Yirmiyah 43-48
It was an interesting combination of a few long perakim and a few very short ones this week.
PEREK SUMMARIES:
Perek 43: The people are in denial about Yirmiyah’s prophetic message to prevent the people from living in Egypt. The people do go down to live in Egypt. Yirmiyah delivers a prophetic message to the people that Nebuchadnezzar will come to Egypt and destroy the country, and the Jews will be included in this destruction.
Perek 44: HaShem’s message of destruction to the Jews of Egypt due to their idolatrous practices. The people refuse to listen to Yirmiyah, and profess to continue these practices.
Perek 45: A reiteration of Yirmiyah’s writing of megillas Eichah. This perek seems to have been talking about the times prior to the destruction of Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim. Yirmiyah tells of his pain, and HaShem promises to destroy the Land.
Perek 46: The book changes tone and addresses the nations of the world; reminiscent of some of the earlier chapters of Yeshayah (see Yeshayah perakim 19-21 and 23). The destruction of Egypt is described.
Perek 47: Yirmiyah moves on to the destruction of the Philistines
Perek 42: The destruction of Moav in its final judgement in Messianic times.
DVAR TORAH:
The first perek this week concerned the people’s failure to accept Yirmiyah’s prophecy telling the people not to go down to live in Egypt. There is an interesting question to be asked here. The Rambam paskens (hilchos Melachim 5:7) that the Torah prohibits Jews to live in Egypt. If so, why didn’t Yirmiyah just tell the people that there is a negative biblical prohibition to live in Egypt; why did he have to ask for a prophecy from HaShem to then tell the people that it was not a good idea to live in Egypt? Here are a few answers (pure guesses). Let me know if you have anything more substantial…
1) The people would not have listened to Yirmiyah had he told them that there was a Torah prohibition. But they might have listened had he told them that he received a message directly from HaShem telling them not to go to Egypt.
2) An answer via another question. We know that the Rambam himself lived in Egypt; how could he, if there is a prohibition to live there!?! The Haga’os Maimonios (on hilchos Melachim 5:7) quotes the Re’em, who says that it is only prohibited to go from the Land of Israel to live in Egypt, but not from other lands. And since the Rambam came to Egypt from Spain, there’s no problem. The Radbaz there (who incidentally also lived in Egypt for a time) disagrees, and gives 2 alternative answers, from which we can answer our question. Either a) that the Rambam was forced to live there by the king of Egypt (the Rambam was the personal physician of the king). And perhaps the people in Yirmiyah’s times argued that they were also forced to live in Egypt to save their lives; and so the prohibition doesn’t apply. Or b) that the prohibition is only to live in Egypt in a permanent manner (‘permanent residence’), but people going there temporarily are OK. This is why the Rambam and the Radbaz could both have lived in Egypt. Perhaps, therefore, the people who wanted to go down to Egypt in Yirmiyah’s times planned to return to the Land of Israel when it was safe to do so, and this would be considered a mere temporary residence in Egypt, and so the prohibition did not apply to them.
