Commentary: On Lamentations

Commentary on Lamentations, Introduction and on 3:49.

Mid-10th Century

About This Entry

The book of Lamentations was central to the religious ideology of many Jerusalem Karaites of the tenth century. Lamenting the destruction of the Temple, they called themselves “Mourners of Zion,” after an earlier group of Jews who engaged in ascetic rituals bewailing the same loss. The Karaite Salmon ben Yerūḥīm used this book to reflect on the state of contemporary Jewry, the exile, and the ruin of Jerusalem. These excerpts are drawn from the introduction and from the commentary on Lamentations 3:49. Many of the practices mentioned in these passages were likely adopted by Jerusalem Karaites, or at least some members of their community.

Introduction

[ . . . ] When He made the covenant with our fathers on Mount Sinai, He guaranteed in it that even if we sinned and our offenses became great, He would allow us to remain and He would not destroy us unless we deserved destruction and we deserved to perish, as He says, Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them (Leviticus 26:44). [ . . . ]

The interpretation of all these and similar verses indicates that God, mighty and sublime, had compassion upon His community, [even though] they sinned and rebelled. Indeed He made them suffer under the four kingdoms¹ and banished them during this exile in order for Him to discipline them and make them good, as He said, I will chastise them for their wicked deeds (Hosea 7:12). This means He disciplined them in accordance with the message of the covenant that was cut between them.²

There are two kinds of chastisements: a punishing chastisement of destruction and annihilation, and a bettering chastisement. As he says, As a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you (Deuteronomy 8:5). This makes clear to us that in His beneficence and favor, the Mighty and Sublime One promised Israel His holy books in the time of exile so that they would be fortified by them.³ If they [i.e., the holy books] had not been among them [i.e., the people], they would have been destroyed, as it is said, If Your law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction (Psalms 119:92). [ . . . ]

My eyes are poured out; they are not quiet, from anything other than silence. (Lamentations 3:49)

[ . . . ] By this verse he also means abundant weeping and lamentation over what [situation] we are in. Just as the sons of Koraḥ said, My tears have been my food day and night (Psalms 42:4), so He said through Joel, Awake, you drunkards (Joel 1:5). Since one is charged with weeping, how could one allow himself to rejoice or to cheer his soul with pleasures and amusement? In particular, the Lord of hosts forbade us from pleasures and joy, as he says, Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples (Hosea 9:1). He said this in the time of the kings, so how [could it be otherwise] in the time of Exile?

It is all the more so that we are not to rejoice! Among the things that gives clear evidence of what we have said is his saying, Who drink wine in bowls (Amos 6:6). Thus he rebuked our fathers for joy and pleasures and amusements, and drinking wine from shallow drinking vessels but not mourning over the rupture of Israel, as he says, But are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph (Amos 6:6). He means what befell them from the kings of Assyria, and what the prophet announced to them: that He wanted exile to befall them. So he made mourning and distress obligatory for them; they were not to rejoice. Since they did not obey this, He decreed the exile for them, as He says afterward, Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away (Amos 6:7).

If what happened to them, in terms of the exile of some of the community, were for this reason, and mourning and distress were obligatory for it [i.e., the community] even while Jerusalem was thriving and the state was manifest and the glory of the Lord was among them, and [there were] high priests, kings, chiefs, heads, princes, heads of fathers, judges, administrative officials, seers, teachers, Temple singers, melody-carriers, superintendents, sacrifices, servants of the service of the Lord’s Temple, and gatekeepers—then how could this not apply when all of Israel had been exiled and what we mentioned had been removed from them? It is all the more obligatory upon us to mourn and not to rejoice.

Woe and wailing for those whose nights and days are nothing but amusement, drinking, toasting, delights, parties, and singing with the mandolins and tambourine and the other things for entertainment, intoxication, buffoonery, breaking contracts, perpetrating rebellions with impertinence, and impudence of face, because this is severe according to God. Because of this our tarrying in this exile is lengthened. [ . . . ]

He made it known that it was obligatory for Israel to put on sackcloth and wallow in the dust and mourn completely, just as a man mourns over his only son, of whom he has no other.

Translated by Jessica Andruss.

We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this text from being printed or downloaded.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation unless otherwise indicated. Biblical verses come from RSV.

Hebr. ’arba‘ malkiyōt—the “four kingdoms” mentioned in Daniel (8:22), are identified with various historical empires in post-biblical Jewish literature, although there was great variation in the specific identifications. Most problematic was the role of the Islamic empires in this framework. [ . . . ]

The intent here is that God justly disciplines the community because the covenant stipulates it, and not out of a desire for vindication or revenge. Throughout the commentary, Salmon depicts punishments as the mechanical result of Israelite violations of covenant and commandment, sometimes deemphasizing divine agency in orchestrating the punishments.

For Salmon, as for many of his Jewish and Muslim contemporaries, the divine provision of holy books constitutes a luṭf, a kindness that God bestows on humankind, in order to aid them in carrying out divine commands. [ . . . ]

Credits

Salmon ben Yerūḥim, Commentary: On Lamentations, trans. Jessica Andruss, from Jessica Andruss, “Exegesis, Homily, and Historical Reflection in the Arabic Commentary on Lamentations by Salmon ben Yeruhim, Tenth-Century Karaite of Jerusalem” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2015), 166–68, 286–89. Used with permission of the translator. Verses from Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.