{"id":69275,"date":"2020-01-28T11:44:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T09:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69275"},"modified":"2023-08-23T18:09:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:09:17","slug":"searching-for-an-honest-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/searching-for-an-honest-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching For An Honest Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[528,703],"acf":{"old_id":"69275","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":62571,"related_cahpter":"405","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"No Noah this time...\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

Jeremiah 5, like so many of the prophecies of the Later and Minor Prophets from which the haftarot are drawn, contains numerous castigations of the Jewish people\u2019s objectionable spiritual and ethical practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

A specific theme that, in my opinion, uniquely stands out in this biblical chapter, is God\u2019s bemoaning His inability to discover individuals truly deserving of His care and concern.\u00a0<\/span>The first three verses of this chapter articulate this particular Divine frustration:<\/span><\/p>\n

Roam the streets of Jerusalem, search its squares, look about and take note: You will not find a man; there is none who acts justly, who seeks integrity\u2014 that I should pardon her (<\/span>Jerusalem<\/span><\/em>.) Even when they say, \u2018As the LORD lives,\u2019 they are sure to be swearing falsely. O LORD, Your eyes look for integrity\u2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This sentiment parallels God\u2019s critical evaluation in Genesis of almost all of humanity – Noah was the sole exception – populating the world that He had created only ten generations earlier:<\/span><\/p>\n

The LORD saw how great was man\u2019s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened\u2026 But Noah found favor with the LORD (Genesis 6:5-6, 8).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremiah was stating that God was unable to point to a \u201cNoah\u201d of his time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham\u2019s negotiations with God concerning whether the population of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah included a sufficient number of righteous individuals to justify those cities\u2019 continued existence also comes to mind (Genesis 18:23-33).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This parallelism leads Isaiah to equate the state of the Jewish people in his day, with Sodom and Gomorrah prior to their destruction:<\/span><\/p>\n

Had not the LORD of Hosts left us some survivors, we should be like Sodom, another Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, You chieftains of Sodom; give ear to our God\u2019s instruction, you folk of Gomorrah! (Is. 1:9-10).<\/span><\/p>\n

The theme of trying to find those who could serve as ethical exemplars for the rest of humanity is also prominently associated with the legendary ancient Greek philosopher, Diogenes La\u00ebrtius, who was reputed to have searched for an honest, or \u201ca morally sensitive man,\u201d (<\/span>\u201cwoke\u201d?<\/span><\/i>), but felt that it was ultimately \u201can exercise in futility\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thwarted expectations inevitably lead to frustration and the desire to do away with what exists, rather than the vastly more difficult and challenging task of re-education and re-orientation.<\/span><\/p>\n

image: Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man, attributed to J. H. W. Tischbein (c. 1780) \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69276,"id":69276,"title":"jer5-diogenes","filename":"jer5-diogenes.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/searching-for-an-honest-man\/jer5-diogenes\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer5-diogenes","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69275,"date":"2020-01-28 09:44:14","modified":"2020-01-28 09:44:24","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":632,"height":480,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-300x228.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":228,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","medium_large-width":632,"medium_large-height":480,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","large-width":632,"large-height":480,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","1536x1536-width":632,"1536x1536-height":480,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","2048x2048-width":632,"2048x2048-height":480,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","post_full_size-width":632,"post_full_size-height":480,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-553x420.jpg","home_baner-width":553,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Searching For An Honest Man","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"No Noah this time...\u00a0","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":69276,"id":69276,"title":"jer5-diogenes","filename":"jer5-diogenes.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/searching-for-an-honest-man\/jer5-diogenes\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer5-diogenes","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69275,"date":"2020-01-28 09:44:14","modified":"2020-01-28 09:44:24","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":632,"height":480,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-300x228.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":228,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","medium_large-width":632,"medium_large-height":480,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","large-width":632,"large-height":480,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","1536x1536-width":632,"1536x1536-height":480,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","2048x2048-width":632,"2048x2048-height":480,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes.jpg","post_full_size-width":632,"post_full_size-height":480,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer5-diogenes-553x420.jpg","home_baner-width":553,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117290,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69275\/revisions\/117290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}