The Tanakh Podcast

Jeremiah travels to the palace of King Jehoiakim and rebukes him for the exploitation of the poor, and the broad injustice and political violence during his reign:   “Woe to him who builds his palace by injustice,      his upper rooms with corruption, making his own people work for nothing,      not paying them for their labor."   "Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong, Nor violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow,  and do not shed innocent blood in this place."

Suddenly the book of Jeremiah lurches forward twenty years or so, to the final months of the kingdom. King Zidkiyahu asks Jeremiah to beseech God for a miracle. But Jeremiah has bad news. The only recourse is surrender. Resisting the enemy will bring death, hunger and epidemic. The die has been cast. There is not possibility of Teshuva any longer.

Jeremiah preaches his prophecies of invasion and national defeat in the Temple compound. He is arrested, beaten and jailed. He emerges from prison with his most devastating prophecy in which he names Babylon for the first time. In our podcast we discuss the clash between prophet and priest.

The prophet condemns the people of Jerusalem, including its royalty, for practicing the cult of child sacrifice.

Jeremiah takes a visit to the local pottery and compares Israel to clay in the potter's hands. We contrast the message of our chapter with the piyut recited on the night of Yom Kippur.

God is the Hope - or Mikve - of Israel. How did Rabbi Akiva take a line from this chapter and use it as a key concept of the closeness between God and Israel, in the dark aftermath of the Destruction of the Temple?

Jeremiah is instructed not to marry nor to bear children. Why? Because the future will simply be carnage and suffering. Today we discuss the connection between children and a world of hope.

Today, as we approach Rosh Hashannah we discuss our chapter in the light of the piyut, "Unetane Tokef", which seems to draw on the language and imagery of Jeremiah ch.15.

In the shadow of a debilitating famine, Jeremiah pleads with God to rescind his harsh actions, and refuses to stand down, even after God instructs him "Do not pray." In this regard, Jeremiah is following one of the most important prophetic traditions. Please contribute to our work via our Patreon account https://www.patreon.com/user?u=51407457 Sign up for my weekly Parashat Hashavua mailing at www.alexisrael.org

In our chapter, Jeremiah is instructed to engage in two symbolic acts: 1. Purchase a loincloth. Wear it until it is sweaty and dirty. And then place it in a cleft in Wadi Prat until it decomposes. 2. Fill jars with wine But what do these symbols mean?