{"id":68846,"date":"2018-07-09T17:46:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-406\/"},"modified":"2023-08-27T14:20:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T11:20:29","slug":"wall-406","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-406\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Prophets-Jeremiah-6"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"406","date":"20270321","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"68972","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"JPS Audio Bible - Jeremiah Chapter 6 ","post_title":"JPS Audio Bible - Jeremiah Chapter 6","slug":"jps-audio-bible-jeremiah-chapter-6","old_id":"68972","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"JPS Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"Jeremiah Chapter 6","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Hear the daily chapter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-753876298\/jps_audio_bible_jeremiah_chapter_6","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"117298","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"The Remains Of The Day\u00a0 ","post_title":"The Remains Of The Day\u00a0","slug":"the-remains-of-the-day","old_id":"117298","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The enemies, spiritual and physical, are at the gates\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

God removes his protection from Zion like a sci-fi space ship that loses its forcefield. With the shields down, the enemies begin to swarm and encircle the city ready to attack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Prepare for battle against her: \u2018Up! We will attack at noon.\u2019 \u2018Alas for us! for day is declining, the shadows of evening grow long\u2019 (verse 4).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Which side is speaking here?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

According to Metzudat Zion, the enemies are the ones speaking. They lament the fact that the day is ending so they cannot complete their destruction of the city in one day. Radak explains that this verse has two speakers. The first part are the enemies who are excited to attack even at noon in their desire to destroy the city. Their plan would have benefitted the inhabitants of Jerusalem because noon is the hottest part of the day. Once this initial plan fails to materialize, the people of the city lament that the day is ending. With the cooler temperatures, it will be easier for the enemies to attack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The next verse \u201c\u2019Up! Let us attack by night, and wreck her fortresses\u2019\u201d could fit with both interpretations. According to Metzudat David, the enemies decide that the loss of light should not make a difference. The attack should continue. According to Radak, the enemy's response validates the concern of the inhabitants. The enemies also realize that they have an advantage in the cooler evening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Talmud in Tractate Taanit 29a quotes this verse in its discussion of the fast of Av. The Talmud explains that this verse shows that the Temple was burned in the evening of the 9<\/span>th<\/span> of Av and that most of the burning happened on the 10<\/span>th<\/span>. This led to Rabbi Yochanan suggesting that the fast should have been on the tenth of Av and not the ninth of Av.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Part of this verse also appears as part of the <\/span>Neilah<\/span><\/em> service on Yom Kippur: \u201cOpen for us the gate [of prayer] at the time of closing the gate <\/span>for the day has declined<\/span><\/em>.\u201d It seems odd to quote from such a horrific moment in Jewish history as part of the most somber day of the year. Perhaps the connection here matches Radak\u2019s interpretation. As the holy day of Yom Kippur comes to a close, after a day of fasting, the people are at their most vulnerable state. The enemies are at the gate and the time is ripe for an \u201cattack\u201d. This vulnerable moment is an inspiration to the congregation to cry out to God for protection and seek repentance, something the people of Jerusalem failed to do.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":91747,"alt":"","title":"ps149-jerusalem sunrise","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Remains Of The Day\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The enemies, spiritual and physical, are at the gates","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":91747,"alt":"","title":"ps149-jerusalem sunrise","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ps149-jerusalem-sunrise-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"366","name":"Commentators","old_id":"766"},{"term_id":"434","name":"War","old_id":"834"},{"term_id":"635","name":"Jerusalem","old_id":"1035"}]},{"order":3,"id":"117300","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"Helter Smelter ","post_title":"Helter Smelter","slug":"helter-smelter","old_id":"117300","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":62571,"post_title":"Yaakov Bieler","slug":"yaakov-bieler","old_id":"62571","first_name":"Yaakov ","last_name":"Bieler ","description":"Rabbi Yaakov Bieler has been involved in Jewish education and the synagogue Rabbinate in New York, NY and Silver Spring, MD since being ordained by Yeshiva University in 1974. He has lectured and written extensively on Modern Orthodoxy, and blogs daily at https:\/\/yaakovbieler.wordpress.com ","short_description":"Rabbi Yaakov Bieler has been involved in Jewish education and the synagogue Rabbinate in New York, NY and Silver Spring, MD since being ordained by Yeshiva University. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":62572,"alt":"","title":"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","width":141,"height":180,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler-141x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":141,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","medium-width":141,"medium-height":180,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","medium_large-width":141,"medium_large-height":180,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","large-width":141,"large-height":180,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","1536x1536-width":141,"1536x1536-height":180,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","2048x2048-width":141,"2048x2048-height":180,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","post_full_size-width":141,"post_full_size-height":180,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","home_baner-width":141,"home_baner-height":180}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Separating out the dross (not)\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In Jeremiah 6 (verses 10, 17), the Israelites are depicted as not repenting due to their being in deep denial:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Their ears are blocked and they cannot listen. See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn; they will have none of it\u2026 And I raised up watchmen<\/span> for you: \u201cHearken to the sound of the horn!\u201d But they said, \u201cWe will not.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One such \u201cwatchman\u201d, Isaiah, was told by God that he was to continue to relay God\u2019s messages until he observed that the Jewish people: \u201cDull (<\/span>its<\/span><\/em>) mind, stop its ears, and seal its eyes\u201d (Is. 6:10). Jeremiah confirms that this standard had apparently been achieved.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

An intriguing metaphor appearing at the conclusion of this chapter (27-30), is that of the \u201csmelter,\u201d attempting to purify various types of metal:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I have made you an assayer of my people\u2014a refiner... They are copper and iron. They are all stubbornly defiant. They deal basely. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>All of them act corruptly. The bellows puff; the lead is consumed by fire. Yet the smelter smelts to no purpose. The dross is not separated out. They are called \u201crejected silver,\u201d for the LORD has rejected them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

