The Patriarchs Seek To Comfort Jerusalem

"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 match for Jerusalem and did not find one. A parable of a man whose wife died, and his companions came in to comfort him. If they comfort him over his wife and he is not comforted, they say to him: "Was your wife more beautiful than the wife of so-and-so, who died, and he accepted comfort over her?" And if it is over his son, they say to him likewise: "Was your son more beautiful than the son of so-and-so?" So too you find that when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings calamity upon a province, He matches it with another province in order to comfort it. When He brought the calamity upon Nineveh, He matched it with Alexandria of Egypt. But for the Assembly of Israel He found nothing with which to match it, until Israel said: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He is gracious to us" (Psalms 123:2). When Israel were exiled from their land, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: "In whom do you wish? In your earliest forefathers, that I should raise one of them from his grave and he shall go at your head? Whether in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; whether in Moses and Aaron, that I should raise him from his grave and he shall go at your head; whether you wish in David and Solomon, that I should raise him from his grave and he shall go at your head?" Israel said to Him: "Master of the universe, we do not wish in these, but in You," as it is said: "For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us; You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your name" (Isaiah 63:16). 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, who made me like a mountain," as it is said: "On the mount of the LORD it shall be seen" (Genesis 22:14). He said to Isaac: "Go and comfort Jerusalem; perhaps she will accept comfort." Isaac went and spoke. She said to him: "How shall I accept comfort from you, from whom came forth Esau the wicked, and who made me like a field," as it is said: "And Esau went out to the field" (Genesis 27:5), "and his sons burned me with fire." He said to Jacob: "Go and comfort Jerusalem." She said to him: "How shall I accept comfort from you, who set 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." She said to him: "How shall I accept comfort from you, who wrote against me curses and harsh decrees: 'wasting of hunger, and devouring of the fiery bolt' (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 falls to Me to comfort Jerusalem, for thus I wrote: 'He who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution' (Exodus 22:5). I set her ablaze with fire," as it is said: "From on high He sent fire" (Lamentations 1:13). "I will comfort her," as it is said: "And I will be to her, says the LORD, a wall of fire round about" (Zechariah 2:9).