Musar zu Ejchah 1:6

Concerning such truth, the prophet Jeremiah (5,1) proclaims in the name of the Lord: "Roam the streets of Jerusalem, search its squares; look about and take note; you will not find a man. There is none who acts justly, who seeks integrity, that I should pardon her." This is surely a very remarkable statement. How could the existence of even a single such “איש” be questioned, when at that time there lived in Israel numerous prophets and pious men in Israel! Does not the same prophet in chapter 24,1 describe that G–d showed him a vision of the חרש והמסגר, two Torah scholars of renown, (Sanhedrin 38) who were exiled together with king Yechonyah (Kings II 24,16-17)? The answer is simply that these Torah scholars had failed to act publicly to call upon the masses to mend their ways, and return to the ways of the Torah. Jeremiah laments that there is not a single person in the courtyards of Jerusalem who has the moral courage to proclaim his convictions publicly! Rabbi Amram in Sanhedrin 119 states explicitly that Jersusalem was destroyed because the Torah scholars ignored the commandment to admonish their fellow Jews. (Leviticus 19,17) He derives this from the verse in Lamentations 1,6: היו שריה כאילים, לא מצאו מרעה. "Her leaders were like stags that found no pasture." The prophet there drew a parallel between the spiritual leaders of Israel and the stag whose head is usually down on the ground near its tail. The leaders of the Jewish people, similarly, buried their heads in the sand in order "to see no evil, hear no evil-etc." When contrasted with this kind of behaviour, Pinchas stood out as a man of truth in whom the jealousy for his G–d was paramount. This explains why he was rewarded with everlasting life, i.e. this is why the prophet Elijah did not experience death on this earth.

Our sages, of blessed memory, spoke strongly regarding one who is able to rebuke someone but refrains from doing so. They decreed his judgment to be that he himself will be held accountable for the sin of the sinners. In the Midrash, [they expounded: "'her princes were like deer [that find no pasture...]' (Eicha 1:6) - just like during a heat wave, these deer turn their faces one beneath the other, so too the great sages of Israel would see sin committed and turn their faces away from it. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: 'a time will come when I will do the same to them'" (Eicha Raba 1:13).

I have heard some interesting comments by people who specialise in the exegesis of רשומות, "records." The Torah states in Exodus 8,19: ושמתי פדת בין עמי ובין עמך, למחר יהיה האות הזה. Moses tells Pharaoh in advance of the arrival of the plague of the wild beasts: "And I will make a distinction between My people and between your people; tomorrow this sign will come to pass." The commentators point out that the word פדות which is normally spelled with the letter ו, is here spelled defectively. Rashi points out in his commentary on Lamentations 1,6: וילכו בלא כח לפני רודף, "They could only walk feebly before the pursuer," that the word רודף is always spelled without the letter ו, whereas in this instance it is spelled plene. This is an indication that here the pursuit was totally unrelenting. This spelling gave rise to one of our liturgical poets becoming upset about the fact that whereas the pursuit of the Jewish people by their adversaries is spelled plene, the word for redemption, i.e. גאולה, is spelled defective in Isaiah 63,4: ושנת גאולי באה. He was also upset that the word פדת in our verse was spelled defective. [I have not seen an edition in which the words שנת גאולי are spelled defective. Ed.] Moses is therefore supposed to have referred to a different morrow, i.e. למחר, at which time the redemption, פדות, would be total and include the letter ו.

Our sages, quoted by Rashi, say that the words: ויצא יעקב, "Jacob departed," tell us that the departure of a צדיק always leaves a noticeable void in the community he departed from. The righteous person is the glory and beauty of any community. I have already mentioned that these words also allude to Jacob going into exile. The departure of the glory that Rashi referred to as occurring when the צדיק leaves, may also refer to the departure of the glory when the Temple is destroyed. The glory Rashi referred to is described by him as זיו, הוד, and as הדר. The month in which Solomon's Temple was begun is also called זיו. (Kings I 6,37). That the loss of this glory is described in terms of "departure" can be seen from Daniel 10,8: והודי נהפך עלי למשחית, "And my glory was turned into something destructive." The departure of such glory is also referred to as the departure of הדר, in Lamentations 1,6: ויצא מן בת ציון הדרה, "The glory departed from the daughter of Zion." The respective first letters of the words הוד, זיו, הדר, are הזה.