Musar к Эйха 1:5

As a confirmation we need only look at Lamentations 3,31/32: כי אם הוגה ורחם. It should really have said וירחם, "He will pardon. "The plain meaning of the full verse is: "For the Lord does not reject forever, but first afflicts, then pardons (displays mercy) in His abundant kindness, for He does not willfully bring grief." The homiletical meaning is that the very הוגה is the cause of the רחמים.

It is this thought which Vayikra Rabbah quotes in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish when the latter saw in the words (11,9): את זה תאכלו a warning to the Jewish people that if "you merit it, you will consume the Gentile nations, if not, you will be consumed by them. In Vayikra Rabbah 13,5 we are told that the reference of the Torah to the גמל, "camel which is chewing the cud" in 11,4 is an allusion to the kingdom of Babylonia which praised the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar, as reported in Daniel 4,31, praised the Lord for giving him back his sanity. The Talmud also reports that this king once made a runner run for 4 miles after a scribe to retrieve a letter to King Chizkiyahu in which he had greeted the king before greeting G–d Almighty. He changed the form of address, realizing that it would be an insult if he mentioned G–d only in second place. In 11,5 the Torah uses extra words to describe that the שפן, daman, also chews the cud though it does not have split hooves. This is an allusion to the empire of the Medes whose king Cyrus praised the Lord as reported in Ezra 1,2. The reference of the Torah to the ארנבת, hare, in 11,6 which is similarly chewing the cud, and to which the Torah allots a whole verse, is an allusion to the Greek empire whose emperor Alexander the Great also paid homage to the Lord. The Talmud Yuma 69 reports how this emperor deferred to the High Priest Shimon Ha-Tzaddik, praising the Lord. When referring to the חזיר, pig, in 11,7, the Torah mentions that it does not chew the cud; it is an allusion to the Roman empire none of whose rulers paid homage to the Lord. Not only did the Romans not pay homage to G–d, but they blasphemed against Him, as we know from the sarcastic remark in Psalms 73,25: "Who is there for me in Heaven?" which is attributed to the Romans.

We find that the שר של מצרים, Egypt's spiritual representative in the Celestial Spheres, was called בכור, i.e. he was the first or senior of the representatives of the seventy Gentile nations. We have explained previously that this spiritual representative of Egypt was described in פרשת מקץ as the מרכבת המשנה, G–d's secondary chariot or carrier. Egypt was second only to the land of Israel in this respect. The land of Israel was G–d's own share in this world. Egypt, however, played the role of first-born amongst the 70 Gentile nations. As a corollary we find that physically speaking, Esau was a first-born, for it was his respective שר who appeared first at the Celestial Court. This שר is a powerful force seeing that his protege became the instrument that destroyed the Holy Temple because of our sins, as mentioned in Psalms 137,7 where the Jewish people are reported as asking G–d to redress that outrage. Alas, this שר is still very powerful. We must view the שר של מצרים as the first of a number of forces who succeeded in dominating Israel in exile. G–d humiliated that force at the time of the Exodus. The שר של עשו, on the other hand, is the very last of such forces. He is so powerful that the present exile is called the גלות אדום. He may therefore be considered the head of the existing שרים. It is this force that Jeremiah refers to in Lamentations 1,5: "Its (Israel's) oppressors have become לראש, a head." Whenever an oppressor of Israel is temporarily successful, he becomes a ראש, head. What all this means is that whereas the שכינה, G–d's Presence, does not depart from Israel, does not ignore what happens to Israel, these happenings are nonetheless delegated by G–d to a שר. When our sages frequently describe the שכינה as being in exile, this is what they mean. When a שר assumes a role as ראש, this means that G–d's Presence has subordinated itself, so to speak. In practice this means that Esau has regained his position as Isaac's first-born and will retain it until the redemption, when G–d will de-throne him. All the above is an "external" view of things.

There is also a comment in the Zohar on Lamentations 1,5: היו צריה לראש, אויביה שלו, "Her oppressors have become her masters, her enemies are at ease,” according to which Jeremiah used the word שלו to indicate that the two groups of enemies, Lilith and Machalat, had concluded a peace between themselves in order to denounce Israel jointly. I have written about this at length in my sermon on שבת חזון at the end of my treatise on מסכת תענית. It follows that the period of conquest of ארץ ישראל (which commenced under Joshua and proceeded under the heading of לא תחיה כל נשמה, "do not allow anyone to survive") really was not completed until these two exponents of what the Canaanites stood for humbled themselves and submitted to Solomon. When we have to conduct "wars" outside the boundaries of the Holy Land, we are unfortunately still encountering "attractive women," (the seducer in alluring garb) i.e. Machalat who dances and generally inspires one to emulate her lifestyle. How are we to subdue this manifestation of the evil urge? Granted that it is easier to cope with the other manifestation of the evil urge, Lilith, seeing that her melancholy attitude leads one to resort to the שערי דמעות, the gates of tears, something which has remained available to us as a last resort even after the Temple had been destroyed (Berachot 32). By wailing ourselves we can neutralize the waitings of Lilith; however, the problem of how to cope with Machalat remains. The only recourse we have is וחשקת בה, to pretend to develop a fondness for her ways but not for the objectives [such as the slogan "Enjoy yourself it's later than you think." Ed.] she espouses. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai counselled that the proper way of resisting the allure of pork is not to pretend that one does not like it and to develop a psychological distaste for it, but rather to admit that it smells good, looks good, etc., but because the Torah has forbidden it we must deny ourselves the taste of it (cf. Rashi Kidushin 20). I have dealt with this concept at length in my treatise עשרה מאמרות. The Torah speaks about "your enemies" (pl) in 21,10, and then proceeds to speak about a single enemy G–d will deliver into your hand; its message is that one of these two enemies will be much easier to vanquish than the other. The one that can be conquered easily is Lilith because the gates of tears are open for us during all historical epochs.

Rather, their crime was that Achashveirosh’s evil intention in inviting Israel was to divert the flow of bounty descending to them from On High so that instead of pour down through Shechinah it would pour down through the Sitra Achara. This is why he invited Israel — to divert them into his spiritual realm. This is called “injecting filth into them” because the flow pouring down to Israel would then come to them by way of the Sitra Achara. This is how the impure forces inject filth into concepts and conduct in this bitter exile, Because of our many sins, they partake of this flow before us and then we receive it only through them. Thus it is stated, “Her oppressors became the head” (Eichah 1:5). This is also the meaning of the Sages’ teaching that Jews who live abroad “serve idols in purity” (Avodah Zarah 8a). If Israel had not taken part in the feast of that evildoer he would have been unable to do anything to them because the realm of holiness would not have received any of its bounty from the Sitra Achara. But since Israel did partake of the feast of Achashveirosh it was if they drank from the Sitra Achara itself. Therefore that feast caused filth to be injected into them, even though they ate only kosher food and drank only permissible wine. Nevertheless, it was as if they partook of the feast of the Sitra Achara.