Chapter 5 of Eicha is a closing prayer: a lamentation that is entirely an appeal to the Holy One, Blessed be He - "Remember, Hashem, what has befallen us" - unfolding before Him a series of scenes from the destruction and exile. In this lesson, we will focus on three verses: the nation's orphanhood, the purchasing of water and wood for money, and the relentless pursuit upon their necks on the way to Babylon. Each and every verse opens a window into the depth of grief, and into the Heavenly response embedded within it.
יְתוֹמִים הָיִינוּ (אין) [וְאֵין] אָב, אִמֹּתֵינוּ כְּאַלְמָנוֹת׃ - We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
At first glance, the expression seems strange: if you are an orphan, you naturally have no father. It would have made sense to say "we have become orphans without a mother," and the emphasis would be understood; but what does the emphasis "fatherless" add after having already stated "we have become orphans"?
The first explanation: The reason we are orphans is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, removed His providence from us. Who is the "father"? Our Father in Heaven. And since there is no father - since the Father's providence is no longer over us - we have therefore "become orphans."
A second explanation: Every orphan, even when losing a biological father, has an alternate Father - our Father in Heaven, who is called "Father of orphans and Judge of widows." But here we say, "we have become orphans, fatherless" - for the Holy One, Blessed be He, so to speak, hides His countenance from us, and when He conceals His face, even this Father is not accessible.
A third explanation: There are those who lack a father, but have someone to take his place - a guardian, an uncle who takes him in to raise him, a relative who extends his protection over him. Here, Israel laments: we did not have such a father either. This is a terrifying condition: orphanhood where no one steps into the void, where no one assumes responsibility to raise this child. "Fatherless" - there is not even a substitute for a father.
And a fourth explanation: Sometimes a person is an orphan, but has a grave to visit and cling to, a place where one can go and shed a tear. But here, so many massacres and persecutions occurred that even their burial places were unknown. "We have become orphans, fatherless" - there is not even a father's grave to go and weep over. Just as occurred in the horrific, terrible Holocaust, where so many lost their family members without knowing where: in which forest, at Babi Yar, in which crematoria. They do not even have a grave to visit and weep over.
A story is told of Rabbi Yaakov Emden, the forefather of the Chacham Tzvi. During the times of the decrees, his father-in-law and wife found refuge in a foreign land, while Rabbi Yaakov did not manage to reach that place in time and fell into the hands of the cursed murderers of that era, Chmielnicki and his cohorts. One of the murderers stood over him and said: Kneel down and stretch out your neck. He did so, preparing to sanctify the Heavenly Name, and was already about to recite the blessing. When his neck was outstretched upward, that murderer took pity on him and drew the sword across with its blunt side, leaving him unharmed. Rabbi Yaakov fell to the ground and pretended to be dead; the others who were there assumed he was indeed dead, left him, and went on their way. Thus he was saved, one of the few survivors, and began wandering in search of bread.
However, people who witnessed this scene later went and testified before the Rebbe Reb Heshel of Krakow in order to release his agunah wife: they testified that they saw the wicked soldier draw a sword across his neck, saw him fall, and testified that he had died. The Rebbe Reb Heshel deliberated the case and permitted the woman to remarry. But the woman refused: she believed her husband was still alive, knew her husband was a great tzaddik, and longed and waited to merit building a dynasty of sages and great figures through him. Six months later, the "slain man" arrived on his own two feet, as Chazal phrase it: Rabbi Yaakov Emden appeared alive - the very man whom everyone was certain was no longer among the living, about whom there was eyewitness testimony of his death, and whose wife had already been permitted to remarry. It is told that from that incident onward, the Rebbe Reb Heshel resolved never to release agunot again. See how great the responsibility is in releasing an agunah.
And this is what the lamenter says here: "Our mothers are like widows." Had they been actual widows, at least they could have moved on and remarried. But they were "like widows": there was no definitive clarity as to whether she was a widow or not. And how immense is the anguish of an agunah - like one who has cast an anchor, or like one who has drawn a circle and stands trapped within it, unable to remarry. This is an unbearable sorrow beyond imagination. "It is better to dwell two together," and even more than a man desires marriage, a woman desires marriage, yearning for "a staff for her hand and a hoe for her burial" - yet she has none. Had they been widows, it would be one thing, but they were "like widows," unable even to remarry. And regarding this we plead: Master of the Universe, "look and see our disgrace."
מֵימֵינוּ בְּכֶסֶף שָׁתִינוּ, עֵצֵינוּ בִּמְחִיר יָבֹאוּ׃ - We drank our water for money; our wood comes at a price.
