We continue with yesterday’s lesson of Yirmiya HaNavi, and how one of the prerequisites of being a profit is not being afraid of the people.
A prophet, even on his level, needs to work on his Bitachon and reliance on Hashem. Prophets weren’t born with wings- they had to work on themselves. The Gemarah tells us that in order to be a prophet, one needs three qualities:
חכם- wisdom
גבור- strength
עשיר- wealth
Wisdom is an obvious one. Of course, a prophet must be wise. But why does a prophet have to be wealthy? Some will say that if a prophet is needy and not independently wealthy, he might be swayed. So therefore, he needed to have wealth.
The Rambam, on the other hand, says עשיר doesn’t mean physically wealthy, it means he’s שמח בחלקו- he’s happy with lot. He has a middah, a mindset, of happiness.
Why does a prophet have to be גבור- strong? He doesn’t have to go to a gym or lift weights. The Rambam says גבור means he controls his desires and inclination. This is also about middot. And these middot are necessary for G-d to give this man a prophecy. The Deroshot HaRan says that גבור means that he’s strong in that he isn’t afraid of people; he’s strong in that he relies on Hashem. He’s a Baal Bitachon. Only then, can one be a prophet. As we said, Yirmiyah was prepped by G-d on that Gevurah, strength, that’s necessary for prophecy.
Before we start our next point, we need to preface it: Anytime we talk about a lacking in one of our giants, we are talking about a microscopic, fine, minute point. Yirmiyah HaNavi was a prophet. G-d spoke to him. He was a giant. And yet the Gemarah has a small claim against him, on his level. What is the claim? In chapter 28 of Yirmiyah, towards the end of his reign, there was a false prophet who was originally a real prophet that went sour, whose name was Hananya Ben Azor. Somehow, he fell, and gave a false, yet very popular prophecy: He said:
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר צְבָא֛וֹת ה'..... שָׁבַ֞רְתִּי אֶת־עֹ֖ל מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶֽל׃
“So says G-d- G-d is going to break the yoke of Bavel....
In another two years all the utensils that were taken out by Nevuchadnezar will be returned.... King Yechonyah (who had been deposed and taken into exile) will come back” and he basically said that everything would be wonderful.
Yirmiyah, a real prophet, stood by as he said this, and realized that this was a false prophecy. But instead of immediately responding, “How dare you say that?!”
His opening words were, אמן כן יעשה ה׳-“Amen, Hashem should do like this.
Hashem should fulfill these words, but what you are saying is not true you’re taking the people in the wrong direction. G-d is not bringing anything back and the people have not repented”
The Ramban says that the line אמן כן יעשה ה׳-“Amen, Hashem should do like this, is what Sara Imenu should have said when the angels told her, a 90 year old woman, that she’d have a child the following year. Even when someone says something far- fetched, the right answer is to say, --אמן כן יעשה ה׳“Amen, Hashem should do like this.
If a rabbi came to an old lady’s house and told her she’d have a baby boy next year, she should say, “Amen!”
It doesn’t hurt to say amen.
So Yirmiyah said Amen. It was wishful thinking that the false prophecy would come true. He then went on to give harsh words of rebuke to this false prophet. But the Gemarah says here that whoever flatters someone will fall into their hands.
So Yirmiyah, on his level, was being taught that if you don’t stand up against someone that’s wrong, and you flatter him, because you are afraid, it will backfire, and you’ll fall into his hands. Again, this is on Yirmiyah’s level, and we can’t comprehend it. Especially because his next words were very sharp.
The question is, Yirmiyah never fell into this man’s hands, because Hananya, the false prophet, died that year.
So, what’s going on?
The Gemarah says that while he might not fall into the man’s hands, or even his children’s hands, he’ll fall into his grandchildren’s hands.
And if we fast forward to chapter 37, just before the destruction of the Temple, there was a siege. Yirmiyah was leaving Yerushalayim to go towards Binyamin. There was a guard there named Yiriyah ben Shalamiya, Ben Hananya. He was the false prophet Hananya’s grandson, and he grabbed Yirmiyah, called him a spy (which Yirmiyah denied) and brought him to the ministers who threw him in jail, where he stayed for ימים רבים - a long time.
Yirmiyah bemoans this jail sentence in Echah. Why did this happen to him?
The Gemarah says that because of the flattery to the false prophet, Yirmiyah fell into the hands of his grandson.
Again, we can’t fathom Yirmiyah. But on our level, we have to know that Bitachon gives us the strength to stand up for what’s right.
If you see someone in the office doing something improper, or if your boss wants to do something wrong, you have to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t be part of this.” You might lose your job, but so be it. You have to do it. You can’t fall and flatter someone who is doing the wrong thing.
And if you think- “But I’ll going to lose out now!” Well if you avoid losing out now, his son or maybe his grandson will end up getting you.
We have to believe what’s right is right.
Of course, we aren’t saying that you have to do things that are irrational, and we aren’t saying that you should be confrontational. But there are times when you have to stand up for something. And when that time comes, don’t fear the consequences.
Stand up for what’s right, and it will only work out in the end.
Again, this only works with Bitachon.
That is another lesson from the story of Yirmiyah.