Trust or Wisdom?

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

You might recognize one of the verses in this week's Haftorah (Jeremiah 16:19-17:14), for it happens to be a verse that many Jews have the custom of reciting nearly every day - and sometimes even multiple times a day! (You're more likely to recognize it if you read it in Hebrew.)

Sound familiar?

This might help: After a full meal comes something called birkhat hamazon - or, saying "Thank you!" This consists of four different major sections, with each section expressing thanksgiving, requests, and/or praise for things in four different broad categories.

These categories touch upon thanking God for (1) nourishment, (2) for Israel, (3) Jerusalem, and (4) His kindnesses in general.

But we Jews love our praying! And so after finishing the Grace after Meals, many people add on yet ANOTHER series of prayers and praises for good measure.

And that is where this quote from Jeremiah comes in. But since the Grace After Meals has become so long - by the time we get to this quote from Jeremiah, we've been thanking and praising so much that we're about ready to move on to the next thing already! So it's easy to race right through it, completely missing its poetic simplicity.

If you look at this one line closely, you'll see a completely symmetrical structure. This is very hard to notice in the English, because the same root (series of three letters) can be used in the Hebrew to express what would need to be said using two completely different words in English. But in the Hebrew, to place trust is nearly the same word as his assurance.

See the same verse color-coded below.

Look at the Hebrew side, and it becomes much clearer. Do you see the A-B-C-B-A structure? trust-YHWH-shallBe-YHWH-trust .

This is very common in Hebrew poetry; the fancy term is called a chiasmus. While it is structurally pleasing all on its own, I always find myself wondering if there might be some rhetorical intention behind it as well.

And I think that perhaps in this case, there is. For maybe Jeremiah is using using the structure of this line to emphasize how one's end can be mirrored in the beginning. Or more explicitly, as soon as you truly begins trusting in God, you can be all-but-assured that God will ultimately be there for you, to show that your trust was well-placed.

But if you go back and look at this verse in its original context of Jeremiah - i.e., in our Haftorah, you see that it is part of a longer, even more poetically-developed passage.

Verses 5-8 make up one poem, which is made up of two strophes, or distinct units.

In the above lines, Jeremiah poetically contrasts one who places his/her trust in humans, v. one who places his/her trust in God. The person in verse 5, he/she who is cursed due to misplaced trust in humans, is the direct counter-part to the person of verse 7, one who is blessed for placing trust in God.

This idea is expressed in many places places elsewhere in TaNaKh. Once place where you might recognize it is in psalms of Hallel, which we recite on Rosh Hodesh and Holidays:

Now back to our poem in Jeremiah. In order to make sure we get the message of how important it is to be intentional about where our trust is placed, he contrasts two parables to accompany the contrast of the blessed and the cursed above. For this, you have to juxtapose verse 6, to verse 8.

While placing trust in mortals is like a bush in a barren desert under a scorching son, placing trust in the Almighty is akin to a tree deeply rooted next to a stream, with ever-fresh leaves.

What do you think he means by this? I wonder if he is drawing on "Tree of Life" imagery, which is usually associated with wisdom. There are two other verses in TaNaKh that come to mind most readily: Firstly, the verse we say as we put the Torah away after communal Torah readings:

And even more similarly than that, the very first paragraph in the Book of Psalms!

Whether Jeremiah and the author of this Psalm were in dialogue with each other, or whether they were both borrowing on Israelite "stock imagery," I'm not sure. But I cannot help notice that there is a very big difference between what exactly each of them are emphasizing.

In the Psalter's case, the key to being guaranteed an abundance of water and healthy foliage is "The teaching of YHWH;" i.e., wisdom. Whereas in Jeremiah's case, the key is trusting in God! Wisdom and Trust - both important, but definitely not the same.

One might not be endowed with, or have accumulated "wisdom," and yet might still place most or all of his/her trust fully in God. And on the other hand, one might place no trust in God, and be very knowledgeable about the teachings of God! Right?

So here's the question - What exactly is going on here?

• Are Jeremiah and the psalter each providing two different yet legitimate paths of being able to live a life of security?
• Are they both telling us one piece of the things we should work for, but they would both say that both wisdom and trust are necessary?
• Are they disagreeing - such that Jeremiah says that to pursue trust in God is the most important, whereas the psalter says better to pursue "wisdom" of God?
• Should we attempt to harmonize, and say that the two cannot help but go together? For perhaps the Torah's very definition of wisdom is, in fact, trusting in God!

Whichever way you end up leaning in answering the above question, I think one thing we can all agree on is that the emphasis that the Torah puts on both wisdom AND trust cannot be understated - for our Israelite ancestors intuited that God yearns both for us to share in His wisdom, as well as to rely on Him.

But now we live in a whole different world than the Israelites! I don't know about them, but for us (or at least for me...) these can both be quite TALL orders! Neither wisdom nor trust are mere on/off switches that one can just tune into as soon as one decides one is interested in pursuing them.

But even so ! - anyone can take a first step; And in my opinion, the first step towards either of these could be just going ahead and opening up a TaNaKh to just about any chapter, and engaging in active reading. Not only pursuing comprehension, but thinking deeply, critically, questioning, and meditating on the words, poems, prophecies, and stories.

In pursuit of wisdom, a good starting point could be what is appropriately called the "Wisdom Literature," which includes three works - Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

While in pursuit of trust, you can probably open up to, well, just about anywhere! The most frequently mentioned commandment in the TaNaKh, which comes up over 100 times (!), is אל תירא - have no fear! I have found that the trust that our Israelite ancestors had in God is so incredibly communicable ! - particularly throughout the psalms.

This is not to say that all you have to do is read a bit here, read a bit there and bam! you'll find you've gotten there just like that. As I said above, we are speaking about possible first steps. I dare say that if someone reads TaNaKh with an open heart as well as a desire that their trust in God - or in Hebrew, their בטחון (bitahon) or אמונה (emunah) will start to evolve - then with time, it will.

May the Almighty help us to come ever closer to Him with both a trusting heart and an inquisitive intellect, and in doing so, may we be as trees deeply rooted by ever-flowing streams, yielding fruit in all of its seasons.