{"id":75422,"date":"2018-07-09T17:48:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-2014\/"},"modified":"2020-06-12T07:31:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T04:31:00","slug":"wall-2014","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"book-Prophets-Ezekiel"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"book","wall_id":"2014","book":"Ezekiel","books_group":"Prophets","date":"20200611","hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"

The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the latter prophets. The prophet Ezekiel son of Buzi prophesied in Babylonia, having probably been exiled there with the exile of Jehoiachin. According to the book, Ezekiel prophesied for 22 years, beginning in 593 BCE. Up until the destruction of the Temple, Ezekiel calls for repentance and warns against impending doom, while after the destruction, Ezekiel becomes a prophet of consolation, who describes the redemption and the return to Zion. Ezekiel’s prophetic career is distinctive in its prevalent use of strange, symbolic acts which are designed to garner attention. The Book of Ezekiel is replete with rich visual descriptions, including a detailed description of the heavenly chariot (merkava<\/em>), the famous vision of the valley of the dry bones, and also a very detailed description of the future Temple.<\/p>\n","static_cube_color":"","updates_last_update":"21\/04\/2020","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"75780","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"2","name":"Ezekiel ","post_title":"Ezekiel","slug":"ezekiel","old_id":"75780","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"2014","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"by the Israeli artist Amnon \"Amen\" Becker","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":{"id":75781,"alt":"","title":"Ezekiel - 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","short_description":"Yaakov Beasley is the Tanakh Coordinator at Yeshivat Hesder Lev haTorah, podcast host and author. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":73525,"alt":"","title":"yaakov beasley","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","width":409,"height":484,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley-254x300.jpg","medium-width":254,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","medium_large-width":409,"medium_large-height":484,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","large-width":409,"large-height":484,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","1536x1536-width":409,"1536x1536-height":484,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","2048x2048-width":409,"2048x2048-height":484,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley.jpg","post_full_size-width":409,"post_full_size-height":484,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/yaakov-beasley-355x420.jpg","home_baner-width":355,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"472","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The three movements of Israel\u2019s history\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Chapter 20 begins with Ezekiel recounting how \u201ccertain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat before me.\u201d Most of the commentators suggest that they weren't pious \u2013 rather, they were looking for an excuse from Ezekiel to justify the cancellation of the covenant (from the people's perspective), just as a divorced wife is no longer responsible for her husband's welfare (Rashi). God uses the opportunity not only to upbraid the elders for their dishonesty, but to argue that this deception began in the earliest stages of Israel's history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Here begins one of the most fascinating exercises in historiography in all of the prophets.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ezekiel opens with the beginning of the Jewish people, which he dates to their becoming a nation in Egypt. He describes a specific pattern of behavior, beginning with the people and followed by God's response. Ezekiel describes three movements of Israel's history:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\t
  1. Israel in Egypt (v. 5-9)<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. The first generation in the desert (v. 10-17)<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. The second generation in the desert (vv. 18-26)<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    The larger pattern is as follows \u2013 God establishes laws for the people (or reminds or rebukes them regarding statutes that were given), inevitably followed by the Jewish people violating the statutes. This leads to a period of Divine anger and God planning to annihilate the nation, but ultimately God chooses to forgo the full punishment for the sake of His Name.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    In the first cycle, God chooses Israel, and chooses for them a bountiful land for them to live in \u2013 on the condition that they reject their idolatry: \" So says the Lord God, On the day I chose Israel \u2026 to bring them out of the land of Egypt, to a land that I had sought out for them, flowing with milk and honey; it is the glory of all the lands\" (v. 5-6). Yet, the people refuse to forsake their idols.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    In the second cycle, Ezekiel emphasizes the greatness of the laws that God gave them at Sinai, laws that \"if a man perform [them], he shall live through them\" (v. 11). Yet, the people rebel again. Despite this, God chooses not to finish them in the desert \"For the sake of His Great Name.\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The final cycle is addressed to the following generations: \u201cDo not follow the statutes of your parents\u201d (v. 18). Again, Ezekiel emphasizes the greatness of the laws \u2013 yet Israel rejects God again.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    This speech is significant not only for Ezekiel's negative portrayal of the Jewish people, who continually violate God\u2019s laws and are unworthy of redemption. But more importantly, Ezekiel reveals the secret of their survival \u2013 the lowly state of the Jewish people is a <\/span>chillul Hashem \u2013 <\/span><\/i>a desecration of God's name. So too, suggests Ezekiel, the future redemption is not dependent on the righteousness of the people but the need to restore honour to God's name.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":74105,"alt":"","title":"ez20-triangle","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle.jpg","width":1920,"height":1472,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-300x230.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":230,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-768x589.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":589,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-1024x785.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":785,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1178,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1472,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-1200x920.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":920,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez20-triangle-548x420.jpg","home_baner-width":548,"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":"Ezekiel 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doesn\u2019t care who your daddy was\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    One of the ideas which pervades Jewish liturgy is that of <\/span>zechut avot <\/span><\/i>\u2014 the merit of the ancestors. This idea appears in the most quotidian and the most dramatic moments of our prayers: we begin the daily <\/span>amidah <\/span><\/i>by invoking \u201cour God and the God of our fathers: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob\u201d; and in the fraught climax of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy we implore God to remember the extraordinary merit of Abraham, willing to offer his precious son up to God, and to judge us favorably on Abraham\u2019s account. This positive, constitutive connection with the deeds of our ancestors is one of the most enduring themes of Jewish thought. Even those who may not feel particularly \u2018religious\u2019 are often reluctant to discard their connection to the Jewish tradition at least in part because this sense of an ancestral claim is so deeply resonant.