This Sabbath we will be reading Parashat Devarim, the Torah portion that is always followed by a haftarah from Isaiah and which is read before the week when the fast of Tisha B'Av falls. The Torah portion, haftarah and the Book of Lamentations, read on Tisha B'Av, share a common feature: They all contain the word "eikha" (how): "How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?" (Deuteronomy 1:12); "How is the faithful city become a harlot!" (Isaiah 1:21); and "How doth the city sit solitary ..." ; "How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger ..." ; How is the gold become dim!" (Lamentations 1:1, 2:1, 4:1).

The midrashic commentary accompanying Lamentations refers to this linking word: "Three individuals prophesied using the word eikah: Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Rabbi Levy stated: 'This is like the story of a matron who had three escorts. One of them saw her in her period of serenity; the second in her period of rash behavior; and the third in her period of degradation. Similarly, Moses, seeing Israel in its glory and in its period of serenity, asked "How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance ... ?"; Isaiah, seeing Israel in its period of rash behavior, exclaimed, "How is the faithful city become a harlot!"; and Jeremiah, seeing Israel in its period of degradation, lamented "How doth the city sit solitary ..." (Lamentations Rabbah, section 1).

Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of the last Judean kings, in the period preceding the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (sixth century B.C.E.). He observed the performance of a corrupt regime alienated from the people, a fragmented Jewish nation in a period of humiliation, and a northern empire pouncing like a bird of prey on a carcass and destroying the last vestiges of Jewish sovereignty. The picture of the remnant of the Jewish people that survived in Jerusalem after the First Temple's destruction is horrifying.

	Advertisement

Jeremiah's elegy is spontaneous; Isaiah's is more complicated. He prophesied in the era following the Assyrian empire's exile of the 10 tribes from the Holy Land, witnessed Sennacherib's military campaign there (701 B.C.E.), and was privy to the soul-searching of King Hezekiah, as he tried to grapple with a political dilemma - how to relate to the wars of the northern and southern kingdoms. With the words, "And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard" (Isa. 1:8), Isaiah depicts Judah after Assyria had rendered the Land of Israel - with the sole exception of Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity - Judenrein.

The national mood during the Assyrian kings' military campaigns is not encouraging and is essentially "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The Jews focus on the present because they can see no future. With the nation faced with an ugly reality, the seemingly easiest solution is hedonism. Isaiah describes his compatriots in Jerusalem holding rooftop parties while desperate soldiers prowl the city's walls.

In his final blessing to his children, Jacob the patriarch first addressed his eldest, Reuben, describing him as a rash individual: "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel" (Genesis 49:4). Similarly, Isaiah depicts the Jews during the era of Sennacherib as reckless, and the verses he utters express the problem of a corrupt regime in a period characterized by a total lack of planning and absolute despair. Everyone is interested in grabbing as much as possible, while trampling on society's weaker members. Isaiah's barbs of criticism are aimed primarily at the nation's corrupt leaders: "How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: Every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: They judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them" (Isa. 1:21-23).

In this period of rash behavior, prostitution is evident everywhere in Jerusalem's streets, and immorality is found in every social stratum - an unreliable banking system, commerce permeated with deception, a tyrannical self-centered regime, and, most shameful of all, a judicial system rotten to the core: "They judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them." Furthermore, the prophet is painfully aware that the nation faces numerous security problems and that its foreign relations are in a sorry state. With all these dangers, however, what could ultimately doom Israel in this situation is a lack of inner strength. In his elegy, Isaiah laments the fact that a model society characterized by honesty and integrity has been replaced by social and moral corruption.

The third elegy is uttered by Moses in this week's portion. According to midrashic literature, Moses delivers his elegy in the midst of the period of his nation's serenity. This is bizarre. As it completes its journey through the desert, Israel has no external enemies, no dangers along the way, and no economic concerns - it is a virtual utopia of peace and security. Yet, instead of singing a song of praise, Moses delivers an elegy! And his words reflect a society rife with conflicts: "How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?" According to Rashi, this verse describes the nation's behavior in its wanderings through the wilderness, with each phrase describing a different negative feature: troublesome behavior ("your cumbrance"), heretical beliefs ("your burden") and chronic complaining ("your strife").

We do not need a war to write an elegy about the nation. Even when life is "normal" and no external enemy exists, people can still do a lot of damage, looking at everything negatively. When he sees that no one has a good word to say about others, that the Jews he is leading are envious, incorrigible troublemakers, and doomsayers, Moses feels he must recite an elegy. Isaiah ends his mourning chant with an optimistic message: "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment" (Isa. 1:27).

We will enter the week on which Tisha B'Av falls with pain and trepidation. The future of the Jewish nation, as it seeks to rebuild itself in the ancestral homeland, is in our hands. We can be worthy of the return of the Shekhinah (the divine presence) to Zion only if we open our hearts and dedicate ourselves to the improvement and development of Israeli society.