Ep.434: Hoshea Ch.1 by Rabbi Joe Wolfson

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