Zion Cried the Lord Has Forsaken and Forgotten Me

Pesikta Rabbati 31:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"And Zion said, the LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me" (Isaiah 49:14). Let our master teach us: once the Ninth of Av has passed, is everything permitted? Rabbi Chiya the Great taught: once the Ninth of Av has passed, a person is permitted in everything, because it is like a person's dead lying before him, when he is forbidden to eat meat or drink wine, but once the dead is buried the mourner is permitted; so too the Ninth of Av. Yet though we are permitted, we always need her sighing to be in our heart until the Holy One, blessed be He, returns to her. The Holy One said: by your lives, I burned her, as it says, "From on high He sent fire into my bones" (Lamentations 1:13), and I will build her, as it says, "Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel" (Jeremiah 31:4). Zion said to Him: I have sat thus so many years; I reckoned the days of old and was not redeemed; my heart has despaired; perhaps You have forsaken me, my Master. Thus Rabbi Tanchuma bar Abba opened: "Why should a living man complain, a man for his sins?" (Lamentations 3:39). Rabbi Acha said: why should a man complain against the Living One of the worlds? And of whom should a man complain? Of his own sins. Scripture says, "Come, My people, enter your chambers" (Isaiah 26:20); if sufferings come upon you, go and look into the chambers of your heart and know that according to your sins I have brought sufferings upon you. It is like one who deposits a pledge with his fellow; the Holy One says to this man: how many things I warned you of in the Torah — I said, do not murder, do not commit adultery; if you transgressed even one, I would need to take your soul from your body, yet I do not, but return it to you each morning. Do you wish to know how far the people of Jerusalem went in idolatry? The children gathered wood, the fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 7:18). Zion said to Him: had the children nothing of their own, the women nothing of their own, the fathers nothing of their own? He said to her: indeed they had; but you rose up and changed the deeds of your fathers. Abraham, when I told him to bring his son Isaac, did not delay, and Isaac bore the wood like a man bearing his own cross; Sarah, when the angels came, left all her maidservants and kneaded and made cakes. Isaac bore wood to draw near before Me, and you, the children, gather wood for idolatry; Abraham took the fire and the knife, and you, the fathers, kindle the fire for idolatry; Sarah kneaded and made cakes for the angels, and you, the women, knead dough for the queen of heaven. Why did you not do as they did? You changed their deeds, and after all this Zion complains and says, "The LORD has forsaken me." Another interpretation: four prophets protested against the attribute of justice — David, Jeremiah, Asaph, and the sons of Korah. David cried, "Why, O LORD, do You stand far off?" (Psalms 10:1); the Holy One answered: it was they who drove Me far from them. Jeremiah cried, "Why do You forget us forever, forsake us so long?" (Lamentations 5:20); He answered: did I forsake them first? They forsook Me first. Four things Jeremiah asked of the Holy One when he departed: rejection, loathing, forsaking, forgetting; on two He answered him and on two He did not, as it says, "Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion?" (Jeremiah 14:19); He sent him to Moses, the master of all the prophets, to whom He had said at the end of all the rebukes, "And yet for all that, I will not reject them nor loathe them" (Leviticus 26:44). When Zion saw that of the four things Jeremiah asked, He answered on rejection and loathing but not on forsaking and forgetting, she began to claim those two: "And Zion said, the LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." Another interpretation: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let My right hand forget" (Psalms 137:5). Rabbi Abbahu said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: when the Holy One saw Israel bound behind their backs, He drew His right hand back, as it says, "He drew His right hand back before the enemy" (Lamentations 2:3); and all the days that Israel are pledged in this world, the right hand of the Holy One is pledged with them. David said before Him: Master of the world, it is not for our sake that You should hasten the End, but for the sake of Your right hand; how long shall Your right hand be pledged? "That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand and answer me" (Psalms 60:7). Therefore, when Zion said, "He has forgotten me," the Holy One said to her: can I forget you? My right hand is pledged for your sake; if I forget you, I forget My own right hand — "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let My right hand forget."

Themes

ZionExileRedemption

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