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THE BOOK OF EIKHA
CHAPTER ONE
OVERVIEW
The book of Eikha was written by Yermiyahu as a lament for the destruction of Yerushalayim and her Beith HaMiqdash [Temple]. Midrash Eikha relates that the first chapter was written while the Beith HaMiqdash still stood, as a warning to the People about the impending doom. After Yehoiakim, the King of Yehuda burned this scroll, Yermiyahu had his scribe rewrite the scroll, and at that time he added the final four chapters. However, other sages differ, saying that the scroll described in the Book of Yermiyahu is a different book and that Eikha was written by the prophet after the destruction.
Four of the five chapters are written in alphabetical order to atone for Yisrael's sins. Also, the alphabetical order implies that the destruction was complete, punishment for Yisrael violating the entire Torah from Aleph to Tav [A to Z].
The first chapter describes the pain and tribulations that the People endured with the destruction of the Beith HaMiqdash. Yermiyahu witnessed the destruction and was personally affected by the calamity. Despite the pain and grief at the destruction, Yermiyahu recognizes that it is a result of Yisrael's sin and the punishment is just. However, also hinted throughout the text is that the possibility of redemption still remains.
IN DETAL (A selection of some verses of interest):
1:1 - "Eikha…"
The word, "Eikha," literally means, "How?" and is the first word at the beginning of three of the book's five chapters as well as being peppered throughout the rest of the book. It's repetition screams the sense of loss at the Beith HaMiqdash [Temple]'s destruction and the exile enforced on the Children of Yisrael.
Not coincidently, Moshe Rabbeinu uses this same word at the beginning of D'varim [1:12], whose reading always falls in the same time period as the commemoration of Tisha B'Ab [the Ninth of the Hebrew month Ab (or Av) which marks the destruction of both the First and Second Beith HaMiqdash as well as countless other tragedies in the history of the Jewish People]
There, Moshe Rabbeinu asks, "How can I alone bear the responsibility, burden and conflict that you [the Nation of Yisrael] present?" On sense of this question, posed at a time when Yisrael was about to conquer the Land of Yisrael, when they occupied a place of honor and favor with HaShem, is that Moshe Rabbeinu felt overwhelmed and incapable of judging the People alone.
How much more so Yermiyahu, who must lead the people at a time of disfavor and disgrace?
Further the juxtaposition of Moshe Rabbeinu's question and the prophet Yermiyahu's emphasizes the depth of descent that Yisrael has been subject to. In D'varim, the Nation of Yisrael is total potential, with the ability to conquer the Holy Land of Yisrael and bring total redemption to the world. In Eikha, the question echoes our failure to live up to that potential. Hanging on the edge of the question, "How?" is the question, "How come?" "Why?" The path towards redemptions that was laid before us was not so difficult for us to take yet our sins led us to our own destitution. We chased emptiness, fooling ourselves that our role as the Chosen People was a privilege, not a responsibility; that it was a measure of our worth and not a call to a higher degree of accountability.
This last point is emphasized by its similarity to the question posed to Adam HaRishon [the first Man] in Bereshit, when God asks, "A'yeka? Where are you?" When we fail, when tragedy visits us, we are forced to ask, "Where are we in relationship to our Creator? Where have we failed Him? Yermiyahu asks, "How does she sit in solitude?" Behind his question, is HaShem's, "Where are you?" If you ask the question, why did this tragedy happen, HaShem answers that we should examine where we are. Considering that in every generation that the Beith HaMiqdash is not built is counted as if it had been destroyed in that generation as well, the questions are posed to us as well.
1:1 - "How does she sit in solitude…"
The concept of "badad," solitude, is a term usually reserved for blessings in regard to the Nation of Yisrael. The Torah [D'varim 33:28] declares, "Yisrael shall dwell securely in solitude." Also Bil'`am is forced to bless the People that they "shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations." The image is one of a bride who is secluded with her husband. Yisrael is portrayed as the bride who the husband, HaShem, reserves only for Himself. It is not solitude of loneliness but exclusiveness.
