Foxes Roam the Future
Lamentations 5:18
What is the song of the survivors? What are the signs that give us hope?
Last summer, right near the days of mourning for the temples, the rumor and an image of a fox that was roaming the outskirts of the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem went viral - a random citing - or proof of prophetic promise for redemption and renewal?
The scroll of lamentations ends with a shorter poem that sounds like a prayer by those who remained in Judah after the destruction, when it had become a Babylonian possession, and a heap of rubble. Unlike the first four chapters, this one is not an acrostic but it does contain twenty two lines - one for each of the Hebrew letters. It seems to be a meditation on loss, no longer adhering to the strict alphabetical poetic form but still clinging on to some sort of structure - even through the chaos, where so little structure remains.
In somber tones the eye scans what’s left behind and remembers the suffering that was Jerusalem’s final days. Where can one find consolation and comfort? That’s where the fox comes in. Why a fox?
A Talmudic tale, quite famous, focuses on the foxes that roam the ruins and brings us a perspective that may be helpful towards healing - for that ancient loss and for others in our lives.
Towards the end of the chapter, after a long litany of loss, the poet brings one last haunting image - wild animals roaming the ruins of the sacred home where once even people were prohibited from entry:
עַל הַר־צִיּוֹן שֶׁשָּׁמֵם שׁוּעָלִים הִלְּכוּ־בוֹ׃
Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;
Foxes prowl over it.
Lamentations 5:18
Mount Zion is understood here to be the symbol of the Temple Mount - the location of the desecrated and destroyed temple. When wild animals, like foxes or jackals, roam among the ruins it is indeed the end of the civilization as they knew it.
But can one also find some hope here?
A Talmudic legend, ascribed to sages who lived during the time of the devastation of the second temple in the first century CE, is another poetic-literary attempt to find consolation and courage even among the rubble - with an eye on the long arc of justice and restoration, beyond the here and now. I quotes this tale about a year ago - when we were reading through the prophetic visions of Ezekiel - who is also mentioned here.
(You can watch this short retelling HERE.)
“One time, going up to Jerusalem, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar b. Azaryah and Rabbi Akiva came to Mount Scopus and tore their garments in mourning over the destruction. When they saw a fox emerging from the holy of holies, they began to cry — and Rabbi Akiva, to laugh. They asked: Akiva, we are crying while you are laughing? He asked: And why are you crying? They replied: Why should we not cry over the place whereof it is written (Numbers 1:51) "And the a non-priest who comes near shall be put to death," when now a fox is emerging from it! We are fulfilling (Lamentations 5:16-18) "For this our heart fails; for these our eyes are darkened: For the mountain of Zion is desolate; foxes walk in it."
He replied: That is precisely why I was laughing. For it is written (Isaiah 8:2) "And I took for Myself faithful witnesses, Uriah the Kohen and Zecharyahu ben Yeverechyah." Now why the juxtaposition of Uriah with Zechariah? Zechariah said (Zechariah 8:4) "There yet shall sit old men and old women in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in hand because of their great age." Uriah said (Michah 3:12) "Assuredly, because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods." The Holy One Blessed be He is hereby saying: Here are My two witnesses. If the words of Uriah will be fulfilled, the words of Zechariah will be fulfilled. And if the words of Uriah will not be fulfilled, the words of Zechariah will not be fulfilled. I was happy at the fulfillment of the words of Uriah. In the end, the words of Zechariah will also be fulfilled. At these words they said to him: "Akiva, you have consoled us"
Rabbi Akiva, the Jewish Zen master in this story, combines different prophetic verses and visions to assure his colleagues that just as this horror happened - so will the healing of the future. The foxes among the ruins of the Holy of Holies are wild life -- but life nevertheless, and life has a way of surprising us - sometimes for the better.
Patience is suggested here, as well as optimism, and humility in the face of history as it unfolds.
The scroll ends with a sigh, and with a prayer for renewal - both nostalgic for what was and hopeful for what repair the future may bring.
Perhaps, even during these difficult days, we can end with a hopeful note, noting the historical arc that Akiva imagined, and cautiously optimistic for better days of peace for the people of Jerusalem and all the millions that surround it. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, helps us conclude with this quote:
“Lamentations is not just a record of destruction; it is a call to remember that suffering is not the end of the story. Its very recitation transforms loss into continuity, despair into resilience.”
Onwards on our journey - into Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes - one of the oddest and most puzzling biblical scrolls of all.
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Amichai, this is beautiful. Thank you. For some reason, the fox reminded me of the heron which my mother and I saw flying over a pond next to her razed childhood home in Fritzow (today Wrzosowo) in Kamien Co., Western Poland. I said to her that I found it healing that nature was slowly taking back a place where so much human violence had happened, but she was inconsolable, even more than 60 years later. That summer, we stayed on the island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea and drove along her family's flight route in March 1945. She remembered every last farmstead where they had rested and whether people had been welcoming or harsh. Mom and I had a difficult relationship, and this was a difficult trip, but I am glad that it happened.
Incidentally, what moved the Sabbath Queen movie from "curious to watch" to "mandatory" for me was not learning about the Rebbetzin, but your own trip to Poland with your brother and your late father which is documented there. And I am enormously grateful that all of you allowed Sandy along on that deeply personal trip. Hopefully the movie will come to Dublin soon. I wish you wholeness and healing.