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

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