"For thus said Hashem to the king who sits on the throne of David and to all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go out with you into exile." Now he delivers a prophecy, a prophecy that Hashem transmits to the king who sits on the throne of David. Who is being spoken of here? Here they are speaking of Tzidkiyahu. Tzidkiyahu did not go into exile. "And to the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go out with you into exile" - those who still remained in Yerushalayim. "Thus said Hashem, behold I am sending against them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten because they are so bad." A prophecy from Hashem. Hashem informs them, know this: not only will the exiles not return here, not only will this not happen, but even those who are here are destined to be exiled. Do you hear? It is not enough that those in exile will not return, but I am delivering to you another prophecy: those who are in the land are also destined to be exiled from here. "And I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten because they are so bad." What does "like rotten figs" mean? Rotten figs, the Radak says, means filthy figs, from the expression "she committed an outrage," yes? The bad figs, the spoiled figs. He tells them: if those who are here will be given over to the sword, the plague, the famine, captivity, and plunder, then how could those who are there come here and be redeemed? Obviously not, right?
This is really the prophecy that comes to seal shut their hope of returning within the next seventy years; it is not going to happen. "And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and a desolation and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations to which I have driven them." He tells them: I will pursue them with sword, famine, and plague, and they will become a horror. What is a "horror" (zaava)? From what root is zaava? One interpretation is from the root of "trembling" (ziezua): whoever sees them will shudder. Another interpretation: zaava means removal and being driven from the place, to dislodge it from its place. After all, what is the origin of the word ziezua? Something moved from its place. He was shaken, he began to tremble. What does it mean to tremble? To move from one's place, to stir from one's place. "He did not rise nor stir before him" - "stir" means to move. To wander from its place. Just as a niddah is called niddah because she is set apart, moved from her place, niddah. In contrast, zaa means to move from one's place, to stir from one's place. So he tells them: you will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, you will be shaken and driven far off to all the kingdoms of the earth.
"Because they did not listen to My words, says Hashem, when I sent to them My servants the prophets, rising early and sending, but you did not listen, says Hashem." Since you do not listen to My words, says Hashem, I send you My servants the prophets, rising early and sending. Chazal say: He would send them prophets morning and evening, and they would not listen. And look, there are dozens of prophets who appear in Scripture. When are we speaking of? During what periods did all these prophets prophesy? In the periods before the destruction. Those twelve minor prophets, and Yirmiyahu, and Yeshayahu, and Yechezkel, and all the prophets we see, they were in this period. He sends them prophets and you did not listen to them, says Hashem.
"But you, hear the word of Hashem, all you exiles whom I sent from Yerushalayim to Bavel. Thus said Hashem of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Achav son of Kolayah and concerning Tzidkiyahu son of Maaseiyah, who prophesy to you falsely in My name: behold I am giving them into the hand of Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel, and he will strike them down before your eyes." Now there is a message here, Yirmiyahu has a message here, a direct message to two men who were corrupt false prophets who were in Bavel. As I said, one of the problems of a prophet of Hashem was contending with the false prophets who were much more attractive, right? So now he comes and tells them: I have a special portion here, a so-called letter bomb, for whom? For Kolayah, for Achav son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyahu son of Maaseiyah, who were the problematic ones there, who were prophesying falsely. He says: you will see proof of my words that they are false prophets and that what I am telling you is the truth, the word of Hashem, thus said Hashem of Hosts, I am giving them into the hand of Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel, and he will strike them down before your eyes, he will kill them before your eyes.
"And from them a curse will be taken up by all the exiles of Yehudah who are in Bavel, saying: May Hashem make you like Tzidkiyahu and like Achav, whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire." "And from them a curse will be taken up" is the opposite of "by you shall Israel be blessed." "By you shall Israel be blessed" is that when they wish to bless someone they will say to him, "May God make you like Efrayim and like Menasheh." Here he tells them: when they wish to curse someone, that Hashem should curse you, this is what he will say to him, like Achav son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyahu son of Maaseiyah whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire. What does "roasted" (kalam) mean? He made them into roasted grain. He burned them in fire, and soon we will see exactly how he made them jump on the griddle.
