How?! A Roadmap for Transformation

Calendar Notes for a Summer of Collapse — Part 3 (of 10) — songeveryday.org

The “Hows” of this season outline a difficult journey, built into the Jewish calendar. Following this annual journey can remind us that
building community is hard work that can easily get off track.

PDF download — “How?! A Roadmap“

— This piece originally appeared in Matir Asurim’s 5783 Tisha B’Av Mailer —

“How” is the sort of word that is used a lot without getting much attention. But this small, often overlooked word is important to a time of transformation in the Jewish calendar. The word creates a kind of roadmap for heading into, and climbing out of, Tisha B’Av, the lowest point of the Jewish calendar.

“How [Eikhah]” is the first word, and the Hebrew title, of the Book of Lamentations, read on Tisha B’av. It is also a key word in the Torah and prophetic readings for “Shabbat Chazon,” the sabbath of vision, right before. Together, the “how” readings cover a lot of emotional territory.

In English, “how” can be used to express different ideas:

Frustration: “How are we supposed to do this?!”

Disbelief: “How could this happen?

Despair: “How awful!”

Questioning: “How does this work?”

The Hebrew word “eikhah” has similar uses in the Bible, generally, and in readings of this season:

Frustration: Moses re-telling complaints about the People’s behavior in the wilderness:

“Eikhah/How can I, alone, bear the trouble of you!……the burden, and the bickering!”
— Deuteronomy 1:12, Torah reading for Shabbat Chazon

Disbelief: God criticizing the People in Isaiah’s prophecy, set in 8th Century BCE:

Eikhah/How has the faithful city become perverse?…She was full of justice
righteousness lived in her. But now murderers — “
— Isaiah 1:21, prophetic reading for Shabbat Chazon

Despair: mourning destruction of the First Temple and exile, 6th Century BCE:

“Eikhah/How lonely sits the city!…”
Once great with people! She was great among nations, now alone and vulnerable.
Once a powerhouse, now just one of the ruled.” — Lamentations/Eikhah 1:1,* reading for Tisha B’Av

Questioning: Jews trying to find meaning and move forward through disaster:

“How did we get here?” and “How do we go on?”
— centuries of Jewish teaching about destruction and tragedy

(Bible translations adapted from Jewish Publication Society 1985)

These “Hows” outline a difficult journey, built into the Jewish calendar. Following this annual journey can remind us that building community is hard work that can easily get off track.

How did we get here?

The Book of Deuteronomy opens with Moses and the People at the end of a forty-year journey. They stand on the river’s edge, imagining life on the other side. When they first escaped into thewilderness, a “promised land” seemed just around the corner. Decades later, the People have been through a lot. Mosesis listing their mistakes and his disappointments, crying:

“How can I manage this burden!” (Deut 1:12)

This is a community in trouble and out of balance. Maybe not all that different from our own?

The Book of Isaiah opens a long time later, on the other side of the river. But the vision of a “promised land” now seems like a nightmare. Isaiah tells the People they are focused on the wrong things and have become a burden, even to God:

“Your rituals are a burden to me…Your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:14-15).

The prophet’s harsh words point to a whole nation troubled, out of balance, and wondering: How could dreams of justice and righteousness go so deeply wrong?

In Lamentations, the Temple is in ruins, and the People face exile. Vision of a “promised land” seems in the past. Tisha B’Av mourns loss of dreams and hopes, as well as lives and homes. This won’t be the only time in history that Jews ask: “How?! How did our visions turn into this painful mess?!” We have always struggled to share burdens in our communities. We’ve always fallen short of our visions. That is one message of the “How” readings. But it’s not the only message.

How do we go on?

The “How” readings also tell us that we are expected to do better, as individuals and society:

Learn to do good.

Devote yourselves to justice;
Aid the wronged.
Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow
–Isaiah 1:17


Where did our ideas of community fail in the past? What visions must we mourn? Shabbat Chazon prompts us to envision something truly new, and imagine steps toward needed change. Tisha B’Av reminds us to expect failure and to mourn our losses. But the calendar nudges us forward.

There are seven weeks from Tisha B’Av to the new year. The “How” readings give us our homework, well in advance. We have work to do. And that work starts with “Learn.”

Image: Hebrew word Eikhah in Hebrew characters, plus English “How?! How? How!