The Spiritual Instagram
“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 NASB
In you – Greek philosophy is the foundation of the Western world. It is preoccupied with the idea of the universal. While most of us haven’t spent much time with Plato, we are nevertheless inundated by this preoccupation. Our culture is fairly obsessed with “principles,” “rules,” “formulae,” and all the other “absolutes” that create the boxes of our rational ordering of existence. Just take a moment and reflect on how much of your pursuit of control of your world is dedicated to discovering and using overarching principles. From ethics to physics, we all want to know what “laws” govern everything.
Perhaps that’s why Hebrew thought seems so strange. “Judaism’s most distinctive and controversial proposition” is the reversal of this Greek ideal. It is “that the particular is more real than the universal.”[1] The Hebrew Scriptures assert that the particular, the individual, the single case, the event is the foundation of reality. The real is not to be discovered in the realm of Platonic absolutes or heavenly principles. The real is right here, in this moment that can never be repeated, in this one-time event, in this particular person. “Time and again, scholars have drawn attention to the fact that Israel discovered monotheism, and through its daughter religions, Christianity and Islam, taught it to the world. But even monotheism is not as revolutionary as this, the idea of the priority of the particular over the universal the living example over the general rule. The proof is that no other faith ever adopted it. Christianity and Islam both insisted that theirs was the only true path of worship—that one God is to be served in one way. Judaism is structurally unique—the only world religion ever to believe in a universal God, the God of all peoples, times and places, and at the same time to believe in a particular way of life that not all people have to follow . . .”[2]
In modern parlance, the Hebrew view of God is like a contemporary Instagram. It is this moment captured for eternity, not eternity compressed into this moment’s box. It is what you and I do now that speaks of the divine. It is this place, this time, this person, this action—and in the next place, time and person, the action might be different. Living the biblical worldview requires a commitment to a very odd principle: “It depends.”
Ancient Semitic societies did not have legal principles of overarching justice. They operated on the basis of case law, of precedence, of what happened the last time something like this happened. The appeal to the king or the priest was an appeal to find a similar event in order to make a decision. What do you suppose your world would be like if you read Torah like this instead of importing a Greek idea of absolutes into the mix? It depends, doesn’t it?
Topical Index: in you, universal, particular, it depends, Genesis 12:3
[1] Jonathan Sacks, Radical Then, Radical Now, p. 87.
[2] Ibid.
“It is this moment captured for eternity, not eternity compressed into this moment’s box.”
A question on this… What is eternity that we should be willing to devote an action towards it, if we will not be able to share and enjoy the moment a second time? Or am I misunderstanding the claim of eternal life – to know YHVH and the Yeshua that He has sent…
The reason why this question… “Salvation is now and here” or am I also misunderstanding the concept of salvation? Now is the time of your salvation.
Nothing after life nothing about living beyond the grave, except for the conviction of going to a manor prepared for us by Yeshua should we follow His teachings.
Sorry, but I don’t understand your question. Can you elaborate?
Skip, sorry but I wish to establish the difference between salvation and eternity?
Salvation – an action performed with the cooperation of divine and human agents that restores relationship and delivers the recipient from guilt. It may be a process or a legal change in status.
Eternity – a word used interchangeably (but inappropriately) for endless duration of temporal sequence or (theologically) a state of existence “outside” of the temporal condition.
Curse or leper?
METZORA
Sometimes me a survivor may feel like a leper, or those with learning disabilities, that become stuck in a world of speech and words, feels leprous , or the condition of poverty relational, emotionally, trying to communicate is is feeling like poverty, or of a leprous neglect in grieving losses, should we put the BELLS around our neck and cry out “METZORA, metzora, metzora,” here comes the feeler the emotional one, me learning, now to heal and deal be with people and not share with wells that are empty and seek for those can deal and are open and can . Healing this afflictions is dealing , putting words to emotions, but not harming, maybe we all need the humility of trying to be a sparrow catcher , to cleanse or speech and lower ourselves as I see even in my dysfunction of healing needs hyssop , or maybe we are normal and the world is suffering a denial .
We all do at different times..I guess, please forgive me , a dyslexic , trying to learn to write and quote it I have done this incorrectly..
quoted from a great Rabbi, on this week’s Parasha, Leviticus 14:1-15:33
LEARNING HOW TO SPEAK, Rabbi A. Greenbaum.
[ “The METZORA, literally the “leper”, is symbolic of one who abuses his power of speech, being MOTZI-RA: “bringing out evil”.]
[ The previous parshah, TAZRIA, presented an elaborate pathology of the diseases of the soul, such as the “leprous” mark of SE-EIS, inflated pride, or BAHERES, the shining white light in which some people constantly seek to present themselves. The first step in the cure for such illnesses of the soul is to receive an objective “diagnosis” from the Kohen-Priest, a clear statement that the mark is TA-ME, impure. Until we name our negative traits correctly, we cannot begin to heal them. Only when we acknowledge the impure for what it is can we take the first step towards purification. As we saw in last week’s parshah, healing of the wounds of the soul requires heart-searching and contrition, which is why the METZORA was sent for a period of into isolation “outside the camp”.
This week’s parshah of METZORA begins with the highly picturesque ceremony with which the healed leper begins his process of purification so as to be able to return to normal life “in the camp” with other people. The ceremony required two sparrows together with a block of cedar wood, red-dyed wool thread and hyssop. One of the birds was slaughtered into an earthenware flask of living water. Then the other bird was taken with the cedar, the red wool and hyssop, and together they were dipped into the blood and water in the flask, which were sprinkled seven times on the leper, after which the living bird was sent free (Lev. 14:4-7.).
