{"id":69560,"date":"2018-07-09T17:46:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1083\/"},"modified":"2023-09-08T09:52:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T06:52:40","slug":"wall-1083","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1083\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20230903-to-20230909"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1083","date_from":"20230903","date_to":"20230909","book":"Jeremiah","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"51919","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Center And Marginalized - All Are Included ","post_title":"Center And Marginalized - All Are Included","slug":"center-and-marginalized-all-are-included","old_id":"51919","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37130,"post_title":"Lauren Tuchman","slug":"lauren-tuchman","old_id":"37130","first_name":"Lauren ","last_name":"Tuchman ","description":"Rabbi Lauren Tuchman received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018 and is, as far as she is aware, the first blind woman in the world to enter the rabbinate. A sought after speaker, spiritual leader and educator, Rabbi Tuchman has taught at numerous synagogues and other Jewish venues throughout North America and was named to the Jewish Week's 36 under 36 for her innovative leadership concerning inclusion of Jews with disabilities in all aspects of Jewish life.","short_description":"Rabbi Lauren Tuchman is a Jewish educator based in the Washington, DC area.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37131,"alt":"","title":"Lauren Tuchman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","width":1728,"height":2494,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-208x300.jpg","medium-width":208,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-709x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":709,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-709x1024.jpg","large-width":709,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","1536x1536-width":1064,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150.jpg","2048x2048-width":1419,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-831x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":831,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Lauren-Tuchman-e1533662722150-291x420.jpg","home_baner-width":291,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"182","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Voices new and old, and those never heard before","post_main_content_content":"

Our chapter is largely concerned with God telling the Children of Israel what will befall them if they stray from the brit (covenant) which, it is emphasized, includes everyone, both those who were present on that day and those who were not. If the Children of Israel uphold our covenant with God and perform the mitzvot in accordance with it, all will be well\u2014we will prosper and be blessed. However, if we fail to do so, much tragedy will befall us.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I am particularly drawn to the emphasis placed on the brit (covenant) including everyone. This tends to be understood as affirming that our covenant was collectively received across generations\u2014all future generations being bound by it. In fact, many who choose Judaism through conversion point to this idea as an affirmation that their neshamot (souls) too, were at Sinai. That deep longing and spiritual yearning which compels so many people to choose Judaism is rooted there.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Blessedly, we live in a time in which klal Yisrael<\/em> comprises individuals who come from a variety of backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives. Finding a way for all to feel a sense of spiritual home in our communities can be a daunting and sometimes uncomfortable endeavor. When we expand our minds, hearts and souls to experiences and perspectives we might not have considered, we are being given the incredible opportunity to deepen and enrich our thinking. When we take the lead and warmly embrace Jews from all backgrounds into our communities, the Torah we find within them is that much deeper, more resonant and spiritually alive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Thank God we are living in a time in which we are receiving a plethora of chiddushim<\/em> (novel ideas) from voices and perspectives that have historically been marginalized. Women, Jews with disabilities, Jews of color and members of the LGBTQIA community. In my own life and experience, I find myself feeling such hakarat hatov<\/em>\u2014tremendous gratitude\u2014for the Torah I am learning from the teachers I most admire, many of whose voices have historically not been heard.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The brit<\/em> we all entered into included those who stood there on that day and those across time, space and generations, who did not. May we never cease striving to build communities and spaces in which the Torah from all can find a home and be heard.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image by Klaus Becker from Pixabay<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":51920,"alt":"","title":"dt29-voices","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","width":1920,"height":1409,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-300x220.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":220,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-768x564.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":564,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-1024x751.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":751,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1127,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1409,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-1200x881.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":881,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-572x420.jpg","home_baner-width":572,"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":"Center And Marginalized - All Are Included","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Voices new and old, and those never heard before","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":51920,"alt":"","title":"dt29-voices","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","width":1920,"height":1409,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-300x220.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":220,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-768x564.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":564,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-1024x751.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":751,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1127,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1409,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-1200x881.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":881,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-voices-572x420.jpg","home_baner-width":572,"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":"Torah","book":"Deuteronomy","chapter":"29","chapter_main_number":"182","date":"20260511","wall_id":"182"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"395","name":"Covenant","old_id":"795"},{"term_id":"678","name":"Diversity","old_id":"1078"},{"term_id":"712","name":"Inclusion","old_id":"1112"}]},{"order":2,"id":"52080","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Not In Heaven But In Ourselves ","post_title":"Not In Heaven But In Ourselves","slug":"not-in-heaven-but-in-ourselves","old_id":"52080","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":"183","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"An anti-elitist view of study and tradition","post_main_content_content":"

A famous passage in the Talmud puts a verse in our chapter to significant use. Baba Metzia 59b reports on a disagreement concerning the status of a particular oven (<\/span>tanur shel akhnay<\/span><\/em>). Rabbi Eliezer marshaled several supports for his idiosyncratic position and each is refuted by Rabbi Yehoshua on behalf of the Sages. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer claimed that heaven will attest to his rightness and, indeed, a heavenly voice proclaimed \u201cWhy are you challenging Rabbi Eliezer whose view always prevails?\u201d Rabbi Yehoshua, citing the verse in question, retorts: \u201cIt [Torah] is not in heaven\u201d (Deut. 30:12).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Indeed, the conundrum of where Torah resides after its revelation at Sinai strikes at the heart of Jewish tradition. If the resolution of Torah questions remains in God\u2019s own hands (so to speak), then it is accessible to only those to whom God has entrusted it. That would seem to favor an elitist view of Torah study. However, if its provenance has been transferred, then it is reachable by anyone who seeks it, and that would support a more egalitarian approach.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The latter is favored by the plain meaning (<\/span>peshat<\/span><\/i>) of our verse, which is the prelude to the rhetorical question posed in its continuation: \u201cAs if to say, who would ascend for us to heaven, acquire it [Torah] for us, and proclaim it to us that we may practice it?\u201d The implicit answer, of course, is that since it is not in heaven, no special aptitude or permission is required for access. Rather, \u201cThe matter, indeed, is quite close to you; it is in the capacity of your speech and thoughts to carry it out\u201d (verse 13).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52081,"alt":"","title":"dt30-torah+study","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","width":258,"height":196,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","medium-width":258,"medium-height":196,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","medium_large-width":258,"medium_large-height":196,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","large-width":258,"large-height":196,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","1536x1536-width":258,"1536x1536-height":196,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","2048x2048-width":258,"2048x2048-height":196,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","post_full_size-width":258,"post_full_size-height":196,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","home_baner-width":258,"home_baner-height":196}},"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":"Not In Heaven But In Ourselves","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"An anti-elitist view of study and tradition","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":52081,"alt":"","title":"dt30-torah+study","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","width":258,"height":196,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","medium-width":258,"medium-height":196,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","medium_large-width":258,"medium_large-height":196,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","large-width":258,"large-height":196,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","1536x1536-width":258,"1536x1536-height":196,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","2048x2048-width":258,"2048x2048-height":196,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","post_full_size-width":258,"post_full_size-height":196,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt30-torahstudy.jpg","home_baner-width":258,"home_baner-height":196}},"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":"Torah","book":"Deuteronomy","chapter":"30","chapter_main_number":"183","date":"20260512","wall_id":"183"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"410","name":"Torah","old_id":"810"},{"term_id":"628","name":"Democracy","old_id":"1028"},{"term_id":"775","name":"Study","old_id":"1175"}]},{"order":3,"id":"52083","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Reclaiming What Is Rightfully Mine ","post_title":"Reclaiming What Is Rightfully Mine","slug":"reclaiming-what-is-rightfully-mine","old_id":"52083","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":52026,"post_title":"Laurie Hahn Tapper","slug":"laurie-hahn-tapper","old_id":"52026","first_name":"Laurie ","last_name":"Hahn Tapper ","description":"Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper is School Rabbi and Director of Integrated Learning at Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos, CA. She holds a BA from Stanford, and an MA in education and rabbinic ordination from JTS. Rabbi Hahn Tapper is also an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. She lives in Redwood City with her partner, Dr. Aaron J. Hahn Tapper, along with their two young children and two cats.\r\n\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper is School Rabbi and Director of Integrated Learning at Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos, CA.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":52028,"alt":"","title":"laurie hann tapper","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","width":184,"height":219,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":219,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":219,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":219,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":219,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":219,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":219,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/laurie-hann-tapper-1.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":219}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"183","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"This Torah lives in my feelings, my thoughts, in my lived experience, in the fullness of my womanhood ","post_main_content_content":"

