Jehoiakim's Arrogance: Rejecting the Warnings of Lamentations and Burning Its Names of God (Lamentations 1:1-5; Moed Katan 26a)
Appendix - The Nine Sacred Names of God That Must Not Be Erased and the Ten Divine Descriptives Permitted to Erase (Shevuot 35a)
King Jehoiakim’s actions, as described in Jeremiah 36 and Moed Katan 26a, discuss a deliberate rejection of divine warnings of the destruction of the First Temple, and the ensuing devastation.
The Bible describes how when presented with a scroll containing Jeremiah’s prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction, Jehoiakim’s entourage cut it with a scribe’s knife and burned it in a firepot.
The Talmud elaborates: Jehoiakim dismissed the warnings in Lamentations, insisting they did not apply to him as king. Upon hearing a verse foretelling his downfall, he excised all mentions of God’s name from the scroll and burned them. Neither he nor his servants tore their garments, as halachically required when witnessing such desecration.
The Talmud in Shevuot 35a clarifies the sanctity of God’s names, distinguishing between those that cannot be erased and those that can. Sacred names like YHWH, Elohim, and Shaddai are inviolable, while descriptive titles such as “the Merciful” or “the Gracious” may be erased.
Outline
Jehoiakim's Arrogance: Rejecting the Warnings of Lamentations and Burning Its Names of God (Lamentations 1:1-5; Moed Katan 26a)1
Burning Jeremiah's Scroll
Rejecting the Warnings of Lamentations (1:1-4)
Lamentations (1:5), and Jehoiakim's Defiance: Destroying God's Name and Ignoring the Obligation to Mourn
Appendix - The Nine Sacred Names of God That Must Not Be Erased and the Ten Divine Descriptives Permitted to Erase (Shevuot 35a)
The Passage
Burning Jeremiah's Scroll (Jeremiah 36:23)
The obligation to tear one's clothing2 upon the burning of a Torah scroll is derived from the account in Jeremiah 36:23:
Jehudi3 is described in the verse as reading three or four verses (דלתות - literally: “doors”) of Jeremiah's scroll before cutting it with a penknife4 and burning it in the fireplace (אח).
ספר תורה שנשרף מנלן?
דכתיב:
״ויהי
כקרא יהודי שלש דלתות וארבעה
ויקרעה בתער הסופר
והשלך אל האש אשר אל האח וגו׳״.
From where do we derive that one must rend his garments when a Torah scroll has been burned?
As it is written:
“And it came to pass,
that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves,
he would cut it with a penknife,
and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier” (Jeremiah 36:23).
Rejecting the Warnings of Lamentations (1:1-4)
The Talmud describes how Jehoiakim, the king of Judah (c. 600 BCE), dismissed the warnings written in the Book of Lamentations.5
He rejected the verses from the beginning of the book as inapplicable to him, insisting that as king, the tragedies prophesied by book wouldn’t be relevant.
The specific verses read to him were: Lamentations 1:1 ("How does the city sit solitary"), 1:2 ("She weeps sore in the night"), 1:3 ("Judah is gone into exile due to affliction"), and 1:4 ("The ways of Zion do mourn"). These verses represent the "three or four leaves" Jehudi read before the scroll was desecrated.
מאי “שלש דלתות וארבעה”?
אמרו ליה ליהויקים: כתב ירמיה ספר קינות.
אמר להו: מה כתיב ביה?
״איכה ישבה בדד״.
אמר להו: אנא מלכא.
אמר ליה: ״בכה תבכה בלילה״.
אנא מלכא.
״גלתה יהודה מעוני״.
אנא מלכא.
״דרכי ציון אבלות״.
אנא מלכא.
With regard to the verse itself the Gemara asks: What is meant by “three or four leaves,” and why did he cut the book only at that point?
The Gemara explains: They said to Jehoiakim: Jeremiah has written a book of Lamentations over the future downfall and destruction of Jerusalem.
He said to them: What is written in it?
They read him the first verse: “How does the city sit solitary” (Lamentations 1:1).
He said to them: I am king, and this does not apply to me.
They read him the second verse: “She weeps sore in the night” (Lamentations 1:2).
He said to them: I am king, and this does not apply to me.
They read him the third verse: “Judah is gone into exile due to affliction” (Lamentations 1:3).
