Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Panaghoy 2:18

VAYIDOM AHARON’ (AND AARON WAS SILENT). This means that he had cried aloud, but then he became silent. Or perhaps the meaning thereof is as in the verse, let not the apple of thine eye ‘tidom’ (cease).⁷²Lamentations 2:18. Here then the meaning would be: “and Aaron ceased to shed tears.” According to the first interpretation, he was silent, not crying out aloud, but he still shed tears. But according to the second interpretation he was calmed completely.

וידום אהרן, “Aaron remained silent.” Nachmaides writes that Aaron wept aloud, after which he remained silent. We find the same meaning of the word וידום in Lamentations 2,18 אל תדום בת עיניך, “give your eyes no rest (from weeping)!”

ויפג לבו, “his heart stopped beating;” according to Rashi this means that his heart refused to accept this as true. According to Nachmanides the word is similar to the word ביטול, as in Lamentations 2,18 אל תתני פוגת לך, “give yourself no respite.” The word פוג always means that something active suddenly ceases to be so and becomes inert, like dead. Yaakov’s heart became cold and his blood circulation stopped. This is a well known phenomenon when someone suddenly receives unexpected good news and is overwhelmed by it. Yaakov fainted and lay on the floor as if dead. The Torah reports that it took Yaakov a long time to recover from his shock and to believe what the brothers had told him. The standard remedy used to bring someone who fainted at the receipt of good news to recover from his fainting spell, is to dance around him and make noise and display joy and elation. When the brothers repeated their conversation with Joseph, and when upon opening his eyes he beheld the carriages Joseph had sent, he began to believe them and to react accordingly.