Yirmiyah Chains Himself to the Captives

Furthermore, Yirmiyah’s own actions demonstrate that he did identify with K’lal Yisrael’s suffering to an unfathomable degree. Yirmiyah HaNavi was commanded by Hashem to go to Anathoth. In his absence, Yerushalayim was taken and the Temple destroyed. The Midrash relates that when Yirmiyah, on his return from Anathoth, beheld smoke rising from the Temple, he rejoiced because he thought that the Jews had reformed and were again bringing burnt offerings to the Sanctuary. Soon, however, he discovered his error, and began to weep bitterly, lamenting that he had left Yerushalayim to its destruction. He cried out, “Where are those who have been lost? I will be lost with them.”

He saw a path filled with corpses that was muddied by the blood of those who had been murdered. He saw footsteps in the blood made by those children that had been led into captivity. He bent down and kissed those footsteps. When he finally met up with the exiles, he kissed and hugged them. He cried bitterly when he saw their plight firsthand.

Yirmiyah, by the express command of Nebuchadnezzar, was allowed to come and go as he pleased. Yet when he saw the captives, he voluntarily caused himself to be chained to them, notwithstanding that Nevuzaradan, anxious to carry out the orders of his master, always unchained him. At last, Nevuzaradan, bewildered by Yirmiyah’s actions, contemplated that perhaps Yirmiyah was a masochist. He couldn’t fathom that Yirmiyah could have such love and empathy for His people that he was willing to voluntarily suffer with them.

The Midrash relates that after Yirmiyah had marched with the captives as far as the Euphrates, he returned to Eretz Yisrael in order to counsel and comfort those who had remained behind. On the way back to Yerushalayim, he found severed limbs of the massacred Jews, which he kissed and caressed. Weeping incessantly, he picked the limbs up lovingly, while, one after another, he placed them in various parts of his garments.