YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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Understanding the haftarot
By Harav Yaakov Medan
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In memory of Rabbi Moshe ben Avraham Shraga Furst z”l,
Niftar 17 Tammuz 5771.
Dedicated by his family.
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Dedicated by the Wise and Etshalom families
in memory of Rabbi Aaron M. Wise,
whose yahrzeit is 21 Tamuz. Yehi zikhro barukh.
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The Haftara for the First Shabbat of the Three Weeks
The words of Yirmeyahu, son of Chilkiyahu, one of the priests who were in Anatot in the land of Binyamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Yoshiyahu son of Amon, king of Yehuda, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and continued during the days of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehuda, until the end of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehuda – until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month:
The word of the Lord came to me: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I consecrated you. I placed you as a prophet to the nations." I said, "Please, Lord God, I am not capable of speaking, for I am still only a boy." The Lord replied to me, "Do not say, 'I am a boy,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak as I instruct you. Do not fear them, for I am with you to rescue you, declares the Lord." The Lord extended His hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, "Look, I have placed My words in your mouth. I have appointed you this day against the kingdoms and against the nations to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and to plant." The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Yirmeyahu?" I replied, "I see the branch of an almond tree [shaked]." And the Lord said to me: "You have seen well, for I am watchful [shoked] about keeping My word."
The word of the Lord came to me a second time: "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a boiling cauldron facing the north." And the Lord said to me: "From the north disaster shall burst forth upon all the inhabitants of the land, for I am about to summon all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north," declares the Lord. "They shall come; each shall set up a throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against her ramparts roundabout and against all the cities of Yehuda. Thus will I pronounce My judgment upon them on account of their wickedness: they abandoned Me, sacrificed to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. As for you, be courageous; stand up and speak to them as I will instruct you. Do not break down because of them lest I break you down before them. I have made you today a fortress city, an iron column, and walls of bronze against the entire land – against the kings of Yehuda, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will wage battle against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you," declares the Lord, "to rescue you."
The word of the Lord came to me: "Go and proclaim to the people of Jerusalem: 'This is what the Lord has said: I recall on your behalf the devotion of your youth, your bridal love, when you followed Me into the wilderness, a land unseeded. Israel is a treasure to the harvest. All who eat of it will be held to account. Evil will befall them, declares the Lord.'" (Yirmeyahu 1:1-2:3)[1]
I. The Connection Between the Haftara and the Three Weeks
It is customary to read the first two prophecies in the book of Yirmeyahu on the first two Shabbatot of the three-week period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, because Yirmeyahu was the prophet of the destruction of Jerusalem. He saw the destruction, described it, and even wrote the book of lamentations, Eikha. The haftara for the 9th of Av itself is also taken from the book of Yirmeyahu. For the third Shabbat of the Three Weeks, Shabbat Chazon, a haftara was chosen from the book of Yeshayahu that uses the word "Eikha," as we will discuss then.
Our current subject matter is the first prophecy in the book of Yirmeyahu, which describes Yirmeyahu’s consecration as a prophet.
II. Survey of the Years of Yirmeyahu's Prophecy
The words of Yirmeyahu, son of Chilkiyahu, one of the priests who were in Anatot in the land of Binyamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Yoshiyahu son of Amon, king of Yehuda, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and continued during the days of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehuda, until the end of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehuda – until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month:
The word of the Lord came to me: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I consecrated you. I placed you as a prophet to the nations." I said, "Please, Lord God, I am not capable of speaking, for I am still only a boy." The Lord replied to me, "Do not say, 'I am a boy,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak as I instruct you." (1:1-7)
Yirmeyahu's prophecy, like those of other prophets (Yeshayahu, Hoshea, Mikha, and others) opens with a list of kings for whom and in whose time he prophesied, but it differs from the others with respect to the detailing and precision regarding the years of his prophesying. Here we are presented with a list of the three main kings of Yehuda in whose days Yirmeyahu prophesied – Yoshiyahu, Yehoyakim, and Tzidkiyahu. The list skips over Yehoachaz, who ruled between Yoshiyahu and Yehoyakim, and over Yehoyakhin, who ruled between Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu, even though there are prophecies in the book from their times, because each of them reigned as king for only three months. Yirmeyahu prophesied for eighteen years of Yoshiyahu’s reign (from the 13th year of his reign until Yoshiyahu's death in his 31st year as king), for eleven years during the time of Yehoyakim, and for ten years of Tzidkiyahu’s rule, for a total of about forty years, until the destruction. The Abravanel compares him in this respect to Moshe, who also prophesied for forty years, but it should be remembered that Yirmeyahu prophesied after the destruction as well, and even after he went to Egypt with the remnant of the people.
