Part 1
The Be’er Yosef (Parshas Bechukosai) brings a Midrash that shows how this following frightening pasuk actually came true. The Torah warns, “ואכלתם בשר בניכם ובשר בנתיכם תאכלו (ויקרא כו:כט)” - you will end up eating the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
The Gemara says (יומא ל״ח ע״ב) that at the end of the first Beis HaMikdash, a man named Doeg ben Yosef passed away and left behind a young son. The boy’s mother loved him very much. Every day she would measure his weight and donate that amount in gold to the Beis HaMikdash as a way of thanking Hashem.
Then came the siege of Yerushalayim by Nevuchadnetzar. The hunger became so severe that people were desperate. In a moment that is almost impossible to imagine, this very mother killed her child and ate him.
About this, Yirmiyahu cried out, אם תאכלנה נשים פרים עללי טפוחים (איכה ב:כ) can it really be that women are eating their own children, the babies they once cared for?
Hashem answered his cry, אם יהרג במקדש ה׳ כהן ונביא, referring to the murder of Zecharyah ben Yehoyada in the Beis HaMikdash who was a kohen and navi by yidden.
This Midrash is difficult to understand. The Tochachah in Parshas Bechukosai clearly warns that such horrors could happen if Klal Yisrael turns away from Hashem. Yirmiyahu himself warned the people again and again. So why was he so shaken when he saw this, yes, it was horrific, he knew about this and what did hashem respond. what does the death of Zecharia the Navi have to do with a mother eating up her own child?
Says the Be’er Yosef, Yirmiyahu was not surprised that such a tragedy could happen. The Torah had already warned about it. He thought it would be in a case where a mother loved their children no more than an average parent. What broke him was the detail. This was not a random case of famine. It was a mother with one beloved child, a child she cherished so deeply that she gave gold to the Beis HaMikdash every day because of him. To see such a relationship end in such a way was overwhelming. And yet Yirmiyahu saw her so desperate for food that she succumbed to her base needs and consumed her own son. This tragic scene is why Yirmiyahu cried out to Hashem.
Hashem answered that this was mida keneged mida. The people had committed terrible sins, including murdering Zecharyah, who was both a Kohen and a Navi, and doing so in the Beis HaMikdash on Yom Kippur itself. When a sin is so severe, the consequences can also be especially painful. Just like they commited the worst crime in a most horrible and shocking way, so too, the fulfillment of the Navi of parents eating their children came about in the worst way. To be continued…
Part 2 – the sin of not listening
Nachamu Nachamu Ami
Rav Itzele Peterburger זצ״ל explains this in a deeper way, explaining the mida kneged mida. One of the ways we cope with suffering is by knowing that pain is not wasted. Chazal teach that אדם של עוונותיו ממרקין יסורין (ברכות ה׳ ע״א). When a person responds properly, suffering can lead to growth and a fresh start.
But what if the suffering leads to more aveiros? Then the tragedy becomes much greater. Not only is there pain, but the pain itself leads to more sin.
Think about this mother. She loved her son deeply. Imagine her inner struggle before doing what she did. And what did she gain? A brief moment of relief, and then the hunger returned. A few days later, she died from starvation. All she was left with was terrible guilt and pain. It was all for nothing. This is what Yirmiyahu was crying over. Not just the suffering, but the fact that the suffering led to more sin.
Hashem answered that this pattern had already begun earlier. Hashem sent neviim again and again, warning the people and giving them chances to change. They could have listened and done teshuvah. Instead, they ignored the warnings and even murdered a Navi in the Beis HaMikdash on Yom Kippur. At that point, the suffering that followed reflected the same pattern.
With this, the Be’er Yosef explains a Midrash at the end of the first perek of Eichah, “חטא חטא ירושלים” and “בכפליים חטאו.” They doubled their sins.
At first glance this is difficult. If a person sins a lot, it is not usually described as a double sin. So what does it mean that Klal Yisrael sinned in a doubled way?
The Be’er Yosef explains that it does not mean many sins. It means two stages of sin. First, they sinned. Then Hashem, in His kindness, sent them a Navi to warn them and give them a chance to change. That warning itself was a gift. But instead of listening and doing teshuvah, they committed a second sin. They rejected the message and killed the Navi who came to rebuke them, Zecharyah ben Yehoyada, in the Beis HaMikdash itself.
That is “בכפליים חטאו.” First they did not listen, and then they turned the warning itself into something worse. Because of that, the punishment also came in a doubled way, and so too the comfort will come in a doubled way, “נחמו נחמו עמי.”
The sin of not listening is not small. When Hashem sends a message, it is an opportunity. If we listen, we grow. If we ignore it, we risk turning help itself into something far worse.
May we be zocheh to listen and grow, and to see the nechamah of Klal Yisrael, with the geulah shleimah and the binyan Beis HaMikdash, bimheirah b’yameinu, amein.
