We are at the end of chapter 1, in the verses that deal with Zion spreading out her hands and the justification of the divine judgment (Tzidduk HaDin). But before we delve into the verses themselves, there is a striking structural phenomenon here worth examining: the order of the letters in the Megillah. The entire Megillat Eicha is structured according to the alphabetical order (aleph-beit), except that when it reaches the letters Samech, Ayin, Peh, Tzadi - suddenly a change occurs. Instead of Samech, Ayin, Peh, Tzadi, the order is Samech, Peh, Ayin, Tzadi. The Peh and the Ayin have switched places.
Let us look at some examples. In chapter 2: "סָפְקוּ עָלַיִךְ כַּפַּיִם", followed by "פָּצוּ עָלַיִךְ פִּיהֶם", followed by "עָשָׂה ה' אֲשֶׁר זָמָם", and then "צָעַק לִבָּם אֶל ה'" - here Peh precedes Ayin. So too in chapter 3: "סַכֹּתָה בָאַף וַתִּרְדְּפֵנוּ", "פָּצוּ עָלֵינוּ פִּיהֶם", "עֵינִי נִגְּרָה וְלֹא תִדְמֶה", and then "צוֹד צָדוּנִי כַּצִּפּוֹר" - again, Peh comes before Ayin. And so it is in the other chapters - with the sole exception of our chapter, chapter 1.
In our chapter specifically, the standard order is maintained: Samech - "סִלָּה כָל אַבִּירַי"; Ayin - "עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה"; Peh - "פֵּרְשָׂה צִיּוֹן בְּיָדֶיהָ"; Tzadi - "צַדִּיק הוּא ה'". Two questions confront us: why was the order altered in the other chapters, and why was it preserved here?
The Gemara in Sanhedrin (104b) asks: Why did he place Peh before Ayin? And it answers: Because of the spies (meraglim), who said with their mouths (peh) what they did not see with their eyes (ayin). This is also Rashi's explanation regarding most of the alphabetical sequences in Eicha. The proper order of things is Ayin followed by Peh: what you see with the eye, you may say with the mouth. The spies inverted this order, placing the mouth before the eye.
This can be understood in two ways. One perspective: they fabricated things from their own hearts, saying with their mouths what they had never seen with their eyes. A second perspective: they set out from the very beginning with evil intent; that is, before they had seen anything at all, they had already decided what they would say - meaning the mouth preceded the eye. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Therefore, in this lamentation that embodies mourning, destruction, and sorrow, Peh will precede Ayin. As their sin was, so is alluded to in the scroll that laments what befell the Jewish people.
Here a difficulty arises: if this is how it should be, let it be written this way throughout the entire book; and if not, let it be written throughout the book in the usual order. Why is the rest of the book inverted while chapter 1 follows the standard order? The Torah Temimah explains: Had one chapter not been written in the correct order, we might have thought that the ancient alphabetical order was Samech, Peh, Ayin, Tzadi - perhaps that was their standard order. Therefore, the author of the book first writes the first chapter in order, teaching us how the aleph-beit actually looks. Consequently, when he writes differently in the subsequent chapters, it is immediately noticeable that an alteration was made here - prompting us to wonder and seek the answer. Had he written everything in the inverted order, we would never have known that a change had taken place.
Another explanation is cited by the Anaf Yosef on Midrash Rabbah. Chazal state: Even at the time of Jerusalem's downfall, faithful men (anshei amanah) did not cease from it. Although there were severe and terrible sins among the Jewish people - "Your leaders are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe and chases rewards" - people of the same nature as the spies, who spoke with their mouths what their eyes had not seen, as alluded to by the Peh preceding Ayin throughout Eicha. Yet the first chapter comes to tell you: not everyone was like that. Even at the time of Jerusalem's downfall, faithful men still remained within it - truthful people whose mouths spoke only what their eyes had seen. Among them, the proper order was maintained - Ayin followed by Peh. In the other chapters, which describe the majority of the nation who corrupted their ways, the sin is expressed in the text as well.
In the sefer Yedei Moshe by Rabbi Moshe Almosnino, it is explained differently: in the first chapter, the prophet is lamenting primarily over the destruction of Jerusalem itself - "Jerusalem sinned greatly" - the entire description revolves around the city. And since he is not speaking here about the people of Israel, there is no place to invoke their sin by placing the letter Pei before the letter Ayin. By contrast, in the remaining chapters the primary lament is over the Jewish people: that they have fallen, that they suffer, that they are trampled among the nations, that they are exiled - and there, when speaking about the people, Scripture also gives voice to the sin, so that they understand why they are being punished.
