Mourning Over The Shekhinah

Another interpretation. Jeremiah. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Jeremiah: Either go down with them to Babylon and I will remain here, or you remain here and I will go down with them. Jeremiah said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds, if I do not go down, what benefit am I to them? Rather, let their Creator go down with them, for He is the one who benefits them. "The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan had sent him away" (Jeremiah 40:1). "And he was bound in chains" (Jeremiah 40:1). What is meant by "and he"? Rabbi Aha said: As it were, both he and He. And on the way back he saw fingers of hands and feet cut off and cast onto the roads, and he would gather them up and embrace them and kiss them and place them inside his cloak, and he would say to them: My children, did I not say this to you: "Give glory to the LORD your God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble" (Jeremiah 13:16)? Bar Kappara opened: "And on that day the Lord, the LORD of hosts, called for weeping and for mourning, and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth" (Isaiah 22:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the ministering angels: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said to Him: He hangs sackcloth over his doorway. He said to them: I too will do so, "I clothe the heavens with blackness" (Isaiah 50:3). And He further asked them: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said to Him: He extinguishes the lamps. He said to them: I too will do so, "the sun and the moon have grown dark" (Joel 4:15). And He further asked them: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said: He walks barefoot. He said to them: I too will do so, "the LORD, His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). And He further asked them: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said to Him: He sits in silence. He said to them: I too will do so, "Let him sit alone and keep silent, for He has laid it upon him" (Lamentations 3:28). And He further asked them: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said to Him: He overturns the couches. He said to them: I too will do so, "I beheld until thrones were cast down" (Daniel 7:9). And He further asked them: A king of flesh and blood, when he is in mourning, what does he do? They said to Him: He sits and laments. He said to them: I too will do so, "How does she sit solitary" (Lamentations 1:1).