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    A moment in the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel seems to call this entire way of thinking into question. Israelites remaining in the land connect their claim of sovereignty \u2014 unchanged, in their view, by the political reality of Babylonian rule \u2014 to the merit of Abraham. \u201cAbraham was but one man,\u201d they say, \u201cyet he was granted possession of the land. We are many; surely, the land has been given as a possession to us\u201d (verse 24). The prophet, in turn, forcefully rejects the arrogance which he sees as animating this claim: \u201cYou have relied on your sword, you have committed abominations, you have all defiled other men\u2019s wives\u2014yet you expect to possess the land!\u201d (verse 26). Whether the remaining Israelites have a claim on the land of Canaan depends not on the merit of their ancestor, but on their own conduct, which is sorely lacking.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    This shocking rejection of the doctrine of <\/span>zechut avot <\/span><\/i>is perhaps but the most climactic moment of a tendency to be found throughout the Book of Ezekiel. Again and again in Ezekiel\u2019s prophecies we find a moral theory which is both individualist and perfectionist: \u201cThe righteousness of the righteous shall not save him when he transgresses, nor shall the wickedness of the wicked cause him to stumble when he turns back from his wickedness. The righteous shall not survive through his righteousness when he sins\u201d (33:12). Each person\u2019s relationship to God is considered individually, rather than as a part of the people, and Ezekiel places demands on the individual which seem impossibly strict \u2014 we are all on a narrow bridge, and not only are the deeds of the ancestors of no help, even our own past merits are irrelevant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Generally speaking, Ezekiel\u2019s ethics have not furnished the lines along which most Jewish moral thinking, which stresses the importance of the collective, has developed. But his doctrine offers a stark challenge to the ways in which this corporate morality can so often serve as a source of excuses and a means of avoiding difficult questions about our own conduct.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":74937,"alt":"","title":"ez33-difference","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","width":1920,"height":1298,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-300x203.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":203,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-768x519.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":519,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-1024x692.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":692,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1038,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1298,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-1200x811.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":811,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-621x420.jpg","home_baner-width":621,"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":"Ezekiel The Individualist","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"He doesn\u2019t care who your daddy was","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":74937,"alt":"","title":"ez33-difference","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","width":1920,"height":1298,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-300x203.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":203,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-768x519.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":519,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-1024x692.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":692,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1038,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1298,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-1200x811.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":811,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez33-difference-621x420.jpg","home_baner-width":621,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"33","chapter_main_number":"485","date":"20270708","wall_id":"485"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":4,"id":"72431","color":"#f6f5de","size":"2","name":"24 in 24: Ezekiel ","post_title":"24 in 24: Ezekiel","slug":"24-in-24-ezekiel","old_id":"72431","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":72445,"post_title":"Joe Schwartz","slug":"joe-schwartz","old_id":"72445","first_name":"Joe ","last_name":"Schwartz ","description":"Rabbi Joe Schwartz is the founder of IDRA (www.theIDRA.org), an innovative model for Jewish community, drawing equally from Jewish caf\u00e9 culture and the beit midrash (house of study). He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, Alyson, and their two children, Zev and Paz.","short_description":"Rabbi Joe Schwartz is the founder of IDRA (www.theIDRA.org), an innovative model for Jewish community, drawing equally from Jewish caf\u00e9 culture and the beit midrash (house of study).","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":72446,"alt":"","title":"Joe Schwartz","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","width":200,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Joe-Schwartz.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1089","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"#12 - Ezekiel: The Most Dangerous Man In The Bible ","post_main_content_content":"

    In an effort to bring more Torah content to your homes and devices, we are pleased to announce this new initiative.<\/p>\r\n

    There are 24 hours in a day, 24 books of Tanakh and \u2013 counting from Monday \u2013 24 days until Pesach. Count up with us at 929!<\/p>\r\n

    3.5 years to complete all of Tanakh might feel a bit long. If you are ready to dive into some of the later books of Tanakh, \u201c24 in 24\u201d is for you.<\/p>\r\n

    Starting on Monday the 16th<\/sup> of March (click here to see all the videos to date<\/a>), alongside our daily chapter, we will be starting a parallel learning cycle, with the goal of working our way through all 24 books of Tanakh over the next 24 days. Drawing from our community of educators and writers, each day, here on the site, in our daily newsletter and through our social media channels we will be sharing a 20-30 minute video exploring a resonant theme in each of the 24 books of Tanakh, starting with Bereishit\/Genesis on Monday March 16, and ending with Divrei Hayamim\/Chronicles.<\/p>\r\n

    Join us for this journey in text \u2013 from the comfort (and appropriately socially distanced semi-isolation) of your own home!<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/tb3YZZ-sUvU","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"24 in 24","tile_main_caption":"#12 - Ezekiel: The Most Dangerous Man In The Bible ","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"with: Joe Schwartz","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/tb3YZZ-sUvU","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":"Jeremiah","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1089"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"332","name":"24 in 24","old_id":"732"}]},{"order":5,"id":"72979","color":"#efefef","size":"1","name":"Ezekiel\u2019s Chariot Vision of God ","post_title":"Ezekiel\u2019s Chariot Vision of God","slug":"ezekiels-chariot-vision-of-god","old_id":"72979","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. He taught at the Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem), The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, Israel. During 1993 he was Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University, and during 1996 he was the Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. During 2005, Bregman served as the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as Forchheimer Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions (Gorgias Press, 2003). In 2006, Bregman was appointed the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where he also headed the program in Jewish Studies, until 2013. Bregman retired from UNCG as of July 31, 2017. He has now returned to Jerusalem where he is continuing his research and teaching activities.