Jeremiah Chapter 11: They fashioned their plots...

One of the 11 Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

A Dead Sea Scroll and jar

Chapter 11

The Lord directs Jeremiah to remind the people of the covenant

that they had made at Sinai. They do not uphold their agreement

either communally or as individuals, so they are slated for a

purging punishment. There are many references made to earlier

books via the “newly discovered” book of Deuteronomy found

within the Temple. Found within the Temple under the reign of

King Josiah, it is used as the collective memory meant to jostle

the people back into partnership with God.  Because they have

not accepted their responsibilities they have forfeited their right

to the land. Soon they will be exiled and spit out from Zion. They

are no longer a protected nation as they have fallen prey to

idolatrous influences.

Rabbi: Chapter 11 refers us back to the terms of our covenant.

They have found the Deuteronomic text.  Jeremiah is preaching

during this time.

Julie: referring to 11:5 “in order to fulfill the oath which I swore

to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and

honey…”

Where have we seen this line before?

Rabbi: It is from Exodus  3:8 “ I have come down to rescue them

from the Egyptians and to bring them out of the land to a good

and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey…”

Joel: referring to 11:4. The Egypt experience is being compared to

an iron crucible. From crisis a new theology is being forged. The

reference is not to the covenant with an individual but rather one

with a nation. As metal is forged, so are we as a nation.

Paul: The people cannot change their spots in time so how

seriously is this warning? They are going to be punished

regardless!

Rabbi: True. God told the people what to do. They know what is

expected but do not obey. Punishment has been decided and

cannot be stopped.

Bill: referring to 11:7:  “Obey my commandments.” It’s too late!

It’s frustrating to think that this is being said for no reason.

Rabbi: God is reminding them to keep up their end of the deal.

There is lots of unrest in the Middle East during this time and the

people are easily led astray. The Deuteronomic text is a great

reminder of our covenant and it is a way to politically and socially

cement us back to our past, to the first four books of the Torah.

Jerry: It was needed as a unifying agent which changed the

perception of the past clarifying and radicalizing ideas and

practices in Judaism.

Bill: Does anyone have an original copy of Deuteronomy?

Rabbi: No, not in its entirety. The oldest portions can be found in

the Dead Sea Scrolls. You can view them on line at

“deadseascrolls.org”. 

There are numerous caves scattered throughout the Jordan

valley on the Israeli side. A shepherd boy tending to his flocks

found the urns that contained some of the scrolls. Fortunately he

brought them to someone who could authenticate them. More

artifacts were found in1967 once we got the land back.

Bill: We are expected to follow the terms of the Covenant but

God will not listen to the people’s cries when he brings down his

judgment.

Julie: In the Amidah prayer we praise God and then petition for

his favor.  Jeremiah Chapter 10:25 is the 19^th blessing in the


prayer, but we are asking for God to bring down his wrath against


those who do not obey. We are the ones who do not obey. The


Babylonian Empire is God’s tool. So, in essence aren’t we asking


to be disciplined in the Amidah?

Group: No Response.

Bill: The prophet Isaiah seems to have focused more on Exile as a

response to sin rather than Jeremiah.

Joel: That’s not really true. Each major Prophet has his own

personality and his own response to Exile as a religious and

political reality. Isaiah is a visionary and poet, Jeremiah seems

more like a hard-hitting no nonsense complainer and

Ezekiel sounds like he’s is on drugs, but they all deal with aspects


of Exile and why the situation is occurring as a response to the

behavior  of the Children of Israel.

Jane: They represent different perspectives so that they can reach

different people in the society.

Rabbi: Referring to 11: 21 “ .. concerning the men of Anathoth

who seek your (Jeremiah’s) life…”

Anathoth is a town.  Jeremiah has incited the anger of his own

town’s people. They are turning against him. In Chapter 18:18, the

people are clearly plotting his demise. Jeremiah winds up being

taken by Judeans to Egypt where he dies. The Talmud insists he

died a martyr’s death.

Julie: Referring to 11:19  “For I was like a docile lamb,/led to the

slaughter;”

Jeremiah sounds like he has been set up. He sounds like he

realizes that the jig is up for him. He doesn’t seem so happy with

God.

