Kinnos 5784: Introduction, 6, 21, 28, 34

The Shulchan Aruch says

ראוי לכל ירא שמים שיהא מיצר ודואג על חורבן בית המקדש.

The Shulchan Aruch specifies a double reaction to the Churban: metzer and do'eg. Metzer means to be pained, deeply pained. What about the Churban pains us? Pains us on many levels. Maybe a mashal to introduce the first level. Imagine a wonderful person, very wise, very learned, very kind, sensitive, generous, benevolent. And vayehi hayom, some disreputable characters take it upon themselves to malign him, to engage in character assassination and to drive him out of town. He's so exceedingly humble that he's totally impervious. It doesn't hurt him personally, doesn't affect him personally. And yet his son, even though he's fully aware that the father is not personally hurt, is not personally affected, is devastated by the travesty, by the injustice, by the ugliness of what has happened. The contrast between who his father is and how his reputation has been tarnished. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not affected by what we do, he's not hurt by what we do. He's above that. Nevertheless, we, his children, should be very, very deeply pained by the chillul Hashem which is represented by Churban HaMikdash, which forces the Shechina into hiding. We're also pained about what Churban has entailed for HaKadosh Baruch Hu's people. We, the am hanivchar, have suffered terribly in the course of Churban. We're also deeply, deeply pained about the effect that Churban has on our understanding of Torah, our clarity in Torah. כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם ירושלים. The Sanhedrin's place was in one of the chambers in Mikdash, and with Churban HaBayis, our grasp, our understanding of Torah has been very significantly negatively impacted, and we're very deeply pained for that as well. But the Shulchan Aruch says it's not enough to be metzer, a person should be do'eg as well. A person should worry as well. We're pained about the past, we worry about the future. Again, just to introduce it by a mashal, unfortunately it's a mashal that resonates all too painfully contemporaneously. Imagine—it doesn't take any imagination—a person is maimed, loses a limb, loses many limbs. Our reaction to that is twofold: we're deeply, deeply pained by the loss, but we're also very concerned and very worried about the future. How is he going to cope? Emotionally, psychologically, physically, with pain, deeply pained, or should be deeply pained by churban, but we should also be deeply, deeply concerned and worried about the implications in the future, about the reverberations in the future of ongoing churban. We worry about further chillul Hashem rachmana litzlan. Chazal famously comment on the pasuk of

וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך,

when the nations of the world will see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu identifies himself with you, that his name is associated with you, even inscribed, so then they're afraid of us. Chazal say it refers to tefillin sheb’rosh, but it certainly refers to the Mikdash as well.

כי שם ה' נקרא עליך בכל המקום אשר אזכיר את שמי אבוא אליך וברכתיך,

Shem Hashem is certainly associated with Mikdash. When Mikdash is, when the Mikdash stands and we're worthy of it, so v’yaru mimeka. A person should be meitzar v'do'eg, deeply do'eg about the vulnerability that exists in the present and rachmana litzlan in the future because of churban. And we also worry about further loss of clarity in Torah. But we're supposed to be meitzar v'do'eg not only about the churban, but about the causes of churban. We should be deeply pained about how the past causes of churban existed and rachmana litzlan how those divisive, insidious causes continue to exist and continue to reverberate. Although the mechaber only uses two verbs of meitzar v'do'eg, implicit is a third. In Yahadut, de'agah is not an idle emotion. One doesn't just worry. De'agah is intended to arouse and stir a person to action. De'agah is supposed to lead to hitorerus. De'agah is supposed to lead to teshuva. And if we'll make explicit what's implicit in the mechaber's formulation is:

ראוי לכל ירא שמיים שיהיה מצר ודואג ומעורר לתשובה על חורבן בית המקדש.

