Three Prophets
Rabbi YY Jacobson
An intriguing Midrash states that three of the great Jewish personalities communicated their prophecies using an identical Hebrew term, eicha, which means "how" or "alas."
The first one to utter this word was Moses. In the beginning of this week's portion, Devarim, Moses, speaking during the last weeks of his life, recalls how many years earlier he shared with his people his profound sense of frustration as the leader of Israel. "I said to you at that time, 'I cannot carry you alone... How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels, if I am all by myself?"
The second was Isaiah. In the opening chapter of Isaiah, this extraordinary man of G-d laments the moral degeneration of Jerusalem and its Jewish inhabitants 700 years after Moses' death. "How – eicha – has the faithful city become a prostitute?" Isaiah cries. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers do."
The third was Jeremiah. Jeremiah's heart-wrenching book of Lamentations, written 200 years after Isaiah and depicting the bloody destruction of Jerusalem, opens with the word "Eicha," alas. "Alas – she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow."
THREE LINKED MESSAGES
The Midrash is attempting to tell us that there exists a subtle link between the three messages of Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is this connection that compelled the three giants to choose the dramatic term "eicha" for their conversations with the people of Israel. The Midrash is hinting to us that these three messages are not only intertwined, but actually evolve one from another.
THE TRAGEDY OF SILENCE
What was Moses' complaint? This extraordinary human being, "Whom G-d had known face to face," was not lamenting his stressful schedule or the lack of time for leisure. What perturbed Moses was that he was the only one taking ultimate responsibility for the fate of the nation. Others were willing to assist during their free time, but it was only Moses who felt that the needs and struggles of the people of Israel were his own. "How (eicha) can I carry your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels if I am all by myself?" Moses cries.
If only one person is ready to put himself on the line in the fight for a better world, while others just emit a sigh and go on with their personal affairs, we are bound to crumble. The triumph of evil does not occur as a result of the perpetrators of evil per se; it happens because of the many ordinary men and women who don't care enough to stand up for what is right. When ordinary people of good moral standing lose the courage or willingness to protest injustice, morality is dead. This is what Moses protested: the notion that ordinary men and women need not share equal responsibility in mending the world, combating immorality and transforming human society into an abode for G-d.
The cry of Moses, "How can I carry you alone", ultimately evolved into the second stage of degeneration, which reached its peak during the time of Isaiah. "How has the faithful city become a prostitute?", Isaiah asked. "She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers do." How indeed? Because Moses was left alone on the front lines of the battlefield for goodness and morality. When multitudes of people of moral stature do not feel an urgent responsibility to combat the flames of hate and evil burning in their society, a city once full of justice becomes, instead, a haven for murderers; a city of light turns into darkness.
Isaiah's call of "How has the faithful city become a prostitute," evolved into the third stage of degeneration, when Jerusalem destroyed itself, reaching the abyss during the days of Jeremiah. "Alas – she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow," he lamented. The three "eicha's" represent three levels of moral degeneration: Passivity, destruction, and isolation.
“...These days will be transformed into days of Joy! (Yirmiya 8,19)
... I received your letter in which you ask the question "if a soul has come back to earth several times to complete its duty here, when Moshiach comes in which form will the soul come back?" ...
... As for your question, it was already asked a very long time ago by one of our great teachers of the Talmud, Rabbi Chizkiah, as mentioned in the holy Sefer Zohar (Part 1, page 131a). The answer given there by another great teacher of the Mishnah, Rabbi Yosey, is that the soul will come back to life in the body in which it has accomplished Torah and Mitzvos during her lifetime on this earth, and that a body which did not practice Torah and Mitzvos on earth will not come back to life. This answer must be considered in the light of a further explanation by the great Rabbi Isaac Luria [AriZal]...
The saintly Ari explained that it is almost impossible for a Jew not to fulfill at least some Mitzvos. Therefore, in accordance with the answer in Zohar, almost all bodies will come back to life. The question then is in which body will the soul return if it had been in more than one body. The answer, strange as it may seem at first glance, is that it will return in all the bodies it had inhabited. To understand how this is possible, let us remember that the souls of mankind started from two people, Adam and Eve. Their souls included all the souls of the future generations, in a way a single seed includes in it, future generations of trees, fruits, and seeds. In the same way, the souls of parents are not just two souls, but they can split up into soul sparks, each of which is in turn a complete soul.
Therefore, when a Jew performs a Mitzvah, the body takes part in it and it is no longer "dry wood" that rots away, but it will come back to life with a soul which is a Divine spark, and which was included in the original soul. Thus, at the Time of Resurrection (after Mashiach will come) all "parts" of a "general" soul will each have a separate body, just as parents will come back to life with all their children...
==== chabad.org/therebbe/letters/ Resurrection and Reincarnation.
