Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you

[Spengler]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you on the Spengler Blog


by David Layman

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you

In Jeremiah 28 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible/Jeremiah28.html , we see a disturbing glimpse into the evolution of the Hebrew scriptures. Jeremiah has been predicting the destruction of Judah. It's not clear if the horrors he is envisioning are visions given by HaShem (the euphemism for the ineffable Name, for non-Jews), or horrors generated deep within his own disturbed psyche. In chapter 20 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible/Jeremiah20.html , he presents a perfect picture of paranoia: "For I have heard the whispering of many, terror on every side: 'Denounce, and we will denounce him'; even of all my familiar friends, them that watch for my halting: 'Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.' (v. 10)"

However, he cannot help himself, he must speak, the word of HaShem drives him like a "burning fire shut up in my bones, and I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot (v. 9). He wrenches between adoration and execration: "Sing unto HaShem, praise ye HaShem; for He hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers" and in the very next verse, "Cursed be the day wherein I was born; the day wherein my mother bore me, let it not be blessed (vv. 13, 14)."

No wonder other prophets think Jeremiah's bonkers. (He probably was.) In Jeremiah 28, another prophet thinks he has had enough of this negative thinking. Hananiah, caught up in the worship at the Jerusalem sanctuary promises that the power of Babylon has been broken, and that the king Jeconiah, along with all the other captives, and the loot taken from the temple, will be restored within two years.

"Amen," Jeremiah eagerly responds; (as if to say) "may it be as you have proclaimed." But recognize one thing: the prophets have always proclaimed war, destruction and death. So if your promises of restoration come to pass, then we will know that you are truly a prophet, and not someone who's just saying things that would have happened anyway. Destruction is the rule; restoration is the exception.

So Jeremiah leaves. But HaShem isn't done. He sends him back to Hananiah. Because "thou makest this people to trust in a lie," "I will send thee away from off the face of the earth; this year thou shalt die,.... (vv. 15, 16). Any paranoiac can imagine generic disasters. It takes a prophet to know the year of another's death. "So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month (v. 17)."

One wonders: if Hananiah had not died, would we be reading the prophecies of Hananiah, instead of the prophecies of Jeremiah? Would we be reading the Nevi'im at all? Was the destruction of ancient Israel the price that had to be paid for the emergence of ancient Judaism, the womb of the knowledge of the one true G-d?

In Jeremiah 28, we see a disturbing glimpse into the evolution of the Hebrew scriptures. Jeremiah has been predicting the destruction of Judah. It's not clear if the horrors he is envisioning are visions given by HaShem (the ineffable Name, for non-Jews), or horrors generated deep within his own disturbed psyche. In chapter 20, he presents a perfect picture of paranoia: "For I have heard the whispering of many, terror on every side: 'Denounce, and we will denounce him'; even of all my familiar friends, them that watch for my halting: 'Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.' (v. 10)"

However, he cannot help himself, he must speak, the word of HaShem drives him like a "burning fire shut up in my bones, and I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot (v. 9)." He wrenches between adoration and execration: "Sing unto HaShem, praise ye HaShem; for He hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers" and in the very next verse, "Cursed be the day wherein I was born; the day wherein my mother bore me, let it not be blessed (vv. 13, 14)."

No wonder other prophets think Jeremiah's bonkers. (He probably was.) In Jeremiah 28, another prophet thinks he has had enough of this negative thinking. Hananiah, caught up in the worship at the Jerusalem sanctuary promises that the power of Babylon has been broken, and that the king Jeconiah, along with all the other captives, and the loot taken from the temple, will be restored within two years.

"Amen," Jeremiah eagerly responds; (as if to say) "may it be as you have proclaimed." But recognize one thing: the prophets have always proclaimed war, destruction and death. So if your promises of restoration come to pass, then we will know that you are truly a prophet, and not someone who's just saying things that would have happened anyway. Destruction is the rule; restoration is the exception.

So Jeremiah leaves. But HaShem isn't done. He sends him back to Hananiah. Because "thou makest this people to trust in a lie," "I will send thee away from off the face of the earth; this year thou shalt die,.... (vv. 15, 16). Any paranoiac can imagine generic disasters. It takes a prophet to know the year of another's death. "So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month (v. 17)."

One wonders: if Hananiah had not died, would we be reading the prophecies of Hananiah, instead of the prophecies of Jeremiah? Would we be reading the Nevi'im at all? Was the destruction of ancient Israel the price that had to be paid for the emergence of ancient Judaism, the womb of the knowledge of the one true G-d?

And which paranoiacs should we be listening to?

