{"id":63675,"date":"2019-09-30T07:16:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63675"},"modified":"2023-04-24T18:46:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T15:46:01","slug":"jehu-a-passion-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jehu-a-passion-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Jehu: A Passion For Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Can we please have an honest, off the record moment?<\/span><\/p>\n

I generally read Scripture with the following two assumptions: God is speaking to us through the narratives and instructions percolated through the hearts of fallible men and women who lived a long time ago. As a result, I deliberately read against the grain, looking through the surface distractions to try to locate the divine glimmer below the surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost always, that mode of reading (which I think is a fair characterizing of rabbinic midrash and traditional ‘darshanim,’ preacher, as well) works: there a loads of compassion, justice, inspiration, and ethical decency to be mined in the mother lode of Tanach.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for a moment, I have to throw my hands up and surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n

King Jehu is determined to show his passion for the God of Israel. Does he do that by eliminating poverty? By welcoming the stranger? By providing care for the sick or the widow, shelter for the homeless?<\/span><\/p>\n

No. He shows his passion for God by preparing the brutal deliberate slaughter of all the followers of Baal. And this after butchering the surviving kin of his predecessor, King Ahab. 70 innocent relatives, murdered. While venturing from that massacre to the next, he runs across 42 relatives of the dead king of Judah, Ahaziah. He kills them too. Then all the followers of Baal are gathered through subterfuge into a single room and ordered his guards to kill each and every one of them with their swords, a gruesome, painful, and terrifying death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is that really the service of the Divine?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it true that the dark underside of religious faith is the propensity to make mediocre people say and do truly terrible things?\u00a0 Religion often inspires our best. But it can also bring out our monstrous bloodlust and judgmentalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would have liked a biblical gesture of understanding \u2013 yes, this is intolerable, and God is repulsed by this dogmatic bloodshed. What about ourselves, and religious authorities throughout the ages? There have been rabbis who demand the literal application of these murderous verses in various political contexts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But there have also been humane voices that repudiate those views in the name of key Torah values. Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides states in his Torah commentary, that Amalek was wiped out in the days of King Saul. Rabbi Yosef Babad, Minhat Hinukh (1869) wrote that \u201ctoday we are not commanded to do this\u2019 because Sennacherib already arose and mixed up the world.\u201d In our time, we must apply the Torah\u2019s loftiest values. The justification for religious killings is toxic and we must summon the courage to reject it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Rombout van Troyen, Jehu Killing the Priests of Baal, 1652<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63676,"id":63676,"title":"2kings10-jehu priest of baal","filename":"2kings10-jehu-priest-of-baal.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings10-jehu-priest-of-baal.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jehu-a-passion-for-good\/2kings10-jehu-priest-of-baal\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings10-jehu-priest-of-baal","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63675,"date":"2019-09-30 04:15:24","modified":"2019-09-30 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