קְִו כִָל סֵ פֶרְו פְ רוִֹס תַ בָכּ הָי
REMBRANDT’ S JEREMIAH
Dr. Alan Levenson
Jeremiah is the only prophet, major or minor, who has a biography. We know this from the superscription about his lengthy career; from the Temple speeches and his tense relationship with the Northern religious establishment; from his contentious relationship with Judah’ s King Jehoiakim; from the ill-organized final chapters, which differ greatly from the Greek Septuagint version; from the note that he was dragged down to Egypt on account of his being thought a Babylonian sympathizer. Archaeologists have recovered the stamp seal( bulla) of Baruch ben Neriah, mentioned as the prophet’ s secretary, and assumed by some modern scholars to be the author of the scroll. Jeremiah witnessed the initial mass deportations to Babylonia in 597BCE, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 587BCE. His life and career inspired the book of Lamentations; he may have authored it, as
ְמ ים ינוֹת: states the Bavli
ְמ wrote his own book, and the book of Kings, and Lamentations.” 6
“ Jeremiah. ְרִי
After this disaster, Jeremiah’ s tone changes from caution to comfort. Perhaps the book’ s most famous passage 7 invokes the matriarch Rachel, buried on the outskirts of Bethlehem, 8 weeping over her exiled children, but also stationed to welcome them back into the land. Even the Northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh will be gathered-in. Then and only then will the covenant be renewed. As philosopher Emil Fackenheim wrote, in response to the Christian tendency to skip over Rachel’ s tears to arrive at a New Covenant, 9 there
6
BT BB 15a
7
Jer. 31:15-17
8
Gen 35:19-20
9 brit hadashah-- Jer. 31: 31-34
22