איכה – "Where are you?"
After Adam HaRishon ate from the Tree of Knowledge, Hashem asked him (3:9), איכה, "Where are you?" Hashem said, "Before you sinned, you were higher than the malachim. What happened to you? How did you fall so low?"
The Divrei Shmuel zt'l writes that on Shabbos Bereishis, everyone should ask himself (3:9), איכה, "Where are you?" There was a Rosh Hashanah, the holy Yom Kippur, Succos, Hoshana Rabba, very high, exalted times. You did teshuvah. You made kabbalos to become better. But where are you now? How did you fall so suddenly?"
A chassid stood in the marketplace in Warsaw and watched the masses rushing around to earn some money. The chassid raised his eyes to Heaven and asked, "Ribono Shel Olam, where are you, and where am I?"
The Divrei Shmuel of Slonim zt'l said that this is how people feel when the yomim tovim pass. They had such pivotal, high moments, learning Torah, davening, sitting in the succah, taking the four minim, etc., and suddenly they are back in the workplace, and they ask themselves, איכה, "Where am I? What happened to my connection to Hashem? How did I fall so drastically?"
It states (Yeshayah 1:6), בי אין ראש עד רגל מכף מתום, "From the sole until the head, I have no perfection." The Noda b'Yehudah explains that רגל כף alludes to Simchas Torah (which Chazal call עצמו בפני רגל) and ראש is השנה ראש. The pasuk is saying, ראש עד רגל מכף from Simchas Torah until next year's Rosh Hashanah בי אין מתום, I have no perfection. All the inspiration and good kabbalos I had during the yomim tovim were forgotten; I no longer have perfection.
The Midrash (Koheles 9) writes, "When Yidden leave the beis medresh a bas kol goes forth and says, 'Eat your bread with joy because Hashem has accepted your deeds.'" Reb Leibele Eiger zt'l (Toras Emes, Simchas Torah, ב"תרמ) writes, "We can explain that this Midrash refers to Simchas Torah, the day we complete the tefillos of the yomim tovim. A bas kol assures the Jewish nation that their tefillos were accepted."
But then the question is, if our tefillos were answered, why didn't Moshiach come? We davened for Moshiach, especially on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succos. Our tefillos were answered, so why don't we see the results?
Also, each person davened for their own personal salvation, be it parnassah, shidduchim, health, etc. Our tefillos were answered, so why don't we see the results? Why do people remain stuck with the same problems year after year?
The Yismach Moshe zt'l (Re'eh) raises this same question from another pasuk. After the yomim tovim, Hashem says to the nation (Yirmiyahu 31:15), שכר יש כי מדמעה ועיניך מבכי קולך מנעי לפעולתך, "Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tearing, for there is a reward for your work." Hashem tells us that our avodah and tefillos on yom tov were accepted; therefore, we can stop davening. The question is if our tefillos were answered, why didn't the Moshiach come? Why don't we see the salvation we prayed for?
The Yismach Moshe says that the answer lies in the pasuk that follows (Yirmiyahu 31:16), לגבולם בנים ושבו, which means that people return to their old ways. Immediately after the yomim tovim, people revert to their old ways, and thereby they forfeit the salvation that was coming to them. But if we take the yomim tovim with us throughout the year, we will merit the salvation and the coming of Moshiach that we prayed for.
