CHOCHMAS NASHIM: DEVARIM: EICHAH: YIDDELIN SHRAI AD MASAI
By: Suri Davis
אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָּׂ֖א לְבַדִּ֑י טׇרְחֲכֶ֥ם וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃ How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering! Deuteronomy 1:12
Moses asks the nation, how he can carry the burden of the people, how he can lead alone.
The first word of this verse, Eichah/How is the very first word of the Book of Lamentations which we read this Saturday night, post Shabbos on the Ninth of Av, the commemoration of the destruction of the holy temple in Jerusalem.
“How does the greatly crowded city sit alone? She has become like a widow. Great among the nations, a princess among the states: She has become a vassal” (Lamentations 1:1).
“How [eikha] does…sit [alone].” Three prophesied with the term eikha: Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Moses said: “How [eikha] can I bear alone…” (Deuteronomy 1:12). Isaiah said: “How [eikha] did [the faithful city] become a harlot?” (Isaiah 1:21). Jeremiah said: “How [eikha] does [the greatly crowded city] sit alone?” Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a noblewoman who had three friends. One saw her in her tranquility, one saw her in her debauchery, and one saw her in her disgrace. So, Moses saw them in their glory and their tranquility and said: “How [eikha] can I bear alone your troubles?” Isaiah saw them in their debauchery and said: “How [eikha] did [the faithful city] become a harlot?” Jeremiah saw them in their disgrace and said: “How [eikha] does [the greatly crowded city] sit [alone]?”
They asked ben Azai, saying to him: ‘Our teacher, expound for us one matter from the scroll of Lamentations.’ He said to them: ‘Israel was exiled only after they denied the Unique One of the world, circumcision that was given after twenty generations, the Ten Commandments, the five books of the Torah; the numerical value of eikha.’ Eichah Rabbah. To explicate, the word Eichah is comprised of four letters of the Jewish alphabet each letter has a numerical equivalent (this methodology or analysis of the equivalency of numerical values of Jewish letters and words is known as Gematriah.) The first letter, aleph is the sui generis nature of G-d Himself, which the Jews denied by permitting idols in the holy temple. The second letter of the Eichah is the Hebrew letter Yud, the equivalent of ten, which refers to the ten commandments, which the Jews denied and breached. The third letter in Eichah is Chuf, which is the numerical equivalent of twenty, which alludes to the twenty generations which passed from Adam to Abraham, who was given the commandment of circumcision, which the Jews denied. The last letter of the word Eichah is Heh, which is numerically five, which refers to the Five Books of Moses, which the Jews neglected to follow. These are all commandments affecting the relationship between Man and G-d. The second temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred, between man and man.
And for this, Jerusalem was bereft as a jolted princess among the nations. I have mentioned this story often, and for those who haven’t read it, please indulge me.
I was pregnant with my third child, when I came down with food poisoning. Hakarat Hatov to Dr. Steve Kellner who tried hard to rehydrate me, to no avail. I had to be induced so that I could take strong antibiotics to heal. My son, Joseph, was born on Bet Av/the second day of the Jewish month of Av, and his bris was on Tisha B’av in the white shul between Minchah and Maariv. At about five o’clock, my family and I got out of our daily clothes and sneakers, and changed into “Shabbos” clothes, including our leather shoes, I can’t tell you how bizarre it was to be preparing for a simcha on the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. It was a silent moment, a deeply moving moment, how does one prepare for a simcha as the entire Jewish nation mourns its communal loss of millennia? Such complex mixed feelings.
We went to shul en famile, the women went to the balcony, and I waited the sign from the Mohel/Rabbi-cirucmciser. Since all were fasting, and I was not (as I had just given birth, and could not fast), I would be the person to drink the bris wine. When I got the sign from Rabbi Glenn, I started walking from the women’s section down to the men’s section, it felt like slow motion. I made an intentional, conscious prayer of thanks to G-d that on this saddest day of the year, I was zocheh/merited to dress in holiday clothes and drink the wine of joy. Again, on the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, I merited to drink the wine of joy, happiness and holiday. I asked G-d to bring Moshiach so that the Ninth of Av would never again be a day of sadness for me and the entire Jewish community.
Epilogue: Twenty-two years have passed and still no Moshiach. Two months ago, I merited walking my son Joseph down the aisle to his Chupah. Grand joy that this premature baby be zocheh to build a bayit neeman b’yisrael/a Jewish home. When the three weeks arrive each year since then, the feeling of ad masai/until when HKBH will we suffer in the diaspora waiting for Moshiach/Massiah to come and redeem us, and turn the Ninth of Av into a communal simcha/holiday, may Moshiach come speedily in our day.
Have a good Shabbos.
Have a meaningful Tisha B’av
-Suri