Introduction
In this part of Chapter 6, we arrive at one of the most piercing and well-known rebukes in the Book of Yirmiyahu. The prophet lays out two paths before the people, asking them to pause for a moment and examine, using their intellect and the tradition of their ancestors, where the main highway of truth lies. The response he receives is one of outright refusal: "We will not go." When the appeal to reason fails, the Holy One, Blessed be He, attempts to awaken them through fear and warning, yet to this too they answer, "We will not listen." From this point onward comes the proclamation of impending doom, of the testimony the earth will bear against them, and of the rejection of the new rituals they fabricated for themselves. Let us proceed through the verses in order.
"Stand Upon the Ways and See" - Two Paths Before You
כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה עִמְדוּ עַל דְּרָכִים וּרְאוּ וְשַׁאֲלוּ לִנְתִבוֹת עוֹלָם אֵי זֶה דֶרֶךְ הַטּוֹב וּלְכוּ בָהּ וּמִצְאוּ מַרְגּוֹעַ לְנַפְשְׁכֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֹא נֵלֵךְ׃ (טז) - Thus says Hashem: Stand upon the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls; but they said: We will not walk [in it]. (16)
In the Yemenite tradition, these next two verses, 16-17, are customarily read in the haftarah of Tisha B'Av as the opening to "Asof Asifem."
Radak explains: "Stand upon the ways" - examine in your minds the good path and the evil path. There are two paths, and you must determine which is the right one. "And see" - weigh it with your understanding. This is precisely what Eliyahu HaNavi said to the worshippers of the Baal: "How long will you halt between two opinions? If Hashem is God, follow Him; and if the Baal, follow him." Here you have two views before you: the true prophets say, accept chastisement and repent from your evil ways, and thereby you will be saved and not delivered into the hands of the enemy. The false prophets say the opposite - what you are doing is fine, do not worry, "Peace, peace," nothing will happen, do not depart from your way, and everything the true prophets say is nothing more than fearmongering. You stand at a fork in the road and do not know which is the correct path; the prophet tells them: Stand and see.
"And ask for the ancient paths" - examine with your intellect, and also ask about the paths of old, the well-trodden ways of antiquity. Ask past generations and look at history: it was always good for those who held fast to the path of truth, and bad for those who followed the path of the prophets of Baal. You can resolve the question from either of these two angles: either through reason - is the way of the false prophets, of robbing, extorting, despoiling, and murdering, truly the right path? And if reason is not enough for you, look historically - those who walked the path you are walking, do they still exist? Did they survive? In truth, only those who walked in the way of Hashem remained. "And find rest for your souls" - through this you will find peace of mind, and you will be able to determine the right path. Yet the prophet concludes with pain: I tell them all this, "but they said: We will not go." They simply do not want to. There is no one to talk to.
The Malbim: The Lost Traveler Who Invents New Trails
The Malbim illustrates this with a parable of a person who has lost his way, wandering off to the side of the road, puzzled and searching for the right direction. Passersby say to him: What are you looking for? When you stood upon the road you saw it, for it is obvious to all, so why did you veer off to the side? And if you are still unsure - ask the wayfarers, and they will direct you to the main road and tell you which path you ought to travel.
So it is in the nimshal: the Jewish people strayed from the way of Hashem. Seeking the path to fulfillment, they fabricate new commandments that Hashem never commanded. As was said of Yarov'am, "the festival which he made in the eighth month, in the month which he devised of his own heart" - ostensibly seeking the way of Hashem, wanting to serve Hashem, he establishes a new festival; the festivals written in the Torah are not enough for him. The prophet says to them: Why are you searching for a way? The only reason you seek new ways is because you departed from the straight path. Had you walked upon the paved road, you would have had no problem at all, but you turned aside from the path of your forefathers, and for that reason you invent new trails for yourself. "Stand upon the ways" - you have a Torah; take the Sefer Torah and see in it the way of Hashem in which your ancestors walked. And if you do not know and are unfamiliar with the Torah of Hashem - "ask for the ancient paths," ask the prophets, consult the sages to learn the way you should walk, and thereby "find rest for your souls": as long as you are searching for new mitzvos and novelties, you have no peace, but once you know the correct path you are at ease, knowing that you are walking properly. "But they said: We will not walk" - they seek a new way not because they failed to find the right one, for had that been so, they would have asked and found guides; rather, from the very outset they did not want to walk in the way of Hashem, having despised it.
