Engineers and managers
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He lowered his altitude and soon spotted a woman below. He descended a bit lower and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help."
The woman below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
Three prophets
An intriguing midrash states (1) that three of the greatest Jewish leaders and visionaries communicated their prophesies using an identical Hebrew term, eicha, which means "how" or "alas."
The first person to use this term was Moses. In the beginning of this week's portion, Moses, speaking during the last weeks of his life, recalls how many years earlier he shared with his people his profound sense of frustration as the leader of Israel. "I said to you at that time, 'I cannot carry you alone... How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself?"(2)
The second was Isaiah. In the opening chapter of Isaiah, this spiritual giant laments the moral degeneration of Jerusalem and its Jewish inhabitants 700 years after Moses' death.(3) "How (eicha) has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah cries. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now, murderers."(4)
The third was Jeremiah. Jeremiah's heart-wrenching book of Lamentations, written 200 years after Isaiah's death(5) and depicting the bloody destruction of Jerusalem, opens with the word eicha, alas. "Alas, she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow."
Three linked messages
It is logical to assume that the midrash is not making a random observation about three people using the same term. Rather, the midrash is attempting to tell us that there exists a subtle link between the three messages of Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is this connection that compelled the three giants to choose the dramatic term eicha for their conversations with the people of Israel.(6)
On the surface, no link is visible. Moses was discussing the enormous burden of leadership; Isaiah, the ugliness of promiscuity; and Jeremiah the tragedy of defeat. Yet, the midrash is hinting to us that these three messages are not only intertwined, but actually evolve one from another.(7)
Evidence to the subtle connection between the three messages is further indicated by another cryptic midrash: "If you [the Jewish people] would have gained merit, you would have read [the words of Moses] 'How (eicha) can I carry you if I am all by myself.' Now that you have lost your merit, you read instead [the tragic words of Jeremiah] 'Eicha (Alas), she sits in solitude!'"(7*)
But what is the connection?
The tragedy of silence
What was Moses' complaint? This lovable human being, "whom G-d had known face to face,"(8) was not lamenting his stressful schedule or the lack of time for leisure. What perturbed Moses was that he was the only one taking ultimate responsibility for the fate of the nation. Others were willing to assist here and there during their free time, but it was only Moses who felt that he was personally responsible for the lives, struggles and deaths of every single member of the people of Israel.
"How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself?" Moses cries. If only one person is ready to put himself on the line in the fight for his people and for a better world, while others just emit a sigh and go on with their personal affairs, we are bound to crumble.
"Why am I the only one who can't sleep at night because of the tears of a Jewish child on the other side of the world?" is Moses' eternal cry. "Why don't other people share that same sense of urgency and passion to elevate the nation and transform the world?"
The triumph of evil does not occur as a result of the perpetrators of evil, per se; it happens because of the many ordinary men and women who don't care enough to stand up for what is right. When people of moral standing lose the courage or willingness to protest injustice, morality is dead.
This is what Moses protested: the disturbing notion that the ordinary Jew need not share equal responsibility in mending the world, combating immorality and transforming human society into an abode for G-d.
The evolution
The cry of Moses' "How can I carry you alone?" ultimately evolved into the second stage of degeneration, which reached its peak during the time of Isaiah. "How has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah asked. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now, murderers."
How indeed? Because Moses was left alone on the front lines of the battlefield for G-dliness and holiness. When the multitudes of people do not feel an urgent and passionate call to combat the flames of hate, evil, selfishness and promiscuity burning in their society, a city once full of justice becomes, instead, a haven for murderers; a city of G-d turns into a city of blood. Isaiah's call of "How has the faithful city become a prostitute," evolved into the third stage of degeneration, when Jerusalem destroyed itself, reaching the abyss during the days of Jeremiah. "Alas, she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow," Jeremiah lamented.
