A single verse in the first chapter of Eicha encapsulates the entire question of exile: why the enemy succeeds, why he sits in tranquility, and where the Holy One, blessed be He, stands in this entire picture. We will examine it in depth, based on the Midrash and the commentators.
הָיוּ צָרֶיהָ לְרֹאשׁ אֹיְבֶיהָ שָׁלוּ כִּי־יְהֹוָה הוֹגָהּ עַל רֹב־פְּשָׁעֶיהָ עוֹלָלֶיהָ הָלְכוּ שְׁבִי לִפְנֵי־צָר׃ - Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are at ease; for Hashem has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
The Midrash on Eicha expounds: "'For Hashem has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions' - could it be for naught? Therefore the verse states: 'for the multitude of her transgressions.'" "Al magan" means gratis, for nothing, as in the Targum's rendering of "lemagna" for "You shall not take the name of Hashem your God in vain" - for nothing. So too the famous expression in the Gemara in Bava Kamma: "Asya de-magan be-magan - magan shavei," a doctor who heals for free is worth nothing. When someone causes an injury and tells the victim, "I have a doctor who will treat you for free," the victim replies, "I do not want him; I want a doctor who charges money." (Incidentally, in yeshivot people often say "asiya be-magan," which is an error stemming from a lack of familiarity with Aramaic pronunciation; anyone who reads Targum knows the correct pronunciation.)
At first glance, the Midrash's statement is deeply puzzling. The Midrash says: Hashem caused us grief because of our many transgressions; could it be for nothing? Would it ever occur to anyone that the Holy One, blessed be He, brings suffering for no reason? How could the Darshan even raise such a possibility?
The Dubno Maggid explains this with a parable. A man's son fell ill. He called a doctor, who examined the boy and said, "He needs bloodletting." But the doctor made a request of the father: "Do me a favor and leave the room while I draw his blood. If your son sees you here, it will give him bold confidence - bloodletting is an unpleasant procedure; it requires cutting into the flesh, and out of anger and the security of your presence, he might even strike me. Step outside so I can perform my work smoothly."
The father left, and the doctor did his work calmly without feeling threatened. When he finished, the father returned. The son began to wail, "Father, why did you leave? Didn't you see what he did to me? He cut me, he drew my blood!" and burst into tears. The father began shouting at the doctor, "How could you do such a thing to him? Get out of here at once! Get outside!" He soothed the boy, went out to the doctor, took two hundred shekels from his wallet, handed it to him, thanked him, shook his hand, and bid him farewell.
What the father did not know was that the boy was peeking through the keyhole, watching the entire "performance": the anger had been just an act, and here was the father taking out money, paying him, smiling, and saying thank you very much! The son could not contain himself and began shouting, "Father, he actually deserves to be paid? You are paying him for torturing me?" The father said to him, "My son, since you asked, I will tell you. What he did for you was a great remedy; he saved you from lasting harm, he saved you from a sickbed. On the contrary, he fully deserves payment for what he did. Set your mind at ease."
The Nimshal is as follows: The nations come and claim that the Holy One, blessed be He, has abandoned us, as Christianity and Islam contend. Their proof? Whoever afflicts us, the Holy One, blessed be He, showers with gifts: "Her foes have become the head" - whoever persecutes us seems to receive a divine "yasher koach." But what is the truth? "For Hashem has afflicted her [hogah] for the multitude of her transgressions," and "hogah" can be related to healing, like "gehah" (and like "asvatha" in Aramaic), as in the verse, "A cheerful heart is good medicine [gehah]." When the Midrash asks, "Could it be for naught?" it means: is this suffering gratuitous - meaning that the Holy One, blessed be He, has abandoned us and left us to random chance, as the nations claim, so that any lowly outcast can prevail over us? If so, we took beatings and gained nothing from them, with no atonement and no advancement toward redemption. To this the Midrash replies: "For the multitude of her transgressions" - know that the suffering is for your own good and your healing. The proof is that in the end, the doctor was paid; and if he was paid, it is a sign that he faithfully performed his task.
In the sefer Akeidat Yitzchak, he explains: Israel has many enemies, but when they are among us, they present themselves as friends, while deep inside they are enemies. And where is this revealed? "Her adversaries have become the head" - and then "her enemies are at ease": the enemy whose hatred is hidden in his heart sits back in peaceful tranquility.
