Chapter 32 in Yirmiyahu is the chapter of "the purchase of the field": at the height of the siege, while Yirmiyahu is imprisoned in the court of the guard, the Holy One, Blessed be He, commands him to buy the field of Chanamel in Anatot, executing the purchase with a deed, signatures, and witnesses. From this astonishment bursts forth Yirmiyahu's great prayer, in which he enumerates the three modes of governance by which the Holy One, Blessed be He, directs His world. Following this comes Hashem's response, encompassing both the rebuke of destruction and the promise of redemption. We will focus here on the verses from verse 17 through the end of the chapter.
The First Mode of Governance: The Creation of the World and Its Sustenance
אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה, הִנֵּה אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ בְּכֹחֲךָ הַגָּדוֹל וּבִזְרֹעֲךָ הַנְּטוּיָה, לֹא יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ כָּל דָּבָר. (יז) - Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm; nothing is too wondrous for You. (17)
The Malbim explains that in the following three verses, Yirmiyahu enumerates three modes of governance through which the Holy One, Blessed be He, directs the world. The first is the governance manifest at the time of Creation: "Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth" - the Creator made the world and established within it fixed, immutable laws of nature. "By Your great power" - the very creation of the universe ex nihilo (yesh me'ayin) is an immense and formidable display of power. "And by Your outstretched arm" - an outstretched arm is an arm continuously extended, which refers to continuity: the perpetual sustenance of the world at every single moment through His blessed will.
Here we must understand a fundamental principle: by what power does the world continue to exist? Not through the inertia of the initial Creation, but rather because the Holy One, Blessed be He, revitalizes all the worlds at every single moment. If the Creator were to withdraw His will from the universe for a single second, it would instantly revert to chaos and void (tohu vavohu). Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin elaborates on this at the beginning of Sefer Nefesh HaChayim, in the first chapter, explaining that the world is sustained every second by His blessed will - "Who in His goodness renews each day continuously the work of Creation"; not merely every day, but continuously, every second. This is not like a building that a builder constructs and then walks away while the building remains standing by virtue of the initial construction. Rather, it is like someone holding up a ceiling with his hands: the moment he tires and lowers his hands, the ceiling collapses. In this manner, as it were, Hashem holds up the world and sustains it at every moment.
In the past, this was difficult to grasp, for a person sees a solid, stable world, so how could it possibly revert to nothingness? Yet today, when we know that everything in the world is composed of atoms, this is much easier to understand. How do we perceive matter? In truth, the physical presence of matter is not so solid: electrons revolve around the atomic nucleus, and it is this rapid motion that creates the sensation of a solid, stable body. It is like a spinning fan: as long as it moves, it appears to be a single, solid disc, and only when it stops do you see that there are merely four blades. Scientists note that if the Eiffel Tower were compressed so that only its atomic nuclei remained without the empty space, it would fit entirely inside a matchbox. The entire net matter is no larger than a matchbox; all the rest is that continuous movement. The word "atom" itself means indivisible in Greek - the inner core that cannot be divided, and when it is split, immense energy is released, which is the principle behind the atomic bomb.
It follows, therefore, that if the Creator were to decide that the electrons should cease moving for a single instant, the entire universe would collapse in a fraction of a second. His blessed will is, as it were, the engine that was activated, and He is the life-force. This is what the classical works mean when they write that within every physical object there is an "active soul" (nefesh po'elet). Two or three centuries ago, people read these words and wondered: what active soul could there be in a cup, in inanimate matter? Even the Rambam writes that the celestial spheres possess an active soul. However, the root meaning of "nefesh" implies movement and oscillation - something that possesses a nefesh possesses motion. Even the human nefesh, what is it fundamentally? It is that which enables bodily motion and the flow of blood, "for the blood is the nefesh"; the higher spiritual levels above it are lofty attainments, but the basic concept itself is the force that enables motion. That active soul within every physical thing is nothing other than its atoms. A mere withdrawal of His blessed will for a single second, and the world reverts to chaos and void.
From this, the conclusion of the verse is also illuminated: "Nothing is too wondrous for You." The Malbim explains that if You should wish in a single moment to overturn the systems of nature or dismantle the world, this is not beyond Your capability. According to what we have explained, this is profoundly clear: the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not need to bring new bulldozers to dismantle the world; it is enough for Him to simply withdraw His will from it. And since the world stands at every single moment solely through Your outstretched arm, it naturally follows that "nothing is too wondrous for You" - including returning the world to chaos and void in an instant.
Even the fact that we see energy depleting serves as further proof. To be sure, this can be explained in physical terms: if you find more coal, you have the power to run a power plant, and once that energy is expended, new coal is needed. Yet all these resources already exist within the world - you did not generate the coal out of nothing. The Holy One, Blessed be He, is the One Who pre-engineered the sources of energy within the world He created, and He is the One Who continuously invests and sustains them.
The Second Mode of Governance: General Providence - And Where Is "HaNora"?
עֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים וּמְשַׁלֵּם עֲוֹן אָבוֹת אֶל חֵיק בְּנֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵיהֶם, הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ. (יח) - Who shows lovingkindness to thousands, and repays the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is His Name. (18)
First of all, what is missing here in the verse? "HaNora" (the Awesome). Yirmiyahu says, "the great, the mighty God," but does not say "the awesome." Chazal explain: Yirmiyahu did not say "the awesome" because he said, "Foreigners are prancing in His Sanctuary; where are His awesome deeds?" This does not mean he doubted that Hashem is awesome - certainly Hashem is awesome and performs wondrous, mighty deeds, and this was obvious and clear to Yirmiyahu. Rather, a prophet cannot utter praise that sounds hollow in the ears of the observer, who might protest: "I do not see His awesome deeds." "Nora" means inspiring dread and awe. If enemies come to strut in His Sanctuary, erect an idol, and commit every manner of abomination there, can it be said that those people possessed the fear of Hashem? Had Hashem done even a small thing to cast the dread of God upon them so that they fled or perished instantly, we would see that awe. But since He did not do so, the awe with which Hashem inspires His creatures was not manifest, and therefore Yirmiyahu could not say "HaNora."
As for the verse itself, here the Malbim explains the second mode of providence: general providence (hanhagah kelalit). The Holy One, blessed be He, arranges and governs the entire world according to a preconceived plan, and the entire world operates according to His will and design. He rules over all the legions in His overarching governance, in every generation and in every era. This is an innovation beyond the previous verse: there we said that Hashem created the world and also sustains it. The philosophers' view, cited in Sefer HaKuzari and elsewhere, is that the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world and then ceased to take an interest in it, for the Creator of the world is a lofty and exalted reality who is, as it were, unconcerned with whether you ate this morning and whether you recited a blessing. We have already explained at length how completely distorted this view is, even from the perspective of plain logic. Here Yirmiyahu comes and says: "Shows lovingkindness to thousands" - this view is not true. You, Hashem, created the world, You sustain it, and You also continue to govern it, taking interest, observing, and seeing every single deed of man. "And repays the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children" - when the children continue and hold fast to the deeds of their fathers, You punish them. "Hashem of Hosts is His Name" - You rule over all the hosts of the world in Your governance; You did not abandon the world after creating it, but rather You govern it at all times and at every moment.
The Third Mode of Providence: Individual Providence
גְּדֹל הָעֵצָה וְרַב הָעֲלִילִיָּה, אֲשֶׁר עֵינֶיךָ פְקֻחוֹת עַל כָּל דַּרְכֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם לָתֵת לְאִישׁ כִּדְרָכָיו וְכִפְרִי מַעֲלָלָיו. (יט) - Great in counsel and mighty in deed, Whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of man, to give to each man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. (19)
Here, the Malbim explains, he descends to the specifics and speaks of individual providence (hashgachah pratit). In the previous verse, the topic was general providence - the governance of the nations, Hashem's governance of the Jewish people as a whole. And here: "Great in counsel" - Your counsel is great, overseeing all the major events unfolding in the world; and immediately following, "and mighty in deed" - corresponding to the actions of human beings, for You watch over every single small, individual deed of each person. Not only the macro, but also the micro; not only the major events, but every thought, every word, and every action. "Whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of man, to give to each man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds" - according to the thought and according to the deed that a person performs.
The Three Modes of Providence - How We Saw Each of Them in Practice
אֲשֶׁר שַׂמְתָּ אֹתוֹת וּמֹפְתִים בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, וּבְיִשְׂרָאֵל וּבָאָדָם, וַתַּעֲשֶׂה לְּךָ שֵׁם כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה. (כ) - Who displayed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt until this day, and in Israel and among mankind, and You made for Yourself a name as on this day. (20)
From here onward, Yirmiyahu explains how these three modes of providence were manifested in reality. This verse corresponds to verse 17: we said that Hashem created heaven and earth and established the laws of nature, and in what way do we perceive this power? In that, at His will, He overturns the order of nature. And when did we see this? When He set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. "Until this day" - that the signs and wonders were not a one-time occurrence; rather, until this day Hashem performs signs and wonders in every generation, such as "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon" in the days of Yehoshua, and as in the days of Chizkiyahu when the sun turned back fifteen degrees. "And in Israel and among mankind" - both within Israel and among the other nations. "And You made for Yourself a name as on this day" - for through this, His Name became renowned and revealed in the world, that He is the One Who created the world. For one who has the power to overturn the laws of nature must necessarily be the One Who created nature, and the key to altering them is in His hands. How could the rivers turn to blood? How could there be darkness for seven days? It must be that the One Who created light and darkness is the One Who has the power to alter the order and the governance.
וַתֹּצֵא אֶת עַמְּךָ אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם בְּאֹתוֹת וּבְמוֹפְתִים וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה וּבְאֶזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה וּבְמוֹרָא גָּדוֹל. (כא) - And You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror. (21)
וַתִּתֵּן לָהֶם אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתָם לָתֵת לָהֶם, אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ. (כב) - And You gave them this land which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. (22)
These two verses correspond to the second mode of providence, general providence, in which he said: "Shows lovingkindness to thousands." Behold, Master of the Universe, You brought the Jewish people out of the land of Egypt, You gave them the land You swore to their fathers, You acted with lovingkindness toward them. A place so special - You promised, and You fulfilled.
וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיִּרְשׁוּ אֹתָהּ וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ בְקוֹלֶךָ וּבְתוֹרָתְךָ לֹא הָלָכוּ, אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָה לָהֶם לַעֲשׂוֹת לֹא עָשׂוּ, וַתַּקְרֵא אֹתָם אֵת כָּל הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת. (כג) - And they came and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice, nor did they walk in Your Torah; all that You commanded them to do they did not do, so You brought all this disaster upon them. (23)
At this stage, he turns to the third mode of providence, individual providence. It was expressed in that the people of Israel came and inherited the land and did not listen to the voice of Hashem, did not walk in His Torah, and did not do all that He commanded them - and as a result, "so You brought all this disaster upon them," You brought the exile upon them. This is the reward and punishment that is "mighty in deed," where Hashem descends into the minute details to judge and give to each man according to his ways.
"And Behold, You See" - Yirmiyahu's Wonder
הִנֵּה הַסֹּלְלוֹת בָּאוּ הָעִיר לְלָכְדָהּ, וְהָעִיר נִתְּנָה בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים הַנִּלְחָמִים עָלֶיהָ מִפְּנֵי הַחֶרֶב וְהָרָעָב וְהַדָּבֶר, וַאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ הָיָה וְהִנְּךָ רֹאֶה. (כד) - "Behold, the siege mounds have reached the city to capture it, and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; and what You have spoken has come to pass, and behold, You see." (24)
What are the "siege mounds" (solelot)? Some explain that these were wooden engines used to catapult stones into the city - flexible wooden beams pulled back, loaded with a stone, and released to fling it over the wall, a type of catapult. Another explanation, shared by most commentators, is that a solelah is an earthen ramp piled up adjacent to the wall and raised progressively higher, enabling soldiers to ascend above the wall and breach the city. In ancient times, when an army sought to conquer a city, they would either build an earthen ramp against the wall to climb over, or breach and smash the wall itself. Breaching the wall was typically done with a battering ram: a massive, heavy beam of iron or wood suspended by two chains from the frame of a cart, swung back and forth against the wall until its stones shattered.
Yirmiyahu says: I have no doubt that the city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. First, the siege mounds have already reached the city to capture it. Second, even without them, the sword, famine, and pestilence are already inside, making it clear that the city's days are numbered. And third, and most crucially: "And what You have spoken has come to pass" - for You, Master of the Universe, promised that the city would fall to the Chaldeans; even if there were no siege ramps, no famine, and the city were fortified and strong, it is certain that Your word would come to pass. "And behold, You see" - all of this is laid bare before Your eyes, and I have no need to recount it to You. If so, I am left with a tremendous question.
וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ אֵלַי אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה, קְנֵה לְךָ הַשָּׂדֶה בַּכֶּסֶף וְהָעֵד עֵדִים, וְהָעִיר נִתְּנָה בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים. (כה) - "Yet You have said to me, my Lord, Hashem: 'Buy the field for yourself with money and call witnesses,' while the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans!" (25)
How can You command me to buy the field and summon witnesses? What purpose is served by purchasing this property, and what will come of it, when the city has already been handed over to the Chaldeans? Furthermore, this purchase seems to contradict the very instructions You charged me with until now: to warn the people and tell them that the city is about to fall to the Chaldeans, that there is no point in trying to settle down here, and that they should begin building their future in Babylon!
Hashem's Response: The Providence of the Hour and the Providence of the Generations
וַיְהִי דְּבַר יְהֹוָה אֶל יִרְמְיָהוּ לֵאמֹר. הִנֵּה אֲנִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי כָּל בָּשָׂר, הֲמִמֶּנִּי יִפָּלֵא כָּל דָּבָר. (כו-כז) - "And the word of Hashem came to Yirmiyahu, saying: 'Behold, I am Hashem, the God of all flesh; is anything too wondrous for Me?'" (26-27)
The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: Indeed, nothing is beyond My power, and I know full well that the city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, nor has My burning wrath against them yet subsided. Nevertheless, I tell you to go and purchase the field from Chanamel. In the explanation of the Malbim: It is true that the Jewish people are destined for exile, and regarding the immediate future, you are entirely correct - this is what I promised and this is what will happen; the city will be destroyed and Israel will be exiled. This corresponds to what you mentioned about individual Divine Providence, that every person receives according to the fruit of their deeds, and at this juncture, exile is what this nation has earned. However, I also have an ancient promise that this land will remain an eternal inheritance to the Jewish people, and I have no intention of retracting that either. This is the meaning of "the God of all flesh" - I maintain an overarching providence across all generations. There is an immediate providence and there is a generational providence: under the generational providence, the Land of Israel is ours and the Jewish people are destined to return to it; under the immediate providence, you must undergo a period of refinement, a process of smelting and purging for all that you have done. This is a form of punishment, and the punishments of the Holy One, blessed be He, never stem from vengeance, as explained many times, but rather serve as refinement and purification for past deeds.
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה, הִנְנִי נֹתֵן אֶת הָעִיר הַזֹּאת בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים וּבְיַד נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל וּלְכָדָהּ. (כח) - "Therefore, so said Hashem: 'Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it.'" (28)
Notice the precision of the wording: the Holy One, blessed be He, says, "Behold, I am giving" - on their own, the Chaldeans could never conquer the city. Nebuchadnezzar has neither the strength nor the ability on his own to conquer Jerusalem; it is only because I have handed it over to him.