While Deuteronomy 4:20 referred to the Divinely-imposed Egyptian exile in similar terms (\u201cYou <\/span>God<\/span><\/a> took and brought out of Egypt, that iron blast furnace\u201d), Jeremiah is dealing with a post-Egypt Jewish nation, where he is being called upon to evaluate the ongoing \u201csmelting,\u201d \u201cpurifying\u201d process, which evidently is failing, and not separating out the \u201cundesirables.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Many commentators explain that the prophets rebuking the people for their misdeeds, are now the\u00a0 \u201csmelters\u201d and therefore the\u00a0 successors of the difficulties of the Egyptian servitude. In Egypt, the \u201cdross\u201d to be removed from Israel consisted of anyone who did not wish to venture out after Moses into the wilderness, and who was obliterated during the plague of darkness (see Rashi on Ex 10:22). Evildoers during Jeremiah\u2019s generation, although a succession of prophets had prophesied against them, would neither repent nor die away. So there was no clear-cut way of removing them, except by invasion of foreigners and\/or exile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A \u201csmelter\u201d is conventionally charged with purifying silver or gold from lead and other impurities that dilute the precious metals (v. 29). According to Malbim, though, the many groups of Jews, each with different perspectives and beliefs, are compared to additional metals, such as \u201ccopper\u201d and \u201ciron\u201d (v. 28) with which the people are \u201ccontaminated.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Identifying different groups among the Israelites is reminiscent of Ramban\u2019s description prior to the splitting of the Sea (Ex.14:10):<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There were conflicting groups, and Scripture relates what all of them did. Thus, it narrates that one group cried to God and another denied His prophet and did not acknowledge the deliverance done for them. They said it would have been better for them had He not saved them\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Plus \u1e09a change, plus \u1e09a m\u1ec7me ch\u1ed9se<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":80529,"alt":"","title":"ps12-smelt","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","width":2906,"height":2704,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-300x279.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":279,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-768x715.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":715,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-1024x953.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":953,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1429,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1906,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-1200x1117.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1117,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-451x420.jpg","home_baner-width":451,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Helter Smelter","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Separating out the dross (not)","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":80529,"alt":"","title":"ps12-smelt","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","width":2906,"height":2704,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-300x279.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":279,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-768x715.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":715,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-1024x953.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":953,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1429,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1906,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-1200x1117.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1117,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps12-smelt-451x420.jpg","home_baner-width":451,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"571","name":"Repentance","old_id":"971"},{"term_id":"742","name":"Purity","old_id":"1142"}]},{"order":4,"id":"69248","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Does God Desire Destruction?\u00a0 ","post_title":"Does God Desire Destruction?\u00a0","slug":"does-god-desire-destruction","old_id":"69248","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":64460,"post_title":"Vincent Calabrese","slug":"vincent-calabrese","old_id":"64460","first_name":"Vincent ","last_name":"Calabrese ","description":"Vincent Calabrese is a doctoral student in Jewish thought at the University of Toronto and a rabbinical student at the Hadar Institute","short_description":"Vincent Calabrese is a doctoral student in Jewish thought at the University of Toronto and a rabbinical student at the Hadar Institute","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":64461,"alt":"","title":"vincent calabrese","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese.jpg","width":2117,"height":2504,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-254x300.jpg","medium-width":254,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-768x908.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":908,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-866x1024.jpg","large-width":866,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese.jpg","1536x1536-width":1299,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese.jpg","2048x2048-width":1731,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-1015x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1015,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/vincent-calabrese-355x420.jpg","home_baner-width":355,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"As the prophet said: \u201cto uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow\u2026\u201d\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In this chapter, Jeremiah reacts with characteristic anguish at the complacency of Judean society\u00a0 \u2014 \u201cThe word of the LORD,\u201d Jeremiah notes sadly, has \u201cbecome for them an object of scorn; they will have none of it.\u201d But this complacency cannot be understood as mere apathy. Rather, the people\u2019s imperviousness to Jeremiah\u2019s warnings is a direct result of a failure of leadership. The priests and prophets of his day \u201coffer healing offhand for the wounds of My people, saying \u201c\u2018All is well, all is well,\u2019 when nothing is well.\u201d When the religious and moral authorities tell people that their conduct is already sufficient, few, it seems, are in need of further convincing.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This picture of a collusion between short-sighted politicians (for this seems to be the real role of the priests and prophets) and a populace not over-eager to hear criticism is a depressing one. The people are unable to hear Jeremiah\u2019s message, and so their coming doom is sealed. What is perhaps even more disturbing, however, is that this state of affairs seems to itself be a fulfillment of prophecy and a working-out of the divine will. When Jeremiah complains of the people that \u201ctheir ears are blocked and they cannot listen,\u201d it is difficult not to hear an echo of the charge given to the prophet Isaiah at his commission. There, rather than inducing the people to repent, Isaiah was given the strange and terrible task of <\/span>preventing<\/span><\/i> them from doing so \u2014 \u201cDull that people\u2019s mind, stop its ears, and seal its eyes \u2014 lest, seeing with its eyes and hearing with its ears, it also grasp with its mind, and repent and save itself.\u201d Jeremiah\u2019s anguish, then, is only the confirmation that Isaiah\u2019s mission was \u2018successful.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Such a conception of God\u2019s action in history is undoubtedly disturbing. How could it be that God could actually <\/span>desire <\/span><\/i>the people\u2019s destruction and work to <\/span>forestall <\/span><\/i>acts of repentance that might prevent such a fate? This idea offends our moral sensibilities, and indeed contrasts sharply with other prophetic witnesses, such as those to be found in Ezekiel and Jonah, which stress that God does not desire the death of the sinner, but waits with bated breath for the chance to extend forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

