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By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky,
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

This Shabbat we read Parashat Devarim, which is known as Chazon, literally, “vision”. This term alludes to the first word of the special Haftarah we read this Saturday morning, which recounts the vision of the prophet Isaiah about a corrupted Jerusalem, foreseeing the catastrophe which would lash at the Jewish people one hundred years later, after the prophet’s death. This Haftarah serves as spiritual preparation for the Tisha B’Av commemoration, the ninth day in the Hebrew month of Av, a date when the Jewish people remember some of its most bitter tragedies, above all, the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem. During Tisha B’Av we customarily read the Book of Lamentations, attributed by Jewish tradition to the prophet Jeremiah. This book vividly relates the fateful consequences of the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

The fact that there is a word binding the three texts mentioned above, Parashat Devarim, Haftarat Chazon, and Megillat Eichah (Book of Lamentations), is striking. This word is Eichah, a poetic form in biblical Hebrew of the term Eich, which means “how?”, “how could it happen?”, “how can it be?” Let us see, then, the three places where this curious word appears.

In Parashat Devarim, Moses recalls the hard work undertaken by leading the people of Israel throughout the wilderness, saying: “How (Eichah) can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?” (Deuteronomy 1:12). In the Haftarah, the prophet Isaiah says: “How (Eichah) is the faithful city become a harlot!” (Isaiah 1:2). In Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah says: “How (Eichah) doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1)

Now then, it is worthwhile to locate each one of these three verses in their historical context, since they mark three determining moments in the history of Israel. Moses’ complaint, the first Eichah, takes place in the wilderness, near the conquest of the Land of Canaan. Isaiah’s rebuke happens when Israel has been living for centuries in the Promised Land but, according to the prophet, this nation has failed in its mission of building a righteous society, worthy of the highest ethical and moral values. Jeremiah’s lament appears when the destruction is already a fact, and Jerusalem and its inhabitants have been seized by catastrophe.

Notice that the three verses relate to different stages of the people of Israel’s project of settlement in their land: the problems before the conquest, the disillusionment facing the loss of the way, and the tragic end. In each one of these moments, an outstanding leader was able to reflect upon their present and exclaim, “How can this be happening?” It seems that, even in the most tragic times of our history, there are people who dare to think seriously about the reality they have to live.

Not by coincidence are we invited, on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, to review the history of our people from the point of view of three of our greatest leaders, each one witness to a different historical period. The common denominator found in them is, precisely, their ability to self criticize, their clarity to not be confused by the sweetness of success nor by the crying of failure, their courage to loudly exclaim “Eichah!”

One of the deepest messages revealed by the fast of the ninth of Av is that we must constantly question ourselves as to whether we are doing things right. We must inquire with passion and express what our eyes are witnessing, not what we would like them to witness. Both at a personal and social level, we are called to develop a critical thinking and practice our ability to reflect in profundity, guilelessly. This is our only way to straighten the rudder and change course. It is painful; it is necessary.

This Parashah commentary was done by the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean, and may be reproduced quoting its source.
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Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

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