00:00 Yirmiyahu chapter 45. "The word that Yirmiyahu the prophet spoke to Baruch ben Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at Yirmiyahu's dictation, in the fourth year of Yehoyakim ben Yoshiyahu king of Yehudah, saying." In the earlier verses we saw how the people ask Yirmiyahu to seek and inquire of Hashem and tell them whether to remain here or go down to Egypt, what to do. Yirmiyahu told them: the Holy One, blessed be He, said, remain here, stay here and do not go to Egypt. If you stay here you will endure; if you do not stay here and go down to Egypt, you will only suffer. They did not listen, as we saw in chapter 43; they did not listen, they went down to Egypt. Afterward he goes down with them; in chapter 44 he is with them in Egypt, for they took him too by force. He did not want to go down, they forced him to go down, just as they had put him into the courtyard of the guard by force, so too they forced him to go down to Egypt. And there in Egypt as well they were worshiping and burning incense to idols and to the gods of Egypt, and we saw this is a great disgrace, because we came out of Egypt and came out of the idolatry of Egypt. As someone once put it, we came out of Egypt, but the great difficulty is taking Egypt out of us. The wisdom is not in leaving Egypt but in taking Egypt out of yourself. We left Egypt, but all the ways of Egypt still remained, and they were burning incense to their gods. Then he rebukes them, telling them: you have forgotten the troubles, the problems that stood before you, and they do not heed his voice. Then he rebukes the women, and the women say to him, what, did we do this on our own? It was by our husbands' instruction. And besides, they say to him: from the time we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring libations, we have lacked everything and by the sword and by famine we have been consumed. A terrible and dreadful thing. When we served idols we had it good; when we did not serve idols we had it bad. This is utter heresy and complete blindness, for in fact everything they suffered came in the wake of the idolatry. Then he says to them: therefore hear the word of Hashem, all Yehudah dwelling in the land, I have sworn by My great name, says Hashem, that My name shall no longer be invoked by the mouth of any man, and so on; behold, I am watching over them for evil and not for good, and all the men of Yehudah shall be consumed. And he told them that only refugees would return. Who are those refugees? We saw: Baruch ben Neriah and a few other people, they are the ones who returned. And as a sign that this will come to pass, he tells them: behold, I am giving Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life. And this is a sign that everything I am telling you concerning yourselves will truly come to pass.
In chapter 45 there is a prophecy that Yirmiyahu actually receives from Hashem to convey to Baruch ben Neriah. No, Chanamel was his cousin; Baruch ben Neriah was one of the disciples of Yirmiyahu the prophet. He would record the prophecies from his mouth and train in prophecy. It is written about him that he complained; he very much wanted to be a prophet. Now, if you recall, we saw above that when Yirmiyahu told them, know that you must remain here, after ten days during which they had asked him to inquire of Hashem what they should do, and he told them Hashem's instruction was to remain here, this did not please them. Right? And then what did they say? It is Baruch ben Neriah who is inciting him to tell us this. And why would Baruch ben Neriah incite him to say this? They said: Baruch ben Neriah is training in prophecy, and for years he has wanted to merit prophecy, and he knows that prophecy can only be attained where? Prophecy can only be received initially in the Holy Land. Therefore he does not want us to go down, and so Baruch ben Neriah is inciting his teacher Yirmiyahu to remain here.
Therefore the verse comes here and says to them: know that this has nothing to do with Baruch ben Neriah, since I have a special prophecy that was delivered to Baruch ben Neriah that he will not merit prophecy. Why? We will see now. "Thus says Hashem, God of Israel, concerning you, Baruch. You said, woe is me now, for Hashem has added grief to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and I have found no rest." Baruch ben Neriah is aggrieved, he was aggrieved about the prophecy. He would say, how am I different from the other disciples of the prophets? Yehoshua served Moshe and merited prophecy, Hashem spoke with him. Elisha served Eliyahu, merited prophecy, the spirit of holiness rested upon him. Why am I different? Woe is me now, for Hashem has added grief to my pain: is it not enough, all the troubles, and still I so want to merit a divine connection and I have not merited it. I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest. He means, as it were, to say: I am weary with my groaning, and prophecy is called rest. Chazal say that prophecy is called rest. There are proofs from verses that prophecy is so called. There is a source, I cannot find it now, that prophecy is called rest, learned from a verse. And so he says, woe is me that I have not merited rest, meaning: it is not enough, all the troubles, that I have also not merited rest; at least had I merited prophecy, I would have merited some divine connection. Some say his request was about seeing that many troubles had come upon the people of Israel, and he asks Hashem to forgive them, to forgive the people of Israel for their troubles and not bring the calamities. And Hashem says to Yirmiyahu, tell Baruch ben Neriah not to pray about this, since it is a decree that will not be reversed. So, according to the second interpretation, he actually asked for forgiveness for the people of Israel. Thus these verses were not said about prophecy, but only about this matter, that he asked that there be forgiveness for the people of Israel and that Hashem restore them to their land. About this it was delivered; Hashem says to him: you said, woe is me now, for Hashem has added grief to my pain, I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest, about what? About the state of the people of Israel in exile. Hashem tells him, as it were, it is a shame for you to pray, I am not, until they repent, planning to restore them.
