#yirmiyahu

[magnetothemagnificent]

כֹּ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהֹ-וָ֗ה ק֣וֹל בְּרָמָ֤ה נִשְׁמָע֙ נְהִי֙ בְּכִ֣י תַמְרוּרִ֔ים רָחֵ֖ל מְבַכָּ֣ה עַל־בָּנֶ֑יהָ מֵאֲנָ֛ה לְהִנָּחֵ֥ם עַל־בָּנֶ֖יהָ כִּ֥י אֵינֶֽנּוּ׃ {ס}        

Thus said YHVH:

A cry is heard in Ramah—

Wailing, bitter weeping—

Rachel weeping for her children.

She refuses to be comforted

For her children, who are gone.

כֹּ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהֹ-וָ֗ה מִנְעִ֤י קוֹלֵךְ֙ מִבֶּ֔כִי וְעֵינַ֖יִךְ מִדִּמְעָ֑ה כִּי֩ יֵ֨שׁ שָׂכָ֤ר לִפְעֻלָּתֵךְ֙ נְאֻם־יְהֹ-וָ֔ה וְשָׁ֖בוּ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ אוֹיֵֽב׃

Thus said YHVH:

Restrain your voice from weeping,

Your eyes from shedding tears;

For there is a reward for your labor

—declares YHVH:

They shall return from the enemy’s land.

וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָ֥ה לְאַחֲרִיתֵ֖ךְ נְאֻם־יְהֹ-וָ֑ה וְשָׁ֥בוּ בָנִ֖ים לִגְבוּלָֽם׃

And there is hope for your future

—declares YHVH:

Your children shall return to their borders.

[Yirmiyahu 31: 15-17]

These passages were part of the Haftarah read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, just a few days ago. I hope and pray we will see them come true.

[uchcrivens]

Thinking about how in hebrew Yirmiyahu has the "yahoo!" At the end of his name....and when they translated it to English they just made it Jeremiah...no more yahoo! No wonder he's so sad he's a prophet maybe Hashem Showed him.....m I wish Yirmiyahu knew I say yahoo! When I see his name... I'm so sorry Yirmiyahu ...like on top of everything he had to deal with there's this too

[rebbestorah]

Seeking Aleph

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹקִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ (בראשית א, א) In the beginning, G-d created the heaven and the earth (Beraishis 1:1)

The first letter in the Torah is a ב—the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Since everything in the Torah is precise, the Torah’s start with the second letter of the alphabet, not the first, indicates that the studied word of the Torah is only Part 2, and we must preface our study with Part 1.

What is the Torah’s Part 1?

The prophet Yirmiyahu lamented the exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel, saying, “Why is the land ruined, withered like a wilderness, with no one passing through? Said G-d, because they have forsaken My Torah” (Yirmiyahu 9:11-12). The Talmud (Bava Metzia 85b) discusses this verse and asserts that, in fact, the Jews in Yirmiyahu’s era studied the Torah. Nevertheless, says the Talmud, the abandonment of G-d’s Torah that Yirmiyahu referred to was, “that they did not first utter the blessing over the Torah [before studying it].” As the commentaries explain, their neglect of thebracha indicated that though they appreciated the Torah’s wisdom, they did not focus on the Torah’s holiness, its Divine origin (see Bach, Orach Chaim 47).

This passage in the Talmud teaches us that studying and understanding the Torah’s teachings is only one aspect of our relationship with the Torah. Before approaching the Torah with our tools of intellect, however, we must establish and affirm the other aspect of our relationship with the Torah, our primary objective in Torah study—to attach ourselves to the divinity of the Torah that transcends human comprehension. As the Talmud emphasizes, we must “first utter the blessing over the Torah,” in which we bless and acknowledge G-d, “the Giver of the Torah.”

Once we are committed to unifying ourselves with the “Giver of the Torah,” we can then proceed to Part 2—the letter ב of בראשית, with which our reading and understanding of the Torah begins.

—Likutei Sichos, vol. 15, pp. 1-3

[thenamegarden]

Yirmiyahu

Gender: Male

Pronunciation: yeer-mi-YAH-hoo

Origin: Hebrew

Meaning: God has uplifted

Ranking in the US top 1000: Not ranked

[he-harim]

I finished my dvar Torah (dvar haftorah) on teshuvah!!

In this week's haftorah, Yirmiyahu perek bet, there is a pasuk (22) reading "Though you wash with natron, and use much lye, your guilt is ingrained before me". This seems to introduces a troubling idea: that G-d sometimes does not accept teshuva.

In fact, this pasuk is used in the story of Elisha ben Avuyah haAcher; after he loses his faith, his student Rabbi Meir persuades him to go round schools asking children to recite verses, in the hopes that they will make Acher do teshuva: instead, HaShem makes all the children say verses with themes of lasting sin or rejection of teshuva, and this is one of them.

This idea seems incongruous with the G-d we daven to; in the Amidah, in fact, we say of G-d haratze biteshuva, You desire teshuva. So why is the teshuva of israel not accepted? It’s not that Israel’s repentance is insincere, certainly – lye is a very harsh chemical & can cause burns, and the general image of trying to wash away sin evokes a mad Lady Macbeth; it’s very clear that Israel wants to be cleansed and free of sin, so why won’t HaShem accept the teshuva?

The answer is that, like the Shakespearean heroine, whilst they regret their sin and its punishment they have not done teshuva. Just as Lady Macbeth never confesses or makes any attempt to atone, even though she is literally driven mad by guilt, Israel are going about repentance in completely the wrong way. After you sin, HaShem doesn’t want you to sit and cry and pity or hate yourself; HaShem wants you to get up and try to mend it, and resolve to do better next time.

The way this is shown in this Haftorah is through repeated images of G-d as water; in verse 13, when G-d self-identifies as "מְקוֹר מַיִם חַיִּים (the Fount of living waters)". Israel were self-afflicting with the caustic lye, not self-cleansing with the living waters.

As the Nine Days approach, may all our teshuva be accepted by G-d and in its merit may the Temple soon be rebuilt.

[he-harim]

hey im writing 2 dvar torahs each w a super short deadline so if anyone has any insights on 

ideas of teshuva in this weeks haftorah or in general

or

why haShem created humans

then share the knowledge