Eicha 2024

How desolate is Your city,

How broken is Your people,

How confused,

How confounded,

How bewildered,

How betrayed.

How the enemy laughs

How they gloat at our stupidity

How they smell our weakness and seek out our blood.

How has this happened?

How could this have happened?

How have we fallen so low?

How has this happened to this people called: “wise and discerning”?

How has it forgotten the lesson of Pinchas?

How zealotry must be trumped by Peace.

How the vav of Shalom must be broken.

How spears must be forged into ploughs.

How ceaseless hate expunged with ceaseless love.

How has this happened that our minds have shrunk?

How our compassion has been withered?

How our are hearts have been closed?

We have been kidnapped.

We have been tortured.

We have been murdered.

We have been raped.

We have been broken.

We have been burnt to cinders.

How we are held hostage by the arrogant,

How we are deceived by the ignorant,

How we are ruined by the false prophets,

How trust in the gun overwhelms trust in God.

How the grasshoppers see themselves as giants.

How they revel in their righteousness.

How easy to blame our enemies.

How we will fall for their sins.

Oy!