{"id":96076,"date":"2018-07-09T18:01:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T15:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-2032\/"},"modified":"2021-08-16T09:00:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T06:00:29","slug":"wall-2032","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-2032\/","title":{"rendered":"book-Writings-Lamentations"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"book","wall_id":"2032","book":"Lamentations","books_group":"Writings","date":"","hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"static_cube_title":"Eikha - Lamentations","static_cube_brief":"

In the year 586 BCE, Judah was destroyed by the King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire. The Temple was destroyed, and many residents of Judah were exiled to Babylonia. The Book of Lamentations (megillat eikha)<\/em> is the book of dirges regarding the destruction. The dirges (kinot<\/em>) express the pain and the tragedy, and also give voice to the desire for an answer to the question:\u00a0 why did it happen? It is customary to read the Book of Lamentations on the eve of the 9th of Av – the day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple(s).<\/p>\n","static_cube_color":"","date_from":"20210816","date_to":"","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"96376","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"2","name":"Mourning, Madness, and Eros: The Zohar's Eichah ","post_title":"Mourning, Madness, and Eros: The Zohar's Eichah","slug":"mourning-madness-and-eros-the-zohars-eichah-2","old_id":"96376","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"2032","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"with Nathaniel Berman of Brown University","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_4U_8YppLw8","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Reflections on Lamentations","tile_main_caption":"Mourning, Madness, and Eros: The Zohar's Eichah","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"with Nathaniel Berman of Brown University","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_4U_8YppLw8","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"2032"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"332","name":"24 in 24","old_id":"732"}]},{"order":2,"id":"96378","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"King Josiah\u2019s Death: Confusion, Anger, Faith\u00a0 ","post_title":"King Josiah\u2019s Death: Confusion, Anger, Faith\u00a0","slug":"king-josiahs-death-confusion-anger-faith","old_id":"96378","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56364,"post_title":"Yael Ziegler","slug":"yael-ziegler","old_id":"56364","first_name":"Yael ","last_name":"Ziegler ","description":"Dr. Yael Ziegler is an Assistant Professor of Bible at Herzog College and Matan. She received her BA from Yeshiva University\u2019s Stern College for Women and an MA and PhD at Bar-Ilan University. Dr. Ziegler is the author of Promises to Keep: The Oath in Biblical Narrative (Brill, 2008) and Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy (Maggid, 2015), which has been translated into Hebrew. Her forthcoming book on Lamentations is scheduled for publication in 2020. \r\n","short_description":"Dr. Yael Ziegler is an Assistant Professor of Bible at Herzog College and Matan","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56365,"alt":"","title":"yael-ziegler","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","width":150,"height":175,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","medium-width":150,"medium-height":175,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":175,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","large-width":150,"large-height":175,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":175,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":175,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":175,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yael-ziegler.jpg","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":175}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"2032","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The key to unlocking the secrets of Lamentations\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Responses to Josiah\u2019s untimely death reverberate throughout biblical passages, merging in a swell of mixed emotions: grief, despair, anger, and confusion. Initially, the public laments in an official display of anguish (II Chr. 35:25). Jeremiah acknowledges the difficulty of recovering from Josiah\u2019s death and advises the king\u2019s son to refrain from excessive mourning (Jer. 22:10). According to many exegetes, echoes of Josiah\u2019s death appear in Lam. 4:21:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The breath of our nostrils, anointed of the Lord, was captured in their traps, about [whom] we said, \u201cUnder his shadow, we will live among the nations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Confusion seems to trump grief, as the problem of theodicy \u2013 <\/span>an attempt to understand how God\u2019s goodness exists alongside evil \u2013 <\/span>overshadows the experience of mourning Josiah. In the aftermath of the king\u2019s death, several prophets express their confusion at God\u2019s treatment of the wicked and the righteous. Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper (Jer. 12:1\u20133). Habakkuk questions why evil people triumph over the righteous (Hab. 1:4, 13). Abravanel suggests that the servant who suffers without cause in Isaiah 52:13\u201353:12 may refer to Josiah:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And his grave was placed with evildoers\u2026 though he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth (Is. 53:9)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Though none of these verses explicitly name Josiah, taken together, they suggest that prophets are perplexed about God\u2019s ways following Josiah\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Nevertheless, alongside this confusion, another response emerges, one that balances the unrelenting current of baffled grief. An expression of faith in God\u2019s righteous judgments appears in the final chapter of Zephaniah, who prophesies during the reign of Josiah. After describing the sins of Jerusalem and her leaders, Zephaniah asserts (3:5): \u201cThe Lord is righteous in her midst; He does not commit perversions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Belief in God\u2019s righteousness may represent another manner of approaching Josiah\u2019s death. In fact, Zephaniah 3:5 is echoed in Lamentations 1:19:<\/span> \u201c<\/b>The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His mouth!\u201d Rabbinic sources attribute these words to Josiah, who utters them as he lies dying from mortal wounds received in battle. According to this reading, Josiah\u2019s staunch faith in God\u2019s justice stands in stark contrast to the incomprehension expressed earlier.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These two contradictory approaches, confusion vs. faith, represent different ways in which humans contend with an incomprehensible world. Lamentations strikes a balanced posture in its approach to the problem of God\u2019s justice. Lamentations articulates intense anger at God, generated by acute awareness of the capriciousness of death, the triumph of evildoers, and the suffering of the innocent. However,<\/span> Lamentations also allows a second approach to emerge from the turmoil, one that concludes that God remains just.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbinic sources maintain that the kernel of the book of Lamentations begins to emerge in the aftermath of Josiah\u2019s death. Josiah\u2019s death marks the beginning of the nation\u2019s theological crisis, spawning the initial attempts to struggle with the complex questions that arise in the wake of the <\/span>h<\/span>urban<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: <\/span>https:\/\/korenpub.com\/products\/lamentations-faith-in-a-turbulent-world<\/span><\/a><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":96210,"alt":"","title":"Lamentations ziegler","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","width":1500,"height":1499,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-768x767.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":767,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1499,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1499,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Reflections on the Book","tile_main_caption":"King Josiah\u2019s Death: Confusion, Anger, Faith\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The key to unlocking the secrets of Lamentations","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":96210,"alt":"","title":"Lamentations ziegler","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","width":1500,"height":1499,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-768x767.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":767,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1499,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1499,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lamentations-ziegler-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"2032"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":3,"id":"96203","color":"#efefef","size":"1","name":"Jeremiah\u2019s Lament ","post_title":"Jeremiah\u2019s Lament","slug":"jeremiahs-lament","old_id":"96203","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"803","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Was this the scroll that Jehoiakim burned?\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

