Chapter 2 of Megillat Eicha reaches its climax with a powerful call to the daughter of Zion: to rise at night, pour out her heart before the Holy One, blessed be He, and plead for her children. In this lesson, we will focus on a single verse - "Arise, cry out in the night" - and address three questions: Why specifically at night, why specifically with the expression of rinah (crying out/song), and what is the connection between the rinah at night and the plea for the souls of the young children?
ק֣וּמִי ׀ רֹ֣נִּי בַלַּ֗יְלָה לְרֹאשׁ֙ אַשְׁמֻר֔וֹת שִׁפְכִ֤י כַמַּ֙יִם֙ לִבֵּ֔ךְ נֹ֖כַח פְּנֵ֣י אֲדֹנָ֑י שְׂאִ֧י אֵלָ֣יו כַּפַּ֗יִךְ עַל־נֶ֙פֶשׁ֙ עֽוֹלָלַ֔יִךְ הָעֲטוּפִ֥ים בְּרָעָ֖ב בְּרֹ֥אשׁ כׇּל־חוּצֽוֹת׃ - Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to Him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
The Midrash states: "Arise, cry out in the night" - which night? The night of Tisha B'Av, that you should remember it year after year. And "roni" here is not an expression of joy, but an expression of lamentation, as it is said, "And the cry (harinah) passed throughout the camp" - which was said concerning the death of Achav, when his blood poured into the chariot and harlots washed in his blood, as recounted at length in the Prophets. Some explain rinah there as joy, for they rejoiced over being rid of a wicked person like Achav, but the plain meaning of the word is an outcry and speech, and there it implies lamentation. So too here: "Arise, cry out in the night" - the night of Tisha B'Av is the night fit for wailing and lamenting.
Notice that the written text (ketiv) is balayil, while the reading (keri) is balaylah. The holy Zohar says: Until midnight it is called layil, and from midnight onward it is called laylah. The primary Torah study of the night is from midnight onward, when the Holy One, blessed be He, delights with the righteous in Gan Eden. Therefore it is written kumi roni balayil - meaning begin even before midnight; and read balaylah - because the intention also extends onward, that we continue to cry out even after midnight.
It is written that whoever prays at night is considered as if the Shechinah is opposite him. The reason is that the night is uniquely suited for prayer, as the heart is unburdened; a person is not preoccupied with worldly needs and can pray with devotion. There are midnight kollels that sit and learn all night long. Aside from all the extraordinary virtues of learning Torah at night - to which an entire book is dedicated in praise - there is an additional virtue: there are no phone calls at night. No one calls asking you to bring home a kilo of tomatoes on the way, and no one calls to say that a child needs to be picked up early from nursery. Who calls at three in the morning? There is nothing left for you to do but learn.
The Shulchan Aruch states: It is fitting for every God-fearing person to feel distressed and sorrowful over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. While this is not exclusively at night, but also by day - "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill" - the night nonetheless possesses a unique quality. And the question was already raised: What is the meaning of the phrase "It is fitting for every God-fearing person"? Do we ever say, "It is fitting for every God-fearing person to lay tefillin" or "It is fitting for every God-fearing person to keep Shabbat"? Rather, someone who is not yet God-fearing should first grieve over his personal spiritual ruin, and only afterward weep over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. One who is already whole in his fear of Heaven is left to weep over the destruction of the Temple. Nevertheless, do not misunderstand: "Do not let your hand rest from either one." A person must feel sorrow both over his own shortcomings and over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.