Can you imagine how hard it was to catch the sparrows in the first place in order to carry out the ceremony? As cats and anyone else who has ever tried to catch a sparrow all know, it is terribly easy for sparrows to fly away. This is why the Hebrew name of the sparrow is DROR, “freedom”. The very difficulty of catching these birds, which are notorious chatterers, comes to impress upon the METZORA the great importance of catching our speech and chatter BEFORE they fly off. We must learn to take control over what we say, in order to use words intentionally, productively, lovingly, to good effect. Rashi in his commentary on our parshah explains that the wood of the lofty cedar tree was brought “because leprous plagues come on account of arrogance. What is the remedy? The person must lower himself down from his pride like a worm [from whose blood the red dye of the wool thread was derived] and a hyssop” (Rashi on Lev. 14:4).
The use of the two birds in the ceremony is bound up with the double-edged nature of speech, which can be used for either good or evil. The METZORA had to watch as one of the chattering birds was slaughtered in front of his very eyes, teaching him that he must simply kill his evil talk for all time. However, this does not mean that he may not speak at all in future. On the contrary, once he has learned the lesson of humility contained in the cedar, the hyssop and the scarlet thread, the second bird goes free! When we release ourselves from the bonds of pride and arrogance that enslave us, we are freer than ever to explore the great power of pure speech — “over the face of the field”. ]
[Rabbi A Greenbaum, Azamra.org]
I struggle each day, it seems, with being forced, pushed and demanded to accept the universal. A universal that has no real bearing on me individually except as I relate to others that are doing the demanding. Piece by piece as I recognize what they are, I have begun to identify much of the immoral nature of the majority of it. It becomes more clear as to why I experience the unease from these relationships. I’ve been attempting to conform to the wrong authorities in my life.
Thanks Skip, for the Port St Joe conference experience. I’ve inched forward slightly. Progress. Making sense of moments of eternity, one at a time.
Thank you for clarification.
Yeshua is Salvation and salvation is the positive act to help restore a relationship based on Godly principles / YHVH Laws, Commandments and Judgments…
Eternity is a time beyound our comprehension.
Eternal life boils down to here, now and how we do things.
As the tree falls so shall it remain and its deeds shall follow.
I missed this one totally, as I thought I needed to know and do… Instead of do by perfecting the peace or salvation in myself…
Have agreat week.
El Instagram espiritual
Bendeciré a los que te bendigan, y al que te maldiga, maldeciré. Y en ti serán benditas todas las familias de la tierra. Gen. 12:3
En ti – La filosofía griega es el fundamento del mundo occidental. Está preocupada con la idea de lo universal. Aunque la mayoría de Nosotros hemos pasado mucho tiempo con Platón, no obstante estamos inundados por esta preocupación. Nuestra cultura está obsesionada con “principios”, “reglas”, “fórmulas” y todos los demás “absolutos” que crean nuestro ordenamiento racional de existencia. Toma un momento y reflexiona sobre, qué parte de tu búsqueda de control sobre tu mundo se dedica a descubrir y usar estos principios generales. Desde ética a la física, Todos queremos saber las “leyes” que gobiernan todo.
Quizá por eso el pensamiento hebreo parece tan extraño. “La proposición más distintiva y controversial del judaísmo” es la reversión de este ideal griego. Es que “lo particular es más real que lo universal”. [1] Las escrituras hebreas declaran que el particular, el individuo, el caso singular, el evento son el fundamento de la realidad. Lo real está aquí, en este momento que jamás puede ser repetido, en este evento singular, en esta persona en particular. “Una y otra vez los eruditos han llamado la atención al hecho que Israel descubrió el monoteísmo, y a través de sus religiones hijas, cristianismo e islam, se lo han enseñado al mundo. Pero aún el monoteísmo no es tan revolucionario cómo esta idea de lo particular sobre lo universal el vivo ejemplo sobre la regla general. La prueba es que ninguna otra fe la adoptado jamás. El cristianismo y el islam ambos insisten que el camino de cada uno de ellos es el único camino verdadero de la adoración – que un Dios debe ser servido en una manera. El judaísmo es estructuralmente único – la única religión en el mundo que cree en un Dios universal, el Dios de todos los pueblos, épocas y lugares, Y al mismo tiempo creer en una manera particular de vivir que no todos los pueblos deben seguir…” [2]
En idioma moderno, el punto de vista hebreo de Dios es como un Instagram contemporáneo. Es este momento capturado para la eternidad, no la eternidad comprimida en la caja de este momento. Es lo que tú y yo hacemos ahora que habla de lo divino. Es este lugar, este tiempo esta persona, esta acción – y el siguiente lugar, tiempo y persona, la acción puede ser diferente. El vivir en la cosmovisión Bíblica requiere un compromiso a un principio muy extraño: “depende.”
Las sociedades antiguas Semíticas no tenían principios de justicia globales. Operaban sobre la base de la jurisprudencia, de precedencia, de lo que sucedió la última vez que algo así ocurrió.
La apelación al rey o sacerdote era una apelación para encontrar un evento similar con el fin de tomar una decisión. ¿Cómo supones que sería tu mundo si leyeras la Torá de esta manera en vez de importar una idea griega de absolutos a la mezcla? ¿Depende? ¿No?
Topical Index: in you, universal, particular, it depends, Genesis 12:3