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33878,"alt":"Marc Bregman","title":"Marc Bregman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","width":361,"height":488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-222x300.jpg","medium-width":222,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":488,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":488,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":488,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":488,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-311x420.jpg","home_baner-width":311,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"453","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"And the origins of Jewish mysticism\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    As we begin our study of the Book of Ezekiel, we should note that interpreting Ezekiel\u2019s astonishing visions proved for some downright dangerous! Talmud Bavli Hagigah 13a tells of an inexperienced person who when trying to expound the mysterious term \u201cchashmal\u201d (electrum? amber?) found only in the Book of Ezekiel (1:4, 27 and 8:2), a fire shot forth and consumed him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Reservations about the content of Ezekiel\u2019s sometimes astonishingly graphic visions are reflected already in the earliest stratum of rabbinic literature. The Mishnah (Hagigah 4:10) records a majority ruling that Ezekiel\u2019s opening vision of \u201cthe Chariot \u2013 Ha-Merkavah\u201d (Chapter 1) may not be used as a haftarah (\u201cprophetic reading\u201d), though a minority opinion, that of Rabbi Yehudah, permits its use. Nevertheless, Talmud Bavli Megillah 31a rules that \u201cnowadays,\u201d Ezekiel chapter 1 is read as the haftarah on the first day of Shavuot. This led to the current practice on Shavuot, to read Ezekiel\u2019s Chariot vision as the haftarah (Ezekiel 1:1\u201328, 3:12) following the Torah Reading of the Revelation at Sinai (Exodus 19:1-20:23).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Elsewhere, the Mishnah (Hagigah 2:1) rules that Ezekiel\u2019s chariot vision may not be interpreted even in the presence of one person unless he is a Sage who understands on his own. Bavli Hagigah 11b-14b preserves an extensive discussion on this mishnaic ruling. Here we find explicit explanation of rabbinic reservations about the prophecies of Ezekiel. Because some of Ezekiel\u2019s words contradict other passages in Scripture (compare Ezekiel 18:20 to Exodus 20:5), the Sages at one time considered \u201cconcealing\u201d it, i.e. excluding the entire Book of Ezekiel from the Biblical canon. However, Hananya ben Hizkiya burned up 300 kegs of oil to provide light in a secluded upper chamber until he managed to interpretively resolve these contradictions, thereby maintaining Ezekiel\u2019s canonicity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The same extensive Talmudic discussion includes narratives about the extraordinary events that occurred when Sages in the circle of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai (1<\/span>st<\/span> century CE) interpreted the opening chapter of Ezekiel. We are told that when Rabbi Eleazar ben Arakh expounded Ezekiel\u2019s vision of God, the Shekhinah and the ministering angels appeared. Fire descended from heaven, encircling all the trees in the field who began singing: \u201cPraise the Lord, from the land\u2026the fruit trees and all the cedars\u201d (Psalms 148:7-9). An angel responded: \u201cThis is indeed the Work of the Chariot \u2013 Ma\u2019aseh Ha-Merkavah\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Indeed, \u201cMa\u2019aseh Merkavah\u201d is one of the names of a whole genre of works known in academic research as the Merkavah Literature. These works which greatly expand on Ezekiel\u2019s chariot vision, evolved from late antiquity until the early Middle Ages and influenced medieval Kabbalah and Hasidism. They feature traditions of various individuals who ascended through the \u201cHeavenly Palaces \u2013 Hekhalot\u201d seeking to behold God sitting on His celestial throne (see Isaiah Chapter 6). According to Gershom Scholem (Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 40 and following), this extensive and variegated literature represents the first phase in the development of Jewish mysticism.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Image: Engraved illustration of the \"chariot vision\" of the Biblical book of Ezekiel, after an earlier illustration by Matthaeus (Matth\u00e4us) Merian (1593-1650), for his \"Icones Biblicae\" , 1670 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":72999,"alt":"","title":"ez1-Ezekiel's_vision","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","width":417,"height":323,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision-300x232.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","medium_large-width":417,"medium_large-height":323,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","large-width":417,"large-height":323,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","1536x1536-width":417,"1536x1536-height":323,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","2048x2048-width":417,"2048x2048-height":323,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","post_full_size-width":417,"post_full_size-height":323,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","home_baner-width":417,"home_baner-height":323}},"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":"Ezekiel\u2019s Chariot Vision of God","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"And the origins of Jewish mysticism","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":72999,"alt":"","title":"ez1-Ezekiel's_vision","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","width":417,"height":323,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision-300x232.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","medium_large-width":417,"medium_large-height":323,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","large-width":417,"large-height":323,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","1536x1536-width":417,"1536x1536-height":323,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","2048x2048-width":417,"2048x2048-height":323,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","post_full_size-width":417,"post_full_size-height":323,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Ezekiels_vision.jpg","home_baner-width":417,"home_baner-height":323}},"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"453","date":"20270525","wall_id":"453"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":6,"id":"74288","color":"#f7f7f5","size":"1","name":"Challenging God In The People\u2019s Defense: Ezekiel\u2019s Failure ","post_title":"Challenging God In The People\u2019s Defense: Ezekiel\u2019s Failure","slug":"challenging-god-in-the-peoples-defense-ezekiels-failure","old_id":"74288","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38322,"post_title":"James A. 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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":"474","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"He was no Abraham or Moses, nor even Ezekiel\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    This chapter climaxes in God\u2019s exasperated search for an antidote against the destructive consequences of His anger. After surveying the governing classes of Israelite society for leadership, be they spiritual\/moral (prophets - v.25; 28), cultic (priests - v.26), or political (officials - v.27), the search fails. God\u2019s \u2018search\u2019 demands an individual to \u201crepair the wall, or stand in the breach, before Me in behalf of this land that I might not destroy it.\u201d (v.30). Previously Ezekiel accused false \u201cdegenerate prophets\u201d of failure to provide this very strategy for they \u201cdid not enter the breaches and repair the walls for the House of Israel.\u201d (13:5) What kind of action does this metaphor uniquely call for? And why doesn\u2019t Ezekiel, himself qualify?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    God announced unleashing indiscriminate destruction which \u201cwipes out both the righteous and the wicked\u201d (21:8-9), directly contravening God\u2019s self-proclaimed rejection of collective punishment, \u201cthe righteousness of the righteous shall be accounted to him alone and the wickedness of the wicked to him alone\u201d (18:20). Though the breached wall is commonly understood as Israel\u2019s corrupt behaviour needing corrective guidance, it is far more radical in intent. Since God initiates punishment, it is God who has breached the city\u2019s walls and is about to wreak total destruction. The \u201cbreach\u201d is God\u2019s own betrayal of justice, of the \u2018wall\u2019 which should protect the innocent but now exposes them to the same fate as the guilty. The people need an Abraham who first challenged God on this very principle protesting God\u2019s intent to annihilate the innocent and the guilty of Sodom (Gen 18:25). Yet there was no Abraham to be found.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    However, the metaphor demands more to rescue Israel, requiring both a \u201crepair\u201d of the wall and actually becoming part of the wall by \u201cstanding in the breach.