meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Rashi/Writings/Rashi on Lamentations/English/Sefaria Community Translation.txt"}
text: Rashi on Lamentations
  רש"י על איכה
  Sefaria Community Translation
  
  
  Rashi on Lamentations
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  Oh how...lonely- Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. It is the scroll that Jehoiakim burned on hearth that was on the fire. There was in it three acrostics "O how...remained" (Lamentations 1:1), "How...covered with a cloud" (Lamentations 2:1), "How...become dim" (Lamentations 4:1), and he again added to it "I am the man" (Lamentations 3:1) that is three acrostics, as it is stated "and yet it was added to them many words such as those" (Jeremiah 36:32).
  Lonely - Barren of her residents.
  Populous - The letter yud is unnecessary, so without it it is still "her many people" [i.e. populous]. There are many homiletic interpretations but I wish to explain the language of the Bible according to its meaning.
  Like a widow - Not exactly like a widow, but rather like a woman whose husband went overseas and his desire is to return to her.
  
  Verse 2
  
  She weeps, yea, she weeps - Two acts of crying for two destructions
  In the night - As the Temple burned at night as the master says, "At the time of the evening they lit it aflame" (Taanit 29a:26). Another idea: During the night, the night of crying of the spies, on Tisha B'Av caused them. Another idea: The night that all those who cry at night, those who hear their voice cry with them. 
  And her tears are on her cheek - Because she always crys
  All her friends - Her lovers
  
  Verse 3
  
  Judah went into exile - From her land
  Because of affliction - In light of affliction
  And great servitude - That the Chaldeans burdened on them
  She settled among the nations - And in the place that she was exiled and resided, there she found no peace
  Between the boundaries - That there is a high point here and there, and there is no place to flee
  The boundaries - Borders of field and vineyard. A homiletic interpretation [says] between the seventeenth of Tamuz to the ninth of Av. 
  
  Verse 4
  
  Comes to the appointed season - [in reference to] the pilgrims 
  Grieve - Linguistically [related to] sorrow, and there is no root in the word expect the gimel alone...
  
  Verse 5
  
  Are at ease - Reside calmly
  Has afflicted - To sadden; this is linguistically [related to] sorrow
  
  Verse 6
  
  Like harts who did not find pasture - Like deer that did not find pasture because they do not have the strength to flee, as their strength has weakened from hunger
  Before [their] pursuer - Every [instance of the word] pursuer that is [written] in Scripture is [written] defective. This one [however] is not, as in a total pursuit were they pursued. Therefore, the Poet based, "With full [force] I was pursued and my year of redemption is missing". "My year of redemption is coming" (Isaiah 63:4), [the word redemption] is written defective 
  
  Verse 7
  
  Jerusalem recalls - During her exile
  The days of her poverty - The days of her destruction that brought her to the hands of poverty
  And her miseries - This is the language of sadness, [and linguistically related to words that share the same root such as those found in] "and [I] go down [i.e. cry] upon the mountains" (Judges 11:37) and "I am distraught in my complaint, and will moan" (Psalms 55:3)
  All her precious things - She remembered all the goodness of her precious things from the days from before. 
  Gloating on her desolation - They gloated on the cessation of [משושה translation?] her festivals, her new [moons], and her Sabbaths. The Midrash interprets this in a different thought, that they were resting in the exile on the Sabbaths and holidays and leave [the land fallow] in the Sabbatical years, and the nations gloated on them and the fools said, "In your land you did not keep [them] and now in the exile you do?" Another version, "In your land you did not leave [the land fallow] and now in the exile you leave [the land fallow]?"
  
  Verse 8
  
  A wanderer - in exile, the language of movement and roaming, "" in Old French
  her nakedness - her shame
  sighed - the language of past tense, "" in Old French. "When they heard how I was sighing" is a noun, "" in Old French
  
  Verse 9
  
  Her uncleanliness is in her skirts - the language of shame [as] the blood of her menstruation is seen in the skirt of her clothes, that is to say her sins are known, many [of them] she has done openly.
  she was not mindful of her end - when they were sinning, they did not pay attention to what will be their end, therefore she fell drastically, their fall drastically greatly that all were confused that [this would] happen to her, that did not happen to all [the other] cities.
  
  Verse 10
  
  The adversary stretched forth his hand - Amon and Moab
  Upon all her precious things - Scrolls of the Torah, as it says, "More to be desired are they than gold" (Psalms 19:11). All [of the adversaries] had turned to plunder the spoils of silver and gold, and they turned to the Scrolls of the Torah to burn them, as it is written in them, "An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter" (Deuteronomy 23:4).
  Whom You did command not to enter into Your assembly - These are Amon and Moab...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  
  
  Verse 9
  
  
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  
  
  Verse 14
  
  
  
  Verse 15
  
  
  
  Verse 16
  
  
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  
  
  Verse 19
  
  
  
  Verse 20
  
  Why do You forget us forever: Did You not swear to us by Yourself? Just as you exist forever, so does your oath exist forever.
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  
  Bring us back, O Lord: Since it ends with words of rebuke, it was required to [repeat] the verse before it another time. And so [too in] Isaiah, the Twelve [Minor Prophets] and Ecclesiastes.