God recruited Yirmeyahu for prophecy when he was still a boy, and refused to wait until he grew up. This exacted a heavy price, for the people were not inclined to listen to a young boy speaking in the name of God. Even after Yirmeyahu grew up, the people’s contemptuous attitude towards him persisted, as they had already gotten used to not listening to him while he was still a boy. Why was it so urgent for God to recruit him when he was only a child? Perhaps the answer lies in our verses, in the fact that he began his prophecy in the 13th year of Yoshiyahu.
In the twelfth year of Yoshiyahu, Ashurbanipal, the greatest Assyrian king of all time, who reigned for forty-two years, died.[2] His heirs brought about the collapse of the kingdom; immediately after his death began the countdown to Assyria’s fall at the hands of Babylon, twenty-two years after Ashurbanipal's death. The kingdom of Assyria had descended on the kingdom of Yehuda in the days of Ashurbanipal and Esar Chadon, who preceded him, and decimated it. The main king of Yehuda in the days of the two great kings of Assyria was Menashe; in those days, the people’s spiritual state and quest for God were at an all-time low, stemming from Yehuda’s dependence on the kingdom of Assyria.
Yoshiyahu received the kingdom when he was eight years old, after his father Amon was murdered, and he began to seek God at the age of sixteen. The twelfth year of his reign, the year of Ashurbanipal’s death, offered the kingdom of Yehuda a golden opportunity to free itself from the spiritual and idolatrous shackles that the kingdom of Assyria had placed on it.
Throughout history, God has given us many golden opportunities, which I would not define simply as "miracle," but as "manifest miracle," a rare combination of two miracles that come together: a political golden opportunity – the death of a great king of Assyria – coming together with the rise of a leader like Yoshiyahu – a strong leader who knows how to take advantage of the opportunity and clings to God with all his heart. It was a winning combination, which gave rise to Yoshiyahu's religious revolution.
Yoshiyahu's religious revolution entered into its full force in the 18th year of his reign (see II Melakhim 22), with the discovery of the Torah scroll in the Temple, but it had already begun in his 12th year, the year of the death of the king of Assyria:
In the eighth year of his reign, though he was still young, he began to seek out the God of his ancestor David; and in the twelfth year, he began to purge Yehuda and Jerusalem of the high shrines and sacred trees and idols and images. (II Divrei ha-Yamim 34:3)
During its first six years, the religious revolution proceeded slowly and haphazardly (we will discuss this issue in the next shiur). At the beginning of the revolution, in the 13th year of Yoshiyahu, God urgently sends Yirmeyahu onto the battlefield, even though he is still a boy (perhaps the age of Yoshiyahu), to accompany and empower the religious revolution. This is the beginning of Yirmeyahu's prophecy in our chapter.
