Tishah b'Av 5782: Kinnah #28 - Eich Enacheim? (How Can I Be Consoled?)

This is a write-up of a shiur I gave on Kinnah #28, which dealt with the theme of nechamah (consolation) and its implications for how we relate to Tishah b'Av and the period that follows.

Aug 12, 2022

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Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article; as of now, there is no audio version, but here is the YouTube version and the podcast version of the live shiur I gave, for which this is a write-up.

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Tishah b'Av 5782: Kinnah #28 - Eich Enacheim? (How Can I Be Consoled?)

Preface: I'm posting this on Tu b'Av, which is Erev Shabbos Nachamu. Some readers might be "Tishah b'Aved out" by this time, or think to themselves, "I'll save this for Tishah b'Av next year." In my opinion, this would be a mistake. This article is as much about Shabbas Nachamu as it is about Tishah b'Av itself. Read it, and you'll see why.

Kinnah #28 and the Major Questions

The following is an English rendition of Kinnah #28: Eich Enacheim? (How Can I Be Consoled?), based primarily on the Koren and Artscroll translations with a few minor tweaks of my own:

“How can you console me with nothingness” (Iyov 21:34)
when my harp has turned to grief?
In the land of my heritage, an oppressive yoke weighs heavy upon me.
How can I be consoled?
On this day, every year, time changes for me [for the worst].
Behold! I am anguished and abandoned for more than a thousand years.
How can I be consoled?
Fury has triumphed, the Ark has been interred,
disaster has struck twice because of those who defiantly rebelled.
How can I be consoled?
My dwelling is in ruins and my flock is captured,
and the once populous Oholivah (Jerusalem) now sits alone.
How can I be consoled?
The lion [Nevuchadnetzar] arose from his dense brush upon Ariel [the Temple] to strangle it, and banished from His Tabernacle His meal-offering and His libation.
How can I be consoled?
He killed multitudes of those anointed with oil,
young blossoming kohanim, eighty thousand.
How can I be consoled?
He attacked them from behind like a snake causing [their blood]
to flow in the courtyard of the Temple,
Arioch (i.e. Nevuzaradan) and the lion (Nevuchadnetzar)
[stood] over the blood of the kohen and prophet (Zechariah).
How can I be consoled?
He plowed into a wasteland that city, once filled with multitudes,
with houses for scribes and scholars [numbering] more than four hundred.
How can I be consoled?
Media (Persia) flew swiftly to destroy my dear ones;
she dominated my precious [Temple] as I tore my garments.
How can I be consoled?
She took counsel [with Haman] to strangle the prancing lion cub,
with one bite to tear asunder elder, aged, infant, and nursing babe.
How can I be consoled?
The third [kingdom, Greece,] weighed heavily upon His sacred firstborn,
like a deafening tempest, to devastate it.
How can I be consoled?
[Greece] pressed hard to divide the sons of the smooth-skinned one [Jacob]
from the Apportioner, [saying] “You have no share in the fiery living God.”
How can I be consoled?
Edom [the fourth kingdom] rebelled, she of the red lentils,
and defiantly rushed to destroy throne and footstool.
How can I be consoled?
Allied with Edom were Moav and Ammon,
to eradicate the Torah and demolish the palace.
How can I be consoled?
He trampled all my heroes and all the flocks of my comrades;
All my warriors were vanquished in full view of all who passed me by.
How can I be consoled?
My spirit is exhausted by all the killers, by the number of murder victims
crying lovingly like a deer and slaughtered for Your sake.
How can I be consoled?
They were horrified on the day of battle, in the east and in the west,
[when] the [flowing] blood of congregation and great nation intermingled.
How can I be consoled?
Calamities upon calamities, each one more tragic than the other,
great and mighty, of long and not short duration.
How can I be consoled?
They fastened their shields, girded their spears,
gathered their troops, and made long furrows.
How can I be consoled?
My groans are many, and my laments are mighty,
my moanings are abundant, and You, Hashem, how long?
How can I be consoled?
You heard their insults, how they defamed me with their lips;
sitting or standing, I was the butt of their gibes.
How can I be consoled?
[They said:] “Where is your hope? What are you doing here?
His fury has been aroused [against you], and there is no more cure.”
How can I be consoled?
“Your responses remain a betrayal!” (Iyov 21:34) the worshipers of Baal taunt me. “Until He looks down and takes notice” (Eichah 3:50) from above,
“He lowers to the grave and raises up” (I Shmuel 2:6).
And then I will be consoled.