The Talmud identified the Prophet Jeremiah as the author of Lamentations (which it calls <\/span>Kinot<\/em> <\/span>and we call <\/span>Eikha<\/span><\/em>), along with the Book of Kings and the book that bears his name (Baba Batra 14b). Rashi elaborated on that tradition, writing here (1:1): \u201cJeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. This is the scroll that Jehoiakim burned on the hearth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In order to get the people to repent, God had instructed Jeremiah, \u201cGet a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you\u2014concerning Israel and Judah and all the nations\u2014from the time I first spoke to you in the days of Josiah to this day\u201d (Jeremiah 36:2). Jeremiah dictated the contents to his scribe, Baruch (4), who wrote them down and then read them aloud to the people assembled in the Temple on a fast day (8-10). When parts of the scroll were read to King Jehoiakim, however, \u201c[he] would cut it up with a scribe\u2019s knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier\u201d (23).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ibn Ezra, though, disagreed, writing in his introduction:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is not the scroll that Jehoiakim burned because it does not contain the words of God that are inscribed in the Book of Jeremiah. He was instructed to \u201cGet a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you\u2014concerning Israel and Judah and all the nations\u201d (36:2), and, furthermore, it is written: \u201cAnd concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah you shall say: Thus said the LORD: You burned that scroll, saying, \u201cHow dare you write in it that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land\u201d (36:29) and in Lamentations there is nary a word about Babylonia or its king.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Also noteworthy in that same introduction\u2014which he composed in rhymed prose\u2014Ibn Ezra also shared with us his skeptical attitude towards aggadic <\/span>midrashim<\/span><\/em>. \u201cThe meanings of scriptural verses resemble bodies; midrashim are like clothes that garb the bodies. Some are as fine as silk, but others are as coarse as burlap.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Horace Vernet, Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem, 1844 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Introduction to Lamentations","tile_main_caption":"Jeremiah\u2019s Lament","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Was this the scroll that Jehoiakim burned?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":96204,"alt":"","title":"lam1-jeremiah 1844","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","width":410,"height":547,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","medium_large-width":410,"medium_large-height":547,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","large-width":410,"large-height":547,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","1536x1536-width":410,"1536x1536-height":547,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","2048x2048-width":410,"2048x2048-height":547,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844.jpg","post_full_size-width":410,"post_full_size-height":547,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jeremiah-1844-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"803","date":"20280926","wall_id":"803"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":4,"id":"96198","color":"#f6f5de","size":"1","name":"Get Uncomfortable: Interpreting The Mess Of Tragedy And Blame ","post_title":"Get Uncomfortable: Interpreting The Mess Of Tragedy And Blame","slug":"get-uncomfortable-interpreting-the-mess-of-tragedy-and-blame","old_id":"96198","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":59587,"post_title":"Benjamin Morse","slug":"benjamin-morse","old_id":"59587","first_name":"Benjamin ","last_name":"Morse ","description":"Dr. Benjamin Morse studied religion and art history at Vassar, Oxford, and the Courtauld before completing a PhD in biblical interpretation. His dissertation reads the Hebrew Bible\u2019s \u201cmodern methods\u201d through the lens of painting and collage. His illustrated children\u2019s Torah, The Oldest Bedtime Story Ever, has won multiple awards.\r\nPhoto by Lenka Opalena.","short_description":"Dr. Benjamin Morse studied religion and art history, and is the author and illustrator of the illustrated children\u2019s Torah, The Oldest Bedtime Story Ever. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":59588,"alt":"","title":"Benjamin Morse by Lenka Opalena","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena.jpg","width":1069,"height":1576,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-203x300.jpg","medium-width":203,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-695x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":695,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-695x1024.jpg","large-width":695,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena.jpg","1536x1536-width":1042,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena.jpg","2048x2048-width":1069,"2048x2048-height":1576,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-814x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":814,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Benjamin-Morse-by-Lenka-Opalena-285x420.jpg","home_baner-width":285,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"803","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"We need to commune with the ones who suffered to keep ourselves compassionate, even when God forgets us\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

