizing tactics of Midrash, gender and the body in the Bible and Rabbinics, purity and impurity, and the contemporary use of Midrash. She lives in Teaneck, NJ with her husband, Ronnie Perelis, and their four children.","short_description":"Dr. Tammy Jacobowitz is the chair of the Tanakh department at the SAR High School in Riverdale, NY,","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34286,"alt":"","title":"tammy j","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","width":512,"height":768,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","medium_large-width":512,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","large-width":512,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","1536x1536-width":512,"1536x1536-height":768,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","2048x2048-width":512,"2048x2048-height":768,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j.jpg","post_full_size-width":512,"post_full_size-height":768,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tammy-j-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"100","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"His sons have been taken \u2013 but how can he grieve?","post_main_content_content":"

As the dedication for the mishkan draws to a close, all eyes are fixed on Aaron. He steps forward to the altar, consecrating it with the opening offerings. With his hands lifted high, Aaron blesses the assembly; alone at first, then joined by Moses, his brother and guide. Fire erupts on the altar and the entire assembly perceives the divine presence. \u201cAnd all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces.\u201d In certain respects, this theophany at the Tent is reminiscent of Sinai. A large crowd is in attendance; God\u2019s presence is sensed equally by all; God is, in some sense, seen by the crowd. But here at the tent, it is Aaron\u2019s moment; he, rather than Moses, brings the congregation close to God.<\/p>\r\n

At the height of Aaron\u2019s success-- in the midst of the joyous celebration -- Aaron\u2019s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, suddenly die. With all eyes locked on Aaron, his sons slip unnoticed to the altar, fire pans in hand, in search perhaps of their own, personal encounter with God. Whether their motives are pure or not, they act off script; a radical aberration to a choreographed ceremony. In response, they are taken swiftly, before God, by God.<\/p>\r\n

And Aaron, their father, trapped in his high priest garb, is silent. Some say that he is silent in stoic acceptance. He could have screamed out in horror, and no one would have judged. His voice would hardly have registered in the cacophony. He might have questioned or challenged God, as Job did. Did he suppress his paternal pain in service of the priesthood?<\/p>\r\n

Perhaps, as Leviticus Rabbah suggests, Aaron is silent -- in measured relief -- when he learns from Moses that his sons were, in fact, God-fearing. Moses explains: \u2018God had told me that His house would be sanctified by those near to Him, and I thought you or I would have the honor. Now I know that your sons are greater than the both of us.\u2019<\/p>\r\n

These words would seem to deliver a strange sort of comfort to a shaken, grieving father. But to a father whose eyes had been fixed on the altar, the people, and the presence of God, Moses\u2019 words restores his vision of his sons. He had not been watching them when they veered off script, but they were the same sons he had known and loved. Now he was free to grieve their deaths.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":105918,"alt":"","title":"-62b33a67e8538--62b33a67e8539lev10-old man grief 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Fire, Strange Death V","tile_main_caption":"Aaron's Silence, Aaron's Comfort","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"His sons have been taken \u2013 but how can he grieve?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":105918,"alt":"","title":"-62b33a67e8538--62b33a67e8539lev10-old man grief 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Enthusiastic, Too Passionate? ","post_title":"Too Enthusiastic, Too Passionate?","slug":"too-enthusiastic-too-passionate","old_id":"44807","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33923,"post_title":"Jonathan Sacks","slug":"rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks","old_id":"33923","first_name":"Jonathan ","last_name":"Sacks","description":"An international religious leader, philosopher, and award-winning author of over 35 books, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the International President of 929.\r\nRabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth years between 1991 and 2013, and was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer. Rabbi Sacks passed away on 7th November 2020, aged 72. He was one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, who bridged the religious and secular world through his ground-breaking canon of work.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z\"k (1948-2020) was the former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, and the International 929 president.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36222,"alt":"","title":"JSacks","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","width":437,"height":548,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-239x300.jpg","medium-width":239,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-768x448.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":448,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-1024x597.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":597,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","1536x1536-width":437,"1536x1536-height":548,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","2048x2048-width":437,"2048x2048-height":548,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","post_full_size-width":437,"post_full_size-height":548,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-335x420.jpg","home_baner-width":335,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"100","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Too much holiness can be a problem too","post_main_content_content":"

Clearly the Torah regards the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, the two elder sons of Aaron, as highly significant because it refers to it on no less than four occasions (Lev. 10:1-2, 16:1, Num. 3:4, 26:61). It was a shocking tragedy, occurring as it did on the day of the inauguration of the service of the Mishkan, a moment that should have been one of the great celebrations in Jewish history.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The sages themselves were puzzled by the episode. The text itself merely says that \u201cthey offered unauthorized fire [esh zarah<\/em>] before the Lord, that He had not commanded. \u00a0So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.\u201d Evidently the sages felt that there must have been something else, some further sin or character flaw, to justify so dire and drastic a punishment.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Putting together clues in the biblical text, some speculated that they were guilty of entering the Holy of Holies; that they had given a ruling of their own accord without consulting Moses or Aaron; that they had become intoxicated; that they were not properly robed; that they had not purified themselves with water from the laver; that they were so self-important that they had not married, thinking no woman was good enough for them; or that they were impatient for Moses and Aaron to die so they could become the leaders of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These are all midrashic interpretations: true, valid and important but not the plain sense of the verse. The text is clear. On each of the three occasions where their death is mentioned, the Torah says merely that they offered \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d. The sin was that they did something that had not been commanded. They did so, surely, for the highest motives. Moses said to Aaron immediately after they died that this is what God had meant when he said, \u201c\u2018Among those who are near me I will be sanctified\u201d (Lev. 10:3). A midrash says that Moses was comforting his brother by saying, \u201cThey were closer to God than you or me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The history of the word \u201centhusiasm\u201d, though, helps us understand the episode. Nadav and Avihu were \u201centhusiasts\u201d, not in the contemporary sense but in the sense in which the word was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Enthusiasts were people who, full of religious passion, believed that God was inspiring them to do deeds in defiance of law and convention. They were very holy but they were also potentially very dangerous. David Hume in particular saw that enthusiasm in this sense is diametrically opposed to the mindset of priesthood. In his words, \u201call enthusiasts have been free from the yoke of ecclesiastics, and have expressed great independence of devotion; with a contempt of forms, ceremonies, and traditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n