While this latter strain of prophetic thinking is undoubtedly more attractive to most of us, the line which runs from Isaiah\u2019s commission to Jeremiah\u2019s unheeded lamentation asks us to take seriously the possibility that sometimes, a community might be too deeply corrupted to survive in its current form. Perhaps there are times when nothing less than a terrible purgation is required to return us to a state in which rebuilding can occur. When God first spoke to Jeremiah, he was told the prophet\u2019s task was \u201cto uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant\u201d (1:9).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps, Jeremiah prompts us to consider, it is sometimes the case that in order to build, the old structure must be torn down to the foundations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Roberts Siege and The Destruction of Jerusalem, 1850 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69249,"alt":"","title":"jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","width":800,"height":510,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-300x191.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":191,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-768x490.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":490,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":510,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":510,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":510,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":510,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-659x420.jpg","home_baner-width":659,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Does God Desire Destruction?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"As the prophet said: \u201cto uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow\u2026\u201d","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69249,"alt":"","title":"jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","width":800,"height":510,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-300x191.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":191,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-768x490.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":490,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":510,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":510,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":510,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":510,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-Roberts_Siege_and_Destruction_of_Jerusalem-659x420.jpg","home_baner-width":659,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"459","name":"Forgiveness","old_id":"859"},{"term_id":"547","name":"Punishment","old_id":"947"},{"term_id":"884","name":"Corruption","old_id":"1284"}]},{"order":5,"id":"69225","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Daughter Jerusalem, Mother Earth ","post_title":"Daughter Jerusalem, Mother Earth","slug":"daughter-jerusalem-mother-earth","old_id":"69225","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":68344,"post_title":"Alicia Jo Rabins","slug":"alicia-jo-rabins","old_id":"68344","first_name":"Alicia Jo ","last_name":"Rabins ","description":"Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, performer and Torah teacher. She is the author of Divinity School (2015 APR\/Honickman First Book Prize) and Fruit Geode (finalist for the 2018 Jewish Book Award). As a musician and performer, Rabins has released three albums and tours internationally with Girls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah, and is in post-production on A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff: The Film, a mystical Jewish feminist rock opera about the largest financial crime in history. Rabins lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their two children. ","short_description":"Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, performer and Torah teacher.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":68346,"alt":"","title":"Alicia Jo Rabins","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1.jpg","width":1042,"height":1115,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1-280x300.jpg","medium-width":280,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1-768x822.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":822,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1-957x1024.jpg","large-width":957,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1042,"1536x1536-height":1115,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1042,"2048x2048-height":1115,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":1042,"post_full_size-height":1115,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Alicia-Jo-Rabins-1-393x420.jpg","home_baner-width":393,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Jeremiah and Greta: Prophesies of impending destruction, unless...","post_main_content_content":"

The ancient prediction of imminent destruction in this chapter feels all too contemporary. <\/span>Bat-tzion<\/span><\/em>, Jeremiah calls the beloved treasure about to be destroyed, \u201cbeautiful and pleasing.\u201d He is terrified that she will be lost, and he sees it so clearly.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Reading this chapter, all I can think of is Greta Thunberg, our modern day Jeremiah. Perhaps in the future we'll call a prophetic environmental call-to-action a Gretiad.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Bat-tzion<\/span><\/em> literally means the Daughter of Jerusalem; today, how could it not mean \u201cMother Earth\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mother, daughter; Jerusalem, Earth. All microcosms of each other, all interrelated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mother Earth: our beloved home, not just for any single tribe, but for every single human being. Her green forests, her salty oceans, her caves and crevasses, her majestic slopes, and the enchanted atmosphere which surrounds her - clouds and wind and storms and stillness, ever changing in a circular drift. Like all living things, she has her moods; within her healthy state there are forces of extreme destruction, floods and fires and earthquakes and tornadoes, just as death is a part of life.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But what is happening now is a different type of destruction. <\/span>Bat-Tzion's<\/span><\/em> very existence is threatened as she is poisoned by her own children.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And so, as Jeremiah warned the ancient Israelites, Greta Thunberg warns us. Yes, the rich will be able to escape for a while, but not forever; we are all part of a system. As Jeremiah says, the old and the young; the newly married, children in the street, and grandparents \u2013 none of us will be safe.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the point is not just that destruction is coming; it is that we can avert this destruction. It is the job of prophets to prophesy, and is the job of the people to listen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Today our modern climate prophets come in many forms. In this chapter, Jeremiah is the equivalent of a \u201cdark green\u201d environmentalist, requiring wholesale reinvention of the existing systems in order to heal the ills he sees. I wonder if there were gentler, \u201clight green\u201d voices of his time which didn\u2019t make it into the canon - urging people to find their best selves, to change their lives for the sake of continuity and justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I wonder at the fact that Jeremiah's call seems to have worked; despite all the pain and suffering of the past two thousand years, we are still here to read his words around 2600 years later. Our tribe still exists, we still celebrate, still rejoice.