(4) Just now you called to Me, “Father! You are the Companion of my youth.
(27) They said to wood, “You are my father,” To stone, “You gave birth to me,” While to Me they turned their backs And not their faces. But in their hour of calamity they cry, “Arise and save us!”
The Sages taught in a baraita: The verse states: “And she shall bewail her father and her mother a month of days and after that you may come to her” (Deuteronomy 21:13).
Rabbi Eliezer says: “Her father” means her actual father and “her mother” means her actual mother. Rabbi Akiva says: Her father and her mother; this is referring to the idolatrous deity that she had worshiped but will no longer be able to worship, and so it says: “They say to a tree: You are my father, and to a stone: You have given birth to us” (Jeremiah 2:27).
(יג) רַבִּי חֲנִינָא בַּר פַּפָּא פָּתַח (משלי כה, יח): מֵפִיץ וְחֶרֶב וְחֵץ שָׁנוּן וגו', מֵפִיץ, עַל שֵׁם (דברים כח, סד): וֶהֱפִיצְךָ ה' בְּכָל הָעַמִּים. וְחֶרֶב, עַל שֵׁם (ויקרא כו, לג): וַהֲרִיקֹתִי אַחֲרֵיכֶם חָרֶב. וְחֵץ שָׁנוּן, עַל שֵׁם (יחזקאל ה, טז): בְּשַׁלְּחִי אֶת חִצֵּי הָרָעָב, הַכֹּל לְמִי, לְאִישׁ עֹנֶה בְרֵעֵהוּ עֵד שָׁקֶר, אֵלּוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁהֵשִׁיבוּ וְאָמְרוּ (שמות לב, ד): אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל. (משלי כה, יט): שֵׁן רֹעָה וְרֶגֶל מוּעָדֶת וגו', אָמְרוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, כְּשֶׁבָּאתָ לִרְעוֹת אוֹתָנוּ הַשֵּׁן אָכְלָה וּמַדְּקָה אֲחֵרִים, וְלָמָּה שֵׁן רוֹעָה אוֹכֶלֶת אוֹתָנוּ, וְרֶגֶל רוֹפֶסֶת אוֹתָנוּ, מִפְּנֵי בִּטְחוֹנָהּ שֶׁל עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים עַל שֶׁבָּגַדְנוּ בְּצוּרֵנוּ, (משלי כה, יט): מַעֲדֶה בֶּגֶד בְּיוֹם קָרָה, (זכריה ז, יג): וַיְהִי כַאֲשֶׁר קָרָא וְלֹא שָׁמֵעוּ. דָּבָר אַחֵר, שֵׁן רֹעָה וְרֶגֶל מוּעָדֶת, שֵׁן מְעַרְעֲרָה וְרֶגֶל מְמַטְמְטָה, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל בִּגְדוּ בַּעֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים וּבִטְחוּ בִי, וְהֵן לֹא עָשׂוּ כֵן אֶלָּא בָּגְדוּ בִי וּבָטְחוּ בַּעֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (ירמיה ב, כז): אֹמְרִים לָעֵץ אָבִי אַתָּה. כֵּיוָן שֶׁחָטְאוּ גָּלוּ, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁגָּלוּ הִתְחִיל יִרְמְיָה מְקוֹנֵן עֲלֵיהֶם אֵיכָה.
Rabbi Hanina bar Papa open (Proverbs 25:18)...Like a club, a sword, a sharpened arrow, is a man who testifies falsely against his fellow. A club to scatter, as it says:(Deut 28: 64): Adonai will scatter you among all the peoples[ from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced.] A sword, as it says (Lev. 26:33): I will unsheath the sword against you. Your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin. And a sharpened arrow, as it says (Ezekiel 5:16): When I loose the deadly arrows of famine against those doomed to destruction, when I loose them against you to destroy you...
All of this is for whom? The one who answers their fellow as a false witness. This is the people of Israel, who turned and said (Exodus 32:4): “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
(Proverbs 25:19): Like a loose tooth and an unsteady leg, is a treacherous support in time of trouble. The people of Israel said to the Holy Blessed One: Master of the Universe, when you came to guide us--the tooth ate. And why did the loose tooth eat us, and the leg weakened us? Because we trusted in the idol which we clothed in your likeness or: we betrayed your likeness), as it says (Proverbs 25:20): Disrobing on a chilly day.
(Zechariah 7:13): Even as God called and they would not listen, “So,” said the LORD of Hosts, “let them call and I will not listen.”
Another explanation: Like a loose tooth and an unsteady leg...a shaky tooth and a wavering walk. The Holy Blessed One said: I told the children of Israel: Betray idol worship and trust in Me. But, they did not do that, but rather rejected Me and placed their trust in idols, as it is written (Jeremiah 2:27): They said to wood, “You are my father.”
Because they sinned, they were exiled. And when they were exiled, Jeremiah began to weep Lamentations over them.
The word Av contains the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet: alef, beit, which are the first letters of the words emunah and bitachon, "faith" and "trust." This month we strive to return to our beginnings, to the alef from which all creation unfolds, and to find faith and trust there.
-adapted from various teachings about Av at Inner.org
If you return, O Israel: In this repentenance, my God, you are returned to your previous glory and greatness.
Kings shall see and arise, princes shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, Who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, Who has chosen you” (Isaiah 49:7), indicating that redemption will come independent of repentance? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: But isn’t it already stated: “If you will return, Israel, says the Lord, return to Me” (Jeremiah 4:1), indicating that redemption is contingent upon repentance? Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: But isn’t it already stated: “And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he lifted up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by the One Who lives forever that it shall be for a period, periods, and a half; when the crushing of the power of the holy people shall have been completed, all these things shall be finished” (Daniel 12:7), indicating that the time for redemption is set and unrelated to repentance? And Rabbi Eliezer was silent, unable to refute the proof from that verse.