"Thus you shall say to him, thus says Hashem: behold, what I have built I am tearing down, and what I have planted I am uprooting, and this is the whole land." He tells him: what I have built I am tearing down. He is telling him: this is not a time fit for prophecy. Why? He tells him: know, you think you are unfit for prophecy on account of yourself, and so you are greatly distressed. He tells him: it does not depend on you, it depends on the time. The time now is not fit for prophecy. Because of the wickedness of the generation, now is not fit for prophecy. As we know from Chazal, the whole merit of a great one for prophecy is because of the merit of the generation. When the generation has no merits, there is no merit for prophecy. Ah, now I have found the verse. As for what is written, "I have found no rest," Chazal say, rest means nothing but prophecy, as it says, "and the spirit rested upon them," concerning Eldad and Medad. And it says, "and the spirit of Hashem shall rest upon him, a spirit of awe and understanding," and so on. And it says, "the spirit of Eliyahu rested upon Elisha." The Holy One, blessed be He, tells him: so you request prophecy for yourself? What I have built I am tearing down. He tells him: see, when there is building, then there is a reason to build up the prophets as well. But when there is destruction, when I am wiping out, when I am now sending them into exile, what is the point now of the prophets? For the whole worth of the prophets is for the sake of the people of Israel. How was it stated regarding Moshe? When the people of Israel sinned with the calf, what did Hashem say to Moshe? Go down, for your people have become corrupt. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells him: descend from your greatness, all the greatness I gave you was only for their sake. All the prophecy that the prophets prophesy is by the merit of the people of Israel. True, but the people of Israel still had merits. Now, however, with total exile, there is none; with this the merits have ceased. And essentially he comes to tell him: know, prophecy does not come to perfect the soul of the prophet so that he will be more elevated, but prophecy was given for the sake of the community. The truth is that the Rambam does not say quite this way. The Rambam says there are several types of prophecies. It is written, how many prophets did the people of Israel have? A million and two hundred thousand. A million and two hundred thousand prophets the people of Israel had. But only 48 prophets and seven prophetesses are those whose prophecy was recorded for the generations. Why? Because they were relevant for the generations. There were many prophets who received prophecy for the perfection of their own souls, so says the Rambam. But here Hashem intends to tell him: you want prophecy, know that it does not depend on you. It does not depend on you, it depends on the people. And since the people are not worthy of it, then consequently you do not merit prophecy. As Chazal say, the Midrash says, if there is no vineyard, why a fence? If there is no vineyard, why need a hedge? If there are no sheep, why a shepherd? So consequently prophecy for you now is superfluous.
The Gemara says that a heavenly voice went forth in the study hall and said, there is a man here worthy of prophecy but the generation is not worthy of it. This was said of Hillel the Elder. It was also said of Shmuel HaKatan. He is worthy of prophecy; what can be done, the generation is not worthy. So this is what He tells him here too. You want now to merit prophecy? And you request great things for yourself? Great things means prophecy, as it is written there, "tell me of the great things that Elisha did," meaning what he did through the power of prophecy. Do not request. "For behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh, says Hashem, and I will give you" - what will I at least have? "I will give you your life as spoil in all the places where you go." Say thank you that your life will be yours as spoil. That is already enough. And you still request great things for yourself, that you still want prophecy? He tells him: you are now not worthy of it, excuse me, the generation is now not worthy of it, and therefore you will not now merit prophecy. Baruch, we have sinned and been wayward, we have transgressed and rebelled.
