God's Exile With Israel

"Comfort, comfort My people, says your God" (Isaiah 40:1). This is what is said by the Holy Spirit: "What shall I take to witness for you? What shall I liken to you?" (Lamentations 2:13). Concerning whom did Jeremiah speak this verse? He spoke it only concerning Jerusalem, for all the prophets sought a mate for Jerusalem and did not find one. A parable: to a man whose wife died, and his companions came in to comfort him. If they comfort him over his wife and he will not be comforted, they say to him: Is your wife more beautiful than the wife of so-and-so, who died, and he accepted comfort over her? If over his son, thus they say to him: Is your son more beautiful than the son of so-and-so? So you find that when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings calamity upon a province, He pairs it with another province to comfort it thereby. When He brought calamity upon Nineveh, He paired Alexandria of Egypt with it, as it is said: "And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon you," and so forth ("Nineveh is laid waste; whence shall I seek comforters for you? Are you better than No-Amon, that was situated among the rivers? She also went into exile," and so forth) (Nahum 3:7-9). With Alexandria He paired Nineveh to comfort it, as it is said: "Speak unto Pharaoh," and so forth ("Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon," and so forth) (Ezekiel 31:2-3); and at the end it is written: "And strangers, the terrible of the nations, cut him off" (Ezekiel 31:12). But for the Congregation of Israel He found none to pair with her, until Israel said: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He be gracious to us" (Psalms 123:2). Joel came and paired her, "And you children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God" (Joel 2:23), and it is written: "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" (Isaiah 65:19). When Israel went into exile from their land, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Whom do you want? Your earliest forefathers, that I should raise him from his grave and he will go at your head? If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; if Moses and Aaron, I will raise him from his grave and he will go at your head; if David and Solomon you want, I will raise him from his grave and he will go at your head. Israel said to Him: Master of the universe, we do not want these, but only You, as it is said: "For You are our father, though Abraham knows us not, and Israel does not acknowledge us; You, O LORD, are our father, our redeemer; Your name is from everlasting" (Isaiah 63:16). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Since you have spoken thus, I will go up with you to Babylon, as it is said: "For your sake I have sent to Babylon" (Isaiah 43:14), "and I will set My throne in Elam" (Jeremiah 49:38). A parable: to a king who married a wife, and she was with him many years and he had no children from her. He said to her: My daughter, go and marry another man; perhaps you will have children from him; but take all the precious vessels that I have in your house and go. She said to him: If it is so, let me make you a feast, and let us eat and drink, and I will part from you, so that they will not say, See, the king's wife, since he hated her, he expelled her from his house. He said to her: Yes. Immediately she made a feast; the king ate and drank and became drunk. And she commanded her servants in the middle of the night, and they arose and carried him out on the bed to her father's house. When the king awoke from his sleep, he said: In what place am I reclining? She said to him: In my father's house. He said to her: And what is the nature of my being in your father's house? She said to him: Thus you said to me, Take all the precious vessels that I have and go; I have no delight of my eyes and gladness of my soul but you. So too the Congregation of Israel: at the hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, Whom do you want, that I should raise him from his grave and he will go at your head to Babylon, they said to Him: We do not want any but You, as it is said: "For You are our father." Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: I will be your mate, and I will bring you up, as it is said: "For your sake I have sent to Babylon" (Isaiah, ibid.). Another interpretation: "Comfort, comfort," why twice? Only because of "she weeps sorely" (Lamentations 1:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Now I will comfort you twice over: "Comfort, comfort My people." Another interpretation: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: Go and comfort Jerusalem; perhaps she will accept comfort from you. Abraham went and said: Accept comfort from me. She said to him: How shall I accept comfort from you, when you made me into a mountain, as it is said: "In the mountain where the LORD is seen" (Genesis 22:14)? He said to Isaac: Go and comfort Jerusalem; perhaps she will accept comfort. Isaac went and said, and so forth. She said to him: How