\r\nFrom: The Dangers of Enthusiasm (Covenant & Conversation, Shemini 5776)<\/em><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":64970,"alt":"","title":"is6-holy-holy-holy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","width":428,"height":425,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","medium_large-width":428,"medium_large-height":425,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","large-width":428,"large-height":425,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","1536x1536-width":428,"1536x1536-height":425,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","2048x2048-width":428,"2048x2048-height":425,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","post_full_size-width":428,"post_full_size-height":425,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-423x420.jpg","home_baner-width":423,"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":"Strange Fire, Strange Death II","tile_main_caption":"Too Enthusiastic, Too Passionate?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Too much holiness can be a problem too","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":64970,"alt":"","title":"is6-holy-holy-holy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","width":428,"height":425,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","medium_large-width":428,"medium_large-height":425,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","large-width":428,"large-height":425,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","1536x1536-width":428,"1536x1536-height":425,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","2048x2048-width":428,"2048x2048-height":425,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy.jpg","post_full_size-width":428,"post_full_size-height":425,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is6-holy-holy-holy-423x420.jpg","home_baner-width":423,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Leviticus","chapter":"10","chapter_main_number":"100","date":"20260115","wall_id":"100"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"354","name":"Rabbi Sacks","old_id":"754"},{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"750","name":"Passion","old_id":"1150"}]},{"order":3,"id":"44963","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Menu Musings ","post_title":"Menu Musings","slug":"menu-musings","old_id":"44963","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36423,"post_title":"Ari Hoffman","slug":"ari-hoffman","old_id":"36423","first_name":"Ari ","last_name":"Hoffman","description":"Ari Hoffman is a columnist for the Forward, where he writes about politics and culture. 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He holds a doctorate in English Literature from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford.\r\n","short_description":"Ari Hoffman is a columnist for the Forward, where he writes about politics and culture, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at N.Y.U.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36424,"alt":"","title":"Ari Hoffman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","width":1044,"height":1438,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-218x300.jpg","medium-width":218,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-743x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":743,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-743x1024.jpg","large-width":743,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","1536x1536-width":1044,"1536x1536-height":1438,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","2048x2048-width":1044,"2048x2048-height":1438,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-871x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":871,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-305x420.jpg","home_baner-width":305,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"101","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Abundance is not always an absolute good. The virtues of curatorship: distinction delivers meaning","post_main_content_content":"

It is a difficult thing, figuring out how much to sample from life\u2019s buffet. Our first instinct might be to want it all, to pile our plates and perspectives with every variety of delicacy, to forget the word \u2018no\u2019 and mouth the word yes until it becomes a mantra or a koan, layered into our larynx. \"More life,\" Falstaff famously declares in Henry IV Part I, and maybe it\u2019s the same with us; there is no such thing as too much, and everything seems not nearly enough. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

We read books and watch movies and maybe even fall in and out of love because we seek wider worlds as antidote to the outrage that we will only live a negligible number of years in a vanishingly small set of places. Variety won\u2019t deliver immortality, but at the very least it can make things interesting along the way. Reaching for experience, the urge for more and different. It\u2019s why our eyes move side to side, as well as up and town.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And yet, it is not always clear that abundance is an absolute good. Today\u2019s chapter, which covers the laws of <\/span>kashrut<\/span><\/em>, suggests the virtues of curatorship, of this and not that. It argues for the proposition that distinction delivers meaning, and that there is something magisterial about choice. \u201cThese are the creatures you may eat from among all the animals that are upon the earth\u201d pointedly juxtaposes what is allowed from a whole universe of possibility, all that infinitude of things that fly and walk and swim through the unplumbed depths. Debates about the reasons for these distinctions or why some fish or fowl was chosen miss the larger mark. Once selection is naturalized, what goes where is largely commentary. Today, it is understood that food is aesthetics and politics; do it for the globe, or the #gram. We are connoisseurs, each in our own way, of the contaminated along with the pure.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: The first kosher McDonald's \/ wikicommons<\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":45677,"alt":"","title":"Kosher_McDonald's,_Abasto_Shopping,_Buenos_Aires","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":533,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":533,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":533,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":533,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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":"Menu Musings","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Abundance is not always an absolute good. The virtues of curatorship: distinction delivers meaning","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":45677,"alt":"","title":"Kosher_McDonald's,_Abasto_Shopping,_Buenos_Aires","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":533,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":533,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":533,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":533,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Kosher_McDonalds_Abasto_Shopping_Buenos_Aires-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Leviticus","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"101","date":"20260118","wall_id":"101"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"717","name":"Limits","old_id":"1117"},{"term_id":"751","name":"Kosher","old_id":"1151"},{"term_id":"753","name":"Meaning","old_id":"1153"}]},{"order":4,"id":"44954","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"The Unspoken Truths About The Dietary Laws ","post_title":"The Unspoken Truths About The Dietary Laws","slug":"the-unspoken-truths-about-the-dietary-laws","old_id":"44954","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":44687,"post_title":"Tamar Kamionkowski","slug":"tamar-kamionkowski","old_id":"44687","first_name":"Tamar","last_name":"Kamionkowski ","description":"Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski serves as professor of biblical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where she has trained rabbis for over 20 years. She holds a B.A from Oberlin College, an M.T.S from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University. Tamar is the author of Leviticus: A Wisdom Commentary (Liturgical Press, 2018), Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel (Sheffield Academic Press, 2003) and co-editor of Bodies, Embodiment and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures (T&T Clark, 2010).","short_description":"Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski is professor of biblical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where she has trained rabbis for over 20 years.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":44688,"alt":"","title":"tamar kamionkowski","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","width":287,"height":292,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-208x300.jpg","medium-width":208,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","medium_large-width":287,"medium_large-height":292,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","large-width":287,"large-height":292,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","1536x1536-width":287,"1536x1536-height":292,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","2048x2048-width":287,"2048x2048-height":292,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-e1543326019699.jpg","post_full_size-width":287,"post_full_size-height":292,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/tamar-kamionkowski-292x420.jpg","home_baner-width":292,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"101","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"If only meat is sanctified, then sanctified eating was only for the privileged","post_main_content_content":"