\"Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens\u2026 Neither is it beyond the sea.. No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it\" (30:11-14).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I have always loved these verses because of their connection to the famous Talmudic passage \"Tanur Shel Achnai,\" (\"Achnai's Oven\") which affirms the authority of rabbinic human interpretation as essential to the continued relevance of Jewish life. It was precisely my love for the world of the Beit Midrash - the tension found in Talmudic debate and dialogue - that originally propelled me to become a rabbi.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For virtually all of Jewish history, Judaism has not only been interpreted by men but has also been male-centric. As a female rabbi, it has been a challenge to venture into a rabbinic world that is all too commonly void of women\u2019s voice. At times, this cognitive dissonance has required a great degree of denial, and reinterpreting pieces of Torah and Talmud. While navigating this male-dominant Jewish domain, carving out my own sacred space, I have all too often bumped up against the larger non-Jewish realm, which is equally inhospitable to my full self. Although none of this is new, in the last few years I have experienced deeper alienation from my Jewish tradition.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And then, I come to this chapter of Torah, a chapter that sets out a choice we each are given to turn and return to this \u201cthing\u201d \u2013 Torah \u00a0- a choice to live with an open heart. This Torah, this way of life, is not \u201ctoo puzzling\u201d nor \u201cbeyond reach.\u201d One does not need to be ordained (let alone from a particular denomination), nor does one need to have studied for a particular length of time. Nor is it only for the devout, those wedded to Jewish law. It is there for those who spend their days responding to emails, settling disputes on the playground, or driving a taxi; for those who spend their evenings unloading groceries, making dinner, and loading the dishwasher.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cNeither is it beyond the sea\u201d speaks not just to those living in Israel. This Torah is to be interpreted throughout the world, across the multiple geographic places we find ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This Torah, this living tradition, \u201cis very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart.\u201d It is here, in me, in my feelings, in my thoughts, in my lived experience. It lives in the fullness of my womanhood in every bit as legitimate a way as anyone else in the world alive today or who has ever lived.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps when I internalize the Torah\u2019s words, when I truly experience it in my mouth and heart, am I able to unveil myself within my own tradition. Only then can I locate myself within my Judaism. Perhaps, only when I am able to unburden myself from millennia of the heaviness of male-centric exclusivity, can I find an opening in my heart to return and reclaim what is rightfully mine. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: http:\/\/torahforsociallyawarehasid.blogspot.com<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52084,"alt":"","title":"dt30-classic Talmud pic with women 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And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year, the year set for remission, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel. Gather the people\u2014men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities\u2014that they may hear and so learn to revere the LORD your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching. Their children, too, who have not had the experience, shall hear and learn to revere the LORD your God as long as they live in the land that you are about to cross the Jordan to possess (Deut. 31:10-14)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is the point where we learn what Moses has really been doing all along.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We know he has been teaching the people Torah\u2014that much is obvious. We know he has been transmitting his final words, and along with them, the word of God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the truth is, Moses is doing something more than that. Moses is modeling what the Jewish people will have to do for as long as we want Torah to exist among us. Moses is teaching the people how to teach Torah: to themselves, to each other, and to their children who never saw or experienced what they did. Moses is teaching a generation that never saw Sinai what it means to teach Torah to your children so that they feel the fire and the voices in their bones. He is teaching them what it means to feel as if your ancestors sins are your sins, as if their encounters with God are yours. And most important of all, Moses is teaching them how to transmit that to their children as well. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Moses will never meet the grandchildren of the generation he is teaching at this moment. But in teaching the people how to teach them one day, he can be sure that their grandchildren will feel as though they know him. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52180,"alt":"","title":"dt31-generations","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations.jpg","width":1920,"height":1276,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-300x199.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":199,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-768x510.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":510,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-1024x681.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":681,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1021,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1276,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-1200x798.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":798,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-generations-632x420.jpg","home_baner-width":632,"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":"Teaching 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He was one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, who bridged the religious and secular world through his ground-breaking canon of work.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z\"k (1948-2020) was the former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, and the International 929 president.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36222,"alt":"","title":"JSacks","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","width":437,"height":548,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-239x300.jpg","medium-width":239,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-768x448.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":448,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-1024x597.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":597,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","1536x1536-width":437,"1536x1536-height":548,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","2048x2048-width":437,"2048x2048-height":548,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","post_full_size-width":437,"post_full_size-height":548,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-335x420.jpg","home_baner-width":335,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"184","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Common contractual obligations of the local communities and the global people","post_main_content_content":"

The Torah was not merely expounded. It was read, or more precisely, proclaimed. The book of Deuteronomy refers to a seven-yearly convocation of the entire people, men, women and children, to hear the Torah publicly recited by the king. This was a moment of national education, \u201cso that they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law\u201d (Deuteronomy 31:12). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