וּבָאוּ הַכַּשְׂדִּים הַנִּלְחָמִים עַל הָעִיר הַזֹּאת וְהִצִּיתוּ אֶת הָעִיר הַזֹּאת בָּאֵשׁ וּשְׂרָפוּהָ, וְאֵת הַבָּתִּים אֲשֶׁר קִטְּרוּ עַל גַּגּוֹתֵיהֶם לַבַּעַל וְהִסִּכוּ נְסָכִים לֵאלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים לְמַעַן הַכְעִסֵנִי. (כט) - "And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, along with the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to the Baal and poured libations to other gods in order to provoke Me." (29)
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: My delivering the city into the hand of Nevuchadnezzar now is entirely in order to burn the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to the host of heaven. These houses have taken on the status of avodah zarah (idolatry), and what is the law of avodah zarah? To burn it and destroy it completely. Therefore, there is no choice, and this entire place is destined to undergo destruction for all that was done in it.
כִּי הָיוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבְנֵי יְהוּדָה אַךְ עֹשִׂים הָרַע בְּעֵינַי מִנְּעֻרֹתֵיהֶם, כִּי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אַךְ מַכְעִסִים אֹתִי בְּמַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיהֶם נְאֻם יְהֹוָה. (ל) - For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in My eyes from their youth, for the children of Israel only provoke Me with the work of their hands, says the Lord.
At the beginning of the verse, He equates both of them: "the children of Judah" are Judah and Benjamin, "the children of Israel" refers to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and both of them "from their youth" - from the very earliest stages of their arrival in the Land - did evil in My eyes. And beyond that: "for the children of Israel only provoke Me" - these are the Ten Tribes alone, whose rebellion and provocation were even greater than those of Judah and Benjamin. They never had a single righteous king; from the days of Yeravam ben Nevat, each and every one of their kings was wicked, and there was never a time when they did what was good in the eyes of Hashem, but rather "only provoked Me." Exile was therefore an inevitable consequence.
"A Cause of My Anger and My Wrath" - The City Conceived in Unholiness
כִּי עַל אַפִּי וְעַל חֲמָתִי הָיְתָה לִּי הָעִיר הַזֹּאת לְמִן הַיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר בָּנוּ אוֹתָהּ וְעַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, לַהֲסִירָהּ מֵעַל פָּנָי. (לא) - For this city has been a cause of My anger and My wrath to Me from the day they built it until this day, that I should remove it from before My face.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says that this city, Jerusalem, from the day it was built, provoked My anger and My wrath. And who built Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash? Shlomo. And what does it mean that from the moment the Beit HaMikdash was built, it was a source of anger and wrath? Chazal explain: On the very day Shlomo completed the Beit HaMikdash, the day of the Temple's dedication, on that very day Shlomo married Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to Jerusalem. From that time on, the foreign wives Shlomo married began sacrificing on the high places, as it is written: "Then Shlomo built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon." And what is the meaning of "built"? Chazal say that his wives built them and he did not protest against them. It turns out that from the city's inception, its conception was not in holiness, and already then it aroused My anger and My wrath. "And until this day" - until today I was patient with them, I held back and waited, hoping perhaps they would repent; but now, that is no longer possible.
And what is the deeper meaning of the city itself being "a cause of My anger and My wrath to Me"? The Malbim offers a parable: A man planted a sapling in his garden, and watching it grow, he sees that it does not develop properly - it grows crooked, produces thorns, and fails to develop the way such a sapling should grow to yield good fruit. He realizes that if it continues this way, it could ruin all the other trees in the garden. What choice does he have? To uproot it and plant anew. This is what the Holy One, blessed be He, is saying here: This place itself, from the time it was built, carries a flaw within it, and the city is, so to speak, the catalyst for Israel's corruption, for the seed of ruin and calamity was planted in it from the outset. Therefore, there is no choice but to destroy the city and vent the wrath upon wood and stone.
In essence, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, as it were: Instead of destroying the corrupted planting, I will destroy the garden. Because the garden itself is flawed and causes the plantings to grow crooked, by clearing the garden I will preserve the planting itself, and perhaps it will flourish. This is the application: Since the city was a cause of My anger and My wrath, I will destroy the city and spare the people of Israel - treating the city, as it were, as the source of the fault - and through this, Israel will repent and mend their ways.
The Sin of the Entire Community - Kings, Officers, Kohanim, and Prophets
עַל כָּל רָעַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבְנֵי יְהוּדָה אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לְהַכְעִסֵנִי, הֵמָּה מַלְכֵיהֶם שָׂרֵיהֶם כֹּהֲנֵיהֶם וּנְבִיאֵיהֶם, וְאִישׁ יְהוּדָה וְיֹשְׁבֵי יְרוּשָׁלָיִם. (לב) - Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to provoke Me, they, their kings, their princes, their kohanim, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Here He encompasses both parts of the Jewish people, both Israel and Judah. "They" - the common people; "their kings, their princes, their kohanim, and their prophets" - and their prophets refer to the false prophets, who prophesy to them, promising that everything will be fine, that the king of Babylon will not come here, and that he will return the vessels he took from the Beit HaMikdash. All the evil they committed was not the sin of isolated individuals, but the sin of the entire community as a whole.
