Jeremiah 2:23-37; Idols, Idols everywhere.

                                                 

Canaanite god Baal                                              Assyrian god ashur



Canaanite Goddess Ashera

King Manasseh ruled Judah for 55 years. During this time he paid heavy tribute to the Assyrian king and encouraged their cults in an effort to discourage Yahwism and quell revolt. After Manasseh’s death in 642 BCE, his son Amon reigned for two years faithfully continuing his father’s policies. Amon was assassinated and his eight year old son Josiah succeeded him on the throne. Eight years later as Assyrian power weakened, Josiah was able to galvanize forces and occupy what was once Israel continuing North into Damascus, thus re-establishing the Davidic dynasty. In 622 BCE Josiah renovated the Temple, reestablished the priesthood and Yahwist law. As we know from our previous reading of Isaiah, Josiah’s efforts will fall short and will not able to dissuade God from punishing the people with exile.

“Like a Lustful she-camel,/Restlessly running about,/Or like a wild ass used to the desert,/Snuffing the wind in her eagerness,/ Whose passion none can restrain…”

Carl: 2:23-24 Wow, like a lustful she-camel. What an image!

Julie: There is a lot of this kind of imagery of Israel being compared to a whore or an unfaithful wife.

Ellen: I have a question about the idols. Is it the idol itself that holds the power or is it a conduit for their god?

Jane: It serves as a physical manifestation of a god.

Joel: This is the monotheistic dichotomy. We claim that our god is a spirit, while the pagan gods are made of wood and stone. Our god is true, while the others are false.

Ellen: We have idol-like things too.

Ceil: We don’t pray to the Torah or to a mezuzah.

Bill: Well, there are some sects of Judaism that pray to the chair or the tomb of a beloved rabbi.

Joel: They are not praying to the chair or tomb – they are praying at the tomb. That’s different!

Carl: Referring to 2:25 “No, I love the strangers (other gods),/And after them I must go…”

God is more concerned with the strangers (meaning the pagan worshippers) than the idols.

Rabbi: This is a reference to idol worship.

Joel: Freud would say that this is the transcendental abstract idea of God. Jews represent the enlightenment. We represent the modern and scientific mind that doesn’t need physical objects or manifestations.

Bill: This is like late classical Greece.

Joel: Aristotle said idol worship was crap but the people wanted it.

Jane: I’m sure in ancient times that there was public worship and then there was private worship. People must have renounced idols in the public square but in the home they may have had an altar.

Joel: The prophets are the cutting edge guys that see how Judaism will develop but the rank and file still needed something physical to hold onto in their hands.

Ellen: But don’t we venerate things like mezuzahs?

Rabbi: I don’t conform to the idea that a mezuzah protects a home. What is important is the text inside it. It is a beautiful part of our tradition.

Julie: So why don’t we have a Xerox of a hand- written text? Why do we need the animal parchment?

Bill: Wouldn’t you prefer to have a real master artwork rather than a reproduction of one?

Rabbi: Which would you prefer, a real Matisse or a poster of a Matisse?

Julie: I can’t afford a real Matisse! I see your point but I don’t want animal hide used to make Mezuzahs. I don’t believe in it regardless of its authenticity. I’ll take the mezuzah with the “authentic parchment” Xerox copy inside it.

Ellen: Many Jews believe that a mezuzah is not kosher without the parchment inside it.

Jane: The mezuzah venerates our love of education and the written word as well as honoring God’s message.

Ceil: Veneration and worship are mixed up.

Rabbi: If we said that the Torah is God then, that would be different.

Paul: The Protestant Reformation is a good example of this very idea. They ultimately tossed the statues/idols out.

Joel: In the Byzantine Empire, people killed each other over visual representations. It was called the Iconoclastic Wars. In the 6^th to the 9^th Centuries, Pro and anti- icon factions literally killed one another.

Rabbi: I think the point of this idol debate is that the people have strayed from God’s path. It’s the worship over the other god that is the problem, not the visual representation.

Carl: The mezuzah is the product of the scribe’s transference of spiritual power. I read that somewhere.

Julie: I have a question regarding Deuteronomy. Supposedly a Priest found the Deuteronamic text hidden away in the temple. Were the other four books of Torah codified before or after Deuteronomy?

Joel: There is divergent scholarship on this issue. If the books were not codified as separate texts (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers) scholars says they were the J, E, P, R, Texts. That is the Javist, Elohist, Priestly, and Redactor texts.

Ellen: I think there is a human evolution to trying to rid the superstition out of worship. It is deeply rooted in our psyche.

Joel: This represents the cultural evolution of the Western mind and the Jewish people. Take your pick. At a certain stage, people’s philosophic thought became more abstract and transcendent and less sacrificial, vengeful and concrete.

Rabbi: It is easy to make the case that this is one of the reasons why Judaism is a harder sell.

Assyrian fish god

Goddess Ashera and the goats