Taking responsibility for the negative consequences of our behavior allows us to learn from mistakes and do better the next time. As such, it strengthens our sense of agency, the conviction that our actions can make a difference, a critical element of hope. Indeed, Lamentations’ discussion of hope calls us to do exactly this: to search and examine our ways. In its day that meant returning to our covenantal obligations to God. Nowadays we might emphasize the importance of learning from wrong-headed decisions and of failing to properly weigh their long term implications.
The second lesson from Lamentations is that hope creates a space, albeit a narrow one, to look beyond the horrors of the present and to imagine a better future. I don’ t believe that the principle way to build that future is“ turning back to the Lord,” but the call to do so clearly points to the potential of restoration. The book refuses to accept Jerusalem’ s smoldering ruins as the end of the story. And likewise, Jewish tradition does not allow us to end the reading of Lamentations with its disconsolate last verse. Instead, after the last verse we conclude with the penultimate verse, one which overflows with possibility:“ Renew our days as of old”( 5:21).
So despite its theology, the book contains profoundly useful insights about hope. When disaster strikes don’ t give up on the vision of a better future, and figure out how to help build it; take some responsibility for how events unfolded and learn from mistakes.( Note well: This last point is sometimes reduced to accusations of blaming Jews for the Holocaust. Jews deserve no blame for the Shoah. But, innocence then does not absolve us from considering our part in the calamities that have befallen us now— with Israel a regional super power.)
Which brings us to the echoes of October 7, Israel, and Gaza in Lamentations.
74