Derech and Nativ: Seeing and Asking
The Malbim examines the precise wording: here we have derachim (ways) and netivos (paths), and we have "see" alongside "ask." Regarding derachim it says to see, while regarding netivos it says to ask. What is the difference? As we have seen in several places, the Malbim explains that a derech is a public road, whereas a nativ is a private lane paved for an individual. To use a parable: a main highway from which a side lane branches off leading to a private estate; the side lane is a nativ, while the highway is a derech. The public road is trodden by all and readily visible, which is why it says of it, "and see" - it is prominent and obvious to the eye. Paths (netivos), by contrast, are not known to everyone; they might not even appear on a map, being a narrow passage leading to a private place. Therefore, it says, "and ask" - here one requires inquiry, investigation, and clarification.
And what do these words refer to? The core fundamentals and roots of the Torah are well known and public knowledge; therefore, concerning these it says, "Stand by the roads and look" - they can be seen like a path known to all. But the specific details of the Torah require deep study and great contemplation; they are not obvious to everyone, and one must ask the wise and understanding about them. Regarding this it is said, "and ask for the ancient paths." "Stand and look" refers to rational intellect, while "ask" refers to those matters received through tradition - from the ancients, from the prophets, from the transmitters of the mesorah from generation to generation. "Ask your father and he will tell you": what we have received from the earlier generations, and accordingly how to act and upon what to base our lives. Yet "they said, 'We will not walk'" - from the outset they are simply not interested, and the prophet says: I have nothing left to say to them.
"And I Set Watchmen Over You" - When Logic Does Not Help
וַהֲקִמֹתִי עֲלֵיכֶם צֹפִים הַקְשִׁיבוּ לְקוֹל שׁוֹפָר וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֹא נַקְשִׁיב׃ (יז) - "And I set watchmen over you: 'Pay attention to the sound of the shofar!' But they said, 'We will not pay attention.'" (17)
Once the Holy One, Blessed be He, sees that they do not wish to repent out of inner awakening, after He has appealed to their intellect and spoken to them with reason - stand, contemplate, see that the path you are walking is mistaken, investigate and examine - and they reply, "We will not walk," the Holy One, Blessed be He, says: In any case, I want to bring you back to Me, and if not willingly, then with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and poured-out fury. Why? Because abandoning the Holy One, Blessed be He, is impossible. This match is an inseparable union. The Holy One, Blessed be He, swore to the Jewish people that they will never perish and that He will never disconnect from them; therefore, when the Jewish people disconnect, they must be brought back. For if not, the Christians would come and say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, rejected them, abandoned them, and took another nation for Himself. And how do we know this is not so? From the promises: "Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I loathe them to destroy them, to break My covenant with them," and the Holy One, Blessed be He, swore by His great Name that only if heaven and earth cease to exist could the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before Him for all time. There are promises that the Jewish people will endure forever. If so, the Holy One, Blessed be He, says: it should ideally happen pleasantly, but if not, "with poured-out fury I will rule over you"; if you will not accept it willingly, it will come through punishments.
Therefore, "And I set watchmen over you." What is a watchman? As it is written, "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel." Sentries were stationed on the wall to look far into the distance to see if an enemy was approaching. In those days there were no radars or long-range optical devices, so a watchman had to stand alert and ready to spot an advancing enemy. And when the enemy approaches: "Pay attention to the sound of the shofar." The watchman cries out: Gentlemen, listen, I am sounding the shofar to announce that trouble is near! Furthermore: notice that the enemy himself blows the horn and advances for war. When enemies went out to battle, they would blast trumpets and blow horns to encourage themselves, and Chazal note that they would scream shrieks and bang shields, cymbals, and all sorts of instruments to make noise and strike terror into the opposing nation. The prophet says to them: Do you not hear the sound of the enemy's horn advancing against you? The enemy is sounding the war blast! At least out of fear of punishment you should have already repented and awakened. "But they said, 'We will not pay attention'" - here too, there is no one to talk to; they do not even want to hear the reverberating horn blast of the enemy advancing against them.
