The Tanakh Podcast

This chapter sees Jeremiah arrested as a suspected accomplice with the Babylonians. But what rings through the chapter is the spineless character of King Zedekiah.

Jeremiah writes his prophecies in a scroll. Barukh reads it to government officials in Jerusalem. They hear Jeremiah's prophecy and are impressed and fearful of his messages. But when the king hears the contents of the scroll, he is unmoved. He takes the scroll and burns it. This is a classic story about government ignoring warnings, turning a blind eye to criticism. Nonetheless, God instructs...

Is withdrawal from life an ideal? Is refraining from wine an aspiration? Jeremiah brings the "Rehabites" to the Temple and instructs them to drink wine. The respond: "We don't drink wine, nor do we plant a field, a vineyard, or build a house!" Who is this peculiar family, and what does Jeremiah want us to learn from them?

In the reign of Zedekiah, the people make a covenant to free their slaves, and then they re-enslave them. Why do they free them? Why do they re-enslave them? And what does God have to say about all this?

In this, the final chapter in a series that promise restoration and national rehabilitation, God affirms his eternal covenant with the House of David, the priesthood, and the Jewish People

It is a year before the Hurban. Jerusalem is under siege. Jeremiah is in jail. And God tells him to purchase his uncle's field. This seems an absurd thing to do. Shortly, the land will be conquered, ruined and unhabitable. But God is teaching a lesson about faith in the future, instilling the understanding that eventually the Jewish people will return to their homeland.

In a chapter brimming with love, God promises the return of the nation to their borders, the flourishing of national agriculture, the return to Zion, and the end of national suffering. The most famous image of the chapter is that of Rachel weeping for her lost sons, She is told: "Hold back from weeping     and your eyes from tears, ... there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord: t...

God promises that after the terrible wounds incurred by the Hurban, the Jewish people shall return to their land, their Temple, their sovereignty and the nation will flourish again.

Yirmiyahu sends a letter to the exiles from Judah, instructing them: "Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit... Multiply there, do not decrease. And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you... for in its prosperity you shall prosper." This is the beginning of the Diaspora... Jews living in "exile" as a minority, but thriving, growing and...

In this chapter Jeremiah faces down Hananya Ben Azur. But as opposed to ch.37 and ch.39 where Jeremiah accuses prophets of falsehood, here Jeremiah seems unsure whether to believe Hananya. Why? What is it about Hananya that seems authentic? How can one identify a false prophet? And why does Jeremiah need an explicit directive by God to identify Hananya's prophecy as false?

Jeremiah is instructed to take a yoke and wear it around his neck: " “Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live." The False Prophets were claiming that Babylonian dominance was short-lived, but Jeremiah insists that the only way to survive is to submit. We discuss this message in the light of 50 Years of the Yom Kippur War, and the b...

Jeremiah delivers his prophecy at the Temple and is almost issued a death sentence. He is saved by the officials and the common people who believe that he is delivering an authentic Godly message. We discuss one of these people in particular - Ahikam ben Shafan - and also the idea, expressed powerfully here, that society cannot execute the mouthpiece of unpopular ideas.

In the fourth year of Yehoyakim, Nebuchadnezzar comes to power. Now Jeremiah's predictions are indeed transpiring. We see a double prophecy: 1. The promise of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ascendancy of Babylon for 70 years 2. The theme of the "poisoned chalice" which will be drunk by Jerusalem, but then will be fed to all the nations around as God "summons the sword aga...

Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs, one of supreme quality, the other totally inedible. What is the message that God is sending to the nation?

We see two sets of problematic leaders: The kings who misguided the nation - the "negligent shepherds" who lose their flock; and the false prophets who claim to have "dreamt a dream" from God, but are pretenders, phonies, merely uttering falsehoods.

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 o...

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 mail...

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?