Yirmiyah 25-30
Perek Summaries:
Perek 25: Prophecy in the fourth year of Yohayakim king of Yehuda. HaShem tells them the evils that will befall them because they have failed to heed HaShem’s Word. The king of Bavel (Nebuchadnezzar) is to come from the north and will exile the people and destroy Yerushalayim.
Perek 26: Yirmiyah is given a message in the courtyard of the Temple, and relays it to the people there. The priests and false prophets arrest Yirmiyah for his prophecy, but the people defend Yirmiyah and he is spared. However, Uriah the prophet, who gave the same message as Yirmiyah, is not so fortunate; he is dragged back from Egypt and put to death for his prophecies.
Perek 27: Prophecy concerning the rule of Nebuchadnezzar via parable of the yoke. Yirmiyah warns the people not to listen to the false prophets.
Perek 28: Hananiah the false prophet tells the people that HaShem will break the yoke of Babylonia and bring the Temple articles back to Yerushalayim. Yirmiyah denies that such a thing will happen, and Hananiah breaks a bar from Yirmiyah’s neck and breaks it to display his message. Yirmiyah conveys HaShem’s message that Hananiah will die, and it so happens.
Perek 29: Yirmiyah send a letter to the elders of the exile telling them that the exile will last 70 years, and that they are not to believe the false prophets. The false prophets are named .
Perek 30: A cheerful prophecy about Messianic times and the re-establishment of the Davidic monarchy . HaShem will cure us even when others have given up on us. HaShem will be our G-D and we will be His People.
DVAR TORAH:
Another short one this week. I just want to point out that in perek 26, the people were able to get Yirmiyah off the hook by saying that Yirmiyah was a true prophet. And the priests who arrested him listened to this claim. We see that deep down, people knew that it was Yirmiyah who was the true prophet, and yet they still did not listen to him. Why/How?
The truth is that we are not so different nowadays; we have plenty of false prophets too, and we do not listen to the true prophets. For example, we know that the true prophets are those that tell us that parnassah is accorded to us (assuming we do out hishtadlus), and working day and night does not necessarily increase the parnassah that HaShem has fixed for us. But what do the false prophets say? They say that we are to work day and night, and that’s the way we make money (some call it the American dream; others call it the slave trade). And who are we listening to??? Similarly, the true prophets tell us that we are to give ma’aser (a tenth) to tzedaka, and this will actually do good things for our wealth (gemarra), but the false prophets tell us to keep all our money for ourselves. And who do we listen to???
There are plenty of other examples, but I think the point is clear.