For years I found traditional and modern critical commentaries on the dietary laws (which would form the basis for keeping kosher) in Leviticus 11 rather uninspiring. Thinkers have provided a plethora of theories to answer the basic question: what is the rationale behind the food restrictions? So far, no single theory has gained enough traction to emerge as the most likely answer.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Recently, I have found myself asking a different kind of question about the dietary laws. Given that our ancestors lived on a diet based primarily of grains, dairy and fruits, why doesn\u2019t Leviticus 11 address these day-to-day foods? Instead of referring to Leviticus 11 as \u201cthe dietary laws,\u201d why don\u2019t we refer to this chapter as\u201d the carnivore\u2019s guide?\u201d After all, the chapter is not really about the foods that Israelites regularly ate!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Studies have shown that the average farm had a few goats and\/or sheep. Cows were too expensive to maintain due to the amount of food and water they required. Meat eating may have been restricted to special festive holidays. So who ate meat on a more regular basis? Perhaps the priests, but most certainly only the wealthy elite. And when would they have eaten meat? During sacred festivals. In fact, a rabbinic text teaches that only those men who studied Torah were worthy of eating meat, while the commoner was best off with a vegetarian diet (Pesachim 49b).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By referring to Leviticus 11 as the chapter about dietary laws or the first stages of keeping kosher, we raise up the practice of the wealthy elite, while rendering the real diets and the preparation of day-to-day food invisible.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Scholars have noted that in antiquity, women were in charge of transforming raw grains into edible breads and cereals. In fact, women devoted several hours every day to prepare grains to feed their families.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When we think about our ancestors\u2019 eating practices only through the lens of the biblical dietary laws, we are liable to forget who prepared the food and what people really ate. If meat eating, which only the wealthy could enjoy on a regular basis, is the only kind of eating that is associated with the sacred, then the people were largely left out.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: designelements\/shutterstock<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":44985,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_689475808","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","width":4788,"height":3648,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-300x229.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":229,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-768x585.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":585,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-1024x780.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":780,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1170,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1560,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-1200x914.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":914,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-551x420.jpg","home_baner-width":551,"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 Unspoken Truths About The Dietary Laws","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"If only meat is sanctified, then sanctified eating was only for the privileged","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":44985,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_689475808","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","width":4788,"height":3648,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-300x229.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":229,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-768x585.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":585,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-1024x780.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":780,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1170,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1560,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-1200x914.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":914,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_689475808-551x420.jpg","home_baner-width":551,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Leviticus","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"101","date":"20260118","wall_id":"101"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"391","name":"In\/Justice","old_id":"791"},{"term_id":"416","name":"meat","old_id":"816"},{"term_id":"440","name":"Wealth\/money","old_id":"840"},{"term_id":"751","name":"Kosher","old_id":"1151"}]},{"order":5,"id":"62870","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"God Models Gentleness And Compassion ","post_title":"God Models Gentleness And Compassion","slug":"god-models-gentleness-and-compassion","old_id":"62870","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36277,"post_title":"Yedidya Sinclair","slug":"yedidya-sinclair","old_id":"36277","first_name":"Yedidya","last_name":"Sinclair","description":"Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair serves as Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon, the leading US Jewish environmental organization. From 2011-16 he was Vice President for Research and Senior Economist at Energiya Global, a Jerusalem-based solar energy company focused on the developing world and he continues to consult on renewable energy and climate change preparedness. In 2014 he published together with Hazon, a translation of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's great work on shmitta, the Sabbatical year, \"Introduction to Shabbat Ha'aretz.\" Yedidya holds a BA from Oxford University, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and lives with his family in Jerusalem.","short_description":"Yedidya Sinclair is a Jerusalem-based rabbi and economist, and is Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36278,"alt":"","title":"yedidya sinclair","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","width":200,"height":200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":200,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":200,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":200}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"306","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But Elijah can not be moved from judgment to mercy","post_main_content_content":"

Elijah in the cave was bewildered and broken. He prayed to God to die. Despite his zeal for God and the pyrotechnics on Mount Carmel he was still hunted by the queen and her henchmen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The manifest miracle of bringing the first rain in two years, had had little lasting effect on the spiritual state of Israel or its leaders. After falling on their faces in awe of God, the people had not overthrown Ahab and Jezebel, nor returned <\/span>en masse<\/span><\/i> to monotheism.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The violence of the storm failed to convince. Elijah\u2019s bold seizing of the keys of rain to enforce the Torah\u2019s message that there are consequences for disobedience, had brought no long-term educational reform.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Elijah\u2019s flight to the desert ends at Horeb, Mount Sinai, the site of God\u2019s revelation to Moses. Commentators point out the textual parallels between Elijah\u2019s standing here in a crevice in the rock and Moses standing in a cleft in the rock praying for compassion on Israel after the sin of the Golden calf and receiving the revelation of God\u2019s attributes of mercy and forgiveness. (Exodus 34.) Malbim suggests that this choice of location is a hint and a gentle rebuke to Elijah, that he too must let go of his righteous anger towards the people and pray for them out of compassion.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As if to underline this message, God appeared to Elijah not in the sound and fury of earthquake, wind or fire, but in a \u201c<\/span>kol d\u2019mamah dakah.<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0God\u2019s presence was expressed in the softness of a still, small voice. Elijah was taught to hear God through a quieter medium, similar to the almost imperceptible gentleness of dew, that Elijah\u2019s intervention had not withheld.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Yet in response, Elijah can only repeat his anguished refrain from verse 10, \u201cI am moved by zeal for the Lord, God of Hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant\u2026\u201d (v.14). Elijah cannot or will not move from judgement to mercy. To which God tells Elijah to go back the way he came, and when he meets Elisha, to anoint him as his successor. (v.16) Elijah is being fired.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The subtlety of this removal is poignant. God does not criticize Elijah for his failure, not express disappointment, nor even tell him directly that he must step aside. Having implicitly urged the prophet to be compassionate with his backsliding people, God Himself is infinitely compassionate with the prophet in his moment of breaking.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Who other than God could know the depths of Elijah\u2019s courage, the loneliness that he suffered, the pain of being harried and oppressed over many years for speaking God\u2019s truth and his desolate bewilderment when his greatest triumph turned to defeat? When Elijah, despite his greatness, being persecuted beyond endurance, will not transcend his justified, righteous indignation, God models the gentleness and forbearance that he has urged Elijah to embrace.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":62871,"alt":"","title":"1kings19-fire mercy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","width":340,"height":340,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","medium_large-width":340,"medium_large-height":340,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","large-width":340,"large-height":340,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","1536x1536-width":340,"1536x1536-height":340,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","2048x2048-width":340,"2048x2048-height":340,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","post_full_size-width":340,"post_full_size-height":340,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","home_baner-width":340,"home_baner-height":340}},"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":"God Models Gentleness And Compassion","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But Elijah can not be moved from judgment to mercy","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":62871,"alt":"","title":"1kings19-fire mercy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","width":340,"height":340,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","medium_large-width":340,"medium_large-height":340,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","large-width":340,"large-height":340,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","1536x1536-width":340,"1536x1536-height":340,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","2048x2048-width":340,"2048x2048-height":340,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","post_full_size-width":340,"post_full_size-height":340,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-fire-mercy.jpg","home_baner-width":340,"home_baner-height":340}},"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"19","chapter_main_number":"306","date":"20261101","wall_id":"306"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"397","name":"Moses","old_id":"797"},{"term_id":"476","name":"Compassion","old_id":"876"},{"term_id":"581","name":"Mercy","old_id":"981"},{"term_id":"645","name":"Sinai","old_id":"1045"},{"term_id":"858","name":"Elijah","old_id":"1258"}]},{"order":6,"id":"62860","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Introducing: The Sound of Silence ","post_title":"Introducing: The Sound of Silence","slug":"introducing-the-sound-of-silence","old_id":"62860","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":42746,"post_title":"Michal Kohane","slug":"michal-kohane","old_id":"42746","first_name":"Michal ","last_name":"Kohane ","description":"Currently based in Israel, Rabbanit Michal Kohane is a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, a writer, community leader and teacher of Talmud & Torah. She holds degrees in Israel studies , education and psychology, and has been a leader and educator in Northern California for over 25 years. Her first novel, Hachug (\"Extracurricular\") was published in Israel in 2016 and her weekly blog can be found at http:\/\/www.miko284.com\r\n\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Currently based in Israel, Rabbanit Michal Kohane is a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, a writer, community leader and teacher of Talmud & Torah. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":42747,"alt":"","title":"michal kohane","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","width":214,"height":226,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","medium-width":214,"medium-height":226,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","medium_large-width":214,"medium_large-height":226,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","large-width":214,"large-height":226,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","1536x1536-width":214,"1536x1536-height":226,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","2048x2048-width":214,"2048x2048-height":226,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","post_full_size-width":214,"post_full_size-height":226,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","home_baner-width":214,"home_baner-height":226}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"306","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"We\u2019re about the complexities of life, not the absolutes","post_main_content_content":"

