Tisha b'Av 5784 The urgent need to examine how we "cross over"

I propose an alternate translation:

"I am the person who has experienced affliction / poverty / diminution

by means of the staff / the instrument - of your... "

your... what? בְּשֵׁ֖בֶט עֶבְרָתֽוֹ

עֶבְרָתֽוֹ - what is this word? JPS translates it as "your wrath"; also often translated as "anger".

But let's dive deeper into this word, in order to explore: what is the element in our connection with God that afflicts us?

עֶבְרָה - outpouring of anger; arrogance; fury; pride; haughtiness overflow....

from עֵבֶר - region beyond or across; side...

region across or beyond anything (usually wady, river, or sea), mostly with preposition:בְּעֵבֶר אַרְנוֺן Numbers 21:13 (JE) Judges 11:18, compare Jeremiah 25:22; הַיָּם אֶלעֿ׳ Deuteronomy 30:13b, מַעֵבֶר לַיָּם

Let's seek some help and instruction from Gesenius:

from √עָבַר - a verb with numerous meanings including

1. to pass over, cross, cross over, pass over, march over, overflow, go over

2. to pass beyond

3. to pass through, traverse

and a verbal root / shoresh that gives rise to the very word / appellation "Hebrews": עברים.

So, now that we've explored the semantic cloud, the verbal associations of the word עֶבְרָתֽוֹ that appears in Lamentations 3:1, let's loop back to the verse and further interrogate: what it the factor that brings us into a state of affliction?

This morning, this year, היום היום היום, Tisha b'Av 5784, as I safely sit in my home studying Eicha; as you safely sit on the floor of your shul... there is a particularly urgent need for me as a Jew - and perhaps for you as well - to try to deeply explore the "how" - the eicha - of "how did we get here" - in order to find a different path forward.

Our verse, Lamentations 3:1, suggests that we are in a state of affliction because we have been subject to a certain instrumentality of God's "wrath" which instead I will today read as:

I am / we are afflicted as a result of submitting ourselves to an incorrect understanding of what it means for us to be those who cross over.

As I've explored recently in my 5784 commentaries on Parshiot Pinchas, Matot-Masei, and Devarim, it is time for a new kind of taking; it is time for a new way of understanding inheritance, possession, dispossession.

Notably, the "instrument" of God that is afflicting us here in Eicha 3:1 is the very same that comforts us in Psalm 23:4.

יְנַֽחֲמֻֽנִי...שִׁבְטְךָ֥

I suggest that this year, 5784, on Tisha b'Av, it's time to stop being sheep; it's time to experience this instrument of the Divine as a compass that directs us towards righteousness and truth.

What does it mean to "cross over"?

It is a truism in modern Judaism that we understand yetziat Mitzrayim as least as much in a figurative way as in a literal way.

We are instructed to remember every day that we were brought forth from Egypt. There is an infinity of ways that we can apply this experience to our lives as 21st Century Jews: for example: many "progressive" Jews interact with the experience of "yetziat Mitzrayim" as a way of liberating ourselves from dogma, from oppressive ideas, from oppressive and cruel and inequitable social constructs.

So: today, היום, can we accept that we similarly can explore and utilize the idea of being afflicted by the rod of God's wrath / being in a state of suffering as a result of submitting to an erroneous idea of what it means for us to cross over?

Today, Tisha b'Av 5784, we are deeply challenged to explore what it means to be Jewish, a person of the Hebrew people: what does it mean to be someone who crosses over?

Can we transmute our understanding of crossing over, in order to participate in a universal project that is interested in promoting shalom for all?

How can we lift ourselves out of the seemingly endless darkness that we are in?

This year, as I hear and read these haunting verses, I think not only of my Jewish sisters and brothers who still sit in captivity somewhere in Gaza; I also think - in an equivalent manner - of the tens of thousands of Palestinians whose bones have been shattered, whose paths of escape are a maze of confusion...

I think of these fellow human beings as beloveds, no less than my Jewish sisters and brothers who still sit in captivity.

What can save us? What can lift us out of the darkness that we are in?

Let us pray that this year, on Tisha b'Av 5784, our study and meditations will be illuminated by expansions of ...

I question whether we can wait patiently this year; this is not a time to quietly sit and wait.

in Verse 22 we read:

חַֽסְדֵ֤י ה׳ כִּ֣י לֹא־תָ֔מְנוּ כִּ֥י לֹא־כָל֖וּ רַחֲמָֽיו׃

The kindness of the LORD has not ended, His mercies are not spent.

and Verse 32:

כִּ֣י אִם־הוֹגָ֔ה וְרִחַ֖ם כְּרֹ֥ב חֲסָדָֽיו׃

But first afflicts, then pardons in His abundant kindness.

This year, I suggest that the deep pit we are in is one of persistent, self-perpetuating hatred; a delirium of vengeance and disconnection from being able to recognize others' humanity.

This year, Tisha b'Av 5784, I suggest that it is up to us to raise ourselves from these depths.

What can it mean today, Tisha b'Av 5784, to be taken back, to return?

I propose that the urgent need for us today is to return to the kindness and mercy that we know can pervade all of creation:

Let us individually and collectively cross over from our current darkness, suffused with hatred, toward an awareness of the possibilities of kindness and mercy.