מְגִילַּת אֵיכָה פִרוּשׁ רָשִׁ"י

The Scrolls Of Icha

Book of Lamentations

Whit Rashi

בלשון הקודש עם תרגום לאנגלית

Hebrew with English translation

זֹהַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ עַל אֵיכָה עִם תַּרְגּוּם לִלְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ מְנֻקָּד כְּתַב סת"ם

Every year on the night of Tisha B'Av in the synagogue the Book of Lamentations is read. The Book of Lamentations (Icha) is one of the five scrolls that appear in the Bible, and it describes in great detail the destruction of the First Temple.

The Prophet mourn the destruction, the terrible exile to which the children of Israel went and the disasters that occurred at that time.

The scroll is so named after the word in which it opens: 'Lamentations' - how? How did it happen that Jerusalem, the most beautiful city in the world, became a heap rubble? How did it happen that the people of Israel, the people chosen by God and received the Torah from Him, were tortured, expelled and killed by the nations of the World?

Icha איכה sat alone in the city. She lived the city of Jerusalem, a metropolitan city. Yet, she was like a widow among the Nations. She found no rest. All her persecutors were attained among the borders.

As mentioned, the Megillah is read every year on the night of Tisha B'Av to remember the destruction, mourn for what was and pray for the coming of the Mashiach soon in our day.

On Tisha B'Av we read the Megillah, lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, the Book of Lamentations. The third verse in the scroll laments the exile of Judah which his enemies who persecuted him, managed to subdue precisely in time between the straits, However, if we look with a more inner eye, we will also discover here the intensity of the light of these days. The tribe of Judah is compared to the Sefirat of the kingdom, the Sefirat of the kingdom is compared to the Holy Shechinah. All her persecutors, it is precisely the supporter of light of the Shechinah, those who are imbued with the faith to connect to the light of the Creator within the reality of the material world. When will her requests be obtained? Precisely in the period between the time of Limitations (The 17th of Tammuz till the 9th of Av).

King David writes in the Psalms, "In distress I called on Hashem; Hashem answered me and brought me relief." The movement for the discovery of divinity passes through the narrow place, and from there into space. As the sages said, "Open for me an opening like the tip of a needle and I will open for you like the opening of a hall." To reach the great light we are required to open a small opening. In most cases, we reach this small opening precisely when we find ourselves in distress or trouble. In every person's life we have trouble and we cry to God. So, it was in the Exile of Egypt and by the cry of distress the light of redemption emerges. "From the stress I called out to God, and He brought me relief."

The rabbi's said it is like the shofar, the mouth is small and narrow and from there the shofar expands, the sound comes out of the narrow place and spreads to the space, "and there is the sound of the shofar" Moreover, when we call from out from distress, from the lowest of times, we are actually drawn to the great lights represented by the name God, which is compared to the first three sefirot. As the teaching of Kabbalah teaches us that there is an inverse value between lights and vessels, the coarsest vessel attracts the purest and greatest light.