When considering the equality of \u201call periods, types, and schools of taste,\u201d the aesthetic critic Walter Pater once asked, \u201cWhat is this song or picture, this engaging personality presented in life or in a book, to <\/span>me<\/span><\/i>?\u201d As a master\u2019s student I determined Lamentations to be like photomontage; if we understand the dynamics of detritus and despair that inspired the pioneers of European collage following the Great War, then we can understand the chaotic assemblage of graphic images that disrupt the simplicity of the Lamentations\u2019 acrostic structure.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Alongside the literal details of captivity, mockery, starvation, and desecration, the grieving hands that composed these laments piled metaphor upon metaphor to let future readers sit within and witness Judah\u2019s rubble for themselves. The city a widow, her cheek wet with tears (vv. 1-2); the leaders like stags, wandering feebly without pasture (6); the yoke of the speaker\u2019s offenses lashed tight and imposed upon his neck (14). It gets worse in the poems that follow as people\u2019s hearts turn cruel and mothers are forced to feed on their own children (2.20; 4.10). Unlike traditional psalmody, these laments cannot bring themselves to praise the LORD. They beg instead, in their final breath (5.19ff), to be remembered and renewed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Interpretation is subjective. I once followed the lead of biblical scholars who identified the discrepancy between the conceptual weight of the Exile and the limited number of elites who were actually transported to Babylon. Nowadays I wonder what we gain from distinguishing the psychological legacy of exile from the misery of those who were left behind. The prophetic tradition lays most of the blame on Israel\u2019s leaders, linking the ultimate calamity to the initial request for a king. Lamentations appears to challenge that: God has rejected Israel\u2019s heroes (1.15) and it is the people who are left sighing and scavenging to keep themselves alive (11). Where is the justice in that?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The visceral horror of Lamentations resists the convenience of justification. Dismiss tragedy with the excuse, \u201cEverything happens for a reason,\u201d at your peril, it seems to say. We need to remember this stuff. We need to commune with the ones who suffered to keep ourselves compassionate, even when God forgets us. I think it is something like that. Grief and mourning aren\u2019t easily parsed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These poems can also check the personal attachment we like to have to our own traumas. Like, if you think the break-up for which your shrink prescribed you Xanax was bad, have a look at the lonely city.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

No one wants to be uncomfortable these days, or to admit culpability (18, 20) when their hearts are sick (22). Neither do some want to mention things like three thousand rockets being launched on civilian populations when it is easier to apply labels like apartheid and colonialist settler onto complicated and frequently uncomfortable geopolitical conflicts.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cTake us back, O LORD, to yourself\u201d (5.22), and let us act with more love than you did when you rejected us.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image:\u00a0 <\/em><\/span>Hannah H\u00f6ch, <\/span>Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic<\/span>, 1919<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\/ wikimedia<\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":96201,"alt":"","title":"lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","width":715,"height":900,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-238x300.jpg","medium-width":238,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","medium_large-width":715,"medium_large-height":900,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","large-width":715,"large-height":900,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","1536x1536-width":715,"1536x1536-height":900,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","2048x2048-width":715,"2048x2048-height":900,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","post_full_size-width":715,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-334x420.jpg","home_baner-width":334,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Get Uncomfortable: Interpreting The Mess Of Tragedy And Blame","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"We need to commune with the ones who suffered to keep ourselves compassionate, even when God forgets us","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":96201,"alt":"","title":"lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","width":715,"height":900,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-238x300.jpg","medium-width":238,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","medium_large-width":715,"medium_large-height":900,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","large-width":715,"large-height":900,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","1536x1536-width":715,"1536x1536-height":900,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","2048x2048-width":715,"2048x2048-height":900,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg","post_full_size-width":715,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-Morse-Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife-334x420.jpg","home_baner-width":334,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"803","date":"20280926","wall_id":"803"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":5,"id":"96206","color":"#f2e9df","size":"1","name":"Body Without A Soul ","post_title":"Body Without A Soul","slug":"body-without-a-soul","old_id":"96206","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":61348,"post_title":"Adam Schogger","slug":"adam-schogger","old_id":"61348","first_name":"Adam ","last_name":"Schogger","description":"Adam Schogger is a family doctor from Manchester, England ","short_description":"Adam Schogger is a family doctor from Manchester, England ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":61354,"alt":"","title":"adam schogger","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","width":542,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger-226x300.jpg","medium-width":226,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","medium_large-width":542,"medium_large-height":720,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","large-width":542,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","1536x1536-width":542,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","2048x2048-width":542,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger.jpg","post_full_size-width":542,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/adam-schogger-316x420.jpg","home_baner-width":316,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"803","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Reading Lamentations about the city which dwelled alone, in a time of pandemic\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Sometimes one has those 'Eureka' moments. The fabled story of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree was inspired to 'discover' gravity when an apple fell. Of course, it didn't come out of the blue but the genius English physicist had been working on these matters for years.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Sitting on the floor on Tisha B'av 5780 when synagogues were allowed open in the UK for a window during the pandemic was a strange time. The world was gripped with fear, confusion and uncertainty. Town centers were deserted, sporting events were played in empty stadia and many hundreds of people were dying from this strange disease worldwide. It was strangely apt to read of 'the city which dwelled alone'.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I was struck suddenly by a completely different idea. I must preface it by crediting this wonderful project of 929. I have read commentaries by people to whom I would never have been exposed before and have been enriched by so many of the explanations and ideas given in these pages and I have no doubt that my thought would never have surfaced without the 'training' over the last 700 chapters.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The idea of 'a city which dwells alone' is not bottom-up but top-down. Maybe the megillah is not talking about Jerusalem being empty of inhabitants - desolate but not \u201cJudenrein.\u201d Maybe Jeremiah is expressing the loneliness of the city in its isolation from God. The <\/span>Shechina<\/span><\/em> has left the city and she is truly alone. <\/span>Yerushalayim shel ma'alah<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(\"heavenly Jerusalem\") is divorced from <\/span>Yerushalayim shel matah<\/span><\/em> (\"earthly Jerusalem\") and its very essence is lost.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