Now we can grasp the words of the above mentioned midrash: "If you [the Jewish people] would have gained merit, you would have read [the words of Moses] 'How (eicha) can I carry you if I am all by myself?' Now that you have lost your merit, you read instead [the tragic words of Jeremiah] 'Eicha (Alas), she sits in solitude!'" If we would have listened to Moses' cry and attempted to emulate him in thinking not only about ourselves, but also about the entire nation, the situation of Jerusalem sitting in solitude, due to her utter spiritual deterioration, could have never materialized.
Contemporary Jewish silence
This painful truth was demonstrated once again in the recent destruction of our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and in the entire land of Israel, following the signing of the Oslo accords in 1996.
The tragedy of Oslo was twofold. Israel withdrew from most of its own territories, facilitating the creation of a massive terrorist infrastructure right at its back door. In addition, Israel extended incredible tolerance toward the terrorists, allowing them to continue their despicable bloody work. Yet, this was not solely the result of erroneous decisions by some self-deceived individuals on the top of the government. Such a perverse perspective on good and evil could have been fermented only because so many decent and nice people in Israel and abroad succumbed to the temptation of remaining silent and politically correct.
The same is true concerning every crisis -- physical or spiritual -- that faces our people today, from mass assimilation to inner conflict and disharmony. If we rely on "Moses" to do all the caring for us, our future is endangered. Every individual ought to lose a little bit of sleep because of his or her personal concern on how to save another child, on how to bring redemption to a hurting world.
None of us can afford to stand back, and, like the manager in the opening joke, blame other people for our problems. Each of us, in his or her own way, must make an impact.
"Why did you not faint"?
I once heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe(9) the following moving tale:
Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, the saintly Chafetz Chaim (1838-1933), once dispatched a delegation of Jewish representatives to the Polish prime minister in an attempt to nullify a new decree against Jewish ritual slaughtering (shechitah).
Upon their return, they reported to the great rabbi that their mission was a failure. "The minister did not understand our Yiddish, and the translator did not do a good job conveying our message," the delegation reported.
"Yes, yes," cried the Chafetz Chaim. "But why did none of you faint? Had one of you been genuinely affected by the decree against Judaism as to faint, the prime minister would have understood you very well," he concluded.
(This essay is based on an address presented by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Jewish children, 3 Av, 5741, August 1981.)(10)
[My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
--------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Jacobson is an internationally known lecturer on Israel, Torah and Jewish mysticism. He can be reached at YYJacobson@aol.com.
Footnotes:
1) Midrash Rabah Eichah 1:1.
2) Deuteronomy 1:9; 1:12.
3) Moses spoke his words in the year 2488 since Creation. Isaiah began to prophesize in the year 3142 since Creation.
4) Isaiah 1:21. These words of Isaiah are also read on this Shabbos, in the Haftorah.
5) According to most opinions, Jeremiah wrote Lamentations in the year 3320, while imprisoned by the Jewish king Yehoyakim. He then distributed it through his disciple, Baruch ben Neriyah. When the king Yehoyakim read it, he tore it up and burned it, demonstrating his lack of faith in Jeremiah's despairing prophesies.
6) This is further underscored by the custom in some Jewish communities to read on this Shabbos the verse of Moses' stating "eicha" in the same sad melody used to read Jeremiah's book of Eicha (Lamentations) on the 9th of Av, when we commemorate the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.
7) The midrash itself comments that Moses observed the condition of the Jewish people during a time of serenity and comfort, when they could afford to complain and quarrel. Isaiah saw the people during a time of frivolity and promiscuity. Jeremiah witnessed the Jewish people during their time of tragedy and loss. It seems quite clear that the midrash is denoting an evolutionary process of degeneration.
7*) Midrash Rabah, Pesichta to Eichah section 11.
8) Deuteronomy 34:10.
9) This story was told by the Lubavitcher Rebbe a number of times during public addresses.
10) Published in Sichos Kodesh 5741, volume 3. The interpretation in the three-step evolution from Moses to Isaiah to Jeremiah is based on a lecture presented by Rabbi Adin Even-Yisroel (Steinzaltz) in Jerusalem, during the summer of 1999. My thanks to Rabbi Shmueli Green (director of Hillel at Rutgers University), for sending me a transcript of the lecture.