"Because they committed a disgrace in Israel and committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and spoke a word in My name falsely which I did not command them, and I am the One who knows and the witness, says Hashem." They committed a disgrace in Israel and moreover committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. How? By speaking a word in My name falsely. They would claim, as it were, that they had a prophecy to commit adultery with their neighbor's wife, and soon we will see how the system worked. And therefore "I am the One who knows and the witness, says Hashem," meaning I know that their words are false and I am a witness to the deeds they did, for even though they did it in secret, says the Holy One, Blessed be He, I am a witness to the matter. Come and let me read to you the methods of those two scoundrels, Achav son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyahu son of Maaseiyah. Did you notice, by the way, that in the second verse, in verse 22, it is written "Achav," and in verse 21 it is written "Achav"? So indeed they say that he shortened his name in a derogatory way, not to say Achav but Achav, cutting his name short, as it were. Sometimes we see that lengthening a name is derogatory. Where did we see such a thing? "Was Aminon your brother with you?" Who said to whom? Avshalom said to Tamar. He called him by a derogatory name, Aminon, a diminutive form, yes.
Let me read you a midrash. Midrash Tanchuma, Parashat Vayikra, siman 6. "There are six things Hashem hates... haughty eyes, a heart that plots wicked thoughts, and feet that hasten to run to evil." This refers to Achav son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah, who were sinning in Yerushalayim. And it was not enough for them, they were not satisfied with that - fine, you have been exiled, draw conclusions. Rather, once they were exiled to Bavel they kept adding sin. And what did they do in Yerushalayim? They were false prophets, and they did not abandon their craft in Bavel; they continued to prophesy false prophecies in Bavel as well. And they would broker sins for one another, they would act as go-betweens for each other in sin. Achav son of Kolayah would enter the presence of the great ones of the kingdom of Bavel, and he would say to them, "The Holy One, Blessed be He, sent me to say something to your wife." He would say to him, "She is right here before you, enter." He would seclude himself with her and say to her, "The Holy One, Blessed be He, wishes to raise up prophets from you. Go and lie with Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah the prophet and bear prophets from him." Now pay attention: what was Achav doing here? He was essentially projecting credibility. If he had told her, "Come and lie with me," she would say, as it were, "Why should I believe you? You have a personal interest." He tells her, "No, God forbid, no man sins for someone else's benefit." A person does not sin unless it is worthwhile for him. He says, "I, God forbid, this is not for me. I am telling you there is a prophecy from Hashem that you must lie with Tzidkiyah." She would listen to him and send for Tzidkiyah. Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah would come and lie with her. And Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah - that is, now why was it worthwhile for Achav to come and broker for Tzidkiyah? And Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah did the same thing, he would broker for Achav. And this was their craft. Do you understand what their profession was? What craft did they have? They would broker women for one another in harlotry. Now pay attention: they were not satisfied with the common people. They would broker for each other the important ones, the wives of kings. Come and see how wicked they were. They made a reputation for themselves in Bavel as great prophets. Look at this, truly the false messiahs did not invent the wheel. See how all the techniques were known long ago. They would make a reputation for themselves as great prophets. How? Long ago they could not promote themselves on the internet, it did not exist yet. There were other methods. Today there are kabbalists with business cards, letterheads, everything, organized, everything just right. There would be a pregnant woman, she sees one of them, she says to him, "If you are a prophet, what am I carrying, a boy or a girl?" He would say to her, "Am I an ultrasound?" No, the prophet is supposed to know everything, the false messiah is supposed to provide answers to all questions. He tells her, "A boy. Madam, you will have a son." He would go out to her neighbors and say, "So-and-so will bear a girl. The one who came to ask me earlier, I am telling you between us, keep it a secret, she is going to give