But it was also a political-religious event. It renewed the covenant with Israel as a people under the constitution of Torah. The regular reading of the Torah in the synagogue, with its echoes of this national ceremony, was thus a reminder and ratification of the terms on which Jews came together to form communities. As Daniel Elazar notes, individual congregations reproduced in miniature the classic terms of Jewish nationhood. \u201cIn effect, every local Jewish community, as a congregation, was considered to be a kind of partnership based upon a common contractual obligation within the framework of the overall Jewish constitution, namely the Torah.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By regularly proclaiming the Torah, Jews reaffirmed it as the code of their common life.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

from: A Letter in the Scroll, p.152<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image by: Gordon Johnson from Pixabay<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52194,"alt":"","title":"dt31-connections","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","width":1280,"height":807,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-300x189.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":189,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-768x484.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":484,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-1024x646.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":646,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":807,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":807,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-1200x757.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":757,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-666x420.png","home_baner-width":666,"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 Jewish Constitution","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Common contractual obligations of the local communities and the global people","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":52194,"alt":"","title":"dt31-connections","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","width":1280,"height":807,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-300x189.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":189,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-768x484.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":484,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-1024x646.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":646,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":807,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":807,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-1200x757.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":757,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt31-connections-666x420.png","home_baner-width":666,"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":"Torah","book":"Deuteronomy","chapter":"31","chapter_main_number":"184","date":"20260513","wall_id":"184"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"354","name":"Rabbi Sacks","old_id":"754"},{"term_id":"395","name":"Covenant","old_id":"795"},{"term_id":"410","name":"Torah","old_id":"810"},{"term_id":"426","name":"Community","old_id":"826"}]},{"order":6,"id":"69820","color":"#efefef","size":"1","name":"A Covenant of Fate, Or Of Faith?\u00a0 ","post_title":"A Covenant Of Fate, Or Of Faith?\u00a0","slug":"a-covenant-of-fate-or-of-faith","old_id":"69820","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46656,"post_title":"Molly Morris","slug":"molly-morris","old_id":"46656","first_name":"Molly ","last_name":"Morris ","description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. 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Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"411","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A recurring invitation for a relationship\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

At the opening of Jeremiah chapter 11, God is again urging the people to \u201clisten to the words of this covenant\u201d so that \u201cyou will be My people and I will be your God (11:3-4).\u201d This proposal for a reciprocal relationship with God is reiterated over and over again to the Jewish people, in almost identical language throughout the Tanach, including: when God first speaks to Abraham in Genesis 17:7; again in Exodus 6:7 when God tells Moses how to introduce Him to the Jewish people; tehn in Leviticus 26:12 in the introduction to the \u201cTochechah<\/em>\u201d (admonitions to the Jewish people); multiple times in the book of Jeremiah (here and in 30:22 and 32:38) and again multiple times in the book of Ezekiel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

God repeatedly invites and empowers us to have a relationship with Him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks about the difference between a contract and a covenant. A contract is a zero-sum game wherein something is being exchanged, someone ends up with all of one thing and the other with all of something else: money for goods; goods for power. It may be mutually beneficial but that\u2019s not the purpose of entering into a contract. The purpose is to further one\u2019s own interest. A contract is a transaction. A covenant, on the other hand, is a relationship in which individuals or parties \u201c<\/span>respecting the dignity and integrity of the other, come together in a bond of love and trust, to share their interests, sometimes even to share their lives, by pledging their faithfulness to one another, to do together what neither can achieve alone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Sacks distinguishes two kinds of covenants. Covenants of fate arise from otherwise disparate people or communities facing a common threat. We see that play out in times of catastrophe, like in natural disasters that unify otherwise unconnected individuals and groups for a common purpose. The other type of covenant, what Rabbi Sacks calls a covenant of faith, is made between people who share a common dream, aspirations and ideals, rather than a common enemy. \u201cThey come together to create something new. They are defined not by what happens to them but by what they commit themselves to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

