INTRODUCTION TO SEFER YIRMIYAH
Yirmiyah lived during the times of the First Beis Hamikdash. His life was a hard one; he lived during the time of false prophets, who set out to undermine his prophecies and turn the people against him. Thus, the people did not listen to his prophecies that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed. He was eventually put into a dungeon, and only upon the destruction of Jerusalem was he set free. He did not live to see his prophecy of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the end of exile fulfilled; seventy years later. He wrote the megillah of Eichah mourning the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdash. Upon the destruction of Yerushalayim, Yirmiyah originally went with his brothers into captivity and exile, but decided to remain to comfort the remnants of the people who stayed in Eretz Yisrael. We will end with one note of the greatness of Yirmiyah. The Yad Hamelech asks that any book in Nach must be written by a proven, reputable prophet, and whilst he is still under the inspiration of ruach hakodesh. But we have a rule that (gemarra Shabbos 30b) this holy spirit only settles on a person when he is in a state of simcha, not sadness. If so, how could Yirmiyah write the mournful book of Eichah (and indeed Yirmiyah); surely he did not have ruach hakodesh if he was in a state of sadness at his mourning the destruction of the Temple? The Yad Hamelech answers that the rule of the gemarra Shabbos needs a refined understanding. The reason that prophetic spirit does not descend upon a person who is in a state of sadness is because someone who is sad/depressed is normally focussed on themselves and their own problems. This takes away from one’s greatness, for one is only focussed on themselves, and thus one is not on a spiritually fitting level to welcome a state of prophecy and closeness to HaShem. But Yirmiyah was not focussed on his own problems in his sadness and mourning. On the contrary, he was worrying about the state of Klal Yisrael and their relationship with HaShem. This did not deduct from his greatness, but actually showed his greatness and selflessness, and so he was able to be infused with a Divine spirit to be able to write Eichah.
I want to end by repeating something we said at the start of sefer Yeshaya. The gemarra (Megillah 14a) tells us that there are 55 recorded Jewish prophets in our history; 48 men and 7 women. However, says the gemarra, there were over a million prophets across our history whose prophecies were not recorded. What was the criteria for which prophecies would go down in history as recorded? Says the gemarra that only those prophecies which had relevance for [all] future generations were recorded. One can see from here that our approach to learning the prophecies here is not to regard the messages as archaic, out of date, and irrelevant, but on the contrary, to realise that the reason for these prophecies having been written down is that they are relevant to us.
Sefer Yirmiyah is much shorter than Sefer Yeshaya, so it should be easier to stay on track. I hope we all get something from sefer Yirmiyah. And let me know if you want to write a summary/dvar torah email.
