“May it not befall you, all wayfarers. Look and see: Is there any pain like my pain, which has been done to me, with which the Lord has tormented me on the day of His enflamed wrath?” (Lamentations 1:12).“May it not befall you,” the congregation of Israel says to the nations of the world: Let what befell us not befall you. Let what happened to me not happen to you; “all wayfarers [overei derekh],” all violators of [overei] the way [derekh] of Torah. “Look and see.” We learned there: The sentence of the generation of the Flood lasted twelve months, the sentence of the Egyptians lasted twelve months, the sentence of Job lasted twelve months, the sentence of Gog and Magog lasts twelve months, the sentence of the wicked in Gehenna lasts twelve months.148Mishna Eduyot 2:10. Nebuchadnezzar was three and a half years. Sennacherib was over three and a half years. Vespasian was three and a half years.149The respective sieges of Nebuchadnezzar, leading to the destruction of the first Temple, and Vespasian, leading to the destruction of the second Temple, lasted three and a half years each. This demonstrates how the suffering of the Jews during that time was unparalleled.“Look and see: Is there any pain like my pain, which has been done [olal] to me.” He was exacting with me and plucked my gleanings [olalti], just as it says: “When you harvest your vineyard [you shall not glean [teolel] behind you]” (Deuteronomy 24:21).150It is forbidden to pluck the grapes in clusters that are not fully formed, which must be left for the poor. However, the enemies of Jerusalem killed everyone and destroyed everything. “With which the Lord has tormented me on the day of His enflamed wrath.” Rabbi Aḥa said: The enflamed wrath of the Holy One blessed be He was one day. Had Israel repented, they would have cooled it.
“May it not befall you, all wayfarers
Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team
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