Nisan-Perfecting Our Speech X

“Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as one unclean (Lamentations 1:8).” This verse applies to the Babylonian Exile. The transgressors were aware of their sins, repented of them, and, after a lapse of seventy years, were returned to holiness.

“Her filthiness was hidden in her skirts; she was not mindful of her end (Lamentations 1:9).” This verse applies to the present Exile.

The latter Exile has been decreed by God as a penalty for our hatred, each of the other, a sin which we scarcely recognize as an offense. Therefore we do not repent ourselves of it, and the termination of our Exile remains, therefore, unknown.(Leover Rebbe)