The Alshich explains based on the words of Chazal regarding King Yoshiyahu, who went out to battle against Egypt, and the archers shot at him until they perforated him like a sieve - with three hundred arrows. Yirmiyahu bent his ear to catch his final words and saw his lips moving in his death throes: "Hashem is righteous, for I have rebelled against His word." And these words are precisely the letter Tzadi in our chapter.
The Alshich says: see how marvelous this is. Had he reversed the order here as well and placed Pei before Ayin as in the other chapters, we might have mistakenly linked the two matters and said: look, King Yoshiyahu rebelled against Hashem's word through the very same sin committed by the Spies - for immediately following the placing of Pei before Ayin comes the letter Tzadi, "Hashem is righteous, for I have rebelled against His word," and from this we might have understood that this was how he rebelled, by placing his mouth (peh) before his eye (ayin), that he was not a man of truth and spoke improperly. Therefore, the prophet was careful of his honor and wrote Ayin followed by Pei in the proper alphabetical order, and only then Tzadi - so that we would not associate Yoshiyahu with the sin of putting Pei before Ayin, as if that were the cause of his death.
Incidentally, anyone who looks into the sefer Tallei Orot, from which this is cited, will see that the quotations there are thoroughly garbled throughout. Rabbi Rubin's merits are immense - a precious Jew of blessed memory - but evidently a corrupted citation reached him, and it is proper for anyone who can to correct it.
פֵּרְשָׂה צִיּוֹן בְּיָדֶיהָ אֵין מְנַחֵם לָהּ, צִוָּה ה' לְיַעֲקֹב סְבִיבָיו צָרָיו, הָיְתָה יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לְנִדָּה בֵּינֵיהֶם. (א, יז) - Zion spread out her hands, she has no comforter; Hashem commanded concerning Yaakov that his adversaries should surround him; Jerusalem has become like a niddah among them. (1:17)
צַדִּיק הוּא ה' כִּי פִיהוּ מָרִיתִי, שִׁמְעוּ נָא כָל הָעַמִּים וּרְאוּ מַכְאֹבִי, בְּתוּלֹתַי וּבַחוּרַי הָלְכוּ בַשֶּׁבִי. (א, יח) - Hashem is righteous, for I have rebelled against His word; hear now, all you peoples, and see my pain; my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity. (1:18)
On the phrase "Jerusalem has become like a niddah among them," Chazal say: Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav - this was said as a blessing, like a niddah who will eventually be permitted. The congregation of Israel was in the state of a niddah, and in that very fact lies an advantage: a woman who is a niddah is not permanently forbidden; this is not like a mamzer or mamzeret, who have no way to be purified. A niddah immerses in a mikveh and becomes pure, just as one defiled by a corpse has the purification waters sprinkled upon him, immerses, and becomes pure. If so, "Jerusalem has become like a niddah among them" contains good tidings: that the defilement is only temporary.
חֵטְא חָטְאָה יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם עַל כֵּן לְנִידָה הָיָתָה, כָּל מְכַבְּדֶיהָ הִזִּילוּהָ כִּי רָאוּ עֶרְוָתָהּ, גַּם הִיא נֶאֶנְחָה וַתָּשָׁב אָחוֹר. (א, ח) - Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she has become as a niddah; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; she herself also groans and turns backward. (1:8)
The Maharsha asks in Chiddushei Agadot: already in verse 8 the expression "as a niddah" appears - "Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she has become as a niddah" - so why did Chazal not expound there that it is "as a blessing, like a niddah who will eventually be permitted," and only expounded it here, in verse 17?
The Maharsha gives a simple and wonderful answer. Why is a niddah called by this name? Because she is removed (nadah) from her place, from the root lanud (to wander or be displaced) - "a fugitive and a wanderer shall you be on earth," "as a reed is shaken." In their times, a niddah would move away even to another house, or at the very least she was separated and distanced from her husband. Therefore, in verse 8, one can interpret the text according to its literal meaning without needing to refer to the concept of a menstruating woman at all: "Jerusalem has gravely sinned, therefore she became a wanderer" - because she sinned, she went into exile and wandered from her place. And the author of the Midrash left that verse to its literal meaning.
But in our verse, one cannot interpret it this way. "Jerusalem has become a niddah among them" - what does "among them" mean? If niddah means exile or wandering, how can one say that she was exiled "among them"? Perforce, here it must refer to an actual niddah, like a woman in her state of impurity. And since we are compelled to interpret it this way, the master of Aggadah immediately comes and teaches us that this is for a blessing: just as a niddah has a path to purification and reunion, so too Jerusalem - even though she is seemingly cast away, she has a path to redemption and restoration.