After all, what use is a body without a soul?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Now, where is that apple?<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":96207,"alt":"","title":"lam1-jerusalem empty streets","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Body Without A Soul","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Reading Lamentations about the city which dwelled alone, in a time of pandemic","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":96207,"alt":"","title":"lam1-jerusalem empty streets","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam1-jerusalem-empty-streets-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"803","date":"20280926","wall_id":"803"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":6,"id":"96274","color":"#f7f7f5","size":"1","name":"God The Destroyer","post_title":"God The Destroyer","slug":"god-the-destroyer","old_id":"96274","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":47016,"post_title":"Ilana Blumberg","slug":"ilana-blumberg","old_id":"47016","first_name":"Ilana ","last_name":"Blumberg ","description":"Ilana Blumberg is a prize-winning author and teacher. Her most recent book is the memoir, \"Open Your Hand: Teaching as a Jew, Teaching as an American\" (Rutgers UP, 2018). She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar Ilan University and lives in Jerusalem with her family.","short_description":"Ilana Blumberg is a prize-winning author and teacher.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":47017,"alt":"","title":"ilana blumberg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","width":188,"height":249,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","medium_large-width":188,"medium_large-height":249,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","large-width":188,"large-height":249,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","1536x1536-width":188,"1536x1536-height":249,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","2048x2048-width":188,"2048x2048-height":249,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","post_full_size-width":188,"post_full_size-height":249,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ilana-blumberg-e1546807007295.jpg","home_baner-width":188,"home_baner-height":249}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"804","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"God and the enemy are one. The natural relations of bearing, rearing, protecting have been overturned\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Chapter Two continues the tale of utter destruction and degradation but with a shift: now the focus turns to God as the destroyer. What a painful poem, in which all the anger and horror that Israel turned in the first chapter on its hateful enemies, Israel now turns upon God. There is no more frightening world than that in which God is in league with the enemy. The enemy glories and gloats in the downfall of Israel but the moral order of the universe is overturned when God operates in anger, without restraint: \u201cThe Lord has laid waste <\/span>without pity<\/span><\/em> All the habitations of Jacob; He has razed <\/span>in His anger<\/span><\/em> Fair Judah\u2019s strongholds\u201d (2: 2). One verse later, we read, \u201c<\/span>In blazing anger<\/span><\/em> He has cut down All the might of Israel\u201d (2:3).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Here the speaker is not merely descriptive nor mournful; the speaker is outraged at God\u2019s behavior. As if the active and specific verbs of destruction do not capture the entirety of the circumstance, the speaker adds: without pity, in anger, in blazing anger. According to the speaker, God has broken the terms of covenant, which include punishment; God has acted as an enemy who attacks in anger and without pity. Throughout the chapter, pity is evoked only to note God\u2019s choice <\/span>against <\/span><\/i>it: \u201cHe has destroyed <\/span>without pity<\/span><\/em>\u201d (2:17). God ploughs forward with destruction, without any pulling back: \u201dHe has refrained not from devouring\u201d (2:8); \u201cYou slew them on Your day of wrath, You slaughtered without pity\u201d (2:21).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Alongside this image of God as merciless is the people Israel who are overcome, literally coming undone, as they undergo and witness their own ruin. Pity is their province alone: \u201cMy eyes are spent with tears, My heart is in tumult, My being melts away Over the ruin of my poor people, As babes and sucklings languish In the squares of the city (2:11). Under the conditions of ruin, the people themselves must become pitiless. \u201cSee, O LORD, and behold, To whom You have done this! Alas, women eat their own fruit, Their new-born babes!\u201d (2: 20). Only under conditions where God destroys without pity can there be a reversal of nature such as that in which mothers eat their children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The chapter ends on the most painful note: as God formerly summoned the children of Israel to Jerusalem on the three joyous festivals of the year, now God summons Israel\u2019s enemies for a day of wrath. The speaker charges, \u201cYou summoned, as on a festival, My neighbors from roundabout. On the day of the wrath of the LORD, None survived or escaped; Those whom I bore and reared My foe has consumed.\u201d God and the enemy are one. The natural relations of bearing, rearing, protecting have been overturned.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this chapter, the speaker is not capable of projecting forward nor backward. The poem remains in the moment of suffering.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60001,"alt":"","title":"2sam6-anger","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","width":1089,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-255x300.png","medium-width":255,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-768x903.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":903,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-871x1024.png","large-width":871,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","1536x1536-width":1089,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","2048x2048-width":1089,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-1021x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1021,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-357x420.png","home_baner-width":357,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"God The Destroyer","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"God and the enemy are one. The natural relations of bearing, rearing, protecting have been overturned","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60001,"alt":"","title":"2sam6-anger","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","width":1089,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-255x300.png","medium-width":255,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-768x903.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":903,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-871x1024.png","large-width":871,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","1536x1536-width":1089,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","2048x2048-width":1089,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-1021x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1021,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-357x420.png","home_baner-width":357,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"2","chapter_main_number":"804","date":"20280927","wall_id":"804"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":7,"id":"96227","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"Jerusalem\u2019s Fair Weather Friends ","post_title":"Jerusalem\u2019s Fair Weather Friends","slug":"jerusalems-fair-weather-friends","old_id":"96227","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":62571,"post_title":"Yaakov Bieler","slug":"yaakov-bieler","old_id":"62571","first_name":"Yaakov ","last_name":"Bieler ","description":"Rabbi Yaakov Bieler has been involved in Jewish education and the synagogue Rabbinate in New York, NY and Silver Spring, MD since being ordained by Yeshiva University in 1974. He has lectured and written extensively on Modern Orthodoxy, and blogs daily at https:\/\/yaakovbieler.wordpress.com ","short_description":"Rabbi Yaakov Bieler has been involved in Jewish education and the synagogue Rabbinate in New York, NY and Silver Spring, MD since being ordained by Yeshiva University. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":62572,"alt":"","title":"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","width":141,"height":180,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler-141x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":141,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","medium-width":141,"medium-height":180,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","medium_large-width":141,"medium_large-height":180,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","large-width":141,"large-height":180,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","1536x1536-width":141,"1536x1536-height":180,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","2048x2048-width":141,"2048x2048-height":180,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","post_full_size-width":141,"post_full_size-height":180,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/yaakov-bieler.jpg","home_baner-width":141,"home_baner-height":180}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"803","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Mortals are fickle, and their motives are suspect; the same is not true about God, who assures us: \u201cYou\u2019ll never walk alone\u201d\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In the first chapter of Lamentations, the city of Jerusalem serves as a symbol of the Jewish people as a whole. The contrast between the condition of the city and its inhabitants before and after its invasion by brutal foreigners, serves as a leitmotif throughout the chapter (v. 1, 4, 6, 7.) Metaphors regarding the suffering of the Jews (v. 1, 3, 4, 6-9, 16-7) are complemented with stark literal descriptions of a terrorized population striving to simply survive (v. 11, 19, 20.) The author acknowledges that Jerusalem has been brought low due to the many transgressions of its inhabitants against God, inevitably leading to its occupation and ill-treatment at the hands of its enemies (v. 5, 8, 12, 14, 17.) But rather than protesting her innocence, the people engage in <\/span>tzidduk hadin <\/span><\/em>(\u201cjustifying the judgment,\u201d v. 18, 20). Finally, there is a call for the oppressors to eventually be held accountable for any excesses of torture to which they subjected the people of Jerusalem (v. 21-2,) in the spirit of Genesis 15:14.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Adding \u201cinsult to injury,\u201d over the course of this chapter, mention is made several times of even how Jerusalem\u2019s friends and allies turned upon her once her fortunes were thought to have \u201ctanked\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