וַיִּפְנוּ אֵלַי עֹרֶף וְלֹא פָנִים, וְלַמֵּד אֹתָם הַשְׁכֵּם וְלַמֵּד, וְאֵינָם שֹׁמְעִים לָקַחַת מוּסָר. (לג) - And they have turned the back of the neck to Me and not the face; and though I taught them, rising early and teaching, they did not listen to receive discipline.
"They turned their back to Me and not their face" is a parable of a person spoken to who turns his back, unwilling to accept what is being said. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says: And even so, I sent them prophets, "rising up early and teaching." Chazal teach that the prophets would come to them early in the morning and toward evening, at every possible time - "yet they did not listen to receive discipline"; they did not want to accept their prophecies. And as Scripture states elsewhere: "They turned a rebellious shoulder and did not accept discipline."
וַיָּשִׂימוּ שִׁקּוּצֵיהֶם בַּבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עָלָיו לְטַמְּאוֹ. (לד) - And they placed their abominations in the House upon which My Name is called, to defile it. (34)
They were not content with that; rather, Achaz and Menasheh went and placed their abominations, their idols, in the House upon which My Name is called. And for what purpose? "To defile it." In other words, it was not enough for them that they went to worship idols; they sought to wage war against the Creator of the world and provoke Him to anger, bringing idolatry and abominations - which are futile beliefs - right into the House of the God of Israel. And even that was not enough for them.
וַיִּבְנוּ אֶת בָּמוֹת הַבַּעַל אֲשֶׁר בְּגֵיא בֶן הִנֹּם, לְהַעֲבִיר אֶת בְּנֵיהֶם וְאֶת בְּנוֹתֵיהֶם לַמֹּלֶךְ, אֲשֶׁר לֹא צִוִּיתִים וְלֹא עָלְתָה עַל לִבִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת הַתּוֹעֵבָה הַזֹּאת, לְמַעַן הַחֲטִי אֶת יְהוּדָה. (לה) - And they built the high places of the Baal which are in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it enter My mind, to commit this abomination, in order to cause Judah to sin. (35)
"In order to cause Judah to sin" - they did all these deeds to cause the Jewish people to stumble and become corrupted. The Malbim explains that nevertheless, everything the Holy One, blessed be He, did - uprooting the planting and destroying the place - was entirely so that the city would ultimately be restored and repaired, and that in the end the people, who are the planting, would mend their ways.
The Good Tidings: Ingathering of the Exiles and Dwelling in Safety
וְעַתָּה לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל הָעִיר הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם אֹמְרִים נִתְּנָה בְּיַד מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל בַּחֶרֶב וּבָרָעָב וּבַדָּבֶר. (לו) - And now, therefore, so said the Lord, God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say: It has been delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. (36)
הִנְנִי מְקַבְּצָם מִכָּל הָאֲרָצוֹת אֲשֶׁר הִדַּחְתִּים שָׁם בְּאַפִּי וּבַחֲמָתִי וּבְקֶצֶף גָּדוֹל, וַהֲשִׁבֹתִים אֶל הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְהֹשַׁבְתִּים לָבֶטַח. (לז) - Behold, I will gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in My anger, in My wrath, and in great fury, and I will return them to this place, and make them dwell in safety. (37)
You ask why the city is given into the hand of the king of Babylon - the answer is that in the grand scheme, this is the preservation of the city. The overall plan is that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and that the Jewish people will endure forever and never perish. Therefore, the only way to preserve the Jewish people is for Me to uproot the planting from here and dismantle the garden, yet the planting itself will survive; it will then rectify itself and improve its ways, and I will plant it anew when the garden is a better garden, and it will once again bear its fruit in a wholesome and positive way.
By way of homiletic allusion: "Asher hidachtim" ("where I have banished them") is from the language of banishment, but it also connotes rinsing and cleansing, like washing dishes. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Through anger, wrath, and great fury, I washed and cleansed them, as it says, "When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion." The entire purpose is solely to purify and refine. Therefore: "And I will return them to this place, and make them dwell in safety" - ultimately, I will bring them back here, and they will dwell securely without any fear or harm. Do not wonder, then, why I told you to buy a field here: this exile is temporary, for in the grand scheme the goal is rectification, and they are destined to return here.
וְהָיוּ לִי לְעָם וַאֲנִי אֶהְיֶה לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים. (לח) - And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. (38)
They will believe in Me and observe My commandments, and I will once again be their God as before.
"One Heart and One Way" - Uprooting Evil from the Heart
וְנָתַתִּי לָהֶם לֵב אֶחָד וְדֶרֶךְ אֶחָד לְיִרְאָה אוֹתִי כָּל הַיָּמִים, לְטוֹב לָהֶם וְלִבְנֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵיהֶם. (לט) - And I will give them one heart and one way to fear Me all the days, for their own good and for their children after them. (39)
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Then they will sin no more, and they will not be exiled again; rather, I will give them one heart and one way to fear Me. The meaning is: when a person sins, his heart is divided. This is the entire reality of the evil inclination and the good inclination - two opposing pulls of the heart. On one hand, the heart is drawn to do good; this is the power of goodness within a person. On the other hand, the heart is drawn to do evil; this is the power of evil within a person. In the future reality, this duality will no longer exist. The heart will be drawn solely to words of Torah, to matters of holiness, and to doing what is good in the eyes of Hashem: "to fear Me all the days" - meaning there will no longer be any pull toward evil, G-d forbid, but they will be drawn exclusively to good.