That is the covenant that God repeatedly invites us to be party to. \u201cBe My people and I your God\u201d is our covenant to create, in partnership with God, the people we are meant to be in the land in which we are intended to dwell.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69821,"alt":"","title":"jer11-covenant","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-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":"A Covenant of Fate, Or Of Faith?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A recurring invitation for a relationship\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69821,"alt":"","title":"jer11-covenant","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-covenant-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"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":"11","chapter_main_number":"411","date":"20270328","wall_id":"411"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"375","name":"Faith","old_id":"775"},{"term_id":"395","name":"Covenant","old_id":"795"},{"term_id":"468","name":"Relationships","old_id":"868"}]},{"order":7,"id":"69881","color":"#f2e9df","size":"2","name":"The Problem We All Live ","post_title":"The Problem We All Live","slug":"the-problem-we-all-live","old_id":"69881","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":39525,"post_title":"Erica Brown","slug":"erica-brown","old_id":"39525","first_name":"Erica ","last_name":"Brown","description":"Dr. Erica Brown is associate professor at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University and director of its Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership. 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\u201cCursed is the man who integrates. Jeremiah 11:3-6.\u201d A white woman whose face was contorted into a scream held up this sign protesting school integration. The sign appears in a short video in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, highlighting Ruby Bridges\u2019 memories of her first day in an integrated school. Bridges was born into the Civil Rights Movement; Brown vs. the Board of Education, decided in 1954, less than four months after Bridges was born, would take years to operationalize. Bridges passed a test qualifying her for entrance into the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Because the other children who passed the test decided to stay in their old schools, Bridges walked into that school, a child alone, accompanied by her mother and four federal marshals. The scene, in all its innocence and darkness, is captured in Norman Rockwell\u2019s famous and heartbreaking painting \u201cThe Problem We All Live With.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We live with it still.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What words could possibly have been lifted from Jeremiah to justify white hatred for little Ruby Bridges?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And say to them, Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: \u2018Cursed be the man who will not obey the terms of this covenant, which I enjoined upon your fathers when I freed them from the land of Egypt, the iron crucible, saying, \u2018Obey Me and observe them, just as I command you, that you may be My people and I may be your God\u2019\u2014 in order to fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as is now the case.\u2019 And I responded, \u2018Amen, Lord.\u2019 And the Lord said to me, \u2018Proclaim all these things through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the terms of this covenant, and perform them\u2019 (11:3-6).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jeremiah <\/span>does<\/em> <\/span>curse the man who doesn\u2019t obey the words of the covenant, but it is a covenant based on redeeming the Jews from slavery. It never mentions enslaving anyone else with the shackles of prejudice. It celebrates the chance for freedom, for a land of milk and honey. Exploiting the Bible to support hateful politics will never ultimately win, as MLK reminds us, \u201cThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Montage of US Marshals with Young Ruby Bridges on School Steps (unknown DOJ photographer, Nov. 1960 \/ wikipedia) and Norman Rockwell, \u201cThe Problem We All Live With,\u201d 1963, from obamawhitehouse.archives.gov, July 2011)<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69882,"alt":"","title":"bridges - rockwell","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","width":1277,"height":467,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-300x110.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":110,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-768x281.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":281,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1024x374.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":374,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","1536x1536-width":1277,"1536x1536-height":467,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","2048x2048-width":1277,"2048x2048-height":467,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1200x439.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":439,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1148x420.jpg","home_baner-width":1148,"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 Problem We All Live","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Citing Jeremiah for slavery, not freedom","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69882,"alt":"","title":"bridges - 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":67894,"alt":"","title":"saul sadka","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka.jpg","width":1200,"height":1600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":1600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/saul-sadka-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"411","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"His enemies are Judah\u2019s enemies\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In\u00a0 the second half of chapter 11 (v.15-23)\u00a0 we see Jeremiah facing the angry people of his hometown Anathoth. Does the personal persecution of the prophet have relevance to the global narrative of the book, or is this just here as color - to provide literary insight into the character of the man?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Looking back at the first chapter we see how Jeremiah was introduced: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations\u2026.I have put my words in your mouth... today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jeremiah here is being set up for us, just as Moses was before, as an encapsulation of Israel as a whole. It was Israel who was chosen and formed in the womb, crucible of Egypt, it was Israel who was sanctified before birth and ordained as an intermediary to the nations. (Ex. 4:22)\u00a0 It was Israel who had God\u2019s word placed in its mouth (Isaiah 59:21) and placed \u2018above\u2019 the other nations (Duet. 28:13). We can also note that Jeremiah is established as a priest - establishing that just as Jeremiah is a priest among his people, so Israel was set up as a \"nation of priests\" among the nations. (Ex. 19:6)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our chapter\u2019s underlying message is now revealed: The men of Anathoth are not just out to get Jeremiah. As he personifies the soon-to-be-exiled Judah, they personify Judah's enemies. God assured Jeremiah\/Israel that though they may be trapped in the hands of their enemies, they are not to heed their request not to represent God\u2019s name.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We can also understand why Jeremiah's editor placed this narrative here. The segue is the last verse of the prior section (which should be a different chapter). After again promising doom on Judah for their abandonment of the covenant, God again reiterated to Jeremiah (11:14) \u201cDo not pray for this nation.\u201d He doesn\u2019t, at least not explicitly, since he was forbidden, but he prays for himself while personifying Israel in exile, and God answers him with a coded message of consolation for Israel, while reaffirming the purpose of the exile: that they indeed speak the word of God in foreign lands, without fear.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Michelangelo, Jeremiah (detail), Sistine Chapel, 1511 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69825,"alt":"","title":"jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","width":1064,"height":840,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-300x237.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":237,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-768x606.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":606,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-1024x808.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":808,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","1536x1536-width":1064,"1536x1536-height":840,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","2048x2048-width":1064,"2048x2048-height":840,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","post_full_size-width":1064,"post_full_size-height":840,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-532x420.jpg","home_baner-width":532,"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":"Jeremiah: Personification Of The Entire Nation","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"His enemies are Judah\u2019s enemies","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69825,"alt":"","title":"jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","width":1064,"height":840,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-300x237.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":237,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-768x606.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":606,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-1024x808.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":808,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","1536x1536-width":1064,"1536x1536-height":840,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","2048x2048-width":1064,"2048x2048-height":840,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah.jpg","post_full_size-width":1064,"post_full_size-height":840,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer11-Michelangelo_Jeremiah-532x420.jpg","home_baner-width":532,"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":"11","chapter_main_number":"411","date":"20270328","wall_id":"411"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"539","name":"Israel","old_id":"939"},{"term_id":"840","name":"Jeremiah","old_id":"1240"}]},{"order":9,"id":"69885","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"A Question Without Answer: Why Do the Wicked Prosper? ","post_title":"A Question Without Answer: Why Do The Wicked Prosper?","slug":"a-question-without-answer-why-do-the-wicked-prosper","old_id":"69885","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":"412","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Don\u2019t sit on the sidelines and contemplate suffering: lean in and help those who suffer\u00a0\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Jeremiah launches this chapter with one of humanity\u2019s timeless questions: \u201cwhy does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are betrayers tranquil?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The question is more than an inquiry. It is a cry of shock, of anguish, and of rage. How is it possible, in a world governed by a loving God, for there to be such senseless suffering, gross injustice, and the apparent triumph of evildoers time and time again?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Reality is an affront to our moral compass.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Beyond our sense of injustice, the apparent wellbeing of evil people and the success of their plots shreds any sense we might have of a lawful universe in which compassion or goodness have a self-preservatory role.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The world as it is just doesn\u2019t seem reliable.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Sometimes, the power of a gut-wrenching question transcends even the possibility of an answer. After all, religious people have been attempting answers to the \u201cbad things to good people\u201d question for as long as literature has existed. We are told that it is all for the best. Or it\u2019s a mystery. Or that nothing happens without a reason. Or that we will know by and by.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

None of the answers satisfy, and often they simply make it worse.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Wisely, then, this chapter in Jeremiah raises the ancient question, but never offers an answer.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Neither God, nor the universe, provide a verbal response that makes the problem go away. Instead, we are faced with a mute appeal to take a different route. Instead of seeking a comprehensive rationale that makes the current levels of tragedy tolerable, the silence pushes us to seek a remedy in our own engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Don\u2019t sit on the sidelines and contemplate suffering. Instead, lean in and help those who suffer. Ours is not to reason why, ours is the task of sharing the load, feeding the hungry, sheltering the outcast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69886,"alt":"","title":"jer12-wicked3","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","width":1138,"height":706,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-300x186.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":186,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-768x476.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":476,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-1024x635.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":635,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","1536x1536-width":1138,"1536x1536-height":706,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","2048x2048-width":1138,"2048x2048-height":706,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","post_full_size-width":1138,"post_full_size-height":706,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-677x420.jpg","home_baner-width":677,"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":"A Question Without Answer: Why Do The Wicked Prosper?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Don\u2019t sit on the sidelines and contemplate suffering: lean in and help those who suffer\u00a0\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69886,"alt":"","title":"jer12-wicked3","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","width":1138,"height":706,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-300x186.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":186,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-768x476.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":476,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-1024x635.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":635,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","1536x1536-width":1138,"1536x1536-height":706,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","2048x2048-width":1138,"2048x2048-height":706,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3.jpg","post_full_size-width":1138,"post_full_size-height":706,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer12-wicked3-677x420.jpg","home_baner-width":677,"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":"12","chapter_main_number":"412","date":"20270329","wall_id":"412"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"391","name":"In\/Justice","old_id":"791"},{"term_id":"412","name":"Responsibility","old_id":"812"},{"term_id":"436","name":"Morality","old_id":"836"}]},{"order":10,"id":"69892","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Theodicy Turned Sideways ","post_title":"Theodicy Turned Sideways","slug":"theodicy-turned-sideways","old_id":"69892","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":"412","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Putting God on trial\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Jeremiah opened this chapter with what appears to be a continuation of the previous one, referring to the people of Anathoth, when he replies to God: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

