The haftarah for this week’s parsha is drawn from the earliest prophecies in the book of Yirmiyahu, first delivered in the reign of Yoshiyahu, king of Judah, whose rule began fifty-three years before the destruction of the First Temple. As we move through the Three Weeks between Shiva Asar Be’Tamuz and Tisha Be’Av, it is worth pausing on the tension at the heart of this haftarah. The struggle Yoshiyahu faces reveals something deeper: the difference between building a religious society and merely policing one, a distinction that is critical for today’s leaders and educators to understand.

Yoshiyahu was nothing like his father, Amon, or his grandfather Menashe, both of whom were steeped in idolatrous practice. Even as a child, Yoshiyahu sought connection with God (II Chronicles 34:3). Once he came to power, he moved aggressively to root out idolatry, not only within the kingdom of Yehuda but in the regions of Ephraim and Menashe and the territory of Naphtali as well. He personally supervised the work, and when his reforms met resistance, that resistance was answered with force (see II Kings 23:20). Yoshiyahu did not stop at legislating against idolatrous practice. 

He was determined that his people adhere to the Torah’s laws, in sharp contrast to his father and grandfather, and he threw himself into refurbishing the Beit HaMikdash, purifying it after its desecration and restoring its service to Torah norms. II Chronicles 34:9 describes him raising funds to rebuild the Temple, an effort that met........

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