“B acho tivkeh balaylah — She weeps weeps in the night” (Eichah 1:2).
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 104b) relates a story of a woman who would cry bitterly at night. Rabban Gamliel her neighbor heard her weeping and would cry with her. His tears poured like a river until his eyelashes fell out.
She was crying for her deceased son. Rabban Gamliel was crying for the Churban the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash.
On Leil Tishah B’Av the Night of Tears Rav Moshe Shapira ztz”l would address us in somber tones. Every inch of the beis medrash of Yeshivas HaRan in Ramot would be packed with an audience searching for an echo of Rabban Gamliel’s tears.
