Megilat Eicha Finding Strength, Comfort and Hope in Tanach by Adina Ellis

thank you so much uh zir the title that you chose for this I think was so incredibly apt that you say looking to tanak for guidance as you said it's the whole book of Tanakh we're not just looking at any one particular Milla but it's everything and they're all interconnected um and Tanakh is part of our story it's our past and our present and also our future specifically um the Milla uh sorry specifically a is a historical meaning that even though we know it's a time of year yahu and we could have dates included it's not mentioned at all in the magila and I think that just highlights the fact that it's really for all times and we very much can uh relate to it now when I was reading it over again in the last few weeks um it's hauntingly relevant um and on one hand I've been a big believer of avoiding reading disturbing descriptions of what has happened and avoiding for certainly avoiding watching videos and the news and it's all very negative and can enter us into a real place of crisis on the other hand I think there might be some some of it is trickling in no matter what and there might be some benefit some purpose we know that yahu speaks about tears and he in fact urges in SE Y in his own book he he urges the the makot toh to teach the women specifically as you're speaking about the women from ail rud the idea of women crying tears we know that they hasem counts every single one of our tears is precious and um you know if you know the the story of the ocean of Tears every single tear saved and for some of us that's what we've been doing when we we do hear of things and some of the news does trickle in and we are brought to tears as we know from in the first person and this experience there is no one to comfort me our our children have become desolate because the enemy somehow has prevailed P after p in uh rings so true today and we also know from the the the gamar tells us that even if the after the was destroyed the sh are locked sh nalu which we learned from however the gates of tears are always open so when we're going to read a few Pim just a few from that are so poignant and moving and relevant today jarringly so I hope that it's a little bit in with this in mind that if it does make us upset and it does almost bring tears to our eyes then count that as a good thing that for a few moments those tears are more powerful than any prayer that we can have so this P definitely C my eye from peric Olive we know we say a the a person someone who has a loss from the outside from the inside this home that's meant to be a sacred place of safety of of kadisha of Love of families being together has known death we know of our enemies our enemies celebrating they hear of terrible things and they're celebrating and then we we speak to there's this idea of anger towards God and it repeats it's a theme that is found a lot in a and I say as much as we say okay there's tears and there's power to tears there's also power to calling out to Hashem and anger speak to God Hashem wants a relationship with us and we are trying to process as individuals and as a nation what is happening you knowem asked we asking how could how could this be how could you do this to your precious children and there's also a power in that and I want to give to all of us struggling in different aspects if if we're crying if we're standing silent there's also idea of Silence that's that's talked about in and if we're called talking to hasm in Anger all of these are valid and legitimate in these very difficult times this suim in peric also I'm sure you can understand resonated we talk about Hashem we say these beautiful people I mean the pictures are are very are very hard to see everyone is so beautiful everyone is so so precious and there's literally there's fire but we know it's from Hashem we see the enemies on on the the r of the just looking at things from a the perspective of news and media it's how could they do this our enemies but we know from coming from a place of amuna it's from it's Hashem it's Hashem doing this and we have to have amuna that there's a continuation of the story this is just one one small part of our history and our story that's happening right now we read in the end of peric of our size and our moans are many our hearts can feel sick we literally can feel ill and we know the kutari tells us that when sometimes you want to cry and you you can't even cry the emotion is so overwhelming sometimes that is even the most heart greatest of heart-rending Cry of all so really any emotion there you might be experiencing and there's going to be alot all the different feelings I think a on one level is telling us they're all all legitimate and the fact that so many of these ring true today will also give us some as we're going to see because also includes hope and also includes turning to Hashem and also includes an idea of new beginnings but one more one more PK which to me is really heartbreaking um when I was reading it how could we not think of the people literally in when you have this the same word obviously meant something different of these children of mothers and children in an embrace you have the repeating phrase of the streets the I don't even want to go into a description but it does bring tears to my eyes and I say you know what because we just had we know is the and ra is crying we know is crying it's not stom that it's happening right now that we just had it on Thursday it's this is linking the together with this makah together if ra is crying then let us women the power of women let us cry with ra there is a power and