Filed under: Thoughts of the Week
This Shabbat, the first during the mourning period in memory of the breach of the walls of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first and second Temple, in 586 BCE and 70 CE, we read as haftorah the beginning chapter of the book of Jeremiah (I-II, 3) after the Torah portion known as Pinhas (Numbers XXV, 10 – XXX, 1).
During our pre-service Bible and Bagel section, we discussed three types of leadership – a prophet like Jeremiah, a priest like Pinhas, and a leader like Joshua. Pinhas, who reacted violently to intercultural commingling in the previous chapter, was awarded in this portion by a divine gift that he and his descendants will form a hereditary priesthood. Joshua, through the laying of hands on his head by Phinhas’ father, the high priest Eleazar, after the priest had used his oracle, Urim, was charged to be the leader after Moses’ death. Jeremiah, a member of a clan of priest who did not live in Jerusalem and who may have been dissenters from the other priests, was appointed by the divine as prophet even before he was born. We discussed problems when these types of leadership were not in balance with each other. During the drive home, we stretched the image and proposed that the prophet is the congress, usually a member of the people who questions the status quo, that the leader was the executive branch – organizing the bureaucracy and administration, and that the priests were like the judicial system, using codes of law to maintain order in society.
The portion also included a second census of the tribes before they were to enter the land with a count of 601, 730 Israelites and 23,000 in the tribe of Levi – who did not have an inheritance of land. Inheritance by daughters was also discussed in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who survived their father and would be granted the inheritance to allow the land to remain in the tribe. Moses was shown the land that he would not be allowed to enter and prepared by arranging for the appointment of Joshua as his successor. The portion also listed the offerings for the holiday cycle. We discussed that on the harvest festival of Succot that there were many more offerings than on the other holidays.
The prophetic reading featured a discussion between the divine and Jeremiah, who expressed his reluctance to assume the role, a common discussion between the divine and the selected prophetic. Moses and Jeremiah both argued against the appointment. Jeremiah claimed he was still a boy. Since the chapter opens with a chronology tied to kings of Judah, commentators have proposed that his age was 24 at the time of the appointment, generating a discussion on whether 24 year olds were still boys. This prophet would be sent by the divine “to root out and pull down, and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Not just a societal critic, Jeremiah was to provide leadership through his prophecies. This chapter prepares the people for the attacks by the kingdoms of the north who would set up their thrones before the gates of Jerusalem and start sieges that would destroy the city. The prophecy also features the use of symbols – an almond-tree, which is the first tree to blossom in mid-winter, and a seething pot, representing the turmoil of the attacking armies. The divine promises that the Lord would be with the people and had taken steps to fortify the city. The metaphor of Israel and/or Jerusalem being like a bride to the divine and that to those who attack Israel, evil will come, is described in the first 3 lines from the second chapter read.
A commentator from Israel, Teddy Weinberger, who is featured in The Jewish Leader, a weekly paper serving the Jewish community of Eastern Connecticut and Western Rhode Island, wrote that these weeks before Tisha b’Av, the 9th day of Av, the day that the Temples were destroy, “serve as a sober countdown to the one day of the year when it is extremely difficult to reconcile ethnic-based observance with the actual practices of the Jewish people.” The priestly leaders today, those who wish for the rebuilding of the Temple, do not generally represent the majority view of Jews in Israel or in the world. Perhaps the priestly leaders do not have the voice they have had in the past, but neither do the world’s prophets and governmental leaders. We seem to be in a world without easy answers and strong leaders. Let us hope that the divine and the collective wisdom of people will find the most appropriate leadership that will lead us to a more peaceful and understanding world.
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