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I can only hope that we heed Greta and the other climate prophets enough that two and a half millennia from today, our species will still be able to breathe air, drink water, and see the stars above, until like us, they too will be laid to rest on this <\/span>Bat-Tzion<\/span><\/em>, our Mother Earth.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69233,"alt":"","title":"jer6-destruction","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Daughter Jerusalem, Mother Earth","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Jeremiah and Greta: Prophesies of impending destruction, unless...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69233,"alt":"","title":"jer6-destruction","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-destruction-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"327","name":"Today's Prophets","old_id":"727"},{"term_id":"360","name":"Nature\/Environment","old_id":"760"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"},{"term_id":"550","name":"Future","old_id":"950"},{"term_id":"635","name":"Jerusalem","old_id":"1035"},{"term_id":"785","name":"Climate","old_id":"1185"}]},{"order":6,"id":"69235","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Peace, Peace - But There is No Peace ","post_title":"Peace, Peace - But There is No Peace","slug":"peace-peace-but-there-is-no-peace","old_id":"69235","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33992,"post_title":"Bradley Shavit Artson","slug":"rabbi-dr-bradley-shavit-artson","old_id":"33992","first_name":"Bradley Shavit ","last_name":"Artson","description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and is professor of philosophy there. Artson is married to Elana Shavit Artson, and they are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33993,"alt":"","title":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","width":204,"height":199,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-256x300.png","medium-width":256,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","medium_large-width":204,"medium_large-height":199,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","large-width":204,"large-height":199,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","1536x1536-width":204,"1536x1536-height":199,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","2048x2048-width":204,"2048x2048-height":199,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","post_full_size-width":204,"post_full_size-height":199,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","home_baner-width":204,"home_baner-height":199}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Jeremiah\u2019s unpopular diagnosis was true, tragic and avoidable. Just like today\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Jeremiah was used to losing popularity contests. Among all of Israel\u2019s prophets, his message was the most irritating to his contemporaries. There were, apparently, no shortage of false leaders who peddled messages that soothed and assuaged, mostly by denying the severity of the impending doom. Unique in his generation, Jeremiah stuck with a message that was true, tragic, and avoidable. But only if his peers listened, only if his generation were willing to do the work.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Those words are no less relevant now. \u201cfrom prophet to priest, all deal in falsehood. They relieved the [impending] disaster of My people by making light of it, saying, \u2018Peace! Peace! But there is no peace\u201d (verse 14).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are countless similar challenges we face today: policies that might yield short term benefit but cannot be sustained in the long run, conflicts we can suppress through violence and coercion but which threaten to boil over someday in the future, issues that receive proclamations of outrage and concern when they erupt, but quickly are ignored as people go back to their day-to-day somnabulance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In each case, there are no shortage of leaders \u2013 elected politicians, appointed clergy, self-appointed twittermeisters \u2013 who will happily lull us all back into doing nothing. And the few who shout out in protest, well, they appear extreme, insensitive, out of step.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Can you think, in your own circle of concern, of a festering issue or a moral outrage that demands attention, but that the \u201creasonable\u201d leaders in your community avoid solving, and most people simply look away?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jeremiah would like a word with them. And with you.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69236,"alt":"","title":"jer6-cry","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","width":1280,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Peace, Peace - But There is No Peace","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Jeremiah\u2019s unpopular diagnosis was true, tragic and avoidable. Just like today","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69236,"alt":"","title":"jer6-cry","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","width":1280,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-cry-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"390","name":"Prophets","old_id":"790"},{"term_id":"402","name":"Leadership","old_id":"802"},{"term_id":"409","name":"Peace","old_id":"809"}]},{"order":7,"id":"69238","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Uncircumcised Ears!? ","post_title":"Uncircumcised Ears!?","slug":"uncircumcised-ears","old_id":"69238","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. He taught at the Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem), The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, Israel. During 1993 he was Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University, and during 1996 he was the Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. During 2005, Bregman served as the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as Forchheimer Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions (Gorgias Press, 2003). In 2006, Bregman was appointed the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where he also headed the program in Jewish Studies, until 2013. Bregman retired from UNCG as of July 31, 2017. He has now returned to Jerusalem where he is continuing his research and teaching activities.