However here, Yermiyahu's lament is that the solitude has been transformed to abandonment. Because of her sins, her connection with God being broken, through her fraternization with the other nations and their way of life, the only relationship that was truly meaningful has been severed, leaving her truly alone in the world. It is like a bride who prostitutes herself with every man in her neighborhood, and when they kick her out of their home she returns to hers only to find that her husband has left her. So too the Jewish Nation continually tries to be like "one of the nations," only to find that in the end she is rejected both by the foreign nations and by her true husband God.
When Yisrael abandons her exclusiveness, her connection with God, she becomes "like a widow," suffering a unique form of loneliness that penetrates to the very core of her being.
1:2 - "She weeps continually in the night…"
Most commentators teach that the reference to "the night" is an allusion to another night of tears, namely when the spies returned from scouting out the Land of Yisrael and brought their evil report. They returned on the Eighth of Ab and frightened people regarding the impending conquest of the Land, saying that it was impossible and they would all perish. That night (the night of the ninth of Ab), the people wept bitterly. God became outraged at their refusal to go and their lack of faith and trust in Him. Targum Onkelos teaches that at that moment HaShem declared, "Because you wept for no reason this night is destined to be a night of weeping for generations."
It seems to me that there is another reason that the term "night" is used. It is well known that Judaism understands the day as beginning with the night. (We learn this from the story of Creation, "There was evening, there was morning, one day [Bereshit 1:5].") Thus, even in the destruction of the Beith HaMiqdash and the exile of our people, there is left a glimmer of hope, for just as the light of day always follow night, so too the light of redemption must follow from the darkness of exile. It seems to me that this is the meaning of our sages' statement that the Mashiah [Redeemer] was born on Tisha B'Ab.
1:2 - "…all her friends have betrayed her, they have become her foes…"
This is the pattern of Jewish exile. The Jew chases after the "gods" of the foreign nations (today that god is the god of materialism immodesty and vulgarity), oftentimes excelling in their worship, trying hard to be so much like the "host" nation. When the Jew succeeds in abandoning his uniqueness and he resembles those around him, his "friends" betray him, and become his enemies, rejecting him from their midst.
We saw this repeatedly throughout history, Germany being the most recent example. Before Hitler's rise to power, the leaders of "liberal" Judaism had stripped the religion of anything they thought the host country might find "offensive" or "exclusive." Jews, in unprecedented numbers (until today), abandoned their customs, rushing to be "good Germans." At their height of their apostasy, it was their newfound "friends" that became their worst enemy. The Jews only true friend is HaShem, and it is only when we are loyal to Him that we will earn true respect from the other nations.
1:6 - "…are like a deer that finds no pasture, walking without strength before the pursuer."
The words for pursuer, "rodef" is written here with the letter "waw," however, in most places throughout the Tanakh [Bible] the "waw" is not used. Rashi teaches that this is to imply that the Jews are pursued totally.
It is interesting to note that the gematria [numerical equivalent] of the word "rodef," spelled with a "waw" is the same as the word, "Tsar," meaning "narrow" "enemy" or "trouble," imply that which is pursuing the Jew throughout history.
Similarly, the word "go'el" when spelled with a "waw" is equal to the number forty. Forty is a very significant number in regards to sin and punishment, and, more importantly, the possibility of total redemption.
Throughout the Tanakh the number forty is related to this them. After the spies brought their evil report about the land, the People are forced to wander for forty years to repent and recover from this sin, to renew the people with a generation that will be worthy of conquering the Land.
Masekhet Sanhedrin [Talmud, 99a] teaches, "The days of the Mashiah are forty years …"
In the book of Yonah, the city of Nineveh is given forty days to repent. Earlier, in Bereshit [7:12], the world is redeemed from the evil of the earlier generation through a rain that lasted forty days and forty nights.
It is also no coincidence that the redeeming waters of the mikweh [ritual bath], which transform one from a state if impurity to a state of purity is a measure of forty se'ah.