birth to a girl." Now, if she gave birth to a boy, she says, "The words of the prophet came true." If she bears a boy, she says, "Here, you see? The words of the prophet came true, he is a true prophet." And if she bore a girl, her neighbors say to her, "This is what the prophet told us, only he did not want to distress you." If she gave birth to a girl, she would say, "What a liar he is, he told me I would bear a boy." The neighbors would come and say to her, "No, no, no, know that the prophet already revealed to us in confidence that you were destined to bear a girl. Only what? He did not want to, he said, poor thing, she is pregnant, it is hard for her; if I tell her a girl she will be completely broken. So I told her a boy, but here, look, you are witnesses that I told you she would bear a girl." Now, what would he do if the opposite happened? If she bore a boy, then fine, he came out right regarding that woman. "Here, he told me a boy, I bore a boy." But how do you explain what you told the neighbors, a girl? He would say, "I did not want the neighbors to give her an evil eye. I went and told them it is a girl, but truly, I said to her, ask her, did I not tell you a boy? A boy. To them, I just did not want them to give her an evil eye, so therefore I told the neighbors, I told them no, it is a girl, so they would leave her alone." The Gemara says, the midrash continues, they kept doing this until they reached the guarded one, the wife of Nevuchadnetzar. No less than that, they went for the most important woman, the guarded wife of Nevuchadnetzar. Why did they call her "guarded"? Apparently she was like a nature reserve, because Nevuchadnetzar was no small beast, so they called her that because of it, "guarded." Tzidkiyahu entered and said to her, "The Holy One, Blessed be He, sent me to you, go and lie with Achav and bear prophets."
This story, its continuation appears in Sanhedrin 93a, and there the Gemara changes it slightly; it says that it was not with the guarded wife. Apparently the Gemara says it was with the daughter of Nevuchadnetzar. Apparently the guarded wife was a bit old, so they went for the young one. The Gemara says, let me read it to you, I have moved to Sanhedrin 93a, this is the continuation of the account. "Thus said Hashem of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Achav son of Kolayah and concerning Tzidkiyahu son of Maaseiyah, who prophesy to you falsely in My name." And it is written, "And from them a curse will be taken up by all the exiles of Yehudah who are in Bavel, saying: May God, Hashem, make you like Tzidkiyahu and like Achav whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire." It does not say "whom he burned," but "whom he roasted." Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: this teaches that he made them like roasted grain. Like popcorn, pop pop, that is how they jumped in the pot, like roasted grain, he roasted them. Why? "Because they committed a disgrace in Israel and committed adultery with their neighbors' wives." What did they do? Here the account continues. The Gemara says, they went to the daughter of Nevuchadnetzar. Achav said to her, "Thus said Hashem, listen to Tzidkiyah." And Tzidkiyah was not willing to forgo the pleasure, "Thus said Hashem, listen to Achav." What they wanted with her was that both of them would lie with her. So she went and told this to her father. She said to him, "This is what they are asking. Should I let them make me pregnant or not?" He said to her, "The God of these people hates immorality." This whole story seems very puzzling to me. What, all of a sudden they come, Hashem said, Hashem hates immorality? "When they come to you, send them to me." When they came to her, she sent them to her father. He said to them, "What did Hashem tell you?" They said to him, "Such and such the Holy One, Blessed be He, told us." He asked them, "But Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, I asked them about this matter, and they told me that this thing is forbidden." They said to him, "Well, so what impresses you? We too are prophets like them. They did not receive an instruction, we received an instruction. What are you proving to me from them? What, are we lesser than them?" The Gemara says, he said to them, "I want to test you the way I tested Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah. The words of Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah are more acceptable to me than your words." Why? "They passed through my crucible of testing, you did not pass it." What was the crucible of testing? He said to them, the test of fire, no less. Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah were in the midst of the burning fiery furnace, they danced, and who joined them? The angel Gavriel, right? So he tells them, let us see whether you too know how to dance in the fire. The Gemara says, at this point it no longer pleased them so much. They said to him, "This is not comparable. They were three, we are two. Three, their merit is great. Two is dangerous." Wait, slowly, slowly. The Gemara says, he said to them, "No problem, you are right. Choose yourselves a third." They said, "If we choose a third, we need someone who, so to speak, has an insurance policy. Third-party insurance, one who will insure all three." Whom did they choose? No less than Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, they said. They thought: let Yehoshua come, whose merit is great, and protect us. If Yehoshua operates an air conditioner inside the fiery furnace, we too will be saved. The Gemara says, they lowered them into the fire and threw them in and they were burned. The Gemara says, they were burned, but Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol - the edges of his garments were singed. As it says, "And he showed me Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol standing before the angel of Hashem," and what is written there? "Remove the filthy garments from upon you," right? His garments were burned. And it is written, "And Hashem said to the Satan: Hashem rebuke you, O Satan," and so on. The Gemara says, Nevuchadnetzar said to Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, after everything was over and he came out whole, he says to him, "I know you are a tzaddik, but I have a difficulty with you. Why did the fire take hold a little at the edges of your garments? With Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, not only did the fire not take hold of them, what is written about them? And a smell, how is it written? 'And the smell of fire had not passed upon them.' Not even a smell of burning was upon them." A person enters a fiery furnace, comes out; a person once entered an apartment with the smoke of a fire, he comes out, he reeks of smoke. Here they enter into the fiery furnace, and not even a smell of fire was upon them. It is written that they had a fragrance of spices, from the angel who danced with them from Gan Eden. So how is it that with you the fire still took hold, singed the edges of your robe? He said to him, there is an enormous difference. They were three, here I was a single tzaddik. A single tzaddik does not have quite enough merit for the fire not to take hold at all in his garments. Nevuchadnetzar asks him, but was not Avraham a single individual? Behold you see, Avraham was a single individual, and even so the fire did not take hold of him at all. How does Nevuchadnetzar know this? Because Nevuchadnetzar is the reincarnation of Nimrod. He threw Avraham into the fiery furnace, so does he not know what happened to him? He said to him, Avraham was indeed a single individual. Listen to what a sharp answer Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol gives him. He says to him, it is not comparable. There, no wicked people were with him. Here wicked people were with me. That is, with Avraham there was no one who added to the fire. With me, the two wicked ones, those two scoundrels, they caused a stronger fire, to such an extent that it even affected me. As they say, it is written about Yaakov that he would pass by houses of idol worship, and he would struggle to come out. They ask, why? You are sitting with the angel, learning Torah, a candle lit above your head, seeing with it from one end of the world to the other. Fine, Esav, he has idolatry in his belly, he wants to come out. But you, Yaakov, what is bad for you in the belly? Rather they say, it is better to come out and learn Torah alone than to learn Torah with an angel with a study partner like Esav. Do you understand? In the belly he has a study partner like Esav. Torah from an angel, but a study partner like Esav, I forgo that. So here too, he tells them, it is better to be alone in the fiery furnace than with a study partner like those two scoundrels, who only cause the fire to take hold. The Gemara says, and this is what people say: two dry firebrands and one wet, the dry ones ignite the fire in the wet one. Understood? They will cause the fire to take hold even of the wet one. So I too here, who was in the category of a wet one and a tzaddik, the fire took hold of me because of them. The Gemara asks, for what reason was he punished? What does that mean, for what reason? We just explained it. Rather, it is clear to the Gemara that here he was putting off Nevuchadnetzar with a flimsy answer. So to speak, he wanted to get out of it in peace, so he gave him this answer. But the Gemara says, in truth, the fire should not have taken hold of him at all. What does it matter who was with him? With the two wicked ones, without the two