אֲכֶם וְרִ יבְכֶם ׂ מַשַ י טָרְ חֲכֶם ו ׂ א לְבַדִ אֵיכָה אֶשָ (דברים א, יב)
How can I alone carry your trouble, your burden and your quarrels?
Regarding these words of Moshe, the Yalkut Shimoni (רמז תת"א) relates the following.
איכה אשא לבדי, משל למטרונא שהיו לה שלשה שושבינין א' ראה אותה בשלותה וא' ראה אותה בפחזה וא' ראה אותה בנוולה. כך משה ראה את ישראל בשלותן ואמר איכה אשא לבדי, ישעי' ראה אותן בפחזן ואמר איכה היתה לזונה, ירמי' ראה אותן בנוולן ואמר איכה ישבה בדד.
- ‘How can I alone carry...’, this can be compared to a princess who had three maidservants, one of whom had seen her in a state of glory, the second of whom had seen her in a state of recklessness, while the third maidservant saw her in a state of disgrace. So too, Moshe, saw the Jewish Nation in its glory, and said, “How can I alone carry your burden?” Yeshayah, saw them in their recklessness, and said, “How did she become unfaithful?” While Yermiah, saw them in their disgrace, and said, “Alas, she sits alone”.
We need to understand why the Midrash associates these three statements with each other; what do they all intrinsically have in common?
The Yalkut Shimoni continues and expounds on Moshe’s words.
איכה אשא לבדי טרכחם, מלמד שהיו טרחנים וכו' ומשאכם מלמד שהיו אפיקורסין וכו' וריבכם ללמד שהיו רוגנים.
‘How can I alone carry your trouble’, [when the Passuk says ‘your trouble’ it isn’t referring to the trouble that they have, rather to the trouble that they cause], this teaches us that the Jews were troublesome. ‘Your burden’, this teaches us that they were heretics. ‘And your quarrels’, this teaches us that they were bad-tempered.
Accordingly, we can explain that when Moshe said, “How can I alone carry your trouble, your burden and your quarrels?”, he was implying that whenever two Jews have a dispute and come to him for a resolution, he is unable to give them a ruling of any sort. For, in regards to rendering a Halachic judgement, he rightfully refuses to do so for them, being that the Jews are troublesome, heretics and bad-tempered. This is in accordance of the Gemara in Sanhedrin, (ו ע"ב) that says;
שנים שבאו לדין אחד רך ואחד קשה וכו' אתה רשאי לומר להם אין אני נזקק לכם שמא נתחייב חזק ונמצא חזק רודפו
- If two disputants come to you for judgement, even if only one of them is harsh, you are permitted to say to them “I will not involve myself in judging you”, lest the harsh litigant be found liable and harass the judge. On the other hand, Moshe can’t arbitrate any compromise for them either, for the Gemara in Sanhedrin (ג ע"א וה ע"ב) tells us that although according to Biblical law a judgement may be passed even by one judge alone, nevertheless, a compromise may not be arbitrated by less than two judges. This was all inferred to in Moshe Rabainu’s exclamation, ‘How can I alone carry your trouble, your burden and your quarrels?’
In view of this, we can understand why Yeshayah’s words were intrinsically connected to these words of Moshe. For Yeshayah had elsewhere )'נ' א( prophesized the following;
כה אמר ה' אי זה ספר כריתות אמכם אשר שלחתיה
- Thus said Hashem, “What is your mother’s bill of divorce by which I sent her away?” When Yeshayah first heard these words, he thought to himself that because the Jewish people seemingly claim that Hashem did indeed ‘divorce’ them, they are to be believed - in accordance of the halacha that the Gemara in Kesuvos (כב ע"ב) tells us; A woman who says to her husband “You have divorced me”, is believed, because there is a presumption that a woman would not be so brazen as to declare before her husband that he divorced her unless that was the truth - and are thus no longer bound to His Torah, and can no longer be punished for transgressing its laws. But then Yeshayah remembered that Moshe Rabainu had already declared the Jewish People to be troublesome, heretics and bad-tempered, and hence, because of their history of audacity and brazenness, they are excluded from the presumption ‘that a woman would not be so brazen as to declare before her husband that he divorced her unless that was the truth’.
Consequently, we can no longer accept their words claiming that Hashem had distanced and disassociated Himself from them, and thus they are, indeed, still bound to the Torah. When realizing that the Jews sinned while still in a close relationship with Hashem, Yeshayah exclaimed, איכה היתה לזונה - “How did she become unfaithful?”
When Yermiah heard that they were still ‘in their relationship’, and even so were unfaithful, he cried out, איכה ישבה בדד וכו' היתה כאלמנה - “Alas, she sits alone... she has become like a widow”, only ‘like a widow’ but not actually a widow; this is because after being unfaithful to her ‘Partner’, although she is still bound to Him, she nevertheless sits alone from Him.
'זרע שמשון' פרשתנו אות ג
