God’s Departure and the People’s Sin

Lamentations Rabbah, a compilation of midrash on the book of Lamentations written in the fifth to sixth centuries CE, elaborates on themes such as the Israelites’ sorrow over losing the Temple and the idea that the destruction was a result of the people’s sin. The midrash also attributes sorrow over the destruction to God, who is compared to a king taking leave of his palace. Although the book of Lamentations is a response to the destruction of the First Temple, the authors of Lamentations Rabbah likely had the Second Temple in mind as well.