CHAZAK, CHAZAK VENITCHAZEK!

                                                    Twelve Months of Studying Prophets

 I write this last blog entry roughly 2,744 years  after the writings of our Prophetic ancestors Isaiah and Jeremiah. If they and their collective Jewish communities could travel to our century they would no doubt marvel and assuredly quake at the spectacle of the changes that have taken place. However, I think in time, after they acclimated to the new era in which they found themselves, they would recognize us as we recognize them.  When we sit together in fellowship to study the collected books, it is evident that these writings are our stories too. I envision Bible study much like a trip in a time machine where we are enabled to travel back to our ancestral beginnings. I remain motivated to sustain weekly Tanakh study because for good or ill, it is our own imperfect image which we see reflecting off each page. After all, who would want to study one thousand six hundred and twenty four pages worth of self-actualized people making sensible choices?

Obviously dates, names and political boundaries have changed but human frailties endure. We remain botched and broken. Despite my intellectual pessimism regarding human nature, I choose to function as an optimist by embracing Tikkun Olam. In my estimation this is the only sustainable and productive orientation to adopt during our brief stay on planet earth. From the outset of this blog and in a spirit of full disclosure, I do confess that I began with no burning desire to prove or disprove the existence of God. In fact the more I read the less vested I feel about the existence of God, the historical veracity of the narratives or the intersection and parameters of logic and science. Here, I’m more than happy to leave these inquiries to others and enjoy the fruits of their labor. If the Tanakh is not dictated by a God then conversely it is constructed by men and we are left to ponder the relevance of their narratives. I do wholeheartedly believe that our story is real because it is truthful in the truest sense; it is true in the way dreams and great art are true as they are the most revelatory and human of activities.

It is very easy to prematurely discount these ancient writings, as they are exceedingly rife with murder and mayhem of all kinds. It is precisely these aspects of the text which are clearly reflections of a unique moment in time but in truth our baser human nature has changed little since then and flourishes into modernity with an especially brutish technological vengeance; all the more reason to seek the wisdom of our culture. I believe disappointment awaits those who expect to prove the existence of a supreme deity. It is my opinion that this is a personal affair and is impossible to prove therefore, it should not be the measurement of our book’s true worth. After all, Science has not enabled us to transcend the gross lapses of our own contemporary morality, nor has it successfully proved or disproved the existence of a God. The creation of robot drones over spears does not an argument for progress make.

At any age, one can read the Tanakh for instruction and be fed. As we read we can vicariously project ourselves into the stories and explore our responses to ethical dilemmas and moral snares. In so doing we learn and practice our personal and cultural responsibility to issues of conscience. During times of historical crisis, our default has been set to the highest good framed for our community to understand. I think the most salient message of the Prophets is that ethical behavior is learned and must be cultivated with conscious effort. We continue to strive to reach this goal.  Judaism presents no moral relativism; it is clear how we are all expected to act.  Simply put, we are expected to do nothing less than repair the world. Tikkun Olam is the physical manifestation of hope in action.

It is truly miraculous that we have survived as a people while so many others have been lost to history. There is something very laudable about our collective efforts and our desire to cleave together as a people. Torah Study is a powerful outlet for fulfilling this need. There are few places a person can go to be nurtured by committed community members who are willing to explore their culture and themselves. Tanakh study offers something for every manner of reader whether they be right or left- brain dominant: beautifully sophisticated prose, hallucinatory prophecy, magic, historical documentation, parable, mythos, political intrigue, numerology, (Gematria), codification of law, ethical behavior and more. All these aspects existing separately but conforming in relationship, like elements in a kaleidoscopic vision. The effect is an ever- changing experience that simultaneously presents our past, present and enduring future. For those of you who have visited this blog I hope it proved thought-provoking and has aided you in some way. Tanakh study is similar to an addiction but luckily for us it is a compulsion worth pursuing. Hebrews keep on reading . Read often, delve deeply, connect more. Chazak, Chazak, Venitchazek!

I offer my deepest gratitude to my husband Joel Silverstein for his tireless editing, his boundless enthusiasm and his true love for Jewish learning.

A Special thanks to our Rabbi Joel Mosbacher and my fellow Torah study partners, without whom Saturdays just wouldn’t be the same.

 

                          

 

 

 

Jeremiah Chapters 37-39; Do not delude yourselves...

Chapter 37

 A rough chronology of Jeremiah might assist us in framing the coming siege of Jerusalem.

640 BCE:  Josiah becomes the King of Judah

627 BCE: The Lord first speaks to Jeremiah

622: Book of Deuteronomy found in the temple. Reforms attempted but do not stick.

609: Josiah killed in battle at Megiddo. Josiah’s son Jehoahaz is taken in chains to Egypt after only a 3 month rule.    