a power to our tears and we hope that the very next is Gonna Come True any minute when will say you can stop crying now you can stop crying your children are coming home yes and there is hope and this is where we are right now and we're with cry we know that also tells us this that we have together with the terrible tragedy that we have in as we said it's ahistorical it's relevant so much today the mid tells us in all of these terrible the atrocities that are meant to befall an Amel gave us first the the one example there the M goes and lists many many and here we have them phrase after phrase and here's just one of them and we're gonna continue here with another another heartbreaking PUK T and then we're GNA see some of the from we have the chevi we know we're Counting was the last count 229 sh that we're doing for every single one is the whole world and we have this in at least just alone these tiny babies these children these men these women they've gone into captivity and we ding for them we ding for them every day and we say what do we say there in our we quote a from we have the that we're ding in the same moment as we have the tears and we're so distraught we have the already there and we're just hoping to see the Yeshua as people of the tanak we need to see the book of in the greater context of all of tanak together with the Yeshua together with the Salvation together with Hashem saving us so similarly we have a repeated theme in there's no one to comfort us we're all alone We're alone and we have no one to comfort us but Hashem tells us in and in other places which read after of course hasem tells us we're going to comfort you I am here for you within the the challenge within the darkness Hashem is with us similarly it's an amazing thing right now these last three weeks I'm sure many people in all of your communities every para is so so relevant there's the Battle of there's building a finding the words of to keep us afloat among the chaos there's is with you every para and so to every ha Tor every ha Torah the last three weeks is is mindblowing connecting to this on we read about we didn't read this it was a shabas before but we we doin for this that we should be the we should live up to our our what we're meant to be doing that we should share sing a new song A shash that all those who are in that are trapped in darkness will come into the light and that Hashem will be the is fighting our battles we have this moment of darkness that we have this feeling of that right now perhaps we see the darkness but we also have the n as was already said we also have the light and Hashem will be our go we D to have have it and to feel it both in our days and also which we just read again that should give us that hasem is with us and we should be afraid because Hashem is with us so we have our amuna bolstered as much as the words of a ring true so too the words of that Hashem plac side by side are also ring true we also have strong words to strengthen Us in the book of itself in we're going to just do a few more and then we're going to wrap up in we have different voices we have the voice of speaking we have the voice of the G the individual we also have this plural voice we see it in in paraga a little bit and we see the very last peric peric he is all written in plural where we have the well-known P the second to last verse and we're speaking all of us it's the first person plural this idea of perhaps we mourned in silence perhaps we cried perhaps we called out anger hasem as individuals But ultimately we have to come together as a nation as a people and that is something that we see now coming together together to TI to bring food and drive to to people who aren't religious curing their kitchen so they can make food for everybody bringing food to people who have left AA to Safe places bringing clothing bringing supplies every possible thing going to help pick the fruits and vegetables and the in the abandoned Orchards so that people Lo their parasa so many amazing things they were coming together as a nation this is what we need the the is what we can bring the bet this is what can bring the G and we have this feeling of Hope in itself Rabbi Jonathan saaks tells us that even though we now are feeling this burden of a sense of surviving this catastrophe and this Darkness we cannot let it Rob us of Hope and Faith we need to have hope for a world of PE peace and this idea of Hope shockingly is in itself in we have will have hope I will bring this to my heart and have hope we know this song we have to remember all the that has done for us and let that give us let's not focus on the negative let's focus on the has done all the history our our long past of has done for us that hasm will continue to do for our future and hasm is doing to us to this very day every morning just for us and we say every morning the words of this phrase comes from all of all places of all places of all books of tanak it comes from the darkest book of because we need to have hope for a new day you see this picture of the darkness the dark soil there's no light but from the darkness is what Sprouts Joy what Sprouts growth new beginning and growth and hope every day that we wake up and open our eyes and result we have hope in the Jewish spirit this is an wearn from that we we can begin a new we can begin a new and we dve in to really begin a new a new era of theik as we also see in that we should have we should celebrate the end of this war with a as sh has often said and I've taken it to heart and we D for for that we should have we should see we should be come out from the darkness to the light and feel thank you