Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Proverbs.6?lang=bi

Sam Lebens discusses the fascinating idea of the seductress as a metaphor for the Torah herself seducing her readers into incorrect interpretations!

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Proverbs.5?lang=bi

Melding the poetry of David HaMelech to the musical poetry of the modern day Text here: www.sefaria.org/Psalms.69

A terrifying plague (of locusts), economic collapse and the demand for a spiritual response. Sound timely? Delighted to welcome Ariel Koschitzky, a long time follower but first time presenter for this group who provides an excellent introduction to the themes and structure of the sefer, probes the question of when Yoel lived, and powerfully explores the themes of the chapter - that every significant moment requires a spiritual response. I found particularly interesting, the insight that in contrast to Hoshea where sins are everywhere, in the case of Yoel no mention is made of Israel's guilt - but that does not mean that the moment lacks religious meaning. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Joel.1

The final chapter of Hoshea, and one of the most famous chapters in the Tanakh on the topic of teshuva (so much so that it is even the haftara of Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat inbetween Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur). Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.14

Audio follows on the loyalty of Yaakov, the disloyalty of Israel and the imagery of clouds in Tanakh. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.13

In ch.11 God's anger and resentment towards Israel is overwhelmed by his tenderness for them, while in ch.12 Hoshea turns his attention to the stories of Yaakov Avinu -an almost unique chapter for a navi to provide an interpretation to the stories of the Avot. Text can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.11

Calev Ben Dor uses our chapter as a glimpse into the geopolitical difficulties that the northern kingdom finds itself in. Samaria’s monarchy is vanishing Like foam upon water.

Text for this chapter can be found here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.10

In my audio I attempt to explain why this chapter is illustrative of what makes nevi'im acharonim - the prophets of Hoshea's epoch - so unique compared to those who came before them. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.9

More metaphors of Israel aberrant politics: reaping the whirlwind and like a lonely desert ass. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.8

In today's audio I try to consider what this metaphor might mean - for the leadership of a people to be compared to the science of baking. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.7

Today we are honoured to receive another recording from the bard of London, Rafi Addlestone, as he reflects on Hoshea chapters 5 and 6, channeling John Legend and A.J. Heschel to unpack Hoshea's philosophy of divine love and the prophet's unique innovation of the concept of da'at elokim - not just knowledge of God, but empathy and identification. https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.5⁠ https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.6

The prophet directs his criticism at the people, suggesting that perhaps they should have protested against their leadership. The chapter culminates on a rather harsh note, "a people that is without sense must stumble." The recording today focuses on the first few verses, trying to understand the connection between environmental harm and the verse "Let no man rebuke, let no man protest!”. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.4

Text here: www.sefaria.org/Psalms.68

Ilana Stein shares Torah with us from a wintry Johanesburg with a powerful reading of the adjusted metaphor as portraying a relationship with God in the reality of exile. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.3

If yesterday's chapter contained some of the harshest verses of rebuke in the Tanakh, today's chapter has some of the most beautiful uplifting language of God's love for Israel וארשתיך לי לעולם. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.2

Written in last 929 cycle: "Yesterday, Shabbat morning, I woke up horrendously early – about 5:15AM. I made myself a coffee and read most of the previous day’s New York Times. A Shabbat luxury before the kids are up. And has there ever been a more important time to be connected to current events. I read the coverage and the editorials. At about 6:30 I began tefilla: the early parts - brachot and pesukei d’zimra –usually my favourite part of the prayers. Nishmat Kol Chai has few competitors for a passage that can make one feel spiritually alive. But after having read the Times cover to cover I felt choked, as if a whole lot of dust had settled inside me. I don’t pretend at all that every tefilla of mine is full of great kavana. But the words felt dead. Like eating cobwebs. This is not the usual critique of the Times. Their journalists are excellent. The reportage is deeply necessary. But reading it left me feeling low.
So I decided to take a break from tefilla and learn some Torah. This week in 929 – our daily study of Tanakh - we will be beginning the prophet Hoshea, so I thought it wise to get a head start. Hoshea was the first of the great literary prophets – nevi’im acharonim – who addressed the people rather than the leadership, holding up a mirror to Israelite society, forcing it to confront its hypocrisies, its injustices and infidelities. And yet at the same time as the most biting of criticisms filled with fury and anger, Hoshea’s words are full of love, tenderness, a desire to (re)turn to a better place.
I read through the first few chapters with the commentaries and then returned to tefilla. I was in a much better place and could daven (pray) as I wanted to with my mind and heart at least partly there.
Only later did I reflect on this a bit. Learning Torah always calms me and puts me in a better place. But Hoshea wasn’t just an escape from the ennui of the Times. It was a completely different way of doing something not completely different. Paul Krugman and Ben Shapiro look tame by comparison with the fire Hoshea aims at the society that has lost its way. But his coupling of the rebuke with soaring optimism and love doesn’t seem to have any modern correlate that I can see. The navi teaches that overwhelming anger doesn’t need to be divorced from enormous empathy. It doesn’t leave one dry and empty. It lifts one up. And lets one pray. "Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Hosea.1

Chs. 47- 48 describe a stream flowing from under the temple and the tribal vision of the land - but as I try to show in my recording these sections take us back to multiple other places in Tanakh, including even the Garden of Eden, and conclude with the renaming of Jerusalem. Truly one of the most powerfully optimistic moments in Jewish history. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.47

Sam Lebens provides a beautiful audio contrasting the prince to the king, contrasting the Tanakh's presentation with that of the midrash, suggesting an evolution in Jewish thought and urging us to consider the wonder not of Hashem's enormity, but of his smallness, able to access even the smallest of spaces with his glory. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.46

Rafi Addlestone catches us up with an emphasis on the importance of paying attention to the detail.