609 – 598 BCE: Josiah’s other son Jehoiachim rules Judah as a puppet of Egypt

605 BCE: Babylonians defeat Egyptian forces. The first deportation of Jews to Babylon

597 BCE: Second Babylonian invasion. More Jews (like Ezekiel) taken into exile. Babylonians set up Zedekiah to replace Jehoiachim.

586 BCE:  The fall of Jerusalem. Exile for most of Jerusalem’s citizenry

 Zedekiah’s reign is nearing a close. The Egyptian army has left and the Babylonians will soon take advantage of this opportunity. The siege of Jerusalem is eminent.  Zedekiah sends men to Jeremiah in the hope that he will petition God for assistance. This is a no-can-do moment. The Lord stands firm in that the Babylonians will do his bidding. The people need to be cleansed in the fire of exile. The king, unhappy with this prophesy, jails Jeremiah.

 

Rabbi: The Egyptians are leaving and the Babylonians will soon be sacking the city. Jeremiah’s message is not what they expected to hear. He is telling them not to fight. They must accept defeat.

Jerry: How long was Jeremiah in jail?

Rabbi: I don’t know!

Paul: Where is the scribe Baruch in all this?

Bill: Maybe they put him in the house of Jonathan along with Jeremiah.

Ellen: Placing Jeremiah in this house seems like a witness protection program. Everyone knows where he is if they wanted to kill him.

Rabbi: Well I think that’s just it. They are sort of afraid that Jeremiah might actually be a true Prophet and they are afraid to do away with him.

Jonathan: They’ll put him in the pit, then  in the prison and if he dies they can say that they didn’t actually do it with their own hands.

Bob: No one wants to hear Jeremiah’s defeatist talk. They want a positive message.

                                                          Chapter 38

Rabbi: There is a very interesting relationship between Zedekiah and Jeremiah.

Ellen: Does Zedekiah believe that Jeremiah is a true Prophet? How would anyone know who is true and who is false?

Rabbi: Jeremiah is prophesizing doom – he is telling the king to surrender and his life will be spared.

Bill: Maybe Zedekiah sees that he can’t possibly win. He sees that some of the people are defecting to Egypt. It’s a lost cause at this point.

 

Bob: This battle occurred over time. They fought hard. They didn’t just give-up.

Ellen: If Jeremiah can see what’s coming why doesn’t he help the people and tell them to store bread – you know something that can help them?

Julie: I think you are missing the point. God can’t be tricked. There is no going around him. He has decided that the people will be punished and this is how it will go down.  Jeremiah is God’s servant. He would be smote if he did not speak God’s directives.

Rabbi: Jeremiah is telling them it’s over. Exile is here.

Ellen: It may have worked!

Julie: The lesson is that the people are idiots. They don’t learn from their mistakes and they repeat them over and over. They need to go through the adversity of exile and make it out the other end.

Bill: If the people continued to fight, who knows ; there may not have been a Jewish people.

                                                              Chapter 39

This is it! This is the siege of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army breaches the walls and king Nebuchadrezzar’s officers take up quarters inside the Middle-Gate.  Meanwhile Zedekiah has not heeded Jeremiah’s direction and he flees during the night with his soldiers. He is caught, his children are murdered before his eyes, his nobles killed and then he is blinded and chained. The palace is burned down along with the people’s homes and the walls of Jerusalem are toppled. Some of the poorest people are allowed to remain and they are gifted with vineyards by the chief of the Babylonian Guards. The Eunuch Ebed-Melech pleads for Jeremiah and Jeremiah is set free and goes to Egypt.

 

 

 

Julie: These poor who are given the land, aren’t these the same people who God will wipe out later once the remnant return from exile?

Jerry: This was a common practice in war. Some of the people who presented no threat to the victors were allowed to remain as stewards on the land in order to keep it profitable.

Julie: I get your point but I’m asking something different. I’m trying to figure out if these are the same people whom God will smite once the exiled return to the land.

Rabbi: I don’t know.

Bob: This sounds like Lenin’s tactics. This was a style of warfare in this time. People had to stay to administer for the winning side.

Jerry: Anyone who defied them got wiped out.

Bob: King Zedekiah spared Jeremiah’s life but he didn’t listen to his prophesy.

Bill: He just couldn’t convince the people not to fight.

Bob: Their army knew that they couldn’t win so you figure they would have tried to broker a deal.

The issues that Jeremiah brings out really go against any modern concept of nationalism. What country wants to submit to another and then dub it as God’s plan for the future? This kind of thinking could be seen as defeatist or even “Quisling” in its submission to hostile authority. Yet it was precisely this historical contingency that enabled Judaism to grow from a local nationalist religion to a global religion in exile, where a new religious character was formed. Whether we consider Judaism to be a nation in exile, or merely a religion, it is here in conflict and in submission to Babylon and Judah’s reinstatement under the Persians that modern Judaism truly began.