Navi

Yirmiyahu HaNavi

ירמיהו הנביא

The Kohen of Anasos who warned Yerushalayim for forty years, wept over its fall, and wrote Eichah, Melachim and his own sefer.

YahrzeitNot recorded

LifetimeProphesied from 3298 (the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu) until after the Churban of 3338 from Creation (c. 463–423 BCE, traditional chronology)

Biography

A Kohen of Anasos

Yirmiyahu HaNavi zy"a, the prophet who warned Yerushalayim for forty years and wept over its destruction, was the son of Chilkiyahu, one of the Kohanim of Anasos in the land of Binyamin. Chazal teach that his family descended from Rachav, the woman of Yericho who hid the spies of Yehoshua and joined the Jewish people. Eight prophets who were also Kohanim came from her, among them Yirmiyahu, his father Chilkiyahu, his cousin Chanamel and his faithful scribe Boruch ben Neriyah.

When people scorned that lineage, the Midrash says, the verse named his father and his priestly family in its first words. Rashi hears a rebuke in them: let the son of a woman who mended her ways come and rebuke the children of a holy lineage who corrupted theirs.

In the thirteenth year of King Yoshiyahu the word of Hashem came to him: before I formed you in the womb I knew you; I have made you a prophet to the nations. The young Kohen pulled back. I do not know how to speak, he said, for I am only a youth. Rashi explains his fear: Moshe Rabbeinu rebuked Israel only at the end of his life, after the sea had split and the mann had fallen; how could a newcomer begin with rebuke? The Midrash gives Hashem's answer: a youth is just what I love, as it says, when Israel was a youth I loved him.

Hashem touched his mouth and put His words there. He showed him a branch of an almond tree, shaked, for I am shoked, watchful to bring My word about; the Midrash adds that the almond ripens in twenty-one days, as many as the days from the seventeenth of Tammuz to Tishah B'Av. And He gave him his strength: I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar and walls of bronze. They will fight you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you.

A Fortified City Against the Land

Yirmiyahu prophesied for forty years, from the days of Yoshiyahu through the reigns of his sons, until the exile of Yerushalayim. The Midrash compares him to Moshe Rabbeinu: each prophesied forty years, each rebuked Yehudah and Israel, each was opposed by men of his own tribe. Moshe was cast into the river and Yirmiyahu into a pit; Moshe was saved by a maidservant and Yirmiyahu by a servant.

He was not alone. The Midrash names three prophets of that generation: Yirmiyahu, who spoke in the marketplaces; Tzefanyah, in the batei knesses; and Chulda, among the women. The school of Rav taught that Chulda was his relative, and Rebbi Yochanan taught that Yirmiyahu brought back the exiles of the ten tribes, and that King Yoshiyahu reigned over them.

Hashem sent him to the gate of the Beis HaMikdash to warn all who came to bow down: do not trust in empty words, the Heichal of Hashem, the Heichal of Hashem. Will you steal and murder and swear falsely, and then stand before Me in this House and say, we are safe? Go to Shiloh, he said, and see what I did there. When he repeated it early in the reign of Yehoyakim, the Kohanim and the false prophets cried that he must die. I am in your hands, he answered, but know that Hashem truly sent me. The elders recalled that Michah had said the same in the days of Chizkiyahu, and Achikam ben Shafan stood by Yirmiyahu and saved him.

The word of Hashem cost him dearly. He was told not to marry or raise children in that place. Pashchur, the officer of the Beis HaMikdash, had him beaten and put in the stocks. Yirmiyahu resolved to stop speaking in Hashem's name, but, he said, it was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I could not hold it in.

In the fourth year of Yehoyakim he dictated his prophecies to Boruch, who read them aloud in the Beis HaMikdash on a public fast. The king had the scroll read to him by his fire, cutting off every few columns and throwing them into the flames; Chazal say it was Megillas Eichah. Boruch wrote it all again, and many more words were added.

The Last Days of Yerushalayim

In the days of King Tzidkiyahu, Hashem told Yirmiyahu to wear the bars of a yoke on his neck, a sign to submit to Bavel and live. The prophet Chananya ben Azur broke the bars and announced that Hashem would break the yoke of Bavel within two years. Yirmiyahu answered: Amen, may Hashem do so. But Hashem's reply came: you have broken bars of wood, and made bars of iron in their place. Chananya died that same year.

