פרשת מטות - מסעי תש"כ - הפטרה שניה מג' דפורענותא

Thus saith the LORD: What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after things of nought, and are become nought?

Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: Someone who wants to examine an animal for blemishes to bring it as an offering does not say: Inspect the camel, or: Inspect the pig, as these are inherently disqualified for the altar. Rather, he says: Inspect the lamb. Similarly, the term: “Crooked,” applies only to one who was previously straight. And who is this? This is a Torah scholar who leaves his Torah study. Rabbi Yehuda ben Lakish said: Any Torah scholar who leaves the Torah, about him the verse says: “As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his place” (Proverbs 27:8). And it says: “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me?” (Jeremiah 2:5). This indicates that the punishment is greater for one who was close to God and became distant from Him. In any case, there is a contradiction here, as in the mishna Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya says that the act of one who fathers an illegitimate child is crooked and cannot be straightened, whereas in the baraita he says the same applies to anyone who has forbidden sexual relations, regardless of whether or not he fathers a child.

Hath a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? But My people hath changed its glory For that which doth not profit.

Thus they exchanged their glory For the likeness of an ox that eateth grass.

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, That can hold no water.

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, That can hold no water.

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, That can hold no water.

For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands, and thou saidst: ‘I will not transgress’; upon every high hill And under every leafy tree Thou didst recline, playing the harlot.

I will get me unto the great men, And will speak unto them; For they know the way of the LORD, And the ordinance of their God.’ But these had altogether broken the yoke, And burst the bands.

And it shall come to pass in that day, Saith the LORD of hosts, That I will break his yoke from off thy neck, And will burst thy bands; And strangers shall no more make him their bondman;

Let us break their bands asunder: – They were saying: "Let us break the bands of Israel and their league (lit. binding) in which they have bound themselves and agreed to make David king." For there had elapsed seven years in which Israel as a whole had not agreed about him to make him king, and now when they had all agreed about him the Philistines said "let us break their bands asunder."

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their bands in sunder. .