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.