Unlike the kinnos which focus on specific eras and episodes in Jewish history, Kinnah #28 spans the duration of all four exiles – from Churban Bayis Rishon and Galus Bavel through Churban Bayis Sheini into the Galus Edom of today. At first glance, the refrain of “eich enacheim?” (“How can I be consoled?”) seems to be a response to the litany of calamities that transpired over the course of Jewish history. But as we shall see, there is more to this kinnah than meets the eye.

The theme of Kinnah #28 is clear: our inability to receive nechamah (consolation). There are two major questions: (1) Why does the speaker believe that nechamah is impossible? (2) What accounts for the change at the very end: “and then I will be consoled”? In other words, if the severity of these tzaros (catastrophes) was such that nechamah seemed impossible, how did the speaker ultimately become convinced that it is possible? And since we ultimately see that nechamah is possible, what was the cause of the initial mistaken belief that nechamah was not possible?

Iyov Chapter 21 as Context

Our first clue emerges from the Scriptural foundation of the entire kinnah. The first stanza opens with a phrase from a pasuk in Iyov: “How can you console me with nothingness?” (Iyov 21:34). The last stanza begins with the second half of that same pasuk: “Your responses remain a betrayal!” (ibid.). The author of the kinnah took this pasuk from Iyov, broke it in half, and used each half to bookend his lamentation. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the nechamah in the refrain of “eich enacheim?” is a reference to the type of nechamah that was given to Iyov, which he found wanting. In order to understand the kinnah, we need to understand Iyov’s statement in context.

Here is a translation of Iyov Chapter 21, which concludes with our pasuk:

Then Job spoke up and said: Listen carefully to my word, and let this be your consolation [for me]. Bear with me and I will speak; after I have spoken, you may mock. Is my complaint directed to a man? So why should I not be impatient? Turn your attention to me and be astonished; set [your] hand on [your] mouth. When I recall this matter] I am confounded, trembling grips my flesh:
Why do the wicked live, become powerful and even amass fortunes? Their offspring are well-established before them, with them, and their descendants are before their eyes. Their homes are peaceful, [safe] from fear; the rod of God is not against them. His bull impregnates without fail; his cow gives birth and does not miscarry. They send out their young ones as sheep; their children prance about. They raise [their voices] like a drum and a harp; they rejoice at the sound of the flute. They spend their days with good fortune, and they descend to the grave in a moment. They said to God, "Go away from us! We have no desire to know Your ways! What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? What will we gain if we pray to Him?"
Behold! Is not their good fortune in their hand? Yet the counsel of the wicked was far from me. How often does the candle of the wicked flicker out? And their downfall come upon them? And [God] apportion their due in His anger? And they be like straw before the wind and like chaff snatched by a tempest? Should God store away his affliction for his children? Let Him pay it to him himself, that he should know this punishment! Let his own eyes see his ruination, and let him drink of the Almighty's wrath! For what is his interest in his household after he [dies], when the number of his months has been cut off?
Can one teach knowledge to God, He Who judges the lofty? One person dies in unimpaired perfection, completely peaceful and serene, his breasts full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist; while someone else dies with a bitter soul, not having tasted good fortune. Together they will lie in the dirt, and maggots will cover them.
Behold! I know your thoughts, the schemes that you wrongfully plot! For you say, "Where is the house of this generous one, and where is the tent of wicked people's dwellings? Did you not inquire of wayfarers? Do not ignore their testimonies! For evil is withheld until the day of calamity, until the day when [sinners] are brought to [face God's] fury. Who is it who can be told to his face about [God's] ways, [about all] He has done, [about] the One Who will requite his deeds? He is brought to the grave, and lies forever upon a mound. The clumps of dirt in the valley become sweet to him; all men are drawn after him, and before him, without number. How can you console me with nothingness? Your responses remain a betrayal!

