POP QUIZ HOT SHOT:  Name 3 times the word Eicha is used in the Tanach?

 

1. By Yirmiyahu (in Eicha, duh)

2. by Yishayahu (someplace in Tanach, take a guess) and, as luck would have it,

3. by Moshe in this week’s Parshat Devarim!

 

The Medrash explains the interplay between the three Eicha instances by describing a mashal of a beautiful prestigious woman with 3 close friends.  The first friend knows the girl when she was at her best: pretty, beautiful, successful. The second friend knows her when she’s past her prime involved in all sorts of shady overindulging activities (i.e.,  too many late nights at The Dive bar). The third friend knows her only in her downfall.

 

  • Moshe is friend 1, knowing the Jews in good Mt. Sinai times, he laments:  “How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself ?"  
  • Yishayahu is friend 2:  knowing the Jews as sinners: he laments:  “"How — eicha — has the faithful city become a prostitute?"
  • Yirmiyahu is friend 3:  knowing the Jews in our lowest of lows, he laments, as we all know the tune: “"Alas — she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow."

One might suggest the medrash is also teaching us a deeper understanding of what it means to lament about our own problems and how everything is relative.

 

Moshe’s use of the word Eicha, in good times, refers to when the Jews were being really difficult to deal with when setting up the judicial system. This was certainly a critical leadership challenge during those high mt-sinai times, but relative to Yirmiyahu’s same use of the word, lamenting the almost complete annihilation of our people and destruction of our Temple, the problems seem in almost completely in different ballparks. Right? 

 

Here’s the takehome: Often when things are going really good, our small problems become major. 

Depressed over a bad date?  Feel like complete dirt because you didn’t get an evite to someone’s shabat meal or birthday party. (cue the Bar Kamsa segue). The message might be to keep things in perspective and realize that if your day-to-day woes certainly seem “Eicha-worthy,” you might really be in a pretty good place!!!  What an awesome indicator…in actuality your current life problems might be a lot more manageable than you think.

 

Good Shabbos and Gezunde Tzores! 

(no clue if that phrase makes sense here, but nice yiddishy enders are always heimish)         (see!)