Chapter 3 of Megillat Eicha is the chapter of an individual speaking on behalf of the collective: "I am the man who has seen affliction." In the middle of the chapter, after the descriptions of grief and darkness, a turning point begins: the lamenter recalls the lovingkindness of Hashem to his heart, and from there he moves to encourage the Jewish people and strengthen them in faith and hope. In this lesson, we will focus on the central verses of that turning point: "They are new every morning," "Hashem is my portion, says my soul," and "Hashem is good to those who hope in Him."
חֲדָשִׁים לַבְּקָרִים רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶךָ׃ - They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
The author of Lechem Dim'ah explains: Since the Holy One, Blessed is He, performs new miracles with us each and every day - shielding us and guarding us - this encourages us to believe in Him and anticipate the future redemption. From the small miracles we witness day after day, we learn that the Holy One, Blessed is He, will also bring us out of our tribulations and redeem us with an everlasting redemption.
One of the great Torah leaders offered a wonderful parable for this. When Yosef was brought down to Egypt, what was the caravan carrying? "Spicery, balsam, and ladanum." Rashi notes that these were sweet spices - unlike the usual practice of the Ishmaelites, who routinely transported petroleum and pitch which have a foul odor, here the Holy One, Blessed is He, arranged spices for Yosef. At first glance, this is astonishing: if a man is sentenced to one hundred lashes, and as the brutal beating begins, someone says to him, "Wait a moment, we brought you some perfume, take a sniff" - would that console him? And with Yosef, we are not talking about a single year: Yosef was about to endure "lashes" for twelve years, languishing in an Egyptian prison, persecuted, suffering the harshest degradation in a dungeon that was an underground pit. Was the foul smell of pitch really his chief concern?
Rather, he explained with a parable: A child is taken in for surgery. The child is terrified to death and weeping, and the surgeon asks the parents to leave because they are about to begin. The child is under local anesthesia, panicked and inconsolable. Then, through the round window of the operating room, he suddenly sees a face looking in - Mother. And another face - Father. Immediately, his spirit is revived: here they are, they are nearby, they have not abandoned me. So it was with Yosef going down to Egypt: before him lay bitter suffering, a grueling surgery, but the Holy One, Blessed is He, sent him a ray of light, peering as it were through the window and telling him: I am here, I am with you, do not despair. And the proof is that I sent you a message: a caravan tailored especially for you, bearing sweet fragrance. And indeed, "Hashem was with Yosef, and he was a successful man" - complete Divine providence.
This is what the verse means: "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" - from the small miracles that the Holy One, Blessed is He, performs for us each day, I gain strength and faith that Hashem is still with us, that He has not forsaken us, and this encourages us with anticipation and hope that He will deliver us from our troubles.
The author of Lechem Dim'ah also notes: There is an allusion here to the immortality of the soul. Despite all the troubles and all the calamities, we still rely on the lovingkindness of Hashem, "for they are not ended" - the soul lives on and endures, and not only that, but the soul of the nation as a whole endures. We have not, Heaven forbid, reached a state where the Jewish people ceases to exist. And just as every night you entrust your soul into the hand of the Holy One, Blessed is He, and He restores it to you in the morning - "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" - so too should trust awaken within you that You will redeem me; for otherwise, why would You have needed to return my soul to me?
This is the secret of "I sleep, but my heart is awake": even though we are in a state resembling sleep, the heart - that is, the soul - still lives. And if enemies came and killed and massacred, over what did they have dominion? Over the body alone. But the soul endures, and in the future a woman will bear six hundred thousand in one womb, for all these souls are destined to return and achieve complete rectification. The nations can only touch our physical bodies, and that is not truly significant: no matter how much they kill and massacre, the soul of the nation endures, the Jewish people lives, and these souls exist.
To the heretic and the atheist, death is the most terrible thing of all, because in his worldview death is absolute cessation: as long as I am here I exist, and the moment I die there is nothing, complete oblivion. For such a person, death is truly shattering. But one who knows that death is merely a transition from one world to another, from one reality to another, is not alarmed. After all, even a person who goes to sleep undergoes a temporary death, and in the morning he awakes. This contemplation encourages us to endure every crisis: "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" - the soul returns to us; so too, even if I see the Jewish people in a state of general slumber, know that the soul will return, and the Jewish people will return and renew its days as of old, "Your youth shall be renewed like an eagle's," far greater than ever before.