At the end of every Yom Kippur, we quote the people in their great cry on top on Mount Carmel. They just watched Elijah perform his greatest miracle\u00a0 - and one of the greatest of all time - and are all shouting, \u201cThe Lord is God, the Lord is God!\u201d (18:39). What grand faith! If we had written the Bible, we would have had Elijah becoming top prophet, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel profusely apologizing for any agony they caused him prior to this great show of power and truth, and the whole kingdom repenting wholeheartedly, abandoning Baal worship and living happily ever after.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Instead, chapter 19 opens with Ahab telling Jezebel what Elijah did. Such a great show and she did not know about it? She had to be told? And his story - it\u2019s not about crowning God, miracles, rain and blessings but focuses on him killing the Baal prophets \u201cfor no reason at all.\u201d She immediately sends a messenger to Elijah, letting him know that his destiny will be like that of the other prophets. Namely, she has not lost any power whatsoever, while his life is still in grave danger.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Interestingly, Elijah is heartbroken. He wanders south to Beer Sheba, sits under a <\/span>rotem<\/em> <\/span>(broom) tree, and \u201cprayed that he might die. \u2018Enough!\u2019 he cried. \u2018Now, O LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers\u2019 (19:4). Since we know already Elijah is an all or nothing kind of guy, it seems like he expected perfect success, with the idea of failing impossible to bear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But, it turns out, dying is not so simple. An angel wakes him up with food, twice, saying, \u201cArise and eat, for your journey is still long for you\u201d (19:7). Through the strength of this food, he \u201cwalked forty days and forty nights as far as the mountain of God at Horeb\u201d (19:8). Reminiscent of Moses and his journey, Elijah follows to the place he can meet God face to face.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If the previous chapter is characterized by a very public show of noise and fire, this one is all about inward discoveries, privacy and silence: \u201cthe LORD was not in the wind\u2026 the LORD was not in the earthquake\u2026 the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire\u2014a soft murmuring sound of silence\u201d (19:11-12). Exactly where Moses learned God\u2019s thirteen attributes of mercy, Elijah is invited to relearn that Torah too. We\u2019re not about killing everybody who disagrees with us, says God in His own words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Elijah, we\u2019re sorry, we have a problem with zealots and you overdid it. You\u2019ll have to go and \u201canoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet \u201c (19:16). The meaning of God\u2019s Oneness is that in every absolute wrong, there is at least a little bit right too. We\u2019re about the complexities of life, not the absolutes, because in this way, we can actually better hold that Oneness.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Elijah visited by an Angel, original gouache by\u00a0Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749), reworking by Ben Schachter, courtesy of the artist.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":62861,"alt":"","title":"1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","width":1047,"height":1087,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-289x300.jpg","medium-width":289,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-768x797.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":797,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-986x1024.jpg","large-width":986,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1047,"1536x1536-height":1087,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1047,"2048x2048-height":1087,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","post_full_size-width":1047,"post_full_size-height":1087,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-405x420.jpg","home_baner-width":405,"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":"Introducing: The Sound of Silence","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"We\u2019re about the complexities of life, not the absolutes","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":62861,"alt":"","title":"1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","width":1047,"height":1087,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-289x300.jpg","medium-width":289,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-768x797.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":797,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-986x1024.jpg","large-width":986,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1047,"1536x1536-height":1087,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1047,"2048x2048-height":1087,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel.jpg","post_full_size-width":1047,"post_full_size-height":1087,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings19-Schachter-ElijahVisitedByAngel-405x420.jpg","home_baner-width":405,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"19","chapter_main_number":"306","date":"20261101","wall_id":"306"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"437","name":"Prayer","old_id":"837"},{"term_id":"581","name":"Mercy","old_id":"981"},{"term_id":"858","name":"Elijah","old_id":"1258"}]},{"order":7,"id":"62553","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Should The Enemy King Be Killed? ","post_title":"Should The Enemy King Be Killed?","slug":"should-the-enemy-king-be-killed","old_id":"62553","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":54356,"post_title":"Robert Alter","slug":"robert-alter","old_id":"54356","first_name":"Robert ","last_name":"Alter","description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has written over twenty books, focusing on such topics as the European novel from the 18th century to the present, contemporary American fiction, and modern Hebrew literature. He has also written extensively on the literary aspects of the Bible. His most recent work is his monumental three volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019 - from which the selections in 929 are taken. ","short_description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of the three-volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":54357,"alt":"","title":"robert alter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","width":184,"height":275,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":275,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":275,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":275,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":275,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":275,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":275}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"307","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Ahab lets Ben-Hadad go free, at his peril","post_main_content_content":"

