Verse 6 in chapter 1 of Megillat Eicha is a verse of departure: the departure of splendor from Jerusalem, and the downfall of the leaders of Israel and their dignity. We will proceed through the order of explanations - first according to the simple meaning based on the Malbim, and then according to the homilies of Chazal in Eicha Rabbah and the words of the masters of Mussar and Derush, reaching the depth of the claim held against the people of that generation.
וַיֵּצֵא מִבַּת־צִיּוֹן כָּל הֲדָרָהּ, הָיוּ שָׂרֶיהָ כְּאַיָּלִים לֹא מָצְאוּ מִרְעֶה, וַיֵּלְכוּ בְלֹא כֹחַ לִפְנֵי רוֹדֵף׃ - And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed; her princes have become like harts that find no pasture, and they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Like Harts Seeking Pasture
"And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed" - all her radiance and splendor departed from the daughter of Zion. "Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture" - "her princes" are the leaders of Israel, who were searching for food like harts that seek pasture, but found none. From this follows the continuation: "And they fled without strength before the pursuer" - had they found pasture, they would have still possessed strength, but since there was no pasture, they had no strength, and they fled before the enemy powerless.
Everyone Went Out to Fight
Another explanation of "And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed": in ancient times, the prominent figures were modest and secluded in their homes as men of stature, but here, everyone went out to fight, as there was no other choice. Everyone was forced to go to war, even a groom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy. Yet despite all this, they were as weak as harts. Now, harts are naturally swift of foot, and it is therefore their way to succeed and prevail; but in our case, since they found no pasture, this very weakness caused them to be captured.
Even the Dubious Dignity of a Fortress Did Not Remain
A third explanation: the splendor and dignity of the Jewish people were nullified at the time of the destruction. There are situations where a person cannot stand before the enemy in the open field, yet he has a fortress, and he can entrench himself behind the fortifications and turn the battle back at the gate. But here, Scripture tells us that even this dubious dignity was gone; rather, "and they fled without strength before the pursuer." As long as you fight back, your valor is evident; but the moment you lack the strength even to fight back, you become like sheep to the slaughter. "All her splendor" therefore encompasses even the remnants of dignity that still remained with them - that too was lost to us.
"From the Daughter of Zion" - The Departure of the Shechinah by Allusion
Chazal derive a teaching from the written text. We read "mibat Tziyon", but in the text it is written "min bat Tziyon". "Min" - do not read it merely as "from," but as related to "manah" (portion), as in "And the Lord appointed [vayeman]" and "Hashem is the portion of my inheritance and my cup [menat chelki]". That is to say: my allotted portion - the Holy Shechinah - departed from us. Similarly, "hadarah" (her splendor) is an allusion to the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it says, "You are clothed in glory and majesty [hod vehadar]". From this we perceive the love of the Holy One, Blessed be He, for the Jewish people, for it was not written explicitly that the Holy One, Blessed be He, abandoned us, but only by way of allusion: He described the departure of the Shechinah in veiled terms, so as not to speak harshly of the people of Israel.
One's Head Beside Another's Tail
"Her princes have become like harts" - what is the significance of harts? After all, the Holy One, Blessed be He, had said, "and mark a sign [tav]" on the foreheads of the men - a tav upon the foreheads of the righteous to signify that they would not be punished. The Holy Shechinah came and pleaded: but they too ought to be punished, for they did not protest, and if they did not protest, they deserve punishment as well! Ultimately, so it was; the Holy One, Blessed be He, relented, and this was the only instance where He reversed a decree from good to bad, punishing them too. This is what is alluded to here: "Her princes have become like harts" - because they did not rebuke one another. Just as with harts, the head of one is placed beside the tail of the other, so too the people of Israel in that generation buried their faces in the ground and did not rebuke one another. Thus it is taught in Eicha Rabbah.
The Explanation of the Alon Bachut: "Mine Is a Tail and Yours Is a Head"
Simply understood, "the head of one beside the tail of another" refers to concealment: instead of looking at what needs repair, a person lowers his head and does not see the shortcomings. However, the author of the *Alon Bachut* explains this more deeply: Why did they not rebuke one another? Because whenever one came to rebuke his fellow over a sin that was mere "tail" - a minor infraction - his fellow would answer: "My friend, you have a sin of the head! You have such a grave iniquity, yet you are speaking to me about a tail? Your sins are in the head; they are massive." Consequently, they could not rebuke one another. This explains "and they went without strength before the pursuer" - because "the head of one was beside the tail of another": when one came to rebuke him for his tail, the other retorted, "What are you talking about? Your head harbors far greater sins, on the order of a head."
Turning Their Faces Away from One Another
Eicha Rabbah also records: Just as these harts turn their faces away under one another in the blazing heat - each hiding its head beneath the other - so the leaders of Israel would see a transgression and turn their faces away from it. One hides his face, hangs his head. And why? "It is uncomfortable to reprimand him." "He is also a donor; if I reprove him, he might stop donating." "He is a distinguished person, a prominent benefactor of the community; it is not pleasant to speak up and correct him." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Is that so? A time will come when I will do the same to you - "and they went without strength before the pursuer." You lacked the strength to come and reprove and correct; therefore you shall walk without strength before the pursuer.
