The haftara read on the first Shabbat of the “Three Weeks” after Shiva Assar Be’Tammuz is the opening chapter of Sefer Yirmiyahu, which tells of Yirmiyahu’s inaugural prophecy. In this prophecy, Yirmiyahu is shown two visions, one of which is a “sir nafuach” – a pot boiling over (1:13). The pot was facing northward, as Yirmiyahu describes, symbolizing the fact that the enemies who would destroy Jerusalem would come from that north.
Numerous explanations have been suggested for why God chose specifically the image of a “sir nafuach” to convey this warning about the impending calamity. An especially insightful theory is advanced by Rav Yaakov Ettlinger (author of Aruch La-ner), in his Minchat Ani (Parashat Matot). A pot, Rav Ettlinger explains, allows two normally opposing elements – fire and water – to peacefully coexist. The water inside the pot and the fire underneath it are very close to one another, but because of the pot’s surface, they do not oppose one another. The fire gives its warmth to the water without drying it out, while the water sits peacefully atop the fire without extinguishing it. However, this harmony can be maintained only if the pot is covered. If the pot is uncovered, the water will eventually boil over the rim and then extinguish the flame. The image of the “sir nafuach,” then, symbolizes the friction and discord that characterized the Jewish Nation at that time, how the “fire” and “water” – the different kinds of people within the nation – were incapable of living together peacefully. (Later, in chapter 8, Yirmiyahu bemoans the sorry state of incivility that he saw, how people cheated and lied to one another without compunctions.)
A pot represents the possibility of different people living harmoniously together by respecting each other’s boundaries. Fire and water can sit peacefully near each other – very near, in fact – as long as they maintain a bit of distance and don’t’ draw too close. Rav Ettlinger understood Yirmiyahu’s prophecy as demonstrating that people with inherently opposing temperaments or ideas can still maintain close, congenial relations, as long as boundaries are respected and some distance is maintained. It is when the pot becomes a “sir nafuach” – when the cover is lifted, the water boils over, and there is no longer any boundary separating the two elements – that conflicts ensue and the harmony is violently disrupted.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion -www.etzion.org.il