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Israel Argued With God at the End of Lamentations

Lamentations ends with a plea, and Eikhah Rabbah turns it into a formal dispute between Israel and God over who must take the first step toward return.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Last Line Would Not Let Go
  2. Each Side Cited the Same Scripture
  3. Moses as the Old Road Back
  4. The Prayer That Remains After Moses

The Last Line Would Not Let Go

The book of Lamentations ends with a verse so raw that the synagogue tradition built a protection around it. After reading the last line, the congregation repeats the second-to-last line so that the book does not close on abandonment. The final verse says: Return us to You, Lord, and we will return; renew our days as of old. But the verse immediately before it asks whether God has completely rejected Israel, whether the anger has become final. That question is so dangerous that it cannot stand as the last thing heard. So the second-to-last verse is read again, and the book ends with hope rather than question.

Eikhah Rabbah does not rest on the repeated verse without first sitting in the dispute it generates.

Each Side Cited the Same Scripture

The congregation of Israel says before God: Master of the universe, it is on You to return us. God quotes Malachi: Return to Me and I will return to you. Israel quotes Psalms: Return us, God of our salvation. God quotes Lamentations itself: Return us to You, Lord, and we will return.

It looks like an argument going in circles, and it is, deliberately. Both sides are citing the same tradition. Both sides know that the covenant requires something from both parties. Israel says it cannot begin the return alone, that the exile has taken too much, that the capacity for repentance was damaged in the destruction and requires divine help to be restored. God says Israel has the mechanism already, that return is in the mouth and in the heart to do it.

Neither side prevails. The midrash is too honest to pretend that either claim fully settles the other. What it offers instead is Moses.

Moses as the Old Road Back

When Israel's direct argument with God reaches its impasse, the midrash turns to intercession. Moses, the prophet who had stood between Israel and God's anger after the Golden Calf, who had invoked the patriarchs and the covenant and the reputation of God among the nations and who had never once lost a prayer for Israel, is remembered in exile as the model of how the gap gets crossed.

But Moses is dead. He has been dead since the Jordan, buried in a valley no one can find. The exile that Lamentations mourns happened long after Moses was gone. His name in Eikhah Rabbah is not a solution. It is a description of what the channel used to look like when it was open. This is what intercession sounds like when it works. This is how the argument with God was resolved when there was someone who could stand in the middle and make both sides remember what they owed each other.

The Prayer That Remains After Moses

The midrash also holds the other side of the argument, the one that belongs to those who stood on the wrong side of the catastrophe and had not merely suffered it but contributed to it. Let all their wickedness come before You, Lamentations says, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions. Israel's prayer is not only for mercy. It is also for justice against those who carried out the destruction. The sighs are many. The heart is suffering. The prayer includes anger, loss, the wish for balance against those who plucked children as God had plucked Israel's children.

Eikhah Rabbah holds both prayers in the same book. The prayer for return and the prayer for justice are not contradictory. They are the two faces of a community that was punished and knows it was punished and also knows that the instruments of that punishment were not innocent because they were performing divine wrath. Israel in exile is simultaneously guilty, penitent, and still capable of demanding accountability.

MosesRedemptionRepentanceLamentationsProphecy
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Eikhah Rabbah 5:21Eikhah Rabbah

“Return us to You, Lord, and we will return; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21).“Return us to You, Lord, and we will return.” The congregation of Israel said before the Holy One blessed be He: ‘Master of the universe, it is incumbent upon You to return us.’ He said to them: ‘It is incumbent upon you, as it is stated: “Return to Me and I will return to you, said the Lord” (Malachi 3:7).’ It said before Him: ‘Master of the universe, it is incumbent upon you, as it is stated: “Return us, God of our salvation” (Psalms 85:5).’ That is why it is stated: “Return us to You, Lord, and we will return.”“Renew our days as of old [kekedem].” Like Adam the first man, just as it says: “He banished the man; He stationed…east [mikedem] of the Garden of Eden” (Genesis 3:24).28Adam repented after being banished from Eden, and his repentance was accepted (Rabbi David Luria). Alternatively, “renew our days as of old.” Just as it says: “The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years” (Malachi 3:4). “As in the days of old,” this is Moses, as it is written: “He remembered the days of old, Moses, His people” (Isaiah 63:11). “And as in former years,” like the years of Solomon. Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] says: “As in the days [kimei] of old,” as in the days of Noah, as it is stated: “For, like the waters of [ki mei] Noah, this is for Me” (Isaiah 54:9). “And as in former years,” like the years of Abel, when there was not yet idolatry in the world.

