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your wife, all your money and even your life! “The L-rd, G-d, called out to man and He said 5. The loneliness is part of G-d’s punishment.
Aren’t we better off in our Promised Land?” to him: ה ָכּ ֶיּ ַא, Where are you?” It is He who has hardened the hearts of the
surrounding nations; He who has ensured
The rabbi’s words made sense to Berel. But G-d was saying to Adam that this is not a that we be shown no sympathy (17). The
he still had to inform his wife. time to hide away. It is also not a time to shy suffering aims to bring us to reflect upon
away from your responsibilities. The Hebrew
Five minutes later, another knock. “My wife word for responsibility is תוּי ָר ְח ַא. It comes our sins and the implications of our having
requests that you pray for the Messiah to from the root ר ֵח ַא meaning “after,” indicating distanced ourselves from G-d. Had we been
come and take the Cossacks to the Land that our response to anything must be with a consoled and welcomed by the other nations,
of Israel… so we can stay here with our sense of responsibility. if our life lived far from G-d was functional
chickens!” and normal, we might have missed the point.
In the aftermath of something that has If the nations welcomed us in, we might not
This story reflects the attitude many Jews happened to us, instead of caving in to the feel the need to correct our mistakes and
have concerning exile and redemption. It pressure and asking “eicha?” – how or why? repair our relationship with Him.
also explains in part why mourning on Tisha we need to ask ourselves “ayeka?” Where
B’Av and reciting Eicha is so difficult for us to are we at? What are we going to do about this It is our sins that make us pariahs (8) and
relate to. We hope that this Eicha Companion, situation? How will we respond proactively therefore it is G-d, not the surrounding
together with this entire issue of HaMizrachi, and constructively? nations, who we need to beseech in order
will make these concepts more relevant to to solve our problem (9-11, 20-22). We focus
our generation. Interestingly, תוּי ָר ְח ַא also comes from the root on the righteousness of His decrees, not the
ר ֵח ַא meaning “another” or “someone else.” whims of other nations (18-19). In fact, when
This indicates that the responsible way for me we do speak to the nations, it is not to beg
The Right Questions to react in situations of crisis and challenge is for their sympathy but rather to help them
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis not to just consider my own plight but also to understand the heavenly origins of our lonely
consider the welfare, well-being and interests fate (12-15).
If only we asked the right questions. of everyone around me. The first chapter of Eicha reads like a
Over this coming weekend there is one contemporary report on anti-Semitism and
question that we are going to be hearing time Our Prophets teach that Tisha B’Av is a ד ֵעוֹמ, anti-Israel bias. But the lessons are exactly
and time again. It is “Eicha?” meaning “How?” a festival. This indicates that in the course the same. We too need to realize that the
of time, the saddest of all of our days in
In Parashat Devarim we will be reading how the calendar will become the happiest of true source of this hatred and bias actually
Moshe asked that question. In our Haftarah days. We can contribute towards this if we emanates from G-d’s decree. The solution
this Shabbat, we will read how the prophet transform “eicha?” into “ayeka?” is not easy but it is simple. We solve the
problem by fixing our relationship with Him.
Isaiah asked this question. And of course,
the Book of Eicha takes its name from the In times of difficulty, of crisis, tragedy and of May we succeed in doing this sooner rather
opening word, “Eicha?” because that is the challenge, instead of asking “how/why is this than later.
question the prophet Jeremiah asked as well. happening?” let us ask, “What can I do about
it?” “Where am I in this situation?” and “How
King Solomon asked the question too – in can I contribute towards making this a better Eicha Rabbah: The Gift of Torah
fact there are 18 occasions in Tanach on world for us all?” Dr. Yael Ziegler
which the question “Eicha?” is posed. It’s all
about sorrow. We are asking, how could this The biblical book of Eicha dwells on the past
have happened? How could it be that we are Why We Are So Lonely and present of the ן ָבּ ְר ֻח, offering only brief
facing such challenges that we are enduring Rabbi Reuven Taragin glimpses into a possible future. Practically,
such sorrow? Why is this happening to us? this means that Eicha offers no real advice
The phrase ם ֵחַנ ְמ הּ ָל ןי ֵא – she has no
Fascinatingly there is a 19th occasion in comforter, is a motif throughout the first for surviving the grim state of destruction
Tanach in which the same word appears. chapter (2, 9, 17, 21) and emphasizes that and exile. Eicha Rabbah rushes to fill this
However, it is pronounced differently. It is the nations of the world not only hold back void, offering guidance for Israel in its
also spelt ה-כ-י-א but this time it is vowelled assistance and betray commitments made to difficult times. The wise and compassionate
differently – ה ָכּ ֶיּ ַא, ayeka. us (2), they also show us no sympathy. messages found in this rabbinic compendium
continue to be pertinent and to bolster Israel
It features in Parashat Bereishit, right at the Why does no-one offer consolation? Why are throughout the long and difficult years of
beginning of the Torah. After the original sin, the Jewish people the only ones unable to exile. Chazal’s ability to intuit Israel’s present
when G-d saw that Adam had fled, we read evoke sympathy? Eicha answers this in verse and future needs contributes greatly to

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