[silence] Now we have from chapter 46 onward, we skip, because all of these are prophecies concerning the nations. And we have made it our practice here to study the things that are mainly narrative. That is, what happened, the unfolding of events that occurred with Yirmiyahu, that they threw him into the courtyard of the guard, what he spoke with the kings, what prophecies he delivered to them. All of these are the unfolding of events, and this is mainly what we study. Therefore we skipped the first part, which is mainly prophecies, and these are difficult expressions and all sorts of terms that are not familiar to us in spoken Hebrew, and therefore we saw no need to go into it. Whoever wants to take the matriculation exam can study it, matriculation in Tanach. But for now we have no particular interest in focusing on this; we would prefer to continue on, because we have more matters ahead, we have more prophecies, we have the book of Daniel that we will want to study. So therefore we will move to the last chapter of the book. This chapter is fairly parallel to what we learned at the end of the book of Melachim. This chapter deals with the destruction. And even though we learned it, I want to review it, because there are things that came there briefly and are here at greater length, for one thing. Secondly, we are close to the seventeenth of Tammuz and these are also things fitting for this time. The courtyard of the guard was a prison, yes.
Chapter 52. "Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim, and his mother's name was Chamutal bat Yirmiyahu of Livnah." Not from Anatot, but from Livnah; this is not related to Yirmiyahu, to Yirmiyahu the prophet. Yes. He was 21. The reason it mentions here that he was 21 is to speak in his favor, for Tzidkiyahu was righteous and his generation wicked, so the Gemara says. And the wonder is, how is it that Tzidkiyahu did not bring his generation back in repentance? Therefore it begins and tells you, Tzidkiyahu was young when he became king. He did not have much power. Twenty-one years old. What is a boy of 20 beginning to reign, and here are people of 60 who are already leading the people by the nose to idolatry, to all those things, those follies; it is very difficult now to begin to change. Yes. Why is Yirmiyahu mentioned here, "his mother's name was Chamutal"? Tell me, what is his father's name? They always mention the father's name. Well, indeed, not for everyone; among the Yemenites they say the mi shebeirach with the father's name. Yes. For a man by the father's name, for a woman by the mother's name. Yes, but for burials they say for a man by the father's name, for a woman by the mother's name; this is fitting for Sephardim to say as well. Why does Scripture mention the mother's name? Because the son, the main upbringing he receives at home is from the mother. The mother is with him. The father is the king, he is busy with the needs of the people, he has no time to occupy himself with him. Right? They say, a wise son gladdens a father, and a foolish son is the grief of his mother. Why? When the son is wise, the father takes the son with him everywhere. Gladdens a father, wow, what a wise son you have, what a brilliant son, what a... the father takes him. Who receives all the praise? The father. The mother does not know, only if the father comes and tells her, then she will know. But this way the father receives all the praise. But when the son is foolish, where does the father push him off? To the mother. Take him, take him, I do not need him, let him not come with me, let him not embarrass me, let him not come with me. Let him stay with you. Who suffers from him? The mother. A foolish son is the grief of his mother. When the son is foolish, the grief, the sorrow is the mother's. Well, what can be done. So with whom did we see that his mother chastened him and thereby set him right? Shlomo. Right? She struck him with her sandal. Right? It is written there, "with which his mother chastened him." That is King Shlomo.
"And Tzidkiyahu did" - yes, back to Tzidkiyahu. "And he did evil in the eyes of Hashem, according to all that Yehoyakim had done." What is "and he did evil"? One must know that here it is not speaking of an evil he did independently, but of an evil that stemmed from his not protesting, not protesting against the people, for one thing. Secondly, that Tzidkiyahu did not heed the voice of the prophet, when the prophet told him do not rebel against Nevuchadnetzar, for he was made king by Hashem, and he did not heed him. "For because of the anger of Hashem it came about in Yerushalayim and Yehudah, until He cast them from His presence, and Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel." This was "because of the anger of Hashem." What is the meaning of "because of the anger of Hashem"? It means that because Hashem was angry with them, Hashem, as it were, caused them to rebel against Nevuchadnetzar so that they would be punished. He brought them to this.
