Sanhedrin 025

Today's shiur is dedicated by Meredith Warsaw to celebrate her first ever Reading from the Torah. Tizki le-Mitzvot [May you merit performing more and more mitzvot].

14:
Jeremiah's constant clashes with the authorities were because of two issues, one religious and the other political – though the classification of the points of division in these modern terms would have been incomprehensible to his contemporaries: for them everything was religious. The religious clash was because of Jeremiah's insistence that the Bet ha-Mikdash in Jerusalem did not grant an automatic immunity. The political division was no less full of rancour. In Jeremiah's childhood world politics had been dominated by Assyria, a country in the northern part of modern Iraq which boasted (justifiably) the greatest empire the world had known. This empire included, of course, the tiny and politically insignificant kingdom of Judah. Suddenly, when Jeremiah was around 30 years old Assyria was toppled by one of her under-princes, by the king of Babylon – a country in the southern part of modern Iraq. (It was analogous to the United States being unexpectedly conquered 'overnight' by Canada.) To Judah's south was that other great power, Egypt; and it was obvious that Egypt would challenge Babylon for world hegemony. Since Judah lay between these two colossi, she would have to 'take sides'. Jeremiah had been told already in his call (Chapter 1) that Babylon would win this contest and that it was to Babylon that Judah must submit if she wanted to survive. The governing circles in Judah chose a policy of alliance with Egypt in the expectation that their 'big brother' would deal with the Babylonian bully.

15:
The initial clash between Babylon and Egypt had resulted in a stand-off. This was not because the two powers were really evenly balanced – as the Judean government thought – but because in the midst of the battle the crown-prince of Babylon one Neduchadrezzar, had to hurry home because his father had just died. Within three or four years the battle was resumed and Egypt was sent hurtling back within her borders, never to sally forth from them again. In the winter of 598/7 BCE Nebuchadrezzar lay siege to Jerusalem. During the siege the king of Judah died and was succeeded by his eighteen year-old son, Yehoyakhin (or "Konyah" as Jeremiah affectionately calls him). Yehoyakhin made a deal with Nebuchadrezzar: in exchange for the independence of Judah the young king himself and the members of his government and all the cream of Judean society would go into voluntary exile in Babylon. Nebuchadrezzar clinched the deal and Yehoyakhin's uncle was appointed puppet-king in Judah while the young king and a few thousand others went off to Babylon in March 597 BCE. This was a terrible blow to the pro-Egyptian policy. (Yehoyakhin was eighteen years old when he went into voluntary incarceration for the sake of his country, but he was not released until he was fifty-four years old!) The new king of Judah lost no time in recreating the old policy of reliance on Egypt, and when Zedekiah withheld tribute Nebuchadrezzar descended upon Judah and crushed her (in the summer of 587 BCE). However, the incident that has prompted this long excursus took place about seven years before this.

16:
Since nothing succeeds like visible publicity Jeremiah made himself a yoke which he wore around his neck when appearing in public. (The yoke was a kind of wooden collar that was slipped over the neck of the farm animals and through this yoke were passed the reins which gave the driver control over the animal.) This subtile message was not lost on the public in general.

17:
The opposition was not to be outdone. In July of 594 BCE a certain Ĥananyah challenged Jeremiah with his own weapons:

This was a magnificent piece of demagoguery. It neatly circumvented Jeremiah's strongest card – that his teachings had already begun to be fulfilled with the first deportation – and promised a reversal some time in the future. This incident took place in the concourse of the Bet Mikdash, Ĥananyah's home turf, and Jeremiah knew that if he openly opposed Ĥananyah at that place and at that time he was liable to be lynched! His riposte was brilliant:

Jeremiah then went on to warn Ĥananyah and his enthusiastic audience that the proof of the pudding was in the eating: while God may well reverse a prophecy of doom (for repentance is always a possibility), He never has reversed a prophecy of good promise. Time would tell which of these two prophets was lying. Note that Jeremiah has no way of disproving Ĥananyah's claim to be a divinely-inspired prophet. Ĥananyah, seeing a possible reversal of his success so far, makes a brilliant move. He snatches the yoke from off Jeremiah's neck and breaks it dramatically, exclaiming, "Thus says God: 'Thus shall I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon!'" The text at this point relates rather laconically that "Jeremiah the prophet went on his way". He had lost to a consummate artiste. [28:10-11]

18:
All this had taken place in public. Jeremiah now seeks out Ĥananyah privately and reproves him:

In the good cliffhanger tradition we here note that this topic is to be continued after Pesaĥ. RMSG is taking its now traditional break for the holiday and the next shiur will be on 20th April. A very happy and Kasher Passover to everybody.