2 <\/b>\u2026 There is none to comfort her of all her friends. All her allies have betrayed her; they have become her foes.
\r\n<\/span>8<\/b> \u2026 All who admired her, despise her\u2026
\r\n<\/span>17<\/b> \u2026 She has no one to comfort her\u2026
\r\n<\/span>19 <\/b>I cried out to my friends, but they played me false...
\r\n<\/span>21 <\/b>When they heard how I was sighing, there was none to comfort me\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The author generalizes that Jerusalem\u2019s former supporters were nothing more than \u201cfair-weather friends\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When a person is wealthy and doing well, the entire world loves him. But when he suffers from afflictions, he is abandoned. Similarly the biblical text states: (Proverbs 19:7) \u201cAll the brothers of a poor man despise him; How much more is he shunned by his friends! \u2026\u201d (Pesikta Zutrata)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Interpretations such as Pesikta Zutrata invite the question: Are one\u2019s friends during the \u201cgood times\u201d ever truly sincere, or did they opt to be part of one\u2019s circle only because of whatever benefit they could personally realize, only to abandon their \u201cfriend\u201d once they becomes bereft of influence and possessions? In other words, can one count on one\u2019s allies to be loyal no matter what, or \u201care all bets off\u201d when they suffer a reversal of fortune? The Midrash\u2019s observation with this regard, is most poignant:<\/span>
\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Said R. Levi: Wherever the text states: \u201cThere is none,\u201d there is\u2026 as the Bible states: (Isaiah 51:12) \u201cI, I am He who comforts you! What ails you that you fear Man who must die, Mortals who fare like grass?\u201d (Lamentations Rabba 1:26)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mortals are fickle, and their motives are suspect; the same is not true about God, who assures us: \u201cYou\u2019ll never walk alone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Jerusalem\u2019s Fair Weather Friends","tile_main_caption":"Mortals are fickle, and their motives are suspect; the same is not true about God, who assures us: \u201cYou\u2019ll never walk alone\u201d","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"1","chapter_main_number":"803","date":"20280926","wall_id":"803"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":8,"id":"96266","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Terza Rima for Tish\u2019a B\u2019Av ","post_title":"Terza Rima for Tish\u2019a B\u2019Av","slug":"terza-rima-for-tisha-bav","old_id":"96266","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":35831,"post_title":"Ruth Fogelman","slug":"ruth-fogelman","old_id":"35831","first_name":"Ruth ","last_name":"Fogelman ","description":"Ruth Fogelman was born in England and has lived in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City for most of her life. She is the author of four books. Her poems, articles, short stories and photography have appeared in anthologies and various publications in Israel, USA and India, including Arc, Back to Joy: Little Reminders to Help Us Through Tough Times, The Deronda Review, Prosopisia, Poetica, and the International Literary Review. Ruth holds a Masters Degree from the Creative Writing Program of Bar Ilan University and leads the Pri Hadash Women\u2019s Writing Workshop in Jerusalem. \r\nShe is a member of the Israel Association of Writers in English\r\nVisit her website at http:\/\/jerusalemlives.weebly.com\r\n","short_description":"Ruth Fogelman is a poet, and lives in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":35832,"alt":"","title":"Ruth Fogelman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman-.jpg","width":969,"height":973,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman--150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman--300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman--768x771.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":771,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman-.jpg","large-width":969,"large-height":973,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman-.jpg","1536x1536-width":969,"1536x1536-height":973,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman-.jpg","2048x2048-width":969,"2048x2048-height":973,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman-.jpg","post_full_size-width":969,"post_full_size-height":973,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ruth-Fogelman--418x420.jpg","home_baner-width":418,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"804","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"where the High Priest stood in divine service before \/the ark with its cherubs on the holiest of days; \/ now, silence looms: the songs of Levites are no more\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