"And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel came, he and all his army, against Yerushalayim, and they encamped against it and built siege works around it." What is "in the tenth month"? What is "on the tenth of the month"? The tenth of Tevet. Here, an explicit verse: on the tenth of Tevet Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel came, and they encamped against it and built siege works around it. Here the siege began. On the tenth of Tevet the siege began. "And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu." No, it began in the ninth year. In the 11th year, until the 11th year. Ninth, tenth, 11th. The siege lasted three and a half years. Chazal say a dreadful thing. Chazal say that for three and a half years every day Nevuzaradan surrounded Yerushalayim and could not conquer it. Since he could not conquer it he sought to return. The Holy One, blessed be He, put it in his heart and he began measuring the wall. The Midrash tells a wondrous thing. The Midrash says, one day they hung their coats on the wall. They would drive a nail into the wall and hang their coat. These are the armies around, besieging, there is a siege on Yerushalayim, they are around the wall. One day one of the men says, look, how strange. I hung mine here two weeks ago, where the coat was hanging in the air. I look now and I see that the coat is already touching the ground. The nail has not moved. So the wall is sinking. The Midrash says, the Holy One, blessed be He, put it in his heart and he began measuring the wall, and it was sinking two and a half handbreadths each day. Until it sank entirely. Once it sank entirely, the enemies entered Yerushalayim. About that moment he says, "the kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that adversary and enemy would enter the gates of Yerushalayim." This too comes to hint at the moral decline and deterioration. Just as the wall sank, so too the people of Israel morally kept sinking, kept sinking, kept declining. It is also written about the destruction of the Second Temple that when they reached the Temple the doors opened, they opened by themselves. Why did they open by themselves? This too comes to hint at the moral deterioration that had reached such a point that the doors already opened by themselves, as if in our deterioration we opened the doors for them to come and enter and destroy the Temple.
"In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine grew severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land." What is the fourth month? Av. Nissan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz. Nissan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz. We are still in Tammuz. Yes. Wait, on the ninth of the month, then the famine grew severe in the city and there was no bread for the people of the land. "And the city was breached." Here it is written that the city was breached on the ninth of the month. The Yerushalmi says this was not on the ninth, it was on the seventeenth. And why is it written on the ninth? Because of the troubles, their calculations became confused. Indeed there is a lengthy discussion about this. We spoke about it then; I do not want to repeat it now. Here it appears as the ninth, whereas Chazal say the seventeenth of Tammuz, and they accordingly established the fast. The Yerushalmi says there was a corruption of the calculation there. That is, out of all the confusion they did not fix the reckoning correctly, and essentially both dates are correct, each date significant from a different angle. I will not go into explaining now; whoever wants can afterward look in the Me'am Loez, which has a lengthy discussion explaining it.
"And there was no bread for the people of the land. And the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went by way of the Aravah. And the Chaldean force pursued the king, and they overtook Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho, in the plains of Yericho, and all his army was scattered from him." "In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the city was breached." So note, what did we actually have? In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, on the tenth of Tevet, the siege began. On the seventeenth of Tammuz they breached the city, after three and a half years. On the seventeenth of Tammuz they succeeded in breaching the city; on the ninth of Av the Temple was burned. This was the order of events. Exactly. In that same year the Temple was destroyed. And then all the men of war flee and go out from the city by night. How do they get out? Through a cave that Tzidkiyahu had from within the palace. It was not the Palestinians who invented tunnels. He had an escape passage. "And the Chaldean force pursued the king and overtook Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho, and all his army was scattered from him." How did they catch him? It is written, "all her pursuers overtook her in the narrow places." It is written that all his army and officers abandoned him. It is written there explicitly, "and the Chaldean force pursued and overtook Tzidkiyahu, and all his army was scattered from him." He was left alone. How did they manage to catch him? Chazal say that the Holy One, blessed be He, sent a deer, and Nevuzaradan's men chased the deer, and suddenly they see, ah, who pops up before their eyes? Tzidkiyahu. He and all his army. And then his army fled, and they went to pursue Tzidkiyahu; Nevuzaradan and the Babylonians went to pursue Tzidkiyahu, because he was the main prey, the most important, he had rebelled against the king.
They brought him to Rivlah. Where is Rivlah? Rivlah is Antioch. Antioch is in the region of Lebanon, in the mountains of Lebanon. There Antioch is located, there sat Nevuchadnetzar. Nevuchadnetzar did not enter the land, he was wary. He sent here Nevuzaradan the chief executioner. And therefore we encounter Nevuzaradan, we do not encounter Nevuchadnetzar. They take him, "and they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel at Rivlah." There he sat, he did not sit in the land. In the land of Chamat, "and he passed judgment on him." What is "and he passed judgment on him"? He spoke harsh words to him, how he dared to reign, to rebel against him. That is "and he passed judgment on him." And it is written that he inflicted a terrible and dreadful punishment on him. "And the king of Bavel slaughtered the sons of Tzidkiyahu before his eyes." Before his eyes. "And he also slaughtered all the officers of Yehudah at Rivlah." He was not satisfied with that. "And he blinded the eyes of Tzidkiyahu, and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Bavel brought him to Bavel, and put him in the prison house until the day of his death." He brought him to the house of the king of Bavel in Bavel, and placed him in the prison house. What is "the prison house"? There they would place people, it is a prison. Until the day of his death. Until the day of whose death? Of Nevuchadnetzar. We will see that Evil-Merodach, the son of Nevuchadnetzar, took him out of prison; we will see this shortly, took him out of prison and restored him, gave him, gave him food, cared for him.