We are all familiar with this phenomenon. How much did we suffer from this "her enemies are at ease" during the Second World War. When an enemy can fight us openly, he will fight. But when he cannot, he says: Thank goodness I did not soil my hands; it is good that someone else is doing the job; I will not intervene, it does not concern me. Rabbi Weissmandl sent letters with precise maps, pleading for the bombing of Auschwitz - asking them to stop the conflagration in which thousands and hundreds of thousands were being burned daily. Just one plane, two or three planes, right there in Europe itself, not far away. Nothing. Not a single plane was found. One plane could have saved millions.
And the lesson is: the gentile does not truly love you. When he wants to curry favor with you, he puts on a smiling face, but if someone else strikes you, he is delighted to sit on the sidelines and not dirty his hands with blood, since someone else is doing the work for him. Do not mistakenly think this means he loves you. And should a leader of this sort arise, he will also show you clearly how little sympathy he has for you: outwardly he will act friendly and cordial, but at the first opportunity to honor an Arab leader, and then sit opposite your prime minister with his feet up on the desk in front of the cameras in open contempt - he will show you exactly how much respect he holds for you. Do not pin your hopes on him. Even when the gentile does not actively harm you, and does not fall into the category of "her adversaries have become the head" - others are the active adversaries - nevertheless, "her enemies are at ease": the enemy at heart sits in tranquil satisfaction, pleased that someone else is acting in his stead.
The Likkutei Anshei Shem explains: The destruction of the First Temple was carried out by Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan, and they did not deny Hashem. They knew they were emissaries of the Holy One, blessed be He; they heard the words of Yirmiyahu and saw his prophecies fulfilled. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not punish them as He punished Pharaoh and Sennacherib. Pharaoh was in denial and said, "Who is Hashem that I should heed His voice? I do not know Hashem" - you did not know? If so, you will learn a few lessons and get to know Him. Sennacherib said, "Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand?" - upon whom are you relying, the Master of the Universe? Behold, I conquered the Land of Israel, I exiled the Ten Tribes, and could He stop me? Harsh words, full of scorn and contempt. And Chizkiyahu said to the Master of the Universe: It is You they have blasphemed; the battle against them is Yours; I am going to sleep, and You will resolve the problem. And in a single night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand army commanders fell. Both Pharaoh and Sennacherib taunted the ranks of the living God, and reckoning had to be exacted from them; their tranquility did not endure, and Sennacherib was assassinated by his own sons.
Nebuchadnezzar, however, believed in Hashem. Nebuchadnezzar uttered praises that, had an angel not come and struck him on the mouth, would have seemingly eclipsed the songs of King David: "How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation." These were men who believed in Hashem, and therefore their tranquility was prolonged. This is the meaning of: "Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are at ease" - why were they at the head for many years, and why did they enjoy tranquility? "For Hashem has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions" - because they believed in this, knowing they were emissaries of the Holy One, blessed be He, and that their actions were directed by Him. One can add an even deeper dimension: "Her adversaries have become the head" (lerosh) - they remained faithful to the "Head", meaning they believed they were operating through the power of the Holy One, blessed be He, and therefore they were "at ease" (shalu). But those who did not believe they were acting by His power, seeking instead to rebel against the Holy One, blessed be He, such as Pharaoh and Sennacherib - were not at ease, their tranquility did not last, and they were swiftly punished.
Our Sages recount how Megillat Eicha was read before Yehoiakim, who cut up the scroll and cast it into the burning hearth, leading Yirmiyahu to be commanded to write it anew, with additional laments added for the future troubles. The Midrash describes the stages: They read before him, "How does she sit solitary" - he said: I am king, does it say here that I am not king? "She weeps bitterly in the night" - he said: I am king; let her weep to her heart's content, while I remain king. "Judah has gone into exile because of affliction" - I am king; let her go into exile, I am still king. "The ways of Zion mourn" - let them mourn, I am still king. But as soon as he reached, "Her adversaries have become the head" - he immediately commanded it to be burned. Here he began to feel the throne shake beneath him: "Her adversaries have become the head" - if so, I am no longer king! That, he could not accept.
