The following was taken from past Tisha B’Av events with Rabbi Brovender and adapted by Rabbi Johnny Solomon.
הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ ה’ אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה חַדֵּשׁ יָמֵינוּ כְּקֶדֶם
Bring us back to You, God, and we shall return; renew our days as of old (Eichah 5:21)
The main message of Chapter 5 of Eichah is hope, and its penultimate verse is הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ ה’ אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה which is about teshuva (repentance, lit. ‘returning’).
And what is teshuva? It is the ultimate optimism.
No matter how much I know about myself, and no matter how clearly I see myself in terms of who I am, I can still change and be someone worthwhile because teshuva enables me to start over again.
Guaranteed Teshuva
Rambam writes in Perek 1 of Hilchot Teshuva that God guarantees teshuva on the individual level, on the emotional level, on the communal level, and on a national level. This means that teshuva teaches us that we will be given the opportunity to return to Eretz Yisrael. And the first person who begged for that promise, while looking at the destruction of Yerushalayim and the Beit HaMikdash, was Yirmiyahu Hanavi.
So even while the Beit HaMikdash doesn’t exist, the fact that repentance and renewal does exist is clearly a theological tour de force because it affirms the fact that, even absent of the Beit HaMikdash, there will always be a covenant between God and the Jewish people.
כִּי אִם מָאֹס מְאַסְתָּנוּ קָצַפְתָּ עָלֵינוּ עַד מְאֹד
For even if you found us disgusting, you should not have punished us so much (Eichah 5:22)
The final pasuk of Megillat Eichah expresses that in spite of the fact that we have sinned, God should not have punished us this much because we would have done teshuva. This ability to evaluate and discuss our aveirot (transgressions) and our punishment with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and this ability to speak about and rely upon teshuva, is a powerful testimony to the idea that there is a future and that, ultimately, we have hope.
Join our community live or via the recordings for our special free, live, and interactive online Tisha B’Av day program. SIGN UP HERE