Komentarz do Jeremiasza 31:20

“Is Ephraim a son who is dear to me?” These are the words of the Shechinah. That is to say, He is complaining, “And as for Me, I have a change of heart to have pity. Is he My dear son (as one who has but one son, whose every wish he grants him)?” dandled (Esbaniement in O.F.)

A dear son...God responds to them that there is a difference between someone from the first generations whom God was able to bring back [to God's ways] by showing them godliness, might and wonders, versus now, and there is a difference between a dear son and a little tyke. A little tyke is a small boy who, even if he sins, his father still loves him because he is a little boy and he plays with him. A dear son is a grown man who has many virtues and is dear to because of those virtues, and even if he sins, his father still loves him because he'll remember his virtues and be dear to him. So too, in Egypt, when Israel had no virtue or wholeness, they were like a little tyke in God's eyes, as it is written "when Israel was a youth I loved him." When they were in the wilderness and in the Land of Israel in the early years, they were like a dear son, because they had among them prophets, holy ministers and sages, and then if they sinned, God remembered the righteous among them and forgave their sin. But now "Ephraim is a dear son to me" - behold he has no dearness or importance, and so too "he is a little tyke" -- behold he is not a boy but he has already reached old age, and the parallel statements "Ephraim is a dear son to me...whenever I have turned on him, I remember him even more (every utterance that has the letter bet after it is a reproach) that so too whenever I speak any defamation "I will surely remember" his virtues because he is dear. "he is a little tyke...that is why my heart yearns for him" that my heart will yearn on account of him and "I will surely have mercy" because he is a small boy, I will play with him, and and if so, how can you ask that I do something miraculous and love you as in the days of old?

whenever I speak of him Every time that I speak of him. And the Midrash Leviticus Rabbah (2:3) explains: It is enough My speech (דַּי דִבּוּרִי) with which I endowed him, that I taught him My Torah, for Me to have mercy on him.