[Richard Greene]

During the 30s of the last century, a paranoid Jew explicitly warned European Jewry that the pogroms of the past were just a precurser to the super-pogroms of the near future. He exhorted Europe's Jews to leave immediately for Palestine while they could>

...in 1938, Jabotinsky stated in a speech that Polish Jews 'were living on the edge of the volcano' and warned that a wave of bloody super-pogroms would be happening in Poland sometime in the near future. Jabotinsky went on to warn Jews in Europe that they should leave for Palestine as soon as possible.
—"Ze'ev Jabotinsky", Wikipedia

Most Jews thought him an alarmist fear-monger, and worse, a mishugganah (crazy man). Turns out he was right and they were (dead) wrong...The best example from the last century that, if you're a Jew, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

My parents and extended family were enjoying life on the jungle-island of Java in the Dutch East Indies, when the Gestapo sent diplomats to Surabaya to demand that the Imperial Japanese round up every Jew and send them to concentration camps, which the Kampetie (dreaded Japanese military police) gladly did. Had they been "paranoid", they'd have left for America, Australia and Palestine in the 30s.

[rhapsody]

For the record, according to the Anagram Orcale:

Paranoid :: Dopa Iran

[Spengler]

The question of how one speaks to God without having one's soul burnt to a cinder is difficult. AJ Heschel tries to get at this sort of issue in The Prophets, whose first volume is a phenomenological study of the act of prophesying. It is hard to read Jeremiah and stay sane; imagine what it must have been like to have these visions.

[Sabba Hillel]

Actually, Jeremiah was criticized (by G-d) because he gave the impression that he might have accepted what the false prophet was saying. It was not that he was paranoid, but that he was forced to announce what he had been told by G-d. Anyone who pretends to have been told by G-d something that he has not (even if it was a true prophecy that he heard from a real prophet) or who refuses to announce a prophecy that G-d had ordered him to say, is a false prophet and subject to the death penalty. That is why Jeremiah was sent back to announce Chananya's death and why Chananya's children tried to hide his death until after the new year started. Note that the "seventh month" is Tishrei and the death in that month meant that Chananya was punished when Yom Kippur came and he did not repent.

[Sabba Hillel]

I forgot to mention that there is a basic principle of prophecy, as explained by Rambam (Maimonides). A bad prophecy can be overturned if the subject of the prophecy repents and changes his (hers, their) ways. The prime example is Jonah and Nineveh. Jonah was a true prophet adn his prophecy that Nineveh would be destroyed did not come about because they repented. Isaiah prophesied that king Chizkiyah (Hezekiah) would die, but he prayed and was granted 15 more years. On the other hand, a prophesy for good cannot be retracted. An example is when Samuel told Saul that he had been replaced "by someone better than you". Had he only been told that he had been rejected, he could have repented and gotten his kingdom back. Once the prophesy included the fact that someone had been appointed (which was "for the good") that opportunity was lost.

In fact, Chananya's "prophecy" actually prevented the repentance that could have avoided the destruction. Since people believed that they would be redeemed "in two years", they would not longer listen to Jeremiah and repent. Had they fully and honestly repented, the destruction would not have happened. That is another reason that Chananya was punished by dying within the year.

[CognitiveDistoibance]

Sabba Hillel:

Thank you. All good points...

The status of the text of Jeremiah is a mess. I'm personally inclined to cut the poor guy some slack. Also, prophets are rarely part of a popular majority, thus they are entitled to some healthy paranoia.

[Marcus]

. . In Jeremiah 28, we see a disturbing glimpse into the evolution of the Hebrew scriptures. .

One wonders: if Hananiah had not died, would we be reading the prophecies of Hananiah, instead of the prophecies of Jeremiah? Would we be reading the Nevi'im at all? Was the destruction of ancient Israel the price that had to be paid for the emergence of ancient Judaism, the womb of the knowledge of the one true G-d? And which paranoiacs should we be listening to?

Reminds me of a story told by Corrie Ten Boom:
Seems one night during an air raid, Corrie got up and went to the kitchen where her sister was awake. When the raid was over, Corrie returned to her room to find her pillow shredded by a piece of shrapnel. Calling her sister, Corrie pointed to the pillow and said "What if . . ." Her sister interrupted, "There are no 'ifs' in God's world."

Personally, I've always wondered if the moon is really made of green cheese. . .

[Richard Greene]

Marcus,

Your point is pukka Jewish Orthodox — Orthodox rabbis, like mafioso godfathers, don't believe in coincidences. The book to read is "The Book of Esther", which doesn't mention God even once, altho His hand is everywhere in the storyline.

[Marcus]

Marcus,

Your point is pukka Jewish Orthodox — Orthodox rabbis, like mafioso godfathers, don't believe in coincidences . . .

That may be so, RG, but since I am a Christian and know nothing of "pukka Jewish Orthodox," my point is the Reformed doctrine of Providence. From the Westminster Confession of Faith:

Chapter V
Of Providence

I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.

[Richard Greene]

Marcus,

Rabbinical Jewish doctrine says that even though we have free will, all is forseen by God, a paradox beyond our ability to understand. You and the Talmudic sages are in total agreement on this one.

[Marcus]

Marcus,

Rabbinical Jewish doctrine says that even though we have free will, all is forseen by God, a paradox beyond our ability to understand. You and the Talmudic sages are in total agreement on this one.

To the degree that is true, Richard, it pleases me. Thanks . . .