 Kinah 1. “Zechor Ado-nai meh haya lanu – Recall, O Lord, what has befallen us . . . “
The refrain after each verse is:
“Oh, what has befallen us!”
We seem to be listing many of the sorrows that have befallen us, each one followed by what we believe is the reason for that particular punishment.
In the seventh verse, we say:
“Our fathers have sinned and are no more, alas!
But we bear their iniquities!”
How true. We bear their iniquities because we believe we are supposed to bear them. Mass, Jewish PTSD.
And the next to last verse:
“For if You have utterly rejected us, You have already been exceedingly wrath against us.”
We are feeling like victims – abandoned and deserted by You, God.
I see this as a cry of “Dayeinu” – “It is enough. We have learned the lessons and suffered enough!”
This Kinah to me, is like the anti-Dayeinu.
At the seder, we say Dayeinu for each of the great things Hashem has done for us.
Here we say Dayeinu for each of the “bad” things Hashem has done to us.
“For us” vs “to us.”
“Hashiveinu Ado-nai eilecha venashuva, chadeish yameinu k’Kedem -
Please, Hashem. Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored.”
This is a strange construct. If the Lord restores us, of course we will be restored. Why the double language – “Restore us Hashem and we will be restored”?
As Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, shlit’a, taught, in the name of the Gra, the Vilna Gaon, in the eighth beracha of the Shemoneh Esrei, we say:
“Refaeinu Hashem v’neirafei – Heal us Hashem and we will be healed.”
The same question begs for an answer:
If Hashem heals us, of course we will be healed! Why the double language? it’s redundant.
The Gra’ explains as follows:
Refaeinu Hashem – Heal us, Hashem means: We know that the Refuah (Cure) is always created before the Makkah (sickness or punishment).
V’neirafei means – “Now Hashem, please grant us access to that Refuah (Cure) that we know already exists.”
So to, in this Kinah, we pray:
“Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha- Restore us to you Hashem:
We know that the Teshuva, the restoration, for these aveiros (sins) already exists . . .
“V’nashuva – Now, Hashem, we are asking you to grant us access to that Teshuva, to that restoration.”
“Dayeinu!”
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