In the Gemara in Berachot, Rabbi Yose said: Once I was walking along the way and entered one of the ruins of Jerusalem to pray. Eliyahu came, guarded the entrance for me, and waited until I finished. He said to me: Peace be upon you, my master. I said to him: Peace be upon you, my master and teacher. He said to me: My son, why did you enter this ruin? I told him: To pray. He said to me: My son, what voice did you hear in this ruin? I told him: I heard a heavenly voice (bat kol) cooing like a dove and saying, "Woe to Me that I have destroyed My house, burned My sanctuary, and exiled My children among the nations!" He said to me: My son, by your life and the life of your head, not only at this hour does it say so, but whenever the Jewish people enter synagogues and study halls and respond, "Amen, may His great Name be blessed," the Holy One, blessed be He, nods His head and says: Fortunate is the King who is praised this way in His house! But what is there for the Father who has exiled His children? And woe to the children who have been exiled from their Father's table!
We learn from this that the Holy One, blessed be He, grieves every single day anew over the exile of Israel. If so, why was it specifically in a ruin that Rabbi Yose heard the heavenly voice (bat kol)? Because in a ruin he felt the destruction more acutely: when a person stands within a ruined place, he feels more deeply that the house of the Holy One, blessed be He, is also in ruins, and therefore it was the time most suited for him to hear the lamenting bat kol.
Here it is stated that the bat kol was "cooing like a dove," whereas in another place it says, "He will roar mightily over His dwelling place" - implying that He roars. But the answer is as follows: The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, who is compared to a lion - "A lion has gone up from his thicket." Therefore, regarding the First Temple it is said, "He will roar mightily over His dwelling place," as the bat kol, as it were, roars back against the one likened to a lion who destroyed the Temple. In the Second Temple, by contrast - "we were like a silly dove," easily seduced - and therefore there the bat kol is compared to a dove cooing over the destruction.
Regarding this, the verse comes and says: Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the watches - over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash and how much sorrow the Shechinah endures; "pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord," and through this, "lift up your hands to Him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street." And why specifically young children? Because such sights arouse tremendous heartache: young children lying in the streets, faint with hunger - and as we have already explained, "faint" (ha'atufim) implies wrapped in darkness and weakness - this is something worthy of weeping and lamenting over, and through this, the mercy of Hashem, blessed be He, will be aroused for those poor souls.
Nevertheless, we are left with three questions: Why specifically at night? Why specifically with the term "rinah" (joyous song or cry)? And what is the connection between this cry at night and the plea for the lives of the young children?
The Maharal Tzintz writes in his work Melo HaOmer: Our Sages say that the night consists of three watches, and during each and every watch, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and roars like a lion, saying: "Woe to the children on account of whose sins I destroyed My House and burned My Sanctuary." Thus, the night is the time of the Holy One's sorrow over the destruction of the Temple, and therefore it is fitting for every God-fearing person to rise while it is still night and lament the exile of the Shechinah - this is the essence of Tikkun Chatzot.
From here we also understand the words "before the presence of the Lord" (nochach pnei Hashem). "Nochach" means opposite, just as it is said concerning Yitzchak, "opposite his wife" (lenochach ishto) - he in one corner and she in the other, facing one another. That is to say: Know that corresponding to your crying down here, directly opposite you, the Holy One, blessed be He, is also, as it were, crying and lamenting up above.
And when a person laments and grieves over the distress of Heaven, over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, he is filled with confidence that the Holy One, blessed be He, will never abandon His people. To what may this be compared? To a person who lost something, and one sees him constantly lamenting, going about searching and seeking it - one knows there is a great likelihood he will recover it. But if a person loses something and does not search for it, saying, "Well, an atonement for sins, it is gone and finished" - what chance is there that he will find it again? And that applies to an ordinary human being who lacks ultimate ability; so when one sees that the Holy One, blessed be He, who possesses absolute ability, still laments and grieves over the exile of Israel, this indicates that He will surely redeem them, for He continually seeks this bond.
Through this, what began as a prayer is transformed into rinah (song). For when one stands before the presence of Hashem and sees that He too, as it were, weeps over the estrangement - this is already a cause for rinah, an expression of joy: there is hope, there will be redemption. But had it been said that this is not "before the presence of the Lord," implying that He had given up on the Jewish people, it would not be a rinah but a kinah (lamentation), for then there truly would be reason to weep - that there is no hope of being redeemed.
