<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">In this week's portion which immediately precedes Tisha b'Av, Moses asks: <i>Eicha</i> esa l'vadi...?" "How can I alone carry your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels?"</span></div></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><p><i>Eicha</i> (spelled aleph, yud, chof, hey)<i> </i>is expressed by God to Adam after his sin in Genesis 3:8-9.</p><blockquote><p><i>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?" </i>(<i>Ayeka</i>, spelled: aleph, yud, chof, hey).</p></blockquote><p>This "<i>Where are you</i>" is written as <i>Eicha</i>, 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.</p><blockquote><p>Rabbi Avohu opens his discussion of the Book of Lamentations thus: "And<i> they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant...</i>(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 4<sup>th</sup> opening).</p></blockquote><p>Despite the comparison, there is a great contrast between the two <i>eichas</i>. 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 <i>pintele </i>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.</p><p>There is a positive side of <i>eicha</i> in sort of a mystical and enigmatic sense. The gematria of <i>eicha</i> is 36. Thirty-six is double <i>chai</i>. 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 "<b>where</b> are you?" of <i>eicha</i> will be transformed to "Hin'ni" <b>Here</b> I am; and the "How" of <i>eicha</i> will be transformed to "Through implicit faith in the Almighty". </p><p>rw </p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><pre><b><i><br></i></b></pre></span></p></span></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>