He said to them: I am king.
They read to him: “The ways of Zion do mourn” (Lamentations 1:4).
He said to them: I am king.
These are the four leaves, or verses, that he read first.
Lamentations (1:5), and Jehoiakim's Defiance: Destroying God's Name and Ignoring the Obligation to Mourn
When Jehoiakim heard the fifth verse of the book: “Her adversaries (צריה) have become the chief” (Lamentations 1:5), implying the king would be removed from power, he asked who made this statement.
Upon being told it was God, as indicated in the continuation of the verse, he responded by cutting (קדר) out all mentions6 of God’s name from the scroll and burning them.
The Talmud notes that the verse in Jeremiah 36:24 concludes the story with the fact that neither the king nor his servants ripped their garments, implying that they were technically obligated to do so (since they had witnessed the desecration of God’s names).
״היו צריה לראש״.
אמר להו: מאן אמרה?
״כי ה׳ הוגה על רוב פשעיה״.
מיד, קדר כל אזכרות שבה, ושרפן באש.
והיינו דכתיב:
״ולא פחדו,
ולא קרעו את בגדיהם״,
מכלל -- דבעו למיקרע.
They read him an additional verse: “Her adversaries have become the chief” (Lamentations 1:5), i.e., the reigning king will be removed from power.
Once he heard this, he said to them: Who said this?
They said to him: This is the continuation of the verse: “For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions” (Lamentations 1:5).
Immediately, he cut out all the names of God from the book and burned them in fire.
This is as it is written:
“Yet they were not afraid,
nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words” (Jeremiah 36:24).
By inference, this shows that they were required to rend their clothing when they saw this.
Appendix - The Nine Sacred Names of God That Must Not Be Erased and the Ten Divine Descriptives Permitted to Erase (Shevuot 35a)
See Wikipedia, “Names of God in Judaism”:
Judaism has different names given to God, which are considered sacred: יהוה (YHWH), אֲדֹנָי (Adonai transl. my Lord[s]), אֵל (El transl. God), אֱלֹהִים (Elohim transl. God[s]) שַׁדַּי (Shaddai transl. Almighty), and צְבָאוֹת (Tzevaoth transl. [Lord of] Hosts); some also include I Am that I Am.
Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely [...]
The names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton, Adonai, El, Elohim, Shaddai, Tzevaot; some also include I Am that I Am.
In addition, the name Jah […] is similarly protected.
The tanna Jose ben Halafta considered Tzevaot a common name in the second century and Rabbi Ishmael considered Elohim to be one.
All other names, such as "Merciful", "Gracious" and "Faithful", merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings [...]
The most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה, which is usually transliterated as YHWH. The Hebrew script is an abjad, and thus vowels are often omitted in writing. YHWH is usually expanded to Yahweh in English.
The baraita to be quoted below discusses the distinction between names of God that are considered too sacred to be erased (נמחקין) and those that can be erased.7
As described there, sacred names that must not be erased include variations of "Elohim" (El, Elohekha, Elohim, Eloheikhem),8 "I Am that I Am," "alef dalet (=Adonai)", "yod heh" (YHWH, i.e. the Tetragrammaton) "Shaddai," and "Tzevaot."
In contrast, descriptive adjectives referring to God, such as "the Great", "the Mighty," “the Awesome”,9 “gracious and compassionate," "slow to anger," “abounding in loving-kindness”10 are not considered inherently sacred and may be erased.
יש שמות שנמחקין, ויש שמות שאין נמחקין –
אלו הן שמות שאין נמחקין:
כגון
״אל״,
״אלהיך״,
״אלהים״,
״אלהיכם״,
״אהיה אשר אהיה״,
״אלף דלת״
ו״יוד הי״,
״שדי״,
״צבאות״ –
הרי אלו אין נמחקין.
אבל
״הגדול״,
״הגבור״,
״הנורא״,
״האדיר״
ו״החזק״
ו״האמיץ״,
״העזוז״,
״חנון ורחום״,
״ארך אפים״
ו״רב חסד״ –
הרי אלו נמחקין.
There are names of God that may be erased and there are names of God that may not be erased due to their inherent sanctity.