wicked ones, it should not come to this. So if the fire did take hold of him, what does that indicate? That there is here an element of punishment. For what? The Gemara asks, what was it for? The Gemara answers, Rav Papa said: his sons were marrying women unfit for the priesthood, and he did not protest against them. His sons married women unfit to belong to families of distinguished priestly lineage, and he did not protest against them. He did not object to them. The Gemara says, as it is written, "And Yehoshua was clothed in filthy garments." And was it Yehoshua's way to wear filthy garments? Rather this teaches that his sons were marrying women unfit for the priesthood and he did not protest against them. What is the concept of garments? Garments actually represent the soul, like the "garment of the rabbis" (chaluka derabbanan). The chaluka derabbanan is a garment that the soul has in the world of truth. So its parable in the physical world is garments. When we want to say that the soul above is without mitzvot, how do we define it? Naked, bare, right? Without mitzvot. So essentially what are the mitzvot? They are the chaluka derabbanan that one has above. Now, when it speaks here of Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol whose garments were filthy, that is, there is some flaw in him. As Chazal say, "Let your garments always be white." What does "your garments white" mean? It means clean. They are not speaking only of the garments, though it is true that garments must be clean, a person should not walk around in filthy garments. Rather it refers to the soul, that there should be no flaw in it. And if only, about many people one could say, if only they were as scrupulous about their soul as they are about their garments. You see him being immaculate, his shoe, you see it, like a mirror. Shining, smooth, glatt. And the trousers matching exactly, with the crease going down precisely to the pom-pom of the shoe, everything about him immaculate. Only spiritually, may Hashem have mercy. So a person must know, that your garments should be clean is actually a parable for the soul. That the soul should be clean, that the soul should be refined, that there should be no flaw in it. So here they were actually hinting to him this matter, the fire took hold a little but in his garments, because the garments, as I said, symbolize the soul.
"And to Shemayahu the Nechelami you shall say, saying." We continue in Yirmiyahu chapter 29, verse 24. "To Shemayahu the Nechelami" - Nechelami comes from a place called Nechelam, or Cholem. "The Nechelami," one who dwells in that place. "Thus said Hashem of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying: Because you sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Yerushalayim, and to Tzefanyah son of Maaseiyah the Kohen, and to all the Kohanim, saying." See how insolent, wicked, and brazen this Shemayah the Nechelami was. "The Nechelami," the Radak explains, he would dream up dreams for them, supposed prophecies, that everyone was destined to return to Yerushalayim. And he was not satisfied with the prophecies that he was falsely prophesying to the exiles; no less than that, he even sent letters and epistles to Yerushalayim. "Hashem has made you Kohen in place of Yehoyada the Kohen, to be officers of the House of Hashem over every madman who prophesies, and you shall put him in the stocks and in the collar." That Nechelami sends a letter, and this letter is written to Tzefanyah the Kohen, and he writes to him: Hashem has made you a Kohen in place of Yehoyada the Kohen, He appointed you to the priesthood in place of Yehoyada the Kohen. To be officers of the House of Hashem, you are appointed and in charge over the House of Hashem. And you must be responsible for every madman who prophesies. What does "every madman who prophesies" mean? What would they call a prophet? A madman, right? Why did they call him a madman? Because when the prophet would receive his prophecy, we said, it is like a person who received a high voltage. He lies on the ground, his whole body trembles, all his faculties are overwhelmed, he appears like a madman, like a person sick with the falling sickness. He tells him, you are responsible for every madman who prophesies. Whoever comes and prophesies, "you shall put him in the stocks and in the collar." I command him that you place him in the stocks. The meaning: "mahpechet," some explain, is from the term for a prison, like a domed cell. "Kippah" means a prison. That is one interpretation. There is another interpretation: "the collar" (tzinok), what is the tzinok? Whoever remembers, I remember it from when I was a child, there were those tin tobacco boxes, one could see on them from tin, those tin tobacco tins, one could see on them a person with his hands