III. Yirmeyahu's Consecration as a Prophet
The word of the Lord came to me: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I consecrated you. I placed you as a prophet to the nations." (1:4-5)
From a logical perspective, a prophet of God should be someone who was already born, who lives in holiness and devotion to God and His Torah. By virtue of these qualities, God will choose him as His messenger and reveal Himself to him. Why did God see fit to consecrate Yirmeyahu as His prophet even before he was created, before he was born?[3]
Perhaps the answer to this question directs us to one of Yirmeyahu's key prophecies:
Has this House that is called by My name become a den of robbers in your eyes? I myself have observed this, declares the Lord. But go now to My place which was in Shilo, where I first made a dwelling for My name. Observe what I did to it on account of the wickedness of My people Israel… I will do to this House that is called by My name, and in which you place your trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your forefathers, just as I did to Shilo. (Yirmeyahu 7:11-14)
The people and their leaders were angrier with Yirmeyahu’s comparison to Shilo than with anything else, and they wanted to kill him:
When Yirmeyahu finished speaking all that the Lord commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You shall die! Why did you prophesy in the name of the Lord, saying that this House will be like Shilo and that this city will be destroyed, leaving no inhabitant?" All the people crowded about Yirmeyahu in the House of the Lord. (Yirmeyahu 26:8-9)
The introduction to our haftara notes that Yirmeyahu was "one of the priests who were in Anatot in the land of Binyamin." The villages were divided among families, and the permanent families remained in their villages for hundreds of years, on their ancestral land. We know that Anatot was the village of Evyatar son of Achimelekh, the High Priest:
As for Evyatar the priest, the king said, "Go to your fields in Anatot. Though you deserve to die, I will not have you killed at this time because you bore the Ark of the Lord God before my father David and because you suffered along with my father throughout all his suffering." And Shlomo dismissed Evyatar from the role of priest to the Lord, fulfilling what the Lord had pronounced for the house of Eli at Shilo. (I Melakhim 2:26-27)
There are therefore grounds to assume that Yirmeyahu was a descendant of Evyatar. Thus, Yirmeyahu himself bore “the mark of Kayin” of the curse of the destruction of the house of Eli and of Shilo, which was gradually being fulfilled over the course of generations.[4] When Yirmeyahu tells the people that their evil deeds will bring the Temple in Jerusalem to the same state as the Mishkan in Shilo, while he himself was being persecuted and humiliated, his statement, "this House will be like Shilo," carried great weight.
God chose Yirmeyahu even before he was born because he was from the house of Eli, and God wanted him to warn the people that "this house will be like Shilo."
IV. The Prophecy of Consecration
"Do not fear them, for I am with you to rescue you, declares the Lord." The Lord extended His hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, "Look, I have placed My words in your mouth. I have appointed you this day against the kingdoms and against the nations to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and to plant." (1:8-10)
We learn three things from these verses:
1. God informs Yirmeyahu that many difficulties await him. There will be those who oppose him and even try to harass him, but God will save him from them. Indeed, this is what happened! The false prophets and the priests harassed Yirmeyahu in the days of Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu. The false prophets "saw" different things, mainly what Yehoyakim and Tzidkiyahu wanted to hear and what the experts predicted from a political and military point of view. None of these were in line with Yirmeyahu's prophecy, which hinged the developments on the actions of the king and of the people – on their identification with the God of Israel and on practicing justice and righteousness. The priests did not like Yirmeyahu's criticism of God's service in the Temple, which was believed to solve the problem of the people's relations with God while completely ignoring their social failures and idolatry. King Yehoyakim persecuted Yirmeyahu all his days, as he also persecuted other true prophets and even killed them (see the story of Oriyahu son of Shemayahu in chapter 26). Tzidkiyahu's officers resisted Yirmeyahu's influence on Tzidkiyahu with all their might, at a time when it was important that he accept God’s verdict and not rebel against Nevukhadnetzar. Yirmeyahu suffered great persecution, as described in the book of Yirmeyahu and especially in chapter 3 of Eikha.
2. God puts words into Yirmeyahu's mouth. Does this also have a physical meaning? Perhaps so. Yirmeyahu will later say:
Behold, My word is like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that will shatter a rock. (Yirmeyahu 23:29)
But it resides within me like a flaming fire, locked into my bones. I wearied of holding it back. I could not. (Yirmeyahu 20:9)
God puts His words, which are like fire, into the mouth of the prophet. We find similarly with Yeshayahu:
One of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a coal, taken with tongs from the altar top. With this he touched my lips and said, "When this has touched your lips, your iniquity is gone, and all your sin forgiven." (Yeshayahu 6:6-7)
An aggada says about Moshe as well that he was divinely moved to place a coal in his mouth.[5]
3. Yirmeyahu is also put in charge of other nations, and he must deliver prophecies of both calamity and consolation to them. Most of the book of Yirmeyahu contains prophecies of calamity concerning the people of Israel, but there are also prophecies of consolation (chapters 29-33).
