In this week’s Haftara from
Yirmiyahu, Chapter 1, we read about God choosing Yirmiyahu to become the
prophet.
In verse 10, God tells Yirmiyahu:
“See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to
uproot and to smash, and to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Nehama Leibowitz brings the Malbim’s
commentary to explain how a kingdom is compared to a house, because it is a
structure made by man putting one stone on top of another, as a kingdom is
gradually built up. In contrast, the nation is an organic natural growth (like
a forest bringing forth trees). This verse sets the prophet over the nations
and kingdoms- over the nations to uproot and destroy, over the kingdoms to pull
down and demolish.
This order- placing destruction
before construction- corresponds to the operation of removing evil before doing
good. Rebuilding and replanting can have no permanency as long as the old have
not been uprooted and pulled down.
Alshich explains:
The purpose of your prophecies is
not to uproot and pull down but to prompt them to repent and mend their ways
since they possess free will. Even the prophecy of uprooting and pulling down
has the constructive purpose of building and planting, since the evil tidings-
their retributions and failure to repent- is for the purpose of rebuilding and
replanting, to prompt them to mend their ways.
The hope is that the people will
repent before the destruction, but if that does not happen, they will still
have to opportunity to rebuild and replant later.
We are now in the three weeks
leading up to Tisha B’Av. We remember that the Jewish people did not listen to
Yirmiyahu’s words to repent, the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed and the Jewish people
were exiled. The prophecy to rebuild was fulfilled when Ezra and Nechemia came
back to the Land of Israel and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. Yet the
people transgressed again, the Second Temple was also destroyed and the Jewish
people were sent into exile.
Yet here we are today, against all
odds, back in the Land of Israel, once again fulfilling Yirmiyahu’s prophecy “to
build and to plant.” May we continue to cherish the State of Israel, the first
flowerings of our redemption and may the Third Beit HaMikdash be rebuilt
speedily in our days.