Tzidkiyahu would not humble himself before the prophet's words. During the siege Yirmiyahu was arrested at the gate as a deserter, beaten and thrown into a dungeon. The king had him brought in secretly and asked: is there a word from Hashem? There is, Yirmiyahu said: you will be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel. He was moved to the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread each day, until the bread in the city ran out. There he bought his cousin's field in Anasos, and there the king's officers lowered him into a pit of mud, until Eved-Melech the Kushi drew him out.

On the ninth of Tammuz, in the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, the walls were breached. The king fled and was captured near Yericho, his sons were slaughtered before his eyes, and he was blinded and led in chains to Bavel. Nevuchadnetzar ordered that Yirmiyahu be cared for. Released from his chains at Ramah and offered a place in Bavel, he chose to stay with the poor remnant in the land, beside Gedalyahu ben Achikam at Mitzpah.

After Gedalyahu was murdered, the frightened survivors begged Yirmiyahu to ask Hashem what to do, swearing to obey. After ten days the answer came: stay in this land, and I will build you and not tear you down. They called him a liar and went down to Egypt, taking Yirmiyahu and Boruch with them. In Egypt he rebuked the exiles one last time for their idolatry, and they answered that they would not listen.

His Enduring Legacy

Tanach does not record Yirmiyahu's passing, and no yahrzeit or kever is known. Seder Olam teaches that when Nevuchadnetzar conquered Egypt, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, he carried Yirmiyahu and Boruch away to Bavel. Hashem had told him not to marry or have children in that place, and Tanach records no wife or children.

He left seforim instead. The Gemara teaches that Yirmiyahu wrote his own sefer, the sefer of Melachim and Megillas Eichah. The Midrash notes that three prophets cried eichah: Moshe, Yeshayahu, and Yirmiyahu, who saw the city sitting alone. He also composed laments for King Yoshiyahu, which singers recited in Israel for generations.

Yet the prophet of destruction was also the prophet of return. He foretold that Bavel would rule seventy years, and Ezra writes that the return under Koresh came to fulfil Yirmiyahu's word. It was Yirmiyahu who heard a voice in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children, and Hashem's answer: hold back your voice from weeping, for your children will return to their border. The Midrash relates that after the Churban, Hashem sent Yirmiyahu to wake the Avos in the Cave of Machpelah and to call Moshe Rabbeinu, and that in the end it was Rachel's plea that moved Hashem to promise the return.

Every year Jews hear his voice again. Two of the three haftaros of the weeks before Tishah B'Av are his words, and on the night of Tishah B'Av his Megillas Eichah is read in every shul. The Noam Elimelech finds in his warning against carrying burdens on Shabbos a call to bring pure thoughts into our tefillos.

Stories

Seventeen Shekels of Silver

Locked in the prison courtyard while Bavel besieged Yerushalayim, Yirmiyahu bought a field, because Hashem promised that fields would be bought again.

It was the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu, and the army of Bavel ringed Yerushalayim. Yirmiyahu sat confined in the courtyard of the guard, punished for saying that the city would fall. Then the word of Hashem came to him: your cousin Chanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to ask you to buy his field in Anasos, for the right of redemption is yours.

Soon Chanamel stood before him in the prison courtyard with exactly those words. Then I knew, Yirmiyahu said, that it was the word of Hashem. In the middle of a siege, with the enemy camped on the very land he was buying, he weighed out seventeen shekels of silver. He wrote the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and handed the sealed copy and the open copy to Boruch ben Neriyah in front of all the Jews in the courtyard. Put them in an earthenware jar, he told Boruch, so that they will last many days. For so says Hashem: houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.

Afterwards he poured out his heart. Master of the world, nothing is too wondrous for You. The siege ramps have reached the city, and You told me: buy the field. Hashem answered: I am Hashem, the God of all flesh; is anything too wondrous for Me? The city would burn, but He would gather His people from every land and plant them here again in faithfulness. Fields will be bought, deeds written and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Binyamin and around Yerushalayim, for I will bring back their captivity.

Source: Yirmiyahu 32:1–44; Seder Olam Rabbah 26. English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition).

