“Their countenance is blacker than coal, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin is shriveled on their bones, it has become dry as wood” (Lamentations 4:8).“Their countenance is blacker than coal.” Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Like black dye. Rabbi Levi said: Like darkness.“They are not recognized in the streets.” Rabbi Eliezer ben Rabbi Tzadok said: May I see the consolation, even though my father was [alive] all those years after the destruction, his body did not return to be the way that it was,25Rabbi Tzadok had fasted during the daytime every day for forty years, praying that the Temple would not be destroyed in his days. Following the destruction he was granted medical care by the Roman authorities (see Gittin 56a–b). to realize what is stated: “Their skin is shriveled on their bones, it has become dry as wood.”