The Tanakh Podcast

This is the Haftara for Shabbat Shuva, a beautiful to and from between God and Israel that is filled with love, repentance and blessing. But where does it belong inn Sefer Hoshea?

This chapter prophecises the demise of the Northern Kingdom with a wealth of metaphors. We discuss several of them.

Chapter 12 deals with Israel's unreliable and fraudulent ways. But what does Yaakov have to do with it? Is it true that Jacob "tricked his brother from the womb"?

In this chapter, God expresses his love for Israel - like a parent to a beloved child - from Egypt, through Israel's idolatry, punishment, and then the return to the Land of Israel.

In this chapter Hosea berates the people for: v.1-8 - Their idolatry and reliance on foreign powers v.9-15 - The lack of interpersonal integrity, kindness and social cohesion Both sins are united by the metaphor of an "egel", a heifer, and by the consequence of national devastation and ruin.

Today's podcast is about the spiritual power of food, particluarly the produce of the land. Hosea warns the people that once the nation are exiled: "Their food will be only for their hunger, It shall not come into the House of GOD." What does he mean.

Today we discuss the mysterious phrase 8:12 - 'אכתוב לו רובי תורתי כמו זר נחשבו' Either: "Though I write for him the great things of My Torah, they are reckoned a strange thing" Or the Midrash (Tanchuma Ki Tissa 34): "I write the majority of the Torah [but leave the Mishnah unwritten] so that the [Oral Torah] remains undecipherable [strange] to the Nations of the World.

Hosea uses a parable of a bakery to rebuke the kings and aristocracy for their dereliction of leadership.

Chapter 6 finds the people expressing a desire to retunr to God. But God rejects their overtures as being ephemeral, temporary. Instead he encourages them to repair their religious and political culture and return to the Covenant of Israel.

In this podcast we offer the historical background to the accusations of Hosea: Political rivalry, in-fighting, political opportunism and factionalism bring the northern kingdom to a point of weakness and vulnerability from which it will simply collapse. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE to the Tanakh Podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=51407457 Please sign up for weekly Parsha emails at www.alexisrael.org