From this we see what kinds of "lovers of Israel" these kings were: let them be exiled, let them die, let them suffer, let them weep - the nation can go to ruin, so long as I have my throne. If the throne is secure, what do I care about the people? A leader in the mold of dictators: the people exist for me, and if not, we will replace the people. There was once a leader who remarked, after his party lost an election: The people made a mistake; we need to replace the people. It is a good thing they did not hold an election to choose a different nation, lest they decide to fire us! Such an individual believes he was born to rule, created solely to govern, and what happens to the people is of little concern to him. It is told of a Russian dictator who fell ill and lay on his deathbed; in totalitarian regimes there is blind adulation for the ruler, so crowds gathered below, crying out and pleading to die in his place. He asked the doctors: What is that noise down below? They told him: The people have come to say goodbye to you. He responded: The people have come to say goodbye? Where are they going? Meaning: I am staying here forever, I have no intention of leaving; if they came to say goodbye, they must be the ones going somewhere. Such is the mind of a megalomaniac, who believes everything revolves around him. And when his throne is threatened - "her adversaries have become the head" - that becomes intolerable. As long as everyone else suffers, he does not care; but if they become the head and I am out of the picture, that is something he could never accept.
The sefer Alon Bachut explains: The young children are the guarantors (areivim). At the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, the Holy One, blessed be He, asked the people of Israel: Who will be guarantors for you? And they replied: Our children will be guarantors for us. Therefore, at the time of the exile, "her children have gone into captivity before the adversary" - why? "For Hashem has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions": since they transgressed and did not engage in Torah properly, there was no choice but to collect the collateral, and that collateral is the young children.
The Lechem Dim'ah explains differently: The Jewish people placed their trust in the surrounding nations and entrusted their children into their hands to protect them. Thus, "her children have gone into captivity" - they went, as it were, willingly, since their own parents had handed them over. Something similar, may such anguish never rise again, occurred during the horrific Holocaust in Europe: many who feared for their children's fate entrusted them to their gentile neighbors, who raised them as their own. This created agonizing problems: situations of assimilation arose where children grew up among gentiles as complete non-Jews, and at times the gentile grew weary of supporting a child who was not his own, and upon realizing the child no longer had a father, handed him over to the church. In this manner, many children were lost to assimilation.
The one who took care to rescue those children was Rav Kahaneman, ztz"l. He would travel from monastery to monastery and from church to church, searching for children, brands plucked from the fire, the offspring of parents who would never return, and retrieving them from their hands. There were places where he succeeded, and there were places where they adamantly refused to hand over the Jewish children entrusted to them - and on such a matter, he was not willing to give up.
Once he arrived at a certain place and appealed to the priest: after everything the parents went through, at least let an heir and a lineage remain for them. The priest said to him: I have no problem with that, but what do you think, that you will be able to identify anyone here? There are children here who arrived four years ago, who were two when they came and are six today. Do you think anyone would recognize them? Do you think any of them know anything about their Jewishness? You are wasting your time; I cannot even identify them myself. The Rav said to him: Give me one minute. And what could the priest do? He did not object.
Before the children went to sleep, the Rav stepped forward and stood before them. He had a majestic presence, and everyone saw him. He placed his hand over his eyes and called out aloud: "Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad." At that moment, children began gathering and crying out: "Mameh! Mameh!" What became clear? He had awakened a dormant memory within them. When a six-month-old baby goes to sleep, his parents place their hand over his eyes and recite Shema Yisrael with him - he does not understand a thing, but they recite it with him. And when he grows a little, even when he can barely utter words, he knows how to say "Shema Yisrael." For these children, the image of their mother was etched into that "Shema Yisrael," and when the Rav stood and called out, they remembered their mother. The Rav said to him: Do you see? These are Jews.
And who remained behind in the monastery? Children whose mothers had not recited Shema Yisrael with them. Those who had already been swept away by modernization, those who had previously assimilated and cast off the yoke of mitzvot - their children did not understand what he was talking about or what this "Shema Yisrael" was. They remained there, completely severed from the Jewish people. But those in whom a spark of vitality remained - that vitality wells up again, and a moment arrives when it awakens.
The Chida explains, as quoted in the sefer Birkat Chaim: When someone wishes to curse a group so that they lack direction and leadership, he curses them that they should all be heads. When everyone is a head, there is no one to lead and no one to set policy; whatever one says, ten will dispute, and whatever another says, ten will dispute, creating endless division in which it is impossible to function. Conversely, even if there are many people and diverse opinions, if they accept a single head over themselves, he can lead them to triumph in battle and establish themselves properly. Everything depends on whether there is a head and a leader, or whether one person tries to lead while everyone else undermines him and dismisses his leadership.
Come and see the state of the Jewish people: shattered and divided, with the zealots among us causing internal factionalism, destroying Jerusalem from within, and burning the storehouses of wine and oil. The enemies, by contrast - "Her adversaries have become the head" - united completely and appointed a single head over themselves. Is it any wonder, then, that the nations succeeded in subduing us? Among us were numerous factions, while among them was a single head and a single leader, and through that strength they prevailed over us.
