“Roam the streets of Jerusalem,
Search the alleyways,
Look about and take wonder:
You will not find anyone engaged;
There is no one who acts justly,
Who seeks integrity—
There are none worthy of divine forgiveness.”
Jeremiah 5:1
שׁוֹטְט֞וּ בְּחוּצ֣וֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם וּרְאוּ־נָ֤א וּדְעוּ֙ וּבַקְשׁ֣וּ בִרְחוֹבוֹתֶ֔יהָ אִם־תִּמְצְא֣וּ אִ֔ישׁ אִם־יֵ֛שׁ עֹשֶׂ֥ה מִשְׁפָּ֖ט מְבַקֵּ֣שׁ אֱמוּנָ֑ה וְאֶסְלַ֖ח לָֽהּ׃
Jeremiah’s chilling words begin this chapter with a vivid image of his footsteps echoing through the empty streets of Jerusalem, then, now, late night, and as the doom clock ticks on. The destruction is around the corner. It’s too late for forgiveness, it’s all just too much.
Really? Not even one righteous person in the city? The prophet’s bitterness reminds us of that scene in which YHWH decides to try again and drown the world so that a second world can be created - only Noah and his family are deemed righteous enough to continue the human race. Or the scene, ten generations later, when Abraham tries to convince YHWH that Sodom should not be destroyed if there were only ten good people in it. But there are not.
Perhaps the people aren’t all guilty but they are guilty of indifference. As Heschel famously wrote: “indifference to evil is worse than evil itself.. In a free society, some are guilty but all are responsible.”
Jeremiah’s rage in this chapter is not about ritual practice but about human greed and injustice.
He uses colorful and painful images to name his disgust at the smug society he’s living in, rich and safe, oblivious and obese, disregarding the needs of the poor and abusing justice:
כִּכְלוּב֙ מָ֣לֵא ע֔וֹף כֵּ֥ן בָּתֵּיהֶ֖ם מְלֵאִ֣ים מִרְמָ֑ה עַל־כֵּ֥ן גָּדְל֖וּ וַֽיַּעֲשִֽׁירוּ׃
שָֽׁמְנ֣וּ עָֽשְׁת֗וּ גַּ֚ם עָבְר֣וּ דִבְרֵי־רָ֔ע דִּ֣ין לֹא־דָ֔נוּ דִּ֥ין יָת֖וֹם וְיַצְלִ֑יחוּ וּמִשְׁפַּ֥ט אֶבְיוֹנִ֖ים לֹ֥א שָׁפָֽטוּ׃
“As a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of deceit;
That is why they have grown so wealthy.
They have become fat and sleek;
They pass beyond the bounds of wickedness,
And they prosper.
They will not judge the case of the orphan,
Nor give a hearing to the plea of the needy.”
Jeremiah 5:27-28
The power of Jeremiah’s prophetic rage is that it’s timeless. I can hear him speak against Jerusalem today, and against so many cities and communities guilty of excess and indifference. No matter the righteous work of few, or even many, the society at large is busy building fences instead of bridges, looking away from each other, from each other’s pain and need, from our collective purpose.
What’s a prophet in pain to do? Consult a philosopher. In this short, searing and thoughtful piece, Rabbi Dr. Analia Bortz, brings together Jeremiah and Emanuel Levinas, inviting these two prophetic voices to remind us what it’s like to look each other eye to eye:
“Jeremiah is desperate. The prophet revisits his library, looks through his kindle, researches online and googles ‘Emmanuel Levinas’. Oh yes, he reflects, the French philosopher, the one who speaks about “the Other”. Let’s see if or how he can help me. Although the 5th BCE prophet can barely understand the 20th CE philosopher, Levinas inspires the prophet. Jeremiah learns that generic sermons might not captivate the attention of his audience but rather face-to-face relationships, as a phenomenological approach to the encounter with the Other, can weave a path to Ethics.
Levinas offers a pro bono lesson to the prophet. They sit down with flavored tea and French croissants, and then the philosopher says, “The encounter with the Other, in his or her uniqueness, beyond themes and categorizations, creates the infinite ethical responsibility.”
Jeremiah has already learned that Ethics precedes ontology, and he wonders how to convince his people to repent, to scrutinize their hearts and to act in accordance with God’s will, assisting the oppressed and attending the ones in need. It is hard to find the answers. The people of Israel have fallen, trapped in their own comfort zone, the Land is vast, the crops are fruitful, they have become too comfortable and have lost the perspective of a bigger picture. They are demanding from the Land instead of cultivating it, they are subjugating their neighbors instead of helping them, they are patronizing the disadvantaged instead of relieving them.”
And so Jeremiah goes back to the streets of Jerusalem, tries to catch the eyes of people, if only they look up from their screens or pay attention to the strange man walking among them trying to get them to care. In his head, and in ours, more wise words of Levinas:
“The very relationship with the other is the relationship with the future.”
What’s next? He thinks as he looks on with despair at what has become of the holy city. Chapter five ends with the echo of this fearful question. But Jeremiah, like us, so many generations later, already know the awful answer that will be Judah’s judgment.
And what about us?
Image: Emmanuel Levinas, drawing by David Levine, The New York Review of Books
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It is impossible to read Jeremiah without casting a tragic eye on the present moment, and I feel how challenged you are to restrain the black horses of your own gloom. to keep balance. J. is the only prophet who has given his name to a kind of speech, the jereminad, in its unrestrained anguish and warning. This daily encounter with him cannot be easy for your own prophetic heart. What an ordeal to walk with him as you do.