shall I accept comfort from you, from whom Esau the wicked went forth, and who made me into a field, as it is said: "And Esau went to the field" (Genesis 27:5), and whose children burned me with fire? He said to Jacob: Go and comfort Jerusalem, and so forth. She said to him: How shall I accept comfort from you, who made me as though I had never been, as it is said: "This is none other than the house of God" (Genesis 28:17)? He said to Moses: Go and comfort, and so forth. She said to him: How shall I accept comfort from you, who wrote curses and harsh decrees concerning me: "the wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the fiery bolt," and so forth (Deuteronomy 32:24)? Immediately they all returned and said to the Holy One, blessed be He: She did not accept comfort from us, as it is said: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted" (Isaiah 54:11). Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said: It is incumbent upon Me to comfort Jerusalem, for thus I wrote: "He that kindles the fire shall surely make restitution" (Exodus 22:5). I kindled her with fire, as it is said: "From on high has He sent fire" (Lamentations 1:13); I will comfort her, as it is said: "For I, says the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about," and so forth (Zechariah 2:9). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I wrote in the Torah, "You shall not deliver a servant to his master" (Deuteronomy 23:16), yet I delivered them into the hand of the nations of the world, as it is said: "Except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had delivered them up" (Deuteronomy 32:30). I wrote, "You shall not wholly reap the corner of your field" (Leviticus 19:9), yet I made an end of My fury, as it is said: "The LORD has accomplished His fury" (Lamentations 4:11). And were it not for the iniquities for which they were delivered up, no creature could prevail against Israel. There was an incident of a certain gentile who pursued an Israelite to kill him, and he did not reach him until a serpent came and coiled around him and threw him down. He said to him: Wait until I tell you a thing. Had the Holy One, blessed be He, not delivered us into your hand, you could not prevail against us, as it is said: "Except their Rock had sold them" (Deuteronomy 32:30). And when they killed Ben Koziba, they brought his head to Hadrian. He said to them: Bring me his body. And they found a serpent coiled around his heart. He said to them: It was not we who killed him, but the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered him into our hands, for thus it is written in your Torah: "Except their Rock had sold them." And the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to say to Jerusalem: Accept comfort from Me, as it is said: "Open to me, my sister," and so forth (Song of Songs 5:2). She said to Him: He does not accept comfort from You until I and You speak words of reproof, as it is said: "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field" (Song of Songs 7:12), to a place where there is no commerce, "let us lodge in the villages" (ibid.). I will show you the nations of the world, whom You bestow goodness upon, yet they deny You. She said before Him: Master of the universe, why did You not do for me as for Joseph, as it is said: "Oh that you were as my brother" (Song of Songs 8:1)? Joseph, his brothers dealt evilly with him and sought to kill him, and when they came into his hand, he dealt kindly with them, and he himself comforted them, as it is said: "And he comforted them, and spoke to their heart" (Genesis 50:21). And even Shimei son of Gera said to David: "Behold, I am come this day the first of all the house of Joseph" (2 Samuel 19:21). He said to him: Did they ever distress you as the brothers of Joseph distressed him, and he accepted it from them? David turned back and said before Him: Master of the universe, when You gave the Torah to Israel, You took it around to all seventy nations and they did not accept it, until Israel accepted it; and now that they have accepted it, will You do thus? Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, instructed her and said: I have regarded you, as it is said: "For I am a husband unto you" (Jeremiah 3:14). She said before Him: Master of the universe, it is fitting that You should speak between Me and Yourself; who will make known concerning me to the nations of the world that I did Your will? They will revile and reproach me and shame me and say to me: You rebelled against your God and you betrayed Him. Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: I will make known concerning you to the nations of the world the deeds of your acts of righteousness, as it is said: "For I will declare your righteousness and your works" (Isaiah 57:12). And the Holy One, blessed be He, makes known the righteousness of Israel to the nations of the world. At that hour Michael and Jerusalem say: "The LORD has brought forth our righteousness; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God" (Jeremiah 51:10).