The sefer Elon Bachut cites from the holy Zohar: A person entrusted an item for safekeeping with his friend, and later came to retrieve his deposit. The friend said to him: "Do you remember that a year ago I lent you money, and you said you would repay me when you could? I calculated it, and the deposit is worth the exact amount of the loan, so I am keeping it." The Zohar says: Such a person - leit bei heimanuta, there is no trustworthiness in him. Do not mix one matter with another: A loan is a loan, but here he entrusted you with a deposit out of trust that you would return it. Return the deposit to him, and then tell him: "Remember that you owe me such-and-such." This is not talking about a corrupt villain looking to cheat someone, but an upright person - yet one must not exploit the opportunity: "The creditor found an opportunity to collect his debt." That is neither decency nor integrity.
And this is precisely how the Holy One, blessed be He, acts with us. You entrust your soul into His hand, and the Holy One could easily say: "Wait, the soul is already here with Me. And dear soul - how much do you owe Me? I have an open account with you; stay right here." Then in the morning a person would try to get up and be unable to - because the soul remained Above. This resembles a driver stopped for a minor infraction, a traffic ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, and suddenly the computer flashes that he is wanted as a deserter - and the police officer says: "No, no, you are in my custody now; come with me." So it might seem here: The soul went up on high burdened by a massive debt, and there would be ample reason to detain it. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, does not act this way - "Great is Your faithfulness," He is trustworthy. You entrusted your soul into His hand, "Into Your hand I entrust my spirit," placing your trust in the Master of the Universe, and He returns it to you. If so, "This I call to mind": Come and see how faithful the Holy One, blessed be He, is in returning your deposit - and take encouragement from this that He will surely restore our captivity, renew our youth like an eagle, and renew our days as of old.
The Maggid of Dubno, in Kol Yaakov, explains based on the words of Chazal that the Community of Israel says: "From the fact that You renew me in the morning of the kingdoms, Your faithfulness is great that You will redeem me in the future." That is to say: from the fact that I see new decrees morning after morning. And we know what the purpose of these decrees is - to improve our ways. As discussed, regarding all the economic decrees and the war declared against the Torah world, the approach of the Gedolei Yisrael has consistently been that this makes demands of us; not protests - that is not the way - but examining what we must rectify and how to improve our ways. And from the fact that we see decrees mounting, we know that their entire purpose is to refine us and improve us.
To what is this comparable? To a child who fell ill, and his father summoned a doctor to give him medicines. The son was convinced that his father wished to harm him. But when he saw that at a certain stage the doctor switched the medicines and administered different ones, he understood there was no malicious intent. After all, if the intention were to cause harm, the first medicines were bitter and harsh enough; why bother switching them? The very act of switching shows that the intent is to heal, and that each stage requires a different remedy.
This is the meaning of "They are new every morning": From the fact that You renew me in the morning of the kingdoms - substituting one affliction for another, each time a different kind of suffering - I learn that these afflictions are medicine, and that each time something else needs to be healed and rectified. From this stems "Great is Your faithfulness" - my faith is strengthened that You will ultimately redeem me. For if not, why switch the afflictions? If the goal were merely to torment, leave me in the original suffering indefinitely. Rather, the fact that You change the medicine proves that You intend to heal me.
חֶלְקִי יְהֹוָה אָמְרָה נַפְשִׁי עַל־כֵּן אוֹחִיל לוֹ׃ - "The Lord is my portion," said my soul, "therefore I will hope in Him."
Rashi explains: Since my soul said that the Lord is my portion, it is only right that I hope for Him and yearn for Him. Had I, Heaven forbid, taken idolatry as my portion, that is what I would look toward; but since I believe in the Ein Sof, blessed be He, my soul naturally says: My portion lies with the Master of the Universe, and Him alone do I await to redeem me.