20:42 \u201cAnd he said to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord. \u201cIn as much as you set free from My hand the man I condemned, it will be your life instead of his and your people instead of his people.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The masoretic text reads \u201cfrom a hand,\u201d but two ancient versions and a Hebrew manuscript have \u201cMy hand,\u201d which is more plausible. It is God Who has granted the victory to Ahab, and so the defeated king is in God\u2019s hand. It must be said that there has been no direct indication in the story until now that God has condemned Ben-Hadad to death or told Ahab he must kill him, though the prophet assumes that Ahab should have known this. Behind the theological reasoning lies a political calculation: allowing Ben-Hadad to go free will lead to a new attack on Israel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible<\/em>, vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"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":"From Robert Alter's Bible Translation and Commentary","tile_main_caption":"Should The Enemy King Be Killed?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Ahab lets Ben-Hadad go free, at his peril","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"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":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"20","chapter_main_number":"307","date":"20261102","wall_id":"307"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":8,"id":"62953","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Kind to the Cruel; Cruel to the Kind ","post_title":"Kind To The Cruel; Cruel To The Kind","slug":"kind-to-the-cruel-cruel-to-the-kind","old_id":"62953","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33992,"post_title":"Bradley Shavit Artson","slug":"rabbi-dr-bradley-shavit-artson","old_id":"33992","first_name":"Bradley Shavit ","last_name":"Artson","description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and is professor of philosophy there. Artson is married to Elana Shavit Artson, and they are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33993,"alt":"","title":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","width":204,"height":199,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-256x300.png","medium-width":256,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","medium_large-width":204,"medium_large-height":199,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","large-width":204,"large-height":199,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","1536x1536-width":204,"1536x1536-height":199,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","2048x2048-width":204,"2048x2048-height":199,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","post_full_size-width":204,"post_full_size-height":199,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","home_baner-width":204,"home_baner-height":199}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"308","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Ahab\u2019s legacy: reflections on chapters 20 and 21","post_main_content_content":"

King Ahab goes down in history as one of the very worst kings Israel ever produced. He and his wicked wife Jezebel (the only \u201cJezebel\u201d in history whose name was actually Jezebel!) are a power couple of the worst kind. Yet his kind of wickedness only unfolds across these two chapters. His wife is just evil through and through. Consistently she offers torture and death to those she dislikes, or even to those merely standing in her way. But her husband is weak in ways that play out badly in every direction.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Back in Chapter 20, King Ahab goes to war against one of Israel\u2019s perennial enemies, the Arameans. Under its powerful King Ben-haddad, Israel faces the threat of total annihilation. Ben-haddad assembles a coalition of local kings intent on taking every woman and child captive, and then destroying every village and settlement. It was only with the sage counsel of his advisors, the intervention of God, and the unity of his terrified people that King Ahab was able to resist the enemy\u2019s assault and turn the tide to victory. And then, having been told not to let his enemy escape, he does worse than that: he calls Ben-haddad his brother, he consults with him in his chariot, and releases Ben-haddad who gets not only to stay alive, but continues to rule Aram as king! Kind to the cruel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If the story stopped there, it would be of a king too weak to impose consequences. A monarch so fickle that he literally lets his people\u2019s enemies get away with murder (and live to tell of it another day, or to try again at a later date).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the story continues. Today's chapter tells of an innocent Israelite man named Naboth (the Talmud sees him as a cousin of the king). Ahab wants Naboth\u2019s ancestral lands, and makes an offer to acquire them, which Naboth refuses, adamantly. What does the too-compassionate king do this time? He sulks and pouts and turns to the wall. His wicked wife (that Jezebel!) intervenes to have Naboth stoned to death for crimes he did not commit. Then King Ahab confiscates his murdered cousin\u2019s estate. Cruel to the kind.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Talmud correctly sees these traits as linked: one who is kind to the cruel will wind up being cruel to the kind. That\u2019s Ahab \u2013 he has a brutal mass murderer under his control and he lets him go do damage again later. Then he finds an innocent relative and subjects him to a gruesome death just to take his property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Kind to the cruel; cruel to the kind. Not the sort of legacy a King of Israel should bequeath.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Copper engraving of the death of Naboth by Caspar Luiken, 1712 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":62955,"alt":"","title":"1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","width":510,"height":670,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-228x300.jpg","medium-width":228,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","medium_large-width":510,"medium_large-height":670,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","large-width":510,"large-height":670,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","1536x1536-width":510,"1536x1536-height":670,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","2048x2048-width":510,"2048x2048-height":670,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","post_full_size-width":510,"post_full_size-height":670,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-320x420.jpg","home_baner-width":320,"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":"Kind To The Cruel; Cruel To The Kind","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Ahab\u2019s legacy: reflections on chapters 20 and 21","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":62955,"alt":"","title":"1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","width":510,"height":670,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-228x300.jpg","medium-width":228,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","medium_large-width":510,"medium_large-height":670,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","large-width":510,"large-height":670,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","1536x1536-width":510,"1536x1536-height":670,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","2048x2048-width":510,"2048x2048-height":670,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed.jpg","post_full_size-width":510,"post_full_size-height":670,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-Jezebel_has_Naboth_killed-320x420.jpg","home_baner-width":320,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"21","chapter_main_number":"308","date":"20261103","wall_id":"308"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"460","name":"Evil","old_id":"860"},{"term_id":"835","name":"King","old_id":"1235"},{"term_id":"927","name":"Ahab","old_id":"1327"}]},{"order":9,"id":"62676","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Is The Land Ours To Sell? ","post_title":"Is The Land Ours To Sell?","slug":"is-the-land-ours-to-sell","old_id":"62676","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33692,"post_title":"Alex Israel","slug":"33692-2","old_id":"33692","first_name":"Alex","last_name":"Israel","description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem. His first book \"I Kings - Torn in Two\" was published in 2013. See his website www.alexisrael.org, and his podcasts at https:\/\/elmad.pardes.org\/ and https:\/\/tanachstudy.com\/ \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33693,"alt":"","title":"alex israel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","width":1657,"height":2500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-199x300.jpg","medium-width":199,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":679,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","large-width":679,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1018,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1357,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-795x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":795,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-278x420.jpg","home_baner-width":278,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"308","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"In refusing Ahab, Naboth has firm ground to stand on","post_main_content_content":"