These are names that may not be erased:
For example:
El,
Elohekha with a second person singular suffix,
Elohim,
Eloheikhem with a second person plural suffix;
I Shall Be As I Shall Be,
alef dalet,
yod heh,
Almighty [Shaddai],
Lord of Hosts [Tzevaot],
these names may not be erased.
But adjectives that describe the Holy One, Blessed be He, e.g.,
the Great (גדול),
the Mighty (גבור),11
the Awesome (נורא),
the Prodigious (אדיר),12
the Powerful (חזק),
the Courageous (אמיץ),
the Strong (עזוז),
“gracious and compassionate” (חנון ורחום),
“slow to anger” (ארך אפים),
and “abounding in loving-kindness” (רב חסד);
these may be erased.
See my previous piece for another talmudic discussion of the biblical Jehoiakim’s wickedness and sins: “Pt2 Wicked Kings of Judah: Talmudic Insights into Idolatry and Atrocities by Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, and Jehoiakim (Sanhedrin 103b)“, these sections:
Jehoiakim’s Insolence Against God (Haggai 2:8; Psalms 115:16)
Jehoiakim's Tattooed Name of a Deity on His Penis: Either Name of a Pagan Deity, or of God (II Chronicles 36:8)
Known nowadays in English as “tearing keriya”. See Hebrew Wikipedia, “קריעה (אבלות)“, my translation:
Tearing a garment is an act that expresses a sign of mourning, which was customary in the ancient Near East and continues to be practiced in various cultures to this day.
The act of "tearing" (keriah) appears dozens of times in the Bible, often as an expression of mourning for the death of a close family member, and sometimes as a reaction to a shocking event.
In Jewish law, tearing a garment is performed as part of the laws of mourning (אבלות). One who has lost one of the seven close relatives (father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, or spouse) for whom one is obligated to observe the seven-day mourning period (shiva) is required to perform keriah.
Additionally, there are other situations in which tearing is required […]
Additional Tearings in Jewish Law
For Blasphemy
[…O]ne who hears a Jew utter blasphemy (euphemistically referred to as “blessing God” - ברכת השם) is required to tear their garment […]For Bad News
[…O]ne tears their garment upon hearing bad news (שמועות רעות), such as when the majority of the community has been called to war and they hear that they were defeated by their enemies, even if only a minority of them were killed [….]For a Torah Scroll
[…O]ne who sees a Torah scroll that has been burned, as well as tefillin or a single scroll from [the biblical sections] Prophets or Writings, must tear their garment twice—once for the parchment and once for the writing.However, this obligation applies specifically when the scroll was burned by force, as in the historical case of Jehoiakim burning a scroll (=our sugya).
See also Moed_Katan.26a.23 (cited there; this appears a few sections later in our sugya), which discusses the obligation to tear one's clothing upon witnessing three places in their ruined state (בחורבנן) — Judean cities (ערי יהודה), Jerusalem, and the Temple:
אמר רבי חלבו, אמר עולא ביראה, אמר רבי אלעזר:
הרואה ערי יהודה בחורבנן, אומר: ״ערי קדשך היו מדבר״, וקורע.
ירושלים בחורבנה, אומר: ״ציון מדבר היתה ירושלם שממה״, וקורע.
בית המקדש בחורבנו, אומר: ״בית קדשנו ותפארתנו, אשר הללוך אבותינו, היה לשריפת אש, וכל מחמדינו היה לחרבה״, וקורע.
R’ Ḥelbo said that Ulla Bira’a said that R’ Elazar said:
One who sees the cities of Judea in their desolation says: “Your sacred cities are become a wilderness” (Isaiah 64:9), and then rends his garments.
One who sees Jerusalem in its desolation says: “Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation” (Isaiah 64:9), and then rends his garments.
One who sees the Temple in its desolation says: “Our sacred and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste” (Isaiah 64:10), and then rends his garments.
Wikipedia: “one of the delegates the princes sent to fetch Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, to read his scroll”.
תער הסופר - literally: “razor of a scribe, a scribe’s razor”.
Regarding the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple.
See Wikipedia, “Book of Lamentations“:
The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew: אֵיכָה, ʾĒḵā, from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
In the Hebrew Bible, it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings") as one of the Five Megillot ("Five Scrolls") alongside the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and the Book of Esther (though there is no set order, per se).
