The laudable Jewish tradition of defending the people and challenging God, as it were, did not end with the prophets of old, but has continued throughout the ages. A phrase that has been adopted by those crying out to God when seeking to understand evil or negative occurrences, whether those affecting an individual, all Israel or the entire world, is ad matai, “until when?” This supplication is based on a verse from Psalms (6:2-4): “God, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. Have mercy on me God for I am faint; heal me God for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish and you God – until when?” Throughout the ages individuals and leaders in Israel have taken up this plea in various ways in response to disaster, trauma and tragedy. In this section, we will bring a few notable examples that pertain to Tisha b’Av.
On Tisha B’Av, it is customary during the day to read kinnot, tragic liturgical poems full of despair composed in large part from approximately the 2nd to the 11th century. The greatest of these poets was Rabbi Elazar HaKalir, regarding whom there is great speculation as to his true identity, or even when he lived. Although many consider him to have lived in the 6th century, other traditions identify him with an earlier teacher of the Mishnah, Rabbi Elazar ben Arak, or with Elezar the son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
Although the main theme running through the kinnot are painful and mournful remembrances of the travails that have befallen the Jewish people, and in some, a portrayal of the many sins and various shortcomings that brought these terrible events upon the people, there are, in many of them, a potent strain of poetic protest at the seemingly disproportionate amount of suffering and destruction decreed by God upon generation after generation.
The refrain of one of the kinnot by Kalir is, “Remember God what has befallen us,” which is preceded and followed by various exclamations such as: “therefore have we wailed, therefore have we cried, therefore have we protested.” Many of the stanzas in fact are sharp and pointed questions directed to God, urgently inquiring how He could allow such torments to befall the people He has chosen:
“How could You rush in Your fury to exterminate
Your faithful ones at the hand of the Edomites,
And not recall the Covenant Between the Pieces
By which You selected those whom You tested?
Therefore, we have proclaimed,
‘Remember God what has befallen us!’
How could You concentrate Your anger, to devastate
Your vineyard at the hand of the vandalous villain,
And not recall that You taught Your acquired people that
You would not abandon them forever?
Therefore, we have cried,
‘Remember God what has befallen us!’”
At the end of this kinnah, the poet declares: “I have complained, but now, I will raise my laments up to the sphere of heaven.” This closing statement affirms that although he is complaining and even protesting to God, he has not turned away from God in any way, but rather needs to cry out so God will hear his and the people’s lament and pain. The kinnot, and the sharp challenges to God which they so powerfully express, must therefore be understood not as rejections of faith, but rather as testaments to an undying connection, covenant and conversation with God, even in the midst of suffering and confusion. After all the suffering the Jewish people have endured this type of crying out to God seems eminently appropriate, especially on Tisha B’Av.