The Torat Chaim adds: At times, amidst overwhelming troubles and suffering, a person may fall into despair, for it is well known that suffering can cause a person to transgress against the will of his Creator. The Gemara says concerning Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah: Had they been tortured, they would have bowed to the idol. Consider this carefully: the very same Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah who were ready to be cast into the fiery furnace, had they been subjected to ongoing torture, they would have worshipped the idol! Why did they not worship it? Because they were threatened with death, and death is over in a moment. But if someone is told: "We will not kill you; we will hold a flame beneath you until you comply" - may Hashem have mercy, who can endure such torture? No human being can withstand prolonged torment.
And so the Community of Israel says here: In the sheer severity of our afflictions, we might have been driven to despair; suffering can cause a person to lose his faith. Yet despite everything, my inner voice proclaims: "The Lord is my portion." The Jewish people are the portion and inheritance of Hashem, and the afflictions that befall me have come to sanctify Heaven's Name and to call upon me to mend my ways - therefore, I accept them with love.
The heart, driven by emotion, can easily err and tell a person: "What good has your faith done you? Look how much you are suffering, how tormented you are." Emotion misleads. But I answer it: "Hashem is my portion, says my soul" - my soul is an actual portion of God from Above, and its perception reaches far beyond what emotions can grasp. The complete person does not operate according to emotions, but according to intellect. The intellect does not mislead - so long as one does not allow emotion to drag it along - and it shows man the upright path. Therefore, had I followed emotion, I would have already cast off every yoke, for I am suffering and tormented. Yet the soul, the spiritual essence within man, is what cries out and proclaims, "Hashem is my portion," and it is what sustains me. "Therefore I will hope for Him" - this is what leads me to continue placing my hope in the Holy One, blessed be He; not from the fickle heart, but from the holy, spiritual soul that is a portion of God from Above.
טוֹב יְהֹוָה לְקֹוָו לְנֶפֶשׁ תִּדְרְשֶׁנּוּ׃ - Hashem is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.
טוֹב וְיָחִיל וְדוּמָם לִתְשׁוּעַת יְהֹוָה׃ - It is good that one should wait silently for the salvation of Hashem.
טוֹב לַגֶּבֶר כִּי־יִשָּׂא עֹל בִּנְעוּרָיו׃ - It is good for a man that he bear a yoke in his youth.
Here the author of the lamentations begins to offer comfort and encouragement to the Jewish people. In these three verses of the letter Tet, he proclaims: whoever hopes in Hashem and yearns for Him - Hashem is good to those who await Him; it is good for a person to wait quietly for the salvation of Hashem. If so, there is true purpose in waiting with hope, and "It is good for a man that he bear a yoke in his youth" - that he bear everything he endures with deep patience, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is good to the one who hopes in Him.
Our Sages expound: "'Hashem is good to those who await Him' - might one think to all? The verse teaches, 'to the soul that seeks Him.'" We must understand the meaning of this derashah: what does "might one think to all" mean, and what is the answer given by "to the soul that seeks Him"?
The Elon Bachut explains: one who truly possesses bitachon must rely solely upon the Holy One, blessed be He. In truth, many of us trust in the Holy One, blessed be He - but not only in Him, rather also in Him. A person thinks: "Baruch Hashem, Hashem gave me intellect, I have several avenues, and with God's help I will manage." In other words: "I just need a small push from the Master of the World, and from there I will manage on my own; I have clever ideas, and I have strength." This is mere lip service - inserting the Master of the World into the narrative without truly relying upon Him alone. To this the Midrash alludes: "'Might one think to all?' - even to one who hopes in Hashem while simultaneously relying on his financial success, believing his wealth will aid him and his own ingenuity will extract him from the entanglement?" To this the verse responds: No. "To the soul that seeks Him" - this refers to one who trusts in Hashem with all his heart and soul, seeking Him and no other. Not "the Holy One, blessed be He, will also help me," but that only the Holy One, blessed be He, can help me.
