{"id":72397,"date":"2020-03-25T22:31:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=72397"},"modified":"2020-03-25T22:31:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T20:31:08","slug":"getting-reminded-of-what-is-essential-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/getting-reminded-of-what-is-essential-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Reminded Of What Is Essential – Then And Now"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"72397","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"445","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"God gives Baruch some tough love\r\n\r\n","content":"

Poor Baruch son of Neriah, getting kicked when he\u2019s down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord has added grief to my pain\u2026 and I have found no rest\u201d (45:3).<\/span><\/p>\n

What pain does Jeremiah\u2019s scribe suffer, and what grief did God kick him with?<\/span><\/p>\n

Midrash interprets \u201crest\u201d in the verse as prophecy: Unlike others who served prophets and then rose to it themselves (Joshua, who served Moses, and Elisha, who served Elijah), Baruch could not \u201cfind\u201d his own prophecy. On top of that pain, \u201che would write Jeremiah\u2019s words of prophecy\u201d (Radak), throwing his frustrations constantly in his face.\u00a0 Always the apprentice, never the master.<\/span><\/p>\n

Metzudat David agrees that Baruch harbored frustrated prophetic aspirations, but understands the specific reference to pain, and the grief heaped upon it, differently: \u201cWhen I heard your prophecy of destruction, my heart was pained; now, when I write the scroll as if it\u2019s already happened, my grief is increased.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking the two commentaries together, we might suggest Baruch ached so deeply both for his own sake and on behalf of his people. As a prophet\u2019s scribe, he was intimately familiar both with (someone else\u2019s) prophetic experience and with the approaching national disasters, which he was forced to concretize with his pen.<\/span><\/p>\n

This passage isn\u2019t really about Baruch\u2019s complaints, though, but about God\u2019s response. \u201cI am going to overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted. And do you expect great things for yourself? Don\u2019t expect them. For I will bring disaster upon all flesh\u201d (ibid. 4-5). Have some perspective, Baruch, God seems to say. You\u2019re sad to not have prophecy, but what\u2019s the point of prophecy anyway? If it\u2019s to serve as God\u2019s messenger to His people, \u201cIf there are no sheep, why a shepherd?\u201d (Radak and others, from midrash). In the midst of national disaster, you\u2019re worried about your own missed potential as their leader? And if Baruch\u2019s yearning for prophetic connection is more for the sake of his own spiritual development, that sort of spiritual flow from above \u201ccan only come when the divine presence rests in Israel, not in a time of trouble\u201d (Malbim).<\/span><\/p>\n

As we\u2019re all finding in these times of viral troubles, when the world is down, everyone feels the kick. Some ambitious tracks might stall; even some efforts towards personal development might take a back seat as we focus on navigating our own and others\u2019 basic needs. Like Baruch, we might simply find ourselves in the wrong historical moment to be able to achieve certain goals, at least for now and at least in the way we\u2019d envisioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

But God doesn\u2019t just kick Baruch harder with the \u201cget some perspective!\u201d rebuke. He reminds him of what is truly essential, that remains to him: \u201cI will grant you your life as <\/span>shallal<\/span><\/i> (plunder) in all the places where you go\u201d (ibid. 5).<\/span><\/p>\n

When the world is down, life becomes \u201c<\/span>shallal<\/span><\/i> \u2013 plunder,\u201d \u201cas if you grabbed it for yourself\u201d (Metzudat David). Life itself can be an accomplishment, plunder, a trophy of war.<\/span><\/p>\n

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