\u201d Abraham mounted a repair of God\u2019s breach, offering a moral standard of individual culpability for God to consider instead of collective punishment. However, \u201cstanding in the breach\u201d requires the self-sacrifice that would place oneself as a barrier between the enemy and the people. The Bible singles out only Moses as having \u201cstood in the breach\u201d against God\u2019s destructive wrath (Ps. 106:23) referencing his confronting God at the Golden Calf episode, personally placing himself on the line. He rejected God\u2019s offer of a glorious future to replace the annihilated community (Deut. 9:14) and posed an ultimatum: either forgive the people or \u201cerase me from the record\u201d (Exod. 32:32). Yet, there was no Moses to be found.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    What of Ezekiel? When commissioned to prophesy the very message that endorsed collective punishment, in one of his extremely rare personal reactions Ezekiel fears \u201cthey will say of me \u2018He is just a maker of parables\u2019\u201d (21:5) Rather than challenge God in the mold of Abraham and Moses he was concerned only about his reputation, of being perceived a mere poet rather than the more prestigious prophet. There was no Ezekiel to be found!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Image: Moses and Abraham, stained glass, Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), dedicated in 1907, St Mary the Virgin, Merton Park, in southwest London, photo by: Jacqueline Banerjee. By permission of victorianweb.org.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":74289,"alt":"","title":"ez22-moses abraham","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","width":588,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-176x300.jpg","medium-width":176,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","medium_large-width":588,"medium_large-height":1000,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","large-width":588,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","1536x1536-width":588,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","2048x2048-width":588,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","post_full_size-width":588,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-247x420.jpg","home_baner-width":247,"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":"Challenging God In The People\u2019s Defense: Ezekiel\u2019s Failure","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"He was no Abraham or Moses, nor even Ezekiel\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":74289,"alt":"","title":"ez22-moses abraham","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","width":588,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-176x300.jpg","medium-width":176,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","medium_large-width":588,"medium_large-height":1000,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","large-width":588,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","1536x1536-width":588,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","2048x2048-width":588,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham.jpg","post_full_size-width":588,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez22-moses-abraham-247x420.jpg","home_baner-width":247,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"22","chapter_main_number":"474","date":"20270623","wall_id":"474"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":7,"id":"73329","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"The Secrets Of Chashmal ","post_title":"The Secrets Of Chashmal","slug":"the-secrets-of-chashmal","old_id":"73329","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":70715,"post_title":"Judry Subar","slug":"judry-subar","old_id":"70715","first_name":"Judry ","last_name":"Subar","description":"Judry Subar, who lives in Potomac, Maryland, spent most of his professional career as a lawyer with the federal government in Washington, DC. Since his retirement, Jud has been involved in various writing and educational projects.","short_description":"Judry Subar spent most of his professional career as a lawyer with the federal government in Washington. Since his retirement, he has been involved in various writing and educational projects.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":70716,"alt":"","title":"judry subar","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","width":400,"height":400,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","medium_large-width":400,"medium_large-height":400,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","large-width":400,"large-height":400,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","1536x1536-width":400,"1536x1536-height":400,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","2048x2048-width":400,"2048x2048-height":400,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","post_full_size-width":400,"post_full_size-height":400,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/judry-subar.jpg","home_baner-width":400,"home_baner-height":400}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"460","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Burns with a pulsating, electric form - ephemeral, well-grounded and utterly strong\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    Figures of flame and amber. Resplendent angels. In Chapter 8, Ezekiel renews his acquaintance with the strange creatures he met in Chapter 1, beings that allow him to perceive the goings on in the heavenly court. But maybe the multi-eyed beasts he got to know in Chapter 1\u2019s celestial drama are members of a different species than the one Ezekiel encounters here. After all, in Chapter 1, we\u2019re told explicitly that the flying things had the form of humans, while the Chapter 8 fellow (there\u2019s just one of him) isn\u2019t given anything like an animal identity for another couple of chapters, and maybe not even then. For all our chapter tells us, at least according to its traditional reading, this figure is just a mix of fire and \u201cchashmal,\u201d a curious ingredient that we met earlier in the book. Maybe what we have here is an entity that burns with a pulsating, electric form, but that seems to lack the substantiality that Ezekiel seeks as he receives a divine communication.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Let\u2019s consider the two elements that make up Ezekiel\u2019s new friend. On the one hand, we have what verse 2 terms \u201ceish,\u201d fire. The lower half of this disembodied body, we\u2019re told, is nothing but fire. T.S. Eliot\u2019s <\/span>Little Gidding<\/span><\/i> says that \u201cthe fire and the rose are one,\u201d hinting at a parallel between flame that consumes and warms even as we cannot hold it in our hands and the subtle but powerful notes of a flower\u2019s scent. Perhaps, then, the creature described here wafts but does not fly, hovers but never touches the world below.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    And then we have <\/span>chashmal <\/span><\/i>-- the top half of our creature\u2019s figure is the same color as <\/span>chashmal<\/span><\/i>. JPS translates this term as \u201camber,\u201d the super-hard resin that can preserve eons-old organic matter. Because rubbing amber produces static electricity, and because amber in ancient Greek was <\/span>elektron, <\/span><\/i>the relationship between <\/span>chashmal <\/span><\/i>meaning amber and <\/span>chashmal <\/span><\/i>meaning electricity in Modern Hebrew makes sense. (This connection is explained further <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>). Various rabbinic sources understand chashmal as referring to a category in the taxonomy of angels. So we have a figure partly composed of something that might be unchangeable, or maybe is constantly changing, or perhaps is simply out of this world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Does this then mean that the Chapter 8 being is ephemeral, well-grounded and utterly strong all at once? The Septuagint offers another perspective, understanding the appearance of the creature not as \u201ceish,\u201d fire, but as man, \u201cish.\u201d We can wonder, then, whether Ezekiel had a fundamentally human experience when the creature facilitated his vision, described later in our chapter, of the human error about which he prophesied.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73330,"alt":"","title":"ez8-electricity","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"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 Secrets Of Chashmal","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Burns with a pulsating, electric form - ephemeral, well-grounded and utterly strong\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73330,"alt":"","title":"ez8-electricity","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez8-electricity-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"8","chapter_main_number":"460","date":"20270603","wall_id":"460"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":8,"id":"75783","color":"#f6edf6","size":"2","name":"Yeah, Yeah, Yechezkel ","post_title":"Yeah, Yeah, Yechezkel","slug":"yeah-yeah-yechezkel","old_id":"75783","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":"2014","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The prophet makes it into Israel's pop pantheon","post_main_content_content":"

