Cytowanie Komentarza do Lamentacje Jeremiasza 3:42

Our sages in Midrash Eicha 3,34, comment on Lamentations 3,42: “we have sinned (knowingly) and we have rebelled, You have not forgiven.” The meaning is not that G’d did not forgive but that though if He had applied our own yardsticks He would not have forgiven, the fact is He applied His own yardstick and hence He did forgive. G’d’s yardsticks (attributes) enable Him to extend forgiveness even to habitual sinners completely — provided the sinner returns to Him in sincere and total repentance. Isaiah 55,7 confirms this when he writes: “let the wicked give up his ways, the sinful man his plans; let him turn back to the Lord, and He will pardon him.” The word רשע, “the wicked man,” used in that verse refers to the sinner who boasts of his sins, who is a complete heretic denying that there is a G’d in heaven and that therefore there is no divine supervision of what occurs on earth. The word רשע is used in this context by Psalms 10,4: “the wicked, arrogant as he is in all his scheming (thinks) ‘He does not call to account; G’d does not care.’” There is no need to emphasise that the attribute of Mercy will forgive such a sinner as even the attribute of Justice forgives a repentant sinner. This is the meaning of Isaiah 55,7 וישוב אל ה' ורחמהו ואל אלו-הינו כי ירבה לסלוח, ”let him turn back to the Lord and He will pardon him, and to our G’d, for He freely forgives.” We find the same idea expressed in Psalms 36,2 and 36,6: “I know what Transgression says to the wicked; he has no sense of the dread of the Lord.” “O Lord Your faithfulness reaches to heaven; Your steadfastness to the sky.” This entire hymn is based on the deeds of the wicked, the heretics. This is the reason David speaks of the attribute of חסד, of loving kindness, (verse 6) as this attribute is known by the nations through G’d’s extending forgiveness to those who appear to have no claim to such treatment. The reason the psalmist adds the letter ה at the beginning of the word בהשמים instead of the customary בשמים is that this letter is like an entrance, a gateway. David hints that the gateway to forgiveness is open. Seeing that this attribute is located in heaven, it is important to show that the gateway to heaven remains open. The shape of the latter ה, i.e. a shape in our terrestrial world; it is meant to show that even in our terrestrial world a door is open to heaven. G’d does not deny His love to those who want to return to Him in penitence.

One can explain this Midrash (regarding Rabbi Ishmael’s hermeneutics) in the following fashion: The word nachnu appears four times in the biblical text: “All of sons of one man are we (nachnu)” (Gen. 42:11); “For what are we (nachnu) that you should incite complaints against us?” (Ex. 16:7); “We (nachnu) shall cross over, armed before the Lord,” (Num. 32:32); and “For we (nachnu) have sinned and transgressed,” (Lament. 3:42) This is the meaning of this linguistic tradition: When Israel saw the Egyptians behind them, it is written: “They were frightened and the Israelites cried out to the Lord.” (Ex. 14:10) Moses answered them: “Do not be afraid.” (Exodus 14:13) Then the Israelites answered: ‘For (nachnu) we have sinned and transgressed,’ just like the Egyptians, therefore, ‘What are we’ that we should be saved from them? Moses then answered the people of Israel ‘All sons of ONE man are we’ – the one is Abraham, who is called “one:” “Abraham was ONE, and he inherited the land…” (Ezekiel 33:24) Therefore, said Moses, ‘We (nachnu) shall cross over, armed before the Lord.”

However, we have a tradition that the Torah deliberately wanted to commence this verse with the letter נ just as we find Jeremiah commencing Lamentations 3,42 with the words נחנו פשענו ומרינו, “we have rebelled and transgressed.” In Lamentations the need for the verse to commence with the letter נ is dictated by the prophet wanting to maintain the alphabetical sequence of each verse, i.e. each verse commences with the following letter of the alphabet. In our paragraph the need for the verse to commence with the letter נ is dictated by the fact that there are a total of 11 verses in scripture which commence and conclude with the letter נ. It is a well known fact that the tetragram originates in these eleven verses and that it contains 13 letters. If one mentions these verses together with the holy name of G’d which emerges from them one has no reason to be afraid as the great name of the Lord is an antidote against fear itself. [Rabbi Chavell points out that the eleven verses are listed in the Siddur Otzar HaTefillot (page 866 in my edition) after the songs to be recited at the conclusion of the Sabbath.]