What is the comparison to a niddah? The Meshech Chochmah explains a wonderful concept. Chazal say: If a niddah passes between two men, she either kills one of them or causes a quarrel between them. The ritual impurity of niddah is very severe and potent; the Ramban already notes that when women during their menstrual period touched roses or delicate objects, they caused them to wither. It appears that nowadays all forms of ritual impurity have weakened, and this impurity has also weakened - not that it has become permitted, Heaven forbid, but rather that we no longer see its tangible, physical impact. Yet according to Chazal, such was its power.
From here we can understand an explanation once given regarding Megillat Esther: What did Esther see to invite Haman and Achashverosh together to the feast? This was her calculation. It is taught that Esther had become a niddah, and she thought: I will pass between them - either one of them will die, or they will quarrel. If Haman and Achashverosh quarrel, so much the better; and if one of them dies - they had a rule in those days that when one of the king's ministers dies, the royal decree is annulled, for they say it is an omen of heavenly punishment. And in the end, both things were fulfilled: they quarreled, and he also hanged Haman.
And so it is with the Congregation of Israel: "Hashem commanded concerning Jacob, his adversaries are all around him" - the Jewish people are situated among the nations like a niddah passing between two men, and therefore it either destroys one of them or causes a quarrel between them. Says the Meshech Chochmah: this is the salvation of Israel in the lands of their dispersion. By being "a niddah among them," causing strife and discord among them, we are saved.
One can also add to this according to the simple meaning: what protects and preserves us in the lands of our dispersion is the very fact that we are "a niddah among them" - separated and set apart. In every place where Jews became close to the gentiles, precisely there the Jewish people were persecuted most severely, as discussed in the past. But in places where Israel remained separated like a niddah, they endured.
But the primary intention of the Meshech Chochmah is hinted at in the wording of the verse itself: "Hashem commanded concerning Jacob, his adversaries are all around him" - those who surround him become adversaries (tsarim) to one another, locked in conflict with each other. And why? Because "Jerusalem has become a niddah among them" - since she is like a niddah passing between them, the gentiles on either side become adversaries to one another. And this is the defense of the Jewish people, for in truth, if the nations were to unite, the Jewish people could not survive.
Just as the Gemara says regarding Germamya shel Edom, that they consisted of three hundred principalities, and had they united, the entire world could not withstand them. And when did they unite? In World War II, as is well known, when a divided Germany was united under the rule of the Third Reich, and they nearly conquered the entire world. And concerning this, Yaakov prayed: "Grant not the desires of the wicked, do not let his plot succeed (zemamo al tafek)" - Master of the Universe, do not remove his muzzle (zemam). For if the muzzle is removed from this bulldog and they unite, woe unto us!
What sustains the Jewish people? Says the Meshech Chochmah: the fact that the gentiles are embroiled in conflict, divided, and split among themselves. And not only the gentiles. If we look closely, Torah-observant Jews in the Land of Israel are still a minority - though this is constantly changing, it is still a minority. Had the secular parties united, we saw what we experienced: they nearly blocked everything - no yeshivas, no Talmud Torahs, no kollel scholars; from every perspective, it would have been impossible to survive. It is the kindness of Hashem that even those distant from mitzvot are not united. Had they united and formed a unity government with the Torah-observant left outside, who knows what would have remained of the religious community. Those who plot against us are always divided among themselves, and that is what preserves our existence.
A sheep among seventy wolves - why do we still exist? Just think of the Arabs around us: had they decided to simply get up and march toward Jerusalem, just march, without any war at all, we would be finished. What preserves us? That the Sunnis hate the Shiites, and they hate the Iraqis, the Syrians, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia - they all hate one another to an unbelievable degree. Not a single Arab summit ends peacefully; it always ends in disputes and quarrels - disputes over oil, struggles for dominance, and what not. To the point that you hear the Saudis crying out to the world against the Iranians even more than we cry out, because they feel even more threatened.
It is our fortune that they devour one another. For eight years, a bloody war raged between Iran and Iraq. What saves us is that they are preoccupied with one another: Do they have time for us? Previously, there were threats and demands regarding the Golan, but today their only demand is simply to survive. The pace might not be fast enough, but they are working on it. And what we must understand is that this is what sustains us: "Hashem commanded concerning Yaakov that his adversaries surround him; Yerushalayim has become like a niddah among them" - like a niddah who passes between two people, so too all those around become adversaries to one another, and they all quarrel with each other, because Yerushalayim is like a niddah among them.