Even closer to our theme, we learn that there was a warning of forty years prior to the destruction of both the first and second Beith HaMiqdash. In the time of the First Beith HaMiqdash, HaShem told the prophet Y'hez'qe'l, "I have appointed you forty days, each day for a year [4:6]." Rashi tells us that we learn from this that from the time of the exile of the ten tribes until the destruction of Yerushalayim was forty years. Eikha Rabba also echoes the fact that there were forty years of warning, when it says, "The Book of Eikha was more effective for Yisrael than the forty years that Yermiyahu prophesized to them [Eikha Rabba 4:27]."
We are taught in Masekhet Yoma [Talmud, 39b] that forty years prior to the destruction of the Second Beith HaMiqdash, "the lot never was chosen by the Kohen Gadol's right hand; the red slip outside the Qodesh HaQodash'im [Holy of Holies] never turned white [a sign of Divine forgiveness during Yom HaKippurim] and the western candle would not light and the door of the Hekhal [Sanctuary] opened by themselves until Ribbi Yohanan ben Zakkai admonished them (saying I know that you are destined to be destroyed." Also, forty years prior to its destruction, the Sanhedrin exiled itself from the Beith HaMiqdash and sat in the marketplace, teaches the Talmud [Avodah Zara 8b].
Further, Ribbi Tsadok sat and fasted for forty years to try and prevent the destruction of Jerusalem [Gittin 56a].
It seems to me that occasionally throughout our history, the Jews are given a respite and an opportunity for redemption. However, that opportunity can only become complete redemption if, after a grace period of forty years, we merit the inclusion of the letter "waw." It is significant to note that the letter "waw" is also a word meaning, "hook," and is often used to symbolize the connection between Heaven and Earth. Complete Redemption will merit a fastening of that hook between this world and the one above.
In modern times, it seems more than coincidence that exactly forty years after the founding of the Central Society of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith (March 26, 1893), an organization whose philosophy included "modernizing" and "reforming" Judaism, Dachau, the first concentration camp, is set up outside of Munich (March 1933, Hitler [may God blot out his name] is appointed Chancellor in January).
It is interesting to note that both the arrest and trial of Jonathan Pollard (1987) and the beginning of the Arab Intifada (the beginning of December 1987) took place forty years after the State of Israel was voted into existence by the U.N. (November 29, 1947).
1:7 - "…Yerushalayim remembers all the treasures that she possessed in the days of old…"
Eikha Rabba [1:34] teaches that the pleasure Yerushalayim remembers are spiritual in nature, thus even when the Nation of Yisrael prospers in Exile, the experience is viewed as affliction and misery. Exile from the Land of Yisrael is often compared to idol worship, as Dawidh HaMelekh [King David] stated when he was forced to flee to Moab from the wrath of Sha'ul. In fact, it is often material success in the various places where we are exiled that precipitate affliction and misery. We note that shortly before the expulsion of Spain and the Holocaust of Germany, the Jewish community reached unprecedented levels of affluence and influence. In America, the Jewish community has continually increased in its material success since the seventies, and yet it is during that same period when the community views its spiritual and "identity" situation as one of crisis and alarm.
1:8 - "Heitt hatt'ah Yerushalayim…"
Literally the phrase means "Yerushalayim sinned a sin," yet the repetition of the cognate for sin, "hett," according to the rules of grammar imply a continual sin. Further, on a allegorical level, it implies the rabbinical dictum that a "Sin causes another sin [Pirke Avot]," meaning the more one habituates himself with something that is forbidden the more he will continue to do not only that sin, but related sins as well. Conversely the rabbis teach that a mitsvah causes another mitsvah. If an individual begins to slowly accept the yoke of Torah, as he habituates himself to doing God's Will, the more readily and easily he will be able to do more mitsvot. In other words, no action is independent of itself, but rather a part of a continuum leading one in a specific direction.