But what does Yirmeyahu have to do with the nations; why does he not prophesy only about his own people?
From his prophecy in chapter 25, which describes giving all the nations to drink from “the cup of the wine of wrath” (25:15), it emerges that the rise of Nevukhadnetzar, king of Babylon, who serves as the whip with which God strikes Israel for their sins, is a worldwide process (in the terms of Yirmeyahu's generation); he will rule over all the peoples of the region. His defeat of the people of Israel will be part of a larger process of taking control of the entire area – until his day comes, when God will destroy his own kingdom. All peoples will suffer at his hand, and Yirmeyahu, describing his rise, describes their calamity as well.
There is also justice in this, for the other nations are no better than the people of Israel – as the prophet himself says about the cup of the wine of wrath:
Should they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, say to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts said: You must drink! For I am about to bring evil upon the city that is called by My name, and you expect to be absolved? You will not be absolved, for I summon a sword to fall upon all the inhabitants of the land, declares the Lord of Hosts. (Yirmeyahu 25:28-29)
The book of Yirmeyahu also includes a book of his prophecies about the nations (chapters 46-51). These prophecies mention consolation in the future revival of the nations, or as stated in our prophecy: "to build and to plant."
V. The First Vision
The word of the Lord came to me: "What do you see, Yirmeyahu?" I replied, "I see the branch of an almond tree." And the Lord said to me: "You have seen well, for I am watchful about keeping My word." (1:11-12)
It is not easy to distinguish from what tree a stick comes, but Yirmeyahu identifies it as coming from an almond tree. The importance of the type of branch is greater than just the play on words – "shaked" (almond) and "shoked" (watchful). Moshe's staff was a branch of an almond tree, and it stands to reason that this is what Yirmeyahu saw. The origin of Moshe's staff is not spelled out in the Torah, but it does emerge from the verses that Moshe's staff is also the staff of Aharon. In Moshe's hand, it turns into a nachash; in Aharon's hand, it turns into a tannin (both are words for serpents). One indication that the two staffs are identical can be found in the following passages:
Then the Lord said to Moshe, "Tell Aharon: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, their rivers, canals, ponds, and reservoirs, and they will turn into blood. There will be blood throughout Egypt, even inside vessels of wood and of stone." Moshe and Aharon did just as the Lord commanded. Aharon raised his staff, in full view of Pharaoh and his officials. (Shemot 7:19-20)
It appears from the verses that Aharon struck the Nile with his own staff – but later, God tells Moshe to take his staff, the staff with which he struck the Nile, and to strike with it the rock at Chorev:
The Lord answered Moshe, "Walk out to face the people taking some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff with which you struck the Nile in your hand, and go. I will be there before you by the rock at Chorev. Strike the rock; water will come out of it and the people will drink.” And this is what Moshe did, before the eyes of the elders of Israel. (Shemot 17:5-6)
We see then that the staff with which Aharon struck the Nile and the staff with which Moshe struck the rock are the same.
Another proof:
Moshe took the staff from before the Lord, as He had commanded him. And Moshe and Aharon gathered the assembly together before the rock. He said to them, "Listen now, rebels! Shall we produce water for you from this rock?" Then Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their animals drank. (Bamidbar 20:9-11)
The staff that was “before the Lord” was the staff of Aaron, which had been brought into the Tent of the Testimony (see Bamidbar 17:25), but at Mei-Meriva, it is the staff of Moshe.