Let us explain this in greater depth. Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin briefly explains in Nefesh HaChaim that the reality of evil in man stems from the fact that Adam HaRishon was originally entirely good. There was no evil in him at all, no reality of evil within his being. Where was evil? Entirely outside of him. When the evil inclination came to tempt him, who was the evil inclination? The serpent. In other words, there was no internal evil inclination within him; rather, it was external to him, an outside force that came and tempted him. And once Chavah, and after her Adam, were seduced by the serpent's counsel, what happened? The evil inclination became mixed inside man and became an inseparable part of him.
This is why the Tree of Knowledge is not referred to in the Torah simply as "the Tree of Knowledge," but always as "the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." And what is da'at (knowledge)? Connection. A person of understanding knows how to draw comparisons, saying one thing resembles another - this is da'at. In contrast, a fool does not perceive distinctions and sees everything as the same, while a discerning person creates distinctions. Similarly, "And Adam knew Chavah his wife" - he connected with her. What, then, is "the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil"? It is the tree through which, as a result of eating its fruit, good and evil became bound together. Consequently, a defect occurred across all the worlds - evil became mixed into all worlds, except for the world of Atzilut, as cited in the Kabbalistic works - and in man himself, evil became intertwined with good.
This is what people mean when they say that after the sin of Adam HaRishon, the Yetzer HaRa speaks from within our own throats. Rav Dessler points out a fascinating distinction: when a person wants to commit a sin, what does he say? "I feel like it." By contrast, when his conscience tries to stop him, he says: "I have an inner voice telling me not to do it, that it is a sin." Notice what a terrible state was created by the sin of the Tree of Knowledge: we identify completely with the Yetzer HaRa, to the point that when it comes to tempt us, we do not feel it is an external force, but rather me - "I feel like it"; the feeling is that I want this. Conversely, when the Yetzer HaTov speaks to us, we feel as though another force is speaking, an inner voice telling us not to do it. In other words, we do not identify with the Yetzer HaTov at all; it is experienced as an outside voice, while the Yetzer HaRa has become an internal force. To such an extent was evil mixed with good, that the desire for evil became man's own internal aspiration.
Why Adam Was Banished, and Why Death Is "Very Good"
As a result of this, the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded that Adam HaRishon be banished from Gan Eden. And for what reason? "Lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever." This is astonishing: the Holy One, blessed be He, is the perfection of goodness and desires only to bestow good; why should it matter if man eats from the Tree of Life and lives forever? What is wrong with him never having to die?
The Nefesh HaChaim explains: understand that any possibility of man drawing close to Hashem, blessed be He, after the sin of Adam HaRishon can occur only through the separation of evil from good. And how can it be separated? Through man's death. For in the wake of the Tree of Knowledge, man became physical, material, lustful, and coarse. Prior to that, "They were both naked... and were not ashamed," but afterward, he acquired a physical, material, and lust-driven reality. This state necessitates that in order to attain purification, man must undergo the process of death. Without the process of death, there is no way for a person to bask in the supernal light. The holy Or HaChaim writes that Adam HaRishon was originally able to ascend to the Upper Gan Eden and converse there, in the highest spiritual realm, with the Creator of the universe, so to speak, and whenever he wished, descend back to the Lower Gan Eden - for Adam was profoundly spiritual, and in a spiritual state this poses no barrier. But after the sin, he became physical and material, and in order to connect to Divinity, he must undergo a process of refinement, which is physical death.
This is why the Creator said: "Lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever." What would happen if he lived forever? Evil would never be separated from him, and he would never be able to attain his ultimate rectification (tikkun). That outcome is impossible and not what Hashem desires. It follows that the very fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought death upon man is actually for his benefit and good, for without it he would have lived forever and would never have been able to separate from evil and achieve cleaving (deveikut) to Hashem. This is what our Sages meant regarding the verse, "And G-d saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" - "very good" refers to death. And what is so good about death? According to our explanation, it is marvelous: without death, there is no possibility of achieving purification and rectification.
The Giving of the Torah, the Sin of the Golden Calf, and the Sin of "Not Waiting"
When was the Jewish people close to this rectification? At the giving of the Torah. The Gemara teaches: their contamination ceased - that very defilement that the serpent had cast into mankind. Am Yisrael reached such a level of refinement that they beheld visions of the living G-d while still in their physical bodies, and they returned to the state of Adam HaRishon prior to the sin. But what could be done when, shortly afterward, they made the Golden Calf? And how did the sin of the Golden Calf come about - through an internal evil inclination or an external one? Our Sages tell us that Satan came and confounded the people, showing them an image of Moshe Rabbeinu's bier flying before their eyes, and they said, "For this man Moshe, we do not know what has become of him." Why was Satan suddenly on the outside? Because the sin of the Tree of Knowledge had already been rectified, and they had reached the level of angels, like Adam HaRishon before the sin; consequently, when Satan came to them, he came from the outside. But then we stumbled in the exact same failure as Adam HaRishon - "Indeed, like Adam you shall die, and like one of the princes you shall fall" - we fell from our elevated stature and returned to the corrupted state of Adam HaRishon.
