We continue with the words of the Bet HaLevi, as he discusses the pasuk from Eicha (chapter 1 pasuk 8), which starts off with the words,
חֵטְא חָטְאָה יְרוּשָׁלם
Jerusalem sinned a sin
And the next pasuk says,
טֻמְאָתָהּ בְּשׁוּלֶיהָ
Her impurity is on her hems
לֹא זָכְרָה אַחֲרִיתָהּ
She is heedless of her end
וַתֵּרֶד פְּלָאִים
She has descended astonishingly
אֵין מְנַחֵם לָהּ
There is no one comfort her
רְאֵה ה׳ אֶת־עׇנְיִי
See Hashem, my suffering
כִּי הִגְדִּיל אוֹיֵב
For the enemy has acted prodigiously
How does this connect to the previous pasuk, which says that we sinned a sin and weren’t aware of sinning?
During the Second Bet HaMikdash the sin was “on the hem,” which means it was hidden. The people didn’t know they were sinning, and therefore, לֹא זָכְרָה אַחֲרִיתָהthey didn’t realize their end
They didn’t realize how far this seemingly small sin of hatred could go. Because beside the sin of hated itself, the Bet HaLevi says that it is the foundation of all the evils of the world.
We don’t realize this. We don’t see the trajectory of Sinat Hinam.
It says,
וַתֵּרֶד פְּלָאִים
They descended astonishingly
And
אֵין מְנַחֵם לָהּ
There is no one comfort us, because we don’t know when it will end.
Normally, when you want to comfort someone, you tell them, “Don’t worry it’ll be over soon… just another few weeks…” But here, there are no words of comfort. Nobody knows how long it will last, because the sin is so hidden. We sweep it under the carpet, and nobody wants to let it out or share how deep it is.
He ends with the words,
See Hashem…
For the enemy has acted prodigiously.
The enemy is the Yetzer Hara, and not only does this Galut prevent us from doing Teshuva, but rather the opposite- it’s getting worse. The Yetzer Hara is only getting stronger.
So we ask Hashem to please help us. That is really the only thing that we can do. The sefer Arvei Nachal (in Parashat Shoftim)says that in this situation, on a sin that is so hidden, the only thing we can do is pray to Hashem to open up our eyes to do Teshuva.
We have to pray to Hashem to help us realize and understand the sin of Sinat Hinam, because otherwise, as the Gemara tells us, Look at the Bet HaMikdash. It’s not being rebuilt, so obviously the sin is still here.
The sin is here, and we are part of it. So we have to pray to Hashem to help us find a way to pull out of this.
Have a wonderful day.