ירמיהו, פרק ט׳, פסוק י״א

The complete and utter destruction of the land is presented as a profound riddle, directed at the greatest spiritual minds. A search is made for an explanation, challenging both the wise individual who relies on his own intellect and the prophet who receives answers directly from God [רד״ק, מצודת דוד]. Their shared task is to understand the root cause of such severe devastation [רש״י, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The ruin is absolute. The land has been transformed into a dry, empty desert where no one even passes through, appearing entirely lost without any hope of recovery [מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם].

This presents a major difficulty. The severe sins of the people were public knowledge. Why, then, were the wise men and prophets left helpless, unable to explain the ruin until God Himself had to provide the answer?

One approach explains that the riddle is not about the punishment of exile itself, but rather a miraculous physical shrinking of the land. During the times when the Israelites studied the Torah for its own sake, the sheer holiness of their study caused the land of Israel to expand far beyond its natural borders. The leaders were baffled as to why the land suddenly lost its massive dimensions and shrank to a small area. God answered that the people had stopped offering a blessing over the Torah and no longer studied it with pure intentions, treating it instead as a collection of ordinary stories. Once the holiness departed, the miraculous expansion of the land vanished with it [נחל שורק, חומת אנך].

Another perspective connects the loss of the land to the fundamental right to live on it, which stems from showing gratitude to God. The sages note that the land was lost because the people failed to recite a blessing before studying the Torah. This points to a broader failure. If the people neglected to bless the Torah, which represents eternal life, they certainly failed to offer blessings for the physical pleasures of this world. Because the earth belongs exclusively to God until a blessing is recited, the absence of these blessings meant the Israelites forfeited their right to the land, resulting in its removal from them [חנוכת התורה].

Furthermore, the absolute desolation of the land directly mirrors the people's complete detachment from the Torah. The destruction was not the result of isolated sins. Rather, the people abandoned the Torah on every possible level. First, they lost their love and desire for it. Then, they stopped observing its commandments even out of basic reverence. Ultimately, they abandoned practical habits and actions entirely, choosing instead to follow their own hearts and worship foreign idols [מלבי״ם, צאינה וראינה].