The Dubno Maggid explains in Kol Yaakov: man has two categories of needs. There are bodily needs - eating, drinking, bathing, everything pertaining to physical health; and there are spiritual needs - what a person requires spiritually: sustenance for his soul, prayer, Torah study, revitalizing his inner spirit through sacred pursuits. The crucial difference is that physical needs are not necessarily for one's good. A person may pray to acquire a specific apartment or to purchase a certain car, yet sometimes one requests something that is harmful to him, praying fervently for something that Hashem foresees will bring only damage.
A story is often related concerning Rav Shimshon Pincus ztz"l, whose friend asked him to release a car for him from the terminal, as the vehicle had been held up in customs. When he arrived at the port, he discovered that he had left the documents at home. Seeing no other choice, he stood and prayed that Hashem would grant him the right counsel. He pulled from his pocket a random document written in English - entirely unrelated to the matter - and handed it to the clerk. The clerk stared at the paper, and because he was embarrassed to admit that he could not understand a word of English, he asked, "What do you need?" The Rav gave him the exact details, and the clerk signed and released the car. For all anyone knew, that paper may have contained the operating instructions for a washing machine, but the clerk could not read English and approved it. Rav Pincus recounted: "I was delighted and thanked Hashem that I had succeeded in releasing the car; I returned it to its owner, and he drove off. Yet one week later, he was involved in a fatal car crash in that very vehicle." The Rav concluded: "I learned from this that in material affairs, when you see that things are not moving forward, do not push. In worldly matters, you never know whether what you pursue is truly for your good."
On the other hand, in spiritual matters - no matter how much you pray and plead, it is good. Consider Moshe Rabbeinu: how much did he pray to enter the Land? Five hundred and fifteen prayers. And how long would he have continued to pray? Endlessly. For if there were a limit - were fifteen not enough? Were a hundred and fifty not enough? Rather, Moshe understood: one more prayer and another prayer until it is answered. And why? Because this is spirituality, this is Eretz Yisrael, this is holiness. For spiritual matters, one is permitted to pray without limit. A person praying for a shidduch can also pray endlessly - not praying for a specific woman or a specific man, for who knows what is good for him, but praying that Hashem grant him the merit to build an enduring home in Israel, a home of Torah, to be saved from the evil inclination, and the like. This is a prayer for spirituality, and for this one can pray without end.
When a person prays for material matters, however, sometimes Hashem does not answer him, because He knows that it is not good for him. A person asks to be accepted at a certain factory, a huge company with high salaries, and suddenly sees that he was not accepted and that things did not work out, and it seems to him like a disaster. Know this: when the Holy One, blessed be He, withholds something material from you, you cannot know - very often it is for your own good. That is why we ask, "fulfill all the desires of my heart for the good": why "for the good"? Because I do not know; perhaps I am asking for something that is not good. You know what is good for me and what is not good for me, and behold, I declare in advance - do not accept my improper prayers, and fulfill only that which is truly for the good.
In spiritual matters, however, the Torah has already revealed to us "what is good and what Hashem your God requires of you," so we know what to strive for, and there one can pray without end: to succeed in spiritual endeavors, in understanding Torah and in Torah study, in every holy matter, to purchase an item for a mitzvah, a beautified etrog - for all of these one can pray endlessly. This is the meaning of "Hashem is good to those who wait for Him": Hashem responds to those who hope for Him and await Him, giving them their request. "Could this apply to everything?" - will He grant whatever a person hopes and yearns for? To this the Midrash qualifies: "to the soul that seeks Him" - only when the request touches upon the soul, upon spiritual matters. And indeed, there are astounding stories of people whom no one believed would ever draw near, return in teshuvah, and do Hashem's will, yet suddenly you see how they completely transformed - teaching us how much power prayer possesses. For spirituality, one must pray without end.
From the story of Rav Pincus, we learn a fundamental principle: in material matters, a person should not multiply and plead excessively in prayer. Ask once or twice, and that is enough. For if you ask many times, your prayer may be answered - since prayer wields tremendous power - and the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not want to give this, it is not good for him, but he keeps asking again and again, so as it were, there is no choice and it is granted to him, and then it is solely to his detriment.
