Eicha v’Ayeka Yisrael: How and Where are you?
We are roughly at the halfway point in sefer Devarim, about to complete this Shabbat the sixth parsha, Ki Tetzei, with five more to go. It is noteworthy that four of the first five parshiyot of Devarim explicitly contain the Hebrew word eicha. The fifth occurrence is in parshat Haazinu, the penultimate parsha. No other sefer in the Torah contains this word.
We associate the word eicha with Tisha B’Av. Twice we lost our Holy Temples and Jerusalem, to different enemies hundreds of years apart.
Eicha opens the prophet Yirmiyahu’s painful Lamentations. While speaking of the loss of Bayit Rishon, it came to identify all of tragedy and the mourning our great nation has experienced — from the sin of the spies in the midbar to the Holocaust, and more recently the catastrophe of October 7. That is almost 3,500 years of Jewish history. And at times, it feels like nothing has changed.
Every year, Shabbat Chazon falls on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, so Eicha is read in parshat Devarim (1:12) and in the haftara (Yeshayahu 1:21), followed by the reading of Yirmiyahu’s “Megillat Eicha — Lamentations” on Tisha B’Av.
Yet after Tisha B’Av, the seven haftarot through Shabbat Shuva are called the shiva d’nechemta, the seven haftarot of comfort. Some comfort, when we keep hearing that word: Eicha!
What does it mean?
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A seemingly prosaic word, it means “How?” as in, “How did this happen?” The word itself is neutral. Nevertheless, its Jewish context is overwhelmingly negative.
Yet Hebrew offers a remarkable transformation. Eicha is spelled with four letters: aleph-yud-kaf-heh. Vowelize those same letters differently, and eicha becomes ayeka: “Where are you?”
Famously, that was Hashem’s question to Adam HaRishon after he ate from the forbidden eitz hadaat, the tree of knowledge. Clearly the Master of the Universe, who knows and sees all, was not asking Adam’s location. It was a deep, introspective question.
Scholars throughout the ages have written about the relationship between eicha and ayeka. Rav Yosef Dov Ber Soloveitchik, the Rav, taught that Hashem’s question to Adam was rhetorical, challenging him for hiding after his sin — distancing himself from Hashem like a fearful child afraid to approach an angry parent.
The Rav says this distancing from Hashem also defines the tragedy of eicha. When we sin, as we did leading to the loss of the Batei Mikdash and Yerushalayim, we distance ourselves from Him. We sever the intimate relationship, the dveikut, that was the purpose of our creation. Conversely, when we do teshuva, as we are compelled to do during Elul leading to the Yomim Noraim, we re-establish that closeness.
Interestingly, eicha does not appear in parshat V’etchanan, recited on Shabbat Nachamu. That parsha is about dveikut, loving attachment to Hashem: “v’atem ha’dveikim ba’Shem Elokeichem, chaim kulchem hayom (but you, who remain attached to Hashem, your G-d, are all alive today)” (Devarim 4:4).
Beyond the personal message, these ideas have practical applications for Israel. One of the greatest problems facing the country is the conflict between the charedi population and the rest of the Jewish citizenry.
Israeli journalist and commentator Amit Segal described the painful conflict between those who serve in defense of the nation and those who don’t: “The young soldier knows that once he is discharged, he will be called up for reserve duty again and again. He cannot see his future.”
In the more than 1,000 days since Oct. 7, soldiers are serving repeatedly, anywhere from 300 to 400 days in some cases, disrupting careers, businesses, education and family life.
I personally know many of these soldiers and their families. The anger and frustration is bitter and real. This issue is tearing the country apart.
We read parshat Ki Tetzei la’milchama this Shabbat — “If you go out to war…” These words are not directed solely at dati leumi or chiloni Jews, but to the charedi as well. They must serve, in whatever capacity they can, to defend klal Yisrael.
At the same time, the army and government must accommodate their needs to the best of their ability, protecting religious sensibilities involving kashrut, interaction with women and other contentious issues.
We all must find a solution to this self-destructive and self-inflicted problem. This is the achdut — unity — Hashem desires of us.
Our first step is teshuva and seeking dveikut, closeness to Hashem. He is asking all of Israel, individually and collectively, “eicha” — how did you let this happen? And “ayeka” — where are you? Where are you in fixing it?
Shabbat shalom.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
