By Rabbi
Oury Cherki,
Machon Meir, Rabbi of Beit Yehuda Congregation, Jerusalem
The
Maharal explains that the destruction of the Temple cannot be blamed on sins of
the people, because the destruction and the exile is a "momentous
matter," and such momentous occurrences do not depend on random events.
(Netzach Yisrael, Chapter 2). Sin has a random quality as part of reality,
since the very nature of mankind in general and of the people of Yisrael in
particular is basically internal good which cannot be overcome by sin. Thus,
the true reason for the exile can only be seen as part of a Divine plan of
history, which first began with the "Covenant of the Pieces" that G-d
made with Avraham.
However,
there is a limiting level of sin which can be viewed as providing a secondary
reason for the exile. On the other hand, an increase in the number of sins
cannot be sufficient reason for the destruction of the Temple and the kingdom,
since every individual sinner could be punished without a need for destroying
the political structure. Rather, destruction will only come about when all the
elements of the government become so rotten that the continuation of the
governmental authority serves only to enhance the spoilage. There are four
branches in the Hebrew government: the king ("melech" - the
political government), the judges ("shofet" - behavior
according to the Torah), the priesthood ("kohen" – religious
rituals), and the prophet ("navi" – ethical behavior). The
acronym of these four elements is "Mishkan" – the Tabernacle.
In this week's Haftara, Yirmiyahu criticizes the nation: "The priests did
not say, Where is G-d, the teachers of Torah (the judges) did not know Me, the
leaders (government) sinned against Me, and the prophets prophesied for
Baal" [2:8]. If at least one of the branches had remained pure, there
would still have been hope. But the only remaining prophet, Yirmiyahu, was
being pursued by the king.
The
wonder expressed by the prophecy cries out for an answer: "Has any nation
replaced its gods, even though they are not real gods? My nation has replaced
its glory without any purpose." [2:11]. The answer to this is the
comparison that the prophet made: "Pass through the islands of the
Chitites, send to Kedar, and look in depth" [2:10]. The Talmud explains
that the Chitites who live close to the sea worship fire, and Kedar, who dwelt
in the desert, worshipped water. Thus, every nation views what it lacks as an
ideal. The same is true for the Christian nations of Europe, who inherited from
Rome the collective tendency to spill blood, and who worship the ideals of
love, and for the nations of the east, which have a positive attitude towards
stealing and illicit sex, who have accepted the judgement against them. And the
nation of Yisrael, which is very prone to disagreements, shows great admiration
for the concept of unity (source: Rabbi Yehuda Ashkenazi, based on the words of
the Maharal). If the essential unity is lacking and the leaders of the nation
do not teach the unique traits of G-d, the nation reverts to its divisive
behavior, and this shows up as idol worship.
Exile
itself leads to religious behavior that borders on paganism. "And there
you will worship gods... of wood and stone" [Devarim 4:28]. This shows a
link to the Christians, who worship a wooden symbol, and to Islam, which
worships around the Kaaba stone. And that is what Yirmiyahu says: "They
say to wood, You are my father, and to stone, You gave birth to us"
[2:27]. The continuation, "for they have turned their backs to me and not
their faces" [ibid], is geared towards the era without any prophecy, which
leads to the world of philosophy, until after the Holocaust when "in the
time of their stress they will say, Rise up and rescue us!" [ibid].
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