In the opening lines of the chapter, the protagonists are depicted as products of their geography: \"Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel\" \u2014 he is a Jezreelite; it is the cornerstone of his identity. He is contrasted with \"Ahab, king of Samaria,\" a city far from Jezreel, who is nonetheless the king. This description transmits two contrasting perceptions. First, Naboth is way out of his depth; he, a commoner, is defying the king! Second, conversely, this king resides in Samaria; he is a foreign implant in Jezreel. His jurisdiction is elsewhere, and it is Naboth who is the local fixture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Naboth refuses the king on principle: \"God forbid I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.\" In other words, I cannot sell you my vineyard even if I wish, because God has mandated me to preserve this tract of land in my family. This response reflects no lack of respect for Ahab or disregard for the high office of the king. Naboth simply sees the issue as a matter of faith. But is Naboth correct? Is a Jew forbidden to sell land?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In parashat Behar, the selling of land in Eretz Yisrael is permitted only under dire financial duress. Moreover, if unfortunate circumstances lead to the sale of the ancestral estate, the family of the land's original tribal owner is to \"redeem\" that land, restoring it to the family (see Lev. 25:25). This practice is seen in the book of Ruth, when Boaz redeems the property of Elimelech.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the Torah, this mitzva is preceded by the following verses: \u201cThe land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine, and you are sojourners and residents with Me. And throughout the land of your possession, you shall give redemption to the land\u201d (Lev. 25:23-24).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Moreover, we read in the book of Numbers: \u201cAn inheritance shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for each person of the children of Israel shall cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers, that the children of Israel may inherit, each individual the inheritance of his fathers\u201d (36:7-8).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is the origin of the phrase spoken by Naboth, \"the inheritance of my fathers.\" The land is not ours to sell. God has entrusted it to us, returning it to the ancestral family unit each Jubilee (yovel) year if we have sold it in the intervening years. A Jew sells his inheritance only as a last resort!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Alex Israel, 1 Kings: Torn in Two,<\/em> Maggid Books, 2013, A Perfect Murder\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61437,"alt":"","title":"alex israel - kings 1","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","width":1020,"height":1304,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-235x300.jpg","medium-width":235,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-768x982.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":982,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-801x1024.jpg","large-width":801,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1020,"1536x1536-height":1304,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1020,"2048x2048-height":1304,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-939x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":939,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-329x420.jpg","home_baner-width":329,"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":"Excerpts from: 1 Kings - Torn in Two","tile_main_caption":"Is The Land Ours To Sell?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"In refusing Ahab, Naboth has firm ground to stand on","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61437,"alt":"","title":"alex israel - kings 1","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","width":1020,"height":1304,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-235x300.jpg","medium-width":235,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-768x982.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":982,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-801x1024.jpg","large-width":801,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1020,"1536x1536-height":1304,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1020,"2048x2048-height":1304,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-939x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":939,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/alex-israel-kings-1-329x420.jpg","home_baner-width":329,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"21","chapter_main_number":"308","date":"20261103","wall_id":"308"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"403","name":"Redemption","old_id":"803"},{"term_id":"497","name":"Land","old_id":"897"},{"term_id":"927","name":"Ahab","old_id":"1327"}]},{"order":10,"id":"62981","color":"#f7f7f5","size":"1","name":"False Prophets: Sycophants, Programmers, and Plagiarists ","post_title":"False Prophets: Sycophants, Programmers, and Plagiarists","slug":"false-prophets-sycophants-programmers-and-plagiarists","old_id":"62981","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38322,"post_title":"James A. Diamond","slug":"james-a-diamond","old_id":"38322","first_name":"James ","last_name":"Diamond ","description":"Prof. James A. Diamond holds the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo. His most recent book is \u201cJewish Theology Unbound\u201d published by Oxford University Press. ","short_description":"Prof. James A. Diamond holds the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38323,"alt":"","title":"James Diamond","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","width":1186,"height":1386,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-257x300.jpg","medium-width":257,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-768x898.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":898,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-876x1024.jpg","large-width":876,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","1536x1536-width":1186,"1536x1536-height":1386,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","2048x2048-width":1186,"2048x2048-height":1386,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-1027x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1027,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-359x420.jpg","home_baner-width":359,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"309","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Hundreds parroting verbatim each other\u2019s purported divine communication belies claims of it emerging from their \u201crelationship\u201d with God","post_main_content_content":"

How does one distinguish between genuine and false prophecy? Ahab, the Israelite king, consults four hundred alleged prophets who respond unanimously in favour of his plan to wage a military campaign against Aram. However, Jehoshaphat, the Judahite king, suspicious of this inflated group of sycophants who endorsed what was already known to be his Israelite ally\u2019s decision, insists on consulting another prophet. The Talmud ascribes Jehoshaphat\u2019s incredulity to the awareness that \u201cno two prophets prophesy in identical language [<\/span>signon<\/span><\/em>].\u2019\u2019 This profound insight anticipates Martin Buber\u2019s understanding of false prophecy some two millennia later who asserted, \u201cGod has truth, but He does not have a system. He expresses his truth through his will, but his will is not a program.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Any authentic relationship between God and a human being is rooted in dialogue unique to the particular moment and individual involved and thus inimitable. Authentic relationship can never be programmatic. Hundreds of individuals parroting verbatim each other\u2019s purported divine communication evidences a platitude that belies claims of it emerging from their \u201crelationship\u201d with God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This test which exposed that mass gathering of prophetic charlatans carries over into Zedekiah\u2019s subsequent false corroboration of it. Zedekiah conducts a street performance, touting \u201chorns of iron\u201d as symbols of certain victory for Ahab: \u201cWith these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them\u201d (11).<\/span> He appropriates a stale and dated image unique to Moses\u2019 blessing conferred on Joseph\u2019s tribe at the end of Deuteronomy, \u201cLike a firstling bull in his majesty, He has horns like the horns of the wild-ox; With them he gores the peoples...These are the myriads of Ephraim, Those are the thousands of Manasseh.\u201d (33:17).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Zedekiah strategically chooses his dramatic implements to appeal to Ahab since Manasseh and Ephraim are associated biblically with his Northern kingdom as opposed to Judah and Benjamin in the South. The very term for the wild ox whose horns symbolize Joseph\u2019s sons\u2019 strength (<\/span>RAM<\/span><\/i>) resonates with the enemy\u2019s name, Aram (<\/span>ARM<\/span><\/i>), bolstering its pretense. The false prophet plagiarizes a prophecy shorn of its original context, formulaically applying it to the current situation. Ahab hears only victory but ignores Sinai and God in whose name Moses originally bestowed that blessing -<\/span> \u201cThis is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, bade the Israelites farewell before he died. He said: The LORD came from Sinai<\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/i>\u201d (Deut 33:1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The one who granted those Deuteronomic blessings \u201cto the tribes of Israel together\u201d was a king - \u201cAnd there was a king in Jeshurun\u201d (33:5). Commentators offer three different identifications of the \u201cking\u201d: Moses, God, or Torah. Perhaps that presents an ideal amalgamation of all three as the model king to which Ahab\u2019s corrupt kingship is an affront. When a king like Ahab governs only in his own self-interest and divorces the throne from God and Torah which it represents, he can no longer discern between prophecies that emanate from God and those that do not.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":62982,"alt":"","title":"1kings22-Plagiarism","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","width":600,"height":350,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism-300x175.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":175,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":350,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","large-width":600,"large-height":350,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":350,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":350,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":350,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":350}},"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":"False Prophets: Sycophants, Programmers, and Plagiarists","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Hundreds parroting verbatim each other\u2019s purported divine communication belies claims of it emerging from their \u201crelationship\u201d with God","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":62982,"alt":"","title":"1kings22-Plagiarism","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","width":600,"height":350,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism-300x175.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":175,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":350,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","large-width":600,"large-height":350,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":350,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":350,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":350,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-Plagiarism.png","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":350}},"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"22","chapter_main_number":"309","date":"20261104","wall_id":"309"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"463","name":"Truth","old_id":"863"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"},{"term_id":"927","name":"Ahab","old_id":"1327"}]},{"order":11,"id":"62972","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Another Prophetic Face Off ","post_title":"Another Prophetic Face Off","slug":"another-prophetic-face-off","old_id":"62972","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"309","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Micaiah is the one telling the truth - most of the time...","post_main_content_content":"