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33878,"alt":"Marc Bregman","title":"Marc Bregman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","width":361,"height":488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-222x300.jpg","medium-width":222,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":488,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":488,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":488,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":488,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-311x420.jpg","home_baner-width":311,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Metaphorical foreskin\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In our chapter, Jeremiah protests that no one is paying attention to his dire warnings: \u201cTo whom shall I speak, give warning that they may hear? Their ears are blocked, and they cannot listen\u201d (Jeremiah 6:10). Significantly, the Hebrew text uses a pithy expression to describe unhearing ears -- \u201ctheir ear is uncircumcised -- arelah oznam<\/em>\u201d). This literal translation of the Hebrew expression was adopted by the 3<\/span>rd<\/span> century BCE Jewish-Greek translation, followed by the early 17<\/span>th<\/span> century \u201cKing James\u201d English version and some other translations to this day. However, the Targum Jonathan of this verse is interpretive, using the Aramaic expression \u201citpashat udnehon<\/em>\u201d, which by comparison with other Aramaic usage suggests that \u201ctheir ear was obdurate\u201d, dull, stupid or even foolish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rashi on Jeremiah 6:10 states that \u201carelah<\/em>\u201d means \u201catumah<\/em> \u2013 sealed\u201d and adds that \u201cin every place\u201d this is the meaning of the Hebrew word \u201carel<\/em>\u201d [translated literally as \u201cuncircumcised\u201d]. It should be noted that elsewhere Jeremiah compares those non-Israelites who are \u201cuncircumcised (literally) with Israelites who are \u201cuncircumcised of the heart\u201d (Jeremiah 9:24-25. Compare Jeremiah 4:4 and Deuteronomy 10:16). This indicates that while \u201c<\/span>arel<\/span><\/em>\u201d primarily refers to the lack of circumcision of the physical foreskin but is metaphorically applied to other parts of the human body to suggest stubborn refusal to listen, accept and comprehend.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Rabbinic Sages note five biblical uses of the term <\/span>orlah<\/em> <\/span>\u201cforeskin\u201d, four referring to the human body and one referring to trees. Midrash Tanhuma Lekh Lekha 16 lists the four that refer to the human being:\u00a0 the \u201cflesh of your foreskin\u201d (<\/span>basar orlatkhem<\/em> <\/span>-- Genesis 17:11 referring to the commandment of circumcision), the \u201cforeskin of the lips \u2013 <\/span>aral sefatayim<\/span><\/em>\u201d --Exodus 6:12 referring to Moses\u2019 speech impediment), the \u201cforeskin of your heart \u2013 <\/span>orlat levavkhem<\/span><\/em>\u201d \u2013 Deuteronomy 10:16 referring to Israel no longer being \u201cstiffnecked\u201d, \u201cthe foreskin of their ear\u201d \u2013 Jeremiah 6:10). Talmud Bavli 108a refers to also to the \u201corlah<\/em> of trees\u201d in comparing it to the \u201corlah<\/em> of flesh\u201d. It is noted that \u201cOn the eighth day will be circumcised the flesh of his foreskin\u201d (Leviticus 12:3) employs the same word \u201c<\/span>orlato<\/span><\/em>\u201d as in the verse referring to the prohibition of eating fruit from newly planted trees for three years, \u201c<\/span>ve-araltem orlato et piryo shalosh shanim<\/span><\/em>-- you shall regard its fruit as forbidden three years\u201d (Leviticus 19:23). This linguistic link teaches that just as trees bear fruit, so to the human body can be said to \u201cbear fruit\u201d (see Genesis 1:28 \u201cbe fruitful and multiply\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 29 adds an eschatological twist. In the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will remove the \u201cforeskin of the heart\u201d from Israel so that they will no longer \u201charden their heart\u201d to God, as it says: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69239,"alt":"","title":"Jer6-ears","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","width":1280,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Uncircumcised Ears!?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Metaphorical foreskin","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69239,"alt":"","title":"Jer6-ears","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","width":1280,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Jer6-ears-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"447","name":"Heart","old_id":"847"},{"term_id":"549","name":"Circumcision","old_id":"949"},{"term_id":"578","name":"Listening","old_id":"978"},{"term_id":"854","name":"Metaphor","old_id":"1254"}]},{"order":8,"id":"69244","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Run For Your Lives... ","post_title":"Run For Your Lives...","slug":"run-for-your-lives","old_id":"69244","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Away from Jerusalem\u00a0\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Jeremiah opened this chapter by calling upon the Benjaminite residents of Jerusalem to flee the city before it came under siege: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Flee for refuge, O people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the horn (<\/span>tik`u<\/span><\/em>) in Tekoa, set up a signal at Beit-hakerem! For evil is appearing from the north and great disaster (1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Two questions present themselves directly: What were Benjaminites doing in a Judean city, and why did Jeremiah single them out with his advice? Radak (on v.1), ostensibly relying on the references to Tekoa and Beit HaKerem that are situated near Jerusalem, interpreted Jeremiah\u2019s advice as summoning Benjaminites to leave those places as well as Jerusalem, and attributed the preferential treatment he afforded them to the fact that Jeremiah himself came from \u201cAnatoth in the territory of Benjamin\u201d (1:1), and speculated that the prophet might even have been related to them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Shadal,* drawing upon the previous chapters as well, expanded his interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Previously he said, \u201cSet up a signpost: To Zion\u201d (4:6), as though those from other Judean cities would flee to Jerusalem for survival since it was a fortified city, and here he told the Benjaminites to flee from Jerusalem. Previously, he depicted the enemy approaching Judah, whereupon the people fled to the fortified cities. Here, after listing the imperfections of Jerusalem, he threatened her specifically, and depicted the enemy as turning its attention to her alone. Therefore, he told the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to flee to their cities and abandon her. It appears that there were many people from Benjamin in Jerusalem and on account of its proximity to their territory they resided their temporarily. These are those he called upon to return to their own territory.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Finally, concerning the \u201csignal\u201d (<\/span>nes<\/span><\/em>) that was to be set up in Beit HaKerem, earlier exegetes had disagreed on its interpretation, with Rashi identifying it as a flag and Radak as a signal fire. Shadal, again exercising his acute sense of grammar, sided with Rashi, pointing out that signal fires (<\/span>masu\u2019ot<\/span><\/em>) must be lit up, which would require the causative (<\/span>hiph`il<\/span><\/em>) of the verb (<\/span>hasi\u2019u<\/span><\/em>), while the verse uses the simple (<\/span>kal<\/span><\/em>) form (<\/span>se\u2019u<\/span><\/em>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

*For an explanation of our objectives in studying Shadal\u2019s commentary,<\/span> see our introduction.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69245,"alt":"","title":"jer6-jerusalem","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","width":1920,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1152,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1440,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-1200x900.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Run For Your Lives...","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Away from Jerusalem\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69245,"alt":"","title":"jer6-jerusalem","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","width":1920,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1152,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1440,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-1200x900.