Practical lessonBuy a field in the siege

Yirmiyahu signed a deed for land the enemy was standing on, because Hashem had promised a future. Think of one part of your life that feels besieged right now: a child who is struggling, a parnassah that has stalled, a friendship that has gone quiet. This week, make one small investment in its future anyway. Sign up for the class, send the warm message, set aside a little money for the simcha you are still waiting for. Then say quietly, as he did, that nothing is too wondrous for Hashem.

Rags Under the Ropes

When the king's officers left Yirmiyahu to die in a pit of mud, a servant in the palace refused to stay silent, and thought even about how the ropes would feel.

The officers of Tzidkiyahu could no longer bear Yirmiyahu's words. Whoever stays in this city will die, he was telling the people, and whoever goes out to the Chaldeans will live. He is weakening the soldiers, they told the king; he must die. The king answered: he is in your hands. They let Yirmiyahu down on ropes into the pit of Malkiyahu in the courtyard of the guard. There was no water in it, only mud, and Yirmiyahu sank into the mud.

In the palace served a Kushi named Eved-Melech. He went to the king, who was sitting at the gate of Binyamin, and said: these men have done evil to the prophet; he will die of hunger down there, for there is no bread left in the city. The king told him to take thirty men and lift Yirmiyahu out before he died. Eved-Melech first went to a storeroom below the treasury and gathered worn-out rags and old clothes. He let them down on the ropes and called: put the rags under your arms, beneath the ropes. Yirmiyahu did so, and they drew him up out of the pit.

The Midrash adds what the verses leave out. When Eved-Melech first called down, Yirmiyahu did not answer, afraid it was one of his tormentors. Eved-Melech tore his clothes and wept, thinking the prophet was dead, and only his weeping told Yirmiyahu that a friend had come. Chazal explain why he is called the Kushi: just as a Kushi stands out by his skin, he stood out by his good deeds among all the king's servants. Before the city fell, Hashem sent Yirmiyahu to tell him: on that day I will save you, because you trusted in Me.

Source: Yirmiyahu 38:1–13 and 39:15–18; Pesikta Rabbati 26. English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition).

Practical lessonPad the rope

Eved-Melech did not only rescue Yirmiyahu; he thought about how the ropes would feel under his arms. When you help someone this week, think one step further about their comfort and dignity. If you bring a meal, bring it in a dish that need not be returned. If you must correct someone, do it privately and begin with something kind. If you call a friend who is struggling, ask how they are before you offer advice. Help that is padded with care is the help people remember.

Footprints on the Road

The Midrash tells how Yirmiyahu followed the captives of Yerushalayim, kissing the footprints of the children, and then turned back to comfort those who remained.

The Midrash relates that when Yerushalayim fell, Yirmiyahu went out after the captives. As he walked he cried: which way did the sinners go, which way did the lost ones go? Let me go and be lost with them. The road was soaked with blood. He bent low and saw on the ground the small footprints of children and infants who had been marched into captivity, and he bent to the ground and kissed them.

When he caught up with the exiles he embraced them and kissed them, and they wept facing him and he wept facing them. My brothers, my people, he said, all this came upon you because you did not listen to the words of my prophecy.

When they reached the river Euphrates, the captain of the guard offered him a choice: come with me to Bavel, or go wherever you wish. Yirmiyahu thought: if I go with them to Bavel, who will comfort the exiles who are left behind in the land? He turned back. When the captives saw him leaving, they all broke into loud weeping: our father Yirmiyahu, are you leaving us? That, the Midrash says, is the weeping in the verse, by the rivers of Bavel, there we sat and wept. Yirmiyahu answered them: I call heaven and earth to witness, had you wept even one such weeping while you were still in Tziyon, you would never have gone into exile. And Yirmiyahu went on his way, weeping as he went.

Source: Pesikta Rabbati 26; Yirmiyahu 40:1–6. English: The JPS Tanakh (Gender-Sensitive Edition).

Practical lessonGo back for the ones left behind

Yirmiyahu could have gone where he would be honored, but he chose the people no one else would comfort. Think of someone in your circle who has been left behind: a neighbor whose children have all moved away, a friend who did not get the job or the shidduch, a relative after the shivah visitors stopped coming. This week, go back for them. Visit, call, or invite them to your Shabbos table, and let them feel that someone chose to stay.

