Jeremiah ch.20 - Prophet vs. Priest

Welcome to the Tanakh podcast today Yirmiyahu Perik Khuf, Jeremiah chapter 20. We have been reading the adventures of Yirmiyahu as he warns the people about the impending doom in Yuschalayim about their sinfulness. In chapter 18 he went down to the pottery workshop and used the pottery's work as a metaphor for the people. In chapter 19 he had a new bottle, a buck book which he smashed in front of the elders of the people and gave a devastating prophecy about what would happen to Yuschalayim. He called the Gabe En Hinoam, the Gaiha Hariga, the Hinoam Valley, he called it slaughter valley and warned them that everybody was in peril. And now the end of chapter 19, they are the Yirmiyahu, the Yirmiyahu return from the toffet, the toffet is the place where there are these fires to the Mulech, Asheshulachh Hashem Shamlin, Abayviyah, Mord, Bakhatsar, Bait Hashem, Bayomera, Al-Kulhaam. He goes and gives these devastating prophecies to the people where in the courtyard of the Bait Hashem and what does he say? He says, "So says the God of hosts, the God of Israel, I'm going to bring up on this city and upon it villages all the disaster that I have decreed against it for they're stiffened their neck to shu'et or palm, L'vilti Shamayet of our eye, they're not listening to what I'm saying." And now we're going to hear about a altercation with the Pashorben Emeer, the chief officer, Hakohane, Vruapakid, Nagid Babayat Babayat of Hashem, he's the chief officer of the House of God. He's like, you know, you have institutions like the Knesset, which has a Mishmahaknesset, it has the Knesset God, you go to the Vatican and you see the gods in the Knesset. We know even from the Mishnada that in the Bait Meer, Bait Meer Dush, there were guards and there were people in positions of authority. Any institution of this kind has its own sort of police force and it seems like Pashorben Emeer Hakohane heard Yomiyahu preaching these words of destruction in the courtyard of the house, Vaya Ke Pashorati Yomiyahu and Aviy and he had him flogged, Vaya Tein Otar Elha Mahapachat. He put him into something called the Mahapachat, we don't know what the Mahapachat is, some people suggest that it is simply a cell or an incarceration chamber. Others suggest that it's something that holds him Hafuch, that it's something which is an instrument of torture, whichever way Elha Mahapachat, Ashabasharben Yaminah Elion, Ashabab Eta Shem, there was apparently a jail within the temple and Yomiyahu is put in this jail, apparently only overnight because in Pasuch Gimla it says, "Vaihimi Maharat, Vaya Tein Pashorati Yomiyahu, the very next day he got out so he was put into, he was detained overnight." And what's fascinating is that this is the first time that we're going to see Yomiyahu getting into trouble with the authorities but it is really the first story of a, of a succession of stories that with Yomiyahu really brushing up against the establishment, against government, against kings, against prophets, just to give you a sense of where we're going with this, this is the first time in the next story which is in chapter 26 which happens at the beginning of the kingdom of Yohayakim, Buray Shid Mahmahat Yohayakim, then he's already going to be threatened with his life. In chapter 36 in the fifth year of Yohayakim, the king is going to threaten Yomiyahu death and then there are many many more stories of extended imprisonment in various different places, the Khatera Matara in Betyaonatana Sulfair and these we're going to see in the chapters in the 30s, 32, 33, 36, 37 and it seems like as things escalate and as the Horban gets closer and the enemy forces clamp down on Jerusalem, Jeremiah is seen more and more as a threat, more and more as a renegade or a traitor and he is imprisoned. One last thing about this prophecy that he's going to give which is that in chapter 20 for the first time, for the first time in the entire safe I were already 20 chapters in and we've been expecting an enemy coming from the north, sometimes it's called a lion from the forest, there are all sorts of depictions and descriptions, this is the first chapter where we will actually see this enemy named in Pasup Dalad as Bavel, Pasup Dalad, Pasup Vav that actually now for the first time it becomes clear that this enemy is actually Bavel Babylon and this leads us to wonder when exactly this story happened. We don't know, we don't know could it be that this was in the time of the Yohoyakim, could this be this was still in the time of Yohshiyahu, we've got no clue but maybe it's deliberate, you know we've been going through a whole segment of chapters in which constantly whenever Yohiyahu comes, he's not listened to, he goes back and sort of comes back to himself and says why have I been born, why are you doing this to me God, I can't take this or I feel the prophecy of God in my bones, it's very autobiographical, we've seen these autobiographical remarks all the way ever since chapter 12 till our chapter. And therefore it seems like whoever put this book together, whoever edited the book of Yohiyahu decided to collate all of these stories and that might be where, that might be the reason why we don't have any historical notation on this chapter because it forms a different sort of group, he's a group of prophecies in which we hear the prophecy but then we also hear Yohiyahu's personal reflections. So let's read the story a little bit more, what do we see Yohiyahu is in the temple compound, he's in the he's in the you know maybe one of the public areas around the temple and he's preaching and telling them what he's been saying all the time and he's arrested, he's beaten, he's jailed and when he comes out, Possup Gimmo, the next day, Wahimi Maharat, Foyote Pashkori Yohmi Nama Apehat, he's released from his jail cell and Yohiyahu says to him, I'm not calling you Pashkori anymore, I'm calling you Magharmisaviv and what does Magharmisaviv mean right? Magharm from the word Lotaguru, Mipniish, imi's fear, fright around, and there was everything's going to be frightful all around, there's going to be fear all around and he says why, ki khama, asham, so says gone, he nininotin khana