(א) זְכוֹר יְיָ מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ אוֹי. הַבִּיטָה וּרְאֵה אֶת חֶרְפָּתֵנוּ. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(ב) נַחֲלָתֵנוּ נֶהֶפְכָה לְזָרִים אוֹי. בָּתֵּינוּ לְנָכְרִים. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(ג) יְתוֹמִים הָיִינוּ וְאֵין אָב אוֹי. אִמּוֹתֵינוּ מְקוֹנְנוֹת בְּחֹדֶשׁ אָב. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(ד) מֵימֵינוּ בְּכֶסֶף שָׁתִינוּ אוֹי. כִּי נִסּוּךְ הַמַּיִם בָּזִינוּ. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(ה) עַל צַוָּארֵנוּ נִרְדָּפְנוּ אוֹי. כִּי שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם רָדָפְנוּ. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(ו) מִצְרַיִם נָתַנּוּ יָד אוי. וְאַשּׁוּר צָדוּנוּ כְּצַיָּד. אוֹי מֶה הָיָה לָנוּ:
(1) Remember, LORD, what has occurred to us, Alas! Look and see our disgrace. Alas! what has occurred to us.
(2) Our property has been handed over to strangers, Alas! Our homes to foreigners. Alas! what has occurred to us.
(3) We have become orphans without a father. Alas! Our mothers mourn in the month of Av. Alas! what has occurred to us.
(4) We had to purchase water to drink. Alas! Because we abused the water libation. Alas! what has occurred to us.
(5) We had yokes put on our necks, Alas! Because we hatefully persecuted others. Alas! what has occurred to us.
(6) To the Egyptians we stretched out our hand, Alas! And the Assyrians trapped us like a hunter. Alas! what has occurred to us.
By Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt"l (Full essay available here)
The Gemara (Yevamot 43b) distinguishes between avelut hadashah and avelut yeshanah, "new" mourning and "old," historical mourning - or, expressing the same thought in a different idiom, between avelut de-yahid and avelut de-rabbim, private and national-communal mourning. The first, avelut hadashah, is caused by a death or disaster which strikes a family or an individual. It is a primordial, instinctual, spontaneous response of man to evil, to the traumatic confrontation with death, to the impact of catastrophe and disaster. It is an existential response, not one that evolves by the application of artificial stimuli.
The second category, avelut yeshanah, is due to a historic disaster that took place 1,900 years ago. This category is the handiwork of man. There is no spontaneous reaction to some new event which has just transpired, for nothing new has happened which should justify grief. The avelut is a result of recollection of events. Judaism here introduced a strange kind of memory, a very unique and singular memory. Thousands of years later, Henri Bergson (Matter and Memory) came very close to describing the kind of memory of which Judaism spoke so long ago.
Quoted from same essay by Deracheha.org
Even though the mourning of an individual constitutes a kiyyum she-ba-lev, an inner, experiential fulfillment of the obligation to mourn, it must be translated into deeds, into technical observance….The Halakhah demanded that feeling be transposed into deed…that fleeting, amorphous moods be crystallized into real tangible symbols….Avelut yeshanah [mourning a past occurrence] does not establish itself at one bang; the process is generally slow. It…not only notes and gives heed to bygone days but also reexperiences, relives, restages and redramatizes remote events which seem to have forfeited their relevance long ago. The Halakhah could not decree observance of mourning at once. The reawakening takes time; it transpires gradually. It would be absurd, therefore, to start out with the practical observance of mourning before the experience has been reproduced and relived in all its tragic, frightening magnitude. The time between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and Rosh Hodesh Av is exclusively devoted to remembrance, to meditation, to reliving and reexperiencing. Only on Rosh Hodesh Av does the avelut she-ba-lev begin to be recorded on the register of objective mourning and the first signs of observance become visible.
