This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .
This week's portion of Haftorah comes from Malachi - a prophet living and teaching around 100 years after we returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild Jerusalem, around 420 BCE.
Some of you might recognize the Haftorah's opening verse - as traditionally, it was printed in siddurs right after the Amidah prayers:
In the later work of midrash, Eicha Rabbah, the sages wonder - Why the poetic repetition, or redundancy, of referring to the past?
While mourning the destruction of the Temple, signifying the ruptured relationship between God and Israel, the author of the book of Lamentations pleads the following:
(כא) הֲשִׁיבֵ֨נוּ יְהוָ֤ה ׀ אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ ונשוב [וְֽנָשׁ֔וּבָה] חַדֵּ֥שׁ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כְּקֶֽדֶם׃
"Take us back, Hashem, to You! Renew our days of old (yimei kedem) !"
Being that both Malachi and the author of Lamentations (traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah) use very similar vocabulary to refer to the distant past, the sages in Eicha Rabba bring insight to both verses simultaneously:
חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם, כְּאָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן, כְּמָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (בראשית ג, כד): וַיְגָרֶשׁ אֶת הָאָדָם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן מִקֶּדֶם לְגַן עֵדֶן.
דָּבָר אַחֵר, חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם, כְּמָה דְאַתְּ אָמַר (מלאכי ג, ד): וְעָרְבָה לַה' מִנְחַת יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָיִם כִּימֵי עוֹלָם וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיּוֹת,
כִּימֵי עוֹלָם, זֶה משֶׁה, דִּכְתִיב (ישעיה סג, יא): וַיִּזְכֹּר יְמֵי עוֹלָם משֶׁה עַמּוֹ.
וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיוֹת, כִּשְׁנוֹת שְׁלֹמֹה.
רַבִּי אוֹמֵר: כִּימֵי עוֹלָם, כִּימֵי נֹחַ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה נד, ט): כִּי מֵי נֹחַ זֹאת לִי.
וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיּוֹת, כִּשְׁנוֹת הֶבֶל, שֶׁלֹא הָיְתָה עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים עֲדַיִן בָּעוֹלָם.
"Renew our days as of old!": Like Adam the first, according to what was written: "He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24)".
Another interpretation: "Renew our days as of old!": According to what was written: "Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to Hashem as in the days of yore and in the years of old (Malachi 3:4)".
"Days of yore": This is Moses, as it is written: "Then they remembered the ancient days, Him, who pulled His people out (mosheh) (Isaiah 63:11)".
"Years of old": like the years of Solomon.
Rabbi says: ""Days of yore": like the days of Noah, as it is said: "For this to Me is like the waters of Noah (Isaiah 54:9)".
"Years of old": like the years of Abel, when there was no worship of idols in the world".
In the above passage, our sages look back nostalgically at five different time periods to when the relationship between God and humankind (or Israel) was in a much better place:
1. The first man;
2. Abel;
3. Noah;
4. Moses;
5. Solomon
This is quite the complicated midrash - for each of these eras was fraught with much of their own difficulties, their own strains on the relationship between humankind and God! Not one of the figures above lived during a time when Hashem's patience with us, either as humanity, or as Israel, was not tested and brought to the very brink. Why, therefore, would the sages speak of these eras with so much longing?
Perhaps the tested relationship of the above eras is precisely the point! By virtue of being human, we are bound to stumble, bound to make mistakes. We will inevitably, at times throughout our lives, not live up to the high hopes that we find God, others, or we ourselves - place upon us. The cases listed above include some extreme examples where humankind erred stupendously, straying much too far from the path that Hashem hoped, and expected us to follow. But ultimately, Hashem never gave up on us, never gave up on the ambitious goal of being in relationship with humankind, or with Israel.
When the author of Lamentations saw God's Temple lying in shambles, it was natural to conclude that this could only ever happen if Hashem had decided to leave this world behind - and so he asks for Hashem to renew us like days of old - I.e., to find some way to move on, to forgive once again, and to enable us to work towards rebuilding our ever-important relationship, as Hashem showed time and time again that He was willing and able to do.
Malachi, in this week's Haftorah, assures us that that for which the author of Lamentations had plead will indeed come to pass: That there will once again be a time when both us and Hashem will be invested in a stable, healthy, and most importantly, loving relationship - one where our offerings will be eagerly accepted and appreciated, despite any shortcomings or setbacks, as they were in the "days of yore, the days of old."
Shabbat Shalom!