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-jerusalem-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"554","name":"Benjamin","old_id":"954"},{"term_id":"793","name":"Flag","old_id":"1193"}]},{"order":9,"id":"117305","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"The Tanakh Podcast-Jeremiah6 ","post_title":"The Tanakh Podcast-Jeremiah6","slug":"the-tanakh-podcast-jeremiah6","old_id":"117305","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33692,"post_title":"Alex Israel","slug":"33692-2","old_id":"33692","first_name":"Alex","last_name":"Israel","description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem. His first book \"I Kings - Torn in Two\" was published in 2013. See his website www.alexisrael.org, and his podcasts at https:\/\/elmad.pardes.org\/ and https:\/\/tanachstudy.com\/ \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Alex Israel teaches Tanakh at the Pardes Institute, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi and Matan, Jerusalem.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33693,"alt":"","title":"alex israel","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","width":1657,"height":2500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-199x300.jpg","medium-width":199,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":679,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-679x1024.jpg","large-width":679,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1018,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1357,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-795x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":795,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-israel-278x420.jpg","home_baner-width":278,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"4","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Tanakh Podcast","tile_main_caption":"Jeremiah 6: Impending Doom","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Chapter 6 intersperses warnings of impending doom with rebuke about the dismal state of social justice in Jerusalem","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":108885,"alt":"","title":"-635baf915f04f--635baf915f050tanakh podcast - Alex Israel.JPG","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","width":350,"height":352,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG-298x300.jpg","medium-width":298,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","medium_large-width":350,"medium_large-height":352,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","large-width":350,"large-height":352,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","1536x1536-width":350,"1536x1536-height":352,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","2048x2048-width":350,"2048x2048-height":352,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","post_full_size-width":350,"post_full_size-height":352,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","home_baner-width":350,"home_baner-height":352}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/572vYHzuasE8kt4vMHLWF6","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"589","name":"audio","old_id":"989"},{"term_id":"857","name":"podcast","old_id":"1257"}]},{"order":10,"id":"69241","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Prophetic Paronomasia ","post_title":"Prophetic Paronomasia","slug":"prophetic-paronomasia","old_id":"69241","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":64450,"post_title":"David Curwin","slug":"david-curwin","old_id":"64450","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Curwin ","description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","short_description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":64452,"alt":"","title":"david curwin","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","width":427,"height":464,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-276x300.png","medium-width":276,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","medium_large-width":427,"medium_large-height":464,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","large-width":427,"large-height":464,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","1536x1536-width":427,"1536x1536-height":464,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","2048x2048-width":427,"2048x2048-height":464,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","post_full_size-width":427,"post_full_size-height":464,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-387x420.png","home_baner-width":387,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Of shofar-blowing and tent-pitching\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In chapter 6, Jeremiah warns of the impending war:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Flee for refuge, O people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the horn in Tekoa, set up a signal at Beth-hakerem! For evil is appearing from the north, and great disaster. Fair Zion, the lovely and delicate, I will destroy. Against her come shepherds with their flocks, they pitch tents all around her; each grazes the sheep under his care. (Jeremiah 6:1-3)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The sense of doom is captured in the translation. And yet, this is one of those times where reading the verses in anything but the original Hebrew will leave something lacking.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Why is that so? Because the verses above contain a play on words, repeated three times \u2013 but the translation does not reflect that. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The verb for \u201cblow (the horn)\u201d in verse 1 is <\/span>tik\u2019u<\/span><\/em>. This is the same root as the name of the town Tekoa (south of Jerusalem). So \u201cblow the horn in Tekoa\u201d has the same root repeated twice in a row.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

That same root appears in verse 3: \u201cpitch (tents)\u201d is <\/span>tak\u2019u<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i> So a person hearing this prophecy would hear these keywords repeated, and feel a pounding rhythm that added emphasis and urgency.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In some cases, the Bible uses a wordplay with words that don\u2019t have a common origin. The message is still clear to the listener. But in this case, they are all related.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Tak\u2019a<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>meaning \u201cto blow a horn\u201d is familiar to us from Rosh Hashana. A long blast of the shofar is called <\/span>tekiah<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i> Dr. Ernest Klein writes that the verb fully means \"to thrust, clap, give a blow, blast\". Ben Yehuda\u2019s dictionary notes that perhaps the origin of the root is imitative, coming from the sound of the <\/span>tekiah<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The linguist Menachem Kaddari writes that the word also means \u201cto strike\u201d or \u201cto drive in (a sword or a peg)\u201d. This is the meaning in verse 3. And some scholars say that this is the origin of the name of the town of Tekoa \u2013 it originally meant \u201ca place of setting up tents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In modern Hebrew two words that carry that sense of \u201cdriving in\u201d are <\/span>takua<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cstuck\u201d and <\/span>teka<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201c(electrical) plug.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69242,"alt":"","title":"jer6-shofar","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","width":1620,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-253x300.jpg","medium-width":253,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-768x910.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":910,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-864x1024.jpg","large-width":864,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","1536x1536-width":1296,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","2048x2048-width":1620,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-1013x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1013,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-354x420.jpg","home_baner-width":354,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Prophetic Paronomasia","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Of shofar-blowing and tent-pitching","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69242,"alt":"","title":"jer6-shofar","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","width":1620,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-253x300.jpg","medium-width":253,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-768x910.