Aharon's staff that was brought into the Tent of the Testimony was from an almond branch, and it sent out roots and flowered inside the Tent of the Testimony:
And the following day, Moshe entered the Tent of the Testimony, and Aharon's staff, representing the House of Levi, had given flower. It had budded, produced blossoms, and was now bearing almonds. (Bamidbar 17:23)
Thus, Yirmeyahu sees the staff of Moshe, which throughout the exodus from Egypt had represented God's strong hand and outstretched arm. This “hand” acted hastily and decisively and changed history. Yirmeyahu sees this staff, but now it will act, if there is no immediate rectification, in the opposite direction: Instead of the miracles of the exodus from Egypt and the journey to Israel, there will, God forbid, be an exodus from the Land of Israel and a return to Egypt – as indeed happened to the remnant of the people in the days of Yirmeyahu.
The Abravanel, in his introduction to the book of Yirmeyahu, lists fourteen points of similarity between Yirmeyahu and Moshe.[6] The similarity between the two is important precisely because of the contrast between them – between Moshe, the prophet of redemption, and Yirmeyahu, the prophet of destruction. But the Abravanel does not list the similarity that in my opinion is the most important of all – the staff; the almond branch.
VI. The Second Vision
The word of the Lord came to me a second time: "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a boiling cauldron facing the north." And the Lord said to me: "From the north disaster shall burst forth upon all the inhabitants of the land, for I am about to summon all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north," declares the Lord. "They shall come; each shall set up a throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against her ramparts roundabout and against all the cities of Yehuda." (1:13-15)
The steam from the boiling cauldron that Yirmeyahu sees points from north to south, indicating that a storm will come from the north (compare to Yechezkel 1:4). It alludes to the calamity that will come to the Land of Israel from the nations of the north. Yirmeyahu does not yet name Babylon, the source of this calamity, because the Babylonian Empire had not yet been established at the time of this prophecy. He mentions many nations, not just one empire. And indeed, this is what would happen at the time of the final siege:
While Nevukhadretzar, king of Babylon, his army, all the kingdoms under his dominion, and all the peoples were attacking Jerusalem and its towns. (Yirmeyahu 34:1)
The siege does in fact resemble a boiling cauldron standing on a fire. We are not dealing with modern gas flames, which quietly heat the bottom of the pot, but with a blazing fire that surrounds the entire pot with its flames, blackens its surface, and dries up the water and liquids in the pot. If the fire continues to burn, the food dries up and burns just like people caught in a siege (Yechezkel 24 offers a detailed description of such a process in relation to Nevukhadnetzar’s siege on Jerusalem).
Our prophecy also describes the end of the siege:
"For I am about to summon all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north," declares the Lord. "They shall come; each shall set up a throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against her ramparts roundabout and against all the cities of Yehuda."
This is, indeed, what the end of the siege of Jerusalem looked like – officers sitting at the city gate:
All the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat at the middle gate – Nergal Saretzer, Samgar Nevo, Sarsekhim the Rav-Saris, Nergal Saretzer the Rav-Mag, and all the other officers of the king of Babylon. (Yirmeyahu 39:3)
VII. The Meaning of the Siege
Thus will I pronounce My judgment upon them on account of their wickedness: they abandoned Me, sacrificed to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. As for you, be courageous; stand up and speak to them as I will instruct you. Do not break down because of them lest I break you down before them. (1:16-17)
Yirmeyahu envisions a siege of Jerusalem in this prophecy, but not the destruction of the city! A siege can have two outcomes: it may end in destruction, as indeed happened with Nevukhadnetzar's final siege, but it may also end in great salvation, as happened with the siege of Sancheriv in the days of Chizkiyahu and the prophet Yeshayahu:
"And I will protect this city, and deliver her, for My own sake and for My servant, David." An angel of the Lord went out then and struck down in the Assyrian camp; by daybreak the next morning they were all dead bodies. (Yeshayahu 37:35-36)
Yirmeyahu says in our prophecy that the difficult days of the siege will be days of national reckoning for leaving God and following other gods – and they may be days of repentance and repair, as they were in the days of Chizkiyahu. We are later told about the days of Chizkiyahu:
Mikha the Morashtite would prophesy in the days of Chizkiyahu, king of Yehuda. He addressed all the people of Yehuda, saying, “This is what the Lord of Hosts said: Zion will be plowed over like a field, Jerusalem will come to be a mound of ruins, and the Temple Mount an overgrown hilltop shrine.” Did Chizkiyahu, king of Yehuda, and all of Yehuda put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and beseech the Lord, so that the Lord reconsidered the evil that He had spoken concerning them? (Yirmeyahu 26:18-19)
If, God forbid, they don't listen, the siege could end in disaster. The example of Mikha, who was about to die because of his harsh prophecies during the siege of Sancheriv, may discourage Yirmeyahu. But God commands him: "Do not break down because of them!"
