Eicha #2

(1) By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion. (2) There on the poplars we hung up our lyres, (3) for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors,aMeaning of Heb. uncertain. for amusement: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” (4) How can we sing a song of the LORD on alien soil? (5) If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither;bOthers “forget its cunning.”(6) let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour. (7) Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall; how they cried, “Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!” (8) Fair Babylon, you predator,cWith Targum; others “who are to be destroyed.” a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us; (9) a blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!

It happened that a Jerusalemite once gave a dinner and instructed one of his household: Go and bring me my friend Kamza; but he went and invited Bar Kamza who was his enemy. The latter entered and sat among the invited. When the host came in and found him among the guests, he said to him, "You are my enemy, and yet you sit in my house! Get up and leave my house!" He answered, "Do not put me to shame, and I will pay you the cost of what I eat." He said to him, "You will not recline at the meal!" He said to him, "Do not put me to shame and I will sit without eating or drinking anything," but he replied, "You will not recline at the meal!" He pleaded, "I will pay the cost of the whole meal," but the host said, "Go away!" R. Zechariah b. Eucolus who was present could have prevented the host from treating the man in this manner but did not intervene. Bar Kamza at once left to the house and said to himself, "They feast and sit in luxury; I will go and inform against them." What did he do? He went to the governor and said, "The sacrifices which you send to the Jews to offer in the Temple they eat themselves and substitute inferior animals on the altar." He reprimanded him, but he went to him a second time and said, "All the sacrifices which you send to the Jews to offer they eat themselves and substitute inferior animals on the altar; if you do not believe me, send an officer and some sacrificial animals with me, and you will immediately know that I am not a liar." While they were on the journey the officer fell asleep, and in the night Bar Kamza secretly made all the animals blemished. When the priest saw that they were blemished, he substituted others for them. The king's messenger asked him, "Why did you not offer these animals which I brought?" He answered, "I will do so tomorrow." He came on the third day but the priest had not offered them. He sent a message to the king, "What the Jew told you is true." The king forthwith came up against the Temple and destroyed it. Hence the popular saying: "Because of the difference between the names Kamza and Bar Kamza was the Temple destroyed." R. Jose said: The meekness of Zechariah b. Eucolus burnt the Temple.
Another explanation of their precious character: Not one of them begat a child who was defective in limb or blemished in body.

The destruction of Jerusalem came through a Kamza and a Bar Kamza in this way. A certain man had a friend Kamza and an enemy Bar Kamza. He once made a party and said to his servant, Go and bring Kamza. The man went and brought Bar Kamza. When the man [who gave the party] found him there he said, See, you tell tales about me; what are you doing here? Get out. Said the other: Since I am here, let me stay, and I will pay you for whatever I eat and drink. He said, I won't. Then let me give you half the cost of the party. No, said the other. Then let me pay for the whole party. He still said, No, and he grabbed him in his hands and put him out. Said the other, Since the Rabbis were sitting there and did not stop him, this shows that they agreed with him. I will go and inform against them, to the Government. He went and said to the Emperor, The Jews are rebelling against you. He said, How can I tell? He said to him: Send them an offering and see whether they will offer it [on the altar]. So he sent with him a fine calf. While on the way he made a blemish on its upper lip, or as some say on the white of its eye, in a place where we [Jews] count it a blemish but they do not. The Rabbis were inclined to offer it in order not to offend the Government. Said R. Zechariah b. Abkulas to them: People will say that blemished animals are offered on the altar. They then proposed to kill Bar Kamza so that he should not go and inform against them, but R. Zechariah b. Abkulas said to them, Is one who makes a blemish on consecrated animals to be put to death? R. Johanan thereupon remarked: Through the scrupulousness of R. Zechariah b. Abkulas our House has been destroyed, our Temple burnt and we ourselves exiled from our land. [Soncino translation]

(13) What can I iEmendation yields “compare.”take as witness-i or likenTo you, O Fair Jerusalem?What can I match with you to console you,O Fair Maiden Zion?For your ruin is vast as the sea:Who can heal you?

Of this secret, it is written, “What can I take as witness or liken to you, O Fair Jerusalem? What can I take as a witness to you? What can I compare to you? (Lamentations 2:13).
When the holy Temple was destroyed, a voice cried out: ‘What can I take as a witness to you? What can I compare to you?’ I take What [=Shekhinah] as a witness to you. Every single day I have called witnesses against you, since days of old, as is written: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day (Deuteronomy 30:19). I compare you to What, precisely!2 I crowned you with holy crowns, gave you dominion over the world, as is written: Is this the city that was called perfect crown of beauty, joy of all the earth? (Lamentations 2:15). I called you Jerusalem built up, a city bound together (Psalms 122:3).
Now, What can I liken to you, to console you? (Lamentations, ibid., 13). Just as you sit desolate, so it is above, as it were. Just as now, the holy people do not enter you in holy array, so I swear to you that I Myself will not enter above until your inhabitants enter you below.3 This is your consolation: I compare this rung to you completely.4 But now that you are here, your ruin is vast as the ocean (ibid.). Yet if you say you cannot endure or be healed, Who will heal you (ibid.), really! That concealed, high rung [=Bina] in which all exists will heal you and raise you up.
Haqdamat Sefer ha-Zohar Zohar Vol I: 1b (Pritzker Vol.I p.5-8)

(7) And I, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath”—now Bethlehem.