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":910,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-864x1024.jpg","large-width":864,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","1536x1536-width":1296,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","2048x2048-width":1620,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-1013x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1013,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar-354x420.jpg","home_baner-width":354,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"361","name":"Hebrew language","old_id":"761"},{"term_id":"362","name":"Poetry","old_id":"762"}]},{"order":11,"id":"69251","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Running A Gauntlet Of Pain ","post_title":"Running A Gauntlet Of Pain","slug":"running-a-gauntlet-of-pain","old_id":"69251","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38552,"post_title":"Benny Lau","slug":"benny-lau","old_id":"38552","first_name":"Benny","last_name":"Lau ","description":"Rav Benny Lau is the founder and co-head of the Israeli initiative 929 along with Gal Gabbai. In addition, he is the rabbi of the Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem and is a community leader, activist, author, and public speaker.","short_description":"Rav Benny Lau is the founder and co-head of the Israeli initiative 929 along with Gal Gabbai.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":1708,"alt":"","title":"","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","medium-width":150,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":150,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","large-width":150,"large-height":150,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":150,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":150,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":150,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/8-1.jpg","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":150}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Jeremiah's prophecies have grown bitter and dark\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In the following verses, Jeremiah intensifies his description of Nebuchadnezzar's threatening advance:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people advances from the land of the north, and a great nation stirs at the ends of the earth. They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and will show no mercy. The sound of them is like the roar of the sea, and they ride horses, prepared for war against you, 0 daughter of Zion. We have heard rumors of it, and our hands go limp. We are seized with terror, with trembling like a woman in labor (6:22-24).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These verses, and others in chapters 4-6, express the terror that has gripped the people over the impending attack. The image of a woman trembling in labor is accurate: A woman in childbirth knows she must first run a gauntlet of pain before she can hold her child in her arms. Yet the metaphorical \"daughter of Zion\" has lost her strength, for her pangs bring her closer not to fruitfulness and relief, but to more anguish. This prophecy represents the antithesis of Jeremiah's celebration of imminent redemption for Judah and Israel in Josiah's time (ch. 30). Then, the prophet mocked those who trembled in fear: \"why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor?\" (30:6). Then, the tremors shaking the earth announced God's goodness and salvation. Now that image is turned on its head; years have passed since Josiah's promising reign, and Jeremiah's prophecies have grown bitter and dark. He no longer sees any goodness or hope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Lau, Binyamin. <\/span>Jeremiah: The Fate of a Prophet,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Maggid Books, 2013. \u201cNebuchadnezzar Continues to Rise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69252,"alt":"","title":"jer-lau2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","width":884,"height":635,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-300x215.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":215,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-768x552.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":552,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","large-width":884,"large-height":635,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","1536x1536-width":884,"1536x1536-height":635,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","2048x2048-width":884,"2048x2048-height":635,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","post_full_size-width":884,"post_full_size-height":635,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-585x420.jpg","home_baner-width":585,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Running A Gauntlet Of Pain","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Jeremiah's prophecies have grown bitter and dark","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69252,"alt":"","title":"jer-lau2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","width":884,"height":635,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-300x215.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":215,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-768x552.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":552,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","large-width":884,"large-height":635,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","1536x1536-width":884,"1536x1536-height":635,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","2048x2048-width":884,"2048x2048-height":635,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","post_full_size-width":884,"post_full_size-height":635,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-585x420.jpg","home_baner-width":585,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"502","name":"Fear","old_id":"902"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"}]},{"order":12,"id":"69164","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"An Assayer I Made You ","post_title":"An Assayer I Made You","slug":"an-assayer-i-made-you","old_id":"69164","type":"event","iframe":"","writer":{"id":54356,"post_title":"Robert Alter","slug":"robert-alter","old_id":"54356","first_name":"Robert ","last_name":"Alter","description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has written over twenty books, focusing on such topics as the European novel from the 18th century to the present, contemporary American fiction, and modern Hebrew literature. He has also written extensively on the literary aspects of the Bible. His most recent work is his monumental three volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019 - from which the selections in 929 are taken. ","short_description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of the three-volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":54357,"alt":"","title":"robert alter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","width":184,"height":275,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":275,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":275,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":275,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":275,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":275,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":275}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Not a fortress\u2026\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