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He lowered his altitude and soon spotted a woman below. He descended a bit lower and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help."
The woman below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
Three prophets
An intriguing midrash states (1) that three of the greatest Jewish leaders and visionaries communicated their prophesies using an identical Hebrew term, eicha, which means "how" or "alas."
The first person to use this term was Moses. In the beginning of this week's portion, Moses, speaking during the last weeks of his life, recalls how many years earlier he shared with his people his profound sense of frustration as the leader of Israel. "I said to you at that time, 'I cannot carry you alone... How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself?"(2)
The second was Isaiah. In the opening chapter of Isaiah, this spiritual giant laments the moral degeneration of Jerusalem and its Jewish inhabitants 700 years after Moses' death.(3) "How (eicha) has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah cries. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now, murderers."(4)
The third was Jeremiah. Jeremiah's heart-wrenching book of Lamentations, written 200 years after Isaiah's death(5) and depicting the bloody destruction of Jerusalem, opens with the word eicha, alas. "Alas, she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow."
Three linked messages
It is logical to assume that the midrash is not making a random observation about three people using the same term. Rather, the midrash is attempting to tell us that there exists a subtle link between the three messages of Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is this connection that compelled the three giants to choose the dramatic term eicha for their conversations with the people of Israel.(6)
On the surface, no link is visible. Moses was discussing the enormous burden of leadership; Isaiah, the ugliness of promiscuity; and Jeremiah the tragedy of defeat. Yet, the midrash is hinting to us that these three messages are not only intertwined, but actually evolve one from another.(7)
Evidence to the subtle connection between the three messages is further indicated by another cryptic midrash: "If you [the Jewish people] would have gained merit, you would have read [the words of Moses] 'How (eicha) can I carry you if I am all by myself.' Now that you have lost your merit, you read instead [the tragic words of Jeremiah] 'Eicha (Alas), she sits in solitude!'"(7*)
But what is the connection?
The tragedy of silence
What was Moses' complaint? This lovable human being, "whom G-d had known face to face,"(8) was not lamenting his stressful schedule or the lack of time for leisure. What perturbed Moses was that he was the only one taking ultimate responsibility for the fate of the nation. Others were willing to assist here and there during their free time, but it was only Moses who felt that he was personally responsible for the lives, struggles and deaths of every single member of the people of Israel.
"How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself?" Moses cries. If only one person is ready to put himself on the line in the fight for his people and for a better world, while others just emit a sigh and go on with their personal affairs, we are bound to crumble.
"Why am I the only one who can't sleep at night because of the tears of a Jewish child on the other side of the world?" is Moses' eternal cry. "Why don't other people share that same sense of urgency and passion to elevate the nation and transform the world?"
The triumph of evil does not occur as a result of the perpetrators of evil, per se; it happens because of the many ordinary men and women who don't care enough to stand up for what is right. When people of moral standing lose the courage or willingness to protest injustice, morality is dead.
This is what Moses protested: the disturbing notion that the ordinary Jew need not share equal responsibility in mending the world, combating immorality and transforming human society into an abode for G-d.
The evolution
The cry of Moses' "How can I carry you alone?" ultimately evolved into the second stage of degeneration, which reached its peak during the time of Isaiah. "How has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah asked. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now, murderers."
How indeed? Because Moses was left alone on the front lines of the battlefield for G-dliness and holiness. When the multitudes of people do not feel an urgent and passionate call to combat the flames of hate, evil, selfishness and promiscuity burning in their society, a city once full of justice becomes, instead, a haven for murderers; a city of G-d turns into a city of blood. Isaiah's call of "How has the faithful city become a prostitute," evolved into the third stage of degeneration, when Jerusalem destroyed itself, reaching the abyss during the days of Jeremiah. "Alas, she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow," Jeremiah lamented.
Now we can grasp the words of the above mentioned midrash: "If you [the Jewish people] would have gained merit, you would have read [the words of Moses] 'How (eicha) can I carry you if I am all by myself?' Now that you have lost your merit, you read instead [the tragic words of Jeremiah] 'Eicha (Alas), she sits in solitude!'" If we would have listened to Moses' cry and attempted to emulate him in thinking not only about ourselves, but also about the entire nation, the situation of Jerusalem sitting in solitude, due to her utter spiritual deterioration, could have never materialized.