It remains for us to understand the connection between this cry of prayer and "the life of your young children." The Gemara states: Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav, the day has twelve hours. During the first three hours, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and engages in Torah; during the second three, He sits and judges the entire world; during the third three, He sits and nourishes the entire world; and during the fourth three, He sits and plays with the Leviathan.
Incidentally, one must understand that "playing with the Leviathan" speaks in terms of exalted spiritual concepts. It suffices to point out that the righteous are destined in the future to sit in a sukkah made from the hide of the Leviathan - and what special virtue is there in a sukkah of leather? Rather, it certainly does not refer to a physical sea creature called a whale or leviathan, but "Leviathan" is an expression of levayah (accompaniment), as it is written that the righteous are destined to accompany the Holy One, blessed be He, in Gan Eden and dance in a circle before Him. The yearning of the righteous, as explained in sacred works, is to be close to Hashem and bond with the Holy One, blessed be He, and this is the aspect of Leviathan. So too, the "feast of the Leviathan" is a banquet at which we accompany the Holy One, blessed be He. For does physical eating and drinking apply on high? And why specifically a Leviathan? Rather, everything is certainly an allusion to sublime spiritual matters of accompaniment, connection, and closeness to the Creator.
The Gemara continues that according to the authority who holds that since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash there is no laughter before the Holy One, blessed be He, there remains one watch during which we do not know what He does. The Gemara answers: He sits and teaches Torah to young school children, as it says, "Whom shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He give to understand doctrine? Those weaned from milk." Rashi explains: School children who died in their youth. The Holy One, blessed be He, has a classroom on high for school children who passed away in their infancy, and He sits and teaches them. The Gemara asks: This is by day, but what does He do at night? It answers: Just like the day - He does as He does by day. Thus, at night as well, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and teaches school children during one of the night watches.
Based on this, the Melo HaOmer explains: "Arise, cry out at night" - at night one arises and prays before the presence of Hashem, and then "lift up your hands to Him for the life of your young children." Why specifically now? Because at this time the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and learns with the school children who passed away in their youth, and this is an hour of mercy and lovingkindness toward school children. Lift your hands to Him so that your children will not end up there, so that they will not study in the Heavenly Academy, but rather remain down here.
One might add an insight here: ostensibly, this does not seem to align with the verse's wording, "at the beginning of the watches," since the study with the school children takes place in the fourth quarter, at the end of the watches. There are two ways to resolve this. First: "at the beginning of the watches" indicates when to begin - from the beginning of the watches, continuing until their end, and at the end of the watches you will arrive at the conclusion of the verse, "for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger." Second: as noted, the night mirrors the day, and during the final quarter of the day the Holy One, blessed be He, learns with the school children; it turns out that at the beginning of the night watches, that very study session has just concluded. Therefore, immediately at the beginning of the watches we plead: Master of the Universe, now that You have learned with the school children on high, spare our infants who faint from hunger, so that they will not reach the schoolrooms of Heaven, but will remain and endure down here.
As noted earlier, when the Holy One, blessed be He, separated the lower waters from the upper waters, the lower waters wept and said: We desire to be before our King! Why were we separated and cast downward, while the upper waters remain close to the Holy One, blessed be He - "mighty are the breakers of the sea"? Several explanations for this were discussed earlier at length.
Based on this, the Klausenburger Rebbe explains the verse here: "Pour out your heart like water before the presence of Hashem" - how should you pour it out? Like the water, for the waters poured out their heart. And over what did the lower waters pour out their heart? Over being "before the presence of Hashem" - why were we not privileged to be before the presence of Hashem? We are accustomed to understanding "pour out your heart like water" as shedding tears like water; but according to his words, the meaning is: pour out your heart just as the waters poured out their heart, where their primary anguish was over their distance. There is an essential message here: if a person must lament and weep over something, let him weep over his distance from the Creator, blessed be He. Not over a lack of monetary profit, economic gain, or difficulties in earning a livelihood - but "before the presence of Hashem," like the waters whose entire weeping was over being distant from the Holy One, blessed be He.
The author of Sha'ar Bat Rabbim explains: In times of exile, there are two realms of prayer. There is prayer for the honor of Hashem - over the fact that the Shechinah is in exile and the Holy One, blessed be He, is, as it were, in distress; and there is prayer for our personal requests, for our troubles and private affairs. And he asks: Which takes precedence?
Exile is termed "night." Roni ("cry out") is also one of the ten terms of prayer, as it is written, "He saw their distress when He heard their cry." The verse comes to teach: "Arise, cry out at night" - pray in exile; and what comes first? "At the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the presence of Hashem" - first of all, weep over the desecration of Hashem's Name, over the exile of the Shechinah, over the Shechinah being in exile ever since the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed. Only at the second stage - "lift up your hands to Him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger" - should you petition for your own needs. But first, pray for the honor of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven.
The sefer Kol Yaakov brings a wonderful parable about this. A man was cast into prison and sentenced to death. A great man of kindness heard about it and resolved to redeem him at any cost. He did not possess enough money, so he mortgaged his house, his garments, and even his wife's jewelry, making every effort to set him free. And indeed, the man was ultimately released to freedom, thanks to the tireless efforts of that benefactor.
And what is the first thing that this man must do upon his release? After thanking him - and as is well known, thank-yous do not pay the grocer - the very first thing is to find work and do everything possible to pay off his rescuer's debts, to restore his collateral, and to reclaim the house that was mortgaged to save him. Imagine if this man were to completely forget everything that was done for him, go out to work, purchase land, and build himself a luxury villa! Have you no shame? That man is out on the street, he mortgaged his home for you, and you are busy building yourself a villa? Surely it is fitting that you first help the one who invested his entire fortune for your freedom, so that he may return to his former standing. If not, this is repaying evil for good, and of such a person Shlomo said: "Whoever repays evil for good, evil will not depart from his house."
The Dubno Maggid explains: As terrible as it sounds, the Jewish people, unfortunately, are not so different from that ingrate. For the verse states, "These are the reckonings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of Testimony" (Shemot 38:21), and Chazal ask why "the Mishkan, the Mishkan" is repeated. They answer: It is an allusion to the Beit HaMikdash that was taken as collateral (nitmashken) for the sins of Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, mortgaged the Mishkan; He poured out His wrath upon wood and stones and destroyed His home, as it were, so that we might survive. In order to set us free, He mortgaged His own house.
What, then, does basic decency demand? That all our aspirations be devoted to rebuilding the House of the Holy One, blessed be He. "I mortgaged My home for your survival - and you are busy building your villa?" At every single moment, the Jewish people ought to be occupied with the building of Hashem's House, praying for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash and for the exile of the Shechinah; that should be at the very forefront of our concerns.
As noted, all our requests revolve around bread. We plead for Mashiach to come already - why? For livelihood. "To the bread." This is like the story of the man who came to the rabbi and cried: "Oy, Rebbe, such troubles! We need Mashiach already, we need Mashiach!" The rabbi asked him: "What happened?" He replied: "An overdraft at the bank, creditors, and so on." The rabbi told him: "I am very sorry to disappoint you, but the Mashiach you are waiting for will never come; and worse yet, the Mashiach who actually comes is one you never awaited. If you think Mashiach is coming to solve your financial troubles with your bank manager, you are mistaken. Mashiach is coming to reveal and establish the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, and consequently 'they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,' but his purpose is not to solve your personal problem." Thus, instead of praying for spiritual matters and for the complete redemption, a person prays only for his private difficulties.
