19. I said to him, "Leave me and don’t come near me again for seven days. After that, you will come to me." He heard how I spoke and withdrew from me.
20. I didn’t eat food for seven days, wailing and weeping, as the angel Uriel had commanded me.
21. After seven days, my deepest thoughts were again very troubling to me.
22. Then I recovered my wits and I began again to speak words before the Most High:
23. Supreme Lord, you chose one vine from every forest on earth and from all its trees,
24. and from all this world’s lands you chose for yourself one region, and from all the world’s flowers you chose for yourself one lily,
25. and from all the ocean’s depths you filled for yourself one river, and from all cities that have been built you dedicated for yourself Zion,
26. and from all the created birds you named for yourself one dove, and from all the flocks that have been made you provided for yourself one sheep,
27. from all the peoples that have multiplied you acquired for yourself one people, and to this people that you desired you gave the Law celebrated by all.
28. Now, Lord, why did you give the one to the many? Why dishonor the one root above all the rest, and scatter your only one among the many?
29. Those who have denied your promises have trampled those who believed in your covenants!
30. If you really hate your people, they should be punished with your own hands.
31. When I had said these words, the angel who had come to me on the previous night was sent to me.
32. He said to me: "Listen to me, and I will instruct you; pay attention to me, and I will tell you more."
33. I said, "Speak, my Lord."He said to me, "Are you really more deeply disturbed over Israel, or do you love him more than the one who made him does?"
34. I said: "No, Lord, but I spoke in grief. My heart torments me every hour while I try to make sense of the Most High’s ways and investigate his decisions."