magharm, lachha, wulakho laaivechha, imi's going to give deliver you and all your friends to terror, but naflubachharev, ovehem, and they're going to fall by the sword of their enemies, veinecharaot, you're going to see everyone kill that kolly who die, tainbiya melech pavel, imi's going to deliver juda into the hands of pavel, veiglam pavela, and they're going to be exiled to Babylon, but he can't bachharev, they're going to be put over to the sword, and i will deliver all the wealth, all the riches and all the prized possessions of this city, and i will deliver all the treasures of the kings of juda into the hands of their enemies, they shall seize them, as plunder, uva's zuzum, ve lakhum, veveyum, pavela, and carry them to pavel, ve atapashchor, and you paashchor, ve kollyoshre, be techa, and all who live in your house, all the kohanim, tell khubashyevi, you are going to be taken in captivity, ubavel, tavel, uva'il, you're going to be taken as slaves to prevail, the shantamut, today you will die, the shantikavera, tava'il hollohavechah, all you and all your friends, asheni beta lahem bashekhe, all of you who prophesized falsely, and now we see that paashchor or other kohanim are clearly giving good news, they're claiming that their life will continue, and that if you only serve the god in the temple, then you will be given brachha, the standard messages of Judaism, and they see Yermiyahu as an irritant, as a crazy, as a lunatic. The rest of the chapter is Yermiyahu's personal reflections about how he feels the prophecy so powerfully inside him, but everybody mocks him, even though god is Billy B. Kehreboret is a like a raging fire in my heart, nonetheless, and I can't do anything about it. Yet, Haithilis Halka Laiyam Kulalo Eglie, everybody laughs at me, and therefore he bimones his fate. I'd just like to take a couple of minutes to contextualize all of this, because is it that the priest suggests bad, and the prophet is good? You know, how we meant to look at Shfora, and how we meant to look at the priest here, are they corrupt in some way, and I would argue that they're not. What they're actually doing is they are serving as good priests. And let me say a slight difference between the priest and the prophet. The prophet is a charismatic leader, the prophet, here's truth. He's always ahead of the game. He's always looking at the future, not at the past, but there is a concept that Weber calls the "Rutinization of charisma". You can't have charismatic leaders all the time. You need to create institutions, and therefore you create an office, an institution, and you run it in orderly and predictable ways. It has laws of succession. It has laws which regulate it. It has, as we said, a police force, and therefore you have a kinesse, you have a Supreme Court, you have institutions, and they run as their institutions, sometimes they're a little, you know, overbearing in terms of their ceremony, but these are the institutions that hold the nation, and therefore Kainim have special robes, and they have special laws, and you can only be a Kain if you're already, child of a Kain. And this is what we call the "Rutinization of charisma", because you have to create an institution, otherwise you are left to the whim of every generation. Now a prophet has no official clothes, he has no official disturbance. His authority is not in an office. It's not, it doesn't go from generation to generation. It isn't a stable office. It is, in fact, in the opposite of that. It is charismatic. It is personal. It is spontaneous. It is timely. It is not timeless. And therefore the clash between prophets and priests, or even between prophets and royalty, is really embedded into the idea. Maybe what you might say is that Dufkhar, because we have a Guguna, because we have an institution, which sometimes can become institutional. And therefore the Kainim are just following the rules, not just very important rules, rules which are set out in the Torah. There is this institution called the Mikdash. And the Mikdash has a tendency to want to preserve itself. And therefore you can't come into the Mikdash and be giving prophecies of doom. That doesn't belong there. The Mikdash is a place where you're meant to bring your Korbanach, where you're meant to have an experience of the divine, where you're meant to be able to experience purity, while you bring in politics into the arena of the temple. And therefore they kick Yom Riyadh out. They tell him, he's not legitimate. That's not what he's meant to be doing. So I think what's really happening here is that we're really seeing in this chapter the clash between the routine, the institution and the the prophet. Now this is going to be issued on Arab-Rashashana and you might be thinking to yourself, well, how does this relate? Does this have a message? And I've been thinking about that. And I'm thinking to myself that really in life we live according to a routine. We live with our rituals. We say, "Abraha," we say, "Brahhatamazam," we get up, we say, "I'll shuffle it." And usually religion is routinized for us. But there are moments where we have to hear a unique voice, not a timeless voice, but a timely voice, a voice which says, "You know, where am I? Am I living up to my expectations now? Have the systems, have the institutions in which I live my life become a stale, become a little bit, not relevant, that they become tired?" And that's the role of the prophet to the priest. Maybe that's the role of Rashashana and Yom Kippur, the ascertainty of Me Chuvar, this idea of that, you know, the show for saying, "Wake up." Do Chuvar, what is Chuvar? Chuvar is a reexamination. It's an annual review. It's asking us to question for ourselves how much we're living up to the values that we report to live up to and to the nice style. We're living our best selves and we're asked maybe to awaken the little prophet inside us to challenge the routinization, the routinization of religion. So on this note, I wish everybody a Tivava, Khatima, Tava, a wonderful year, a healthy year, a happy year, a year of good things and blessing for you, for your family, for all of Amistra Island, for the world, and look forward to seeing you on the other side. See you in 5784.