Saturday, August 6, 2011

LAMENTATIONS CHAPTER 2 - Judaic Commentary



Study Notes by Avraham ben Yaakov
from Azamra.org
The first nine verses of Chapter 2 depict the calamity that struck Zion in such a way as to emphasize that it was God who sent it. As the text states explicitly later on in the chapter: "HaShem has done that which He devised: He has fulfilled His word that He commanded in the days of old…" (Lam. 2:17). The cycle of sin and consequent suffering that culminated with the destruction of Jerusalem is deeply rooted in God's plan for the world, which is laid down in the Torah: "If you will not listen to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins" (Lev. 26:18, see Rashi on Lam. 2:17).

The Elegist makes no attempt to "sweeten" the suffering by trying to minimize how terrible it was. On the contrary, he heightens our sense of the horror by repeatedly emphasizing the way in which the kind, merciful God became like an enemy in the fury with which He brought death and destruction upon the people and their land (vv 1-8). All who were pleasant to the eye were slaughtered (v 4). The precious Temple was ravaged (v 6). The rejoicing of the Sabbath and the festivals became forgotten. Without respect for person, the king and the princes were sent into a humiliating exile, the prophets were bereft of vision, and all that was left for the people to do was to mourn as children fainted in the streets and little babies starved (vv 7-12).

It is precisely through articulating the full intensity of the horror and showing how the soothsaying false prophets had betrayed the people while their mocking enemies gloated triumphantly over their plight that the Elegist leads his listeners to the understanding that they have no recourse except to cry out to God (vv 18ff). The moral of EICHAH is: "Rise, cry out in the night at the head of the watches, pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord…" (v 19).

LAMENTATIONS COMMENTARY CHAPTER 3


Genesis 49 Level One


Jacob Blesses His Sons
1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: Gather round so that I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 2 Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.

3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honour, excelling in power. 4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Reuben you are my firstborn... In the end Reuben will be able to testify to the messianic nature of the position of the firstborn.  The rectification of this testimony will come first before every other rectified testimony.  The key to Reuben being able to do this is for him to testify as to why the nature of his error muted the testimony of the firstborn.  This means that he must show how it was the root of the sin of allowing the making of the golden calf, that it was at the root of Israel's failure with respect to the erev rav at that time.


5 Simeon and Levi are brothers- their swords are weapons of violence. 6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. 7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Simeon and Levi are brothers... In the end Simeon and Levi will have the privilege of testifying to the true eternal relationship between the tribes of Israel.  They will testify also as to the purpose of the twelve tribes in relation to the nations.  The key to Simeon and Levi being able to do this is for them to testify as to why Jacob was severed into two houses resulting in alienation in captivity under the rule of ungodliness of all Jacob's children due to misdirected righteous anger.


8 Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you. 9 You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness- who dares to rouse him? 10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. 11 He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Judah, your brothers will praise you... In the end the anointing of Joseph will freely pass to Judah. Just as the whole house of Jacob freely bowed down to Joseph in chastisement, so it will freely bow down to Judah in victory over the world.  The Redeemer from Judah will not rest in his land until he has established eye to eye justice in all the earth.  How can Judah prepare to fulfill this destiny?  What is the key?  He can only faithfully protect Benjamin and guarantee his life and prepare to yield him up to Joseph when it is time.


13 Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend towards Sidon.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Zebulun will live by the seashore...his border...  In the end Zebulun will have the privilege of testifying to the definition of the border of the Land of Israel and to the distinction of the Land of Israel among all the lands of the earth, for blessing and prosperity, world without end, amen.  The key to Zebulun's being able to this is for him to testify always, with humility and fearlessness, of the love in his heart for the living Land of Israel while he is yet in the dust of captivity.


14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey lying down between two saddlebags. 15 When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labour.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE:  Issachar...lying down between... In the end Issachar will have the privilege of testifying to the perfect halachic rulings that set the boundaries between each of the tribes of Israel.  Out of the principles of these rulings will arise the testimony of the joy of the perfection of Halakah, world without end, amen.  The key to Issachar's being able to do this is for him to testify always, with humility and fearlessness, of the love in his heart for the living Torah of Israel's God while he is yet in the dust of captivity.


16 Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backwards. 18 I look for your deliverance, O LORD.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Dan will provide justice...the tribes... In the end Dan will have the privilege of testifying to the amazing grace of Israel's Redeemer.  As one who was lost from being a tribe of Israel, he shall be found like Joseph, and in being found he shall testify to the restorative justice of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Holy One Blessed is He.  The key for Dan to be able to do this is to learn to proclaim the commandment, with humility and fear, whereby Israel's God, in the end days, commands all people everywhere to repent.