and his head placed in a wooden frame. His hands like this, with some kind of wood clamping him here, and his head placed inside, set within such a frame, unable to move. This is called a tzinok. No, they do not cut off his head. It just holds him like this, he cannot move. He is supposed to stand like this with his hands and feet held. This is a tzinok. Inquisition, right. This is the tzinok. Some explain "mahpechet" as a kind of torture with which they would torture the people whom the crown or the government did not want, or wished to remove, they would torture them. The mahpechet was apparently some device with which they would turn the person over, a kind of wheel in which they would turn the person over, and there was in this great suffering for that person. And now pay attention to what Shemayah the Nechelami says to Tzefanyah the Kohen who is in the land. Shemayah the Nechelami, a false prophet in Bavel, sends letters to the land to Tzefanyah, and he writes to him: "And now why have you not rebuked Yirmiyahu the Anatoti, the Anatoti who prophesies to you?" How can you let Yirmiyahu come and prophesy to you all sorts of false things from his own heart? You are, after all, appointed over every madman who prophesies, to silence those people who prophesy falsely. Not only is he a false prophet, but he even sends letters to the land in order to silence the true prophets. And what is his complaint about? Pay attention, here he claims that a competitor has moved in on him. "For therefore he sent to us in Bavel, saying: It will be long, build houses and dwell, and plant gardens and eat their fruit." He says, this Yirmiyahu is not satisfied with the prophecies he delivers to you there, this Yirmiyahu is not ashamed, he even sends letters to us in Bavel and weakens the hearts of the people. He tells them to build houses, to dwell there, to take possession, to settle, to establish themselves. Bavel is our territorial domain. Yirmiyahu is not satisfied with the damage he does in Yerushalayim, he even sends here to cause us damage. Do you see how much insolence that Shemayah the Nechelami had? "And Tzefanyah the Kohen read this letter in the ears of Yirmiyahu the prophet." Tzefanyah the Kohen reads this letter in the ears of Yirmiyahu the prophet. That is, he reads this thing to him. And this, as we said, there was in it very great impudence. To the point that he even reads it aloud in the ears of Yirmiyahu. Do you understand? You would at least conceal it, but you even take it and read it aloud publicly in the ears of Yirmiyahu; there was in this greater impudence than the very sending of the letter. "And the word of Hashem came to Yirmiyahu, saying." Now Hashem prophesies to him and says, "Send to all the exiles, saying: Thus said Hashem concerning Shemayah the Nechelami: Because Shemayah prophesied to you and I did not send him, and he made you trust in a lie." Send to all the exiles, since this Shemayah prophesies a false prophecy to you, I did not send him. "Therefore thus said Hashem, behold I am bringing punishment upon Shemayah the Nechelami and upon his offspring; he will have no man dwelling among this people, nor will he see the good that I am doing for My people, says Hashem, because he spoke rebellion against Hashem."
See, on the one hand we see that it was very, very hard for Yirmiyahu. Very, very hard to go and prophesy to the people all the time; no one likes that. To be the prophet of wrath, to be the one who prophesies harsh prophecies, to write Megillat Eichah as we will see later, this is a very, very difficult thing. Very difficult, it is a very hard role. But on the other hand we see that Hashem took care to clear the field there of the false prophets. We saw Chananyah son of Azzur come to contradict the prophecy of Hashem, and he told him: this very year you will die. We saw Achav and Tzidkiyah son of Maaseiyah, who were also false prophets, we saw that the king of Bavel roasted them. We saw now Shemayah the Nechelami, who also came to oppose Yirmiyahu's prophecy, and to him too the Holy One, Blessed be He, promises a curse. All these things are actually assurances that came to help Yirmiyahu's prophecy be accepted in the hearts of the people. For Yirmiyahu's prophecy in itself has a very, very great disadvantage, the very fact that it is not a good prophecy. It has a great disadvantage, it is hard for it to be accepted in the hearts of the people. But when the whole people see how all the false prophets, one by one, die, then, first, a person will have no interest in being a false prophet, he will be afraid. Second, the people will see that the true prophets, Yirmiyahu is a true prophet, whose words they must accept absolutely, and the rest are in the category of false prophets whose words should not be heeded.