Although we are reading different
Parshiot this Shabbat in Israel and outside of Israel, the Haftarot are the
same, as this week’s Haftara is the first of the three Haftarot leading up to
Tisha B’Av which prophecize the destruction of Jerusalem.
When Menachem Begin was elected as
Prime Minister of Israel in 1977, he used a quote from this week’s Haftara
(Yirmiyahu 1:1-2:3) changing around the last few words of the quote in order to
give his wife credit for his victory: “I remember for your sake the kindness of
your youth, the love of your bridal days, your following after me in the wilderness
in a land sown with mines.”
The full quote from Yirmiyahu 2:2
states: “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus said God: I remember
for your sake the chesed (kindness) of your youth, the love of your bridal
days, your following me into the wilderness, in a land not sown.’”
Although most of the Haftara
prophecizes destruction, we are left on a positive note. Due to the merits of B’nai
Yisrael at the time of the exodus from Egypt, God will always forgive the
Jewish people.
What was the loving kindness that B’nai
Yisrael did in their youth?
According to Rashi, it is that they
followed Moshe and Aharon from a settled land to a wilderness without anything
but their belief in God.
Radak points out that the good
merits that B’nai Yisrael had back then will help them in the future.
We see how B’nai Yisrael followed
Moshe in Shmot 15:22 “Moshe led B’nai Yisrael away from the Reed Sea and they
went out into the desert of Shur…”
Nehama Leibowitz adds that because
of the loving kindness that B’nai Yisrael did back then, the nation will never
fully be destroyed.
Shadal brings a different approach
explaining that it is not only the loving kindness that the Jewish people did,
it was also the loving kindness that God did for them by taking care of them in
the desert. In this way, we see that chesed is reciprocal, the person who is
giving is also receiving and vice versa.
These three weeks between the 17th
of Tamuz and the 9th of Av are the perfect opportunity for us to
emulate God and our forefathers and focus on performing acts of loving kindness
which will in turn lead us to the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash.