Bill: This sounds like Jewish guilt. “Look at me, woe is me. Why

me God”?

Rabbi: The people of Anathoth, similar to tyrants, will try to

silence him as he speaks the truth.

Bill: Tyrants always try to silence those who stir up the pot. It’s

the people who speak up who suffer by those in power. Do you

think the rich Judeans and those who would broker a deal with

Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian King want to hear this stuff?

Joel: This is typical Prophet’s behavior. They get the call to

prophecy from God directly. They protest.They claim they do not

have the stuff to lead. They say they are not up to the task. They

may be fearful. Look at Moses, the greatest leader of the Jews.

Look at Jonah. The point is not what they want, but what God

wants from them. Eventually their skill level is raised by the task

at hand, but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a price to pay on an

individual level. Jeremiah, may bemoan his particular fate, but

knows that the job must be done.

Jeremiah Chapter 10: Pour Out Your Wrath...

Tension is building as the people disregard their covenant with God. In the Temple the priests provide sacrificial offerings to Yahweh as well as to false pagan gods. The people bow to golden and silver idols while the poor go hungry. Once again, God lays out the reasons for the coming punishment which will be meted out by the Babylonian Empire. Jeremiah tries in vain to intervene on behalf of the people but their transgressions have worn down God’s patience.

                                                        Chapter 10 

Julie: referring to 10:1-10. The ways of nations, portents in the sky

and idols made of silver and wood are delusions but God is true.

That’s a real leap of faith. Most people need something physical.

Bill: So there are other gods?

Rabbi: The people believe in other gods but they are false.

Jane: I think the point of these verses is to show that the people

are placing their faith in something false and it will come to no

good and cannot help them.

Joel: There seems to be a split in the logic of the Torah, where God

presides over the defeat and demise of other God’s or at least

their ghosts and a universe where God is alone and the only deity. 

 In Greek mythology Zeus kills the other gods because he is more

powerful. This logic is reflected in the worship of common people

in the time according to the Prophets, but the Prophets state the

counter belief is false. 

Rabbi: This can be seen in different ways: God is the only god and

the people worship falsely or there are lesser gods that are not as

powerful as God.

Bill: We do not permit images of God.

Rabbi: well, we depict cherubim and other similar imagery.

Julie: I don’t think depicting God is necessarily a reflection of more

or less sophistication in a culture. For the Jewish people the

transition from the worship

of an “idolatrous” statue of a Golden Calf in the book of Exodus, to

blemish free Red Heifer calf offered in ritual sacrifice in the book

of Leviticus, may both be the transitional objects to a point where

merely prayer is our doorway to God.

Bill: I think there was communal guilt over the Golden Calf

business so we came up with a red heifer.

Jane: referring to 10:23 “I know, O Lord, that man’s road is not his

(to choose),/That man, as he walks, cannot direct his own steps.”

Is this a contradiction regarding free will? Is everything

predetermined?

Rabbi: I think it is calling attention to the fact that man stumbles a

and that we are flawed.

Julie: Jeremiah believes in God so it is a forgone conclusion that

the right way is God’s way and we need his direction.

Joel: There is a political reality to these situations. Judeans live in a

small country subject to the whims of political empire and

conquest .God is seen as transcendental, the Lord of all things. He

is the creator of good and bad events that are essentially outside of

man’s control and understanding. 

Rabbi: referring to 10:23-25.  Jeremiah is really overwrought. He is

playing different roles and it feels very raw. He is pleading on

behalf of the people but is also in agreement with God that they

have gone the wrong way.

10:25 “Pour out your wrath, lest You reduce me to naught, /Pour out your wrath on the nations who have not heeded you,…”

Julie: This sounds very familiar. Don’t we say something like this

when we open the door for Elijah?

Note: From the Passover Haggadah addressing the Prophet Elijah:

“Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not recognize You

and upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your Name. For they

have devoured Jacob and destroyed His habitation. Pour Your

anger upon them and let Your fiery wrath overtake them

Pursue them with wrath and annihilate them from beneath the

heavens of the Lord.”

This passage is partly co-opted from Psalm 79 attributed to King

David, which vents rage upon the enemies of Israel. The question is

whether this passage is merely vengeful against all non-Jews? It

clearly centers on retribution for the enemies of the people of Israel

and limits negative attributions to only those of violent intent.