The Malbim adds: "And I set watchmen over you" is an allegory, but an allegory that corresponds remarkably to its underlying reality. Just as a watchman stands on the wall to herald the enemy's approach, so too the prophets are called watchmen - "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel," and "The letters Mantzepach were instituted by watchmen (prophets)." The Holy One, Blessed be He, says: Behold, I have stationed prophets over you, and the prophets tell you to heed the sound of the shofar, that tragedy is imminent - yet even to this they refuse to listen.
"And Know, O Congregation" - Testimony That the Warning Was Given
לָכֵן שִׁמְעוּ הַגּוֹיִם וּדְעִי עֵדָה אֶת אֲשֶׁר בָּם׃ (יח) - "Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, that which is against them." (18)
"Therefore hear, O nations" - you, the nations whom Hashem appoints to chastise the Jewish people. "And know, O congregation" - the Malbim explains eidah from the language of forewarning and testimony, as in "I testify against you today." That is to say: Know that I warned them and testified before them, yet they were unwilling to heed that warning; consequently, the blows they will suffer are rightfully deserved. They earned them fairly, for I warned them and they would not listen.
The Malbim notes with precision: The word eidah serves here in two directions, both with what precedes it and with what follows it, as if it were written twice - "and know, eidah," referring to warning, as in "The man solemnly warned us," and also "an eidah that is against them," meaning know the testimony that I testified against them. Another possibility: in the following verse, the Holy One, Blessed be He, says, "Hear, O earth," and thus He calls heaven and earth to testify against them; the earth itself will be a witness (eidah) against them, testifying, as it were, that I warned them.
"Hear, O Earth" - Why Specifically the Earth Testifies
שִׁמְעִי הָאָרֶץ הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מֵבִיא רָעָה אֶל הָעָם הַזֶּה פְּרִי מַחְשְׁבוֹתָם כִּי עַל דְּבָרַי לֹא הִקְשִׁיבוּ וְתוֹרָתִי וַיִּמְאֲסוּ בָהּ׃ (יט) - "Hear, O earth: Behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they did not pay attention to My words, and they rejected My Torah." (19)
The earth is the witness between Me and them. Radak asks: Why is the earth mentioned and not the heavens? After all, it is written, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day," and we see that the heavens are also witnesses, yet here He summons only the earth to testify! The answer is that the land will be desolate because of their iniquities, as stated numerous times, and therefore it is the most powerful witness here. Had they remained in the land and the only change was that rain did not fall, there would be room to say that heaven should bear witness; but here the decree is that they will be exiled from here. If so, what will be the standing, silent testimony that I warned them? The land. When people see the land desolate - that is testimony that a warning had been issued here. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, enlists the earth to testify against them.
"The Fruit of Their Thoughts" - What Exactly Is the Punishment For?
Radak explains: He does not punish them for thought alone, but for the actions that are the fruit of their thoughts. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not punish for mere thought, as we will soon see. If so, why does He punish here? Because the punishment is not for their "thoughts," but for "the fruit of their thoughts": the thought is the tree, and that which emerges from it - the action - is the fruit. Thus, the punishment is for the result, for the deed that is the fruit of the thought. They imagine that I do not see their deeds, and therefore follow the desires of their heart; so the Holy One, blessed be He, says: for these consequences I will punish them.
Radak cites another explanation in the name of his father: "The fruit of their thoughts" refers to thoughts that a person conceived but did not have the opportunity to execute, and was ultimately prevented by circumstances from doing them - about these it says "the fruit of their thoughts." But if he had the opportunity to act and refrained from doing so out of fear of Heaven and meticulous observance of mitzvos, such thoughts are not joined to action. That is to say: if one planned to commit a sin and was prevented by circumstance, he will be held accountable for that intention; but if one intended to commit a sin and refrained out of fear of Heaven, he will not be held accountable. We must examine how well this aligns with the words of Chazal.
And the reason for all of this: "Because they have not listened to My words, and as for My Torah, they rejected it." As we have seen, they did not listen to the Torah, nor did they heed the words of the prophets who rebuked them; moreover, they despised the Torah itself. This is similar to what we saw in the days of Yoshiyahu: when Chilkiyahu found the Sefer Torah and read from it, it was seen as a novelty, for many had already rejected the Sefer Torah and estranged themselves from what was written in it.
The Malbim explains: The evil that I am about to bring upon them is "the fruit of their thoughts," the direct consequence and fruit of their thoughts - for they entertained heretical and apostate thoughts. "They have not listened to My words" refers to the words of the prophets; "and as for My Torah" refers to the words of the Torah. Not only that, but in their hearts they despised it - "they rejected it" - and for this very thought I also hold them accountable. Because of this, the calamity will come upon them.