    In 1967, an Israeli pop-rock group named \u201cThe High Windows\u201d (<\/span>hachalonot hagevohim<\/span><\/i>) released an album including a song about Ezekiel the Prophet. The Hebrew lyrics, which are mildly irreverent, can be read here. <\/a><\/span>But just the idea of the prophet as celebrity or pop star is intriguing...<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JdStQS3aJSQ","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Yeah, Yeah, Yechezkel","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The prophet makes it into Israel's pop pantheon","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JdStQS3aJSQ","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Ezekiel","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":"20200611","wall_id":"2014"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":9,"id":"73066","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Relaying The Prophecy ","post_title":"Relaying The Prophecy","slug":"relaying-the-prophecy","old_id":"73066","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":57331,"post_title":"Josh and Leora Blechner","slug":"josh-and-leora-blechner","old_id":"57331","first_name":"Josh and Leora ","last_name":"Blechner","description":"Josh and Leora Blechner have been learning Tanach together since Leora was five years old. Josh is an in-house attorney in New Jersey and Leora is a middle school student at SAR academy.","short_description":"Josh and Leora Blechner have been learning Tanach together since Leora was five years old. Josh is an in-house attorney in New Jersey and Leora is a middle school student at SAR academy.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":57484,"alt":"","title":"blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","width":501,"height":509,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1-295x300.jpg","medium-width":295,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","medium_large-width":501,"medium_large-height":509,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","large-width":501,"large-height":509,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":501,"1536x1536-height":509,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":501,"2048x2048-height":509,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":501,"post_full_size-height":509,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blechner-1-413x420.jpg","home_baner-width":413,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"454","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"From Jeremiah to Ezekiel, Israel to Babylonia\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    The book of Ezekiel contains many mystical visions starting with the fantastical \"overture\" description of the chariot of God. Easily lost in this initial grand display is the real beginning of the Book wherein God directs Ezekiel to eat a scroll presented to him by an outstretched hand in Ezekiel 2:8-3:2. This story is a continuation of the opening prophecy and occurs by the river Chebar in the fifth year of the exile of Jehoiachin prior to the destruction of the Temple.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Just a few days ago, we read about another scroll, the scroll that Jeremiah instructed Seriah to write down and then cast into the Euphrates river in Jeremiah chapter 51:59-64. Jeremiah instructs Seriah to cast the scroll in the river in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. From Chapter 52 in Jeremiah, we know that Zedekiah reigned for 11 years, so this trip to Babylonia happened well before the destruction of the Temple. Even though Jeremiah is not written in chronological order, the Seriah story is an odd way to end the book.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Perhaps this story is the last one mentioned in Jeremiah to link the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.\u00a0 The Chebar canal is thought to be the modern day Khubar river, which is a tributary of the Euphrates river. It's possible that the scroll that Jeremiah instructs to be thrown into the Euphrates river at the end of his book, is the very one that God feeds to Ezekiel from the Chebar river at the start of his book. In this way, the prophecies of the land of Israel are transferred to the prophet Ezekiel in exile Babylonia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73075,"alt":"","title":"ez2-baton","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","width":1498,"height":843,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","1536x1536-width":1498,"1536x1536-height":843,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","2048x2048-width":1498,"2048x2048-height":843,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-746x420.jpg","home_baner-width":746,"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":"Relaying The Prophecy","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"From Jeremiah to Ezekiel, Israel to Babylonia","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73075,"alt":"","title":"ez2-baton","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","width":1498,"height":843,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","1536x1536-width":1498,"1536x1536-height":843,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton.jpg","2048x2048-width":1498,"2048x2048-height":843,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez2-baton-746x420.jpg","home_baner-width":746,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"2","chapter_main_number":"454","date":"20270526","wall_id":"454"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":10,"id":"73414","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Righteous And Evil - The Dividing Line ","post_title":"Righteous And Evil - The Dividing Line","slug":"righteous-and-evil-the-dividing-line","old_id":"73414","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37561,"post_title":"Deena Cowans","slug":"deena-cowans","old_id":"37561","first_name":"Deena ","last_name":"Cowans","description":"Deena Cowans is a rabbinical student at JTS and alumnus of the Master's in Public Administration- Development Practice at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). \r\nDeena is the Director of Education (Rosh Chinuch) at Camp Ramah in the Rockies since January 2016, and was the Youth and Family Programs at Congregation Ansche Chesed in 2016-2017.","short_description":"Deena Cowans is a rabbinical student at JTS, and the Director of Education at Camp Ramah in the Rockies","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37562,"alt":"","title":"deena cowans","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","width":181,"height":207,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","medium-width":181,"medium-height":207,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","medium_large-width":181,"medium_large-height":207,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","large-width":181,"large-height":207,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","1536x1536-width":181,"1536x1536-height":207,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","2048x2048-width":181,"2048x2048-height":207,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","post_full_size-width":181,"post_full_size-height":207,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/deena-cowans-e1534076835642.jpg","home_baner-width":181,"home_baner-height":207}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"461","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Are good people who don\u2019t protest wrongdoing- still good?\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    The chapter contains an alarming story, in which God musters a small force to kill all those who disobey God, young and old alike. Only a few will survive, marked on their foreheads by a mysterious man with a writing case. They are singled out because they have \u201cmoaned and groaned\u201d about the sins of the Israelites, voicing their dissatisfaction or opposition to the actions of the many. But how many people were killed who did not engage in the actions that enraged God, but also did not speak out?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The Talmud asks this very question. In the tractate Shabbat, Rabbi Aha imagines that originally, God had instructed the man with the writing case to mark on the foreheads of all the righteous in the city, so that they would be spared. But the Angel of Justice spoke up, claiming to God \u201cThese righteous people did not try to stop the wicked from their deeds!