Furthermore, it can also be said that in this invocation  only

polytheistic pagans are addressed as both Christianity and Islam

consider themselves to be “Children of Abraham “ and accepters of

monotheistic faith, whether they feel like the sole heirs of this

tradition or not. Therefore it must be said that although Prophets

like Isaiah and Jeremiah are not universal preachers of love, their

preaching must be understood against the historical context in

which they preached.

Damien Hirst's "Golden Calf". Selling at 17.9 million dollars.

Jeremiah Chapters 7-9: "They Cannot Be Made To Blush".

Molly the 10th Red Heifer



While I was vacationing in Key Largo the group read to Chapter 7:21. Regrettably I missed 2 Torah studies but the coral reef in Florida was an acceptable consolation. Back to Judah…

 These are desperate times in Jerusalem. Jeremiah knows that the people have defiled the Temple with empty ritual  and idol worship. They do not follow God’s laws nor do they help the needy of Zion. God and Jeremiah continue to explain to the people why they are scheduled for a 46 year long “Time-Out” in Babylon.

Bill: referring to7:21 “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat.”

I think God is saying, do what I say, but these Jews are always backsliding on the laws.

Joel: I think God is offering a sarcastic moment. The tone of this passage feels more like, take your fill of these burnt offerings because I don’t accept them, so do what you want.

Julie: This is very similar to Isaiah. The ritual alone is not going to cut it. The laws must be incorporated into one’s life/heart.

Note: The practice of qorbanot/ sacrifice, stopped in 70CE when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. Sacrifice could only be made in the Temple in Jerusalem and the Kohanim were the only ones who could perform these rites.  100 of the 613 commandments address sacrifice. In 2002, Molly the 10th blemish- free red heifer was born in Galilee Israel. Some individuals believed that it was a sign to begin construction on a third Temple in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. At the appointed time the heifer would be sacrificed and its ashes would be used to make a purifying paste. 

Bill: Talk of ritual reminds me of a community in Mexico that lights Friday night candles and circumcises their boys.

Joel: Yes, my sister used to live in Texas and she told me that there were Mexican congregants in her schule who discovered that they were Jewish. They believed that their families were descendants of Spanish Jews who were fleeing the Inquisition and escaped to the New World.

Julie: Referring to 7:29 “Shear your locks and cast them away…”

Is this a reference to  payot?

Ceil: No, I don’t believe so. Cutting hair was a sign of mourning.

Bill: referring to 7:32-33” Assuredly, a time is coming….when men shall speak of the Valley of Slaughter.”

The end is near!

Jane: Were the Jews doing human sacrifice to assimilate?

Joel: Other cultures were certainly performing human sacrifice. Maybe they felt they would cover all bases and hedge their bets. Prayer will eventually take the place of sacrifice.

Ceil: The story of Abraham and Isaac is an unusual sacrifice story because God intervenes and ends this as an acceptable practice.

Bill: It was a test!

   Chapter 8

Julie: referring to 8:1; The kings, priests, officers and inhabitants of Judah shall be taken out of their graves and their bones left in the sun – like dung. I guess they are wiping them from history similar to when  Egyptian Pharaohs write their own names over the names of previous Pharaohs in order to eradicate them from memory.

Joel: Bad, bad, bad, bad Jews!

Jane: referring to 8:22 “Why has healing not yet,/Come to my people?”

We can assume that this is not God speaking because the “m” in my would be capitalized.

Joel: This is an interpretive text. It goes back and forth between God and Jeremiah.

 Chapter 9

Jane: Was this written before or after the exile?

Joel: We don’t know for certain when it was written, but the Babylonian Captivity as a historical event occurred and there is evidence that Jeremiah was a witness.

Julie: Ten years prior to the (586 BCE) destruction of the city and Temple, the elite of the society  were taken by force to Babylon. This was like a brain-drain on Judah.

Bill: Referring to 9:12-22; God is describing the horrible events which will transpire and then says  ”For I the Lord act with kindness.”  What Kindness?

Jane: Only if you are “good.”

Ceil: But, they don’t act good.