[Avodah] Devarim "Eicha esa l'vadi?"

[Cantor Richard]

> In this week's portion which immediately precedes Tisha b'Av, Moses  
> asks: Eicha esa l'vadi...?"  "How can I alone carry your  
> contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels?"
> Eicha (spelled aleph, yud, chof, hey) is expressed by God to Adam  
> after his sin in Genesis 3:8-9.
>
> They heard the sound of the Lord God in the garden toward evening;  
> and Adam and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the  
> garden. The Lord God called out to the man and said to him "Where  
> are you?" (Ayeka, spelled: aleph, yud, chof, hey).
>
> This "Where are you" is written as Eicha, and has no legitimate  
> answer. This same word which is the name of and begins the Book of  
> Lamentations that is read next Sunday on Tisha b'Av, is the very  
> word addressed to Adam after the very first sin in history.
>
> Rabbi Avohu opens his discussion of the Book of Lamentations thus:  
> "And they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant...(Hosea 6:7)  
> This verse is a reference to when God said: "I brought Adam into the  
> Garden of Eden, I commanded him and he transgressed; I sentenced him  
> to exile, ejected him and lamented ... Similarly, with his children:  
> I brought them into the land of Israel; I commanded them and they  
> transgressed; I sentenced them to exile, I ejected them and I  
> lamented. Alas! she sits in solitude." (Eicha Raba, the 4th opening).
>
> Despite the comparison, there is a great contrast between the two  
> eichas.  Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden was permanent.  
> When God saw what Adam (and Eve) had done, He could not recognize  
> the person(s) He had originally created . When God looks at us,  
> despite all our failings, He can still recognize in us the remnant  
> of the patriarchs (and the pintele yid). As long as that remains  
> true, our relationship with the Almighty can survive; our historic  
> mission can continue, and we can still anticipate the ultimate  
> Redemption.
>
> There is a positive side of eicha in sort of a mystical and  
> enigmatic sense. The gematria of eicha is 36. Thirty-six is double  
> chai. Therefore, as we are promised in Isaiah 25:8, "He will swallow  
> up death for ever; And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off  
> all faces..." And in Isaiah 26:19, "Thy dead shall live, my dead  
> bodies shall arise--Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust..."  
> Hence, the "where are you?" of eicha will be transformed to "Hin'ni"  
> Here I am; and the "How" of eicha will be transformed to "Through  
> implicit faith in the Almighty".
>
> rw
>
>
>

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