Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Ratapan 3:6

The reason for adhering to these stringencies is that the merit of living in Israel itself [even without the Ark and High Priest] enabled one to arrive at the proper decisions with less analysis, which was not true in Babylonia. It is taught in Avos de-Rabbi Nasan, chapter 28, “R. Nasan said, ‘There is no love like the love of Torah, and no wisdom like the wisdom of the Land of Israel.’” Also, in Vayikra Rabbah, chapter 13, “‘The gold of the land is especially good,’¹Gen. 2:12. teaches that there is no Torah like the Torah of the Land of Israel, and there is no wisdom like Israel’s wisdom.” Further in Avos de-Rabbi Nasan it states: “R. Shimeon the son of Elazar says: ‘If a sage who dwells in Israel leaves for the Diaspora, his scholarship becomes tainted, etc.’” In Tractate Sanhedrin 24a it is written, “[To what does the verse], ‘He has placed me in darkness like the eternally dead’²Lam. 3:6. refer? R. Yirmiyahu answered that this alludes to the study of [Torah] in Babylonia.” [R. Yirmiyahu is not saying] that the Babylonian Talmud contains mistakes, Heaven forbid-[he is extolling the power of pilpul in “darkness”]. Since Babylonia was an abyss of darkness,³“He has placed me in darkness like those who are dead forever” is explained by the Midrash Lekah Tov as referring to the long exile. See the Netziv in Ha’amek Davar, Lev. 24:4, which states that “darkness” refers to the lack of the special Divine assistance that existed when the Jews lived in Israel and received the Divine light emitted through the Menorah. totally lacking the light of Torah, only by creating the great torch of pilpul contained in the Babylonian Talmud could they produce in the darkness the light of halachic decision. [As stated ad loc.], “Rabbi Yohanan said, ‘What is Babylonia?⁴The word Bavel (Babylonia) comes from the root of the Hebrew word livlol, which means “to mix.” See Gen. 11:9. [A place] that blended Scripture, Mishnah and Talmud.’” [To counter this darkness, the Babylonian scholars] needed to apply deep analysis and to study repeatedly all sections of the Torah until they reached sound conclusions. [This way, they] succeeded in magnifying the Torah and creating a magnificent torch-light of Torah.

באשמנים. Some say that it means in graves;^8aComp. Targ. Jonathan: מתיא אתאחד באפנא כמה דאחידין קבריא באפי The door closes before us, as the graves close to the dead.—R. Joseph Kimchi explains likewise באשמנים in graves; he derives the word from the root שמם═אשם to be desolate, with a paragogic נ. but it is equally admissible to explain it, at noon,⁹The opposite is said by some commentators, namely, that באשמנים means the same as במחשכים in darkness; this explanation is probably based on a comparison of this phrase with the verse He hath set me in dark places (במחשכים), as they that be dead of old (Lam. 3:6). צהרים in the Hebrew text is perhaps a corruption of חשכים. or, amongst the living.^9aבאשמנים being considered to be the opposite of כמתים as dead men, as in the preceding phrase בצהרים at noonday is the opposite of כנשף in the night. or, considering the א to be prosthetic, among the fat ones, that is, the heathen people.¹⁰The Israelites, while in exile, and deprived of liberty and independence, among successful and prospering people, compare themselves to dead persons among the living.

We learn seven principles from this song: