{"id":76345,"date":"2020-06-21T23:23:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T20:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76345"},"modified":"2020-06-21T23:24:48","modified_gmt":"2020-06-21T20:24:48","slug":"are-you-meshuga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/are-you-meshuga\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Meshuga?"},"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":"76345","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"509","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to v. 7 in our chapter, among the things for which Israel will be held to account is the disdain in which they held their prophets: \u201cThe days of punishment have come for your heavy guilt; the days of requital have come\u2014 let Israel know it! The prophet was distraught, the inspired man driven mad (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">meshuga<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) by constant harassment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The word <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">meshuga<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has become so much a part of contemporary English that it has even earned an entry in that paragon of lexicography, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), where it is defined as \u201cE<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sp. in Jewish usage: mad, crazy; stupid.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In Tanakh, it appears 7 times; with only 3, including our verse, pertaining to prophecy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was madness a prerequisite to be a prophet?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let us first look at the other two verses.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2 Kings 9:11. Elisha had instructed one of the prophetic trainees (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">b\u2019nei hanevi\u2019im<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) to anoint Jehu ben Nimshi king over Israel and to direct him to eliminate the House of Ahab. After delivering his message, the trainee, as instructed, ran out the door and fled. Jehu\u2019s reaction is described as follows: \u201cJehu went out to the other officers of his master, and they asked him, \u201cIs all well? What did that madman (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">meshuga<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) come to you for?\u201d He said to them, \u201cYou know the man and his ranting!\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeremiah 29:26. A message that Jeremiah sent to the Jews in Babylonian exile\u2014that included a warning against heeding false prophets (8 ff.)\u2014singles out Shemaiah the Nehelamite, who had written his own letter saying: \u201cThe LORD appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada, to exercise authority in the House of the LORD over every madman (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">meshuga<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) who wants to play the prophet (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mitnabe<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), to put him into the stocks and into the pillory. Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite, who plays the prophet among you?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arguably, acceding to a divine imperative to call out others on their faults and inform them of the harmful consequences of their misdeeds requires a disregard for personal safety and disdain for one\u2019s own reputation that verge on the irrational. Who but a \u201cmadman\u201d would place himself in jeopardy by telling truth to power?<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Are You Meshuga?","main_caption":"Acceding to a divine imperative to call out others requires a disregard for personal safety that verges on the irrational. Who but a \u201cmadman\u201d would tell truth to power?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"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},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76345"}],"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=76345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76347,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76345\/revisions\/76347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}