Jeremiah Chapters 1-2:22; I Planted You With Noble Vine!

                                       

Rembrandt van Rijn's painting of the Prophet Jeremiah


 

             

We begin reading The Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is born around 645 BCE. He is called to prophecy in 627 BCE, one year after King Josiah of Judah attempts to reform the Judeans from idolatrous practices. He is the son of a wealthy land owning Priest in the town of Anathoth, which is three miles north east of Jerusalem. His educational training would appear to have included the writings/preaching of the Northern Israelite prophet Hosea as well as Deuteronomic verse as is evidenced by the 200 citations found in the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah will never marry, knowing what awaits women and children in the coming exile.

Fragment of Septuagint Torah portion 3rd Century BCE

        

 There are two known versions of the Book of Jeremiah: the Septuagint translation (This is the Greek language version of the Jewish Bible that was begun in the late 3^rd Century BCE for the Greek speaking Alexandrian Jews. It is 1/8 the length of the Masoretic text) and the Masoretic translation (The authoritative Hebrew language version of the Jewish Bible).

         

Baruch Ben Neriah is Jeremiah’s devoted disciple-scribe who is described by Flavius Josephus (the Jewish Historian) as a Jewish aristocrat whose brother was the chamberlain to King Zedekiah of Judah. The Rabbis describe Baruch as a blood-relative of Jeremiah, both men of the Kohanim.

Chapter 1 begins with Jeremiah’s description of his call to prophecy.

Rabbi:  Chapter 1:1-10 Jeremiah is describing how he was summoned to divine prophecy.

Ceil: Chapter 1:6-7 “ I don’t know how to speak,/ For I am still a boy,…”

 Like other prophets before him, he is hesitant to take on this job.

  Weeping Jeremiah by Marc Chagall

                                                               1956

 

Julie: There is no backing out of this position – he was chosen before he was in the womb.

Ellen: Chapter 1:17 “So you, gird up your loins/Arise and speak to them/All that I command of you./ Do not break down before them,/Lest I break you before them.”

So God is threatening to harm him?

Julie: I think God is giving him very serious direction. He wants his full attention. This is not about him.

Referring to 1:11 “The word of the Lord came to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? I replied: I see a branch of an almond tree.”

 What is the significance of the Almond tree?

Ceil: I believe that almond trees are the first to bloom in spring.

Julie: Oh, that’s beautiful!

Rabbi: Chapter 2:1-3 “I accounted to you favor/ The devotion of your youth,/ Your love as a bride…”

This sounds like a very idealized memory of their time in the wilderness.

Joel:  Chapter 2: 3 “Israel was holy to the Lord,/ The first fruits of His harvest.”

 Israel was first among the nations – the favored child.

Julie: God seems very personally hurt by the people’s rejection of him.

Joel: It appears like the people are being asked to make a choice but it isn’t much of a choice. Follow my ways or…

Rabbi: yes, this is a black and white choice but the choice is theirs.

Joel: Chapter 2:3 referring to all who ate of the first fruits of the harvest were held guilty and disaster befell them. So the best was taken off the top for sacrifice? Is that meant to burn or to be given to the priests?

Rabbi: The best of the harvest is given to God.

Julie: Chapter: 2:8 “And the prophets prophesized by Baal/And followed what can do no good.”

I believe child sacrifice was made to Baal.

Ceil: no, I think he was a fertility god.

Julie: Yes, they made human sacrifice to ensure the growth of new crops.

Rabbi: Do you remember the story of Elijah when he challenges the Prophets of Baal?

Ceil: yes!

Ellen:  Chapter 2: 10  “Just across the isles of the Kittim and look,/ Send to Kedar and observe carefully;…”

What is Kittum and Kedar?

Rabbi: Kittum is an island in the Aegean and I’m not sure of Kedar. These references show their awareness of the larger world and how these other people’s values are being juxtaposed to our own.

Note: Kittum was the name for the west coast of Cyprus. The Jewish Bible also applies the name to all of the Aegean islands. Kedar was an Arab confederacy that controlled the Persian Gulf to the Sinai Peninsula in the 6^th Century BCE.

Joel: Chapter 2: 18 “What, then is the good of your going to Egypt/ To drink the waters of the Nile?/ And what is the good of your goings to Assyria…”

This sounds like a Greek debate; the world vs. Monotheism. He is arguing the case.

Julie: I think he is referring to the Northerners trying to make pacts with the Assyrians. We were punished for not trusting in God.

Ceil: No, I think this is just metaphorical – poetic.

Julie: possibly!

Rabbi: Chapter 2:21 ‘I planted you with noble vines,/ All with choicest seed;/ Alas I find you changed/ In to a base, an alien vine!”

This is such powerful poetry!

Ellen: I really get this. It feels like a very modern dilemma. God is saying that the people have everything that they need to thrive but they continue to try and better and one up God. We can’t see what’s in front of us and so we try Buddhism or this or that. God is just trying to get us to accept that our roots are deep and we have all we need to move forward.

Rabbi: Chapter 2:22 “Though you wash with natron/And use much lye,/ Your guilt is ingrained before Me.”

The people may look physically good and have used beautiful salts to clean–up but God sees what they have become.

 

These are a people who have lost their direction. They may beautify themselves with Nile salts but they pray to pagan gods so, they no longer bind together in covenant/community. Despite Josiahs’ best efforts to reform their ways, it will be to no avail. Similar to Isaiah, Jeremiah prophesizes the coming threat from the North.   

Isaiah Chapters 65-66: Finally Home

Depiction of the pagan god Moleck being presented with a child sacrifice.

