{"id":71647,"date":"2020-03-14T22:23:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T20:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71647"},"modified":"2020-03-14T22:23:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T20:23:57","slug":"i-am-king-this-does-not-apply-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/i-am-king-this-does-not-apply-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am King, This Does Not Apply To Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"71647","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"436","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The face of moral obtuseness\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today\u2019s chapter stars a scroll.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From his jail cell, sensing that the destruction is imminent Jeremiah tells his scribe Baruch to transcribe the warnings that he has been declaiming for over twenty years. Maybe, he hopes, writing a book and disseminating it widely can still make people change their ways.\u00a0 Baruch records the prophecies and begins reading them around Jerusalem \u2013 first in the House of God, then in the chamber of Gemaryahu Ben Shafan, a royal scribe and then to a gathering of princes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The words strike fear in the hearts of their audiences. The royal servants who hear the readings insist that the scroll must be read to the king, who is sitting in his winter house in front of a blazing fire. But when the king hears the prophecies, he is not afraid, but calmly cuts up the scroll and throws it into the fire, piece by piece.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why did the king reject and destroy the prophecy? The Talmud Moed Katan 26a, gives a fine portrait of his moral obtuseness:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey said to Jehoiakim: Jeremiah has written a book of Lamentations over the future downfall of Jerusalem. He said to them: What is written in it? They read him the first verse: \u201cHow does the city sit solitary\u201d (Lamentations 1:1). He said to them: I am king, and this does not apply to me. They read him the second verse: \u201cShe weeps sore in the night\u201d (Lamentations 1:2). He said to them: I am king, and this does not apply to me. They read him the third verse: \u201cJudah is gone into exile due to affliction\u201d (Lamentations 1:3). He said to them: I am king. They read to him: \u201cThe ways of Zion do mourn\u201d (Lamentations 1:4). He said to them: I am king. These are the four leaves, or verses, that he read first.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Talmud\u2019s telling, Jeremiah\u2019s scroll is the book of Lamentations. The king brushes away each verse unfolding the grief and calamity of the city, with the claim that as king, none of it applies to him. He is insulated and immune to the surrounding suffering. But then, the Talmud goes on,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHer adversaries have become the chief\u201d (Lamentations 1:5), (i.e., the reigning king will be removed from power.) Once he heard this, he said to them: Who said this? They said to him: This is the continuation of the verse: \u201cFor the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions\u201d (Lamentations 1:5). Immediately, he cut out all the names of God from the book and burned them in fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the prophecies go beyond the anguish of his subjects and threaten his royal status, the King flies into a rage, and tries vainly to destroy the messenger. Impervious to his people\u2019s pain, he is exquisitely sensitive to any challenge to his power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, a narcissistic ruler condemned his people to destruction.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":57303,"id":57303,"title":"isam8-king","filename":"isam8-king.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-kingly-compromise\/isam8-king\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam8-king","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57301,"date":"2019-06-12 20:14:00","modified":"2022-08-23 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