Notes for Tisha b’Av study session - Temple Beth Tzedek - July 29, 2009
Tish’ah Be’av is subject to the same limitations as Yom Kippur: abstention not only from food but also from bathing, anointing oneself, wearing leather shoes, and conjugal relations…. In addition, because of the joy it affords, the Sages forbade all study of sacred literature, with the exception of books that fit the mood of the day, such as the Book of Job, the parts of the Talmud and Midrash that tell of the destruction of Jerusalem, and parts of the Book of Jeremiah…. [Kl, pp. 250-251]
The theme of the Book [of Lamentations] is simple. It is a lament for Judea and Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and for the sufferings of their inhabitants during and after the siege, together with a confession of the sins of the people and their leaders, which, in the prophet’s mind, had been the cause of the calamity – a noble insistence on resignation to God’s will – and the prayer that God might again look with favour on Israel and restore them to grace. The theme is repeated in each of the five distinct elegies which make up the Book…. [The] poems … are the spontaneous outpourings of a grief-stricken heart. [Co, p. 68]
Eicha Rabbah – a commentary on Eicha (Scroll of Lamentations) (see bibliographic notes)
Notes & quotes
Some themes of Eicha Rabbah: Morality (civil and religious), Torah study, aloneness (How- eicha - the city sits solitary [Eicha 1:1]), alphabetical acrostics (Chapters 1-4), cruelty of Babylonians (destroyers of 1st Temple) and Romans (destroyers of 2nd Temple), (intellectual) settling of scores vs. enemies of Israel, Messianic age, the world to come.
[1:1, §1] Three uttered prophecies using the word eicha (how) …. Moses said, How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance! (Deut. 1:12) [Context: Moses needs help governing because of the happy situation that Israel is too large for him to govern alone]. Isaiah said, How is the faithful city become a harlot? (Isa. 1:21). Jeremiah said, HOW DOTH THE CITY SIT SOLITARY! (Eicha 1:1)
R. Levi said: It may be likened to a matron who had had three groomsmen: one beheld her in her happiness, a second beheld her in her infidelity, and the third beheld her in her disgrace. Similarly, Moses …. Isaiah …. Jeremiah….
[1:1, §20] Why is the Book of Lamentations composed as an alphabetical acrostic? …. R. Judah said: Because it is written, Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law (Dan. 9:11), which is written [with all the letters] from aleph to tav; therefore is this Book composed as an alphabetical acrostic, one corresponding to the other. [Use of alphabetical acrostics suggests Israel has transgressed “from A to Z.”]
[1:7, §34] JERUSALEM REMEMBERS … ALL HER TREASURES THAT SHE HAD: These are the words of the Torah, as it is stated, More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold (Ps. 19:11, referring to 19:8: The Lord’s teaching…).
[1:16, §45] FOR THESE THINGS I WEEP.
· Vespasian filled three ships with eminent men of Jerusalem to place them in Roman brothels….They threw themselves into the sea. Then the Holy Spirit cried out, FOR THESE THINGS I WEEP.
· Hadrian the accursed [offered safety, then slaughtered the Jews who surrendered]…. Then the Holy Spirit cried out, FOR THESE THINGS I WEEP.
· The wife of Trajan the accursed gave birth to a child on the night of the 9th of Av while all the Israelites were mourning … the Temple. The child died on Chanukah. The Israelites said, ‘Shall we kindle the lights or not?’ They decided to light them and risk the consequences…. Persons slandered them to Trajan’s wife, saying, ‘When your child was born the Jews mourned, and when it died they kindled lights!’ She sent a letter to her husband: ‘… come and subdue the Jews who have revolted against you!’ He boarded a ship and planned to do the voyage in ten days, but the winds brought him in five. On his arrival he found the Jews occupied with this verse, The Lord will bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the vulture swoopeth down (Deut. 28:49). He said to them, ‘I am the vulture who planned to come in ten days, but the wind brought me in five.’ He … slaughtered them. Then the Holy Spirit cried out, FOR THESE THINGS I WEEP. [This midrash reappears at [4:19, §22].]
[2:2, §4]
· THE LORD HATH SWALLOWED UP UNSPARINGLY ALL THE HABITATIONS (N’OT) OF JACOB [N’ot is alternately translated as celebrities] i.e., all the celebrities of Jacob, as e.g., R. Ishmael, R. Gamaliel, R. Yeshebab, R. Judah b. Baba, R. Huzapith the Interpreter, R. Judah the baker, R. Hananiah b. Teradion, R. Akiba, Ben Azzai, and R. Tarfon. [What part of our liturgy does this suggest?]
· R. Jochanan said: Rabbi [Judah haNasi] used to expound There shall step forth a star (kochav) out of Jacob (Num. 24:17) thus: read not kochav but kozab (lie). When R. Akiba beheld Bar Koziba [better known as Bar Kochva] he exclaims, ‘This is the king Messiah!’ R. Johanan b. Tortha retorted: ‘Akiba, grass will grow in your cheeks and he [the messiah] will still not have come!’
· Also presented in this Midrash is the theme that miracles took place, so, presumably, disaster would be averted were Israel worthy: the priest/prophet Zechariah was killed in the Temple Court by countrymen. They told the Babylonian general Nebuzaradan, ‘… for several years now his blood has not stopped seething.’ He answered, ‘I will appease it.’ [Nebuzaradan slaughtered the members of the Great Sanhedrin, the Minor Sanhedrin, and thousands of others, and mingled their blood with Zechariah’s, and still it continued to seethe.] He exclaimed, ‘Zechariah, Zechariah! All the choicest of them have I destroyed. Is it your pleasure that I exterminate them all?’ Immediately it stopped seething. The wicked Nebuzaradan contemplated repenting, and said, ‘If in connection with one who destroys a single life from Israel it is written, Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed (Gen. 9:6), how much more will this apply to me who have slain many!’ Forthwith the Holy One, blessed be he, was filled with mercy, and gave a hint to the blood, which was then and there absorbed into the ground. (A slightly different version of this Midrash appears in Proem 23.)