And what was Adam HaRishon's downfall? That he did not wait. Had he waited until the entry of Shabbat, he would have been privileged to eat from the Tree of Knowledge permissibly - for the Tree of Knowledge was a grapevine - he would have recited Kiddush over the wine, welcomed Shabbat, and the world would have been perfected under the sovereignty of the Almighty. But he did not wait and did not tarry, and through this he brought ruin upon all the worlds. And we, when we reached the stage of rectification, what was our sin? That we did not wait. "Moshe delayed in coming down," and we were incapable of waiting just a few more hours to see if he would arrive by the end of the day, and immediately cried, "Arise, make us gods" - the very same iniquity.
Incidentally, Adam HaRishon was reincarnated in King David - the Hebrew word Adam (אד"ם) forms an acronym for Adam, David, Mashiach. And what was David's sin? Batsheva. Our Sages say: Batsheva was destined for David, but he consumed her while she was still an unripened fig, meaning unripe fruit. So it was indeed meant for you, and had you waited, you would have received it permissibly. Once again we see that same primordial sin pursuing man all along the way. (And what was said about an "impulsive nation," ama peziza, was said critically regarding another matter, regarding "we will do and we will hear," which in itself is a positive thing.)
And this is essentially what is written here: "And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me all the days." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: When I ultimately redeem the People of Israel, they will have one heart and one way. There will no longer be a state where evil is mixed with good; we will not feel an identification with evil, nor will we feel that the desire for evil is our internal will. Rather, we will return to the state of Adam HaRishon before the sin, when evil was external to him and was not a part or partner within him. And then, we will not even have an external evil, for the Holy One, blessed be He, will slaughter Satan, the Angel of Death, and consequently, man's entire heart will be good, directed solely toward Hashem.
An Unconditional Eternal Covenant
וְכָרַתִּי לָהֶם בְּרִית עוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר לֹא אָשׁוּב מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶם לְהֵיטִיבִי אוֹתָם, וְאֶת יִרְאָתִי אֶתֵּן בִּלְבָבָם לְבִלְתִּי סוּר מֵעָלָי. (מ) - And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put My fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. (40)
I will make an everlasting covenant with them: Just as they will undertake to fear Hashem continually, so too the covenant I forge with them will not be conditional, but rather "that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good" - a promise that I will not turn back from them, that there will never be a situation where I exile them and punish them, but an absolute covenant that they will experience only good. And how can such an absolute guarantee be made? Because the power of evil will no longer exist within them, and they will naturally never fall into a negative state. And this is "and I will put My fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me": when they prepare their hearts to fear Me always, My covenant will be an unconditional, everlasting covenant. For I cannot break My covenant, and therefore I must protect them so that they do not break their covenant and do not abandon Me all the days; through this, I too will be able to uphold My covenant perpetually and bestow upon them only good.
וְשַׂשְׂתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם לְהֵטִיב אוֹתָם, וּנְטַעְתִּים בָּאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת בֶּאֱמֶת בְּכָל לִבִּי וּבְכָל נַפְשִׁי. (מא) - And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land faithfully, with all My heart and with all My soul. (41)
"And I will rejoice over them to do them good" - once the covenant is absolute and irrevocable, I must always do good for them. Yet if they were to sin and Hashem were forced to do good for them, would He rejoice in it? No. Is His eye begrudging, Heaven forbid, in bestowing goodness upon us? Far from it. Rather, the Creator of the world says: This good is not good for you. To what can this be compared? To a wild and unruly child who is given more and more prizes for his actions. On the one hand, you are happy that things are good for your son, he is your child; but on the other hand, you are deeply saddened, because constantly giving prizes for negative behavior ruins and corrupts him. Says the Holy One, blessed be He: But in the future, when I do good for them, I will rejoice in that goodness and be glad in it, because they will be virtuous and worthy of that goodness. "And I will plant them in this land faithfully" - now it will be in truth, absolutely and without reversal; "with all My heart" - My heart will be intimately bound to them, not in a state where I hide My face from them and draw away.
"Just as I Have Brought... So I Am Bringing" - The Laughter of Rabbi Akiva
כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהֹוָה, כַּאֲשֶׁר הֵבֵאתִי אֶל הָעָם הַזֶּה אֵת כָּל הָרָעָה הַגְּדוֹלָה הַזֹּאת, כֵּן אָנֹכִי מֵבִיא עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת כָּל הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי דֹּבֵר עֲלֵיהֶם. (מב) - For thus said Hashem: Just as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so I am bringing upon them all the good that I speak concerning them. (42)
Just as I promised the misfortune through prophecy and brought it to pass, so too I promise through prophecy that I will bring upon them the good. And this is what encouraged Rabbi Akiva: when he walked with the Sages and they wept while he laughed, his confidence was founded on this principle - that the Holy One, blessed be He, promised the misfortune and brought it to pass, linking the one to the other. Therefore, when I see the misfortune materializing, it is clear to me that the good will also come and be realized.