6:27 \u201cAn assayer I made you in My people [a fortress], that you should know and assay their way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This word is bracketed in the translation because it is probably an intrusive gloss. The word for \u201cassayer\u201d is too close in form to a word that means \u201cfortress,\u201d and the person responsible for the gloss probably understood it that way because God had promised to make Jeremiah a fortress against his enemies in 1:18. What is clear is that the image from here to the end of the chapter is of assaying and refining idolators, not of fortification.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible<\/em>, vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"From Robert Alter's Bible Translation and Commentary","tile_main_caption":"An Assayer I Made You","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Not a fortress\u2026","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":13,"id":"69010","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- Jeremiah 6 ","post_title":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- Jeremiah 6","slug":"a-lesson-on-the-daily-chapter-jeremiah-6","old_id":"69010","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40936,"post_title":"David Silber","slug":"david-silber-2","old_id":"40936","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Silber ","description":"Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. He received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He received the Covenant Award in 2000. He is the author of APassover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn, published by JPS in 2011, and the newly released For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther, published by Koren Publishing in 2017 (Hebrew). ","short_description":"Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":40937,"alt":"","title":"david-Silber-2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","width":151,"height":175,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","medium-width":151,"medium-height":175,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","medium_large-width":151,"medium_large-height":175,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","large-width":151,"large-height":175,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":151,"1536x1536-height":175,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":151,"2048x2048-height":175,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":151,"post_full_size-height":175,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/david-Silber-2.jpg","home_baner-width":151,"home_baner-height":175}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Audio","tile_main_caption":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- Jeremiah 6","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-753876298\/rabbi-david-silber-a-lesson-on-Jeremiah-chapter-6","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"2","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":14,"id":"68951","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Sefaria Source Sheets - Jeremiah 6 ","post_title":"Sefaria Source Sheets - Jeremiah 6","slug":"sefaria-source-sheets-jeremiah-6","old_id":"68951","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":42228,"post_title":"Sefaria","slug":"sefaria","old_id":"42228","first_name":"","last_name":"Sefaria","description":"Sefaria is a non-profit organization dedicated to building the future of Jewish learning in an open and participatory way. We are assembling a free living library of Jewish texts and their interconnections, in Hebrew and in translation. With these digital texts, we can create new, interactive interfaces for Web, tablet and mobile, allowing more people to engage with the textual treasures of our tradition.","short_description":"Sefaria is a non-profit organization dedicated to building the future of Jewish learning in an open and participatory way. \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":42230,"alt":"","title":"Sefaria Logo2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2.png","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":1200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2.png","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":1200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Sefaria-Logo2-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cLying in Jewish Text<\/a>\u201d by Ariel Milan-Polisar: What does Judaism say about telling falsehoods?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAlarms and Signals\u201d<\/a> by Cameron Hamm: Explore Biblical alert methods.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Go deeper into the chapter....","tile_main_caption":"Source Sheets - Jeremiah 6","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Links to learning resources","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":42232,"alt":"","title":"sefaria-words-sunburst","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","width":608,"height":395,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-300x195.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":195,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","medium_large-width":608,"medium_large-height":395,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","large-width":608,"large-height":395,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","1536x1536-width":608,"1536x1536-height":395,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","2048x2048-width":608,"2048x2048-height":395,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","post_full_size-width":608,"post_full_size-height":395,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","home_baner-width":608,"home_baner-height":395}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Sefaria word sunburst visualization","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":15,"id":"69161","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Points to Ponder - Jeremiah 6 ","post_title":"Points to Ponder - Jeremiah 6","slug":"points-to-ponder-jeremiah-6","old_id":"69161","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

    \r\n\t
  1. Remorseless enemy.<\/em> They are busy with their plans for attacking Jerusalem from morning til night: \u201cPrepare for battle against her: \u2018Up! we will attack at noon.\u2019 \u2018Alas for us! for day is declining, The shadows of evening grow long.\u2019 \u2018Up! let us attack by night, And wreck her fortresses.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Babylonia, Assyria is right behind you<\/em>. The description of the Babylonian enemy which is approaching like an all-out war machine, is reminiscent of Isaiah\u2019s description of the Assyrian army. See for instance Isaiah 5, beginning with verse 25. And the military campaign that aroused fear in Judah we read about in Is. 10, from verse 28.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. Sacrifices? No, thanks!<\/em> \u201cWhat need have I of frankincense That comes from Sheba, Or fragrant cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me\u201d (verse 20). God is consistent, from Isaiah 1. The people are, too, and seem to invest a lot in sacrifices, not believing the prophetic message that that\u2019s not the point.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. Optimistic? Things will turn out badly<\/em>. The rosy optimism of the priests and other prophets who promise the people \u201cPeace, peace\u201d - that all is well - is dangerous. Believing that message undermines all independent critical thought. The people even refuse to think for themselves, what\u00a0 is the best path: \u201c...Inquire about ancient paths: Which is the road to happiness? Travel it, and find tranquillity for yourselves. But they said, \u2018We will not\u2019\u201d (verse 16).<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Jeremiah 6","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Jeremiah","chapter":"6","chapter_main_number":"406","date":"20270321","wall_id":"406"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}],"hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"","static_cube_color":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/68846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}