Introduction to Megillas Eicha: What Does the Word Eicha Mean?
Eicha is an exclamation disguised as a question. It is what we say when we can't really deal with what is. But within this exclamation of pain, lays hidden the way forward.
I’d like to talk about the first word of Megilas Eicha (The Book of Lamentations). What does that word, Eicha (איכה), mean? How should we translate it?
It seems to me that it is a rhetorical question that functions as an exclamation. “How (eicha) can she [Jerusalem] sit alone (איכה ישבה בדד)?” It is the Hebrew equivalent of “How can this be happening to me?”
“How can this be happening to me?” is not a question seeking information or some sort of rational explanation, but rather an expression of shock and disbelief that the reality one is living is actually true. “How in the world can this be happening” is another way of saying that this should not be happening and that we cannot understand how it actually is happening.
In short, when the reality that we live is beyond what we can imagine, and we are overwhelmed by intellectual and emotional horror, we cry out “eicha.”
Eicha - how can there no longer be a Beis HaMikdash?
Eicha - how can Yerushalayim be desolate and emptied of all of her citizens?
Eicha - how can the Jewish people be exiled in a foreign land?
Now, most of us have lost a visceral connection with this type of “eicha.” We no longer feel shock and horror at the loss of the Beis HaMikdash and are not overwhelmed by the notion of the Jewish people living in exile.
And yet, we have (as a people) experienced our own modern-day form of “eicha.”
For the Holocaust and Oct. 7th and the hostages and more, we cry out “eicha.”
When protests erupt against us while we are still searching for and burying our dead, we cry out “eicha.”
When those same so-called protestors rip down posters of 1-year-old hostages, we cry out “eicha.”
In short, we are no strangers to experiencing the unimaginable or being overwhelmed by its vast horror. Eicha is very much a part of our lives.
And it is in that context that we enter into Tisha B’av and read Megillas Eicha once again. But, for many of us, it is almost as if we are reading a new Megillah. Yes, the words are the same, but our ability to relate to them has changed.
They are real, all too real.
For Megillas Eicha gives full expression to what it is like to live the horrors that we have experienced. For some of us, it may be too much - I can understand that.
But I would like to note that Megillas Eicha does more than just vividly describe the horror of what we went through. It also shows us how to deal with and relate to those horrors.
In other words, when life overwhelms us, when it becomes too heavy and there is seemingly no rational basis left for hope - what next? I think there are hints of that in the Megillah, and I hope to bring them out over the fast.
That is to say, when I am not praying and mourning, I hope to pick up the Megillah, read it, cry with it, relive it, and try to learn from it. And when I do, I’ll post any thoughts and insights for those who are interested right here.
In the meantime, I wish us all a meaningful and transformative fast.