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can strengthen someone to implement life changing decisions, so too that the person being rebuked is not immediately put on the defensive.
these leaders had managed to break out of earlier corrupt leadership If rebuke is given in a confrontational and harsh manner not only
paradigms. The natural tendency of power to corrupt has been will it be ineffective, it will also be summarily rejected and may even
overcome in the new heads of the tribes; therefore, the Torah honors lead to more reprehensible behavior. Of course, every rule has its
them by naming the portion after them. The incorruptibility of that exceptions. The rebuke in the book of Lamentations is direct, harsh,
entire new generation is expressed at the end of the book of Joshua: and full of dire warnings. Sometimes this is the only way to grab
“And Israel served God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the peoples’ attention in order to get them to really change. No matter
elders that outlived Joshua” (24:31). which approach is adopted, the importance of words, warnings, and
their powerful effect is clearly evident in the portion of Devarim.

An additional association between this portion and the Ninth of
Av is that the book of Lamentations read publically on the evening
££The Faithful Servant
£The Faithful ServantThe Faithful Servant of the Ninth of Av begins with the word aicha (“How could it have
come to pass?”). Indeed, this Hebrew word is the name of the book
in Hebrew. Significantly, Moses in this very portion uses this word
to describe how exasperated he is at the many trials and tribulations
As we have seen throughout this book, analyzing words according the Jewish people have put him through in the desert: “How [aicha]
to their letters yields deep and profound meanings. This in fact is can I bear alone your troubles, your burdens, and your quarrels?”
intrinsic to the PaRDeS system of learning. The Hebrew word (Deuteronomy 1:12). Recognizing this association, the Rabbis
for vow (neder) when split into its two syllables reads “ne-der” – have decreed that this verse be chanted with the melody used for 17
“[the letter] nun dwells.” When the two letters spelling the word Lamentations instead of the regular one.
“dwells” are exchanged, the phrase reads “ne-red” – “[the letter] nun
descends.” The letter nun is one of five letters that has two written It is important to note that the word aicha has an even earlier
forms, a common form for when it is at the beginning or the middle biblical echo. After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge
of a word and a final form for when it ends a word. When spelling the of Good and Evil, they hid in the Garden of Eden hoping to avoid
word “nun” in Hebrew, one begins with the common nun and ends the inevitable confrontation with God. God called out to them with
with the final form. Due to its bent over shape and the fact that the the term “ayeka” (Where are you?). This Hebrew word is spelled
word “faithful” begins and ends with a nun, the Talmud (Shabbat the same as aicha but is pronounced slightly differently. God, of
104a) characterizes the common form of the nun as “bent over and course, is not literally asking Adam and Eve where they are for He
faithful” and the long, straight line of the final form as “straight and is Omniscient; rather, he is challenging them to answer a series of
unboundedly faithful.” Supporting this characterization, the letter existential questions: How could you have done such a thing? Where
nun also appears as the middle letter in the Hebrew words for “poor” are you now that you have done this? What motivated you to
(ani) and “humble” (anav). distance yourselves from Me to such a degree that now you feel you
must hide from Me? What will you do to rectify the situation?
Usually people take vows only when they have reached a lowly
and humble state of mind. Figuratively bent over from the weight of Ayeka connotes a profound expression of pain, distress, and shock.
life’s challenges, they must, as it were, bend down and search deep It is as if God is expressing His profound disappointment with the
within themselves to find the strength and inspiration to carry on. choices His most treasured creation has made. When God witnesses
Oftentimes making a vow enables people to discover the strength to humanity’s moral and ethical degradation in Noah’s time, the Torah

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