Jeremiah Chapters 24-25; Figs so rotten that they could not be eaten.

                                       Chapter 24

Tim: Referring to 24:2 “One basket contained good figs, like first –ripened figs, and the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.”

Who sorted these figs?

Ceil: Referring to 24:8 “And like the bad figs… so will I treat King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem that is left in this land… I will make them a horror – an evil-to all the kingdoms of the earth.”

 You would think that the remnant would be considered the lucky ones – the ones who were able to survive and remain in the land. Why aren’t they rewarded?

Ellen: God needs anger management!

Rabbi: God has been trying to direct and teach man all along – from Eden up to this point.

Ellen: God hasn’t stepped in for a very long time – now he will starve them and create hell on earth.

Ceil: Well, the people have misbehaved.

Rabbi: There is no pure good or pure evil/bad person who survives. Jeremiah is offering hope to those who will make it back from exile. All the people at that time will be purified.

Joel: This is the eve of the Babylonian invasion. To surrender to exile is counter-intuitive but that is what Jeremiah is directing them to do.

Jerry: The remnant will stay with the corrupt puppet-king Zedekiah, so maybe that is why they need to be purged.

Joel: The Jews did well in Babylon after a while.

Ceil: There wasn’t necessarily a climate of hate towards the Jews there. There were many different cultures of conquered people living together.

Julie: Sounds like NYC.

Ellen: Why didn’t God destroy the other people – why his own people?

Joel: In history bad things happen so humans make up reasons – God is historical contingency. If you believe he is a personality he or she is functioning in multiple dimensions. If he or she is not, then history sets up challenges and Jews have to survive in a Darwinian sense. So it’s a test either way.

Ellen: That works as an explanation if man made God but it doesn’t work if God made man.

Rabbi: I don’t believe in a God who makes people do things.

Bill: It seems that God wants people to earn things – learn and grow through adversity.

Rabbi: Ellen wants to know why if God stepped in once why won’t he do it again.

Bill: As we age our perspective changes.

Ellen: I don’t think God is on a linear plane.

Rabbi: I think it is man who is changing and discovering aspects of God. God doesn’t change.

Corey: The people were slaves in Egypt a long time. Maybe they needed and devised a reason to finally leave.

Joel: This is the evolution theory of God.

              

                                     

 

                                       Chapter 25

Rabbi: At this point Jeremiah has been prophesizing for twenty four years. This is his last appeal to the people.

Bill: This is in third person.

Rabbi: Yes, Baruch the scribe’s voice may be here.

Bill: This is like the end of the movie.

Rabbi: Yeah, like Lord of the Rings with seven possible endings.

Joel: Frum Jews believe that Jews are a nation. Real Jews yearn to go back. If we don’t, we are in exile regardless of where we may live and thrive. I see myself as an American and a Jew. This is a fundamental difference between Orthodoxy and Reformed Judaism.

Rabbi: Orthodox Jews pray three times a day for the time they can return to Israel.

Joel: These are two poles pulling in opposite directions. It isn’t resolvable.

Rabbi: In 586BCE this is where the diaspora began.

Ellen: Why would prophets stop existing? They seem to just end.

Joel: It’s easier to refer to a book than a prophet who claims to speak for God.

Ellen: I’m sure this was true back then too!

Rabbi: We stopped writing the book, but we continue to write commentary on it.

Ellen: Why can’t there be Prophets who add amendments to the Tanach, like we do with the constitution?

Joel: We do – it’s called the Talmud.

Rabbi: I am part of a group of Reformed Rabbis who are asked questions and we try to write answers or responsa. Of course the only authority we have is the belief that others have placed in our answers.

Joel: But this seems to be following the same Orthodox lines or reasoning. Judaism evolved for practical reasons. Great Rabbis and by extension the community can vote on the book and come up with their own commentaries to a particular problem.

Ellen: This is hard material to read – he is a nasty God!

Bill: In the parsha we read today God killed Aaron’s two sons. This upset me but he did and I have to accept this. It is what it is and some things happen as they are supposed to happen.

Paul: There is something about fire and the cleansing of fire. There is a line of thinking that fire was the cleansing element in the Holocaust.

Julie: This line of thinking is a very slippery slope!

Jerry: Fire is seen as an aspect of God, for example, the Burning Bush, the lights on Sabbath etc.

Joel: In this week’s Parsha Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, both Cohanim are killed for offering “strange fire” at the alter in the sanctuary. Some Rabbis say they were drunk, while others say “strange fire” was the wrong kind of offering, an unwanted offering or an offering to another god.

Rabbi: You laid this out very well, Joel. There are two branches. One is that we have sinned and we must change our personal behavior and the other is we are creative and try to figure out what God wants.

 

 

What does God want? What is the value of contemplating all this in the face of injustice and historical tragedy? Is God the source of all punishment and reward? Are we forever looking over our shoulders wondering when judgment will come down, despite our best efforts to live a good life? Whether you believe that these historical events are motivated by divine providence or not, it’s clear that bad things happen and often these things are out of our control. There is the issue that the Jews in Jeremiah’s time were doing what they thought was right, but God thought otherwise. There were also Jews who knew they were wrong, but chose to continue on that path. The response in Jeremiah is that following the laws is no guarantee of being saved or even rewarded in this life. We then must ask, what about those Jews that tried their best in Judah, but were swept away or killed by the Babylonians as a mark of collective guilt? What makes sense to me, are the ethical and moral teachings which can be used even when confronting these questions. Things are going to happen anyway, despite our efforts. What is critical is our moral response to these events. These teachings can stand on their own whether God is passing down moral judgments or not.  This is what makes the difference in repairing our own lives and the world.