You will win, O LORD, if I make claim against You, yet I shall present charges against You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are the workers of treachery at ease? (1). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Indeed, it was so understood by the secondary interpretation (<\/span>yesh omrim<\/span><\/em>) proferred by Rashi, \u201cHe is calling out complaining about the people of Anathoth.\u201d Rashi\u2019s initial interpretation had identified the complaint as concerning Nebuchadnezzar, calling into question his successful conquest of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Shadal,* ingeniously\u2014and characteristically\u2014turned the interpretation sideways to achieve not another condemnation of the people, but an attempt at their absolution.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

After God told Jeremiah, \u201cDo not pray to Me on behalf of this people\u2026. who offer incense to Baal,\u201d the prophet figured out how to defend his countrymen, saying: \u201cWhy does the way of the wicked prosper?\u201d In other words, why do You allow the small number of wicked people in Israel to prosper, when that prompts others to learn from them and imitate their wicked ways? \u201cI will present charge against You\u201d despite my knowing that You are righteous and that I am incapable of disputing You, I wish to present charges and to question Your actions.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Indeed, our verse opened with Jeremiah lodging a \u201cclaim\u201d against God, using the Hebrew word <\/span>riv<\/span><\/em>, which has the predominant meaning of contention (as in its use throughout Psalms and Proverbs), but frequently is a technical legal term denoting a court case (as in Exodus and Deuteronomy). Shadal also pointed out that \u201cpresenting charges\u201d (<\/span>ledaber mishpat<\/span><\/em>), likewise a legal term, which appeared in Jeremiah 1:16, and 4:12, and recurs, later, in 39:5 and 52:9.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

*For an explanation of our objectives in studying Shadal\u2019s commentary, <\/span>see our introduction<\/span><\/a> in Jeremiah chapter 1.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Rembrandt: Jeremiah Lamenting, 1630 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69893,"alt":"","title":"Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","width":472,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","medium_large-width":472,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","large-width":472,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","1536x1536-width":472,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","2048x2048-width":472,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","post_full_size-width":472,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-330x420.jpg","home_baner-width":330,"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":"Theodicy Turned Sideways","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Putting God on trial","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69893,"alt":"","title":"Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","width":472,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","medium_large-width":472,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","large-width":472,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","1536x1536-width":472,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","2048x2048-width":472,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt.jpg","post_full_size-width":472,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jeremiah_lamenting-Rembrandt-330x420.jpg","home_baner-width":330,"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":"12","chapter_main_number":"412","date":"20270329","wall_id":"412"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"366","name":"Commentators","old_id":"766"},{"term_id":"460","name":"Evil","old_id":"860"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"}]},{"order":11,"id":"69923","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"A Decaying Loincloth ","post_title":"A Decaying Loincloth","slug":"a-decaying-loincloth","old_id":"69923","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":39778,"post_title":"Aliza Libman Baronofsky","slug":"aliza-libman-baronofsky","old_id":"39778","first_name":"Aliza Libman ","last_name":"Baronofsky ","description":"Aliza Libman Baronofsky is a first-year student in the Advanced Kollel at Yeshivat Maharat and teaches at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, in Rockville, MD. She studied Tanach at Midreshet Lindenbaum and York University and previously taught Tanach and math at the Maimonides School in Brookline, MA. Aliza is the creator of www.chumashandmath.blogspot.com, a repository of interdisciplinary lesson plans. ","short_description":"Aliza Libman Baronofsky is a student in the Advanced Kollel at Yeshivat Maharat and teaches at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, in Rockville, MD. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":39779,"alt":"","title":"aliza baronofsky","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","width":1425,"height":1794,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-238x300.jpg","medium-width":238,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-768x967.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":967,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-813x1024.jpg","large-width":813,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","1536x1536-width":1220,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","2048x2048-width":1425,"2048x2048-height":1794,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-953x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":953,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-334x420.jpg","home_baner-width":334,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"413","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"And why it means: don\u2019t return to Egypt!","post_main_content_content":"

If a picture is worth 1000 words, how many is a demonstration worth? In this chapter, Jeremiah joins many previous prophets in using symbolic demonstrations to make God\u2019s point to the people. We\u2019ll see many more in the chapters to come.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

School children (and viewers of the Prince of Egypt) are familiar with Moses\u2019s staff turning into a snake \u2013 precisely the sort of demonstration that is engineered to win over an obstinate audience.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In our chapter, the obstinate audience is the remaining population of Judea. The symbolic demonstration is a little more complicated than a stick becoming a snake. In verse 1, God commands Jeremiah to get a girdle, or loincloth, and wear it. Jeremiah complies. In verse 3, God commands him to hide the girdle in the hole of a rock in Perath. God then waits many days before commanding Jeremiah to retrieve the girdle from the rock. Jeremiah complies and discovers that the garment is ruined. Verse 8 begins the explanation of the symbol: namely, that like the girdle, the people will be ruined. Like a girdle sticks to its wearer, the children of Israel were attached to God but did not listen.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

On its surface, this does not seem like a convincing demonstration. Having many days elapse between Jeremiah buying the girdle and its destruction would likely lead any observers to forget the girdle and its significance. Who does God command this for? On its surface, it would seem to be either a demonstration for Jeremiah (to strengthen his resolve) or for the future generations reading this prophecy, for whom \u2018many days\u2019 can pass in few verses.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One detail in the text, though, suggests that this prophecy is even more nuanced. The Malbim, writing in the 19<\/span>th<\/span> century, noticed that Jeremiah takes the girdle to Perath. This place (a body of water) is mentioned in Jeremiah\u2019s time, as the site of the battle with Pharaoh Nekho. It is here where the story of the virtuous king Josiah ends abruptly with his untimely death in battle (II Kings 23:29).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We don\u2019t have any indication whether this chapter takes place before or after the death of Josiah, but Malbim thinks it is an explicit reference to God\u2019s concern that the Jews should never go back to Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps the girdle is here because it is a utilitarian garment that people might wear, thinking it would be useful and provide protection. In contrast, the demonstration shows the garment is itself prone to destruction. The nakedness they might experience is explicitly referenced in verses 22 and 26.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The book of Jeremiah plays off his predecessor Isaiah here as elsewhere. If we can\u2019t protect ourselves with garments of ordinary human making, what can protect us?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Isaiah 11:5 provides the answer: \"Justice shall be the girdle of his loins, And faithfulness the girdle of his waist.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Loincloth, by David Ring, 2014, Europeana Fashion\u2019s visual fashion thesaurus \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69924,"alt":"","title":"jer13-loincloth","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","width":429,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-215x300.jpg","medium-width":215,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","medium_large-width":429,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","large-width":429,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","1536x1536-width":429,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","2048x2048-width":429,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","post_full_size-width":429,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-300x420.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"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":"A Decaying Loincloth","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"And why it means: don\u2019t return to Egypt!","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69924,"alt":"","title":"jer13-loincloth","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","width":429,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-215x300.jpg","medium-width":215,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","medium_large-width":429,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","large-width":429,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","1536x1536-width":429,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","2048x2048-width":429,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth.jpg","post_full_size-width":429,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-loincloth-300x420.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"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":"13","chapter_main_number":"413","date":"20270330","wall_id":"413"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"680","name":"Symbolism","old_id":"1080"},{"term_id":"854","name":"Metaphor","old_id":"1254"}]},{"order":12,"id":"69936","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"How Can Humans Be As Holy As The Holy One?\u00a0\u00a0 ","post_title":"How Can Humans Be As Holy As The Holy One?\u00a0\u00a0","slug":"how-can-humans-be-as-holy-as-the-holy-one","old_id":"69936","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":"413","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"We are likened to God with divine attributes - as we learn from a loincloth\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

