Eicha: Sometimes Words have Two Meanings

I came across an interesting commentary on Megillas Eicha called אלון בכות, (Alon Bachus) originally printed 303 years ago. Rather than viewing Eicha as a Lamentation over destruction, he offers a commentary that views Eicha in a positive light.

The author, Rav Binyomin Vital, explains that we are taught that all the books of Tanach will have meaning in Messianic times as well. As those won't be time of remembering suffering, how will Megillas Eicha have meaning then? He answers that as we find the curses of Bilam were turned into blessings, (and the blessings themselves became curses), we see that words can have more than one meaning. So, too, the book of Eicha, full of sad news as it seems, can have a positive meaning as well.

In the interest of brevity, rather than translating his lengthy explanations of how he arrives at the positive spin on each pasuk, I will merely bring down the essence of how he sees each one.

א אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד, הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם--הָיְתָה, כְּאַלְמָנָה; רַבָּתִי בַגּוֹיִם, שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינוֹת--הָיְתָה, לָמַס

Jerusalem of the future will be a thriving metropolis. The citizens of Jerusalem  will wonder how it was ever possible that it could have been a small and nearly abandoned city in the past. 
One of the purposes of exile was to gather up the sparks of holiness that had been scattered throughout Creation. One of the ways in which they are manifest is in the welcoming of Gerim, converts to the Jewish Nation. In future times, as all Jews return to Israel, these Gerim will join in the return as well. The people will then wonder how can it be that this multi-cultural center which has drawn to it people from so many nations, was once ignored like an unwanted widow? Jerusalem is now world renowned as an intellectual center  to which other nations bring and share their knowledge.

What I found most fascinating about his commentary on this verse was how true this is today. Impossible to predict 300 years ago, or even one hundred years ago, today Israel is a modern , thriving, country with world-class cities. Besides for being the center of Torah, it is also one of the world-s foremost countries for medical and technological advances, with companies such as Intel and Microsoft investing there. CL

Judea was Exiled מעוני

As we have now entered the Three Weeks, the period leading up to Tisha B'Av, commemorating the Destruction of the Jewish Temples, I have been studying the Book of Eicha, and wanted to share some things I saw, and some ideas I had.

In the third Pasuk of Eicha (which is read on Tisha B'Av) it says גלתה יהודה מעוני, the inhabitants of Judea were exiled מעוני. What is the meaning of this word?

The Targum understands it to mean "from affliction," and explains that the populace mistreated the downtrodden, rather than seeking to assist them. Rav Shmuel D'Ozida explains that the root word is עני, poverty, and that they were exiled for not taking proper care of the poor. These are distressingly similar explanations. According to both, the cause of exile was a lack of compassion for those less fortunate.

Interestingly, this word עוני is also found in the context of Matzo eaten on Pesach which the Torah calls לחם עוני, the bread of עוני. There too we find those who understand it to mean the Bread of Affliction, referring to the food that the slaves ate in Egypt, and others render it as poverty, referring to the fact that Matzo is a food commonly eaten by poor people who cannot afford anything more than flour and water out of which to create their food.

There is yet another explanation of עוני in the context of Matzo, לחם שעונין עליו דברים הרב, bread of which many words are spoken. In that context it refers to the contents of the Hagaddah. Perhaps in the case of exile, where people neglected or mistreated the less fortunate, we can also understand it to mean many words being spoken, meaning that people are full of explanations, dare I say excuses, for their neglect or ignoring of those less fortunate. Or, perhaps, it is referring to people who talk a lot about the plight of the less fortunate, but do nothing to change the situation.

In the Haftorah of Yom Kippur we are reminded that the purpose of a fast, is not to merely refrain from eating and to bang our hearts in supplication. We are meant primarily to spend our time on fast days, looking out for the poor and unfortunate. I would suggest that as we enter this period of Three Weeks that we all seek out such opportunities to counter the mistakes made by those who were originally exiled, so that our actions will bring about the return and rebuilding.