This Shabbat, known as Shabbat Hazon—the “Sabbath of Vision”—stands at a charged intersection of text, memory, and reality. Parashat Devarim always falls on Shabbat Hazon, named for Isaiah’s grim prophecy read as the haftarah before Tisha B’Av. These texts, along with the Book of Eicha (Lamentations), contain the word eichah, a cry of lament:

eichah esa levadi… “How can I bear alone your troubles and burdens?” (Deut. 1:12)

eichah esa levadi… “How can I bear alone your troubles and burdens?” (Deut. 1:12)

eichah haytah l’zonah… “How has the faithful city become a harlot?” (Isaiah 1:21)

eichah haytah l’zonah… “How has the faithful city become a harlot?” (Isaiah 1:21)

eichah yashvah vadad… “How lonely sits the city…” (Lamentations 1:1)

eichah yashvah vadad… “How lonely sits the city…” (Lamentations 1:1)

These verses are often chanted in the mournful melody of Eicha, reminding us of national trauma and divine silence. And once again, the sinning people—Jerusalem, Israel—are feminized and condemned in excruciating terms. We begin the book of Deuteronomy, hear Isaiah’s searing prophecy in the haftarah, and prepare for Tisha B’Av, the day of national mourning.

These are not separate moments. They form a single arc, bound together by one haunting word: eichah—“how?”

Moses’ Reckoning: History as Indictment

Moses opens Deuteronomy with a tone that is strikingly different from earlier books. This is not simply a farewell; it is a reckoning. He retells the story of the wilderness, but through the lens of frustration and accusation.

“How (eichah) can I bear alone your troubles, your burdens, and your strife?” he asks. The word is not just rhetorical—it is heavy with exhaustion. Moses recasts the past, emphasizing the people’s failures, their lack of faith, their constant resistance. Even solutions that came from others, like Yitro’s advice to appoint judges, disappear from his telling. Leadership becomes lonely, memory becomes selective, and history becomes indictment.

From Eichah to Ayeka: Demanding Answers from a Silent God

This punitive theology reverberates in Isaiah and culminates in Eicha. God becomes absent, vengeful, or dead. The people,........

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