Yerushalayim- a.k.a Dan Scott

         Moving from one cheerful story to the next, this week we said our final goodbyes to Kohelet as we started Eichah. Because Eichah happens to be 8 perakim shorter than Kohelet, we are learning each pasuk in depth. This week we flew through Perek Alef and got an in depth view of what Eichah is really about. As always, we learned some background of the Jewish people so as to really understand what was happening at the time. The final tribes of Yehuda were exiled and Yerushalayim was destroyed.
       
         The word "Eichah" itself can be broken down to give us a hint about the megillah's contents. It could be an elongated version of "Eich" - "How". A "how" laden with emotion, like a deep sigh filled with pain. Moving on to the actual pesukim, we can see how this idea can apply to the contents.

         Perek Alef is split into two halves- יא-כב and א-יא. The first half is narrated by the מקונן, or "the one who laments". This would be Yirmiyahu, who was the Navi at the time. The people had been ignoring his warnings of their impending doom, and now he is describing an objective view of the aftermath. He describes how Yerushalayim views herself and then his view of what is happening in Yerushalayim. The first four pesukim are narrated by Yirmiyahu, where he describes how he thinks Yerushalayim would describe herself. Apparently, he thinks she would describe herself to be lonely, betrayed by her friends, no one to comfort her, and exiled because of her enemies. She is in a terrible emotional state.

         The rest of the first half is Yirmiyahu's actual view on what is happening. He says that it's true that her enemies attacked, her children were exiled, her princes and officers were chased out, and all of her splendor and possessions were taken from her by the enemy who laughed at her, but it's because of her sins, not her enemies.

         In the next half of Perek Alef, a personified version of Yerushalayim gives a subjective description of what she is experiencing. In the first few pesukim, she blames G-d for her destruction and describes her utter despair and sorrow. She is terribly lonely because her friends abandoned her and she lost all of her people. As the perek moves on, she starts to recognize that maybe G-d was just in what He did and she takes responsibility for her sins. At the end of the perek, she realizes that those she thought were her friends betrayed her, and perhaps they should be punished as well.

         When recounting the details of what we learned this week, I couldn't help but think of One Tree Hill (of course). One of the protagonists in the show, Dan Scott, is who I thought of when seeing what happened to Yerushalayim. Like Yerushalayim, Dan Scott made many grave mistakes that made a huge impact on his relationships with his family and friends. In the begnning of the show, he is basically just a terrible human being. He is cruel, devious, and overbearing, especially to his sons, Nathan and Lucas.

         In later seasons, after many different twists and turns, Dan is left virtually alone as his family and friends abandon him. This is the point where he finally realizes that he is the one who brought this upon himself and he is overtaken by guilt. As the show progresses, so does Dan, as he tries desperately to mend his broken relationships. I always find it so interesting that we can apply the ideas of a megillah to modern day TV shows, and I believe it makes it easier to understand.