If you have never heard it chanted—hearing Eicha (the Book of Lamentations, read on Tisha B’Av) is a beautiful and deeply moving experience. Better than any stage direction, Eicha itself is a guide to the experience—the shifting voices, the different perspectives, the deep and personal pain of loss. Each year, I find myself closing my eyes, and over the course of the five chapters, I allow my focus to drift from the painful words and images, and just let the sounds wash over me. Each year, I find myself centering on one or two verses, the image or the poetry that stays with me.
Yeshev badad v’yidom.ulai yesh tikvah.
Let him sit alone and be patient…There may yet be hope.
We are, despite it all—or perhaps because of it all—well acquainted with hope. It is the anthem of our homeland; it is the message of our Torah, it is the driving force of the Jewish People. And yet here, in this darkest moment, the message is both uplifting…and realistic. MAYBE…there may yet be…yesh tikvah—maybe there’s hope. It is not a guarantee, it is not an answer. It is…a possibility. And this is a week, a year, a time that needs possibilities. We need the pain of Eicha, and we need the evergreen reminder from our Psalms, that those who sow in tears, will reap in joy.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer