Only the Holy One Himself Could Comfort Zion

Pesikta Rabbati 30:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"Comfort, comfort My people, says your God" (Isaiah 40:1). This is what is meant by, "To what shall I liken you, to what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem?" (Lamentations 2:13). Against whom did Jeremiah say this verse? Only against Jerusalem, for all the prophets sought a match to console her and found none. It is like a man whose wife has died and whose friends came to comfort him; if it is over his wife and he will not be comforted, they say, "Was your wife fairer than the wife of so-and-so who died, and he accepted comfort?" So too you find that when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings calamity upon a city, He matches it with another city to console it. When He brought calamity upon Nineveh, He matched it with Alexandria of Egypt; when upon Alexandria, He matched it with Nineveh. But for the congregation of Israel He found no match to console her, until Israel said, "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, so our eyes look to the LORD our God until He is gracious to us" (Psalms 123:2). When Israel was exiled from their land, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: whom do you wish? Your earliest fathers, that I should raise them from their graves and they would walk at your head — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Moses and Aaron, or David and Solomon? Israel said: Master of the world, we wish none of these but You, as it says, "For You are our Father, though Abraham knows us not and Israel acknowledges us not; You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your name" (Isaiah 63:16). The Holy One said: since you have said this, I will go up with you to Babylon, as it says, "For your sake I was sent to Babylon" (Isaiah 43:14). This is like a king who married a woman who was with him many years but bore him no children. He said, "My daughter, go and marry another, that perhaps you may have children from him; take whatever precious vessels I have in your house and go." She said, "If so, let me make you a feast, and we will eat and drink, and I will part from you." He agreed. She made the feast, the king ate and drank and became drunk, and at midnight she commanded her servants, and they carried him on his couch to her father's house. When he awoke, he asked, "Where am I lying?" She said, "In my father's house." He said, "What business have I in your father's house?" She said, "You told me to take whatever precious thing I had and go; I have no delight of my eyes and joy of my soul but you." So too the congregation of Israel, when the Holy One asked whom they desired, said, "We desire none but You." Another interpretation: the Holy One said to Abraham, "Go and comfort Jerusalem; perhaps she will accept comfort from you." Abraham went and said, "Accept comfort from me." She said, "How can I accept comfort from you, who made me into a mountain, as it says, 'On the mount of the LORD it shall be seen' (Genesis 22:14)?" He said to Isaac, "Go and comfort"; she said, "How can I accept comfort from you, from whom came forth wicked Esau?" He said to Jacob; she said, "From whom I was made as nothing." He said to Moses; she said, "You wrote harsh decrees against me." At once they all returned and said before the Holy One, "She would not accept comfort from us," as it says, "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted" (Isaiah 54:11). At once the Holy One said: it is upon Me to comfort Jerusalem. I wrote in the Torah, "He who kindles the fire shall surely make restitution" (Exodus 22:5); I set her ablaze, as it says, "From on high He sent fire" (Lamentations 1:13); I will comfort her, as it says, "And I will be to her, says the LORD, a wall of fire round about" (Zechariah 2:9).

Themes

ConsolationRedemptionZion

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