{"id":49858,"date":"2019-06-28T17:02:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T23:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=49858"},"modified":"2019-06-28T17:02:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T23:02:16","slug":"forbearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/forbearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbearance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiba were called upon to offer prayerful intercession for a community desperately afflicted by drought (Taanit 25B). Rabbi Eliezer, leading the congregation in prayer, intoned 24 blessings beseeching God\u2019s mercy. His protracted pleas went unanswered.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Akiba offered a simple prayer: \u201cOur Father, our King, we have no king but You. Our Father, our King, show us mercy for Your sake\u201d &#8212; and life-giving rains fell in abundance. The Rabbis concluded that Akiba\u2019s prayer was deemed worthy because he was <em>maavir al midotav<\/em> \u2013 he practiced the virtue of forbearance.<\/p>\n<p>According to Rashi, forbearance means not insisting on retaliating or lashing out against those who offend us: \u201cHeaven is patient and forgiving of our personal transgressions to a degree commensurate with the forbearance we show others\u201d (Rosh Hashanah 17A).<\/p>\n<p>It is, alas, human nature to avenge ourselves when attacked, to strike back reflexively, to counter-punch. Rabbi Akiba (and his spiritual charges) were rewarded because he resisted this base, pugilistic instinct. \u201cWe have no king but You,\u201d Akiba understood: God\u2019s favorable judgment is infinitely more important than the satisfaction derived from responding to the \u201cslings and arrows\u201d of human detractors.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Akiba\u2019s contemporary, Roman Emperor (and Stoic philosopher) Marcus Aurelius, agreed: \u201cThe best revenge is to be unlike the one who committed the injury.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Forbearance\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9415],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,9130],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49859,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49858\/revisions\/49859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}