Eicha: All of Life’s Struggles In One Word
On Tisha B’Av this Saturday night and Sunday, Jewish communities around the world will be reading the book of Eicha/Lamentations. The saddest day of the year, Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the long and difficult exile that we have endured ever since.
“Eicha” is the title of the book of Lamentations because it is its first word, “אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם/Eicha yashva badad ha’ir rabasi am/O how the city that was once so populous remains alone.” The word “eicha” means “how,” but the Zohar expounds on the term and reveals its much deeper meaning.
Broken down into two component parts, אֵיכָה/Eicha becomes “אֵי כה/Ei ka.” Every Hebrew letter has a numeric value, and כה/ka is 25. “אֵי/Ei” means where, and thus the Zohar renders the term “where is 25?” 25, the Zohar continues, refers to the 25 letters in the Shema prayer: “שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד/Shema Yisrael A-donai E-loheinu A-donai echad/Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
The very first word of our lament is a concise explanation for the loss of the holy Temple, our lengthy exile, and all of the troubles that we have endured. It is because we don’t know “where is 25” – we have lost the Shema and its essential statement of God’s infinite Oneness. Without it, we have suffered for millennia.
When we find it – when we realize that we are all one and that there is nothing but God – the Temple will be rebuilt and this exile will end.
When we read Eicha this Tisha B’Av, our intent is not simply to cry and mourn the loss of what once was. Meditating on the Zohar’s lesson, we can begin to understand how we have gotten here, and how we can rebuild the Temple and usher in the time when all of God’s children will no longer “yashava badad/remain ALONE,” but will finally be ALL ONE.
— Pnei Hashem is an introduction to the deepest depths of the human experience based on the esoteric teachings of Torah. www.pneihashem.com
