By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept as we remembered Zion. (Psalms  137:1)

In the year 586 B.C.E., the Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar conquered the city of Jerusalem, destroyed its Temple, and carried off its people into exile. Among the handful of those who remained was the prophet Jeremiah of Anatoth. In this portrait, he is mourning the destruction of Jerusalem, alone with a few remaining holy vessels from the Temple, as the people of the city have been taken into exile by their Babylonian conquerors. Behind him, the ruined Temple smolders. The prophet sits desolate and lost in thought, leaving the viewer to wonder what he is contemplating.

Is he focused upon the catastrophe of a people bereft of their sacred Temple and banished from their land? Or is he crushed not by the effect of the destruction but rather by its cause — the fatal breach of trust and loyalty towards the Lord God of Israel? Jeremiah’s sadness might be a result of the fact that as a prophet, he strove with all his might to prevent that breach – and tragically failed in his attempt.

Rembrandt depicts Jeremiah leaning on the Bible, on his immortal words of prophecy. Does this symbolize the obsolescence of his words, which have fallen on deaf ears? Does it perhaps suggest that the book is closed to others, and now serves to support the prophet alone? Note that the prophet is leaning on his left hand. His right hand is not visible, reminiscent of the biblical verse:

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour. (Psalms  137:5-6)

It is difficult to conceive any situation more painful than that of a great man, condemned to watch the lingering agony of an exhausted country, to tend it during the alternate fits of stupefaction and raving which preceded it’s dissolution and to see the symptoms of vitality disappear one by one, till nothing is left but coldness, darkness and corruption.

These words of Lord Macualay could aptly be used to sum up the life of the prophet Jeremiah. For forty years the prophet Jeremiah labored long and hard to prevent the destruction of Jerusalem and the holy Temple. He railed incessantly against the evil deeds of the people of Judah. What was it about their conduct that warranted such a terrible fate?

Jeremiah, the prophet of the destruction of the first Temple, preached against the sins of idolatry, sexual misconduct and bloodshed, but in his reproach he went beyond mere diatribes. He exposed the essence of these sins, exhibiting his keen grasp of the psychological motivation behind them. One classic example of Jeremiah’s searing insight into the psyche of the sinner is his famous Temple Sermon:

Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your actions, and I will let you dwell in this place. Don’t put your trust in illusions and say, ‘The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these buildings.’ No! If you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one man and another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for all time. See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail. Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced, and then come and stand before Me in this House which bears My name and say, ‘We are safe?’ to do all these abhorrent things! Do you consider this House, which bears My name to be a den of thieves? (Jeremiah  7:1-15)

It was not unusual for an Old Testament prophet to preach against sins of inhumanity toward strangers, orphans and widows, idolatry, theft, adultery and murder. What is special about Jeremiah is his deep understanding of the psychology of sin, and how he exposed the fallacy into which the people have fallen. They have deluded themselves into thinking that perfunctory rituals will atone for their sins. They rest assured that the Temple of the Lord will provide them with asylum and expiation. It is from this malady that they suffer. Professor Nehama Leibowitz explains:

What is the psychological incentive for idol worship? What causes people in all periods of history to place their trust in something external which is not contingent upon their actions but is confined to a particular space or time rather than to depend upon the moral imperative which is required of them?…In every generation people ignore God’s will and his everyday requirements, preferring to seek a cheap form of atonement which lies outside of their quotidian lives. An atonement which absolves them of performing radical changes in their life style.

Jeremiah accuses his constituency of abusing the Temple and relying upon its cultic efficacy rather than their own religious rehabilitation. Holiness, he insists, is not even in the holiest of buildings; it too shall be razed. Divine presence will only dwell in the midst of the people if they are able to find the spark of the holiness within themselves, and use it to ignite warmth and concern for others.

1. In b. Yoma 9b, the rabbis distinguish between the causes of the destruction of the first temple and the second. The first Temple they claim was destroyed because of idolatry, sexual transgressions, and murder. The second Temple was destroyed because of hatred between man and his fellow man. They conclude that hatred between people is thereby equated with the three cardinal sins.

2. Prof. Nehama Leibowitz, Gilyonot L’Iyyun b’Sefer Yirmiahu (Jerusalem, 1993), p. 109.