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n the Shabbat before Tisha
B'Av, the word eychah,
which means "how,"
haunts us like a mournful
refrain of despair. Eychah is a
lament, a cry of anguish. It echoes
throughout the texts of this
season.
We find it first in the sedrah
itself when Moses cries out in an
uncharacteristic mood of help-
lessness, "How can I bear alone
the trouble of you, and the burden
and the bickering!" (Deuteronomy
1:12)
The heavy responsibilities of
leadership seem to have pushed
Moses to the outer limits of his
endurance. He can no longer
carry the weight of the leadership
of his people. He seems to be on
the brink of collapse.
Eychah occurs a second time
in the prophetic portion. Isaiah
is denouncing his people's sins
with outrage and with all the pas-
sion of his command. In the midst
of his fiery denunciation, he ex-
claims, "How has the faithful city
become a harlot. She that was full
of justice, righteousness lodged
in her, but now murderers!"
Isaiah looks at Jerusalem, the
heart of the Jewish people in
their land and he sees moral cor-
ruption, idolatry and perversity.
He exclaims eychah —"How has
this come to be, woe is me and
woe is the people."
Eychah is heard a third time
in the dirge of Jeremiah, the au-
thor of the Book of Lamentations
upon beholding the destruction
of the temple. This book is read
before the congregation on Tisha
B'Av and it opens with the word
eychah — "How has she become
as a widow, she that was great
among the nations." The prophet
has witnessed the physical
destruction of Jerusalem, the
assault upon the Jewish people,
the atrocities that had been
visited upon them, the hunger,
the devastation.
What is the answer to all
these? How do we confront per-
sonal exhaustion, moral decay,
and physical devastation?
Perhaps the answer is sug-
gested in the very word eychah.
The same Hebrew letters which
spell that word can be vocalized
in a different way to read ayekah
which means "where are you?"
So, in the first instance, the chal-
lenge is hurled back at Moses
himself.
Yes, you, Moses, who think you
have come to the end of your
rope, you who have begun to

Irwin Groner is senior rabbi of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

doubt your own ability to carry
on, where are you? Of course, it
is very tempting to throw up your
hands, to be overcome by a sense
of futility. Your people have
indeed exasperated you, frus-
trated you and drained you.
Worse, they have brought you to
the treacherous point of self-
doubt. And all you have labored
to accomplish seems doomed to
failure. You are overwhelmed by
circumstances which seem too
massive to control. But ayekah,
where are you?
Where is Moses, the undaunt-
ed leader of four stormy decades,
the Moses who confronted the
might of Pharaoh and challenged
him and led his slaves out of the
land of Egypt into the dawn of
freedom? Where is the Moses
who faced the rebelliousness of
your people and who found
within himself the strength to
lead and the capacity to forgive
and the determination to move
forward? Where is the Moses who
encountered repeated challenges
to your leadership, but who would
not yield to despair, who would
not give up? Where is that
Moses? Is this the same Moses
who is now whimpering, "How
can I bear the trouble of you."
Moses, the genuine Moses, step
forward.
To Isaiah's denunciation of his
people's moral decadence, the an-
swer is once again ayekah where
are you, Isaiah? Your lips were
purified in a heavenly vision by

Shabbat Devarim:
Deuteronomy
1:1-3:22,
Isaiah 1:1-27.

a fiery angel. For in the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem, you heard
that which no man had ever
heard, and you saw that which
no man had ever seen. In this
heavenly vision, you heard the
voice of God saying, "Whom shall
I send, and who will go for us?"
And you answered, "Here am I;
send me." Where are you now,
Isaiah? It is precisely for his
heavy purpose that you volun-
teered, to risk the disfavor of your
own people by denouncing their
transgressions.
To the despair aroused by the
devastation that Jeremiah la-
mented, the answer to each in-
dividual once again is, "Where
are you?" Is wringing your hands
all that you can do? Is there no
response other than tears? To be