Nothing much has been going on here.
It is Sukkot here...but there have been serious riots and stuff going on in the Old City....a guy got shot on Wednesday and such. There have been sirens and helicopters flying around like mad the past three days.
I am perfectly safe....however, I have not gone into the Old City at all this week...which stinks because I would like to go down to the public Sukkah's that are set up down on the Temple Mount Complex.
So, I have not been up to much nor done much of anything this week.
Well, except two nights ago I went out with people here on campus and we went and got Shwerma and ice cream at like 1 in the morning. It was interesting...lots of Jews out partying and dancing through the streets because its Sukkot.
So thats it.
Anywho....
I want to share something that I learned last week on a field study.
I have always wondered what the phrase "the apple of my eye" meant and where it came from.
It never made any sense to me. I know it has been used throughout literature over the past couple hundred years....and I think is used pretty frequently.
It is a phrase I remember learning a long time ago. But I never actually thought about what it meant until very recently.
A couple a months ago I was lying in bed trying to sleep and the thought came into my head, and I sat around thinking about what the phrase could possibly actually mean.
What does it mean for something to be the apple of your eye?
So I thought...and I came up with this:
I figured the phrase was referring back to Adam and Eve in the Garden.
The apple in the end was the ultimate desire of Adam and Eve... because its what they chose.
They desired it. Thats what they wanted. Thats what they chose.
"Your the apple of my eye" therefor, I thought, meant "You are the desire of my life" or something to that extent.
This past week though, we where on a field study to the Wilderness of Judah.
It was a very cool trip.
But when we were standing In the Desert, we read this verse:
"He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
(Deuteronomy 32:10)
My professor, Dr.Wright, went on to explain that the Hebrew word for "him as the apple" was ee-shone'
It does not mean "him as the apply".
The Hebrew should be translated as "the little man of the eye".
I was really confused. I totally did not think this made any sense at all...especially considering I had finally came to what I thought was a good understanding of the phrase "apple of the eye".
So what does this mean?
Dr.Wright told us to turn to our neighbor and look em' right in the eye.
He asked, "what do you see?"
The answer: Ourselves.
So, if Deuteronomy 32:10 says that God found and kept the Israelites as "the litte man of His eye"....think abut what that implies.
If you look someone in their eye...you can see yourself being reflected from their eyes.
This means they are looking at you.
And it means you are looking at them.
There is no other way for this to work.
It is a co-mutual thing that has to be done by two people....and if one person looks away, or does not keep the other person in their eyesight, both people loose sight of "the little man in the eye."
So God is saying that He was always staring directly into the eyes of the Israelites. ...however I think it is safe to say that He is always staring directly into the eyes of anyone starring at Him.
And when He looks at Israel, He saw Himself in them.
When they looked at Him, they saw themselves in Him.
When God looks at us, He sees Himself.
When we look at God, we see ourselves.
In other words, the other person defines who you are....as long as you are always looking to them, and they are always looking to you.
The question though is......does God see Himself in you? Because the only way He won't is if you are not starring back.
2 in 1.
This is a relationship like no other.
This is YADA.
"My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my Torah as the little man of your eye"
(Proverbs 7:1-2)
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