From the Sheep of His Pasture to Shepherdless Harts
Chazal further explain: When the Shechinah was with them, the people of Israel were like a flock that has a shepherd, as it is written, "And you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture," and the Holy One, blessed be He, shepherds them, as stated, "Hashem is my shepherd, I shall not lack." That was when we walked in the ways of Hashem - then we lacked nothing, for when a flock has a shepherd, it lacks for nothing: he leads them to good pasture, takes care to heal the sick, the broken, and the one that cannot keep up, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is with us. But now that the Shechinah has departed from us - "they have become like harts." A hart has no shepherd; it lives exposed in the wild, and people roam the forests and hunt the deer. Consequently, any nation could come and hunt us down. Had we remained as the sheep of His pasture, we would have been protected by the Holy One, blessed be He, and would not have had to worry about a thing.
"Hadarah" - "Chadrah": The Ark Also Went into Exile
Chazal further expound: Do not read *hadarah* ("her splendor"), but *chadrah* ("her inner chamber"), for the letters *Hei* and *Chet* are interchangeable - not merely in certain accents, but as we find in Chazal in several places. And what is located chamber within chamber, deep inside? The Ark of the Covenant. Hence: "And departed from the daughter of Zion was all her splendor [*hadarah*]" - even the Ark in her inner chamber [*chadrah*] went into exile. Eicha Rabbah also expounds: "All her splendor" refers to Torah scholars, as it says, "and you shall honor [*ve-hadarta*] the face of an elder." That is, even the leaders, the sages, the craftsmen, and the gatekeepers - they too departed and went into exile.
Tzidkiyahu and the Hart
Chazal also expound the verse in reference to Tzidkiyahu. Tzidkiyahu, king of Yehudah, built himself a tunnel from his palace extending all the way to Yericho, saying: When the enemies arrive, I will escape through the tunnel and no one will be able to capture me. And so it was - the enemies arrived, searched for Tzidkiyahu in the palace, and did not find him, while Tzidkiyahu was walking through the tunnel to Yericho. However, the Holy One, blessed be He, dispatched a deer there, and other enemy soldiers - not those in Jerusalem - began chasing it. They pursued it on and on, until suddenly they saw someone emerging before them from a cave, and behold, it was King Tzidkiyahu. As it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, laid a net for him: He sent the deer running so that the enemies would pursue it and Tzidkiyahu would fall into their hands like ripe fruit. This is the meaning of "And departed from the daughter of Zion was all her splendor" - all her splendor departed, meaning the king; "her princes have become like harts" - for they were caught through a hart.
Kol Yaakov: The Consolations Are Our Pasture
In *Kol Yaakov*, the Dubno Maggid explains based on a major principle we possess: Were it not for the prophecies of consolation, the Jewish people would never have been able to endure their exile. What gives us the strength to survive? The knowledge that this exile will end, and that the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem the people of Israel. Although we are relatively in a good era, the Jewish people have endured periods of extreme hardship; during those times, through what were we strengthened, and in what did our confidence lie? In the knowledge that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to redeem the people of Israel, and that the consolations and promises He pledged to us will be fulfilled. This is what grants us the strength to bear the yoke of exile, and this is "those who hope in Hashem will renew their strength" - if you hope in Hashem, you can renew your strength, gaining robust power to overcome through hope in Hashem. Our great dread is that "she has fallen, she will rise no more" - that such a condition should never come to pass, heaven forbid. And that is precisely the perennial claim of the enemies against us: Hashem has abandoned you, Hashem has forsaken you, you have no chance, He will never restore you. With this, the nations taunt Israel, grieving and tormenting us by telling us that our hope is lost.
To use an analogy: when a person leaves a place temporarily, traveling for a vacation or a brief trip abroad, he takes his essential belongings and leaves the main household items at home; he does not empty out the refrigerator and the oven, for he plans to return. But one who leaves a place with no intention of returning leaves nothing behind, and may even sell the house: if I do not plan on returning here, why leave anything behind? From this perspective, the nations argued: "All her splendor has departed from the daughter of Zion" - see, the Holy One, blessed be He, will not return to you! For had He intended to return, He would have left the Beit HaMikdash standing and preserved some of the vessels within it; but since all splendor departed, it is surely a sign that the Jewish people will never be redeemed.
And what was the consequence of this? "They walked without strength before the pursuer." For what sustains us and gives us strength? The knowledge that we are destined to return. When we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, destroyed everything, the thought creeps in that, Heaven forbid, there will be no consolation, and that, Heaven forbid, the Jewish people will never return. This is the meaning of "Her leaders were like harts that found no pasture": what is our pasture, what sustains us in our exile? The knowledge that we are destined to return. If all her splendor departed, we appear like a flock without a shepherd, as though the Shepherd has abandoned us, and that is the hardest part of all. Even so, we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, promised the prophecies of consolation, that all the words of the nations are vanity, and that the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem the Jewish people with an everlasting redemption, Amen.
