[Avodah] EICHA?

[cantorwolberg at cox.net]

This coming week's parsha (Devarim) is always read on the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av. 
It is customary to chant verse 12 (2nd Aliya) to the tune of Eicha which is read on Tisha B'Av. 
"How can I alone bear your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels?" The connection 
with Lamentations is the first word "eicha."  But the Vilna Gaon finds a deeper connection to the
third word of verse 12, "l'vadi" (Eicha esa l'vadi): "How can I bear ALONE?"  He points out that in 
the beginning of the book of Lamentations a form of "l'vadi" also occurs: "Eicha yashva BADAD ha-ir…" 
("How the city sits solitary...").  (What's also interesting is that the same word is the third word in 
verse 12 in Devarim and also the third word in verse 1 in Lamentations).  
 
The Vilna Gaon's point is that the consequence of "sinas chinam," is aloneness and solitude.  
That is why one who spoke "lashon hara" contracted a spiritual form of leprosy and was sent 
outside of the camp to be alone and in solitude. This was to demonstrate again the consequence 
of hatred (Kamtza and bar Kamtza).  In the first chapter of Eicha, there occurs four times the variant 
of the phrase "Ein menachem lah," ["There is none to comfort her"].  In other words, Yershalayim is ALONE without any comforter.

Sinas chinam has been on the minds of many. So I propose the following: We ask "EICHA"? How is it 
possible? How do we deal with sinas chinam? Eicha? The gematria of eicha is 36. So if you ask "How"? "Eicha"?
Remember the "lamed-vovniks," the tzaddikim of the world. The only way "HOW" is through righteousness. Not easy!

We must reverse "sinas chinam" if we are to avoid drowning in a sea of apathy. Now is the time to see whose burdens we can share!
Now is the time to reverse the trend of solitude, resulting from the sin of sinas chinam. In that way Tisha b'Av will not be observed in vain. Tzom Kal. 
ri
The enemy, my friend, is hiding inside you…

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