"And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel, Nevuzaradan the chief executioner, who stood before the king of Bavel, came to Yerushalayim." In the fifth month, on the tenth of the month. What is the fifth month? Av. So Nevuzaradan arrives and stands in Yerushalayim. "And he burned the house of Hashem and the house of the king and all the houses of Yerushalayim, and every great house he burned with fire." This is the source here for what happened on the ninth of Av. Chazal say it was not on the ninth; it is written on the tenth of the month, on the tenth. So how do we say the ninth? Chazal say the beginning of the burning was on the ninth; the main burning of the House of our God was on the tenth. But Chazal said the beginning of the calamity is the hardest thing, and therefore we go by the beginning and make the fast on the ninth. With all this, on the tenth we have the custom not to eat meat until midday. Why? Because the main burning of the House of our God was on the tenth.
"And every great house he burned with fire" - it is already written that he burned the house of Hashem. What is "every great house"? Chazal say it refers to the centers of Torah, the centers of prayer, the study halls, the synagogues, the places where Torah and prayer are cultivated; all of it he burned with fire. "And all the walls of Yerushalayim round about, all the Chaldean force that was with the chief executioner tore down." So that they would have no hope, they went and demolished the walls that still remained, apart from what had sunk into the ground; all that remained they demolished, so they would not think perhaps we will succeed in overcoming, perhaps in the future, nothing. "And of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the defectors who had gone over to the king of Bavel" - meaning those who went to defect to the king of Bavel to tell him we surrender to you. "And the rest of the multitude, Nevuzaradan the chief executioner exiled. But of the poorest of the land Nevuzaradan the chief executioner left some as vinedressers and farmers." He says even, even those who came to surrender to him, all of them, the rest of the multitude, meaning the rest of the people; only those people who were the poorest of the land, such as posed no risk of rebelling against him, those he left. As vinedressers and farmers, to continue working the land, so that the land would not lie desolate. So that there would not be desolation. But all the rest he exiled. Now he will describe to us what he took from there.
"And the bronze pillars that were in the house of Hashem" - there were two bronze pillars, Yachin and Boaz. "And the stands" - the stands were the lavers, as we learned. "And the bronze sea" - a huge sea, an enormous bronze basin, where they would wash their hands and feet. "That were in the house of Hashem, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all their bronze to Bavel." It was not possible to take it whole, since it was enormous. So they broke it and took its fragments as bronze; bronze is a precious material, they took it to Bavel. About these pillars it is written that Yirmiyahu lamented, "the adversary spread his hand over all her treasures, for she saw nations entering her sanctuary."
"And the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the ladles and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered, they took. And the firepans and the fire-holders and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the ladles and the bowls, whatever was of gold as gold and whatever was of silver as silver, the chief executioner took." As for "sippim," some say these are musical instruments, some say they are vessels in which they received the blood. Some say "sippim" is a term for jugs, jars. They take all of it. The firepans, with which they rake up and lift the coals from off the altar. The lampstands, it is written that Shlomo made five additional menorahs; all these menorahs they take. The bowls, these are like golden rods on which they would place the showbread so that it would air out and not spoil, because it was warm all the time. It was hot, not heated; it itself was hot all the time. Whether of gold or of silver, whatever was of gold as gold and whatever was of silver as silver, he took all of it, he left nothing. "The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen." What were the oxen? On what did the sea stand? On twelve, on twelve oxen made of bronze. Right? On them the sea stood. Yes. "Which were beneath the stands that King Shlomo had made for the house of Hashem, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight." All these vessels could not be weighed, it was a tremendous quantity. "And the pillars, eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a cord of twelve cubits encircled it, and its thickness was four fingers, hollow. And a capital of bronze upon it, and the height of the capital" - this is the upper part which is the capital - "and the height of the one capital was five cubits, and a network and pomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze, and the like for the second pillar, and pomegranates." That is, it tells you how beautiful it was, how magnificent it was; all of this they took, dismantled, took everything. "And the pomegranates were ninety-six to a side, all the pomegranates a hundred upon the network all around." All the pomegranates were ninety-six per side, meaning on each side ninety-six. All the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network all around. A tremendous quantity.