1:8 - "…therefore she has become a nidah [wanderer]…"
The word, "nidah," can mean both "wanderer," as the word is traditionally translated, or the term (from a different root) describes a woman, who upon witnessing menstrual bleeding, must separate from her husband for a period of purification. Like a nidah, the Nation of Yisrael is separated from the Shehinah [God's Presence] because of her impurity. The Midrash teaches that one of the sins that caused the destruction was bloodshed, which further emphasizes the dual meaning.
Yet this parallel also carries with it a note of hope. A woman who is nidah must separate seven days, but afterwards, she then enters the mikweh [ritual bath] and is purified, and reunited with her husband. So too, Yisrael will be redeemed and will be reenter into God's embrace. Moreover, according to Torah law, a nidah can be bleeding all seven days, yet if the blood stops in the late afternoon on the seventh day, she can go to the mikweh and be considered to be in a state of ritual purity. Also worthwhile to note is the gematria [numerical equivalent] of the word for redeemer, "go'el," is forty, which is the volume of water that makes a mikweh kosher [fit] (see above).
1:13 - "…He sent fire into my bones and it overcame them…"
The commentators explain that the "fire" referred to is the fire of conflict and division. Understanding that every sin is met with a similar punishment, they relate to the burning of the Beith HaMiqdash and being caused by the sin of "fire," amongst the people. The sages teach that the Beith HaMiqdash was destroyed do "purposeless hatred" and fratricidal strife. The Gemara relates that Kamsa and Bar Kamsa destroyed the Beith HaMiqdash. It seems, upon careful analysis of this story that the sin that brought the destruction was Bar Kamsa's senseless hatred of the sages and rabbis, and his father's (Kamsa) failure to correct his son.
1:13 - "…He has turned me backwards…"
First, HaShem brought us from exile to redemption, redeeming us from the slavery of Mitsrayim [Egypt], yet now He has "turned us backwards," returning us to the narrow place [Mitsrayim can be translated as narrow places] of exile.
1:14 - "Nis'qad…"
The word, "Nis'qad," traditionally translated according to Rashi as "apparent" is not found anywhere else in the Tanakh. Rabbi Sa'dia Gaon translate the word as "wound around" rendering the verse as, "The yoke of my transgressions is wound around His hand."
The word itself seems to have several hidden messages. Upon rearranging the letters we arrive at the word, ""Niqdash," meaning "to be sanctified." This might indicate a reflection of the idea that when one does t'shuvah [repentance], his sins are counted towards his merits. This is interpreted a number of ways, but here, it might mean that the punishment incurred from the transgressions are weighed towards Yisrael's redemption. Alternatively it might be reflecting the condition that when one is so steeped in transgression, after becoming saturated in filth, he eventually rejects the evil and in disgust turning back to HaShem.
The word's small gematria [the value of each letter without a tens or hundreds column, for example instead of fifty, five] is thirteen, which is the value for both the words, "Ehad," meaning "one," and "ahavah," meaning "love." This might reflect that even during exile, His love is not departed from His people and remains "apparent." Or, that the very punishment we receive in exile is an act of love, as a father who chastises his child for his own betterment.
Also we deserved punishment for the violation of the Oneness of God, gathering other "gods" and "idols" into our home. Exile is a result of our placing other priorities before the God, suggesting that there are other forces in the universe.
Or, that we violate the oneness and uniqueness of our People, failing to love our fellow Jew, and, often at the same time, rushing to love everyone but our fellow Jew.
1:18 - "Righteous is HaShem…"
Only true righteousness can come from HaShem. Man has a very limited perspective, but God blends mercy and judgment awarding humanity a just outcome for his deeds both in this world and the Next World. By definition, all of HaShem's decrees are just and moral, for only Absolute Morality can come from and Absolute Source. Alternatively, when one denies God, he cannot judge another's actions for that person's actions, subjectively, can be no more right or wrong than his fellows.
1:20 - "…outside the sword bereaves, inside is like death."
Yet, even though the sword remains outside, we, especially in this generation, worry about it more than the catastrophe that is occurring in our onw home. Inside is like death, and that is where there is the most danger to our health. Before we can seek peace from the external sword, we must quiet the churning of our insides, and seek a remedy for the death-like state within our home.
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