Iyov is responding to the argument of Tzofar, his “friend,” who attempted to answer the question of “rasha v’tov lo” (“Why do good things happen to bad people?”) by saying that the wicked will eventually get what they deserve. They will die, their wealth will be lost, and their children will suffer. Iyov objects, saying, “Yeah right! Sure, individual evildoers may suffer, but are you really going to tell me that this happens in all cases? There are plenty of wicked people who live long and prosper, then die in peace and tranquility! What do you have to say about them?” It is Tzofar’s dishonest and superficial answer which Iyov rejects when he says, “How can you console me with nothingness? Your responses remain a betrayal!” The response is a “betrayal” in the sense that it purports to provide nechamah, but is built on lies.

How does this knowledge of the pasuk’s context change our reading of Kinnah #28? By adding another dimension to the lamentation therein. This kinnah doesn’t just express the pain of the tzaros we suffered; it expresses a feeling of injustice. For example, the stanza: “The lion [Nevuchadnetzar] arose from his dense brush upon Ariel [the Temple] to strangle it, and banished from His Tabernacle His meal-offering and His libation” is not just bemoaning the destruction of the Beis ha’Mikdash. It is also giving voice to a theodical challenge: “How could Nevuchadnetzar – the evil, murderous, idolator – get away with ransacking Hashem’s Sanctuary and terminating the avodah?” When we say: “My spirit is exhausted by all the killers, by the number of murder victims crying lovingly like a deer and slaughtered for Your sake,” we aren’t just grieving the loss of Jewish life al kiddush ha’shem. We are questioning God’s justice: “How can You allow these evildoers to succeed in slaughtering Your pious servants?” The kinnah doesn’t explicitly talk about evildoers enjoying prosperity, since the focus is our own suffering. The pasuk in Iyov merely provides a theodical undercurrent for the kinnah.

Perhaps this explains why the speaker in the kinnah believes that nechamah is impossible. Time may very well heal all wounds, but it will not mend a betrayal in a relationship. For example, let’s say you discover that your business partner inadvertently caused you to lose a large sum of money. As devastating of a loss as that may be, you’ll probably get over it in time. But if you discovered that your partner had been stealing money from you, that betrayal might very well permanently tarnish the relationship. The same is true here: if we “just” suffered these losses as a people, it would be bad enough, but if we regard these tzaros as injustices on God’s part, then we may feel that nechamah is impossible.

Defining Nechamah

In order to answer both of major our questions on this kinnah, we will need to answer a more basic one: What is nechamah? The root N.CH.M as used in Tanach has three distinct meanings:

(1) “comfort/consolation,” as in: “All his sons and daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be consoled” (Bereishis 37:35) and “Be comforted, be comforted, My people” (Yeshayahu 40:1)
(2) “regret/remorse” as in: “Hashem said, ‘I will erase mankind whom I have created from upon the face of the earth … for I regret having made them” (Bereishis 6:7) and “no man feels remorse over his evil” (Yirmiyahu 8:6)
(3) “to change one’s mind” as in: “Hashem changed His mind regarding the harm He said He would do to His people” (Shemos 32:14) and “Behold! Eisav, your brother, has changed his mind towards you, to kill you” (Bereishis 27:42)

Rav Hirsch (Bereishis 5:29) acknowledges all three meanings and identifies the third as primary:

This root נ.ח.מ. has a unique meaning. נחם in the pi’el means “to comfort.” הנחם in the nif’al means “to be comforted”; another meaning: to alter one’s decision regarding some future action; a third meaning: to have remorse for something one has done … The primary meaning is “to change one’s mind”; by extension, we get the meanings of “remorse” and “change in decision.” “Consolation,” too, changes the way one feels about something that happened.

To spell this out, “regret/remorse” stems from a change of mind: at first the person thought that this was a good decision, but now their view has changed, and they see their past decision as bad. Similarly, when tragedy strikes, the loss can seem unbearable; “comfort/consolation” occurs when the individual is able to change their perspective on what happened in a manner which diminishes or removes the feelings of sadness.

Generally speaking, there are two ways these changes of mind can come about: either through a change in one’s knowledge or a change in one’s emotions. For example, if you make an investment thinking you’re going to double your money and then learn (i.e. acquire knowledge) that it’s a pyramid scheme, you’ll experience regret as a result of this new knowledge. Likewise, if you miss an opportunity for an investment and feel like you lost out on a huge profit but subsequently learn (i.e. acquire knowledge) that all the investors lost their money, then you’ll experience consolation.

Nechamah often comes about purely through a shift in one’s emotions without any increase in knowledge. This is the primary mechanism behind the phenomenon of time healing most wounds: in the immediate wake of the loss, one’s perspective is clouded by the storm of powerful emotions, making it hard to assess things objectively; eventually, the strength of the emotions wane, their cloud dissipates, and when the mind sees things clearly, one experiences consolation.

When Consolation is Impossible

In light of this definition, we are now in a position to answer our first question (“Why does the speaker believe that nechamah is impossible?”). If nechamah is a change of mind, then “eich enacheim?” can only be felt by someone who believes that their mind can never change. Contrast this with the way the kinnah ends: “az enacheim” does not mean “now I am consoled,” but “then I will be consoled.” The speaker goes from a mentality in which consolation is impossible to one in which they see it as possible, even though they have not yet experienced that consolation.

“Eich enacheim?” is a double mistake. It is a mistake about the tzarah itself, deeming the loss to be so terrible and so permanent that there is no road to recovery. But on a more fundamental level, it is a mistake about the self: a belief that “I cannot change.” “eich enacheim?” means “the way I currently see, think, and feel is reality: there is no chance that my viewpoint is being clouded by my emotions, and no knowledge I gain can possibly change my perspective.”

This mentality is, itself, the greatest tzarah. “eich enacheim?” is an anti-growth mindset which is antithetical to teshuvah. The Rambam diagnoses this problem in the opening halachos of Hilchos Taaniyos:

1:1 – It is a positive mitzvah of the Torah to cry out [to Hashem] and to sound the trumpets on every tzarah that befalls the community, as it is stated, “[When you go to wage war in your Land] against an enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound short blasts of the trumpets, [and you shall be remembered before Hashem, your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies]" (Bamidbar 10:9), meaning to say: anything that afflicts you – such as drought, epidemic, locusts, and the like – cry out [to Hashem] over them and sound [the trumpets].
1:2 – This principle is one of the darchei teshuvah (paths of repentance), that at a time of the onset of a tzarah, when they cry out and sound the trumpets, everyone will know that it was because of their evil conduct that this bad occurrence befell them, as it is written, “Your iniquities have inclined these things [towards you]” (Yirmiyahu 5:25), and this will cause them to remove the affliction from upon themselves.
1:3 – But if they do not cry out and do not sound the trumpets, but instead say, “This is minhago shel olam (a natural event) which befell us, and this tzarah is a mikreh (chance occurrence)” – behold, this is a derech achzarius (path of indifference) and will cause them to cling to their evil conduct, and [this] affliction and others will increase. This is what is written in the Torah, “[And if, with this, you do not listen to Me,] and you walk with me with chance, then I will walk with you in the fury of chance, [and I will also chastise you, seven times for your sins]” (Vayikra 26:26-28), meaning to say, when I bring an affliction upon you to cause you to do teshuvah, if you say that it is chance, then I will increase upon you the fury of that “chance.”