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \u201cBut I know even if they tried, they would never have succeeded in changing the behavior of the wicked,\u201d God claims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \u201cStill, they could not have known if they would succeed or not, and they didn\u2019t even try,\u201d argues Justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    So God retracted God\u2019s protection of the righteous, and allowed the Angel of Destruction to take those righteous people who did not protest the actions of the evil. Only those who spoke out against the wickedness in their midst were saved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    For anyone who has ever let something slide, who has kept their mouth shut when they saw injustice because they didn\u2019t feel they could change it, this is a chilling story. We may not be able to change anyone, and indeed we might do damage to ourselves by speaking out. But when it comes time to reckon for our actions, we will be marked by our actions, not our impact. We should strive not for persuasion, or even fortitude to resist temptation; we should strive for bravery, to speak truth to power even when power will not hear us.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    image:\u00a0Ezekiel's Vision of the Sign \"Tau\" (Ezekiel IX:2-7), anonymous (Flemish - Mosan Region), mid 12th C., champlev\u00e9 enamel, copper gilt, Walters Art Museum \/ wikimedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73415,"alt":"","title":"ez9-mark","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","width":600,"height":826,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-218x300.jpg","medium-width":218,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":826,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":826,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":826,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":826,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":826,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-305x420.jpg","home_baner-width":305,"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":"Righteous And Evil - The Dividing Line","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Are good people who don\u2019t protest wrongdoing - still good?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73415,"alt":"","title":"ez9-mark","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","width":600,"height":826,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-218x300.jpg","medium-width":218,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":826,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":826,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":826,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":826,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":826,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez9-mark-305x420.jpg","home_baner-width":305,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"9","chapter_main_number":"461","date":"20270606","wall_id":"461"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":11,"id":"73654","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Male Vs. Female Leadership ","post_title":"Male Vs. Female Leadership","slug":"male-vs-female-leadership","old_id":"73654","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":"465","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Access, reach, responsibility, culpability\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel directs a good bit of attention to false prophets who proclaimed destruction was not on its way and that there was no need to worry. Chapter 13 continues this theme, but contains a striking shift: After 16 verses directed at male false prophets, Ezekiel is instructed to turn to \u201cthe daughters of your nation who prophesy out of their own imagination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Why address the men and women separately? Was their sin not the same?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Some suggest the women\u2019s false prophecy was uniquely based in witchcraft (whether real or imagined). However, while one of the biblical words for sorcery does appear in that section (k.s.m., in verse 23), it appears three times in the prophecy to the men (verses 6, 7, 9). There might be more description of the women\u2019s methods than the men\u2019s, and certainly the details offer much room for analysis, but it seems that male as well as female false prophets relied on some sort of fortune-telling technique to mislead those around them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Rabbi <\/span>Yechiel Tzvi Moskowitz, author of the Daat Mikra commentary on Ezekiel, suggests that one distinction between the men and women in this chapter might be found not (only) in what they did differently wrong, but what they didn\u2019t do right \u2013 or what they could, or couldn\u2019t, have done. \u201cHe does not rebuke [the women] for being \u2018like jackals among ruins\u2019 [v. 4], nor because they \u2018didn\u2019t go up in the breaches\u201d and repair fences [v. 5], since the bounds of the prophetesses\u2019 influence was more narrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    In Moskowitz\u2019s view, the analogy of false prophets to jackals in ruins is about the destruction they wreak and perhaps also their cowardice: \u201cWhen a person comes to a breach in the ruin, the jackal flees through another breach and doesn\u2019t stand in the breach to fight\u201d (quoting Rashi, from midrash). The prophet mocks these sneaky fakers, who take advantage wherever they find the nation vulnerable \u2013 when a true leader would get up in those breaches in the wall and patch them, to make the nation stronger. \u201cRepairing fences\u2026 means [putting in] effort for the sake of the sinners, [to encourage their] repentance, and the decree would thus be cancelled.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Moskowitz suggests this critique of the false prophets is relevant to the entire nation, while Ezekiel\u2019s rebuke to the prophetesses is only relevant to those individuals who came to ask them. They didn\u2019t have the reach of the men, and so were not held responsible to the same degree for missing the opportunity to serve as positive role models.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    These insights perhaps invite us to consider how often female leaders must wait to be asked, by individuals who seek their involvement, while men might have easier access to holes in the nation that need repair. Though decreased culpability when leadership goes wrong may seem like a blessing, it is a high price to pay for what we miss when it could have gone right.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":73655,"alt":"","title":"ez13-man woman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","width":588,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-245x300.jpg","medium-width":245,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","medium_large-width":588,"medium_large-height":720,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","large-width":588,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","1536x1536-width":588,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","2048x2048-width":588,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","post_full_size-width":588,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-343x420.jpg","home_baner-width":343,"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":"Male Vs. Female Leadership","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Access, reach, responsibility, culpability\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":73655,"alt":"","title":"ez13-man woman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","width":588,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-245x300.jpg","medium-width":245,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","medium_large-width":588,"medium_large-height":720,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","large-width":588,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","1536x1536-width":588,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","2048x2048-width":588,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman.jpg","post_full_size-width":588,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez13-man-woman-343x420.jpg","home_baner-width":343,"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"13","chapter_main_number":"465","date":"20270610","wall_id":"465"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":12,"id":"74601","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Bybliography ","post_title":"Bybliography","slug":"bybliography","old_id":"74601","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":64450,"post_title":"David Curwin","slug":"david-curwin","old_id":"64450","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Curwin ","description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","short_description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":64452,"alt":"","title":"david curwin","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","width":427,"height":464,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-276x300.png","medium-width":276,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","medium_large-width":427,"medium_large-height":464,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","large-width":427,"large-height":464,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","1536x1536-width":427,"1536x1536-height":464,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","2048x2048-width":427,"2048x2048-height":464,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","post_full_size-width":427,"post_full_size-height":464,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-387x420.png","home_baner-width":387,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"479","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The source of the Source\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

    In chapter 27, Ezekiel laments the fate of Tyre. This Phoenician city, on the Mediterranean coast, led a network of sea trade throughout the entire region. Before the Babylonian conquest, Tyre is described as trading with Egypt, Assyria, Arabia, and the Greek Islands. One particular town involved in those trading routes was Gebal. Ezekiel describes their citizens this way in verse 9:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \u201cGebal\u2019s elders and craftsmen were within you,<\/span>
    \r\n<\/span>Making your repairs.<\/span>
    \r\n<\/span>All the ships of the sea, with their crews,<\/span>
    \r\n<\/span>Were in your harbor<\/span>
    \r\n<\/span>To traffic in your wares.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Gebal did not only cooperate with Tyre, but with Israel as well, in the time of Solomon:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \u201c\u2026Solomon\u2019s masons, Hiram\u2019s masons, and the men of Gebal shaped them. Thus, the timber and the stones for building the house were made ready.\u201d (I Kings 5:32)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Both of these verses show that Gebal was known for woodworking, as well as trade.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Gebal, or <\/span>Geval\u00a0<\/span><\/em>in Hebrew, was located on what today is the northern coast of Lebanon, between Beirut and Tripoli. While the origin of the name is subject to some debate, many think it is related to the Hebrew word <\/span>gevul<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cboundary, border.\u201d That word is cognate with the Arabic <\/span>jabal<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 <\/span><\/i>\u201cmountain,\u201d since mounds were often used to mark borders. So Gebal probably meant something like \u201cfrontier town.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    One product particularly associated with Gebal was papyrus, since the traders of Gebal imported that important product from Egypt, and then continued selling it to the Aegean countries. Those Greek speaking countries pronounced Gebal somewhat differently: Byblos.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Byblos was so associated with papyrus, that the Greek word for Egyptian papyrus was <\/span>byblos<\/span><\/em>. <\/span><\/i>From that word derived the related <\/span>biblion<\/span><\/em>\u00a0meaning \u201cpaper, scroll\u201d, and this developed into the familiar words in English, \u201cbiblio-\u201c a prefix meaning \u201cbook,\u201d and Bible \u2013 \u201cthe Book\u201d (originally in Latin the phrase was <\/span>biblia sacra<\/span><\/em>, \u201choly books\u201d, and later abbreviated to just <\/span>biblia).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

    It\u2019s interesting to think about how this partnership between Israel and Phoenicia has evolved over the millennia. Initially, Israel needed to import Phoenician wood and craftsmen. Later, the very concept of the Bible was exported all over the world. Perhaps some future cooperation will return!<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":74605,"alt":"","title":"ez27-bible","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-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":"Bybliography","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The source of the Source","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":74605,"alt":"","title":"ez27-bible","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez27-bible-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,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Ezekiel","chapter":"27","chapter_main_number":"479","date":"20270630","wall_id":"479"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":13,"id":"75238","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"From Doom To Dawn ","post_title":"From Doom To Dawn","slug":"from-doom-to-dawn","old_id":"75238","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":54871,"post_title":"Hannah Vorchheimer","slug":"hannah-vorchheimer","old_id":"54871","first_name":"Hannah ","last_name":"Vorchheimer ","description":"Hannah Vorchheimer is a senior at SAR High School. After spending her gap year in Migdal Oz, she will attend Barnard College. ","short_description":"Hannah Vorchheimer is a senior at SAR High School. 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    After many years in Exile, God summons Ezekiel to relay to the prophet a grandiose vision. Ezekiel is commanded to look out onto the valley below, filled with many dry bones, and is asked to predict whether the bones will be revitalized. However, when the time comes to resurrect the bones, it is Ezekiel who is tasked with reviving the bones rather than God. What could have prompted God to employ Ezekiel as His partner in the orchestration of the vision?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Ezekiel was primarily a prophet of gloom and doom and the one to foretell the downfall of the nation at the hands of the Bablyonian Empire. However, after the destruction takes place, Ezekiel slowly begins easing the nation to a place of comfort and redemption through prophecies of consolation in the latter part of the book. God perhaps deliberately chooses Ezekiel to show the nation that he can lead them out of their terribly low place of despair in Exile to a new reality, the same way Ezekiel is able to take the bones from the depths of the valley and transform them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The nation had a difficult time believing Ezekiel during his alarming prophecies of destruction. Perhaps on the most fundamental level, God wants to show them that Ezekiel is a partner in His process and is to be trusted.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Moreover, Ezekiel once prophesied the \u201cimpossibility\u201d of the catastrophic Exile coming to fruition: where the nation could not even fathom the Babylonian conquest that was soon to come, and yet it came true. Here too, he is once again prophesying the inconceivable idea of redemption, that will soon come true.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Ezekiel himself is a living example for the nation, who himself is able to fully pivot from prophecies of destruction to redemption, and thus illustrates to them how it is possible to rebuild a lost world, and once again, live life after the Exile.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":75239,"alt":"","title":"ez37-dark 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    This chapter continues the apocalyptic vision of the war of Gog and Magog which precedes the redemption of Israel. The prophet is not sparing in his description of this awful conflict, writing that God \u201cwill assign to Gog a burial site there in Israel\u2014the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Sea. It shall block the path of travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It shall be called the Valley of Gog\u2019s Multitude. The House of Israel shall spend seven months burying them, in order to cleanse the land\u201d (33:11-12). Such is the scale of the destruction to be wrought in the war -\u00a0 due to the abundance of corpses, which produce the most serious kind of ritual impurity, dedicated burial teams will work non-stop until all can be interred. The scene calls to mind nothing so much as the aftermath of a nuclear accident, during which the land itself becomes imbued with the presence of death \u2014 redemption as catastrophe.