Contemporary Jewish silence
This painful truth was demonstrated once again in the recent destruction of our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and in the entire land of Israel, following the signing of the Oslo accords in 1996.
The tragedy of Oslo was twofold. Israel withdrew from most of its own territories, facilitating the creation of a massive terrorist infrastructure right at its back door. In addition, Israel extended incredible tolerance toward the terrorists, allowing them to continue their despicable bloody work. Yet, this was not solely the result of erroneous decisions by some self-deceived individuals on the top of the government. Such a perverse perspective on good and evil could have been fermented only because so many decent and nice people in Israel and abroad succumbed to the temptation of remaining silent and politically correct.
The same is true concerning every crisis -- physical or spiritual -- that faces our people today, from mass assimilation to inner conflict and disharmony. If we rely on "Moses" to do all the caring for us, our future is endangered. Every individual ought to lose a little bit of sleep because of his or her personal concern on how to save another child, on how to bring redemption to a hurting world.
None of us can afford to stand back, and, like the manager in the opening joke, blame other people for our problems. Each of us, in his or her own way, must make an impact.
"Why did you not faint"?
I once heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe(9) the following moving tale:
Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, the saintly Chafetz Chaim (1838-1933), once dispatched a delegation of Jewish representatives to the Polish prime minister in an attempt to nullify a new decree against Jewish ritual slaughtering (shechitah).
Upon their return, they reported to the great rabbi that their mission was a failure. "The minister did not understand our Yiddish, and the translator did not do a good job conveying our message," the delegation reported.
"Yes, yes," cried the Chafetz Chaim. "But why did none of you faint? Had one of you been genuinely affected by the decree against Judaism as to faint, the prime minister would have understood you very well," he concluded.
(This essay is based on an address presented by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Jewish children, 3 Av, 5741, August 1981.)(10)
[My thanks to Shmuel Levin, a writer and editor in Pittsburgh, for his editorial assistance.]
--------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Jacobson is an internationally known lecturer on Israel, Torah and Jewish mysticism. He can be reached at YYJacobson@aol.com.
Footnotes:
1) Midrash Rabah Eichah 1:1.
2) Deuteronomy 1:9; 1:12.
3) Moses spoke his words in the year 2488 since Creation. Isaiah began to prophesize in the year 3142 since Creation.
4) Isaiah 1:21. These words of Isaiah are also read on this Shabbos, in the Haftorah.
5) According to most opinions, Jeremiah wrote Lamentations in the year 3320, while imprisoned by the Jewish king Yehoyakim. He then distributed it through his disciple, Baruch ben Neriyah. When the king Yehoyakim read it, he tore it up and burned it, demonstrating his lack of faith in Jeremiah's despairing prophesies.
6) This is further underscored by the custom in some Jewish communities to read on this Shabbos the verse of Moses' stating "eicha" in the same sad melody used to read Jeremiah's book of Eicha (Lamentations) on the 9th of Av, when we commemorate the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.
7) The midrash itself comments that Moses observed the condition of the Jewish people during a time of serenity and comfort, when they could afford to complain and quarrel. Isaiah saw the people during a time of frivolity and promiscuity. Jeremiah witnessed the Jewish people during their time of tragedy and loss. It seems quite clear that the midrash is denoting an evolutionary process of degeneration.
7*) Midrash Rabah, Pesichta to Eichah section 11.
8) Deuteronomy 34:10.
9) This story was told by the Lubavitcher Rebbe a number of times during public addresses.
10) Published in Sichos Kodesh 5741, volume 3. The interpretation in the three-step evolution from Moses to Isaiah to Jeremiah is based on a lecture presented by Rabbi Adin Even-Yisroel (Steinzaltz) in Jerusalem, during the summer of 1999. My thanks to Rabbi Shmueli Green (director of Hillel at Rutgers University), for sending me a transcript of the lecture.