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.45

Chs. 40-48 are pirkei hamikdash - the chapters devoted to Yechezkel's vision of a newly rebuilt temple. These are difficult chapters to learn - indeed the Rambam and Rashi struggled with them - but thankfully we have a hand to help. Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo introduces these chapters with a special focus on ch.42 and considers the idea of harmony - both in music and in religious architecture - as a lens through which to consider these chapters. https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.42

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.38

One of the most famous of all Biblical images - the valley of the bones. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.37

R. Dr Sam Lebens considers the question of what happens when teshuva does not precede God's kindnesses and how we should think of the problem of free will when God gives us things that perhaps we do not deserve - the inverse of the Pharoah's heart. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.36

Ilana Stein explores the ideas of redemption. Text here: www.sefaria.org/Psalms.67

"I'll try to give a sense of where we are in the structure of the sefer and describe Yehezkel's prescription for how leadership needs to look in the aftermath of the destruction" - Rabbi Joe Wolfson

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.33

Here the metaphor is no longer tree but crocodile - mighty in the water but helpless on dry land. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.32

Considers the rise and fall of empires and explores the idea of Nevuchadnezar as God's agent in history. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.30

Text for these chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.27,

https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.28,

https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.29

Teases out the conundrum as to what actually happened to Tyre - involving some deep theologies along the way. Listeners who like Sam's audio will be excited to know that Oxford University Press are soon to be releasing Sam's work 'The Principles Of Judaism' - Offers the first comprehensive statement of the axioms of the Jewish faith in the vernacular of twenty-first-century analytic philosophy. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.26

With a little help from Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson - uses our chapter to humbly consider God's psychology and whether the attempt to bring Israel to him is doomed to fail. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.25

Provides a moving reflection on the coupling of national catastrophe with personal tragedy as Yechezkel's plight echoes that of Aharon many years previous. Text for this chapter here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.24

Audio on how Yechezkel continues to invert metaphors! Text for this chapter here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.23

No longer ir hakodesh the holy city, but rather ir hadamim the city of blood. He confronts emotionally and honestly his pain at reading a chapter in which his beloved city of Jerusalem is described in such terrible language. His audio is highly worth listening to and perhaps gives us an insight into how difficult it was for the message of the prophets to be received - not because the audience was necessarily so wicked, but because the message was so harsh. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.22

The swords of destruction before arriving at JerusalemFocusing upon the milat mancha the repeated word, of ch.21 is cherev the sword and its role in Tanakh. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.21

Jon Muhlrad considers ch.66's suggestion that God listens only to our positive thoughts and not student to our negative ones.

Text here:www.sefaria.org/Psalms.66

Calev Ben Dor explains the inversion of metaphors as phrases which were applied to Israel's enemies are now given to Israel themselves. Finally Calev considers a mindbending verse in which Hashem appears to blame Himself for giving Israel bad laws. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.20

Rafi Addlestone - of previous 929 hiphop fame - channels the lion king to probe how two majestic images historically associated with Israel's grandeur, lion and vine, are inverted into a lament in Ezekiel's hands of the mighty falling. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.19

How can a prophet respond to the claim that 'we are being punished for the sins of our fathers?' - answer: the chapter of Tanakh most focused on the autonomy and responsibility of the individualindividual. Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.18

Text here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.17

A description of Israel's history from God's point of view, the foundling abandoned in filth, raised up to greatness, whose very success threatens to undo them.

Yael Shahar offers a moving and eloquent reflection on the poetics and politics of Yechezkel's vision of that history - the significance of the humble origins and the danger of arrogance that comes with abundance and success.

Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.16

Regarding Ch. 15: "only 8 verses - Describes the burning of Jerusalem as a vine is burned - it's good for nothing else. This was too depressing for me to record a piece on on Yom Ha'atzmaut, so I'll allow you all to read it in your own time. " - Rabbi Joe Wolfson

https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.15

In which the navi references three very different stories from very different parts of the Tanakh: Noach, Daniel and Iyov

On 929 see: https://www.929.org.il/lang/en/author/47374/post/73727

Text for this chapter can be found here:

https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.14

Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.13

The prophet returns from his tour of Jerusalem to Bavel and performs 'acts of provocative prophetic street theatre' to his audience, showing what will happen to Jerusalem 5 years hence. Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo returns considering the question of who is blind, the meaning of Yechezkel's theatre, suggesting, among other things, a disagreement between Yechezkel and Yirmiyahu as to where the future lies. Text for this chapter can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.12

Jonathan Muhlrad considers our chapter in the context of Yom HaShoah and an intriguing parallel between our chapter and the story of Korach. https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.11

Continue the vision began in the previous chapters as Yechezkel 'visits' Jerusalem, to see the horrendous destruction afflicting the city in which the divine death squad shows no mercyCalev Ben Dor provides us with excellent audio on both chapters noting how the text is a subversion of both exodus from Egypt and the ending of Yonah. Despite the darkness of the text, Calev shares with us a midrash on the chapter that is arguably better known than the chapter itself - 'God goes into exile with the Jewish people - although he is the agent of the destruction, he is also its victim'https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.9

Today I share thoughts on two of my favourite verses in ch.62 and 65.

Text here: www.sefaria.org/Psalms.65

A scene of abominations in the Temple just years before its destruction, a deep insight into the theme of idolatry in Yechezkel (as opposed to his predecessors), and an intriguing connection between our chapter and the afikoman. Aliza Libman Baronofsky travels with Yechezkel in his vision to Yerushalayim https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.8

The prophets hair becomes the source for symbolic actions. Text for this chapter can be found here: ⁠https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.5

Text can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.2