Lamentations: First Kinah – Line 6

“Our mothers are like widows.”: In the previous line we spoke of the absence of fathers. Now we speak of our mothers. The Alshich : We say to God, “Even orphans have their father in heaven. God says, “You are children to God your Lord.” But now, even during the lifetimes of our parents we are orphans.  Our mothers are as widows even when their husbands are alive.
Elie Wiesel : If anything motivated me, it was my father’s presence. In the camp we were close, closer than ever, perhaps because we thought we might be the last survivors of our family. But there was something else as well: Finally I had my father to myself. At home he had been away often. In the camp I saw him morning to night, dusk to dawn. I saw no one but him. We depended on each other: he needed me as I needed him. Because of him, I had to live; because of me, he tried not to die. So long as I still lived, he knew he was useful, perhaps even indispensable. In my eyes, he was the same man, the same father, he had always been. If I was gone, he would lose his role, his authority, his identity. And conversely: Without him my life would have neither meaning nor goal…Without him I could not have resisted…He was my support and my oxygen, as I was his.
Ibid. page 85: As the Rebbe of Kotzk affirmed: “Avinu Malkeinu, Our Father, Our King, I shall continue to call You Father until You become our Father.”
See The Victory of Life on The Foundation Stone Blog™