According to the Rambam, every tzarah is a crossroads: either we can take the darchei teshuvah, changing our dire circumstances by looking inwardly and changing ourselves, or we can take the derech achzarius and remain obstinate in our refusal to change, ascribing our suffering to external natural patterns or chance occurrences. “Eich enacheim?” is a derech achzarius insofar as it keeps the individual locked in a state which is resistant to teshuvah.

From “Eich Enacheim?” to “Az Enacheim”

Based on everything we’ve said so far, one might expect the transition from “eich enacheim?” to “az enacheim” to occur as a result of an internal change. On the surface, however, the kinnah seems to say the opposite:

[They said:] “Where is your hope? What are you doing here?
His fury has been aroused [against you], and there is no more cure.”
How can I be consoled?
“Your responses remain a betrayal!” (Iyov 21:34) the worshipers of Baal taunt me.
“Until He looks down and takes notice” (Eichah 3:50) from above,
“He lowers to the grave and raises up” (I Shmuel 2:6).
And then I will be consoled.

The kinnah makes it sound like the “eich enacheim?” will persist until Hashem takes action against our enemies and shows us that there is hope for consolation through our salvation and redemption. How do we make sense of this?

The answer lies in the pasuk quoted from Chanah’s tefilah in Sefer Shmuel. Here it is in context:

I Shmuel 2:1-10
And Chanah prayed and she said: “My heart rejoiced through Hashem, my horn is raised high through Hashem. My mouth is wide to bolt down my foes; for I was gladdened by Your deliverance. There is no one holy like Hashem, for there’s no one beside You, and there is no bastion like our God. Do not go on talking high and mighty – arrogance slips from your mouth – for a God all-knowing is Hashem, and His is the measure of actions. The warriors’ bow is shattered and stumblers gird up strength. The sated are hired for bread and the hungry cease evermore. The barren woman bears seven and the many-sonned woman is bleak. Hashem deals death and grants life, brings down to the grave and lifts up. Hashem impoverishes and bestows wealth, plunges down and also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust, from the dungheaps the wretched He lifts, to seat among princes, a throne of honor He bequeaths them. For Hashem’s are the pillars of earth, upon them He founded the world. The steps of His faithful he watches, and the wicked in darkness turns dumb, for not by might will a man prevail. Hashem shatters His adversaries, against them in the heavens He thunders. Hashem judges the ends of the earth: may He grant strength to His king and raise high His anointed’s horn.

The theme of this tefilah is that Hashem is the Cause of all successes, failures, and reversals of fortune. This does not mean to imply that He is the sole Cause, which would constitute a denial of human free will, nor does it mean that He is always the direct Cause through hashgachah pratis (individual divine providence), which would constitute a denial of hashgachah klalis (general divine providence, or the laws of nature). Rather, it means that everything that happens can only happen by virtue of His will (see the Rambam in Shemoneh Perakim Chapter 8 for his discourse on this topic).

Based on the context of tefilas Chanah, I disagree with Artscroll’s rendering of the line in our kinnah as: “[And this will last] until He looks down and takes notice from above, [until] He lowers [our enemies] to the grave, and raises [us out of exile].” Artscroll’s translator thinks that Hashem “lowering to the grave” refers to our enemies. Chana’s tefilah was not expressing a wish for a personal enemy of hers to die. It was about all instances of being brought low and raised up on high.

Accordingly, I would like to suggest that the correct understanding of this line is: “[And this will last] until He looks down and takes notice from above, [until we recognize that] He [is the One Who] lowers [us] to the grave, and [that He is the One Who will] raise [us out of exile].” In other words, as long as we view the defeat of our nation and the victory of our enemies as minhago shel olam (natural patterns) or mikreh (a chance occurrence), divorced from God’s hashgachah, then we will continue to be paralyzed by the overwhelming mindset of “eich enacheim?” But once we see our suffering at the hands of our enemies as an expression of hashgachas Hashem, in accordance with divine justice and the system of sachar v'onesh (reward and punishment), then we will perceive that the derech ha’teshuvah is the path to our salvation and our eventual nechamah.