The Gemara in Kiddushin: Good Thoughts and Bad Thoughts
The Gemara in Masechet Kiddushin (40a) states: A good intention the Holy One, blessed be He, joins to deed, as it says, "Then those who fear the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and meditate upon His name." What is meant by "and meditate upon His name"? Rav Assi said: Even if a person intended to perform a mitzvah and was prevented by circumstances beyond his control and did not perform it, Scripture considers it as if he had performed it. But an evil intention the Holy One, blessed be He, does not join to deed, as it says, "If I saw iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear" - as it were, He makes Himself as though He does not hear, and does not count it as a sin at all.
The Gemara challenges this: If so, how do I uphold the verse, "Behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts"? For our verse explicitly indicates that there is punishment for thought itself! The Gemara answers: A thought that produces fruit, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins to deed; a thought that does not produce fruit, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not join to deed. A thought that leads to consequences and bears fruit is joined to deed; but a thought that bore no fruit is not punished.
The Gemara further challenges: But what about that which is written, "In order to seize the House of Israel by their heart" - with no fruit at all, only in their heart, for the mere thought of the heart? Rav Acha bar Yaakov said: That is written concerning idol worship, for the Master said that idolatry is so grave that whoever renounces it is as one who affirms the entire Torah. We find, then, that there are two sins for which a person is held liable for mere thought. One is idolatry, where the mere thought of idol worship incurs punishment; the reason is simple: the very thought of idolatry is heresy, it is itself the sin. The second is immoral thoughts, and here too, because he strays after his heart after promiscuity, and the thought itself is a transgression. Beyond these two, if a person merely planned to commit a sin and did not do it, he is not punished.
If so, how could Radak state in the name of his father that for thoughts one was prevented by circumstance from acting upon, one is punished? After all, we saw that one who had an evil thought and was prevented by circumstance from committing the act is not punished! This can be explained in two ways. First: here we are dealing with people who worshiped idols, and in idolatry one is held accountable even for thought alone. Second: here it speaks of a person who has become accustomed to the sin. For it is written that once a person repeatedly commits a sin, it becomes permissible in his eyes; and if on one occasion he intended to sin and was prevented by circumstance, he is punished as though he had committed it. This is like a thief who steals every day of his life, and today he set out to steal, but by chance the police showed up; he did not steal today, yet we do not say of him, "He turned out to be a righteous man today!" Rather, he is punished as though he stole, for this is his habitual way, and we count it for him as though he performed it in practice. Thus we can also explain here: when Radak's father says that even though they were prevented by circumstance from acting they will be held liable, it is because they were already habitual in the sin, and in such a state, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins the thought and considers it as an action.
"To What Purpose Is Frankincense to Me from Sheba" - New Mitzvos That I Never Commanded
לָמָּה זֶּה לִי לְבוֹנָה מִשְּׁבָא תָבוֹא וְקָנֶה הַטּוֹב מֵאֶרֶץ מֶרְחָק עֹלוֹתֵיכֶם לֹא לְרָצוֹן וְזִבְחֵיכֶם לֹא עָרְבוּ לִי׃ (כ) - "To what purpose is frankincense that comes to Me from Sheba, and sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to Me." (20)
Frankincense and sweet cane are types of fragrances burned as incense, designated for the Ketoret. Radak explains that these spices were not found in the Land of Israel, whereas the other ingredients were readily available there, yet the people went to great lengths to bring them from a far-off land in order to burn them before Hashem. Furthermore, the incense served to render the sacrifice acceptable. The Holy One, Blessed is He, says: If the sacrifice itself finds no favor in My eyes, why do you trouble yourselves to bring Me incense spices whose entire purpose is to make it acceptable?
The Malbim explains that the grievance against them is: Once you despise the words of the Torah and its mitzvot, why do you bring frankincense from Sheba? You bring frankincense to offer before Me in the manner they burn it in Sheba, and you bring sweet cane from a distant land in the manner they offer it to idols in that distant land. The Holy One, Blessed is He, says: These are newly invented rituals that I never requested from your hand! And He adds: "Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to Me" - even what you offer according to My commandment is not acceptable, how much more so the things I never commanded! If so, why do I need any of this?
