Thursday, July 26, 2012

She has no one to comfort her?

Hi,

Eichah 1:2 says, "She cries at night, her tears are upon her jaw, and she has no one to comfort her."

"Rabbi Levi said: Wherever the Torah says 'there is none', there actually is. Thus Bereishit 11 says, 'And Sarai was barren, she had no child,' and then she had one…

"Shemuel I 1 says 'And Chanah had no children,' and then she did…

"And Yirmiyah 30 says, 'She is Zion, she has none who seek her,' and she does, as Yeshayah 59 predicts, 'A redeemer will come to Zion.'

"So, too, you say 'She has no one to comfort her,' but she does. In Yeshayah 51, Gd says, 'I, I am the One who comforts you."

(Midrash, Eichah Rabbah 1:26)

המצפה לישועה,
Mordechai

2 comments:

  1. But... in all the other examples, the missing thing arrives after the pasuq.

    Is this true in the last sentence? And if so, when does Hashem bring that comfort? And what were the Jews doing wrong up to Yeshaiah 59 that Hashem didn't assess we were even worthy of being comforted?

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  2. Here, too, it is after the pasuk; this refers to the actual arrival of a redeemer, no?

    As far as Yeshayah pre-Perek 59, I see comfort before then. Isn't Yeshayah 11 an example of comfort?

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