Lamentations: First Kinah – Line 1 Continued

“Recall, O Lord, what has befallen us.” The Ibn Ezra explains that this refers to all the troubles that have befallen us since the time of exile until now. Recall, or, Zichor, is a major theme in Jewish Thought. We are commanded to remember 1) the Sabbath, 2) the Exodus, 3) Amalek, 4) Sinai, 5) Miriam’s punishment for speaking ill of Moshe, and 6) how we angered God in the desert. We plead with God to remember His covenant with the Avot. On Rosh Hashanah one of the three sections of Mussaf is named and about Zichronot. When we ask God to remember, as Yirmeyahu did in the first verse of Chapter 5 and as we do in this Kinah we are not simply asking God to remember our suffering. We are certainly not saying that God has forgotten us or our suffering. Remembering in Torah thought is always to remember and act.