A yerei shamayim of whom the mechaber speaks in the beginning of Shulchan Aruch sustains this awareness and this mindset seven, twenty-four, three sixty-five, constantly. Kinos are intended that the rest of us, at least for a few hours, should be מצר ודואג ומעורר לתשובה. The first kinah, it's hard to get a handle on it. It's a type of collage of themes and scenes. Eleazar Hakalir seems to jump from one scene to the next. He even jumps from references to churban Bayis Rishon, for instance in the line of על פני פרץ נותץ חסידה, to churban Bayis Sheni, צעקו עמי בני בן דינאי. Perhaps this is intended to convey a sense of being utterly broken. One's world is fractured and this is intentionally reflected in the kinah being fragmented. Maybe just to mention two of the themes which Eleazar... highlights at the very beginning of the Kinna shichu me'os hasimunim. Our enemies have made us into filth and refuse. The anti-Semitic trope, the caricature of the dirty Jew, has been a constant in our history. Sfoch kachof, the derision, the mockery, has continued throughout the millennia. Towards the end of the Kinna, Elazar HaKallir, turning to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, ראה ונכחידם מגוי אמרו. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, see, take into account that their charter is to, reading from the translation, obliterate them from nationhood. You know, paradoxically, sometimes the biggest, most vile Sonei Yisrael have displayed a correct understanding, partially, of Yahadus. The mission and destiny of Yahadus is not only to cultivate many yechidim who are devoted to avodas Hashem, but to forge a nation which is consecrated to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu offers us the Torah, the charter is ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. For dvar Hashem, for derech Hashem to find a permanent home in this world, it's not enough to have yechidim who are devoted to it; there has to be a nation devoted to it. The Rambam describes in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Avodah Zarah how as Yaakov Avinu's family grew and others joined them, נעשה בעולם אומה שהיא יודעת את השם. What crystallized was a nation that recognized Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Our sworn enemies understand that, which is why the desire has always been lechu venach-hidem migoy to destroy Jewish nationhood. The fact that we know that that can never succeed should not invite any complacency. It can fail instantaneously and spectacularly without our paying a price in blood, in suffering, in parents who are shakulim, in wives who are almanos, in small children who are yesomim. Or it can fail only in the long run when we pay all those prices. So the fact that we know that lechu venach-hidem migoy ultimately fails doesn't prevent it from sending a shiver up our spine and from pleading with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that those designs should be foiled immediately and that we should be deserving of it. The Kinna Chof Aleph focuses on the Asara Harugei Malchus, that the ten outstanding Chachmei Yisrael from the era of the Tannaim who were killed cruelly, barbarically, by the Roman Empire. When one learns, when one says the Kinna, one has the impression that they were contemporaries and that the Kinna is narrating a particularly tragic episode or period in Jewish history. As all the commentaries point out, that's not the case. The Paytan is here weaving together and juxtaposing things that happened in different periods. Some happened right after Churban Habayis and most of them didn't happen until after the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt. But the Paytan is not simply taking poetic license in weaving these together. Instead, what the Paytan is communicating is that there's an ahistorical, transcendent quality to Jewish history. The defining, recurring pattern of Jewish history is that our consecration to Hakadosh Baruch Hu has and continues to this very day to require the readiness to die al Kiddush Hashem. The apparent catalysts of vicious antisemitism vary from one historical epoch to another, the cast of antisemites changes, and yet the murderous antisemitism remains a constant. The Paytan puts together these individuals who died at different times al Kiddush Hashem because in a certain sense their destiny transcends the historical era in which they lived. There's a second complementary message, more subtly expressed in the lines of the Kinna. The Kinna describes for instance how