The Lord has destroyed without pity the habitations of Jacob; in His anger He has broken down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground\u2026. In blazing anger, He has cut off all Israel\u2019s strength. He has withdrawn His right hand [that has shielded Israel] from the enemy; He has burned in Jacob like flaming fire that consumes on all sides (2:2-3).<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Chariots no longer rattle through the Tyropean Valley.
\r\nNow, silence looms. No more wails. No more cries.
\r\nLayers of soot and smoldering ash coat every alley.<\/p>\r\n

They\u2019ve been carted off, the fools with the wise,
\r\nthough no-one knows where. All the gates and doors
\r\nwere left open. From entranceways flames still rise,<\/p>\r\n

from mansions, villas, study-halls, and stores
\r\nwhere people bought flour, wine and meat.
\r\nBlack smoke, like a sorceress, billows, then soars<\/p>\r\n

above the ruins, where once scholars would meet
\r\nto discuss ancient texts and argue the law;
\r\nwhere prophets walked and justice had a seat;<\/p>\r\n

where the High Priest stood in divine service before
\r\nthe ark with its cherubs on the holiest of days;
\r\nnow, silence looms: the songs of Levites are no more.<\/p>\r\n


\r\nThis poem appears in Ruth\u2019s book, Jerusalem Awaking<\/em><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Terza Rima for Tish\u2019a B\u2019Av","tile_main_caption":"where the High Priest stood in divine service before \/the ark with its cherubs on the holiest of days; \/ now, silence looms: the songs of Levites are no more","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"929 Poetry Corner","tile_preview_embedded":"\r\n","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"2","chapter_main_number":"804","date":"20280927","wall_id":"804"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":9,"id":"96270","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Kinot and Eichah ","post_title":"Kinot and Eichah","slug":"kinot-and-eichah","old_id":"96270","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"804","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Woe are we!\r\n\r\n\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

The central focus of the evening of Tisha B\u2019av, the fast day of the ninth of Av, is the reading of <\/span>Megilat Eichah<\/span><\/em>, Lamentations. However, the centerpiece of the day of Tisha B\u2019av is the reading of the <\/span>kinot<\/em> <\/span>poems, dirges. These works written over the millennia of Jewish persecution and destruction tell the history of the enduring exile through poems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Many of the kinot are derived from verses in Lamentations. One of the most difficult to read is based on verse 20 in chapter 2: \"See, O LORD, and behold, To whom You have done this! Alas, women eat their own fruit, Their new-born babes! Alas, priest and prophet are slain In the Sanctuary of the Lord!\" This horrific image lays bare the horrific choice facing mothers at the time of the destruction.\u00a0 Starving themselves with no food to offer their offspring, many were forced to turn to the ultimate horror for survival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The author of kinah 17 takes this image and forces the reader to focus on it again and again and again in excruciating detail. Also mimicking the book of lamentations, the kinah is alphabetical. Each verse describes a different way that this verse played out, e.g. \"If one could sigh one to another: \"Come on and let's boil our screeching sons...\", \"If fathers, now meat, could be seasoned for their sons in caves and trenches... \", \" If the ghosts of children, bloated with rot, floated in the streets of the city... \", etc. After each stanza, the author takes the Hebrew root \"<\/span>a-l-l<\/span><\/i>\" with an \u2018<\/em><\/span>ayin <\/span><\/em>that appears in the verse and swaps it for the word \"<\/span>a-l-l<\/span><\/i>\" with an <\/span>aleph<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>which<\/span> means woe is me. \"If women could eat the fruit of their womb, the little babes clapping their hands... Alas for me.\"\u00a0 Woe is the Israelites who had to endure such horrors on the day of destruction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":63608,"alt":"","title":"2kings8-weeping prophet2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1800,"2048x2048-height":1200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Kinot and Eichah","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Woe are we! \u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":63608,"alt":"","title":"2kings8-weeping prophet2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1800,"2048x2048-height":1200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings8-weeping-prophet2-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"2","chapter_main_number":"804","date":"20280927","wall_id":"804"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":10,"id":"96291","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Maybe ","post_title":"Maybe","slug":"maybe","old_id":"96291","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":49419,"post_title":"Josh Weiner","slug":"josh-weiner","old_id":"49419","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Weiner ","description":"Rabbi Josh Weiner has worked as a social worker, tour guide and kindergarten teacher. He is currently the assistant rabbi at the Adath Shalom community in Paris, teaches halacha at the Zacharias Frankel college, a new conservative rabbinical seminary in Berlin, and supports entrepreneurial Jewish education in both cities. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Rabbi Josh Weiner is currently the assistant rabbi at the Adath Shalom community in Paris and teaches halacha at the Zacharias Frankel college in Berlin.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":49420,"alt":"","title":"josh weinder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","width":360,"height":448,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","large-width":360,"large-height":448,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","1536x1536-width":360,"1536x1536-height":448,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","2048x2048-width":360,"2048x2048-height":448,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287.jpg","post_full_size-width":360,"post_full_size-height":448,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/josh-weinder-e1550144676287-338x420.jpg","home_baner-width":338,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"805","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But then again - perhaps\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