Once we have this insight, we can go back and reframe all the calamities in the kinnah. Nevuchadnetzar did not destroy the Beis ha’Mikdash because he was the most powerful king; he destroyed it as an agent of Hashem, carrying out the punishment that we, as a nation, deserved, as a means of getting us to do teshuvah. Rome did not succeed in driving us out of our land into a two thousand year exile because that’s just how history played out; the reason we were exiled and remain in exile is because we haven’t engaged in the national teshuvah that would make us worthy of redemption.

Thus, the transition from “eich enacheim?” to “az enacheim” does come about through an internal change on our part, even though the author of the kinnah expresses it as an act on Hashem’s part. This is quite common in the language of tefilah. For example, when we ask Hashem to “remember” us, what we really mean is that we must change to make ourselves worthy of being “recalled” by Him. When we ask Hashem to find favor in us, what we really mean is that we must change ourselves to be favorable in His eyes.

The Path to Nechamah

Let’s take a step back and summarize what we’ve learned thus far. There are three stages of nechamah:

(1) “eich enchaeim?”: in which nechamah has not been attained and is regarded as unattainable; this mentality is antithetical to growth (a.k.a. derech achzarius) because it is built on the premise that “my perception of reality is accurate, and nothing can or should change it.”
(2) “az enacheim”: in which nechamah has still not been attained, but is now viewed as a possibility and an imperative; this shift in mentality occurs when we reframe our view of the tzarah as the result of hashgachas Hashem (NOT minhago shel olam or mikreh) which is designed to prompt a national teshuvah-response on our part.
(3) nechamah: the actual attainment of nechamah (i.e. a change of mind which leads to consolation) occurs on two levels:
a. internal: we will experience nechamah on one level when we do teshuvah from our iniquities and seek knowledge of Hashem as “the Rock Whose work is flawless, for all His ways are just” (Devarim 32:4)
b. external: in response to our change, Hashem will respond by bringing about our salvation and redemption.

We all want nechamah. The problem is that we, as a people, are not willing to go through Steps #1 and #2 to obtain it. Specifically, we are not willing to examine our own unwillingness to change and to question the interpretations we have of our tzaros which deflect the blame from ourselves, nor are we willing to through the long and painful process of actually bringing about that change through national teshuvah. We just want the tzaros to end so that we feel whole again.

It is for this reason, I believe, that Chazal designated a far longer period of nechamah than the period of aveilus (mourning) on the tzaros. I am referring to the institution of telasa de’puranusa v’sheva de’nechamta. For three weeks we read haftaros of retribution, designed to induce national trauma and prompt national teshuvah. Then we switch to seven haftaros of consolation. On the surface, this ratio may seem rather odd: Why do we need seven whole weeks from Tishah b’Av through Yom ha’Kippurim to focus on nechamah? According to what we’ve said here, the answer lies in the fact that nechama is a developmental process. The three haftaros of retribution (bolstered by the halachos and minhagim of the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, and Tishah b’Av) are only a prompt to get the national teshuvah started. The real growth as a nation – the actual “changing of minds” – takes a much longer time than the realization of the need for change. It’s no accident that the seven weeks devoted to national teshuvah culminates in the Aseres Ymei Teshuvah and, ultimately, in the “Day of Forgiveness” of Yom ha’Kippurim.

This Shabbos is called “Shabbos Nachamu,” and is the first of the seven haftaros of consolation. To treat this Shabbos as a passive experience of nechamah – or worse, as an ordinary week – would be to miss the entire point. The practical implications of our mourning on Tishah b’Av do not end on the 10th of Av. In a sense, that is when they begin. The only way we can hope to merit actual nechamah is by taking the lessons from the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, and Tishah b’Av, and engaging in the difficult transitionary phase from “az enacheim” to nechamah itself. May we be worthy of receiving true nechamah from Hashem, and a swift redemption in our days.

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