This section, the Malbim notes, corresponds to the nimshal of "Stand at the crossroads." After all, the chapter opened with the fact that you lost the right path, and this straying expresses itself in seeking out new rituals and inventing practices that Hashem never commanded. The heretics wished to assimilate and resemble the nations, and so they invented new practices of frankincense from Sheba and sweet cane from a distant land, devising forms of worship based on what they observed being done there.
"This Is Their Way, Their Folly" - Imitating the Nations in Every Generation
This is always the pattern of those who spurn Hashem's commandments: they import imitations from the gentiles and attempt to foist them upon us. Was this not precisely what happened in Europe with the various reformers and all the "neo" movements? What did they do? They began mimicking the churches. They introduced a choir into the synagogue, and next came the organ and various musical instruments - why should only the gentiles have it, it would be nice if we had it too! They even dressed the chazzanim in priestly vestments; anyone who examines the halachic responsa of the era will find questions addressed to the poskim as to whether one may pray in a synagogue where the cantor dresses like a priest. Whatever we have is considered not good enough, insufficient, or unfashionable - so one must copy whatever the gentile does. There is a kind of spinelessness here, an attitude that whatever was given to us originally by the Holy One, Blessed is He, is never quite good enough, whereas whatever the gentile does is always superior.
Once, one of these reformers asked a rabbi: "Honored Rabbi, why did Yosef have to circumcise all of Egypt? What is gained by circumcising a gentile? It is like giving a brit milah to one's dog; does it make the gentile holier, purer? What purpose does it serve?" The rabbi replied: "Let me explain. In his great wisdom, Yosef foresaw that there would always be individuals among the Jewish people who, in future generations, would sink so low that milah would become repulsive in their eyes - 'To circumcise a child? To perform surgery on him against his will? To alter his body?' Yosef said: 'I know their nature. If a gentile does something, they will do it; but if gentiles do not do it, it no longer suits them and is deemed not progressive enough.' Yosef therefore went and circumcised the Egyptians, saying: 'Now you, too, can circumcise, for gentiles circumcise as well.' If gentiles circumcise, it is acceptable; if the British royal family circumcises, fine, then I will circumcise too. But if it is something only Jews do - whatever is exclusively Jewish is never good enough in their eyes."
And so you went and invented new rituals and practices modeled after the ways of the nations, imagining that such things would find favor before Hashem.
"Not Acceptable" and "Not Pleasing to Me" - A Nuance in the Malbim
The Malbim analyzes the precise phrasing of the two expressions at the end of the verse: "Your burnt offerings are not acceptable" versus "nor are your sacrifices pleasing to Me." What is the distinction? An olah (burnt offering) is brought to appease and atone for improper thoughts, as it says, "And that which enters your mind shall not come to pass," and the Gemara teaches that the olah corresponds to sinful thoughts of the heart. It is likewise brought to atone for neglected positive commandments - whereas we have other offerings for negative commandments, the olah atones for positive ones. Therefore, regarding the olah, it says "not acceptable" (le-ratzon), because the function of an olah is appeasement (ritzui), and the Holy One, Blessed is He, says that it does not appease Him. By contrast, the sacrifices (zevachim), whose primary purpose is atonement rather than appeasement, are addressed with: "nor are your sacrifices pleasing to Me" - they offer no sweetness or delight to Me whatsoever.
In Summary:
The prophet places the people at a crossroads and asks a simple thing of them: halt, reflect, and examine with intellect and tradition where the path of truth lies - "Stand at the crossroads and see," referring to the fundamental principles of the Torah that are evident to all; "and ask for the ancient paths," referring to its deeper nuances that require consulting the Sages. Whoever walks along the paved path finds rest for his soul, whereas whoever turns aside from it invents new rituals in imitation of the nations and finds no rest. When the people reply, "We will not go," the Holy One, Blessed is He, tries the path of warning and watchmen, yet to this too they answer, "We will not listen." He therefore calls the earth as a witness against them, leaving it desolate as an eternal testament to the warning that was given, and brings upon them calamity that is "the fruit of their thoughts" - not for the mere thought alone, but for the thought that bore fruit and translated into action, and in cases of idolatry and immorality, even for the thought itself. Ultimately, even the incense, burnt offerings, and sacrifices they fetch from a distant land find no favor, for worship that lacks obedience to the word of Hashem is no worship at all.