<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font size="4">This coming week's parsha (Devarim) is always read on the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av. <br>It is customary to chant verse 12 (2nd Aliya) to the tune of <em>Eicha </em>which is read on Tisha B'Av. </font></div><div><font size="4">"How can I alone bear your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels?" The connection </font></div><div><font size="4">with Lamentations </font><span style="font-size: large; ">is the first word "<i>eicha</i>." But the Vilna Gaon finds a deeper connection to the</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large; ">third word of verse 12, "l'vadi" (Eicha esa l'vadi): </span><span style="font-size: large; ">"How can I bear ALONE?" He points out that in </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large; ">the beginning of the book of Lamentations a form of "<i>l'vadi</i>" also occurs: </span><font size="4">"Eicha yashva BADAD ha-ir…" </font></div><div><font size="4">("How the city sits</font><span style="font-size: large; "> </span><strong style="font-size: large; "><u>solitary</u></strong><span style="font-size: large; ">..."). (What's also interesting is that the same word is the <b>third </b>word in </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large; ">verse 12 in Devarim and also the third word in verse 1 in Lamentations). </span></div><div><font size="4"></font> </div><div><font size="4">The Vilna Gaon's point is that the consequence of "<i>sinas chinam</i>," is aloneness and solitude. </font></div><div><font size="4">That is why one who spoke "lashon hara" contracted a spiritual form of leprosy and was sent </font></div><div><font size="4">outside of the camp to be alone and in solitude. This was to demonstrate again the consequence </font></div><div><font size="4">of hatred (Kamtza and bar Kamtza). In the first chapter of Eicha, there occurs four times the variant </font></div><div><font size="4">of the phrase "Ein menachem lah," ["There is none to comfort her"]. </font><span style="font-size: large; ">In other words, Yershalayim is ALONE without any comforter.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large; "><br></span></div><div><font size="4">Sinas chinam has been on the minds of many. So I propose the following: We ask "EICHA"? How is it </font></div><div><font size="4">possible? How do we deal with sinas chinam? Eicha? The gematria of eicha is 36. So if you ask "How"? "Eicha"?</font></div><div><font size="4">Remember the "lamed-vovniks," the tzaddikim of the world. The only way "HOW" is through righteousness. Not easy!</font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">We must reverse </font><span style="font-size: large; ">"sinas chinam" if we are to avoid drowning in a sea of apathy. Now is the time to see whose burdens we can share!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large; ">Now is the time to reverse the trend of </span><font size="4">solitude, resulting from the <b><u>sin</u> </b>of <b><u>sin</u></b>as chinam. In that way Tisha b'Av will not be observed in vain. <i>Tzom Kal</i>. </font></div><div>ri</div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;"><b><i>The enemy, my friend, is hiding inside you…</i></b></span></div>
<br></body></html>