Back in chapter 18, we witnessed Elijah win a contest that pitted him against 450 prophets of Ba`al and 400 prophets of Asherah. Now, we are witness to yet another face-off, this time pitting another single true prophet, Micaiah ben Imla, against 400 other prophets\u2014perhaps the same 400 prophets of Asherah who escaped their fate previously? The subject: Should the combined forces of the two kingdoms of Israel launch a coordinated attack against Aram?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The messenger who was dispatched to summon Micaiah attempted to put his finger on the scale, so to speak, by intimating that Micaiah should join in the chorus of the other prophets and support the attack. Micaiah, however, replied: \u201cI will speak only what the LORD tells me\u201d (14).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When he came before the king, the king said to him, \u201cMicaiah, shall we march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall we not?\u201d He answered him, \u201cMarch and triumph! The LORD will deliver [it] into Your Majesty\u2019s hands.\u201d The king said to him, \u201cHow many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?\u201d Then he said, \u201cI saw all Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd; and the LORD said, \u2018These have no master; let everyone return to his home in safety.\u2019\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t I tell you,\u201d said the king of Israel to Jehoshaphat, \u201cthat he would not prophesy good fortune for me, but only misfortune?\u201d (15-18)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Arguably, the only king who spoke here was Ahab, who is clearly the subject of the final verse, in which he addressed Jehoshaphat. This would imply that Ahab was also the only king to be addressed here by Micaiah. However, this raises the question of how the prophet could have initially endorsed the plan, only to renege on his endorsement, if, indeed, he was constrained to speak only what the Lord told him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The answer, which is predicated upon a really close reading of verses 15 and 17, was supplied by Rashi, who pointed out that in verse 15 Micaiah did not speak in God's name, while in verse 17 he explicitly stated \u201cthe LORD said.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":62973,"alt":"","title":"1kings22-false prophets","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-300x158.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":158,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-768x403.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":403,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-1024x538.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":538,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":630,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":630,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-1200x630.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":630,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-800x420.jpg","home_baner-width":800,"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":"Another Prophetic Face Off","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Micaiah is the one telling the truth - most of the time...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":62973,"alt":"","title":"1kings22-false prophets","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-300x158.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":158,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-768x403.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":403,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-1024x538.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":538,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":630,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":630,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-1200x630.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":630,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-false-prophets-800x420.jpg","home_baner-width":800,"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Kings","chapter":"22","chapter_main_number":"309","date":"20261104","wall_id":"309"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"463","name":"Truth","old_id":"863"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"},{"term_id":"927","name":"Ahab","old_id":"1327"}]},{"order":12,"id":"63125","color":"#eceffa","size":"1","name":"You Are What You Wear: Elijah\u2019s Belt ","post_title":"You Are What You Wear: Elijah\u2019s Belt","slug":"you-are-what-you-wear-elijahs-belt","old_id":"63125","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40788,"post_title":"Julie Lieber","slug":"julie-lieber","old_id":"40788","first_name":"Julie ","last_name":"Lieber","description":"Dr. Julie Lieber is a Jewish educator and is the Director of the Pardes-Kevah Teaching Fellowship. Julie most recently served as the Interim Executive Director and Director of Education at Kevah, a national non-profit facilitating home-based Torah study groups. After receiving her PhD in European history with a focus on Jewish women, gender and sexuality, Julie moved to Colorado, where she was a professor of Jewish Studies for many years. Julie regularly teaches for the Wexner Heritage Program, has taught for the Melton program and the Colorado Agency for Jewish Education. ","short_description":"Dr. Julie Lieber is a Jewish educator, and is the Director of the Pardes-Kevah Teaching Fellowship.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":40789,"alt":"","title":"Julie Lieber","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","width":627,"height":680,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688-277x300.jpg","medium-width":277,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","medium_large-width":627,"medium_large-height":680,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","large-width":627,"large-height":680,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","1536x1536-width":627,"1536x1536-height":680,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","2048x2048-width":627,"2048x2048-height":680,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688.jpg","post_full_size-width":627,"post_full_size-height":680,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Julie-Lieber-e1537820405688-387x420.jpg","home_baner-width":387,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"310","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Made from a very special ram with very special symbolism","post_main_content_content":"

Elijah prophesies and performs miracles in the Kingdom of Israel throughout the Book of 1 Kings. Yet, it is not until his <\/span>final<\/em> <\/span>prophecy, in 2 Kings, Chapter 1, that we learn anything about Elijah\u2019s physical appearance. After King Ahaziah\u2019s messengers return with devastating news about his impending death from a \u201cman,\u201d King Ahaziah asks his messengers to identify this man. They describe him as, \u201da hairy man girded with a leather belt.\u201d Based on this description, Ahaziah immediately knows this man was Elijah the Prophet.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is indeed curious that this brief exchange describing the physical appearance of Elijah is included at all in the narration of the story in Kings, let alone waiting until this final prophecy to do so.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer tell us that the leather belt worn by Elijah was made from the skin of the very ram that was sacrificed in place of Isaac, averting his sacrifice at the hands of his father, Abraham. Why, though, must the reader know, specifically at the sunset of Elijah\u2019s life, that he was a prophet known by his donning this telltale belt of historic importance?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If there is one dominant theme of the Book of 1 Kings it is Israel\u2019s struggle with loyalty to the God of Israel and Elijah\u2019s mission to help them reverse course. Their continual straying from this path, primarily through their indulgence in worship and <\/span>sacrifice <\/span>to foreign gods popular among their contemporary cultures was their Achilles' heel. Could there be a greater contrast to their chosen lifestyle than the life of Abraham? Abraham begins his relationship with the God of Israel by destroying the idols of his father and culminates his journey of unwavering faith in his willingness to perform an unimaginable sacrificial act at the behest of God. The ram, which replaces Isaac on the altar, serves as a symbol of God\u2019s intervening mercy for those who remain faithful.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When we finally arrive at the end of his life, we now know that the centerpiece of Elijah\u2019s prophetic work has been helping Israel break the cycle of false and fleeting sacrifice and returning to faith in the one God of Israel. There could be no better uniform for a man with such a mission than a leather belt made from this very ram.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Mosaic on the floor of Beth Alpha depicting the Akedah, 6th C. C.E. \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":63126,"alt":"","title":"2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","width":600,"height":386,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa-300x193.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":193,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":386,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":386,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":386,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":386,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":386,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":386}},"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":"You Are What You Wear: Elijah\u2019s Belt","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Made from a very special ram with very special symbolism","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":63126,"alt":"","title":"2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","width":600,"height":386,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa-300x193.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":193,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":386,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":386,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":386,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":386,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":386,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Abraha-Beit_alfa.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":386}},"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":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Kings","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"310","date":"20261105","wall_id":"310"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"375","name":"Faith","old_id":"775"},{"term_id":"387","name":"Sacrifice","old_id":"787"},{"term_id":"418","name":"Abraham","old_id":"818"},{"term_id":"429","name":"Idolatry","old_id":"829"},{"term_id":"858","name":"Elijah","old_id":"1258"}]},{"order":13,"id":"63132","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"Elijah (Finally) Relents ","post_title":"Elijah (Finally) Relents","slug":"elijah-finally-relents","old_id":"63132","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34250,"post_title":"Sarah Rudolph","slug":"sarah-rudolph","old_id":"34250","first_name":"Sarah ","last_name":"Rudolph","description":"Sarah Rudolph is a freelance Jewish educator, writer, and editor. She has been sharing her passion for Jewish texts of all kinds for over 15 years, with students of all ages. Sarah\u2019s essays have been published in a variety of internet and print media, including Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Action, OU Life, The Lehrhaus, TorahMusings, and more. Sarah lives in Cleveland with her husband and four children, but is privileged to learn online with students all over the world through www.TorahTutors.org and www.WebYeshiva.org. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Sarah Rudolph is a freelance Jewish educator, writer, and editor.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34251,"alt":"","title":"Sarah R","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","width":2824,"height":4246,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-681x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":681,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-681x1024.jpg","large-width":681,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","1536x1536-width":1022,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","2048x2048-width":1362,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-798x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":798,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-279x420.jpg","home_baner-width":279,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"310","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"After all, what good is zeal for God if it destroys His people?","post_main_content_content":"