רבי חנניה בן תרדיון מקהיל קהילות בציון שנה. רבי חנניה בן תרדיון

gathered public assemblies to teach Torah defying the Roman government. רבי חנניה בן תרדיון wasn't naive, he understood full well the consequences of defying the Roman edict, but he also understood full well that even though in the darkest of times in our history the cost of being the Am Hanivchar appears and on one level is very great, and yet in truth the privilege of being Hakadosh Baruch Hu's Am Hanivchar dwarfs any price. The eternal destiny of Kirvas Elokim in Olam Haba contextualizes and provides perspective on all the suffering and adversity in Olam Hazeh. The refrain in this Kinna, ve-eich nicham, the churban, the human toll is depicted as just being so overwhelming that it's impossible to find consolation. Rambam paskens the halacha based on a Gemara in Moed Katan that אל יקשה אדם על מתו יותר מדאי. A person is not allowed to grieve excessively. A person has to gradually acclimate to the new reality. At first glance, the refrain of this Kinna stands in opposition to that halacha. But the halacha more fully as the Rambam explains it.

אל יקשה אדם על מתו יותר מדאי שזהו מנהגו של עולם.

It's the way of the world. והמיצר את עצמו על מנהג העולם הרי זה טיפש. A person who tortures himself over the way of the world is a fool. Ever since Adam and Chava ate from the Etz HaDa'as, death is a natural occurrence. It's minhago shel olam and as such we're supposed to come to terms with it slowly, gradually, but ultimately acclimate ourselves. But churban is a complete aberration. Churban is not part of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's design. It's not minhago shel olam. It's a total and complete aberration and for that reason eich enachem. But because it's an aberration, so we know that ultimately it will be reversed and that is the concluding note of the kinah, ve-az enachem. The kinah describes based on the Gemorah in Gittin how Nevuzaradan, Nevuchadnezzar's general, comes, identifies the blood of Zechariah HaNavi and hypocritically, sanctimoniously says that he's going to exact atonement for the murder of Zechariah and proceeds to slaughter tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. As we had previously in kinah yod zayin, Nevuzaradan wasn't wrong about our being liable and held accountable for the murder of Zechariah. And yet the murder of Zechariah had happened, as the commentaries point out, over 200 years earlier. No one at the time was complicit, no one at the time was alive when Zechariah had been murdered. So why is punishment being exacted from those living centuries later for an awful crime that had been committed so much earlier? Obviously, this question is just a microcosm of a greater question. A similar question arises in Parshas Bechukosai where the Torah speaks of והתוודו את עוונם ואת עוון אבותם that we'll confess not only our sins but the sins of our fathers, the sins of our ancestors. What reason do we have, what sense is there in confessing not only our own sins but those of previous generations? In order to understand, we have to review a very profound concept which is absolutely integral to our identity as Jews. Klal Yisrael, the Jewish people, Rav Soloveitchik explains, is not just the sum of all individual Jews alive at any given point. Klal Yisrael has its own identity. The English phrase the Rav used is a metaphysical entity with its own neshama. Klal Yisrael exists eternally. The Klal Yisrael today is not the successor of the Klal Yisrael of earlier generations but the same Klal Yisrael. The Jewish people, this metaphysical entity, this goy kadosh, forged in Mitzrayim, vayehi sham legoy, elevated to the level of a goy kadosh at Ma'amad Har Sinai, this same Klal Yisrael continues to exist. We today are the same Klal Yisrael that stood at the foot of. at Har Sinai, it's the same Klal Yisroel and that will exist eternally. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, it's a pasuk in Malachi, if it hadn't been a pasuk in Malachi, we wouldn't be able to say it on our own. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, just as I, Hashem, don't change, so so too you, the Jewish people, will never, ever perish. Klal Yisroel, the same Klal Yisroel exists eternally. Now that confers upon us all the blessings and the privileges of the past. We're the same Klal Yisroel, so we're the Am Hanivchar, we're the chosen people, we're the Am HaTorah, we're the nation of the Torah. But if, rachmana litzlan, we're אוחזין מעשה אבותינו בידינו לרעה, if we persist in the chato'im of previous generations, so then we're also responsible for the burdens and the iniquities of the past. And that's the basis for this, for the phenomenon described in Kinah Lamed Daled.