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Eikhah Rabbah 1:57Eikhah Rabbah

“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many and my heart is suffering” (Lamentations 1:22).“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them,” bring upon them what You brought upon me. Be exacting with them as You were exacting with me. “And do [veolel] to them,” pluck their infants [olelateihon] as You plucked my infants.“For my sighs are many and my heart is suffering.” You find that in the matter that Israel sinned, with that they were punished, and with that they were comforted. They sinned with rosh, they were punished with rosh, and they were comforted with rosh. They sinned with rosh, as it is written: “Let us appoint a leader [rosh] and return to Egypt” (Numbers 14:4). They were punished with rosh, as it is written: “Every head [rosh] is ill” (Isaiah 1:5). And they are comforted with rosh, as it is written: “Their king passed before them, and the Lord is at their head [berosham]” (Micah 2:13).They sinned with the ear, as it is written: “They made their ears hard of hearing” (Zechariah 7:11). They were punished with the ear, as it is written: “That anyone who hears it, both his ears will ring” (I Samuel 3:11). They are comforted with the ear, as it is written: “Your ears will hear a matter from behind you, saying: [This is the way, walk in it, when you go right and when you go left]” (Isaiah 30:21).They sinned with the eye, as it is written: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and they walk with outstretched necks and painted eyes” (Isaiah 3:16). They were punished with the eye, as it is written: “My eye, my eye sheds water” (Lamentations 1:16). They are comforted with the eye, as it is written: “For with their own eyes they will see the return of the Lord to Zion” (Isaiah 52:8).They sinned with af, as it is written: “Behold, they extend the branch to their nose [af]” (Ezekiel 8:17). They were punished with af, as it is written: “I, too [af], will walk with them indifferently” (Leviticus 26:41). They are comforted with af, as it is written: “And despite [ve’af gam] this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not have spurned them and will not have rejected them, to destroy them, to violate My covenant with them” (Leviticus 26:44).They sinned with the mouth, as it is written: “Every mouth speaks depravity” (Isaiah 9:16). They were punished with the mouth, as it is written: “They consumed Israel with every mouth” (Isaiah 9:11). They are comforted with the mouth, as it is written: “Then will our mouths be filled with laughter” (Psalms 126:2).They sinned with the tongue, as it is written: “They drew their tongues, their bow of falsehood” (Jeremiah 9:2). They were punished with the tongue, as it is written: “The tongue of the suckling cleaved [to the roof of his mouth in thirst]” (Lamentations 4:4). They are comforted with the tongue, as it is written: “And our tongues with song; [then will they say among the nations: The Lord has done great things for them]” (Psalms 126:2).They sinned with the heart, as it is written: “They made their hearts as adamant, not to hear” (Zechariah 7:12). They were punished with the heart, as it is written: “Every heart is suffering” (Isaiah 1:5). They are comforted with the heart, as it is written: “speak to the heart of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 40:2).They sinned with the hand, as it is written: “Your hands are filled with blood” (Isaiah 1:15). They were punished with the hand, as it is written: “The hands of merciful women cooked their children” (Lamentations 4:10). They are comforted with the hand, as it is written: “The Lord will continue setting His hand again, a second time [to recover the remnant of His people…]” (Isaiah 11:11).They sinned with the foot, as it is written: “For their feet run to evil” (Proverbs 1:16). They were punished with the foot, as it is written: “Before your feet stumble on the mountains of the night (Jeremiah 13:16). They are comforted with the foot, as it is written: “How pleasant are the feet of the herald upon the mountains” (Isaiah 52:7).They sinned with hu, as it is written: “They denied the Lord and said: He [hu] is not” (Jeremiah 5:12). They were punished with hu, as it is written: “He was transformed into their enemy, He [hu] waged war against them” (Isaiah 63:10). They are comforted with hu, as it is written: “I, it is I, who [hu] am your Comforter” (Isaiah 51:12).They sinned with zeh, as it is written: “For this [zeh] man Moses” (Exodus 32:1). They were punished with zeh, as it is written: “For this [zeh] [our heart] is suffering” (Lamentations 5:17). They are comforted with zeh, as it is written: “Behold, this [zeh] is our God, we hoped to Him [that He would save us; this is the Lord to whom we hoped, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation]” (Isaiah 25:9).They sinned with fire, as it is written: “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire...[in order to anger Me]” (Jeremiah 7:18). They were punished with fire, as it is written: “From on high He sent fire into my bones” (Lamentations 1:13). They are comforted with fire, as it is written: “I will be for it,216Jerusalem. the utterance of the Lord, a wall of fire all around” (Zechariah 2:9).They sinned with yesh, as it is written: “Is [hayesh] the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7). They were punished with yesh, as it is written: “Is there any [yesh] pain like my pain?” (Lamentations 1:12). They are comforted with yesh, as it is written: “To bequeath substance [yesh] to those who love me, and I will fill their storehouses” (Proverbs 8:21).They sinned doubly, as it is written: “Jerusalem has committed a sin [ḥet ḥata]” (Lamentations 1:8).217The Hebrew verse employs the word sin [ḥet] twice, such that a literal translation would be “Jerusalem has sinned a sin.” They were punished doubly, as it is written: “For it has received from the hand of the Lord double for all its sins” (Isaiah 40:2). They are comforted doubly, as it is written: “Comfort, comfort [naḥamu naḥamu] My people” (Isaiah 40:1).End of the First Alphabetical Acrostic

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