An example: a woman moved into a new apartment after an extraordinary renovation. On the day she moved in, she stepped onto the balcony, near the window grilles, to clean the shutters from the outside, lost her balance, fell, and was killed on the spot, Heaven protect us. Sometimes a person prays: Master of the Universe, let this apartment be mine, let the owner agree to sell to me, let me buy it - but who says that is good for you? Rather, ask this way: Master of the Universe, arrange the best apartment for me, a place where it will be good for me, where there will be marital harmony, good neighbors, and growth in Torah and fear of Heaven. Ask for that. But specifically this particular apartment - who says it is good for you?
Rav Pincus himself related this incident to illustrate this point, for he testified about himself that his prayers never returned empty, and whatever he prayed for, the Holy One, blessed be He, answered. And he said: see, here there was prayer, I invested effort in praying for a material matter, and apparently I also did not qualify that it should happen only if it is for the good - and behold, harm came from it. Sometimes in material matters, excessive pleading in prayer only brings harm.
Therefore: ask once and say - Master of the Universe, if this shidduch is good for me, if this apartment, this car, this job is good for me, grant it to me easily and peacefully; and if it is not good for me, withhold it from me in advance. For sometimes a person spends two months dealing with a matter, and in the end it falls through, causing great heartache: negotiations, repeated visits to the apartment, inspections - and at the very last moment the deal falls apart. The same happens in shidduchim: they date, the families meet, they are on the verge of an engagement, and at the last second everything blows up. Enormous heartache. Therefore, pray: Master of the Universe, if this is meant for me - let it go smoothly and easily right away; and if it is not meant for me - let it be blocked from the outset, saving us headaches, sorrow, and heartache.
Notice, too, that there are material requests that are fundamentally spiritual. For health and a complete recovery, one can ask endlessly, and here too one should transform the material into spiritual: Master of the Universe, "I shall not die, but live, and recount the deeds of the Lord" - every additional day You grant me life is another day to study Torah, another day to attend a shiur, another day to fulfill mitzvot. Grant me life not so that I can eat another steak or enjoy another pleasure, but so that I may merit another day to be close to God and do the will of my Creator. The same applies to marriage: one could say it is a material matter - a person seeks someone to care for him, help him, save him from loneliness, cook and bake, and often that is indeed why someone wants to marry. But infuse it with the spiritual aspect: that I may marry and be strengthened in the service of Hashem, that she be a helpmate to him and save him from sin. Introduce the spiritual dimension - and then it becomes a matter of mitzvah, for which one may pray without end.
The sefer Yahalom Pachos explains: when does a person see only the good in everything that happens in the world, only the finest, seeing how "whatever the Merciful One does, He does for the good"? When he is a spiritual person, when he possesses spiritual aspirations. Then, even if suffering befalls him, he does not say, "The pleasures of this world have been denied to me." In the civil courts, there is a legal definition of life and "quality of life" - one can prolong life, but without quality. In Judaism, when we speak of quality of life, we speak of spiritual quality. If a person suffers and endures affliction, and you ask him, "What pleasure do you even derive here in this world?" - that question hinges upon another: Why did you come into this world? If you came to enjoy worldly pleasures, you are right; such a life is not a life. But if your purpose is spiritual achievement, what difference does it make whether one suffers or does not suffer? On the contrary, when a person suffers, the body is refined, and the soul can attain greater spiritual heights, and he rejoices that the afflictions cleanse his soul. Yet all this applies only if a person is not seeking the pleasures and desires of this world; for one who seeks pleasures and desires, the moment even a small part of his worldly comfort is affected - he is miserable.
The verses of consolation in the middle of the chapter teach a complete path in avodat Hashem: "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" - from the small miracles of each day, and from the soul restored to us every morning with complete faithfulness, we draw confidence that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is with us and will redeem us; the very shifting of afflictions proves that they are medicine and not vengeance. "Hashem is my portion, says my soul" - it is not emotion speaking, which misleads and despairs, but the soul, a portion of G-d from Above, and it is what sustains us in faith even amidst suffering. "Hashem is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him" - to one who places his hope in Hashem alone and does not combine Him with human calculations, and especially to one who seeks Him in matters of the soul: for spirituality, one may and should pray without end, whereas for material needs, one should ask once or twice and leave the decision to the One Who truly knows what is best for us.