To leave the best job in order to rehabilitate your people- part 1,2

 Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country said John F. Kennedy in 20/1/1961.

This famous quote is attached to Kennedy, but we can see the implementation of it can be found in the old ages, when a people was in problems with all the aspect a man can think about, economically, socially and security. The people is the people of Israel that came back from the exile from Babylon to Jerusalem in order to build the second temple, hoping that this action will help them to feel good and secure.

In the beginning of the book of Nehemiah we can see that their hopes came into a big disappointment, when a few of them are coming to Nehemiah, who was in a very high position in the Persian Empire, the chief butler!

But Nehemiah that saw that the situation of the people of Israel was so poor couldn't stay in his job anymore as written in Nehemiah 1:3-4
"וַיֹּאמְרוּ, לִי--הַנִּשְׁאָרִים אֲשֶׁר-נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִן-הַשְּׁבִי שָׁם בַּמְּדִינָה, בְּרָעָה גְדֹלָה וּבְחֶרְפָּה; וְחוֹמַת יְרוּשָׁלִַם מְפֹרָצֶת, וּשְׁעָרֶיהָ נִצְּתוּ בָאֵ

שׁ. וַיְהִי כְּשָׁמְעִי אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, יָשַׁבְתִּי וָאֶבְכֶּה, וָאֶתְאַבְּלָה, יָמִים; וָאֱהִי צָם וּמִתְפַּלֵּל, לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמָיִם."

"And they said unto me: 'The remnants that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.'And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven"

After that Nehemiah was praying to The Lord, he decided to do more, he went to the Persian king and asked him to give him time in order to help his people as written:

"וַיֹּאמֶר לִי הַמֶּלֶךְ וְהַשֵּׁגַל יוֹשֶׁבֶת אֶצְלוֹ, עַד-מָתַי יִהְיֶה מַהֲלָכְךָ--וּמָתַי תָּשׁוּב; וַיִּיטַב לִפְנֵי-הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיִּשְׁלָחֵנִי, וָאֶתְּנָה לוֹ זְמָן"

"And the king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him: 'For how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return?' So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. (Nehemiah 2:6)

In the next 12 years Nehemiah is the savior, he rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, and he did a lot of economical steps in order to help the people...

To be continued....

Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew        Transcription       Translation
יִשּׂוּם             yiśśûm               Implementation
שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים   Śar hammašqîm  Chief butler
מַעֲמָד            Ma'ămad            Position
נְחֶמְיָה          nehemyāh           Nehemiah
שִׁקּוּם            šiqqûm             Rehabilitation
חֶבְרָתִי          hebrātî             Social

Eli@eteachergroup.com

If I am poor and I want to eat the options that I have is not so many in this world, what can I do, I can eat less, I can take a loan , I can be a slave, I can humiliate myself in order to have a peace of bread....

In those days once in a seven years all the money that you took from someone else as a loan, all the debt that you have I being cancelled, this is the year of Shmita as you can find in the law in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15. Nehemiah didn't wait for this year; he saw that the people owe money sold their sons and their girls to slaves in order to pay the loan back. Furthermore, they lost all of their land in order to do so.

He decided that all of the rich people in Judah, without any exceptional, would give up and won't take the money that the people owed them. This is a restart. This is a time when people couldn't wait for the year of Shmita. Nehemiah is the only one that did this social step in order to prevent the poverty....

And all of this only in 12 years of vacation from the best job that a foreigner can have! I think that J.F.K was inspired from people like Nehemiah, a person that didn't think about himself!

 Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew   Transcription Translation
וִתֵּר         Witter           Gave up
חַיָּב         hayyāb         Owe
כֶּסֶף         kesep          Money
הַלְוָאָה      Halwā'āh      Loan
אֲדָמָה      'ădāmāh       Land
מָכַר       mākar          Sold
אָנוֹכִי      'ānôkî          Self-centered

Eli@eteachergroup.com