When No Comforter Could Be Found in the Hour of Distress

"They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me" (Lamentations 1:21). Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi explained the verse concerning Aaron the High Priest. You find that when Aaron the High Priest died, the Canaanites came and attacked Israel, as it is written, "And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim" (Numbers 21:1). What is "by the way of Atharim"? That the great explorer [tayar] had died, namely Aaron, who used to scout out the way for them. "There is none to comfort me" (Lamentations 1:21), Moses was in mourning, Eleazar was in mourning. "All my enemies have heard of my trouble and are glad" (Lamentations 1:21), they said, "Now is the time to go up and attack them, now is the time to go and destroy our enemies." And the rabbis explained the verse concerning the nations of the world. You find that when the sins caused it and the gentiles entered Jerusalem, they decreed that wherever Israel fled, they would hand them over. They sought to flee south and were not allowed, "Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment" (Amos 1:6). They sought to flee east and were not allowed, "Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four" (Amos 1:3). They sought to flee north and were not allowed, "Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four" (Amos 1:9). They sought to flee west and were not allowed, "The burden upon Arabia" (Isaiah 21:13). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "You have turned your faces against Me." They said before Him, "Master of the worlds, was it not You who did this?" A parable: to what is the matter like? To a king who married a noblewoman and commanded her, saying, "Do not converse with your neighbors, do not lend to them, and do not borrow from them." One time she angered him and provoked him, and he sent her out of his palace. She went around to the houses of her neighbors, and not one of them would take her in. The king said to her, "You have turned your face away." She said to him, "My lord king, was it not you who did this? Did you not command me, saying, Do not converse with your neighbors, do not lend to them and do not borrow from them? Had I lent to them or borrowed from them, which of them, seeing me pass before her house, would not have taken me in? Therefore, You have done it" (Lamentations 1:21). So too Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Master of the worlds, was it not You who did this? Did You not write for us in the Torah, You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son (Deuteronomy 7:3)? Had we married into them or married them to us, which of them, seeing my son or daughter standing at her gate, would not have taken him in? Therefore, You have done it" (Lamentations 1:21). "You have brought the day You proclaimed, and they shall be like me" (Lamentations 1:21), like me in trouble but not like me in ease. "There is none to comfort me" (Lamentations 1:21), the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "I, even I, am He who comforts you" (Isaiah 51:12).