Sefer Hoshea; Perakim 7-12 I have to admit that these perakim were rather enigmatic and cryptic, though they were rather short. Perek Summaries Perek 7: The falseness of Ephraim and their unfaithfulness to HaShem. Perek 8: Ephraim looks to create allies instead of turning to HaShem in repentance. Perek 9: Ephraim’s future galus. False prophets are slammed, and a brief history of Bnei Yisrael’s unfaithfulness is given (even in times of the desert.) Perek 10: Bnei Yisrael are compared to a vine, its disloyalty to HaShem is enumerated. Perek 11: HaShem’s love for Bnei Yisrael, as demonstrated by His abundant kindness towards them (from Yetzias Mitzrayim even). But Ephraim spurns such kindness. Perek 12: Yehudah was initially more loyal to HaShem than Ephraim. DVAR TORAH: In perakim 9 and 11, we are given a glimpse of Bnei Yisrael’s disloyalty to HaShem in the past, with specific reference to idol worship in the desert and in Egypt. (For a fuller description, see Yechezkal perek 20). We’ll deal with an important issue on a basic level, and in a shorthand way… How could Bnei Yisrael have sinned in the desert. After all, HaShem’s Presence surrounded them and this conscious recognition of HaShem should have obviated any sin. Put differently: the root of all sin is a lack of emunah; if one’s emunah is 1000% strong, one will not sin, for one has a conscious knowledge of what one is expected to do by HaShem. If so, how could Bnei Yisrael in the desert have any gap in emunah which would allow for sin? We’ll answer this question with another question… Rashi (Bereishis 7:7) tells us that, despite having been told of the impending flood by HaShem, Noach waited for the rain to come down before entering the ark. Why? For, as Rashi says, Noach did not have complete emunah. What?!?!? Noach was told by HaShem Himself of the flood; how could he not have emunah in HaShem if he had had contact with HaShem firsthand? The Steipler (Birkas Peretz parshas Noach) explains what is going on here. There are two types of emunah; intellectual emunah and conscious emunah. Intellectual emunah is when one knows something is true, whilst conscious emunah is a step further; it is when one has internalised this knowledge and have made it a part of you. For example, one can know intellectually that smoking is dangerous, but some people still smoke; they have intellectual knowledge of the dangers but they have not internalised it yet. So too, with Noach; of course he had an intellectual recognition of HaShem; He had spoken to Noach! But Noach had not fully internalised this to make the emunah permanent and a real part of himself. So too is the case with klal yisrael in the desert. Any Jew who sinned at that time could only find room to do so because he had a certain lack of conscious emunah. There is a lot more to say, and many more branches to this principle (let me know and I can send you the full 2 ½ page article on this), but these are the foundations of it.
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