One of the features of Eicha that I recently woke up to, after supposedly reading it every Tisha B\u2019Av for thirty years, is the bubble of positivity in the middle of the third chapter. The whole chapter is unique, rhythmic and more personal than communal, but verses 21 to 39 in particular leave behind the themes of mourning and distress, and speak about God\u2019s kindness and the author\u2019s intimate trust.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201c<\/span>The kindness of the LORD has not ended, His mercies are not spent - they are renewed every morning! \u201cThe LORD is my portion,\u201d I say with full heart\u2026<\/span>\u201d (22-24)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But within this happy bubble, we have an ambiguous statement that causes further anxiety throughout Jewish history.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201c<\/span>It is good to wait patiently Till rescue comes from the LORD\u2026. Let him put his mouth to the dust \u2014 There may yet be hope<\/span>.\u201d (26-29)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This final phrase, half-promising hope with a shaky \u2018maybe\u2019, is not as convincing as it could have been. The Talmud tells the story of rabbis who couldn\u2019t bear reading the word \u2018maybe\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201c<\/span>When Rabbi Ami reached this verse in Eicha, he cried. He said: A sinner suffers through all this punishment and only \u2018maybe\u2019 there is hope? Likewise, when Rabbi Asi cried as he read the verse: \u201cHate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate; maybe the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious\u201d (Amos 5:15). He said: All of this, and only \u2018maybe\u2019?<\/span>\u201d (Chagigah 4b)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps human nature prefers simple unqualified ideologies, something like: if you believe in God, everything will be ok in the end. There are ideologues out there who preach some version of that simple formulation, and there are even parts of the Tanakh that express this desire for clarity. It\u2019s ultimately a strange theology, that God has to be good to those who think a certain way. But it seems to me that the \u2018maybe\u2019 is more honest, making a relationship with God independent of personal benefit. Trust in God, trust in the future, trust in yourself, if you want: who knows what will happen!?<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":96292,"alt":"","title":"lam3-maybe","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","width":1920,"height":1357,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-300x212.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":212,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-768x543.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":543,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-1024x724.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":724,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1086,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1357,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-1200x848.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":848,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-594x420.jpg","home_baner-width":594,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Maybe","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But then again - perhaps","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":96292,"alt":"","title":"lam3-maybe","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","width":1920,"height":1357,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-300x212.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":212,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-768x543.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":543,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-1024x724.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":724,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1086,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1357,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-1200x848.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":848,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/lam3-maybe-594x420.jpg","home_baner-width":594,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"3","chapter_main_number":"805","date":"20280928","wall_id":"805"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":11,"id":"96373","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"The End Of The Book Of Lamentations ","post_title":"The End Of The Book Of Lamentations","slug":"the-end-of-the-book-of-lamentations","old_id":"96373","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. He taught at the Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem), The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, Israel. During 1993 he was Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University, and during 1996 he was the Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. During 2005, Bregman served as the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as Forchheimer Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions (Gorgias Press, 2003). In 2006, Bregman was appointed the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where he also headed the program in Jewish Studies, until 2013. Bregman retired from UNCG as of July 31, 2017. He has now returned to Jerusalem where he is continuing his research and teaching activities.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33878,"alt":"Marc Bregman","title":"Marc Bregman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","width":361,"height":488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-222x300.jpg","medium-width":222,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":488,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":488,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":488,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":488,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-311x420.jpg","home_baner-width":311,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"807","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"From rejection to the promise of re-acceptance: \u201cI will not reject them nor spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them\u201d\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Our<\/span> chapter<\/span><\/a> completes the Scroll of Lamentations. As noted by<\/span> Dr. Erica Brown<\/span><\/a>: We sit on the floor and follow the haunting melody of <\/span>Eikhah<\/span><\/em>. We pause at the<\/span> second-to-last verse<\/span><\/a>. It is read by the congregation as a whole, and then repeated again at the conclusion: \u201cReturn us to You, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old\u201d. This verse is also recited when returning the <\/span>Sefer Torah<\/span><\/em> to the ark.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This verse is dramatized in<\/span> Midrash Lamentations Rabbah 5:21<\/span><\/a>. \u201cReturn us to You\u201d. Israel said before God, It is up to You to take us back. He replied, No, it is up to you! For<\/span> Scripture<\/span><\/a> says: \"Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to you\u201d. They said, Still, it is up to You,<\/span> for it says<\/span><\/a>: \u201cTurn us, O God, our Salvation, withdraw Your displeasure from us\". In the<\/span> second-to-last verse of Lamentations<\/span><\/a>, Israel cries out: \u201cRenew our days as of old!\" This refers to \u201cin the days of yore and in the years of old\u201d (<\/span>Malachi 3:4<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0 \u201cThe days of yore\u201d refer to the days of Moses. Finally,<\/span> the last verse of the Book of Lamentations<\/span><\/a> is interpreted on a closing note of hope: \u201cFor indeed, You have rejected us, bitterly raged against us\u201d. When there is \u201crejection\u201d there is no hope. But, when there is \u201craging\u201d there is hope, because anyone \u2013 even God!-- who is enraged can ultimately be calmed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Pesikta Rabbati 31:1<\/span><\/a> (see also<\/span> Yalkut Shimoni II Remez 470<\/span><\/a>) comments on the<\/span> end of the Scroll of Lamentations<\/span><\/a>: \u201cWhy have You forgotten us utterly, forsaken us for all time?... For indeed, You have rejected us, bitterly raged against us [Take us back\u2026]!\u201d. This is like a king who had a consort whom he loved very much. But, because she knew how fond the king was of her, she violated his honor and transgressed his decrees. In anger, the king ordered his servants to drag her to him by her hair. Her astonished protector said to the king, My master, tell me what you intend to do. If you intend to return to her, then rule over her. But, if not, divorce her, so that she can marry another man. Similarly,<\/span> Jeremiah asked<\/span><\/a> God, Master of the Universe! \u201cHave You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul despised Zion?\u201d If Your intention is to return to her \u201cWhy have You smitten us so that there is no cure?\u201d. God replied to Jeremiah, Go to your teacher, and to the teacher of your teacher \u2013 Moses, the teacher of all the prophets. And see<\/span> what I said to him<\/span><\/a> at the end of all the curses: \u201cI will not reject them nor spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them. For I the Lord am their God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The End Of The Book Of Lamentations","tile_main_caption":"From rejection to the promise of re-acceptance: \u201cI will not reject them nor spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them\u201d","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"807","date":"20281002","wall_id":"807"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":12,"id":"96367","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"The Lamentations-Eden Connection ","post_title":"The Lamentations-Eden Connection","slug":"the-lamentations-eden-connection","old_id":"96367","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46656,"post_title":"Molly Morris","slug":"molly-morris","old_id":"46656","first_name":"Molly ","last_name":"Morris ","description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Her particular area of interest is biblical leadership. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"807","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Renew our days as of really old\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