Teachings

The Burden You Carry Into Shabbos

Yirmiyahu stood at the gates of Yerushalayim and warned: do not carry a burden out of your houses on Shabbos, and do not bring it in through the gates of Yerushalayim. The Noam Elimelech hears in his words a hint about the inner life. The way a person davens all week, with pure thoughts or with scattered ones, is what he brings with him into Shabbos. One who guarded his thoughts through the weekdays receives more and more holiness on Shabbos. But one who let his heart wander finds that all those weekday thoughts pass before him on Shabbos, a heavy load. That is the burden the prophet warned about. Carried into tefillah, those thoughts stand at the entrance of the gates above and hold back the prayers of all Israel. How, the Rebbe asks, can a person not tremble to see how far his sin does harm, to himself and to others?

Noam Elimelech, Bereishis, Vayishlach (on Yirmiyahu 17:21–22)

Practical lessonSet down one weekday burden

Before you light candles or walk to shul this Friday, take one minute to set down the week. Write on a slip of paper the two or three worries most likely to follow you into Shabbos, such as an unanswered email, a bill or an argument, and put the paper in a drawer until after Havdalah. Then, in the week ahead, try to say one tefillah each day, even just Ashrei, with your mind on the words. The Shabbos you receive is built from the weekdays you bring.

He Would Not Say Awesome

Moshe Rabbeinu praised Hashem as the great, the mighty and the awesome God. The Gemara relates that Yirmiyahu, seeing foreigners carousing in the Heichal, asked: where is His awesomeness? So in his tefillah he called Hashem great and mighty, and left out awesome. Daniel, seeing Hashem's children enslaved, left out mighty. How could they change words that Moshe had set? Rebbi Elazar answers: because they knew that Hashem is truthful, and they would not say anything false about Him. Later the Men of the Great Assembly restored the full praise. They understood that Hashem's patience with the wicked is His greatest might, and that one small nation surviving among all the nations is His awesomeness. That is why they are called great: they returned the crown to its former glory.

Gemara, Yoma 69b (on Yirmiyahu 32:18 and Devarim 10:17)

Practical lessonPraise what you truly see

Some days the words of tefillah feel bigger than what you feel. Yirmiyahu teaches that honesty before Hashem is itself a kind of praise. This week, before Shemoneh Esrei, take one of the words of the first blessing, great, mighty or awesome, and think of one real thing you saw this week that fits it: a recovery, a kindness, a narrow escape. Then say that word slowly, meaning it. Over time, the words you can say honestly will grow.

The Light Within It

Through Yirmiyahu, Hashem gave the reason for the exile: they have forsaken Me, and they have not kept My Torah. Chazal read the verse with a surprising sigh. Rebbi Chiya bar Abba said: if only they had forsaken Me and kept My Torah, for by being busy with it, the light within it would have brought them back to the good. The Midrash continues with Rav Huna: learn Torah even when it is not for its own sake, for from learning not for its own sake a person comes to learn for its own sake. The same opening asks why the land was lost and answers from Yirmiyahu's words: because they forsook My Torah. The Torah is not only a list of what Hashem asks of us; it carries a light that slowly turns a person back toward Him, even one who began for the wrong reasons.

Midrash Eichah Rabbah, Pesichta 2 (on Yirmiyahu 16:11 and 9:11–12)

Practical lessonOpen the sefer anyway

You do not need to feel inspired before you begin to learn; the light in the Torah does its own work. This week, set a small, fixed time, ten minutes after Shacharis or before bed, and learn something even on a day when your heart is not in it: a passage of Chumash with Rashi, a mishnah, a halachah. If a child or friend has drifted, invite them to learn with you, with no conditions. Let the light do the bringing back.

Seforim

Sefer Yirmiyahu: His own sefer of prophecy, from his call in the days of Yoshiyahu to his last words to the exiles in Egypt; the Gemara counts it among the books he wrote.
Megillas Eichah: The lament over the destruction of Yerushalayim, written by Yirmiyahu and read on the night of Tishah B'Av.
Sefer Melachim: The history of the kings from Shlomo HaMelech to the Churban, which the Gemara says Yirmiyahu wrote.

Historical sources