"In all their affliction, He was not afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). The midrash reads this as conditional: if Israel does the will of God in their troubles, then He is afflicted with them — He shares their suffering. If they do not do His will in their troubles, then He is not afflicted with them. The suffering God endures alongside Israel is not automatic. It is the response to a particular kind of faith — the faith that keeps covenant even while suffering under God's own decree.
The proof is Egypt. When Israel was making bricks from straw and the work was brutal, God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush — and in the vision, Moses saw something like a sapphire brick beneath the divine throne (Exodus 24:10). The rabbis read this as a divine memorial: a brick made from the suffering of the enslaved, preserved in the heavenly court so that the suffering would never be forgotten. God had kept a brick from Egypt. He had not looked away.
This theology is the most intimate in Aggadat Bereshit. It does not say God stops the suffering. It says God shares it — enters it, carries it alongside the people who are in it. The condition is covenant fidelity under duress, which is the hardest kind. But the reward, the midrash implies, is that you are never actually alone in the furnace. Wherever Israel was, God was also in it. The suffering was real. The company was real. Both are true at the same time.
Chapter (70) 71: Prophets [1] "But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.'" (Isaiah 49:14) This means that if Zion says, "The Lord has forsaken me," the Lord says in response, "If I remember you, Jerusalem, I remember the Torah that I gave you on your right hand," as it is written, "From his right hand a fiery law for them" (Deuteronomy 33:2). Another explanation: "If I remember you, Jerusalem," I remember all the miracles that I performed for Israel at the sea, as the children of Israel said to him, "Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power" (Exodus 15:6), and you say, "The Lord has forgotten me." [Isaiah 49:15] [2] Another interpretation: "And Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.'" (Isaiah 49:15) This refers to the sin of the golden calf, which caused the Shechinah to depart from the Israelites. Therefore, Zion says, "The Lord has forsaken me." However, God responds, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill" (Psalms 137:5). In other words, God did not forget the Israelites, but rather, they forgot Him. This is why He says, "If I forget you," indicating that it was the Israelites who forgot Him. Another interpretation: also suggests that "Zion" refers to the Torah, which the Israelites neglected and abandoned. This is why it says, "The Lord has forsaken me," as if the Torah itself is speaking. God responds, "If I forget you," meaning that He did not forget the Torah, but rather, the Israelites forgot it. The Targum translates this passage as, "And Zion said, 'I have sinned, and my children have abandoned me.'" In either case, the message is clear: it was the Israelites who turned away from God, not the other way around. God remains faithful to His covenant and His word, even when His people fail to uphold their end of the bargain. [3] Another interpretation: "And Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me.' David said, 'I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. Have you forever rejected us? Will you be angry with us forever?' (Psalm 77:6-8). What did Zion mean when she said, 'The Lord has forsaken me'? She meant to say, 'I have considered all the days since creation and have not been redeemed. I considered the days of menstruation, as the prophet said, "Their way was like the uncleanness of menstruation before me" (Ezekiel 36:17). I considered the days of childbirth, as the prophet said, "Therefore, he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor bears a child" (Micah 5:2). I thought about the generations, as it is written "May his days be like those of a generation (Psalm 71:7)." I thought that twenty years had passed since Isaac desired to have children, as it says "Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah... (Genesis 25:20)," and he had a son at the age of sixty, as it says "Isaac was sixty years old when they were born (Genesis 25:26)." I thought and was not redeemed. I thought that twenty-two years had passed for Jacob, corresponding to the twenty-two years that Joseph was separated from him [his father], and after twenty-two years he was reunited with him, as it says "Joseph is still alive (Genesis 45:28)." I thought and was not redeemed. I thought that Babylonian rule lasted for seventy years, as it says "When Babylon reaches seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10)," and I thought that the rule of Media and Greece would also end, but I was not redeemed. For many years, Aram enslaved me, and I was not redeemed. Has God forgotten how to pity? (Psalm 77:10), or perhaps "Has His faithfulness disappeared forever?" (Psalm 77:9). Therefore, I say, "God has abandoned me." (Isaiah 49:14) [4] Another explanation: Why did she say "God has forsaken me" instead of saying "the people of Zion have forgotten me" as it is stated, "For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us mirth: 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'" (Psalm 137:3) and it did not mention God, as it says, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion." (Psalm 137:1) But you say "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; [Others “forget its cunning]." (Psalm 137:5) and you did not say "If I forget thee, O Zion," therefore, you say "God has forsaken me." (Isaiah 49:14) [5] Another explanation for why Zion said "The Lord has forsaken me" - she did not mean that His presence was in that place and left and returned again. This is like what Sarah said in the wilderness of Sinai, perhaps His presence was removed from there and returned again. Sarah said the same thing in Nov, Shiloh, and Giv'on when His presence was removed from there and returned again. But in my case, I said, "This is my rest forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it" (Psalm 132:14), and His presence was removed and did not return. Therefore, I say that just as He did in all those places, so He does to me. "The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." But God said to her, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49:15). Perhaps you will forget the sacrifices and the burnt offerings that I accepted from you, but I will not forget you. Rabbi Berachiah said, "Your life! Although You have done many good things for me, You have also done many bad things. But I do not remember the bad things You have done, only the good things. Even those things will be forgotten, but I will not forget You, the Lord my God" (Isaiah 49:15). "Why do many waters cannot quench love?" (Song of Solomon 8:7). What kind of love does the Lord love? "The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob" (Psalm 87:2).