19 Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Gad...attacked...will attack... In the end Gad will have the privilege of testifying to Israel's victory over Amalek coming from behind.  Gad will stand up with Simeon and Levi and will testify to the rectification of all converts in the heart of Israel and the end of the erev rav, the mixed multitude.


20 Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Asher...will be rich...will provide... In the end Asher will have the privilege of giving the testimony to the full nature of the riches of the blessing of the Creator to his world, which is the blessing of Torah-Israel, both a land and people of milk and honey.  The key for Asher to be able to do this is for him to be satisfied with no fruit that is not fit for King Mashiach.


21 Naphtali is a doe set loose that bears beautiful fawns.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Naphtali...set loose...bears... How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7  In the end Naphtali's feet are these feet and her fawns are singing good news with her.  The key for Naphtali to be able to do this is to wait upon Hashem until the hour when the barren one is given children, and not to turn to the bonds-maid...


22 Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. 23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24 But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed supple, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25 because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. 26 Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Joseph...branches...over a wall.  In the end Joseph will have the privilege of revealing all that is concealed.  He will reveal the cornerstone of the Temple of the Eternal Jerusalem, the stone rejected by the builders.  The key to Joseph's being able to do this is to remain himself a rejected stone that offers itself as a key stone until it finally is the only stone that remains for its place, and rejoices to be carried in the arms of those who cherish it and put in its place.


27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Benjamin... a wolf in the morning...in the evening... In the end Benjamin will have already captured the captivity, for he is the net of Mashiach.  And as a net is hungry for fish, like a wolf for its prey, yet in the evening rests in its place, so Benjamin will rest in his own camp in the evening and share with his brothers the abundance of his harvest.


28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: The Twelve Tribes...this is what their father said to them... In the end the twelve will be four camps of three, and each camp will be a gate to the Creator's new creation, that the old may enter into the new from every direction, each according to its proper gate.


29 Then he gave them these instructions: I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: Bury me with my fathers... In the end the burial place of Israel will yield its fruit an hundred fold.


31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.

<> } Mellow Wolf NOTE: ...there I buried Leah.  Rachel and Leah in the end will be as one.  From the side of G-d we exist and we do not exist.  G-d sees both our existence and our non-existence.  From our side we must receive our existence and behold our existence as being entirely in the Hand of G-d, not as being taken from the Hand of G-d.  The desire to possess our own existence in our own power is the desire for the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It is the spirit of the erev rav, the mixed multitude that came with Israel out of Egypt, the old nature, the fallen nature; it is Israel's evil inclination, the inheritance of Israel in Adam and not in the Son of Adam; but it is the fallen nature of Adam that is the object of G-d's pity, and while we error in taking as our own the forbidden fruit, as if to take our existence out of G-d's Hand, and destroy our existence, G-d, who calls what is not as though it was, is able to turn the destruction of our existence into our eternal life, for He is able to do it from His side.  For He sees all and keeps all things within His Hand, both existence and non-existence.  The G-d of Jacob will utterly destroy the old Adam and yet redeem him and make him a new Adam.  Jacob loved Rachel as Adam loved Eve, and how else could he redeem the world through his offspring?  He had to have this love, but by this love alone he could not bring forth the children of eternal life.  Laban thought to take advantage of the weakness of Jacob's natural love for Rachel by putting his daughter Leah in her sister's place and causing Jacob to stumble.  He thought to mock Jacob's spiritual calling by requiring of him a purely spiritual love for Leah.  Jacob laboured then for Leah, but his heart laboured for Rachel and he could not rectify his own heart by his own effort.  But the Protector of Jacob redeemed Jacob's heart so that it was transformed through great suffering until Leah and Rachel were one soul in his heart.  So it is that G-d created joy in the world of sorrow and revealed the Protector of Jacob in Jacob's heart, to be found there by all souls that would be saved.


32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites. 33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

<> } MellowWolf NOTE: The breath of Jacob = In the end the breath of Jacob will return to the dry bones of all Israel.  Jacob breathed his last in exile and was gathered to his people in the world of redemption.




LAMENTATIONS CHAPTER 1 - Judaic Commentary


Study Notes by Avraham ben Yaakov
from Azamra.org


The original Hebrew name of Lamentations is KINOTH, "Mourning Dirges" (see II Chronicles 35:25), but the work is more generally known by the name of EICHAH after the Hebrew word with which chapters 1, 2 and 4 all open, meaning "How???"

