Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
“How Could This Happen?”
This week’s Torah reading is taken from the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy. It is always read on the Shabbat preceding the Ninth of Av, a day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. This week’s haftarah (reading from the Prophets) is likewise fixed: it is always the same portion from first chapter of the book of Isaiah, verses 1-27.
These two readings share one particular word, eikhah, which appears in the books of Deuteronomy 1:12 and Isaiah 1:21. In addition, eikhah is the Hebrew name of the biblical book of Lamentations, which is read in synagogues on the Ninth of Av.
What does this word mean? For the most part, eikhah (or eikh) just means “How?” But it is also used to introduce words of regret or lament, rather like “Alas!” or “How could this happen?” Thus, in the context of the Ninth of Av, it is as if the whole people of Israel were asking in retrospect, “How could this catastrophe have happened?”
In the reading from Isaiah in this week’s haftarah, the prophet answered his own question: corruption and injustice were leading Israel to disaster. “From head to toe, no one is straight,” Isaiah says. Besides, “everyone appreciates a gift, they all go chasing after payoffs.” Still worse, the very institutions established to serve God are being used by criminals to hide their wrongdoings. “Then why should I need all your sacrifices,” God asks. “I’ve had My fill of burnt offerings of rams, suet of fatlings; I don’t want the blood of bulls and lambs and he-goats.” Instead, Isaiah says, “Wash and be clean, or keep your evil deeds out of My sight. Stop your wrongdoing and start doing what’s right.”
We know what happened the last time. Then eikhah—“how could this happen again?”