The Lechem Dim'ah explains: even the meager amount of water needed merely for a drink, not a substantial quantity - even that we drank for money. How much more so the other necessities of life! Even water, the most abundant and inexpensive resource, we were forced to buy with money. One could apply this to our own generation as well: in the past, people would simply open the tap and drink, whereas today people buy bottled water. Had someone told us as children that people would buy drinking water, it would have sounded absurd. Yet today, "we drank our water for money."
There is also an early explanation: we were forced to buy our water for money, and our wood at a price. This is what Midrash Eichah relates: The oppressors once came and seized their bread, their wine, their oil, and their water, and then turned around and sold it back to them. Understand the tragedy of "we drank our water for money": our own water, what belonged to us, was stolen from us - and now they demand payment for it. The robber plunders it from me, and then says: "You want it? Pay." It is like someone stealing your car today and then calling you: "Do you want it back? Wire ten thousand shekels." (The Israel Police, incidentally, advises never to comply, since often you pay the ransom and still never see the car.) But fundamentally, one must realize how monstrous this is: the thief robs you, and then comes to demand money from you for what is yours. Regarding this the Midrash laments: Woe to us that the verse has been fulfilled in us, "We drank our water for money; our wood comes at a price." You took our bread, our wine, our oil, and our wood - and now you come to sell them back to me and demand payment?
This parallels our current reality: part of the agreements with the Palestinians stipulates that we must pay even for our own water. Part of the water is piped to them and part to us, and even when we draw water - "we drank our water for money."
Another explanation is offered by the Rav of Worms: "We drank our water bekhesef" - they were accustomed to drinking from vessels of silver (khesef), which signified prestige, importance, and affluence. In the past we drank water from silver vessels, such was our stature; but now, "our wood comes at a price" - even simple wooden vessels, crude wooden cups, we must purchase at an exorbitant price. Not only do we no longer possess silver vessels, but even wooden vessels cost us dearly. See what a steep decline we have suffered.
עַל צַוָּארֵנוּ נִרְדָּפְנוּ, יָגַעְנוּ (לא) [וְלֹא] הוּנַח־לָנוּ׃ - We were pursued upon our necks; we grew weary, and no rest was granted us.
The Targum explains: As we were being led into captivity, Nebuchadnezzar saw the princes of Israel marching unburdened, carrying nothing. He commanded that Torah scrolls be stitched into sacks (see the depths of their wickedness!), filled them with gravel from the Euphrates River, and loaded them onto their necks so they would not march empty-handed, but would bear a crushing load. And at that hour - "we grew weary, and no rest was granted us."
Midrash Eichah Rabbah relates that Nebuchadnezzar warned Nebuzaradan: "The God of these people accepts repentance, and His hand is outstretched to receive those who return. Therefore be on your guard: the moment you conquer them, do not allow them to pray, lest they repent. For if they repent, Hashem can redeem them in an instant and show them mercy, and I will be left in utter disgrace. Therefore, do not let up on them." Once he subdued them, whenever one of them stopped to rest, Nebuzaradan would dismember him limb by limb before the others, forcing them onward against their will until they reached the Euphrates. If anyone merely paused or lagged behind, he was slaughtered on the spot. As history witnessed, this monstrous practice repeated itself, may their name and memory be blotted out, under the Nazis: on the death marches, if they saw someone slow down or collapse, an immediate bullet to the head followed. There was no pausing, no opportunity to rest even for a moment. For Nebuzaradan knew that the moment they rested, they would immediately stand in prayer - and that was something he was entirely unwilling to risk: they would pray, and Hashem would restore them.
Once they reached the Euphrates, he told his troops: "Leave them be; you can ease up." What changed? From this point onward, their God would not bring them back. The critical juncture had passed; they were already in exile, and Hashem would no longer reverse the decree. This is the meaning of the verse, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion" - *there* we sat down, specifically, indicating that until that point we had not sat down at all. Only there did they permit us to sit; until then, they gave us not a single moment of respite. This is what Scripture laments: "We were pursued upon our necks; we grew weary, and no rest was granted us" - we were driven with such unrelenting pressure upon our necks that we were not even allowed to stand still for a moment, or rest slightly from the grueling march. From Jerusalem to the Euphrates is a fifteen-day journey, as Chazal note regarding the prayer for rain in *Barech Aleinu* - for fifteen days they drove us relentlessly without a moment of rest, solely to keep us from praying.
