Perek Yomi - The Twelve Prophets
General Introduction
The Book of Ezekiel, the last of the three major Prophets, is followed by a collection of works which tradition calls Trey Asar, an Aramaic-Hebrew combination meaning "Twelve". (A totally Hebrew designation would be Shneym Asar.) This grouping is sometimes referred to as "The Twelve Minor Prophets", implying that they are somehow less important than the Major Prophets. Quite the contary, some of the most exalted ideals of Judaism and the Western world emanate from this group, e.g., social justice (Amos), forgiveness (Hosea) and God's compassion for all people (Jonah) .The designation, "minor" was intended to refer to the brevity of these books in comparison with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. It is preferable, therefore, to avoid the use of a modifier in connection with the title "The Twelve Prophets".
The order of the books is partially chronological, i.e., the earliest books are those of the earliest Prophets and date back to the Eighth Century B.C.E., while the last three books are post-Exilic and date to the Sixth and early Fifth Centuries, B.C.E. Some scholars assign to a portion of Zechariah a date as late as the Second Century. The books in the middle of the group are not arranged in a clear chronological order, possibly because the dates of those Prophets were not known when the Bible was canonized. There is still some uncertainty about the dating of a number of the Prophets because we have very little biographical information about them.
Another interesting feature of the order of the books is that, except for the last three which were written after the return from the Babylonian Exile, they alternate according to the locale of each of the Prophets, first Israel, then Judah.
Tradition counts a total of 24 books in the Tanakh and regards Trey Asar as a single unit. The Talmud (Bava Batra, 14b) informs us that this was done because some of the books are so small that there was a danger that they might be lost. We are thankful that all of them have been preserved and that we are able to draw inspiration from each.
