A deity is meant to control Nature, Destiny and Life, so how can a human craft one. If you think about it, idolatry is absurd. Like every Torah story, it’s also intended as a lesson for the ages. Only the bulkiest idol had survived the punch-up.It was brilliant theatre- and a compelling argument against paganism.
Abraham explains that the statues had wrestled over an offering dropped off by a local worshipper. Abraham’s father leaves him to mind his Idols-R-Us franchise for a few hours and returns to find smashed gods everywhere. Others were rattled and are now scrambling to stabilise the joystick of their lives.Īnd I’m thinking of young Abraham standing amongst the pottery shards in his father’s idol shop. Some of us welcomed the reset and reminder that G-d is large and in charge. Now we’ve had to confront the possibility of losing our grip. You can click a button and have a meal at your door within the hour. If you have your scopes and scans, you’ll avoid dread diseases. Economists can tell you which investments will produce the best returns. You can Google next Sunday’s weather to confirm your picnic plans. Technology has given us the illusion (or, perhaps delusion) of control. You did your part and trusted G-d to bless it with success. You had no expectation that you could predetermine the size of your yield. You knew that you had zero control over rain. In the Talmudic vernacular, a farmer was one who “trusted in the source of all life and planted”. If you were a subsistence farmer, you ploughed your field, planted seeds and hoped. Governments want to micromanage private lives, while we want to ensure our family’s health, financial stability and sanity.ģ00 years ago, people had less expectation of control. Instead, it seems that many individuals and the leadership of dozens of countries now crave control. The universal humility was inspiring, and many of us hoped that it would last. In early 2019, when everyone gaped in surprise as the world shut down, the buzz phrase was “we are not in control”. If we should have learned anything from the COVID “black swan”, it’s that we’re not in control. But, if we’re going to wait for 0 COVID cases before we live again, we have a long wait ahead. I’m no doctor, and you must confer with yours before making medical decisions. But, the perennial Jewish angst kicks in and has us worry about the outside chance that someone may fall ill. 90% of the people we interact with are safe. Almost all adult South African Jews are now vaccinated.
Last year, as the virus tore through our communities and we had no medical safeguards, we had to hunker down to stay safe. Our Johannesburg lock-down or open-up dilemma is representative of a global challenge. Parents are torn between allowing their kids to live and worrying that they’ll get the virus. Numbers may be way down, but teens are as yet unvaccinated. Curfew restrictions have eased, so the kids want to hang out. Despite that, an entire grade at a local Jewish day school spent the week isolated after a few students tested positive following a party. Monday’s countrywide infection numbers totaled what the Jewish community’s numbers had been during our recent third wave.
COVID numbers here in South Africa hit rock-bottom this week.