At the beginning of our chapter Jeremiah is told by God to buy a linen loincloth and wrap it around his thighs (Jeremiah 13:1). At the end of this parable, Scripture reveals its application: <\/span><\/p>\r\n

For as the loincloth clings close to the loins of a man, so I brought close to Me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah\u2014declares the LORD\u2014that they might be My people, for fame, and praise, and splendor.... (13:11). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The point of this rather strange story seems to be that the Israelite people are bound to God like a garment to its wearer.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Tanhuma Qedoshim 8 elaborates on this image: \u201c\u2018You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy\u2019\u201d (Leviticus 19:2). But, how can human beings be as holy as the Holy One, blessed be He?! The answer is found in our chapter in the prophecy of Jeremiah: \u2019For as a loincloth is bound around the thighs, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,\u2019 declares the Lord, \u2018to be my people for fame [le-shem<\/em>, literally \u201cfor name\u201d], and praise, and splendor\u2019 (Jeremiah 13:11). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Indeed, Israel are named \u201cGod\u201d, as it says: \u201cYou are \u2018gods\u2019; you are all sons of the Most High\u201d. (Psalms 82:6). God is called \u201cwise\u201d, as it says: \u201cWise of heart and mighty in power\u201d (Job 9:4) and Israel is called \u201cwise\u201d, as it says: \u201cSurely this great nation is a wise and understanding people\u201d (Deuteronomy 4:6). God is called \u201cbeloved\u201d, as it says: \u201cMy beloved is fair and ruddy\u201d (Song of Songs 5:10). And Israel is called \u201cbeloved\u201d, as it says: \u201cDrink abundantly, O beloved ones\u201d (Song of Songs 5:1). God is called \u201cchosen\u201d, as it says: \u201cHe is chosen like the cedars\u201d (Song of Songs 5:15). And Israel is called \u201cchosen\u201d, as it says: \u201cFor you are a people consecrated to the Lord your God. Of all the peoples on earth the Lord your God chose you to be His treasured people\u201d (Deuteronomy 7:6). God is called \u201cpious\u201d (Hasid) as it says: \u201cFor I am pious (Hasid)\u2014declares the Lord\u201d (Jeremiah 3:12). And Israel is called \u201cpious\u201d, as it says: \u201cGather My pious ones unto Me\u201d (Psalms 50:5). God is called \u201cHoly\u201d, as it says: \u201c\u201cHoly, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts!\u201d (Isaiah 6:3). And Israel is called \u201choly\u201d, as it says: \u201cYou shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy\u201d (Leviticus 19:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, says to Israel: In this world, you are called \u201choly\u201d. And even more so in the world to come, you shall be called \u201choly\u201d, as it says: \u201cAnd those who remain in Zion, and are left in Jerusalem, all who are inscribed for life in Jerusalem, shall be called holy\u201d (Isaiah 4:3).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69937,"alt":"","title":"jer13-holy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","width":268,"height":267,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","medium-width":268,"medium-height":267,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","medium_large-width":268,"medium_large-height":267,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","large-width":268,"large-height":267,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","1536x1536-width":268,"1536x1536-height":267,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","2048x2048-width":268,"2048x2048-height":267,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","post_full_size-width":268,"post_full_size-height":267,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","home_baner-width":268,"home_baner-height":267}},"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":"How Can Humans Be As Holy As The Holy One?\u00a0\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"We are likened to God with divine attributes - as we learn from a loincloth","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":69937,"alt":"","title":"jer13-holy","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","width":268,"height":267,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","medium-width":268,"medium-height":267,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","medium_large-width":268,"medium_large-height":267,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","large-width":268,"large-height":267,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","1536x1536-width":268,"1536x1536-height":267,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","2048x2048-width":268,"2048x2048-height":267,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","post_full_size-width":268,"post_full_size-height":267,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-holy.jpg","home_baner-width":268,"home_baner-height":267}},"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":"13","chapter_main_number":"413","date":"20270330","wall_id":"413"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"384","name":"God","old_id":"784"},{"term_id":"480","name":"Holiness","old_id":"880"},{"term_id":"539","name":"Israel","old_id":"939"}]},{"order":13,"id":"70017","color":"#f7f7f5","size":"1","name":"Climate Change Prophecy ","post_title":"Climate Change Prophecy","slug":"climate-change-prophecy","old_id":"70017","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":49926,"post_title":"Binyamin Cohen","slug":"binyamin-cohen","old_id":"49926","first_name":"Binyamin ","last_name":"Cohen ","description":"Binyamin Cohen is a Jewish Studies teacher at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Deerfield, IL. He completed his Master\u2019s in Jewish Education through Pardes Day School Educators Program in conjunction with Hebrew College. He is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently lives in Chicago.","short_description":"Binyamin Cohen is a Jewish Studies teacher at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Deerfield, IL. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":49927,"alt":"","title":"binyamin cohen","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen.jpg","width":800,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen-240x300.jpg","medium-width":240,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen-768x960.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":960,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/binyamin-cohen-336x420.jpg","home_baner-width":336,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"414","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"We have our own droughts and extinctions, and false prophets denying the impending threats","post_main_content_content":"