There is also the story of the traveler who stayed with a simple peasant. In the middle of the night, through the wooden walls of the adjacent room, he heard: "Oy, oy, oy!" He thought to himself: "Look at that! He only appears to be a simple peasant, but in truth he is a great tzaddik; see how he rises at midnight to lament the exile of the Shechinah with tears, just like the pious of old!" After several heartbreaking cries of "oy, oy," he heard the peasant say to his wife: "Meidele, next time don't make me borscht before bed, it gives me such heartburn... oy, oy!" It turned out the man was weeping over his heartburn, not over the exile of the Shechinah. And that is precisely our situation: we weep over our heartburn, not over the exile of the Shechinah.
Yet what should we truly weep over? "Arise, cry out in the night... pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord" (Eicha 2:19) - first and foremost over the House that the Holy One, blessed be He, mortgaged so that we might survive; we must first exert ourselves to restore it, and only then seek our own benefit. This is the meaning of "A psalm of Asaf" - that the Holy One, blessed be He, poured out His wrath upon wood and stones so that Israel might endure. Therefore, the first thing we must do as an expression of gratitude is plead for the wood and the stones, to plead for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash.
The sefer Chavot Yair offers a similar interpretation of the verse, "A prayer of the afflicted when he faints, and pours out his complaint before Hashem" (Tehillim 102:1). Who is the afflicted (ani)? King Mashiach, of whom it is said, "humble and riding upon a donkey" (ani verochev al chamor, Zechariah 9:9). And what is the meaning of "faints" (ya'atof)? It carries the connotation of delay, as in "and the late-born [ha'atufim] were Lavan's" (Bereishit 30:42) - those that were delayed. The verse thus reads: "A prayer for the afflicted when he is delayed" - Master of the Universe, why is Mashiach delayed? We yearn for the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt! And only after that, "and pours out his complaint before Hashem" - his private complaint, his personal requests: suitable matches for his children, abundant livelihood, salvation from troubles. The private supplication belongs at the end; at the beginning stands "for the afflicted when he is delayed" - why has Mashiach not come, why is the Shechinah still in exile?
It has also been pointed out that for some, their entire longing for Mashiach's coming is encapsulated in the Hebrew acronym of "Mashiach": she'hu yeshaleim chovotav - that he will pay off their debts. That is their Mashiach: someone who will arrive and settle their debts. They fail to understand that one must yearn for the ultimate redemption and for an end to the exile of the Shechinah.
"Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord." The prophet tells the Jewish people: Until now, perhaps prayer and supplication alone were enough, and there was no need to shed tears; but now there is no choice - prayer alone will not suffice. Tears are needed, one must pour out the heart. Through pouring out tears, all partitions will fall, all gates will open, and prayers will be accepted.
And if you ask: If the gates of tears are never locked, why do there need to be gates at all? The answer is - against crocodile tears. What is the origin of this expression? When a crocodile emerges from the water, water collects in its eyes, and as it comes up, the water begins to stream from its eyes, making it appear to an onlooker as if it is crying. This is what is colloquially called "onion tears" - not genuine tears. Against such tears there are gates, and before them the gates indeed close. But "the gates of tears are not locked" was said concerning the tears of "pour out your heart like water" - when weeping comes from the heart and is truly like water. For such weeping, the gates are never locked.
"Arise, cry out in the night" - night is the time of lamentation, for during it the Holy One, blessed be He, sits during each watch and laments the destruction of His House; "before the presence of the Lord" - our weeping stands opposite His weeping, as it were, and through this, the lamentation turns into joyful song (rinah), for one who is still searching for his lost possession will ultimately find it, and the redemption will surely come. "Pour out your heart like water" - like the weeping of the lower waters, whose entire anguish was their distance from the Creator; and "lift up your hands to Him for the life of your young children" - at the hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, teaches young school children on High, we plead that our children remain here below. And the order of prayer is fixed: first for the honor of Heaven and for His House that was mortgaged for our sake, and only afterward for our personal needs - so that we not be like that redeemed captive who built himself a villa and forgot the one who mortgaged his home on his behalf.