אֱלִי צִיּוֹן וְעָרֶֽיהָ
כְּמוֹ תּוֹרָה בַּאֲרוֹנוֹתֶֽיהָ
וּכְסִפְרָהּ בָּדָד, אֵינוֹ נִקְרַא
כָּל־אוֹת בָּהּ רְחוֹקָה מִצְּמֵאֶֽיהָ
עֲלֵי אֲבֵלֵי מִשְׁפַּחְתָּהּ, נִמְנָעִים מִקִּבְרוֹתֶֽיהָ
וְעַל בָּתֵּי אָבוֹת מֻכִּים, מַעֲבִירִים אֶת־מַחֲלוֹתֶֽיהָ
עֲלֵי גְדוֹלֵי תוֹרָתָהּ, אָבְדָה חָכְמָתָם מִלּוֹמְדֶֽיהָ
וְעַל דָמָם אֲשֶׁר הֻתַּז בְּמֶשֶׁךְ צִנְרוּר אֻשְׁפְּזֶֽיהָ
עֲלֵי הֶֽבֶל תִּינוֹקוֹתֶיהָ, אֲשֶׁר דָּמַם בְּבָתֵּי סְפָרֶֽיהָ
וְעַל וְעָדוֹת אֲשֶׁר חִלְּקוּ אֶת־הַנְשָׁמַת מֽכוֹנוֹתֶֽיהָ
Wail, O Zion and her cities,
As Torah trapped in all of its arks,
And like its scroll left alone, unread,
Each letter distant from her thirsty ones.
For the mourners of her families, held back from her graves;
And for the stricken nursing homes, spreaders of her diseases
For the great ones of her Torah, their wisdom was lost from her learners;
And for their blood that was splattered, during the intubation of her hospitalized ones
For the breath of her babes, which was silenced in her schoolhouses;
And for committees that distributed her ventilators
בין תרומה לתצווה
יום הולדת קצת משונה
הכל רגיל כאן לכאורה
במה קהל ואהבה
בין תצווה לכי תישא
אסתר פורים משתה שמחה
מי יחנה ומי יסע
ומי ישא בתוצאה
בין כי תישא לויקהל
עולם מפסיק להתקהל
להשתתק להסתגר
ישמעל אדום וישראל
בין ויקהל לפקודי
אין איש בעיר ובשדה
כבר אין מול מי להתנהל
מגדל בבל שוב מתבלבל
פזמון:
ומה אתה רוצה שנבין מזה
איך מתרחקים ומתקרבים בכאב הזה
רוצה לחיות אותך
ולא להיות לבד
ומה אתה רוצה שנלמד מזה
ואיך נדע להתאחד בפרוד הזה
עד שניתן לך
כתר מלוכה
בין פקודי לויקרא
כולנו באותה סירה
אביב הגיע פסח בא
ואיתו תקווה רבה
שתקרע את רוע הגזירה
לכה דודי לקראת כלה
כבר אין לנו כוחות יותר
להתמודד להלחם
פזמון:
ומה אתה רוצה שנבין מזה
איך מתרחקים ומתקרבים עם הכאב הזה
רוצה לחיות אותך
ולא להיות לבד
ומה אתה רוצה שנלמד מזה
ואיך נדע להתאחד בפרוד הזה
שמע ישראל ה׳
אחד ושמו אחד
Between (Parshas) Terumah and (Parshas) Tetzaveh
A slightly different birthday party
Everything seems to be just fine
Stages full of people and love
Between (Parshas) Tetzaveh and (Parshas) Ki Sisa
Esther, Purim, drinks, and joy,
Who will stay and who will travel
And who will pay the consequences
Between (Parshas) Ki Sisa and (Parshas) Vayakheil
The world stops gathering
To be quiet, to be closed down
Yishmael, Edom, and Yisrael
Between (Parshas) Vayakhel) and (Parshas) Pekudei
There’s no one in the city or field
There’s no one to deal with
The Tower of Bavel is once again confounded
What do You want us to understand from this?
How do we distance ourselves and draw near in this pain?
We want to live with You
And not to be alone
What do you want us to learn from this?
How will we know how to unify in this separation?
Until we give You,
the Keser Melucha
Between (Parshas) Pekudei and (Parshas) Vayikra
We are all in the same pot
The spring has arrived, Pesach is coming
And with it, much hope
“To rip up the evil decree”
“Come my beloved to greet the Bride”
We don’t have strength anymore
To cope, to battle on
Chorus:
What do You want us to understand from this
How to disconnect and reattach this heart
We want to live with You
And not be alone
What do you want us to learn from this?
How will we know how to unite in this separation?
Shema Yisrael
Hashem is one and His name is one”