Rabbi Meir Vergani in the sefer Me'or Einayim explains that within the verse, "Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are at ease," words of consolation are also hinted at - that there is still hope. Even in a time of wrath, the Holy One, blessed be He, "in wrath remembers mercy." This is something not found in a human being: an angry person is under stress and tension, a fire burns within him, and at that moment he remembers neither mercy nor kindness, his entire being expressing his wrath. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is able even in a moment of wrath to remember mercy and compassion.
And the allusion is as Rabbi Yitzchak bar Rabbi Chiyya said: The wicked, because their beginning is serenity and their end is suffering, open with blessing and conclude with a curse. Things go well for the wicked person in this world - not always, but very often: everything goes smoothly for him, he does whatever he pleases, enjoys himself, indulging in worldly desires and physical pleasures. It seems as though everything is fine, but it is an obstacle-filled path whose beginning is level ground and whose end is thorns. Therefore, Bil'am said, "Blessed be those who bless you, and cursed be those who curse you" - placing the blessing first, in accordance with the pattern of the wicked, who experience good initially and Gehinnom afterward. The righteous, by contrast, open with curse and conclude with blessing: Yitzchak said, "Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you" - beginning with a curse and ending with blessing and praise. And similarly: "Though your beginning was small, your end will flourish exceedingly."
Such is always the way of the righteous: thorns at first, and then level ground. And so it is with every character trait a person must break and every struggle he faces: initially it is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea, and afterward it becomes level ground. Anyone who has quit smoking will tell you that during the first few days it was as difficult as splitting the Red Sea, whereas today he sees people smoking and it no longer appeals to him at all. It is not that he could never relapse - many people who quit for years eventually went back - but the struggle is no longer daily. And so it is with every battle against the evil inclination: the first stage is arduous, filled with stumbling blocks and thorns, but afterward it becomes much easier, and the path runs smooth.
The wicked person is incapable of delaying gratification; he cannot say no to himself. When a desire arises, he wants it here and now. The righteous person, by contrast, is willing to accept post-dated checks from the Yetzer Tov; he does not demand cash on the spot. The wicked person says: Forget a million-dollar check dated sixty years from now - give me ten shekels right now. This is precisely what the Yetzer Hara does: it gives a person ten shekels instead of a million-dollar check due in sixty or seventy years. The wicked person is enticed and takes the ten shekels, because it is cash in hand immediately, and whatever he sees right in front of him, that is what he believes in. And what will happen afterward? "After me, the deluge." For the righteous, however, at the beginning there is hardship, struggle, and overcoming, but the tranquility that follows is eternal, and the reward is everlasting.
This is the hint in the verse: "Her adversaries have become the head" - the troubles of Jerusalem are only "at the head," only at the beginning. But in the end, we have entire prophecies describing how vastly Jerusalem will expand, what immense sovereignty and dominion Am Yisrael will possess with the coming of Mashiach, how the Holy One, blessed be He, will dwell among us and fill the earth with knowledge as waters cover the sea, "rejoice with her, all who love her," "be glad with her with joy, all who mourn over her." Today there are mourners, today we are in hardship, but this is only the beginning, and the end will be magnificent. By contrast, "her enemies are at ease" - the enemies do not look to what will happen in the end; they seek tranquility now. And what will happen in the future? "The house of Esav shall be for straw and the house of Yosef for a flame," everything will burn - forget about the future, we will burn together with everyone, I do not care. He seeks tranquility in the present and does not look ahead to see that their end is torment.
According to this explanation, we can suggest that oyveha shalu ("her enemies are at ease") is not only from the root of tranquility (shalvah), but also from the root of illusion (ashlayah): this tranquility is an illusion. A person sitting on the edge of the crater of a volcano who tells you it is like an amusement park - a pleasant tremor, everything is vibrating, what fun - is told: Sir, that is an illusion. In a moment the lava will erupt here, and you will realize that this is anything but an amusement park. So too, a person lives in this world feeling that things are pleasant, not realizing that this is an illusion spun by the Yetzer Hara, which paints everything in rosy colors for us, but in the end everything will be painted in black. After all, no matter what car or what color you drive during your life, in the end everyone rides in a black Mercedes. The illusion is temporary; life ends quickly and it dissipates. Thus, "her enemies are at ease" - the tranquility of the nations is a temporary illusion whose end is to vanish into smoke, and then it will become clear that they trusted in emptiness and vanity, while Am Yisrael, who were downtrodden and despised, attain exalted and immense heights.