The book of EICHAH was written in stages by the prophet Jeremiah. He wrote Chapter 4 as a mourning elegy over King Josiah, the last righteous king of Judah, who was slain in battle at the height of his efforts to cleanse Israel, and whose death signified that the sun had gone down for the House of David (Ta'anis 22b). "And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their laments to this day, and he made them an ordinance in Israel, and behold they are written in the laments (KINOTH)" (II Chron. 35:25). Rashi writes on this verse: "When they are struck by some trouble or occasion for weeping and they mourn and cry over what happened, they recall this trouble with it, as for example on the Fast of Tisha B'Av, when mourning dirges are recited over those who died in the decrees that have occurred in our days, and likewise they weep over the death of Josiah" (Rashi ad loc.).

The other chapters of EICHAH were written prophetically by Jeremiah not many years after the death of Josiah, in the fourth year of the reign of his son, the wicked King Yeho-yakim, as a warning of the disaster that was to strike Judah and Jerusalem if the people did not repent. The full account of how Jeremiah composed Eichah and how it came to be read before Yeho-yakim, who cut the scroll to shreds and burned it in the fire, is contained in Jeremiah ch 36. Jeremiah had previously prophesied to the women of Judah: "Teach your daughters wailing and each one her neighbor lamentation" (Jer. 9:19). Now in the scroll that he composed as a graphic warning to the people of the coming doom, he depicted the relentless destruction of Jerusalem as if it had already happened, penning words of mourning and lamentation that the people would have to repeat from generation to generation in order to make amends for having failed to repent in time to avert it.

The Mishneh in Mo'ed Katan 3:9, discussing mourning practices, explains that a KINAH dirge (e.g. at a funeral) would be recited responsively: "One woman speaks a verse and all the others answer, as it is written, '…and each one her neighbor lamentation'". Chapters 1-4 of EICHAH are written in the form of alphabetical acrostics. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 each consist of 22 verses starting with successive letters of the Aleph-Beis, while Chapter 3 consists of 66 verses, the first three of which begin with Aleph, the second three with Beis and so on. Prior to the availability of printed texts for everyone, alphabetical acrostics were a useful mnemonic device. Moreover, "Rabbi Yochanan said, Why were Israel punished with troubles depicted in verses beginning with the letters of the Aleph Beis? Because they violated the Torah, which was given with the letters of the Aleph-Beis!" (Sanhedrin 104a).

"Rabbi Abahu began expounding on the scroll of EICHAH quoting the verse, 'And they, like the man (KE-ADAM), have violated the Covenant' (Hosea 6:7). What does 'like the man' mean? The verse is comparing the people to Adam, the first man. The Holy One blessed be He said: I brought Adam into the Garden of Eden and gave him a commandment, but he violated My commandment so I drove him out and banished him and mourned over him with the phrase, 'Where are you?' (=AYEKAH, Genesis 3:9, consisting of the same Hebrew letters as EICHAH). Likewise I brought his children to the Land of Israel and gave them commandments, but they violated My commandments and I banished them, and I mourned over them with the word EICHAH!!!" (Introduction to Eichah Rabbah).

This Midrash is teaching us that the disaster which befell Judah and Jerusalem must be seen as part of the greater cycle of human sin and consequent suffering and chastisement that began with Adam and continues until today. Just as God's call to Adam, "Where are you???" (Gen. 3:9) was a call to repentance, so is the scroll of EICHAH, a call to repentance, challenging us to see the meaning and purpose of the suffering with which Israel has been afflicted. There are many ways in which humans react to terrible reverses and suffering. Sometimes they fall into the depths of helpless grief, despair and depression. In other cases, they react with rage and anger, kicking and rebelling against God or "fate" for sending them such troubles. But in putting the laments of EICHAH onto the lips of Israel, the prophet Jeremiah was providing them with words and images by means of which they could not only give expression to their pain and grief but also come to terms with their suffering by understanding its meaning and purpose through the recognition that it was divinely sent to chasten and purify them from their sins. The prophet (NAVEE) draws his words from the level of BINAH, "understanding", sweetening the bitter pill of suffering by justifying the ways of God. "For great as the sea is your breach: Who (MEE) can heal you?" (Lam. 2:13). Kabbalistically, the word MEE alludes to BINAH, which lies at the root of God's judgments and through which they are "sweetened" when we gain deeper understanding of their meaning and purpose.

Not only is EICHAH full of allusions to the historical disasters that struck Israel with the destruction of the Temple and the exile. The multi-layered text is also replete with allusions to the metaphysical roots of Israel's fall, which lie in the "Breaking of the Vessels" as explained in the Kabbalistic writings. For "He cast from heaven to earth the glory (TIFERET) of Israel and did not remember the stool of His feet (=MALCHUS) on the day of His anger. The Lord has swallowed up (BEELA) and has not shown pity" (Eichah 2:1-2). BEELA has the same Hebrew letters as Bela son of Be'or, first of the Seven Kings of Edom, who correspond to the shattered vessels of the Sefirot.