In the Christian Old Testament, it follows the Book of Jeremiah as the prophet Jeremiah is traditionally understood to have been its author
אזכרות - a technical term, referring to names of God in the Bible. See the Appendix at the end of this piece.
See my piece cited in an earlier footnote. (“Pt2 Wicked Kings of Judah“), section “Religious Corruption: Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon,“ where an earlier Judean king—Manasseh—is said to have done this same thing: “excised the mentions [of God’s names]” (קדר את האזכרות).
See Wikipedia, ibid. (“Names of God in Judaism“), section “Erasing the name of God“:
3 And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. 4 Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.
— Deuteronomy 12:3–4
From this it is understood by the rabbis that one should not erase or blot out the name of God.
The general halachic opinion is that this only applies to the sacred Hebrew names of God, not to other euphemistic references
See also Hebrew Wikipedia, “מחיקת השם“.
As an aside, this name of God—El—is cognate with the Arabic name for God: Allah. See Wikipedia, Allah:
Allah […] is an Arabic word for God, particularly the God of Abraham.
Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), although the term was used in pre-Islamic Arabia and continues to be used today by Arabic-speaking adherents of any of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism and Christianity.
It is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh (الاله, lit. 'the god') and is linguistically related to God's names in other Semitic languages, such as Aramaic (ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ ʼAlāhā) and Hebrew (אֱלוֹהַּ ʾĔlōah) […]
The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists. Most consider it to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the deity, the God" […]
The use of Allah as the name of a deity appears as early as the first century […]
Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.
The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼElāh (אלה), but its emphatic state is ʼElāhā (אלהא). It is written as ܐܠܗܐ (ʼĔlāhā) in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlāhā) in Syriac, both meaning simply "God".
The unusual Syriac form is likely an imitation of the Arabic.
Based on the verse in Deuteronomy.10.17:
כי יהוה אלהיכם הוא אלהי האלהים, ואדני האדנים
האל הגדל, הגבר, והנורא
For your God YHWH is God supreme and Lord supreme,
the great, the mighty, and the awesome God
These adjectives for God appear in Exodus 34:6. This verse is the first half of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which is a cornerstone of rabbinic theology and liturgy. See Wikipedia, “Thirteen Attributes of Mercy“ (with slight adjustments):
The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (י״ג מִידּוֹת) or Shelosh-'Esreh Middot HaRakhamim (transliterated from the Hebrew: שְׁלוֹשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵה מִדּוֹת הַרַחֲמִים) as enumerated in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 34:6–7) in Parasha Ki Tissa […]
The thirteen attributes are alluded to a number of other times in the Bible. Verses where God is described using all or some of the attributes include Numbers 14:18, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Micah 7:18, Nahum 1:3, Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8, and Nehemiah 9:17 […]
The number thirteen is adopted from Talmudic and rabbinic tradition. There are divergent opinions as to the correct division of the Biblical words between attributes […]
The single attributes are contained in the verses as follows:
יְהוָה YHWH
יְהוָה YHWH
אֵל El
רַחוּם Raḥum: merciful
וְחַנּוּן Ḥanun: gracious
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם Erekh appayim: slow to anger
וְרַב-חֶסֶד Rav ḥesed: plenteous in kindness […]
See Wikipedia ibid. (“Names of God in Judaism“), section “Uncommon or esoteric names“:
El ha-Gibbor – 'God the Hero', 'God the Strong' or 'God the Warrior'.
[Compare] Allah jabbar […] in Arabic [which] means "God is formidable and invincible"
Many of these adjectives are used in the hymn Adir Hu (Wikipedia, with adjustments):
Adir Hu (English: Mighty is He, Hebrew אדיר הוּא) is a hymn sung by Ashkenazi Jews worldwide at the Passover Seder.
It switches rapidly between saying the virtues of God in an alphabetal acrostic (Aleph, Bet, Gimel,...), and expressing hope that God will "rebuild the Holy Temple speedily."
Most of the virtues of God are adjectives (for instance, “Holy (Kadosh) is he”); however, a few are nouns […]
Adir hu (He is mighty) […]
gadol hu (He is great) […]
nora hu (He is awesome) […]
izuz hu (He is all-powerful) […]
rachum hu (He is compassionate) […]
shaddai hu (He is shaddai)
See Wikipedia ibid. (“Names of God in Judaism“), section “Uncommon or esoteric names“:
Adir – 'Great One