I Did Not Sit Among Mockers and Why She Sits Alone

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opened: "I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice" (Jeremiah 15:17). The Assembly of Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds, never in my days did I enter the theaters and circuses of the nations of the world and make merry with them and rejoice. "Because of your hand I sat alone" (there): the hand of Pharaoh touched me, and I did not sit alone; the hand of Sennacherib touched me, and I did not sit alone; but when your hand touched me, I sat alone, "How she sits alone" (Lamentations 1:1).