meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Malbim/Prophets/Malbim on Jeremiah/English/Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology.txt"}
text: Malbim on Jeremiah
  מלבי"ם על ירמיהו
  Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology
  
  
  Malbim on Jeremiah
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  At that time, The Throne of the Lord – Now “The Lord established His throne in the heavens…” (Psalms 103:19) and His kingship and rule are seen in the heavens, in that He directs everything according to the laws of nature. But then His kingship and rule will be seen in Jerusalem through miraculous direction above the laws of nature. Then it will be as if the Lord sits there guiding, watching over and ruling all. Therefore ‘all nations shall gather to it’ and not for the sake of making war against her or to eat from her fruits, but rather ‘in the name of the Lord’ and also ‘to Jerusalem’ for the sake of the importance of the city: and they shall no longer follow the idea of their evil heart – Because they will all recognize the kingship of the Lord, His unity, His ways and His Torah:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  And I will make – That is to say – Only on the mountains and the pastures of the wilderness will I lament, not on Jerusalem and the cities of Yehudah which I myself will make a desolation. This is as it says “…or for such a nation shall My soul not take vengeance?” (Jeremiah 5:29)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
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  So said the Lord to me – After the Lord had decided on His decree, the attribute of mercy came back and gave them a simple solution in order that Jerusalem not be destroyed. It was that they keep Shabbat free of all desecration, as the Sages wrote ‘anyone who keeps Shabbat according to the law, even if they worshipped idols like the generation of Enoch, they will be forgiven.’ (Shabbat 118b) This is because keeping Shabbat testifies to a faith in creation ex nihilo and Divine providence, and contradicts the worship of idols. Therefore it is impossible that the sin of  idolatry would cause the destruction since through the keep of Shabbat they were testifying to its opposite – that God created the world and rules over all its systems. They already said there in the gemara that if Israel would keep Shabbat twice they would be immediately redeemed (and all the more so that the merit of Shabbat would be effective in preventing the destruction of Jerusalem): 
  in which the kings of Judah come – this is to give warning to the great people first: 
  and out of which they go – to warn them multiple times as they go out and come in: 
  and in all the gates of Jerusalem – to warn all the people:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  In his days – It says that in the days of the Messiah ‘Yehudah will be saved’, for in the time of the Second Temple they were not really saved because they were subjugated by Persia, Greece and Rome. And Israel, which refers to the ten tribes, ‘shall dwell safely’ because in the time of the Second Temple the ten tribes did not return: his name that he shall be called He will then be called ‘the Lord is our righteousness’ because our righteousness is the Lord, as it says “…O God of my righteousness…” (Tehillim 4:2) meaning that my righteousness will come from God – just as He exists so too Israel will be righteous and saved by God. This prophecy is repeated further on in 33:15, with some changes. It says ‘I will cause to grow for David a plant of righteousness’ but does not mention ‘and he shall reign a king and prosper.’ There it is written ‘In those days, Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely and this is the name that He shall call it, the Lord is our righteousness.’ This is because there are two manners of redemption. If it comes through our merit ‘I will hurry it,’ if it is not through our merit ‘in its time’ (see Isaiah 60:22 and gem. Sanhedrin 98a). It further says there in the gemara: if it is through our merit ‘and behold with the clouds (ananei) of the heaven, one like a man was coming’ (Daniel 7:13) and if not ‘humble (ani), and riding a donkey.’ (Zechariah 9:9) Here in chapter 23 the prophet is speaking about redemption that comes through merit, which is why is says ‘I will set up of David a righteous shoot,’ meaning that he will be righteous through his merit. In chapter 33 the prophet is speaking about redemption which comes not through our merit, which is why it says ‘In those days and in that time I will cause to grow for David a plant of righteousness,’ because the supernal righteousness will not look at the acts of righteousness and merit, but rather will act out of generous kindness and through an arousal from above, as I explained in Yeshayahu 29. Therefore it does not say ‘I will set up of David,’ but rather ‘I will cause to grow for David,’ because it will be a new growth. This is not the case for redemption brought on through merit, there it says ‘I will set up’ because the growth will exist already through the merit of his actions and God will simply lift it up from its fallen state. Further in chapter 33 the prophet adds ‘In those days and in that time’ because if it is not through merit we will have to wait until the appointed time. This is not the case here in chapter 23, it does not say ‘in that time’ because ‘I will hurry it.’ So too it does not say in chapter 33 ‘and he shall reign a king and prosper’ because if it is not through merit then he will not reign right away, but rather he will be ‘humble, and riding a donkey.’ Further, it doesn’t say there ‘and Israel shall dwell safely’ because if we do not merit the tribes will not be gathered in right away, rather only Yehudah and Jerusalem will be saved. The ingathering will be delayed until Jerusalem is rebuilt first. It does not say in chapter 33 ‘and this is its name’ in reference to Jerusalem because it will not have this name already due to our lack of merit, ‘this is the name that He shall call it’ Jerusalem from now forward. But here in chapter 23 where it describes redemption through our merit it says ‘and this is his name’ because he will have already acquired this name through his merit.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
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  So said the Lord – This will not be pushed off, because ‘Behold I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob’ and afterwards they will settle in permanent dwellings ‘and his dwellings I will pity’ and after this ‘the city shall be built on its mound’. That is to say that in the beginning they will settle there in tents, then afterwards their dwellings will be built and after this Zion will be rebuilt as it was before. After this the Temple and the King’s house will be rebuilt and the palace will be set in its proper site. This will be according to its laws and regulations because the Temple must be built as the hand of Gd has written in order to enlighten us:
  
  
  
  
  
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  For there is a day – Because in the beginning they placed guards on Mount Ephraim to prevent Israel from coming up to Jerusalem, and the day will come when they place watchmen and guards who will cry out ‘Rise! Let us go up to Zion.’ They will keep watch in the opposite fashion, because everyone will bring the fruits of the fourth year up to Jerusalem to eat them there.