The Splendor of Wealth and the Splendor of Poverty
The Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon of Belz, explains: we find the expression "splendor" (hadar) applied to the Jewish people in two ways. There is the splendor of wealth, of honor and exalted standing, regarding which it says, "All her splendor has departed from the daughter of Zion" - this splendor of wealth has moved far from us, and the Jewish people have lost it. But there is also a splendor of poverty, as the Gemara in Chagigah states, "Poverty is becoming to the Jews like a red strap on a white horse" - poverty befits Israel just like a red strap on a white horse, adorning it with beauty. And regarding this splendor we plead: Master of the Universe, "all her splendor has departed from the daughter of Zion" - You have taken from us the splendor of wealth; please, take from us the splendor of poverty as well! This splendor, no matter how distinguished and beautiful like a white horse with a red strap, we ask that it depart from us, and that You renew our days as of old.
Based on this same principle, we can also understand what King David says in Tehillim: "To execute upon them the written judgment; it is a splendor for all His pious ones." Master of the Universe, we ask of You to inflict upon the nations this splendor that all His pious ones currently endure! And what is the splendor we have today? Poverty, which is deemed an adornment, a red strap on a white horse, the poverty that is "becoming to Israel." Give this splendor to the nations; bestow splendor of this sort upon the gentile peoples. But grant us the splendor and grace of ample sustenance and abundance, and renew our days as of old.
The Yismach Moshe: Who Is the Real Pursuer?
The author of the Yismach Moshe asks: Why were they punished, and what caused the enemy to overpower them? The answer lies within the verse itself - "they walked without strength before the pursuer." And who is man's true pursuer? Our Sages teach: the evil inclination (yetzer hara). It is your true enemy - you sleep while it stays awake for you; you pay it no attention while it constantly lies in ambush for you.
This is like the pious man who saw soldiers returning joyfully from the battlefield and asked them: "What are you rejoicing over?" They said to him, "We won the war!" He replied, "You have won the minor war, but the major war still lies before you." They asked, "What major war is there?" He answered, "Gentlemen, there is the battle against the inclination, and that is the great war." Indeed, this is no simple matter; the battle against the yetzer hara is constant, daily, a Sisyphean struggle that never ends. This is what the verse means: Why did the enemies overpower us and strike us down? Because "they walked without strength before the pursuer" - we were weak and powerless before the evil inclination. The yetzer hara overpowered us and conquered us; we did not rule over it, but were like subjugated captives before it without strength, and therefore the pursuer was able to overcome us.
Walking Without Strength - When Even the Inclination Lacks Strength
We can also explain "they walked without strength before the pursuer" in another way, based on this same principle. There are times when the yetzer hara is fierce, overpowering a person with all its might and confronting him with trials and struggles that are anything but simple. But there are other times when you could easily brush the yetzer hara aside, yet there is no will, no energy, no desire - no desire to fight against it. The severity of this second state is seven hundred and seven thousand times greater than the first. For in the first situation, a person can still claim: "The evil inclination is made of fire while we are flesh and blood, and it was an intensely difficult test." I do not mean that Heaven will completely absolve him, but it is certainly a mitigating factor. However, when the yetzer hara is not genuinely strong or enticing, and the person still succumbs and stumbles - this is truly a severe accusation, for which the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, administers harsh punishment.
This is what is being said here: "They walked without strength before the pursuer" - sometimes the yetzer hara attacks us with great strength, but here the yetzer hara was "without strength," and yet we walked before the pursuer like its obedient subjects, like an animal whose nose is pre-fitted with a chain, led like sheep to the slaughter. This is a far harsher claim against us. At least put up some fight! But when a person decides in advance not even to attempt a struggle, this is "they walked without strength before the pursuer," and the indictment is vastly more severe, the gravity far greater.
In summary:
In one short verse, all facets of the Destruction are alluded to: the departure of splendor - the radiance of the city, the dignity of its leaders, the king, the Ark, and the Torah scholars; and above all, the departure of the Shechinah, which was written only by allusion out of the Holy One, Blessed be He's love for Israel. The princes were likened to harts - who did not rebuke one another and turned their faces away from transgression, and were therefore punished with weakness and flight devoid of strength; and when the Shechinah departed, we were transformed from the flock of His pasture into deer that have no shepherd. The nations claim that the departure of all splendor proves we will never return, yet we know that the consolations are pasture for us, and "those who hope in Hashem shall renew their strength." And from here, a lesson in mussar: let us pray that even the splendor of our impoverished state depart from us and our days be renewed as of old, and let us remember that the true pursuer is the Yetzer Hara - and that the gravest claim against a person is walking before it without strength, without putting up any fight at all.