"Az Bahaloch Yirmiyahu"
Aug. 9th, 2011 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuToday was Tish'a b'Av, and I was invited to introduce one of the kinot at shul this morning. (A kinah is a lamentation recited on Tish'a b'Av.) Here is what I said:
The Kina “Az Bahaloch Yirmiyahu,” attributed to HaKalir and loosely based on the midrash in Eicha Rabbah, takes the form of almost a court transcript. Representing the defense, the avot and Moshe rabbenu, one by one, argue that their own z’chut warrants that the nation should merit God’s mercy. As the prosecution, Hashem enumerates the sins which the nation committed, forfeiting God’s mercy and earning the suffering of destruction, massacre, and exile.
Finally, the imahot appear. But instead of pleading with words, they lament with cries and with physical acts of mourning. This moves Hashem to promise mercy, for God admits that God, too, is being sent into exile. What a remarkable concept! The Omnipresent God going into exile? Yet God promises to redeem us because through our redemption, God will also be redeemed.
In Sefer Devarim, we read “v’shav Hashem elokecha et sh’vut’cha.” The p’shat translation is “Hashem your God will return your captives,” with “v’shav” being a transitive verb and “et” being the marker of the object. Rav Soloveitchik, however, suggested that “v’shav” is intransitive and that “et” is to be read in its prepositional sense, yielding the interpretation that “Hashem your God will return, along with your captives.”
Thus, the message of this kina is that attempting to justify our sins will not convince God’s middat ha-din to relent. Rather, we must acknowledge God’s justice, and mourn the exile whose continuation is caused by our own generation’s unworthiness. Through that lamentation, we will come to recognize God’s presence with us in exile. We will be motivated to improve ourselves, and to become partners with God’s middat ha-rachamim in bringing about the redemption.
The Kina “Az Bahaloch Yirmiyahu,” attributed to HaKalir and loosely based on the midrash in Eicha Rabbah, takes the form of almost a court transcript. Representing the defense, the avot and Moshe rabbenu, one by one, argue that their own z’chut warrants that the nation should merit God’s mercy. As the prosecution, Hashem enumerates the sins which the nation committed, forfeiting God’s mercy and earning the suffering of destruction, massacre, and exile.
Finally, the imahot appear. But instead of pleading with words, they lament with cries and with physical acts of mourning. This moves Hashem to promise mercy, for God admits that God, too, is being sent into exile. What a remarkable concept! The Omnipresent God going into exile? Yet God promises to redeem us because through our redemption, God will also be redeemed.
In Sefer Devarim, we read “v’shav Hashem elokecha et sh’vut’cha.” The p’shat translation is “Hashem your God will return your captives,” with “v’shav” being a transitive verb and “et” being the marker of the object. Rav Soloveitchik, however, suggested that “v’shav” is intransitive and that “et” is to be read in its prepositional sense, yielding the interpretation that “Hashem your God will return, along with your captives.”
Thus, the message of this kina is that attempting to justify our sins will not convince God’s middat ha-din to relent. Rather, we must acknowledge God’s justice, and mourn the exile whose continuation is caused by our own generation’s unworthiness. Through that lamentation, we will come to recognize God’s presence with us in exile. We will be motivated to improve ourselves, and to become partners with God’s middat ha-rachamim in bringing about the redemption.