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Such a chilling scene in Ezekiel\u2019s vision of redemption is hardly congenial to our finer feelings. When imagining the perfected world of the messianic age, we are more easily drawn to the peaceful and bucolic images also offered by the prophets, as in Isaiah\u2019s statement that the wolf will lie down with the lamb that the lion will eat straw. This tendency is even more pronounced in those currents of culture which have officially forsworn the idea of a divine redemption but are still animated by the idea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The western philosophical and political discourse on progress has very often been but a secularized theology of redemption, and these crypto-theologies have themselves tended to emphasize sweetness and light. Thus the liberalism common to much 19th-century politics and religion tended to imagine a long process of gradual improvement leading to the new Jerusalem. Even in the Marxist theory of progress, which admits that the perfected society might be ushered in by violence, the process itself was for the most part understood to be a necessary one in which one stage unfolds inexorably into the next; fundamentally the journey to redemption is one marked by continuity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The philosopher Walter Benjamin offered a critique of this view of history as a necessary series of events progressing towards a perfected world. History, he insisted, was a catastrophe, and redemption cannot be understood in terms of comfort and light; we experience redemption in the form of a traumatic rupture, much closer to Ezekiel\u2019s vision of Gog and Magog than to the secular visions of redemption through progress. He rejected the secular theories which, through viewing the journey towards redemption as a necessary and mechanical one turned \u201cthe future\u2026 into homogeneous, empty time.\u201d Benjamin asserted that the alternative view, according to which redemption comes through rupture and even catastrophe, awakens us to the particularity of each moment, and makes \u201cevery second of time [into] the strait gate through which Messiah might enter\u201d (Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History, end).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Image: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":75353,"alt":"","title":"","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","width":321,"height":400,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","medium_large-width":321,"medium_large-height":400,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","large-width":321,"large-height":400,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","1536x1536-width":321,"1536x1536-height":400,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","2048x2048-width":321,"2048x2048-height":400,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","post_full_size-width":321,"post_full_size-height":400,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","home_baner-width":321,"home_baner-height":400}},"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":"Ezekiel, Meet Walter Benjamin","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"They share a cataclysmic view of historical redemption","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":75353,"alt":"","title":"","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","width":321,"height":400,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","medium_large-width":321,"medium_large-height":400,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","large-width":321,"large-height":400,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","1536x1536-width":321,"1536x1536-height":400,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","2048x2048-width":321,"2048x2048-height":400,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","post_full_size-width":321,"post_full_size-height":400,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez39-Klee_paul_angelus_novus_1920.jpg","home_baner-width":321,"home_baner-height":400}},"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":"Ezekiel","chapter":"39","chapter_main_number":"491","date":"20270718","wall_id":"491"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":15,"id":"75671","color":"#eceffa","size":"1","name":"The Time-Space Continuum ","post_title":"The Time-Space Continuum","slug":"the-time-space-continuum","old_id":"75671","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":66417,"post_title":"Maor Greene","slug":"maor-greene","old_id":"66417","first_name":"Maor ","last_name":"Greene ","description":"Maor Greene is a rabbinical student and doctoral student in Hebrew Bible at Jewish Theological Seminary. They are writing their dissertation on metaphors of violent speech in Psalms. They currently accompany others on their spiritual journeys through their work as a Jewish spiritual director. They hold degrees from Duke University (BS), Princeton Theological Seminary (M Div), Hebrew University (MA), and JTS (M Phil). 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    Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously taught in his book <\/span>The Shabbat: Its Meaning for Modern Man<\/span><\/em> (1951) that \u201cJudaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time\u201d and that \u201cSabbaths are our great cathedrals\u201d (8).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Heschel points out that in Genesis, the seventh day (Shabbat) was the first part of creation to be sanctified. When speaking of sanctification, time seems to have priority over space in Judaism.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    In our chapter, we see a close integration between the sanctification of space and time. Verse 1 states \u201cThus said the Lord God: The gate of the inner court which faces east shall be closed on the six working days; it shall be opened on the sabbath day and it shall be opened on the day of the new moon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    The inner court has been set aside as sacred space. The gate allowing access to it will only be open during specific sacred times. Here we see that the sanctification of time can determine the layout of space. Sacred space and sacred time are not in opposition to one another, but complimentary.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Given the new realities of life during the Covid-19 crisis, I have found myself thinking a lot lately about understanding and creating boundaries of space and time. Like most people I know, I have been forced to spend much more time at home than usual.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    I live in NYC, renting a relatively large room in an uptown brownstone. This room currently functions as my bedroom, home office, living room, dining room, storage area, yoga studio, and prayer space. I often shift furniture around during the day to create a space more suitable to whichever task I am working on in that moment.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    I have also had to create a more structured work-from-home schedule. I have celebrated every Shabbat in this same room since Purim, as well as Passover and Shavuot. Counting the Omer has overlapped with self-isolating.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Through all of this, I have come to see that the boundaries of time and space are interconnected. The layout of my room drastically changes depending upon the time of day and day of the week. I find myself tidying my room even more carefully than usual before Shabbat so that there are fewer visual distractions as I welcome and celebrate Shabbat.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    Like the gate of the inner court of the Temple, sacred time changes the layout of my space. If you have not done so already, I invite you to think about how you change the physical space around you as you prepare for and celebrate Shabbat.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":75672,"alt":"","title":"ez46-time tunnel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"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 Time-Space Continuum","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Thinking about sacred time and space in a world of COVID\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":75672,"alt":"","title":"ez46-time tunnel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/ez46-time-tunnel-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Ezekiel","chapter":"46","chapter_main_number":"498","date":"20270727","wall_id":"498"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/75422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}