Parashat Devarim – 5785

Words of Questioning and Lamenting

A D’var Torah for Parashat Devarim

By Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15)

HaZaL, our Sages of Blessed Memory, knew exactly what they were doing when they manipulated the weekly Torah reading schedule to make sure that Parashat Devarim would be read on the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.

Tisha B’Av is a day of collective national mourning for a time, place, and way of life that no longer exist. Devarim, Moses’ final address to the Israelites during the last month of his life is similar; by looking back on what has transpired over 40 years, he is lamenting missed opportunities on an often frustrating journey and mourning the loss of a future he won’t be physically part of.

The connection between this reading and Eikha, the Book of Lamentations, is more than the fact that the two share the word, eikha, translated simply as “how?” or “Alas!”.

In Devarim 1:12

אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָּׂ֖א לְבַדִּ֑י טׇרְחֲכֶ֥ם וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃

(Because you are so numerous), How can I carry, I alone, your load, your burden, your quarreling?

And Eikha 1:1

אֵיכָ֣ה ׀ יָשְׁבָ֣ה בָדָ֗ד הָעִיר֙ רַבָּ֣תִי עָ֔ם הָיְתָ֖ה כְּאַלְמָנָ֑ה רַבָּ֣תִי בַגּוֹיִ֗ם שָׂרָ֙תִי֙ בַּמְּדִינ֔וֹת הָיְתָ֖ה לָמַֽס׃

Alas/How is it? Lonely sits the city once great with people! She that was great among nations is become like a widow; the princess among states is become a thrall.

While Moses is expressing personal frustration, and at the same time, admonishing the Israelites, and the opening verse of Eikha is an expression of wonder or disbelief, both texts are looking back in order to move forward. Both Moses and the author of Eikha (often considered to be the prophet Jeremiah) are standing on the threshold, perhaps precipice, between the past and the future.

Moses knows what’s going to happen to the Israelites once he’s gone, not because he can predict the future, but to paraphrase something Rabbi Jef Segelman pointed out in our Psalms class, Moses knows the past. Unlike prospectuses for financial investments, past performance is often an indicator of future results.

Both the Israelites in the wilderness – the generation poised to enter the land – and the Jews living in Judah in the 6th century BCE, were lacking faith in God despite the efforts of those who tried to lead them, and the prophets who shared Divine words of retribution if they didn’t change their ways.

Add to this mix another incidence of the letters א–י–כ–ה, in Bereshit 3:9, after Adam and Eve ate the apple:

וַיִּקְרָ֛א יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־ הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ אַיֶּֽכָּה׃

YHWH God called to the human and said to him: Where are you?

I’m aware that while eikha and ayekka share the same letters and might be read/pronounced the same way if there were no vowels, their roots are different. However, both are interrogative, asking a question that requires more than a simple answer.

This is “the Midrash according to me.”

Both of these questions are asked in relation to upsetting events; being cast out of gan eden, Moses coming to the end of his life, the impending destruction and exile. All three events ask us to stop and take stock; are we living the life we should be living? Are we helping to make the world a better place? Where are we in the world, and how do we bear up under the stress of living in this time and place?

Devarim begins Moses final month on earth, with many lessons to impart to a generation that didn’t witness the Exodus first-hand. By observing Tisha B’Av in whatever way is meaningful to us, we look to the past to remind us that we’ve been here before. We’ve struggled and been exiled. We’re resilient. We can look to a rebuilt Jerusalem and thriving state of Israel for the proof we need. Shabbat Shalom, tzom kal.

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Rabbi Susan Elkodsi (AJR ’15) is the spiritual leader of the Malverne Jewish Center in NY and is immediate past president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis. Her writing has appeared on JewishSacredAging.com, and she has presented workshops for Limmud, NY, for AJR and in the community, and her book, Midrash HaZaK: Torah Wisdom by 70 Over 70 (but who’s counting), an anthology of divrei torah for older adults, will soon IY”H be published. Susan is passionate about helping Baby Boomers and older adults to find meaning and purpose in their lives within the context of Jewish tradition and teachings, and as part of a Jewish community. You can find her work on her website, www.babyboomerrabbi.com. In addition, she loves to knit, spin and weave, and she and her husband David recently added kittens Tiggr and Midnight to their family.