Fig Parable

Found 4 Search results

1. The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

   Rabbi David Sabato

   The prevalent mood among those who remained in the Land of Israel after the exile of Yehoyakhin was that their brothers had been exiled from the land and they viewed themselves as heirs to the land. Yirmiyahu struggled against this perception, arguing that it is precisely the exiles, who are likened here to good figs, who will return to the land and inherit it, while those who remained in the land, who are likened to bad figs, will become diminished in numbers and disappear.

   There are several lines of similarity between the vision concerning the figs in Yirmiyahu's prophecy and the dreams of Pharaoh that were interpreted by Yosef. Yosef interprets Pharaoh's dream and reveals to him that a great calamity is about to fall upon Egypt. However, Yosef, who was sold as a slave to Egypt, succeeds in saving his family in the years of famine and sustaining them in the exile of Egypt. 

   In the same way, Yirmiyahu, the prophet of destruction and exile, stands before a great calamity that is threatening to befall the people. In this vision, Yirmiyahu reveals that it is precisely in the depths of the calamity that we find a bright spot in the form of the good figs, the exile of Yehoyakhin, who were "picked" at an earlier stage, before they became ruined, in order to constitute a base for the renewal of the people after the destruction and after the exile in Babylon.

2. The End is Near

   Dr. Tova Ganzel

   The prophetic message of Yehezkel and Yirmiyahu is that the end of Jerusalem is imminent. The common belief in Jerusalem and in Babylonia is that somehow God will save the inhabitants of Jerusalem, allowing them to survive this crisis. The exiles themselves, though, might – in a best case scenario – return to the land; but will otherwise assimilate and disappear among the nations.

   Yirmiyahu prophesies that in his own days Yehoyakhin is “a man who shall not prosper” and in those years that Yehuda is desolate, none of his progeny will prosper as king or ruler. But in the long term, the exile of Yehoyakhin will settle and prosper in Babylonia for a long period of time and they will serve as the salvation of the people. It would be these exiles who would return one day to rebuild the land which was about to be destroyed. Yehekzel prophesies that those who remained in Jerusalem will die by pestilence, by the sword or by famine.

   But even after these prophecies, neither the inhabitants of Jerusalem nor the exiles in Babylonia were convinced. The Temple was still standing; the inhabitants of Jerusalem remained steadfast despite the crises they had faced since the time of Shlomo. These facts made a stronger impression than the prophecies of Yirmiyahu and Yehezkel.

   To convey his messages, Yehezkel enlists all possible means: the use of symbolic acts and the borrowing of expressions familiar from the Tokhaha in Vayikra. Now, another means is adopted: a key word, aimed at emphasizing the subject of the prophecy as a whole. We see here the repeated use of the word “ketz” (end), alluding to the story of the Flood.

3. Visions of Disaster and Solutions: Yirmiyahu's Figs and Pharaoh's dreams

   Rabbi David Sabato

4. Sticks, Stones, & Sour Figs: Misinterpreting Messages of Nevuah

   Shani Taragin |

   What is the unique nature of Yirmiyahu's mission? By focusing on the first perek detailing Yirmiyahu’s inauguration, we can explore Yirmiyahu’s prophetic purpose at a deeper level. God asks Yirmiyahu three times over the course of the book - "what do you see", and through an analysis of the text we can infer that this as a test to see whether he grasps the full meaning of his prophetic mission. This leads us to grapple with the concept of true and false prophecies in general, and the messages we are meant to learn from these prophecies for the future.