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"Thou shalt not give an obstacle": How does the blind man appear in the Bible and how does it relate to lentil stew? | Israel Hayom

2023-06-06T15:33:38.993Z

Highlights: June 6 is International Day of the Blind. Project 6, which makes the Bible accessible as a reference book, tells the story of the blind man in the Bible. A blind person has to deal without a sense of sight with the physical obstacles in the environment and with human "obstacles" A person who does not see those around him finds it more difficult to understand the social situation and is exposed to exploitation and harm. The Bible, which tries to give its readers a moral way of life, deals with both the law and the story with the matter.


Today (June 6) is International Day of the Blind. Who is the blind man in the Bible? What laws does the Bible give us for the blind? And how does all this relate to lentil stew? Project 6, which makes the Bible accessible as a reference book, answers all these questions and tells the story of the blind man in the Bible


Coping with blindness or nearsightedness entails many challenges. A blind person has to deal without a sense of sight with the physical obstacles in the environment and also with human "obstacles". A person who does not see those around him finds it more difficult to understand the social situation and is exposed to exploitation and harm. The Bible, which tries to give its readers a moral way of life, deals with both the law and the story with the matter.

The biblical law states: "Thou shalt not curse a deaf person, and before a skin thou shalt not give a setback, and fear thy God, I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19, verse 14). The law seeks to protect the deaf even though he does not hear the curse in his ears, and the blind person who cannot see the obstacle placed before him with his eyes. But how do you enforce such a law? If the deaf person does not hear and the blind person does not see, who will deal with the offender who curses or obstructs? "Fear your God, I am the Lord," fear of God is the preservation of morality, even when no one sees what you are doing.

Jacob who cheated his blind father, pays a-for-tat price for his actions, Photo: GettyImages

Our sages extend this law or moral direction call. An obstacle is not just putting a foot on someone, and a blind person is not just one who does not see with his eyes." And before skin thou shalt not give a hindrance"—before Soma in the matter...he would take advice from you, do not give him advice that is unfair to him." Everyone has areas in which he is blind. To give bad advice in real estate, economic, social conduct and more, is to fail blindly.

Measure for measure

Within the stories of the forefathers in the Bible there is a story of exploiting blindness, and more within the family. Remember our forefather Jacob? He was born as a twin to his brother Esau. Unfortunately, and as sometimes happens, there was stiff competition between the two. In the stomach began the struggle: who would be the first. Jacob's birth picture is a picture of a brother born holding his older brother's heel, trying to get him and failing. "Then his brother came out and his hand grasped the heel of Esau and his name was called Jacob" (Gen. 26:26).

The competition over who is first continues, Yaakov buys the firstborn in exchange for a lentil stew from his hungry brother, but apparently this deal is not decisive either, and when Yitzchak feels that his day is close and he wishes to bless his firstborn son Esau, and so the competition reaches the final. For those who have not read this story long ago or who remember it only from kindergarten, it is worth paying attention to the opening sentence: "Let the old man laugh and prepare his eyes with a mirror" (Genesis 27:1). Age takes its course and Isaac the old father no longer sees well.

Rebecca Hamm has an idea of how to make Jacob and not Esau receive the blessing. She suggests that Jacob take advantage of Isaac's blindness and come to receive the blessing instead of Esau. Jacob is afraid, he knows that there are other senses besides sight that can help his father notice the deception. "They made my brother a man of the gate, and I a smooth man, perhaps my father would sleep and I was in his eyes a deceptor" (Verses 11-12), but Rebecca also finds a solution to this. She dresses Jacob in the clothes of his brother Esau, and his smooth hands are covered with hairy goat skins. When Jacob comes like Esau to his father Isaac, blind Isaac realizes that something is wrong. As a blind man, he uses his other senses, he smells, he touches, he listens and tries to understand who the son is standing before him, "the voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau" (v. 22). In the end, the deception succeeds and Jacob receives his brother's blessing.

But the story does not end here, Jacob who deceived his blind father pays a price for it. He was forced to leave his home and flee from his angry brother far away to Haran. In Haran, in the shelter he found with Laban, his mother's brother, his life story unfolds so that you could say that he was punished-for-tat for his actions. On the night of his marriage to his beloved Rachel, after working for her for seven years, in the darkness of the night, which he cannot see, Laban cheats him and replaces Rachel with her older sister, Leah. The message is clear: "Before skin, you will not give a failure and fear your God.

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Source: israelhayom

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