The Power of a Community to Diminish Suffering in the World: A Midrash
Liora Eilon
Liora Eilon is a survivor of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Kfar Aza. This midrash will appear in the forthcoming Dirshuni: Women’s Midrash, Volume 3, edited by Tamar Biala. It appears here with permission.
Cry, she will cry at night. (Lamentations 1:2)
At night. For all who cry at night, one who hears their voice, cries along with them. (Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 104b).
Cry, she will cry (תִבְכֶּה) – this is none other than a command: Cry, you will cry (תִבְכֶּה)! One must cry at the sorrow of one’s neighbor, whose son or daughter has died. For thus he takes away a little of their sorrow and puts himself a little in their place.
At night – for in the daytime their neighbor sees their grief and may cry with them. At nighttime, people are left alone with their grief, and this is why it is written, Cry, she will cry, so that their neighbor will cry with them at night, and as the weeping and sorrow are shared, they are diminished a little in the world.
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There was a woman who was Rabban Gamliel’s neighbor, whose son died, and she would cry for him at night. Rabban Gamliel heard her voice and cried along with her until his eyelashes fell out. The next day his students took note and removed her from his neighborhood. (Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 104b)
But Rabban Gamliel was fulfilling what was written, Cry, she will cry at night, so why did they remove her from his neighborhood? His students said, because his eyelashes fell out—and that was because he was crying alone. His neighbors did not hear him crying, and did not cry along with him for that neighbor who lost her child, that is why we removed her from the neighborhood.
Because she, in their eyes, was like Abraham Our Father, of whom it is said:
“What was Abraham Our Father like? Like an amphora of persimmon fragrance, sealed shut by a tight cord, laid aside in a corner, whose scent does not carry. But when it is stirred, its scent diffuses. Thus, the Holy Blessed One said to Abraham Our Father: Move yourself from place to place and your name will grow great in the world, go you (Gen. 12:1).” (Midrash Breishit Rabbah 39:2)
The students sought to remove her out of her neighborhood, that she would stir about in the world, going from one neighborhood to another, crying for her son, and her voice would be like a shofar that sounds from one end of the earth to another, calling out: Cry, you will cry in the night, for you are the Community of Israel. And so, Rabban Gamliel will not cry alone for her in the night, but the people of his community and all the communities will cry along with them, and through that, the sorrow will diminish a little in the world.
And since she stirred about in their neighborhoods, the people cried along with her, and their tears cleansed their souls. And so, her mind eased a little, and she found some respite for her soul.
