What Can Israel in 2026 Learn from the Prophet Jeremiah this Tisha B’Av?
As Israel marks Tisha B'Av, we recall that the Prophet Jeremiah manages to hold together pain, accusation, and despair, alongside mutual responsibility, accountability, and hope for the future. In 2026, Israel can learn several lessons from the way Jeremiah chooses to conduct a conversation.
Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90
On Tisha B’Av, in synagogues and across the Jewish world, the Book of Lamentations, traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah after the destruction of the First Temple more than 2,500 years ago, is read in a mournful intonation. It is a difficult and painful scroll about the destruction of Jerusalem, addressed to the people around him but no less to God. This is a text worth studying not only in theology classes, but also through the prisms of psychology and diplomacy. Jeremiah manages to hold together, in the same words, a searing cry, accusation, and despair, alongside mutual responsibility, accountability, and hope for the future. It seems that Israel in 2026 – especially as we embark on what promises to be a contentious election – can learn several lessons from the way Jeremiah chooses to conduct a conversation.
Naming pain and anger: In the Book of Lamentations, the speaker dares to bring harsh and detailed grievances before his interlocutor—God himself in this case. Following in the footsteps of biblical figures such as Abraham and Moses, he too lays out his claims and accusations without mincing words: without manipulation and without detours. He speaks directly of his pain – “For these things do I weep– and in the first person: “Is there any agony like mine, which was dealt out to me.” He boldly challenges God, who has turned from lover into enemy; he expresses his disappointment and frustration and does not spare words. It is always difficult to hear accusations and hard truths. It takes courage to place pain and anger on the table as they are, in the first person, from the depths of the heart, and to dare to discuss them—especially with an authority figure. But that courage also contains the continuation of the relationship and the possibility of repair, rather than rupture and separation. Jeremiah’s courage is inspiring, and it also opens a conversation.
Taking responsibility: Within his severe indictment over Jerusalem’s destruction, Jeremiah also manages to take personal responsibility – "for all my transgressions” – and to accept responsibility for the community from which he comes: “Jerusalem has greatly sinned.” In Jeremiah’s view, there is no contradiction between the two. In times of disaster, responsibility belongs both to leadership and to the people, both to God and to human beings. This is not equal responsibility: only a few verses are devoted to the people’s responsibility, compared with those devoted to the responsibility of the one who holds authority, God. Yet the distribution of responsibility among all parties also makes it possible for them to say much sharper and more honest things to one another – things that have a chance of being heard. To this is added the task of soul-searching and inquiry – “Let us search and try our ways” – which is likewise shared by all.
A discourse of hope and the future: Giving pain and responsibility their due place also makes it possible to move toward hope. Eicha deals with captivity, famine, and bereavement, but it does not stop there. It contains thoughts about the good future awaiting the people of Israel – “He will exile you no more” – and a plea for restoration, renewal, and rebuilding: “Renew our days as of old!” Setting out a shared future also makes it possible to conduct the confrontation in a way that can be contained.
The Hebrew title “Eicha” asks the hard question of "how?" How we got here, how we allowed this to happen, and it also demands an inquiry into how events truly unfolded. With different vowels – “Ayeka” – one can also hear in it the original call from Genesis, “Where are you?” as God searches for the human being who is hiding and fleeing responsibility after the sin in the Garden of Eden.
On the eve of Tisha B'av and at the outset of the 2026 election, President Isaac Hezog addressed the nation and beseeched us to recall that, "we have a historic responsibility to the generations who came before us, and to generations to come. I say it again: elections are not a civil war." President Herzog reminded Israelis that discourse matters and that only a combination of directly naming pain and anger, taking responsibility, and speaking in terms of hope can bring healing and repair.
By doing so, we can transform the days of Bein HaMetzarim (the three weeks from when the walls of Jerusalem were pierced until the Temple was destroyed), from days of mourning into days of gladness and joy, and bring a smile to the “Tisha B’Av face” that has accompanied Israelis in recent years. In this way, the question of “Eicha” can be transformed from a question of clarification and soul-searching about the past into a practical, future-oriented question – and into growth from within the crisis.
This article was published in The Times of Israel.