{"id":70370,"date":"2020-02-18T16:49:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T14:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70370"},"modified":"2023-09-14T14:20:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:20:39","slug":"a-relationship-in-shards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-relationship-in-shards\/","title":{"rendered":"A Relationship In Shards"},"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":[429,840,407],"acf":{"old_id":"70370","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39778,"related_cahpter":"419","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Can it ever be repaired?\r\n\r\n","content":"

In yesterday\u2019s chapter, the prophet Jeremiah visited a potter at work on his wheel. The image of the potter grabs the reader. The potter, when recognizing his piece-in-progress is faulty, starts from scratch with the same lump of clay, taking the original material and forming it into something better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s chapter ups the ante by using the same image in a more powerful \u2013 and final – way. Today\u2019s chapter promises immediate fireworks. In verse 1, God commands Jeremiah to buy a bottle and take it to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, the notorious site of the worst idolatry: child sacrifice. God gives Jeremiah a message of doom, condemning the people for \u201cthey have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.\u201d At the end of the speech, God commands Jeremiah to break the bottle in view of all the people there.<\/span><\/p>\n

This demonstration is designed to garner attention. Jeremiah is going to a public gate. He is taking with him spectators, but curiously the text of verse 1 does not have a verb pertaining specifically to the elders. The JPS translation renders it: \u201cThus said the LORD: Go buy a jug of potter\u2019s ware. And [take] some of the elders of the people and the priests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u2018take\u2019 appears in brackets since it does not appear in the Hebrew. Read simply, it almost seems as though in one fell swoop, Jeremiah must go and acquire a jug and the elders. The omission of the verb puts the elders on the same level as the jug: they are objects, ingredients in Jeremiah\u2019s grand demonstration.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Jeremiah is to break the bottle, he is to tell the people that God will break them just as Jeremiah broke the bottle. Here, the demonstration gives us meaning. What happens when an earthenware bottle breaks? Is it broken into large pieces, or is it smashed to smithereens? Can it be repaired with some ancient substance or would the shards of pottery be useful for nothing, ever again?<\/span><\/p>\n

In verse 11, the text is clear: the pottery cannot be made whole again. There is an irrevocability in the breaking of pottery that is supposed to touch us, deep inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Talmud in Berachot 30b related the story of two different sages, Mar and Rav Ashi, who made weddings for their sons. At each wedding, the people got carried away with their rejoicing. The host of the wedding brought a glass and smashed it in front of the group. The Talmud tells us <\/span>ee\u2019atzivu<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em> \u2013 \u201cthey became sad.\u201d This was the desired impact of the symbolic action of Jeremiah. The people have gotten carried away with sinful conduct, and they should respond to the breaking of the pottery by figuratively \u2018sobering up\u2019: A glass shatters. There is noise. There is mess. Something has broken that can never be fixed. The people should think not just of the fragility of glass (or pottery), but also the fragility of humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70371,"id":70371,"title":"jer19-shards","filename":"jer19-shards.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer19-shards.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-relationship-in-shards\/jer19-shards\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer19-shards","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70370,"date":"2020-02-18 14:49:27","modified":"2020-02-18 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