VIII. The Siege as an Example
"I have made you today a fortress city, an iron column, and walls of bronze against the entire land – against the kings of Yehuda, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will wage battle against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you," declares the Lord, "to rescue you." (1:18-19)
The fate of Yirmeyahu the man is like the fate of Jerusalem. He is compared to a city under siege, a fortress with iron pillars and copper walls. The kings and officers of Yehuda will fight against him and try to capture him, but God promises that He will save him from them. But here the promise is limited – God will save him from them as He will save Jerusalem under siege from the people of the north. This promise is conditioned on the repair and repentance that Jerusalem will undergo; if, God forbid, it does not repair and repent – it will fall. Thus, Yirmeyahu, whose promise of protection is like the promise of the city's protection, may also fall.
We have no information about Yirmeyahu's end. He was taken to Egypt after the murder of Gedalya son of Achikam, probably against his will, by Yochanan son of Kareach and others. There he prophesied a severe calamity for the Jews who went down to Egypt, and according to an unsubstantiated tradition, he was stoned to death there.
IX. "I recall on your behalf the devotion of your youth"
The word of the Lord came to me: "Go and proclaim to the people of Jerusalem: 'This is what the Lord has said: I recall on your behalf the devotion of your youth, your bridal love, when you followed Me into the wilderness, a land unseeded. Israel is a treasure to the harvest. All who eat of it will be held to account. Evil will befall them, declares the Lord.'" (2:1-3)
Our haftara ends with three verses of consolation, but in my understanding, they relate to the haftara to be read next week, and we will discuss them there.
The people of Israel's “devotion of their youth” speaks for itself, and I have nothing to add. The Torah portrays the generation of the wilderness, the generation that came out of Egypt, with fairly gray colors, as a generation that did not merit to enter the Land because of its evil deeds. Yirmeyahu paints the generation of the wilderness in shades of youthful devotion, bridal love, and loyalty to God while following after Him "through the vast and terrifying wilderness, an arid wasteland with venomous snakes and scorpions" (Devarim 8:15).
(Translated by David Strauss)
[1] Unless specified otherwise, all references are to the book of Yirmeyahu.
[2] This is the year 627 BCE. Some argue that he died in the eighth year of Yoshiyahu's reign (631 BCE), but the difference for our purposes is minimal.
[3] The Radak writes that "his father and mother were careful about sanctity and purity during the pregnancy, that the prophet be sanctified," but this does not explain why God chose Yirmeyahu specifically before he was created.
[4] It is related in the Gemara that the curse applied also to the Amoraim Rabba and Abaye, who descended from the house of Eli.
[5] "And Pharaoh took him and hugged him, and he took Pharaoh's crown from his head and put it on his head, as he would do to him when he grows up… The magicians of Egypt sat and said: We are afraid of this, that he takes your crown and puts it on his head… Some of them advised killing him, others said to burn him. Yitro sat among them, and said to them: "This boy has no mind; test him by bringing before him a plate with gold and coal. If he reaches his hand to the coal, he has no mind and he should not be liable to the death penalty. If he reaches his hand to the gold, he has a mind and you should kill him. Immediately, they brought before him gold and coal, and Moshe reached his hand to take the gold. Gabriel came and pushed his hand and he grabbed the coal in his hand and put his hand in his mouth with the coal and burned his tongue. From that he became heavy of speech and tongue." (Shemot Rabba 1:26)
[6] I do not understand all the similarities. The fifth point of similarity the Abravanel discusses is that Moshe's relatives threw him into the Nile and Yirmeyahu's relatives threw him into the pit, but the difference between those cases speaks for itself. However, he also lists very important points of similarity.
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