On Shabbat Chazon we customarily recite the verse, ?How [eichah] can I bear alone the burden, responsibility and conflict that you present?? (Deuteronomy 1:12) using the sad tune of Eichah, Jeremiah?s Book of Lamentations, read on the Ninth of Av. That book, as well, begins: ?How [eichah] does the city that was so full of people sit alone? How has she become a widow??.
The source of Moses? and of Jeremiah?s ?How?? is in G-d?s call to Adam. Adam had hidden himself from G-d, so to speak, amongst the trees of the Garden, after following his passions rather than G-d?s command, and after eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. G-d therefore asked him, ?Ayekah?? [Where are you?], consisting of the same Hebrew letters as eichah.
Today, as well, G-d?s call to Adam, ?Ayekah?? - ?Where is the man within you?? - has continued down through the generations. As Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook wrote: ?When we forget the individual essence of the soul? everything gets confused and full of doubt. This applies not just regarding the individual, but regarding our whole nation and all of mankind in the aggregate. Their sin always stems from their forgetting who they are?. Repentance involves a person?s first returning to himself, to the root of his soul. Once he does that, he will immediately return to G-d.? (Orot HaTeshuvah 15:10)
In these days, as well, leading up to Tisha BeAv, in order that these days should be transformed into times of joy and gladness, we must return to ourselves, to the person within us. We must return to ourselves as a nation. We must learn how to recognize and to believe that G-d chose us from amongst all the nations and gave us His Torah. We must further believe that we are a special people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and that our historic mission is to bring light to the world and to benefit mankind.
As Rabbi Kook adds: ?Only if we know our greatness can we know ourselves. If we forget our greatness we will forget ourselves, and that will leave us lowly and small. To forget ourselves is to forget our greatness.? (Orot 55)
Let us return to ourselves, to our land and to our Torah. By such means we will merit complete redemption soon, in our day; Amen.
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Rabbi Dov Begon is founder and head of Machon Meir institutions.
Machon Meir is an Israeli educational institution and Hesder yeshiva dedicated to Jewish learning BeAhava UveEmunah (with Love and in Faith), in the spirit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the late Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. Students at Machon Meir, Israelis and new immigrants, come from religious and non-religious backgrounds, and learn in Hebrew, English or Russian.
The source of Moses? and of Jeremiah?s ?How?? is in G-d?s call to Adam. Adam had hidden himself from G-d, so to speak, amongst the trees of the Garden, after following his passions rather than G-d?s command, and after eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. G-d therefore asked him, ?Ayekah?? [Where are you?], consisting of the same Hebrew letters as eichah.
Today, as well, G-d?s call to Adam, ?Ayekah?? - ?Where is the man within you?? - has continued down through the generations. As Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook wrote: ?When we forget the individual essence of the soul? everything gets confused and full of doubt. This applies not just regarding the individual, but regarding our whole nation and all of mankind in the aggregate. Their sin always stems from their forgetting who they are?. Repentance involves a person?s first returning to himself, to the root of his soul. Once he does that, he will immediately return to G-d.? (Orot HaTeshuvah 15:10)
In these days, as well, leading up to Tisha BeAv, in order that these days should be transformed into times of joy and gladness, we must return to ourselves, to the person within us. We must return to ourselves as a nation. We must learn how to recognize and to believe that G-d chose us from amongst all the nations and gave us His Torah. We must further believe that we are a special people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, and that our historic mission is to bring light to the world and to benefit mankind.
As Rabbi Kook adds: ?Only if we know our greatness can we know ourselves. If we forget our greatness we will forget ourselves, and that will leave us lowly and small. To forget ourselves is to forget our greatness.? (Orot 55)
Let us return to ourselves, to our land and to our Torah. By such means we will merit complete redemption soon, in our day; Amen.
-------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Dov Begon is founder and head of Machon Meir institutions.
Machon Meir is an Israeli educational institution and Hesder yeshiva dedicated to Jewish learning BeAhava UveEmunah (with Love and in Faith), in the spirit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the late Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. Students at Machon Meir, Israelis and new immigrants, come from religious and non-religious backgrounds, and learn in Hebrew, English or Russian.