If we got the impression from the last few chapters of I Kings that Elijah would rather be left alone with God than have to deal with the fickle people who persist in betraying Him, we might find further support when he sets Ahaziah\u2019s messengers on fire.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Fifty men show up with their captain, interrupting Elijah\u2019s solitude at the top of a mountain, and demand, \u201cMan of God, by order of the king, come down!\u201d (1:9) \u2013 but Elijah is not impressed with the orders of this king who would turn to Baal Zebub before his own God. <\/span>Oh, really? Do you really believe, then, that I\u2019m a man of God? Do you accept the power of the God Whose man I am? Let me show you!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men (vs. 10).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ahaziah and his next captain don\u2019t take the lesson, and the encounter is repeated: the brazen demand, the fire, the deaths.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The third time, however, is the charm \u2013 and as it turns out, captain number 3 doesn\u2019t just learn the lesson that passed over the others\u2019 heads, but perhaps has something to teach Elijah, too.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How does he avoid the same fate as his predecessors? Not by proclaiming his faith in God, or by distancing himself from the king and his sins, or by apologizing \u2013 though all of that is implied by his submissive stance and language, and by the fact that he doesn\u2019t even mention the king\u2019s order. His focus is on something else:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

'Oh, man of God, please have regard for my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours!' (vs. 13)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why the strange phrasing, \u201chave regard\u201d? Why not just \u201cdon\u2019t kill me\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Even assuming that the first two groups deserved their fate \u2013 it seems that captain number 3 sees another element in the prophet\u2019s choice of response to their offenses: a lack of regard for their lives.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Elijah shared his driving force, what he regards above all, at the end of I Kings: \u201cI am moved by zeal for the LORD, the God of Hosts\u2026\u201d (I Kings 19:10).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Zealous for God, but what about His people? Elijah repeats in frustration that they \u201chave forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your prophets to the sword.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cHave regard for my life,\u201d pleads the captain. See me as valuable in my own right, and worth your energy. The previous two groups were dispensable, vehicles through which Elijah displayed the power of his God. This time, the captain says, <\/span>Look at me. I, and my men, have value \u2013 not as pawns in a grand message to the kingdom, but as individuals, as servants of God and His prophets<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

It is this sort of regard Elijah struggles with, and so his time is nearing an end.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For what good is zeal for God if it destroys His people?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Elijah destroying the messengers of Ahaziah (illustration by Gustave Dor\u00e9 from the 1866 La Sainte Bible)<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":63134,"alt":"","title":"2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah.jpg","width":800,"height":995,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah-768x955.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":955,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":995,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":995,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":995,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":995,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Elijah_Destroys_the_Messengers_of_Ahaziah-338x420.jpg","home_baner-width":338,"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":"Elijah (Finally) Relents","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"After all, what good is zeal for God if it destroys His 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He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"310","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But does that mean that King Ahaziah acts like a Moabite?\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

The opening chapter of II Kings continues the Elijah story. Ahaziah falls through the roof of the palace and is bedridden. Instead of inquiring of God, he sends messengers to Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. God sends Elijah with a message that Ahaziah will die. Ahaziah is suspicious about the message and requests that his messengers describe the prophet. A hairy man with a leather belt is all Ahaziah needs to hear to confirm that it was Elijah. Ahaziah sends three groups of soldiers to summon Elijah. Elijah sends fire down from heaven, burning the first two groups and only after the third troop leader begs for mercy does an angel tell Elijah he can go with them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are a few parallels in this story to the story of Balaam. The first is the opening verse of the chapter indicating that Moab rebelled against Israel. Balak is the king of Moab. The next connection is between Baal-Peor the god from the Balaam story and Baal-Zebub. The worship of Peor involved some sort of scatological act, and the name Baal Zebub, \u201cthe Lord of the Flies,\u201d could indicate a similar worship practice. In both stories there are repeated attempts to summon the prophet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Numbers 22, Balak sends two groups of messengers to convince Balaam to come curse the Israelites. Balaam rebuffs the first group, but then acquiesces with the second when God tells him to go. Elijah kills the first two groups, while Balaam simply sends the first group away. Elijah was hiding from the edict of Jezebel, so when a group of soldiers arrived, he felt he needed to defend himself. Balaam is not under any sort of threat. The contrast here is indicated by the directive from God:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Elijah: \u201cGo down with him, do not be afraid of him.\u201d (verse 15). <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Balaam: \u201cIf the agents have come to invite you, you may go with them. But whatever I command you, that you shall do\u2019\u201d (Numbers 22:20).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Balaam not only asks God what to do, but he also needs to sleep to connect with God. Elijah does not need to ask God, he simply acts on his own. This shows Elijah\u2019s intense zeal to act without God. The fact that Elijah does not need sleep to speak to God is also an indication of his higher connection to God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why make the connection between the two stories? The connection may have two purposes: one to praise and one to chastise. The praise comes in the connection between Elijah and Balaam showing Elijah\u2019s status as a prophet. The chastising may be in the connection between Achaziah and Balak. The king of Israel has fallen so far down (literally and spiritually) that he acts like the old king of Moab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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