The Book of Eicha – Lamentations – is chanted in a sorrowful tune on Tisha B’Av. This Megilla was scribed by the Prophet Jeremiah before the destruction of the first Temple as a warning to the people. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears and his prophetic words became a reality when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and exiled the Jews from their land. When Yehoyachin, the King of Israel at the time, heard Jeremiah’s warning, he got so incensed that he grabbed Jeremiah’s scroll and threw it into a fire. Jeremiah then rewrote the scroll.
One will notice that the verses contained in the first four of the five chapters, follow the Aleph – Bais. The first verse begins with an Aleph and the second verse begins with a Bais and so on. (In the third chapter each letter gets three consecutive verses that begin with its letter.)
The question is why? The Talmud explains. The entirety of the Alef-Bais represents the Torah – since it is with these letters that G-d communicates His word and instruction through the words contained in the Torah. Jeremiah, by using the order of the Alef-Bais to begin the verses was conveying that the underlying reason that G-d’s Abode, His Temple, was taken away from us was because the Jews did not uphold the Torah.
The order of the 22 letters of the Alef-Bais is well known to us. What is peculiar here is that in the first chapter the letters are in the correct order. However, in the second, third and fourth chapters, two letters are consistently switched. The letters Ayin and Peh are reversed, thus the letter Peh appears before Ayin. Why?
A bit of a historical background is needed to explain. Jeremiah relates; “A double crying will occur as a result of a purposeless cry that was done at night.” Jeremiah was referring to the spies that Moshe sent to Israel while the Jews were in the desert. They returned with their report on the 8th day of the month of Av. Ten evil spies rattled the nation with their negative report. The nation listened to the wicked spies rather than to G-d’s guarantee that He would assist them in taking over the land. That night, the 9th of Av, they began to weep tears that they were forsaken. The tears they shed that night were for naught. G-d said, “In the future I will give you something to cry about on this very day. It happened twice. The first and second Temples were both destroyed on Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av.
Getting back to the question of why are the letters Ayin and Peh reversed, the Talmud explains that Ayin means “eye” ― to see, and Peh means “mouth” – to speak. Generally a person speaks only after he sees something. So Ayin, “seeing” precedes Peh – “what comes out of his mouth.” And so it is in the Alef-Bais, the letter Ayin precedes the letter Peh.
However, the root of the destructions of the Temples had to do with the spies’ false and negative report which came about because the spies spoke falsely about things they did not see. Since they used their Peh – conveying their false report, without using their Ayin – eyes, the letters are reversed.
The question asked is why in the first chapter is the Ayin and Peh listed in its correct order? The answer offered is that any lie without a bit of truth mixed in can be smelled out in a minute. The spies cleverly understood that were they to report completely negatively about the land it would not be accepted by the people. They therefore began with saying the truth, “The land is flowing with milk and honey.” Then they began speaking negatively. Since they reported something of what they saw correctly, Jeremiah begins with the Alef- Bais in order, the Ayin and then the Peh.
This concept is fundamental in our approach to just about anything in life. Words have to be justified by the things that we see and not as a result of hearsay.
Often people have an opinion, perception or view on Torah matters, whether it is concerning a law, an interpretation of a law, a biblical personality, a historical detail, or of G-d Himself, which from an educated point of view, is off target. If they are asked if they ever committed to apply themselves to study the Torah to form their position, the answer will more often than not, be, “no, not really”.
The Torah was given to each of us to study and to honestly delve into to seek out its clarity and message.
As G-d set up the Alef-Bais from which He formulated the Torah, He placed the letter Ayin – which means to see, peer and delve into the Torah ― before the letter Peh. This is so that our speech and knowledge of Torah become formulated and conveyed sincerely, and with clarity, honesty and integrity!
Tisha B’Av observance:
In addition to not eating and drinking, washing and applying ointments to one’s body, wearing leather footwear and marital relations are also prohibited on Tisha B’Av. On Wednesday, in the late afternoon prior to the fast, a simple meal is eaten while sitting on a low bench, customarily consisting of bread, water and a hard boiled egg. We sit on a low bench until midday Thursday (1:08 p.m.) This is the way our prophets and sages prescribed our expression of mourning over our misfortunes. The fast begins 8:22 p.m. Wednesday evening, and ends 9:03 p.m. Thursday night.(Times are calculated for the Scranton area)