[2:4, §8] AND HATH SLAIN ALL THOSE THAT WERE PLEASANT TO THE EYE. R. Tanchum b. Jeremiah said: This refers to the children who were dear to their parents as the apple of their eye. The Rabbis said: This refers to the members of the Sanhedrin who were dear to Israel as the apple of their eye.
[3:1, §1] …. It has been taught: At first he revealed himself to the sons of Esau [ancestors of Romans, Christians]; that is what is written, And he said: The Lord came from Sinai, and rose from Seir [home of Esau] unto them (Deut. 33:2), but they rejected it [the Torah]. Then He offered it to the sons of Ishmael [Arabs], as it is written, He shined forth from Mount Paran (same verse). Finally He offered it to Israel who accepted it,…. it is also written, All that the Lord has spoken will we do, and obey (Ex. 24:7).
[3:5, §2] HE HATH BUILDED AGAINST ME, AND ENCOMPASSED ME WITH GALL - ROSH – this is Nebuchadnezzar of whom it is written, Thou art the head (reshah) of gold (Dan. 2:38). AND TRAVAIL: this is Nebuzaradan. Another interpretation: GALL alludes to Vespasian and TRAVAIL to Trajan.
[3:10, §4] HE IS UNTO ME AS A BEAR LYING IN WAIT: this refers to Nebuchadnezzar, AS A LION IN SECRET PLACES: this refers to Nebuzaradan. Another explanation: A BEAR LYING IN WAIT refers to Vespasian; A LION IN SECRET PLACES refers to Trajan.
[3.46, §9, echoing 2.16, §20] ALL OUR ENEMIES HAVE OPENED THEIR MOUTH (3.46). Why do the verses [in chapters 2-4] beginning with the letter פּ precede those with the letter ע? Because they uttered with their mouth what they had not seen with their eye.
[3.60, §9] A Jew passed in front of Hadrian greeted him. The king asked, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am a Jew.’ He exclaimed, ‘Dare a Jew pass in front of Hadrian and greet him! … Take him out and cut off his head!’ Another Jew passed and, seeing what had happened to the first man, did not greet him. The king asked, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘A Jew.’ He exclaimed, ‘Dare a Jew pass in front of Hadrian without giving greeting! … Take him out and cut off his head!’ His senators said to him, ‘We cannot understand your actions. He who greeted you was killed and he who did not greet you was killed!’ He replied to them, ‘Do you seek to advise me how I wish to kill those I hate!’ And the Holy Spirit cried out and said, THOU HAST SEEN ALL THEIR VENGEANCE AND ALL THEIR DEVICES AGAINST ME.
[5.3, §1] WE ARE BECOME ORPHANS AND FATHERLESS – R. Berekiah said in the name of R. Levi: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: ‘You weep and say before me, WE ARE BECOME ORPHANS AND FATHERLESS; I swear by your lives, the deliverer whom I will raise up from among you in Media will likewise be fatherless and motherless.’ That is what is written, And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother (Est. 2:7).
[5.22, §1] THOU CANST NOT HAVE UTTERLY REJECTED US, AND BE EXCEEDING WROTH AGAINST US. R. Simeon b. Lakish said: If there is rejection there is no hope, but if there is anger there is hope, because whoever is angry may in the end be appeased. (Same commentary attributed to R. Joshua b. Levi at [1.2, §23])
Bibliographic notes
There are many ancient works of Biblical commentary called Midrash. Perhaps best known of these is Midrash Rabbah, a collection of commentaries on the 5 books of the Torah and the 5 Megillot (scrolls). The books of Midrash Rabbah are known individually as B’reishit Rabbah, Sh’mot Rabbah, Vayikra Rabbah, B’midbar Rabbah, and D’varim Rabbah (respectively, the Midrash Rabbah commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy); and Eicha Rabbah, Rut Rabbah, Kohelet Rabbah, Esther Rabbah, and Shir haShirim Rabbah (respectively, the Midrash Rabbah commentaries on the scrolls of Lamentations, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Song of Songs).
Notes for this study session were based on the translation of Eicha Rabbah found in
The Midrash, Soncino Press, London
v. VII, A. Cohen, translator, 3rd impression, 1961
Midrash Rabbah collects the teachings of many rabbis, mostly of the Talmudic era. Most of its teachings are presented in short lessons of a paragraph to a few pages. These lessons often demonstrate one or more of Rabbi Ishmael’s rules of textual interpretation, especially the first three (Sifra [another ancient Midrashic compilation], quoted at [Sim, p. 70]):
1. An inference may be drawn from one premise to another that is more inclusive, or to another that is less inclusive [logical induction or deduction].
2. An inference may be drawn from a similar phrase in two texts [making connections - hypertext – the WWW seems modeled on Jewish study of Torah and Talmud].
3. A comprehensive principle may be derived from a single text, or from two related texts [generalization].
Other sources
[Co] A. Cohen, ed., The Five Megilloth, Soncino, London, 1961
[Kl] Isaac Klein, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, 1979
[Sim] Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, The Rabbinical Assembly, New York, 1998