The wells lie empty (v.3). The fields are barren (v.4). There is no rain (v.4). Wild animals struggle to survive (v.5-6). This climate disaster that Jeremiah describes is a consequence of Israel\u2019s iniquity. The people have strayed from God. In fact, they love to stray; how easy it is for them (v.10)! God tells Jeremiah that he shouldn\u2019t pray for the people: God won\u2019t be answering their prayers, so Jeremiah shouldn\u2019t waste his time either.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But they have \u2018enablers:\u2019 Jeremiah complains to God about the false prophets who declare that the famine won\u2019t reach them, that the sword won\u2019t touch them (v.13). It\u2019s all lies, God says, all (v.14) \u201cdeceit of their own contriving\u2014that is what they prophesy to you!\u201d The things that they prophesy won\u2019t happen,<\/span> will<\/span><\/i> happen, to them and to those that listen to them. Jeremiah must warn the city-dwelling Israelites, the ones whose misdeeds have caused these disasters, that they will not be spared. Go out into the countryside, he says, and you\u2019ll see it already: the war, the famine, the destruction of the environment (v.18). It\u2019s coming for us too.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The message of this chapter unfortunately parallels events in the world today. Climate crises are on the horizon in much of the world. Temperatures are on the rise, environments are changing, agriculture is failing, animals are disappearing. Our \u201csins\u201d are different than the Israelites sins: we worship plastics and impermanence, not the Baalim and Asherot. We too love to stray: it is so easy to throw out that plastic cutlery, to sip our coffee from a single-use cup.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We have our false prophets as well. They tell us that it\u2019s natural, that\u2019s its not really as bad as we think it is, that it\u2019s not happening <\/span>here<\/span><\/em>, so it\u2019s not really happening. They tell us we\u2019re safe in our cities, that the effects of climate change can\u2019t touch us in the developed world. Some of it might be true: it\u2019s much easier to not feel the effects when your physical surroundings are designed to repel the climate altogether (think: air conditioning).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But, just like Jeremiah says, none of that means it isn\u2019t happening, out there. We can just look at the world around us to see the truth of this. In 2018 there were more than 17.2 million \u201cclimate migrants\u201d, people forced from their homes by natural disasters and climate change. This number could skyrocket to 143 million by 2050. Jeremiah would tell us to look out at these people, at the world that we don\u2019t usually (and often don\u2019t want to) see.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If we don\u2019t change our ways, we\u2019ll see these things at our doorstep before we know it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":70018,"alt":"","title":"jer14-climate","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","width":1280,"height":866,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-300x203.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":203,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-768x520.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":520,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-1024x693.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":693,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":866,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":866,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-1200x812.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":812,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-621x420.jpg","home_baner-width":621,"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":"Climate Change Prophecy","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"We have our own droughts and extinctions, and false prophets denying the impending threats","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":70018,"alt":"","title":"jer14-climate","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","width":1280,"height":866,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-300x203.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":203,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-768x520.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":520,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-1024x693.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":693,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":866,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":866,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-1200x812.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":812,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-climate-621x420.jpg","home_baner-width":621,"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":"14","chapter_main_number":"414","date":"20270331","wall_id":"414"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"360","name":"Nature\/Environment","old_id":"760"},{"term_id":"391","name":"In\/Justice","old_id":"791"},{"term_id":"506","name":"Prophecy","old_id":"906"},{"term_id":"625","name":"Lying","old_id":"1025"},{"term_id":"785","name":"Climate","old_id":"1185"}]},{"order":14,"id":"70032","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Echoes Of Moses ","post_title":"Echoes Of Moses","slug":"echoes-of-moses","old_id":"70032","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":44114,"post_title":"Shalom Holtz","slug":"shalom-holtz","old_id":"44114","first_name":"Shalom ","last_name":"Holtz ","description":"Shalom E. Holtz is Professor of Bible at Yeshiva University. He is the author of numerous comparative studies of biblical and ancient Near Eastern law. His most recent book is Praying Legally (2019), which examines courtroom metaphors in Hebrew prayer. ","short_description":"Shalom E. Holtz is Professor of Bible at Yeshiva University.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":44115,"alt":"","title":"shalom holtz","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","width":200,"height":200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":200,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":200,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/shalom-holtz.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":200}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"414","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But these prayers fall on deaf divine ears...","post_main_content_content":"

At the beginning (2\u20139) and end of this chapter (19\u201322), the community uses prayer to confront God. Both of their prayers contain outright confessions: \"We have sinned against You\" (7, 20). Despite these explicit statements, however, the nation's \"Why\"- questions to God pull the prayers' tone away from submissively admitting wrongdoing (8, 9, 19). With these questions, the nation accuses God for its current adversity.\u00a0 By asking, \"Why have You smitten us so that there is no cure?\" (19), the nation names God as the source of its problems. Its question, \"Why are You . . . like a warrior who cannot give victory?\" (9), points out God's dereliction of duty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Instead of saving the people, God has become their adversary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In verse 21, the nation employs two arguments to convince God to act on their behalf. They begin by invoking God's reputation: \"For Your name's sake, do not disown us; Do not dishonor Your glorious throne.\"\u00a0 God's inaction would stain God's \"name\" and \"throne.\" They conclude with a legal argument: \"Remember, do not annul Your covenant with us.\" The covenant legally binds God to the nation; a deal is a deal.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In their rhetoric, the prayers recall Moses's advocacy on behalf of the Israelites after the incident of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:11\u201313). Moses, too, asks an accusatory \"Why\" question: \"Why should (NJPS: let not) Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people?\" (Exodus 32:11). And Moses makes the very same arguments that the nation does. He reminds God of the public relations disaster that would ensue should God opt to destroy the nation: \"Why should (NJPS: let not) the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent the He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains?\" (Exodus 32:12). Moses, like the nation, concludes his prayer with a reminder of the covenant: \"Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self . . .\" (Exodus 32:13).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By Jeremiah's time, however, the wilderness strategies of self-advocacy have begun to show signs of age. Unlike in Exodus 32:14, where God \"relents,\" here, God explicitly rejects the prayer. God has grown wise to the prophetic penchant for prayer; God forbids Jeremiah from \"pulling a Moses\" by praying on the nation's behalf (11; compare 15:1). Jeremiah's own protest-- Ah, Lord God!\" (Jeremiah 14:13) falls on deaf divine ears.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: Moses Prays, by Edward Ruth<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":70033,"alt":"","title":"jer14-moses-prays","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","width":450,"height":648,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-208x300.jpg","medium-width":208,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","medium_large-width":450,"medium_large-height":648,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","large-width":450,"large-height":648,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","1536x1536-width":450,"1536x1536-height":648,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","2048x2048-width":450,"2048x2048-height":648,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","post_full_size-width":450,"post_full_size-height":648,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-292x420.jpg","home_baner-width":292,"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":"Echoes Of Moses","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But these prayers fall on deaf divine ears...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":70033,"alt":"","title":"jer14-moses-prays","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","width":450,"height":648,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-208x300.jpg","medium-width":208,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","medium_large-width":450,"medium_large-height":648,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","large-width":450,"large-height":648,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","1536x1536-width":450,"1536x1536-height":648,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","2048x2048-width":450,"2048x2048-height":648,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays.jpg","post_full_size-width":450,"post_full_size-height":648,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer14-moses-prays-292x420.jpg","home_baner-width":292,"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":"14","chapter_main_number":"414","date":"20270331","wall_id":"414"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"395","name":"Covenant","old_id":"795"},{"term_id":"437","name":"Prayer","old_id":"837"}]},{"order":15,"id":"70100","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"Who Will Console You?\u00a0 ","post_title":"Who Will Console You?\u00a0","slug":"who-will-console-you","old_id":"70100","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37561,"post_title":"Deena Cowans","slug":"deena-cowans","old_id":"37561","first_name":"Deena ","last_name":"Cowans","description":"Deena Cowans is a rabbinical student at JTS and alumnus of the Master's in Public Administration- Development Practice at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). \r\nDeena is the Director of Education (Rosh Chinuch) at Camp Ramah in the Rockies since January 2016, and was the Youth and Family Programs at Congregation Ansche Chesed in 2016-2017.","short_description":"Deena Cowans is a rabbinical student at JTS, and the Director of Education at Camp Ramah in the Rockies","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37562,"alt":"","title":"deena 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suffering is inevitable - it is suffering alone that is the true curse\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