Rabbi Hayim ben Attar, author of the commentary OHR HA-HAYIM on the Five Books of Moses, explains in his commentary RISHON LE-ZION on EICHAH that the way the Elegist accomplishes his purpose, which is to arouse weeping in his listeners, is by crafting each and every verse as "a lamb's tail with a thorn caught in it". Without digressing to give expansive explanations and background, each verse is designed to pierce the listener in the heart with a sharp evocation of some detail of the calamity.

The opening verses of EICHAH chapter 1 contrast the lost greatness, power and prestige of Jerusalem with her present abject state of subjection, isolated like a leper, having been betrayed by those she thought were her friends.

"She weeps sore in the night" (v 2). The doubled Hebrew verb for weeping alludes to the weeping over the destruction of the two Temples, which came about because of the needless weeping of the Children of Israel in the wilderness on the night after they received the Ten Spies' negative report about the Land (Numbers 14:1). This was on the 9th day of the month of Av, which was thereafter marked out as a day of weeping for all the generations (Ta'anis 29a; see Rashi on Lam. 1:2).

Already in verse 5 the Elegist weaves into his depiction of the overthrow of Israel at the hands of their enemies the understanding that it came about "because HaShem has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions" (Lam. 1:5) – for "Jerusalem has sinned a sin…" (ibid. v 8).

Israel is depicted as a widow (v 1), an unclean Niddah-woman (v 8) and a raped virgin (v 15). The pathos of Israel is increased by the fact that there is none to comfort her. This leads the Elegist to call upon God Himself to look on her in her wretchedness (verse 9), thereby drawing into us the understanding that everything is under His watchful providence. The Elegist depicts the full horror of the calamity, evoking the fire that burned in the people's very bones, their sense of being helplessly trapped in a snare (v 13), the destruction and devastation of the youth (vv 15-16) etc. Yet after all this he says, "HaShem is righteous, for I have rebelled against His mouth…" (v 18).

Israel's pain over her suffering at the hands of the nations brings her to call for vengeance against them, but this is because they are truly guilty. For if Israel must suffer because of her sins, so should they (vv 21-22).

LAMENTATIONS COMMENTARY CHAPTER 2 



Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ocean of Tears

This is from the Daily Zohar site


There is a beautiful story called ‘Ocean of Tears’ and song by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and it is based on the verse, Lamentation 1:16. In this video the song and story is performed beautifully by his Daughter, Neshama Carlebach.


From my reading of Lamentations

1:1 How does the city sit empty, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations, and a princess among the provinces; how is she become tributary!
2 She weeps sorely in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her friends she has none to comfort her: all her friends have abandoned her; they submitted to her enemies.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like the deer that find no grass, and they have fled without strength before the pursuer.

16 For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who could relieve the pain of my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

2:11 My sight fails due to the tears of my eyes, my bowels are in turmoil, my liver is poured out upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people; because of the children and the little infants faint in the streets of the city.
18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O one who is the wall of the daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night: give yourself no rest; let not the pupil of your eye cease to weep.

3:48 My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye trickles down, and does not cease, flowing without any intermission,
50 ...until Israel's Father looks down, and sees all this from heaven.
51 The water of my eye lays heavy upon my heart because of all the daughters of my city.

כ רוח אפינו משיח יהוה נלכד בשחיתותם אשר אמרנו בצלו נחיה בגוים

4:20 The spirit, the breath, of our nostrils, the anointed one of our Father in heaven, was caught and trapped in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

***

Saturday, December 4, 2010

God's Word Listens To Creation's Prayer

Creation obeyed the commandment of God's word to come into existence out of nothing.  It did so immediately but did not do so fully immediately.  It had to do so immediately if it was to do so at all, yet it was not able to do so with absolute completion without the assistance of God's grace of listening as well as His grace of speaking.  Both the divine power of speaking and listening are inherent in the nature of the word of God.


Read more here > 

Creation's Obedience To Bereshit Bara Et...



Friday, November 26, 2010

On the Issue of The Virgin Birth


Matthew 1:22-23 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

We read in Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. That is the King James Version.  In the Jewish Publication Society translation we have: Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  
The Hebrew is: לכן יתן אדני הוא לכם--אות  הנה העלמה הרה וילדת בן וקראתשמו עמנו אל ...  We are led to the following considerations:

Continue reading from the Mellow Wolf Matthew Files:
Link > Chapter 1 ˙Commentary and Notes on vs. 22-23

Matthew
Chapter 1 Text

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Two Currently Featured Links by Mellow Wolf Publishing


Featured Commentary posting: on Matthew 22:21  
From the Mellow Wolf Matthew Files

Featured essay
From the Notes On The One Eternal Covenant blog site