“Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the LORD. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.” — Jeremiah 2:9.

The Torah portion for this week is Massei, which means “journeys,” from Numbers 33:1–36:13, and the Haftorah is from Jeremiah 2:4–28; 4:1–2.

This week’s Haftorah reading is part of a series of three readings that are connected to this season of the year — the three-week period of mourning that historically leads up to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. During this time period, more Jewish tragedies have occurred than in any other month in the Hebrew Calendar.

For such a punishing time, this month has a most unusual name. It is called the month of Av, which is Hebrew for “father.” This is in order to teach us that all our suffering comes from a place of love. It comes from a Father who deeply loves His children. This is also one of the themes of this week’s Haftorah reading from the book of Jeremiah.

The reading begins by recalling the loyalty and faithfulness of the Israelites in the desert, the time period we read about in the Torah reading. However, the rest of the Haftorah takes a darker twist and lists all the ways that the children of Israel had repaid God’s kindness with betrayal and how they had strayed from God. So God said, “Therefore I bring charges against you again . . . And I will bring charges against your children’s children.”

What was God saying?

God was basically telling His children, “I will not give up on you! I will send prophet after prophet to beseech you to repent. And if you won’t listen, I will send prophets to your children. And if they don’t listen, I’ll try again with your grandchildren.” God, as our loving Father, won’t give up on us and will try everything to get us to repent.

Sometimes, in spite of all of the messages, we still don’t mend our ways. This was the case with the children of Israel who were ultimately sent into exile and witnessed the destruction of the Temple. But this, too, was out of love – another attempt to move them toward repentance. The Sages teach that Jeremiah accompanied the Israelites all the way to the Euphrates River, at which point he informed them that he was going back to Israel to stay with the few Jews who had remained. The people began to weep inconsolably. Jeremiah said; “I testify in the name of God that if this sincere cry would have transpired moments ago, when we were still in our homeland, the exile would never have come about.” All God wants is one sincere cry – one real attempt to return to Him – and He will save us.

When God sends us troubles, let’s remember that it’s not an act of cruelty, but an act of deep, unfathomable love. God is our loving Father – and He will never give up on His children.