"And the chief executioner took Serayah the chief priest and Tzefanyah the deputy priest and the three keepers of the threshold." All these, the Kohen Gadol, and the deputy of the priests who was appointed under him, in case the Kohen Gadol should become ritually impure and be unable to serve, they place the deputy in his stead, as we read in the Yom Kippur prayer. All of them, all of them he took. "And from the city he took one official who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men of those who saw the king's face who were found in the city" - meaning important people, those who saw the king's face. "And the scribe of the army commander who mustered the people of the land" - the scribe who would record all the affairs of the army commander. "And sixty men of the people of the land who were found within the city" - all these he takes with him. "And Nevuzaradan the chief executioner took them and brought them to the king of Bavel at Rivlah. And the king of Bavel struck them and put them to death at Rivlah in the land of Chamat, and Yehudah was exiled from its land."
"And Yehudah was exiled." Here it is written "and Yehudah was exiled" (masculine). How does Yirmiyahu say it? "Yehudah has gone into exile from affliction" (feminine). Why here the masculine form and there the feminine? Chazal say, since they went into exile their strength weakened like that of a woman. Therefore there it uses the feminine form for exile. It is told that Plato, the Greek philosopher, came to Yerushalayim with Nevuchadnetzar after the destruction. And he entered the Temple, the place of the destruction, and he sees the fires, the sooty timbers, he sees, he sees Yirmiyahu the prophet weeping and raising a voice of wailing and lamentation over the destruction. He asked him two questions. Plato asked Yirmiyahu two questions. First, you are the wise man of Israel, why do you weep over wood and stones? So a house is gone, a house less; build a new house. What is the story? It is only a house. Second, he tells him, the house is already destroyed. Is it fitting for a person to weep over the past? What was, was. It is finished. Yirmiyahu answered him, he told him: surely you have many doubts about which you are uncertain and which have not been resolved for you. He said, indeed it is so, and I believe that no one in the world can resolve my doubts. See how humble this Plato was. Yirmiyahu said to him, tell me those doubts. He told him all his doubts, and Yirmiyahu resolved them for him effortlessly. What we call today, off the cuff. Plato was astounded and wondered, is this one born of woman? Or is this an angel? What tremendous divine wisdom. Yirmiyahu told him, all my wisdom I drew from these stones. From this house. From the Divine Presence that rested here. From here I drew all my wisdom. Now do you understand that I do not weep over stones and wood? Now do you understand that I weep over the loss, over the enormous spiritual absence that we received in the wake of the destruction of the Temple? Do you understand that this is not merely weeping over some physical lack, but weeping over the spiritual lack that we have suffered? This we must remember on the ninth of Av. This is the grief, over the spiritual lack. Over the fact that since the destruction a barrier of iron has been spread between us and our Father in heaven, this is the grief.
"This is the people whom Nevuchadretzar exiled: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews. In the eighteenth year of Nevuchadretzar, from Yerushalayim, eight hundred thirty-two persons. In the twenty-third year of Nevuchadretzar" - see, a third time he comes, arrived - "Nevuzaradan the chief executioner exiled seven hundred forty-five Jewish persons; all the persons were four thousand six hundred." Here it begins to tell you who was exiled, from the exile of Yechanyah until the final exile, how many were exiled in each and every generation.
"And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yehoyachin king of Yehudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Bavel, in the year he became king, lifted up the head of Yehoyachin king of Yehudah and brought him out of the prison house." In the 37th year of Yehoyachin's exile, Evil-Merodach, the son of Nevuchadnetzar, begins to reign. What does he do when he begins to reign? First he takes the bones of his father and drags them. He commanded to take them out of the grave. Why? To make sure he really was dead, and not joking. Why? The previous time, Nevuchadnetzar, I told you, it had been decreed upon him that he would be like the birds of the sky and like the beasts of the earth, and he was banished into the forest. Evil-Merodach rose to reign, and his father returned, and put him in prison. Why did you rise to reign? I am the boss here. A second time he was afraid. Therefore he came and said, I want to take him out of the pit, I want to see for sure that he is totally dead, that he will never rise again. "And he spoke kindly to him." So now he grants amnesty. Evil-Merodach takes Yehoyachin out of prison. And he spoke kindly to him, meaning besides releasing him, he spoke good words to him. Some say he spoke words of wisdom with him, and saw that his wisdom was great. "And he set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Bavel." They place - like, like a viceroy to the king. Above all the thrones of the kings. "And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him regularly all the days of his life." He changed his prison garments, meaning, some say he gave him different clothes, this is the plain meaning of the verse. Some say he left the striped clothes, the prisoners' striped garments, yes, some say he left these clothes and put royal garments over them. Why? So as always to remember the destruction of Yerushalayim. "And he ate bread before him regularly all the days of his life." It is written he ate bread before him regularly; Chazal say he ate bread before him but not with him. Why? He did not defile himself with the king's rations, to eat food that is forbidden. Rather they would cook in Yehoyachin's house and bring it to the king's house. "And his allowance, a regular allowance, was given to him by the king of Bavel, a daily portion each day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life." He was not satisfied with one meal a day, but morning and evening he would bring him a regular meal. From him, from Yehoyachin, descended the heads of the exile and the office of the Nasi, the Geonim of Sura and Pumbedita; all were from the root of Tzidkiyahu.
