The Three Haftarahs of the Three Weeks Part II

Who Was Yirmiyahu?
Haftarah: Yirmiyahu 1:1–2:3.

Yirmiyahu’s life points out the Malbim, encompassed the reigns of three kings, which descended from the heights of godliness to the depths of impiety.

King Yoshiyahu was a tzaddik, as was his generation. His successor Yehoyakim was very different, yet his generation nonetheless retained their righteousness. By the time King Tzidkiyahu ruled, the people had turned their backs on Hashem, despite the fact that Tzidkiyahu himself was a tzaddik.

Yirmiyahu entered the world as a blessed child. His father was the Kohen Gadol and the son of Shafan, who had found the sefer torah written by Moshe Rabbeinu in its hiding place in the Beis Hamikdash. It was open to the words, “Hashem will lead you and your king” into exile. Yirmiyahu’s birthplace, Anasos, was far enough from Yerushalayim to make it possible to see objectively the events taking place in Yerushalayim, as you can when you are not part of the action.

Unlike so many Neviim, Yirmiyahu did not consciously seek out this level of intensity in his relationship with Hashem. His inherent gifts drew him close, and when his moment came, he was ready. For him, it was far more a case of Hashem choosing Yirmiyahu’s role rather than him choosing the life of a prophet. The times demanded it, so he was chosen. He didn’t feel ready; he thought his youth would bring his credibility into question, but Hashem assured him that it would be clear to all that Hashem was the One Who sent him on a mission in which the prophecy seen by his grandfather would come into horrifying reality.

What Was His Message?

Although he was sent despite his protest, much as Moshe Rabbeinu was, and his career as a prophet, like Moshe’s lasted 40 years, Moshe was given a mission of hope, redemption and miracles, while Yirmiyahu’s mission was to tell the people of destruction.

Hashem sent him to tell the people there would be destruction on a scale such as they had never known, but it would be the kind of destruction that cleared the way for rebuilding in ways that also could not have been imagined.  The spectrum of destruction (of both the Jews and the surrounding nations) would overwhelm them. Yirmiyahu dreaded the collective retreat into denial that would inevitably result from his unceasing attempts to save them by forcing them to face the future tragedies that their very denial would bring in its wake. Hashem spared him nothing; He told Yirmiyahu that he would have to face battles, but that he would prevail, and told him to be [like] a fortified city, an iron pillar, a copper wall.

People in his time were not ignorant; they had all learned enough Torah to know Hashem promises that your choices will have consequences. Yet it always seems like there will be time enough for payback tomorrow.

Yirmiyahu saw a dried-out branch of an almond tree. Its blossoms give way to fruit in only 21 days, hinting at the fact that from the time when the walls of Yerushalayim were breached until the Destruction were breached until the Destruction would be less than a month.

He then experienced a second vision, in which he saw a pot facing north boil over, and he understood immediately that the Babylonians who were at the northern border would begin the Destruction. In sefer Yechezkel (11:3) the Jews related to their political reality using a pot as a metaphor. They said the same way a pot protects ints contents from the fire, Yerushalayim was impregnable and its inhabitants would be safe. Yirmiyahu saw something different; the pot he saw had no lid – that is, the Jews had no relationship with Hashem Who was their protection from Above. The water in the pot would therefore boil away and disappear … but not really …

What Does This Mean For You?

THe haftarah concludes by telling you there is always hope. Hashem sees the present for what it is, but He simultaneously sees the past. Yirmiyahu was told to go to Yerushalayim and tell them if they were willing to return to Hashem, in spite of the fact that their sins were real and had done profound damage, He would be ready to forgive them. Hashem can look at you and no matter where you are holding today, He sees tour ancestors still alive within you. He recalls how they received the Torah, how they were like a bride going out to greet her groom on the day of their marriage.

Although time and place are what define physical reality, this prophecy is eternal. We are very sanguine about both our spiritual reality and our security.

Today’s exile is one in which you can easily forget that there is more to life than observing the mitzvah in a consumer society, while simultaneously allowing the minds and hearts of the society around you to invade your mind and your heart.

Are your struggles really so different from the struggles of your contemporaries? Is your sense of achievement compromised by living in a materialistic society? Do you still remember what it would feel like to follow Hashem out into the desert? Maharal says (introduction to Gevuros Hashem) that you can’t know who you are until you face up to who you are not, and who you don’t want to be. Hashem still knows who you can be. Do you?

In the Beis Hamikdash (and the Mishkan), the shulchan (table) was on the northern side of the sanctuary. The word for north in Hebrew is tzafon, which also means “concealed.” The table was the symbol of material prosperity. It is the place where Hashem’s presence is most hidden.

In one of Rebbe Nachman’s tales, the King’s Daughter (the Shechinah) is told, “let the evil one take you,” and is sent out of the palace. The Viceroy (symbolising every one of us, members of the people who are chosen to serve Him) searches for Her ceaselessly. After many adventures (each of which has profound symbolic meaning), he finds her in a palace of unsurpassed beauty. He asks her why she is there, and she answers, “This is the palace of evil.”

The material world is the one in which we can discover ourselves by searching for the Lost Princess in the midst of its beauty. The beauty itself is not evil; it becomes a place of evil when you let it conceal Her presence.

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The above was written by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller on the Haftarah Yirmiyahu 1:1–2:3
as it appeared in Hamodia’s INYAN Magazine. Tziporahheller.com