There\u2019s a classic Jewish joke about a man who falls into a pit. He calls out for help to all who pass by, but everyone refuses. The lawyer says there\u2019s no legal issue to fix so he cannot help and the doctor sees no illness so she cannot prescribe medicine. Finally, the man calls out to his best friend to help him. And to his surprise, his friend jumps into the pit with him. \u201cWhy did you do that?!\u201d The man demands. \u201cNow we\u2019re both stuck down here in this pit!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh, yes,\u201d says the friend, \u201cbut I\u2019ve been down here before, and I know the way out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This chapter promises all kinds of suffering for the Israelites. They will know physical and emotional pain, anger and grief. And yet, there is one verse in this chapter that is not like the rest. Amidst God\u2019s promises of physical destruction, death and the sins for which the Israelites are being punished, one verse stands out as particularly poignant. In verse 5, the prophet asks a rhetorical question: \u201cBut who will pity you, O Jerusalem, Who will console you? Who will turn aside to inquire about your welfare?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Between mothers bereaved of their children, bodies eaten by scavengers and the prophet in incredible physical pain, we might think that this chapter is all about physical suffering. But this verse tells a different story. To suffer is inevitable. To suffer alone is a true curse. The verse cuts deeper than a physical wound, claiming that not only will the Israelites suffer tremendous loss and pain, but no one will know or care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When we feel at our most downtrodden and alone, the last thing we want to hear is a pronouncement that we are, indeed, completely alone. That is why Jewish law insists that mourners spend the first seven days after the death of a loved one surrounded by visitors. We are commanded to visit the sick and comfort the bereaved because we want to ensure that these people do not feel alone in their pain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Centuries of Jewish law and practice teach us that the curse of verse 5 is in fact the worst thing that could happen, that we could be suffering with no one to console us or ask how we\u2019re doing. So we show up. Even when it is not comfortable or easy or convenient, we make an effort to check in on friends who have lost someone, bring meals to people who are sick, and spend time with members of our community who are otherwise isolated. Because we learn from Jewish tradition what we all know intrinsically: that everything's better when you have someone to do it with.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Hans Thoma, Loneliness, 1880 (National Museum in Warsaw) \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":70101,"alt":"","title":"jer15-Thoma_Loneliness","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","width":742,"height":594,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-300x240.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":240,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","medium_large-width":742,"medium_large-height":594,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","large-width":742,"large-height":594,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","1536x1536-width":742,"1536x1536-height":594,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","2048x2048-width":742,"2048x2048-height":594,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","post_full_size-width":742,"post_full_size-height":594,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-525x420.jpg","home_baner-width":525,"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":"Who Will Console You?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The suffering is inevitable - it is suffering alone that is the true curse","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":70101,"alt":"","title":"jer15-Thoma_Loneliness","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","width":742,"height":594,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-300x240.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":240,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","medium_large-width":742,"medium_large-height":594,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","large-width":742,"large-height":594,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","1536x1536-width":742,"1536x1536-height":594,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","2048x2048-width":742,"2048x2048-height":594,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness.jpg","post_full_size-width":742,"post_full_size-height":594,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer15-Thoma_Loneliness-525x420.jpg","home_baner-width":525,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"415","date":"20270401","wall_id":"415"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"426","name":"Community","old_id":"826"},{"term_id":"491","name":"Suffering","old_id":"891"},{"term_id":"583","name":"Curse","old_id":"983"}]},{"order":16,"id":"70094","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"Who Shall Live And Who Shall Die? ","post_title":"Who Shall Live And Who Shall Die?","slug":"who-shall-live-and-who-shall-die","old_id":"70094","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":"415","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the evil decree\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Two themes comprise this chapter of the prophetic book: <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>1) (v. 1-9) The dire fates that await the Jewish people for not repenting, notwithstanding their having received repeated warnings to do so. <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>2) (v. 10-21) God\u2019s promise to protect His prophets, despite their deeply unpopular predictions and adjurations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Verse 2 is reminiscent of a passage in the liturgy of the Days of Awe that is intended to give one pause every time we encounter it: \u201cAnd if they ask you, \u2018To what shall we go forth?\u2019 answer them, \u2018Thus said the LORD: Those destined for the plague, to the plague; Those destined for the sword, to the sword; Those destined for <\/span>famine<\/span>, to famine; Those destined for captivity, to captivity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The prayer that parallels Jeremiah\u2019s pronouncement, is known by its opening words: \u201cU\u2019Netanah Tokef<\/em>\u201d (\u201cWe shall ascribe holiness [<\/span>to this day<\/span><\/i>]\u201d). The section of this particular liturgical poem that invariably strikes fear in the hearts of the congregation reciting it, describes what might occur to relatives, friends, even oneself, during the upcoming year:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u2026 Who shall perish by water and who by fire,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who by sword and who by wild beast,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who by famine and who by thirst,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who by earthquake and who by plague,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who by strangulation and who by stoning \u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(<\/span>See <\/span><\/i>Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cWho By Fire?<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d for a contemporary rendition of \u201cU\u2019Netanah Tokef\u201d<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But two aspects of \u201cU\u2019Netahah Tokef\u201d distinguish it from Jeremiah 15:2. Firstly, whereas the prophet appears to assume that the society\u2019s continuing to transgress is a \u201cgiven\u201d and the fates of the sinners are effectively sealed, the prayer optimistically offers methodologies, based upon Genesis Rabbah 44:12, that suggest that it is never too late to avert such terrifying consequences: \u201cBut repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the evil decree\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And secondly, while the mortality of the human condition makes us all susceptible to the vagaries of life that include hardship and even violent death, the liturgist maintains that such experiences are not unavoidable, contrary to Jeremiah:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall live and who shall die,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not \u2026 <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>\u2026 Who shall have rest and who shall wander,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished ...\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In light of the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish people\u2019s being exiled from their land, Jeremiah\u2019s prophecies regrettably came to fruition, and they even appear fatalistic in their inevitability. Yet, in light of \u201cU\u2019Netanah Tokef,\u201d we can view these prophecies as cautionary tales that we can choose to obviate, if only we have the resolve to do so.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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