There was an incident with Rabbi Avraham HaLevi, who saw in his dream Yirmiyahu the prophet, holding in his hand a pitcher of water, and he asks him to pour water on his hands. So he requested in the dream. Rabbi Avraham HaLevi was afraid, and meanwhile the image of Yirmiyahu vanished in his dream. He came to tell this story to the holy Arizal, to ask him the meaning of the dream. The holy Arizal told him, what a pity for this precious opportunity. Yirmiyahu is a Kohen. He asked you to wash his hands because Rabbi Avraham was a Levi. Rabbi Avraham HaLevi. The Levi gives the hands to the Kohen. He tells him, had you done so, the redemption would have come immediately. Do you hear what an opportunity missed.
Yes. Here, essentially, here the book of Yirmiyahu has concluded. With your permission, we have a few more minutes, I would like to read to you a Midrash that serves as a completion to what we just learned. The Midrash is found in the Pesikta Rabbati, section 26. "And the famine grew severe in the city," as we read in verse 6. And the daughters of Zion would gather in the marketplaces and would see one another. Meaning, joining together, seeing, going about. One says to her friend, why did you go out to the market? For you have never gone out to the market in your life. You are going out to the market? You have messengers, servants, why on earth did you go out? And she says to her, why should I hide it from you? Meaning, what do I have to conceal? I will not hide it from you, the blow of famine is severe, I cannot bear it. And they hold on to one another and go back and search throughout the city and find nothing. And they would embrace the pillars and die upon them at the head of every corner. And their infants nursing at their breast, they would crawl on their hands and their feet. Each and every one recognized his mother and would climb up and take her breast and put it in his mouth, hoping perhaps he might draw milk. And he does not draw, and his soul is torn, and he dies in his mother's bosom. To fulfill what is said, "as their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom." At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Yirmiyahu, arise, go to Anatot and buy the field from Chanamel your cousin. Do you remember? At that moment Yirmiyahu thought in his heart, perhaps the Omnipresent is going to restore her, and business is being conducted within her, that the Omnipresent tells me go buy yourself the field. Perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, will have mercy on us; perhaps He is actually telling me, listen, go make acquisitions in the land, the redemption is imminent. As Yirmiyahu left Yerushalayim, an angel descended from heaven and set his feet on the wall of Yerushalayim and breached it. He called out and said, let the enemies come and enter a house whose master is not within it, and plunder it and destroy it. And let them enter a vineyard and cut down its vines, for its keeper has left it and gone. Why, why did the angel come and call to them, as it were summoning them? So that you, the Babylonians, would not boast and say, you conquered it. A conquered city you conquered, a slain people you killed. The enemies came and set up their platform on the Temple Mount. They held their council there, they held it within the Temple Mount. They went and ascended to the central platform, the place where King Shlomo would sit and take counsel from the elders. A holy place where the king would sit. From there where the Temple was perfected, there the enemies sat and took counsel how to burn the Temple. From where is it best to start burning it? How to do it? Until they took counsel among themselves, they raised their eyes and behold, four angels descending, and in their hands four torches of fire, and they placed them at the four corners of the sanctuary and burned it. In order to show them, you did not do this; it is the sins of Israel, do not be proud. When the Kohen Gadol saw that the Temple was burning, he took the keys and threw them heavenward. He opened his mouth and said, here are the keys of Your house, I was a faithless steward within it. Meaning, as if to say, I did not do my work faithfully, a steward is supposed to be responsible, and I was not responsible in my work faithfully, I was not responsible, and behold, therefore it burned. He went out to leave, the enemies seized him and slaughtered him beside the altar, the place where he would offer the daily sacrifice. His daughter came out fleeing and shrieking, woe is me, father, delight of my eyes; they seized her and slaughtered her and mingled her blood with her father's blood. When the priests and Levites saw that the Temple was burning, they took the harps and the trumpets and fell into the fire and were burned. When the maidens who wove the curtain, this was their work, saw that the Temple was burning, they fell into the fire and were burned so that the enemies would not torment them. When Tzidkiyahu saw