"Fields Shall Be Bought with Money" - The Proof from the Purchase of the Field
וְנִקְנָה הַשָּׂדֶה בָּאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם אֹמְרִים שְׁמָמָה הִיא מֵאֵין אָדָם וּבְהֵמָה, נִתְּנָה בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים. (מג) - "And the field shall be bought in this land, whereof you say: It is desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Kasdim." (43)
שָׂדוֹת בַּכֶּסֶף יִקְנוּ וְכָתוֹב בַּסֵּפֶר וְחָתוֹם וְהָעֵד עֵדִים, בְּאֶרֶץ בִּנְיָמִן וּבִסְבִיבֵי יְרוּשָׁלַיִם וּבְעָרֵי יְהוּדָה וּבְעָרֵי הָהָר וּבְעָרֵי הַשְּׁפֵלָה וּבְעָרֵי הַנֶּגֶב, כִּי אָשִׁיב אֶת שְׁבוּתָם נְאֻם יְהֹוָה. (מד) - "Fields shall be bought for money, deeds written and sealed, and witnesses summoned, in the land of Binyamin, in the surroundings of Yerushalayim, in the cities of Yehudah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes, declares Hashem." (44)
The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: The reason I commanded you to buy the field from Chanamel is that you are saying this land will become a desolation, but I say to you: Know that fields will yet be bought with money! Does anyone sell fields for money in a desolate wasteland? In the Sahara Desert you can take fields for free; a desolate place costs nothing. The more attractive and fertile a place is, the higher and more expensive the prices become. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says: This place will once again be so attractive that fields will be bought for money. And not only that, but "deeds written and sealed, and witnesses summoned" - when a person sells a field, he will sell it with a deed and with witnesses, so he can be certain the field is definitively his. Whereas today, when someone sells a field, he sells it secretly so the Kasdim will not hear. But in the future, everything will be sold openly, people will be ready to invest, and conditions will turn around for the good - "in the land of Binyamin, in the surroundings of Yerushalayim, in the cities of Yehudah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes": all those going to Bavel, I will return them to their land, and they will return from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael.
A Concluding Question: Seventy Years or an Eternal Covenant?
At first glance, there is something puzzling here: this response speaks of Shivat Tzion, the return to Zion after seventy years, whereas "And I will make an eternal covenant with them, that I will not turn away from after them" speaks of the future covenant, which we have not yet reached. How does the Holy One, blessed be He, link the two together - taking him forward to the end of days, and immediately telling him to buy the field because they will return here?
The explanation is as follows: The Malbim explains in Sefer Daniel that the redemption of the Second Beis HaMikdash, in the era of Ezra and Nechemiah, was in the category of *atchalta degeulah* (the beginning of redemption), a kind of trial period. It was not the planned ultimate redemption, but a provisional one; Hashem gave them the Beis HaMikdash, as it were, for another period of testing. Had the Jewish people walked in the way of Hashem and merited to truly serve Him in the Beis HaMikdash upon returning to their land, then at the conclusion of the 420 years of the Second Temple, Mashiach would have come and the redemption would have been complete. This is how the Malbim explains the verses of redemption in Sefer Daniel - that they delineate what was meant to happen following the Second Temple: at the end of the Second Temple era, a fully perfected Temple built of fire was meant to descend from Heaven, and then all the prophecies of "I will gather them out of all the countries where I drove them" would have been fulfilled, and the Third Temple would have endured forever. However, since we did not navigate this period successfully, Hashem was ultimately forced, as it were, to destroy the Second Temple as well. Titus came and destroyed the Beis HaMikdash, and we were exiled once again among the nations; now we await the Beis HaMikdash without having one. During the Second Temple era they were waiting for the future redemption, and everyone understood that this was a temporary state - only a small portion returned to the land, 42,000 as recorded in Ezra and Nechemiah - yet they still hoped that at any moment the complete redemption would arrive, Mashiach would come, there would be a universal redemption of the Jewish people, the Ten Tribes would return, and everything would be restored to its former glory. But since they were not worthy, the future redemption was postponed, and we remain in exile, praying that Hashem redeem us speedily in our days, Amen.
In Summary:
In Yirmiyahu's prayer, three dimensions of Divine providence unfold: the providence of creation and perpetual existence ("You made the heavens and the earth... and with Your outstretched arm"), the general providence governing the world and the nations ("showing lovingkindness to thousands... Hashem Tzva'os is His Name"), and the individual providence that extends to every action and thought ("Great in counsel and mighty in deed"). In light of these, Yirmiyahu asks: If the city has already been delivered into the hand of the Kasdim, what is the purpose of purchasing a field? And Hashem answers: Although under the immediate providence of the hour exile comes as a refinement and purification, under the overarching providence that spans the generations, the land is ours, and the Jewish people endure forever. The city is destroyed so that the wrath is spent on wood and stone while the planting remains; and the ultimate outcome is one heart and one path, an unconditional eternal covenant, and the rejoicing of true benevolence - until fields are once again bought for money, with deed and witnesses, across all the cities of Yehudah and Yerushalayim. Yirmiyahu's purchase of the field is, therefore, the first act of faith in the redemption.