Page 16 - HaMizrachi Tisha B'Av AUS 2021

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Rabbi Avraham Blidstein

Who Takes

the First Step?

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.ם ֶד ֶק ְּכ ּוני ֵמָי ׁש ּ ֵד ַח ה ָבּו ׁש ָנ ְו ךי ֶל ֵא ‘ה ּונ ֵבי ׁש ֲה promise. What’s the significance of this forth from great distress and difficulty.
promise? But we don’t impose everything on G-d –
Take us back, O L-rd, to Yourself, the request includes responsibility and
and let us come back; In any damaged relationship, the question
renew our days as of old! arises – who will take the first step toward partnership on our side as well.
reconciliation? Who will take responsibil- From here to the continuation of the verse:
Eicha 5:21
ity? Sometimes each side waits for the ם ֶד ֶק ְּכ ּוני ֵמָי ׁש ּ ֵד ַח, “Renew our days as of old.”
other to take the first step, for the other We request “new days,” renewed days; and
to take responsibility. If I take the first step, on the other hand, like days of old. How
his line is burnt into our con- it might seem like I am pleading guilty. It
sciousness as the concluding might seem like I am giving in, admitting can we have “new-old” days?
verse of Eicha. Except that it is not defeat. But there is another, more subtle It seems to me that we must read this
Treally the last verse. It’s the pen- consideration. I might be afraid to take verse as a continuation of the previous
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ultimate verse. The last verse is actually the first step, lest the other side will not one – םי ִמָי ך ֶרֹא ְל ּונ ֵב ְז ַע ּ ת ...ה ּ מ ָל, “Why have
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much more pessimistic (ּונ ָּת ְס ַא ְמ סֹא ָמ ם ִא י ִּכ). respond, lest I be rejected. You forgotten us utterly, forsaken us for
However, we customarily repeat the opti- so many days?”
mistic verse (’ה ּונ ֵבי ִׁש ֲה) so that the conclu-
sion of Megillat Eicha already invites us to Instead of “forsaken for so many days,”
look toward rectification, in the direction we ask to “renew our days as of old.” Per-
of teshuva and the High Holidays. haps we must understand the novelty of
What is the real content of this verse In any damaged “days of old” as antithetical to the forsak-
enness of “many days.” The old days to
within its original context in Megillat which we’ve grown accustomed are the
Eicha? What is its meaning for our own relationship, the days upon which G-d forsook us. They are
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daily lives? long and arduous (ך ֶרֹא also means long).
ךי ֶל ֵא ’ה ּונ ֵבי ׁש ֲה – this is a request from G-d question arises – When G-d returns to us, when He is with
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ostensibly it is man who is expected to who will take the us, when He does not abandon us – there is
to return us to Him. This is strange –
a great renewal from the days upon which
repent, not that G-d should return him. we were forsaken. And yet, it is a return
According to some opinions, repentance first step toward to the days of old, when G-d was with us.
is a positive commandment. On the other Our desire stems from a memory of these
hand, we pray three times a day, ּונ ֵבי ִׁש ֲה reconciliation? days of old.
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ךי ֶנ ָפ ְל ה ָמ ֵל ׁש ה ָבּו ׁש ְת ִּב ּונ ֵרי ִז ֲח ַה ְו ...ך ֶת ָרֹות ְל ּוני ִב ָא In our generation, we’ve merited that G-d
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“Return us, our Father, to Your Torah.” It’s Who will take answered our prayer and returned us to
possible that this request here expresses Him, to His Land. Will we keep our prom-
the depth of the destruction – we are so responsibility? ise, ה ָבּו ׁשָנ ְו? If so, perhaps we will merit that
deep into exile and despair we can no G-d will not abandon us for “many days,”
longer return alone. At most, we can ask but will “renew our days as of old.”
G-d to return us to Him. Perhaps just the
request of G-d to return us is already a sig- This is the importance of the promise
nificant initiation on our part. ה ָבּו ׁשָנ ְו. We tell G-d we can’t take the first
ה ָבּו ׁש ָנ ְו – At first glance, this seems like a step. Not because we want to win the argu-
condition. We will return to G-d if – only ment, but because we have no strength
if – He returns us to Him. If so, it is once in the depth of the exile. Therefore, even
again a passive stance on man’s part – we though we can’t initiate the actual first
will not take the first step; we ask G-d to do step, we initiate the request. What’s more,
so. But perhaps we can read deeper. We are we promise that if G-d takes the first step,
promising that if G-d takes the first step we will respond. We will not reject Him. Rabbi Avraham Blidstein is the Rav of
and returns us to Him – we will respond. Thus we conclude Megillat Eicha with Tekoa and heads the Tochnit Hemshech
We will return. It’s not a condition, it’s a a request for redemption which breaks in Midreshet Nishmat.

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