How can we embody and embrace humility? Some rituals, like fasting, like depriving ourselves of pleasure, remind us of our fragile impermanence, and help us connect to some source of good greater than us. That’s where humility comes in, along with awe and atonement. It requires work. Sometimes a somatic spectacle helps us surrender our will. A burden of love.
Jeremiah knows a thing or two about public ritual spectacles of atonement and to drive his message home he plans a political spectacle that is all about embodying the demand to remember the lifeforce that’s really in charge - above the king of Judah, even above the mighty king of Babylon.
Although chapter 27 opens with the same historical setting as the previous chapter "At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah," scholars prove that this is an error. The situation outlined here likely happened in the fourth year of his reign - 594 BCE. The end is near.
A rare and important political summit was held that year in Jerusalem, likely in secret - an Anti-Babylonian coalition, with Egyptian backing, where the local kings gathered to strategize a joint attack on Babylon.
Jeremiah, representing the consistent Anti-Egyptian Coalition, still insists that only submission to Babylon will save the lives of the people. He produces another public performance protest. This one is about submission and humility.
He procures six leather yokes - the kind used to muzzle and harness cattle. He wears one of those around his neck, and in this way delivers the rest to the kings during their gathering in Jerusalem.
Imagine the scene:
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלַ֔י עֲשֵׂ֣ה לְךָ֔ מוֹסֵר֖וֹת וּמֹט֑וֹת וּנְתַתָּ֖ם עַל־צַוָּארֶֽךָ׃ וְשִׁלַּחְתָּם֩ אֶל־מֶ֨לֶךְ אֱד֜וֹם וְאֶל־מֶ֣לֶךְ מוֹאָ֗ב וְאֶל־מֶ֙לֶךְ֙ בְּנֵ֣י עַמּ֔וֹן וְאֶל־מֶ֥לֶךְ צֹ֖ר וְאֶל־מֶ֣לֶךְ צִיד֑וֹן בְּיַ֤ד מַלְאָכִים֙ הַבָּאִ֣ים יְרוּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם אֶל־צִדְקִיָּ֖הוּ מֶ֥לֶךְ יְהוּדָֽה׃
“YHWH spoke to me: Make for yourself yokes, bonds and bars, and put them on your neck.
Then send these to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by envoys who have come to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem”
Jeremiah 27:3
The message is simple: Submit to Babylon. Relinquish control.
It isn’t just the five local kings that he is warning. He also rails against the official propaganda machine that backs them up - the prophets whom he claims are false, the advisors and soothsayers who support the coup against Babylon - no matter the costs. Again and again Jeremiah tells them - you are misleading your nations, the fate has been determined, humble yourselves, surrender - and live. Wave the white flag.
The imagery of the yokes is powerful.
But they don’t.
Once again the Jewish calendar and our Bible belt journey converge as those of us fasting on this Day of Atonement are performing the ritual repentance, submitting ourselves to the fact that our fate is unknown, ruled by forces other than us, always unknown. Who by fire?
Jeremiah wants life over loyalty to city and state, faith instead of fighting. The kings want war. Their prophets concur. How is this a story of our ongoing social reality and also our inner lives? The ways in which we know when to fight and when to let go? How, on this Day of Atonement do we release our pride and listen to the prophetic voice within that whispers -- examine your priorities, choose life if you can, over defiance, ego and nonstop war? What’s your white flag?
Jeremiah will walk around Jerusalem with this yoke on his shoulders for a while yet, a spectacle. It continues tomorrow, as Jeremiah encounters one of the prophets from the opposition, those who refuse to face the facts and keep peddling false hopes,
as does our process of repair and resolve -- the yoke is not yet taken off. Fast gently, go deep, surrender. Live.
Gmar Chatima Tova. Signed and Sealed in the Book of Life.
May this fast day of reflection help each one of us and all of us together rise to the challenges of being sacred temples, dedicated to justice, kindness and love.
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