this, he went out to flee through the tunnel that led to Yericho. He reached the place where the water channel came, and he was weary, and his sons walked ahead. Suddenly Nevuzaradan saw him. He seized him and his ten sons, and Nevuzaradan sent them to Nevuchadnetzar. And he said to him, say to Tzidkiyahu, what did you see that you rebelled against me? By what law? If by the law of your God, you deserve death, for you swore falsely. We saw that he swore to him not to rebel against him. If by the law of the kingdom, you deserve death, for anyone who violates a king's oath deserves death. So Tzidkiyahu answered him, kill me first, kill me first so that I do not see the blood of my sons. And his sons plead, kill us first so that we do not see the blood of our father spilled on the ground. And so he did to them. He slaughtered them before him, and afterward he gouged out his eyes, he removed his eyes, may Hashem have mercy, and put them in a furnace. And he brought him to Bavel. And Tzidkiyahu was crying out and saying, come and see, all people, that Yirmiyahu prophesied about me and told me, to Bavel you shall go, and in Bavel you shall die, and Bavel your eyes shall not see. And I would not heed his words. How is it possible? I will die in Bavel, they will take me to Bavel and I will not see Bavel? It is a paradox. Now I see it has been fulfilled for me exactly. And behold I am in Bavel, I am now in Bavel and my eyes do not see it. Word for word as the prophet said, one to one it was fulfilled. Yirmiyahu the prophet went to make the purchase of the field, now he returns. Yirmiyahu the prophet left Anatot to come to Yerushalayim, raised his eyes and saw the smoke of the Temple rising. See what this is, how, how he was still naive. He said in his heart, perhaps Israel has repented, to offer sacrifices? For the smoke of the incense is rising. Behold, they have repented, sacrifices, thank God, he sees smoke from the place of the Temple. He came and stood on the wall and saw the Temple made into heaps upon heaps of stones. Meaning, piles upon piles of stones, and the wall of Yerushalayim shut up. He began to cry out and say, You enticed me, Hashem, and I was enticed; You overpowered me and prevailed. You enticed me, that is, the Midrash says that, as it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to do something and did not want Yirmiyahu to see it, lest perhaps he try to annul it, so He enticed him to leave, did what He did, and now Yirmiyahu, you may arrive. Do you understand? So this, as it were, was the deed. You enticed me and I was enticed, You enticed me to leave and so I left. He went on his way, began to cry out and say, by which road did the sinners go? By which road did the lost ones go? Let me go and be lost with them. He was walking and seeing the path full of blood, and the ground drenched with the blood of her slain from here and from there, from all those whom Nevuzaradan had exiled. He set his face to the ground and saw the footprints of nursing infants and babes who walked in captivity. And he would bend down to the ground and kiss them, they were already dead. When he reached the exiles, when he reached the exiles he embraced them and kissed them. He wept before them and they before him. He answered and said to them, my brothers and my people, all this befell you because you would not heed the words of my prophecy. Meaning, why did you not listen then? When he reached the Euphrates River, Nevuzaradan answered and said to him, if it is good in your eyes to come with me to Bavel, come. If not, remain here; you, remember? He received a visa from Nevuchadnetzar. Yirmiyahu thought in his heart and said, if I go with them to Bavel, there is no comforter for the exile of those who remain of them. Those who remained in the land, who will comfort them? He left them, and the exiles raised their eyes and saw that Yirmiyahu had parted from them. Now he has returned with us, and suddenly they see that he is leaving. They all burst into weeping with a great voice and cried out and said, our father Yirmiyahu, are you abandoning us? So there they wept, as it is written, "by the rivers of Bavel, there we sat, we also wept." When Yirmiyahu left them. And Yirmiyahu answered and said to them, I call heaven and earth to witness, had you wept one weeping while you were yet in Zion, you would not have been exiled. Yirmiyahu was walking and weeping and thus he said, woe for you, precious among the provinces. Thus he was walking and weeping over their state, over the deterioration of the people of Israel. One weeping could have changed everything. May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us all, that with Hashem's help in these days that we are about to reach, that even before then the Holy One, blessed be He, will build for us the Temple, and if we do not merit it, then perhaps we should weep a little in these days, and through this we will merit that the Temple be built speedily, amen and amen.