The sefer Elon Bachut explains that this was a measure-for-measure retribution for casting off the yoke of Torah: "If you will not accept upon yourselves the yoke of Torah," says the Holy One, Blessed is He, "the enemy will come and place upon you the yoke of foreign dominion." Furthermore, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to prevent them from praying, and halachah establishes that a person carrying a burden on his shoulder heavier than four *kav* cannot pray in that state; rather, he must set the burden down before praying, as the weight prevents a person from concentrating with proper *kavanah*. That wicked king acted shrewdly by loading a burden upon us: "we were pursued upon our necks" - he placed a crushing weight on our necks, thereby preventing us from standing in prayer, ensuring we could not nullify the decree through the power of our tefillah.
The Midrash (Eicha Rabbah) relates that Moshe Rabbeinu arose from his grave and said to Yirmiyahu: "Go before me, so that I may go and bring them, and I will see who dares lay a hand upon them." When Moshe Rabbeinu heard of the severe afflictions and the terrible state in which his people were plunged, he said to Yirmiyahu: "Go before me; I will go and bring them back." Immediately Moshe went, with Yirmiyahu leading the way before him, until they reached the rivers of Babylon. And as we have seen there, the people said: "Behold, Moshe has come to redeem us!" A Heavenly voice went forth and proclaimed: "It is a decree from before Me. Even you, Moshe, cannot redeem them now." At that moment, they raised their voices in great weeping until their cry ascended to the Heavens, and this is what is stated: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept." This was also the reason Nevuzaradan permitted them to sit: he saw that even Moshe Rabbeinu could not redeem them, and he said, "If so, I no longer fear your prayers; sit and rest, for you will have no redemption."
Midrash Tehillim further relates: Nevuchadnetzar was sitting in a ship in all his majesty with all his ministers alongside him, accompanied by all kinds of musical instruments, while all the kings of Yehudah were cast in iron chains and walking naked along the riverbank. The wicked Nevuchadnetzar lifted his eyes and saw them, and said to his servants: "Why are these men walking upright without a burden? Do you have no load to place upon their necks?" At that moment, they brought Torah scrolls, fashioned them into sacks, filled them with sand, and placed them upon their shoulders until their posture bent, and they said of themselves: "Upon our necks we were pursued."
At that moment, all of Israel burst into bitter weeping until their cry ascended to the Heavens, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to return the world to void and chaos. Consider what fierce wrath was stirred in the world! The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: "All that I created, I created only for these - 'In the beginning God created,' for the sake of Israel who are called reshit (the first); if so, let Us return the world to chaos." All the ministering angels entered before Him and said: "Master of the Universe, the entire world and its fullness is Yours; is it not enough that You have destroyed Your dwelling place below, that You would also destroy Your dwelling place above?" He said to them: "Do I need consolations? Surely I know the beginning and I know the end - I know what was at their start and I know what will be in their end. One consoles a mortal who does not know the future, saying to him: 'It is not so bad, the future will be brighter, you will see that things will improve.' But the Holy One, Blessed be He, already knows the end. Therefore I said: 'Turn away from Me, I will weep bitterly; do not hasten to console Me' (Yeshayahu 22:4)." He said to them: "These consolations with which you seek to comfort Me are provocations before Me."
Rather, what did the Holy One, Blessed be He, desire? He said to them: "Descend from before Me and bear the burden from upon them." Immediately, the ministering angels descended and lifted the burden from Israel. And not the ministering angels alone, but even the Holy One, Blessed be He, bore it Himself, as it is stated, "For your sake I was sent to Babylon" (Yeshayahu 43:14) - as it were, the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself descended to Babylon to remove the burden from upon them, to rescue them from that yoke of "Upon our necks we were pursued; we are weary and have no rest." This is the dimension of "I am with him in distress": the Holy One, Blessed be He, declares, "I am with them in exile," and the Shechinah says that ever since Israel went into exile, "I will not enter My abode and I will not enter the Heavenly Jerusalem until the people of Israel enter the earthly Jerusalem." The Shechinah is, as it were, with us in exile, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it were, comes and assists us in lifting the burden, so that the people of Israel will not perish in their exile.
The three verses before us depict three layers of destruction: orphanhood in which there is no father and not even a surrogate father or a grave to weep upon, and mothers left in limbo - "like widows"; plunder that turns our own property into goods sold back to us - "we drink our water for money"; and relentless pursuit that did not grant us even a moment to stand and pray - "upon our necks we were pursued." Yet precisely at this lowest ebb, the other side is revealed: the Holy One, Blessed be He, refuses consolations, commanding instead to remove the burden, and even bears it with us Himself. "I am with him in distress" - the Shechinah descends into exile with Her children, and this is the guarantee that the people of Israel will not be lost in their exile.