Midrash is the way sages explain difficult-to-understand biblical texts. One of the best-known is the Midrash Rabbah, composed of 10 collections, one of which is the Midrash Eicha, or Lamentations. Poem 24R of this midrash, based on Jeremiah 31:15 and narrated by Rev. Shmuel ben Nahman, seems to be written like the script for a play:

The scene: The heavenly court after the destruction of the Temple. The characters, in order of appearance: Abraham Avinu, the Angels, God, the Torah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Rachel. The plot begins when Abraham appears before God, his garments torn and with ashes on his head, walking through the ruins of the Temple, lamenting and weeping.

Abraham: “Why have we been treated differently than all other peoples, that we have come to this shame and contempt?”

The Angels: “King of the Universe, the covenant made with the patriarch Abraham is broken, through which man acknowledges that You are God, the Creator of heaven and earth. You have despised Jerusalem and Zion, despite having chosen them. Have you rejected Judah?”

God: “Why these funeral dirges?”

The Angels: “For Abraham, Your friend who came to Your house and mourned and wept, why is he indifferent to You?”

God: “Because the day he left for his eternal home, he did not come to My house.”

Abraham: “Why have you exiled my children and handed them over to pagan nations who have exposed them to all kinds of unnatural deaths and destroyed the Temple, the place where I was to sacrifice my son Isaac?”

God: “Your children have sinned and violated the entire Torah and its twenty-two letters.” Abraham: “Who is the one who testifies that Israel has transgressed Your law?” God: “Let the Torah come and testify against Israel.”

The Torah appears. Abraham to the Torah: “Do you remember the day when God wanted to give you to many nations and none would accept you, until my children came to Mount Sinai and accepted you and honored you? And now you come to testify against them?” When the Torah heard this, it did not bear witness against him.

Abraham to God: When I was 137 years old, did you not ask me to sacrifice my son Isaac?

Isaac: “When my father took me, was I not willing to let myself be bound and even stretched out my neck under the knife?”

Jacob: “Did I not work for twenty years in Laban’s house, and when I returned, Esau was ready to kill me and my children, and I risked my life for them?”

Moses: “Was I not a faithful shepherd of Israel for 40 years, and I ran after them like a horse in the desert. But when my time came to enter the Land of Israel, You decided that my bones should be scattered in the desert.”

Moses: “You wrote in Your Torah: ‘Whether it is a cow or a sheep, you shall not kill it and its child in the same day,’ for they have killed many mothers and their children in the same day, and You have remained silent.

All to God: Do You not remember all this on our behalf, so that You will have mercy on our children?”

Rachel: God, do You remember that Jacob loved me, but my father chose to give him Leah instead? I had compassion on my sister and taught her the signs so that Jacob would not realize it was her.” I even lay under his bed, and when he spoke to her, I answered in his place. If I was able to overcome my jealousy so as not to shame my sister, why are You jealous of false gods that aren’t even real? How can You allow Your jealousy to cause Your children to be killed and exiled?

And God was moved by Rachel’s argument and said, «For you, Rachel, I will restore the House of Israel to its place. The exile will one day come to an end.»

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Poem 24r of the Midrash Eicha Rabbah, based on Jeremiah 31:15.