Devarim 5767

This shabbat we begin the last of the chumashim, the concluding fifth, Devarim, meaning, of course, "words". Everyone knows (borrowed from Reb Shlomo, when he was saying something that practically no one knew until it struck them deep, and then, they KNEW) that Hashem plays a great joke on Moshe, quoting him as saying "I'm not a man of words" ( Lo ish devarim anochi) in attempting to refuse the offer that cannot be refused in Shemot. So Hashem sets Moshe up to deliver a thirty-day discourse - practically the entirely of Sefer Devarim - which begins with the words, "these are the words which MOSHE spoke..." ( Eleh hadevarim asher diber Moshe).

I wish to look with you at ONE of those words which Moshe spoke. The word and its associations are well-known, so consider this merely a reminder. In beginning his recounting of the trek through the desert to this younger generation (those not killed off in the desert during the forty years), Moshe says that at a particular point in time, he had told them that he could not bear their burden, since Hashem had made them so numerous. " Eicha esah levadi torchachem umasa'achem v'rivchem?" (How shall I bear alone your wearisomeness and your burden and you quarrels?). He then goes on to instruct them to appoint judges to help with the caseload.

A problem and a question:

The problem: We never see Moshe saying this to the people! In Parashat Yitro, Yitro observes that this is the case, and advises Moshe to act in this manner, and in Parashat Beha'alotecha, Moshe complains thus to Hashem in Kivrot Hata'avah, and it seems that Hashem responds with directives of this sort. But where do we find Moshe speaking thus to the people?

The question: Why does Moshe use this unusual word, Eicha? If he wished to say "How", he could have used the much more common word, Eich!

The word Eicha is not so uncommon in our liturgical cycle at this time of year, however, as the Haftarah from Yeshayahu for this Shabbat, Shabbat Hazon, also prominently features the word in the famous verse, " Eicha Hayta lazonah, kiryah ne'emanah" - (How has the city of faithfully become a whore). These words, spoken by Yeshayahu, are part of his prophetic lament over a city which has violated the very basis of its founding and the vision of its furture.

Finally, Megillat Eicha, the Scroll of Lamentations, which we are to read in a few days unless Mashiach intervenes, begins with the plaintive words, "Eicha yashvah badad hair rabbati am " - (How alone dwells the city (recently) so great of people).

Is there a connection between these three usages of Eicha? The midrash pointeds out that the same consonantal spelling is used when Hashem calls to Adam in the garden after he and Chavah have eaten from the forbidden tree with the word. "Ayeka" - where are you? Hashem cries?

If we bring together the strands from each of the three verses using the word Eicha in our readings these next few days, we see that the common theme is faithless abandonment, leading to isolation and destruction. Yirmiyahu decries the end result in Eicha, Yeshayahu excoriates the people in the midst of their faithless abandonment of Hashem in his prophecy, and Moshe, who serves both Hashem's voice to the people AND theirs to Him, tells the people of his aloneness even as he stands in their midst.

And Hashem? He walks through the garden, knowing but "choosing not to know", of the faithless abandonment of his very image so freshly set upon earth, he calls to him, "Where are you" - have you abandoned Me already?

Creation is abandonment - it is separation via identity assertion. We cry out aimlessly,wanting explanation - "Eicha" - How! Alas! Hashem, chosing contraction for the sake of creation and "experiencing" abandonment in the garden, directs His longing, His searching, His everhopeful cry: Ayeka - where are you? Will we respond in kind?

Moshe, in saying "Eicha", was not claiming ever to have said those words to the people, but was giving eloquent expression to the longing for reconnection to a people in whose eyes he stood in almost divine stature. There was a hidden "ayeka" in Moshe's words.

And as we read the megillah this coming week, with its repeated intoning of Eicha, let us intend each recitation to be our response to Yirmiyahu, Yeshayahu, Moshe and of course, only ultimately to Hashem: Ayeka?

May the dawning Hineni rise at the site of our Holy Temple amidst a unified redeemed people serving all of humanity, all of creation, as Hashem's Kohen Gadol!