"The truth thou didst abandon, the vanity thou didst follow"

O Israel, "Lament for the Fallen City", (after a poem by Moseh Pinto Delgado - a 16th-century Spanish-Jewish poet.
1. THE FALL
What sorrow, O city, what despair,
Has laid so low thy lofty state—
Thy majesty, once proud and fair,
Thy sacred courts, now desolate,
Thy splendor turned to ash and air?

(The echo is unmistakable from Lamentations 1:1:
“How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How is she become as a widow!”)

2. DIVINE JUSTICE
Who looks upon thy shattered walls,
By Heaven’s justice overthrown,
And does not see, through ruins’ calls,
The seeds of ruin were thine own—
Thy sins the weight that made thee fall?

(Ruins are never mute; they TESTIFY).

3. RECOGNITION AND JUDGMENT
What sin could wound thee so, so deep,
That none now know thy former grace?
And yet—I start, and cannot weep—
For thou didst sin, and He whose face
Has judged thee, holy watch doth keep.

(Not Despair but reverent Grief)
(Compare Isaiah 1:4–6: “The whole head is sick… from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it.”)
“For thou wast a sinner, and He who judged thee, holy.”

4. TRUTH and VANITY
The cause of all thy humbled years,
Thy fall from glory’s radiant height,
Was Truth abandoned to thy fears,
And vanity that lured thy sight—
Thus art thou brought to dust and tears.

(Spiritual Betrayal — the forsaking of Truth for Vanity)
“The truth thou didst abandon, the vanity thou didst follow” echoes Jeremiah 2:13:
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

5. THE ENDLESS LAMENT
Then weep, O people, weep again,
While grief finds neither rest nor end;
And let thy tears to Heaven ascend—
For tears can never cleanse the stain
Of crimes no sorrow can amend.

(Weep is not despair. It is recognition: that repentance itself is a form of prayer. Tears. Major difference here from Catholicism).

@copyright Lali Posthill InterpretingTradition
I read and interpret what deserves not to be forgotten. If that resonates—join in.
Some of what I share In this channel "Interpreting Tradition", are reflections on Literature, Politics, History, Philosophy. Sometimes I read old texts out loud, and sometimes I just speak into the camera. But behind every video is the same impulse: to preserve something. To interpret what’s been handed down — carefully, honestly, and with a sense of reverence.
hanks for being here.

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