There are two places in the Genesis narrative where we are specifically told of something being \u201cin the east \u2013 <\/span>mi\u2019kedem<\/span><\/em>. In Genesis 2:8, God plants a garden in Eden, in the <\/span>east<\/span><\/em>, as a home for man, who was created in God\u2019s image. After Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, God stationed the cherubim <\/span>east<\/span><\/em> of the garden to guard anyone from approaching the tree of life.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our sages remind us that Adam was not punished immediately after eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge. God engaged Adam in a discussion, affording him the opportunity to repent. But Adam\u2019s response was to shift the blame to Eve, who in turn blamed the serpent. It was for that failure to take responsibility and repent that man was banished from the Garden of Eden. That was the moment at which humanity\u2019s Godliness was forever diminished, and finite lifespans were established.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although complete Godliness, including immortality can never again be sustained by man, when someone does sincere <\/span>teshuva<\/span><\/i>, says the Arizal, a level of Godliness is returned to them. Emma Katz (yutorah.org) explains that when we do teshuva we are essentially engaging with God in a partnership to recreate ourselves, thus meriting this new infusion of Godliness.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We conclude Lamentations with the words \u201c<\/span>Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha venashuva, chadeish yameinu kekedem -<\/span><\/em> Bring us back to You, O Lord and we will return, renew our days as of old (or, with an alternate literal translation \u2013 to the east.)\u201d The Midrash Eicha Rabbah suggests that the use of \u201ckekedem<\/em>\u201d in this passage does, in fact, refer to a request by the Jewish nation to be returned to the east, to the state of humanity in the Garden of Eden when Adam had not yet been expelled. This nation, described in Lamentations, is in the throes of losing the Temple and Jerusalem, and have damaged their relationship with God through their sins. They are now begging for a reset to Adam\u2019s immediate post-sin state. Perhaps the nation, in this moment of time, is asking God for the opportunity to repent, to once again partner with God, and to participate in their own renewal and that of the Jewish people. Perhaps they want to correct Adam\u2019s failure of accountability. If there is no opportunity for teshuva, then there is no hope for their renewal. Only if God is willing to give them a chance, can they envision a better future.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha<\/em> <\/span>is a fitting cry to God on Tisha B\u2019Av, when still today we mourn the loss of our Temple. So, too, it is a fitting cry when we recite the same passage following the Kol Nidrei service on Yom Kippur, as we begin our most intense hours of personal and national repentance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Jacob de Backer: The Garden of Eden, c. 1580 \/ wikipedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":80292,"alt":"","title":"ps8-eden","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","width":800,"height":591,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-768x567.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":567,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":591,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":591,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":591,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-569x420.jpg","home_baner-width":569,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Lamentations-Eden Connection","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Renew our days as of really old","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":80292,"alt":"","title":"ps8-eden","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","width":800,"height":591,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-768x567.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":567,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":591,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":591,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":591,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps8-eden-569x420.jpg","home_baner-width":569,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"Lamentations","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"807","date":"20281002","wall_id":"807"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/96076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}