    

 

Welcome back! I apologize for such a long hiatus but hurricane Sandy had the last word. We were without power for 9 days. I am sending out my condolences for those who have suffered any loss or damage. Wishing everyone affected by the storm much faith and love.

During this time our Torah group did meet and continued through Chapters 60 to 66. Unfortunately I will not be able cover Chapters 60 through 64 but continue to Chapter 65 - 66, the last two chapters in the Book of Isaiah. I’m going to miss him!

Biblical scholars agree that the people are exiles no more. They are back in Jerusalem, the center of the world stage. The “new earth” will be populated by the “true worshippers”; they will be the beneficiaries of all blessings and rewards. Conversely, those who continue to oppress the poor, who taunt the “servants of God” and who worship idols, will be afflicted by the divine anger. It will be a nasty end for this group as described in Chapter 66:24.

Clearly idol worship continues to be a problem, something that really enrages God. It threatens the purity of his rituals and undermines his laws. Human, dog and pig sacrifice are referenced because of their association with the cults of Molech and the goddess Hecate who must have presented a seductive threat to a community in crisis.

As we end the book, we come full circle as God metes out justice and redemption. I felt that the last chapter ended very abruptly, harps on divine punishment and merely trails off. How unlike the well- paced epic poetry of earlier chapters! It all ends on a very sour note. So sour in fact, that the rabbis felt the need to end the book

themselves, by inserting 66:23 again as means to offer hope and encouragement.

 

Rabbi: We are back to the  seperating of the faithful from the un-faithful.

Joel: Refering to 65:4, " Who sit in tombs/ And pass the night in secret places;/ Who eat the flesh of swine,/ With broth of unclean things in their bowls..." I'm struck by the horror movie-like imagery in this chapter. For example, “‘people’…sitting in tombs…to offer worship” like Night of the Living Dead. The group that returns with Isaiah is seen as the faithful and those who remain are De facto the wicked.

 

Paul: If two generations were in exile due to misdeeds and faithlessness, then why do we venerate the Babylonian Talmud which was written in that very exile?

Joel: The greatest scholars were in Babylon and they set up schools and a lifestyle that could support this effort. Also, the Babylonian Jews had to wrestle with the law because they chose to not return to Zion. Exile became the prototypical Jewish experience.

Rabbi: These issues remain with us today.

Ceil: This reminds me of a joke. A pious man is on a boat that is taking him from Poland to America. He speaks to God, “Goodbye God. Goodbye forever, I’m going to America”.

Rabbi: The Jewish exile in Babylon was short enough for many to have lived through the experience from beginning to end. They would have remembered their practices and would have conceivably been able to pass them on to their children.

 

Julie: refering to 65:11, "But as for you who forsake the LORD,/ Who ignore My holy mountain,/ Who set a table for Luck, And fill a mixing bowl for Destiny:/ I will destine you to the sword,..."   Is Isaiah/God speaking to those who chose to remain? The non -jews who go to Zion with the jews, is this group to become one with the "chosen people?"

Bill: refering to 65:13-25 This is reminiscent of the flood in Genesis. We were promised that we would not be wiped out again. It’s another episode of God starting over with a clean slate.

Joel: This is the Golden Age speech. We heard this all in First Isaiah. If this is a different guy named Isaiah two hundred years later, then this Isaiah read the earlier book to end things in a way that comes full circle. This is the Peace speech of the Messianic Age “The Lion shall lay down with the lamb”.

Jerry: If this was less than inspirational it would not have lasted.

Cynthia: Is anybody else bothered by the fact that God doesn’t seem to keep his promise to the Jews about the life of Israel or the kings who ruled there, or the way the Jews suffered in Exile? It doesn’t seem that God kept his promise. We are not in an idylic era

Joel: It doesn’t make it less inspirational just because we can’t’ reach the ideal of the messianic Age. It’s a symbol to aim for.

 

Rabbi: We need this. It helps us reach for our better nature.

 

Rabbi suggests that we each read one verse in round- table style as we begin Chapter 66, the last chapter of the Book of Isaiah.

Julie: referring to 66:1-6,  We are back to the retribution!  I think the Rabbis should have let the book end as it was intended. Refering to 66: 23 being tacked on again after 66:24, What a bummer ending. It was made uplifting in a false way. If the book ends with curses, then it should end with curses.

Rabbi: Refering to the last verse,  There is a tradition that we end on an encouraging note!

 

                                         
 

Two summers ago when I was in Israel, I was confronted by the ongoing conversation about Galut (Golus), or diaspora/exile which continues among Jews today. We can most likely trace this conversation back 2,500 years to the time of the Babylonian exile and return. For example, I had an equal number of Israelis ask me, “Why don’t you make Aliyah?” as did those who expressed a request for support, “Keep us in your heart - We are your family.”

How do we as North American Jews, see ourselves? Are we a diaspora community yearning to someday return to our ancestral home in Israel, or are we the inheritors of an important and necessary community that is perfectly positioned to support Israel from afar? From this vantage point we can extend our Jewish culture and its values beyond the parameters of Zion. We could offer support from this position, just as Israel would offer us a safe haven in the event of a world catastrophe against the Jews and a psychological buffer against cultural diminution in a largely Christian and Muslim world. These fears continue in the hearts and minds of our community.

Throughout the years I remember the great sadness I felt when World Heritage sites and treasures were destroyed by war. I was saddened because I saw these great cultural artifacts as belonging to the human community, as they represented the best that humankind had to offer.  I would like to feel that Israel’s history and present day accomplishments would be valued by the world community. I would like to feel that Israel is not just ours but belongs to or at least is valued by everyone. Unfortunately, I do not feel that secure. It is a complicated truth of my experience as a Jew that all these conflicting experiences and feelings have to coexist.