Tisha B’Av Insights: The structure of Eichah

The following was taken from past Tisha B’Av events with Rabbi Brovender and adapted by Rabbi Johnny Solomon.

Making use of the Hebrew alphabet

There are a few things about Eichah which are interesting, and the first thing that catches our attention is that the pesukim (verses) of Eichah follow the Hebrew alphabet. Both chapters 1 & 2 have 22 pesukim, with each beginning with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 is different because, rather than having one verse for each letter of the Hebrew Alef Bet, it begins with 3 (short) verses which begin with ‘alef’, and continues with 3 (short) verses each beginning with ‘bet’ etc. As a result, Chapter 3 has 66 verses.

Then, in chapter 4, we return to the format of the first two chapters where there are 22 pesukim with each line beginning with a letter from the Hebrew Alphabet. However, the most interesting chapter of Megillat Eichah is chapter 5 which doesn’t follow the structure of the Hebrew alphabet, but which still has 22 verses.

To be clear, this is not the only place in the Tanach where verses follow the Hebrew alphabet. For example, Tehillim 145, otherwise known as Ashrei, follows the order of the Hebrew Alphabet, and Tehillim 119 has 9 verses for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Moreover, in terms of Ashrei, we find that there is no verse for the letter ‘nun’, and according to our Sages, this was done to teach us a lesson.

A hidden message?

Returning to Eichah, the order of the verses in Chapter 1 follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in chapters 2, 3 & 4, the verse beginning with the letter ‘peh’ comes before the verse beginning with the letter ‘ayin’. Similar to Ashrei, this suggests that Yirmiyahu was trying to teach us something by writing these verses out of order – perhaps that the destruction generated chaos and disorder.

This then brings us to chapter 5 which, though it doesn’t use the Hebrew Alphabet to begin each of its verses, nevertheless has 22 pesukim. There is a kabbalistic book called ‘Sefer Yetzirah’ which tries to explain to us how the world was created using the letters of the hebrew alphabet. Hashem needed some method to create, and the method that was chosen was through using the hebrew alphabet.

According to Jewish thought, the alphabet is understood to symbolize everything that could be. And so, through the use of these 22 pesukim, Yirmiyahu is teaching us that things can change, that there is hope, that there will be a future which we need to look towards.

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