Commentaire sur Jérémie 1:20

The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah Let the son of the corrupt woman, whose deeds are proper Jeremiah was descended from Rahab the harlot and let him reprove the son of the righteous woman whose deeds are corrupt these are Israel who corrupted their deeds who are descended from legitimate seed.

words of jeremiah. The first three pesukim bring out the boundaries of the essence of the book in all its details, because all books are limited. They are limited in terms of its form and what it talks about. For example if it a book of rebuke or a poem or a work of knowledge or the like, or if it was said in a riddle form or a story or the like, and on this it says, Divrei the words, to show that it (sefer Yirmiyahu) includes many types of things. In it you can find Visions, nevuas, stories, rebuke, and the like. The second way a book is limited is from the standpoint of the author who said what is in the book. Yirmiyahu ben Chilkiyahu he wrote sefer yirmiyahu and he was a navi who was special that his father was the kohen gadol and navi. And he was also rich. He (Yirmiyahu) was from the kohanim who were in Anatot (name of a town). They (the kohanim in Anatot) were special in their fear of Hashem. Yirmiyahu was from Eretz Binyamin, not from the people who lived in Yerushaliayim. The person who rebukes who is from a different city, the people he is talking to won't recognize him and he wont hold back from giving them rebuke because of his love of the city, and his words will be heard better. Where does he (Yirmiyahu) draw his words from, is it from his mind, or his studies, or from books? it says That is the words of Hashem to him, that he (Yirmiyahu) drew his words from the source of living water (a reference to Hashem's words). From the standpoint of the time that he gave nevuah, it says that he had nevuah in three changing time periods that the stance of the nation and kings were changing (in terms of following Hashem or not). Because he started nevuah during the time Yoshiyahu ben Amon, that he and his generation were tzadikim, and he started to have nevuah in the thirteenth year of his kingship (yoshiyahu's kingship), that when he (yirmiyahu) was mature he started serving Hashem.

To whom the word of the Lord came Upon whom the Shechinah commenced to rest at that time.

And he was in the days of Jehoiakim And he was a prophet all the remaining days of Josiah, the days of his son Jehoiakim, and the days of his son Zedekiah, until the end of the eleventh year that is the year until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

And he continued his nevuah IN the days of Yehoyakim, during which the generation were tzadikim and the king was a rasha Until the end of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, during which the nation changed to reshaim and the king was good. And It is telling us that these nevuot (the nevuahs of yirmiyahu) were constant during this whole time. Until the galut of yerushalayim, because all of the nevuahs were fulfilled.

When I had not yet formed you in the womb, etc. Since the days of the first man. The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Adam each generation and its prophets.

I...formed you Heb. אצרך, an expression of צורה, a form.

I knew you connois toi in O.F. Comp. (Exodus 6:3), “I was not known (נודעתּי) to them.”

I appointed you I appointed you for this.

a prophet to the nations To Israel, who behave like the nations. In this manner it is expounded in Sifrei on the verse: “A prophet from your midst, etc.” (Deut. 18:15), will set up for you and not for those who deny the Torah. How then do I fulfill “A prophet to the nations I made you”? To the children of Israel who deport themselves with the customs of the nations. It can further be interpreted: “A prophet for the nations,” like “About the nations,” to give them to drink the cup of poison, to prophesy retribution upon them, as it is said: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand, you shall give all the nations to drink of it” (infra 25:15). Another explanation of “When you had not yet emerged from the womb I appointed you” is: Concerning you I said to Moses: “I will set up a prophet...like you” (Deut. 18:18). This one reproved them, and this one reproved them. This one prophesied for forty years and this one prophesied for forty years.

Alas This is an expression of wailing (konpljjnt in O.F.).

I cannot speak, for I am a child. This was for three reasons: 1. That the child (Jeremiah) did not have confidence in himself in front of greater people, 2. That the child did not know how to order his words in the correct way (meaning he did not know how to speak well in front of the congregation), and 3. That maybe the nation will become angry with what he says and come upon him and kill him.

for I am a youth I am not worthy to reprove them. Moses reproved them shortly before his death, when he was already esteemed in their eyes through the many miracles that he had performed for them. He had taken them out of Egypt, split the Reed Sea for them, brought down the manna, caused the quails to fly, given them the Torah, brought up the well. I come to reprove them at the beginning of my mission.

wherever I send you to the heathens.

and whatever I command you to Israel, you shall speak.

And the Lord stretched forth His hand Every sending mentioned concerning a hand is an expression of stretching forth. Another explanation is like the Targum: And the Lord sent the words of His prophecy.

I have appointed you I have appointed you over the heathens.

to uproot and to crush (depayser in French, to uproot) and over Israel to build and to plant if they heed. So did Jonathan paraphrase it.

a rod of an almond tree (amendleer in O.F.) Jonathan, however, renders: A King who hastens to do evil.

You have seen well This almond tree hastens to blossom before all other trees. I, too, hasten to perform My word. And the Midrash Aggadah (Ecc. Rabbah 12:8) explains: An almond tree takes twenty-one days from its blossoming until it is completely ripe, as the number of days between the seventeenth of Tammuz, when the city was broken into, until the ninth of Ab, when the Temple was burnt.

a bubbling pot [lit. blown up,] seething (boillant in French).

whose foam [lit. and its face,] its seething (et ses ondes in O.F.) [and its waves].

From the north the misfortune will break forth Babylon is on the north of Eretz Israel.

And I will utter My judgments against them I will debate with them, with Judah and Jerusalem.

And you shall gird your loins This is an expression of quickening like a man of valor.

against the Kings of Judah lit. to the Kings of Judah.

And they shall fight against you They shall quarrel and fight against you to refute the words of your prophecy.