Let us return to the words of the Midrash: "'For Hashem afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions' - could it be for nothing (al magan)? The verse teaches: 'For the multitude of her transgressions.'" The Chida, in Nachal Eshkol, shares a wonderful insight by way of allusion. We know that one of the sins for which the Jewish people were exiled is baseless hatred (sinat chinam), for which the Temple was destroyed. The Midrash addresses this: "Could it be al magan (for nothing, gratuitously)?" - meaning, was it only sinat chinam among them? The verse therefore teaches, "For the multitude of her transgressions": not only this. Baseless hatred was the focal point and the epicenter, but know that there was also a "multitude of transgressions" - many transgressions and very grave sins that were added to the baseless hatred.
A question remains regarding the end of the verse: What is the connection between "her infants have gone into captivity before the adversary" and "her adversaries have become the head"? Would he not have been able to capture them had he not been at the head?
In the sefer Likkutei HaRitzba, he brings that this is actually an answer to the question: By what merit did Nevuchadnezzar merit that his reign lasted four generations? Sancheriv did not merit this, Pharaoh did not merit this, and other kings who treated us with terrible cruelty did not merit this, yet specifically Nevuchadnezzar merited it. The answer: Nevuchadnezzar believed that it was neither through his wisdom nor through his might that he succeeded in conquering Am Yisrael, but rather he knew that it was because of our sins, that it was Hashem's wrath upon us, and that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Jerusalem to the point where the enemies could conquer it. Not for a single moment did he say, "My power and the might of my hand." Pharaoh, by contrast, said, "Who is Hashem that I should listen to His voice?" and tormented Israel; and Sancheriv said, "Who among all the gods of the lands have saved their land from my hand, that Hashem should save Jerusalem from my hand?" - do you feel that you did everything through your own power? If so, your success is temporary and meager.
Now, whenever all other nations conquered, they would place the greatest, most prominent, and mightiest individuals at the head of the captives to display their own power: they would lead them humbled, gouge out their eyes, bind their hands and feet, and say: See whom we have overcome! But with Nevuchadnezzar and Nevuzaradan, the chief executioner, it was not so. They knew that the victory was by the power of Hashem and solely because the Holy One, blessed be He, had subjugated Am Yisrael. Therefore, they placed at the head of the captivity specifically the young children, the infants, and the school children (tinokot shel beit rabban). What did they intend to express by this? Look, the Holy One, blessed be He, has humbled the people of Israel and made them like infants, like little children. Not the warriors at the front to show how mighty I am, but the babes and sucklings, as if to say: Hashem has stripped them of their strength. For this Nevuchadnezzar merited longevity in his reign, because he believed in Hashem and acknowledged His power and might: "How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation" - Nevuchadnezzar said this, for he acknowledged the Master of the Universe.
And this is what the lamenter says here: "Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are at ease" - the adversaries of Israel who became the head were at ease and prolonged their tranquility for generations of monarchy. Why? "For Hashem afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions" - because they knew that their victory was not through their own might, but because Hashem punished Israel for the multitude of her transgressions. And hogah ("afflicted") carries two meanings: from the root of sorrow (yagon) and ruin, or from the root of removal and swerving from the path. And in order that they not become haughty or arrogant - "her infants have gone into captivity before the adversary": he placed the infants at the head of the captivity to demonstrate that Israel had been reduced to the status of infants, and that victory did not come through our might, but because the strength of Israel had dried up, for the Holy One, blessed be He, diminished and weakened them, and through that they were delivered into our hands. By virtue of this acknowledgment, Nevuchadnezzar merited long years of tranquility.
This verse teaches us three fundamental principles. First, there is no suffering in vain - "Hashem afflicted her" is an expression of healing, and a father who pays the physician testifies that the treatment was performed for our ultimate good and atonement, not that we were abandoned, Heaven forbid, to mere chance. Second, the enemy's tranquility is neither a sign of his being beloved by God nor proof of his righteousness: "her enemies are at ease" refers to the enemy at heart who sits quietly while others strike us, and his serenity is nothing more than a temporary illusion, for the wicked begin in tranquility and end in suffering, while the righteous begin with thorns and end in blessing. And third, the enemy's power stems from the unity of its leadership and from our own division; indeed, specifically one who recognized that he was merely an emissary - like Nevuchadnezzar, who placed the young children at the head of the captivity - saw his reign endure. And from here emerges the consolation: "Her adversaries have become the head" - the troubles are only at the beginning of the road, and our ultimate future will flourish exceedingly, speedily in our days.