Devarim
ואמר אליכם בעת ההיא לאמר לא אוכל לבדי שאת אתכם. ה' אלקיכם הרבה אתכם וגו' (א, ט-י)
And I said to you at that time, saying, “I cannot bear you alone. Hashem, your G-d, has multiplied you…”
Rashi to this verse explains the redundant לאמר as indicating the message that the plan that was to follow was not of Moshe’s making; rather, it came from Hashem. He further explains the meaning of הרבה אתכם as that which the public is exalted over its judges. What is the significance of all of this?
Let us also address the following midrash:* There were three prophets who spoke of Israel with the term איכה – Moshe, Yeshayah, and Yirmiyah. The first said, איכה אשא לבדי, How can I alone bear your burdensome efforts;** the second said, איכה היתה לזונה, How she has become like a harlot;*** the third said, איכה ישבה בדד, How she sits in solitude.**** They are comparable to a matron who was beheld by three different ladies-in-waiting: one knew her in her tranquility, when she enjoyed her noble prominence; another, in her rebellious period; the third, in her degradation. Similarly, Moshe knew Israel in the good times; Yeshayah, in the sinful times; and Yirmiyah, in the degraded times. What is the Midrash teaching us?
We find elsewhere a concept that the driving force behind the leadership of the Jewish People is… the Jewish People themselves. The nation provides its leaders an energy that transcends their personal capabilities. As Rashi cites in explanation of the redundant לאמר in the opening verse of Vayikra,***** Moshe merited Divine communication for the sake of the nation. Perhaps that is the meaning of our verse. ואמר אליכם בעת ההיא לאמר, I communicated to you at that time the above notion of לאמר, that my role as prophet is contingent upon you, the nation. Hence, לא אוכל לבדי שאת אתכם, I therefore cannot bear you on my own, as my own strength stems from you. ה' אלקיכם הרבה אתכם, which the Sages take as הגדיל והרים אתכם על דייניכם. In light of the above, this means that Hashem increased the holiness of the Jewish People to the point that it overflowed into their judges, providing them with the ability to carry out their duties.
This theme is borne out as well in the Arizal’s explanation of the words ויתעבר ה' בי למענכם, Hashem angered against me on your account.****** Being that the wisdom of the leader is proportionate to the merit of the generation, upon Israel’s sinning, Moshe was subjected to עיבור, (lit. gestation; playing on the term ויתעבר) which, kabbalisticly, connotes undeveloped spirituality. Thus, even the personal level of the leader is affected by the deeds of his followers.
Hence, איכה אשא לבדי, Moshe bemoans that he is no longer capable of bearing his responsibilities to the nation, due to טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם, its many sins which shrunk his spiritual powers.
This can help resolve the midrash with which we opened. The author was concerned with the observation of the Alshich that Eichah opens not with the travails of the Jewish People, but of the city Jerusalem. It would seem to me that העיר רבתי עם refers not the city, but to the leader of the city.******* Thus, Eichah laments that there sits alone – bereft of his spiritual capacities – the leader of the city, who once paralleled רבתי עם, the spiritual force of a vast population.
This was the conclusion of a process, as laid out by the Midrash. Initially, Moshe exclaimed איכה אשא לבדי in the future tense, referring to those generations to come in which the spiritual decline of the nation will drain its leader. (For, as the Tikkunei Zohar teaches,******** the soul of Moshe transmigrates within the souls of all leaders, thus being present to experience this.) Later yet, Yeshayah said, איכה היתה לזונה קריה נאמנה, implying that, for the time being, it was still a city spiritually faithful to its leadership, yet it had begun to turned away from it, like a wife who begins to stray. Finally, Yirmiyah witnessed the failure of the populace to provide for its leadership, as described above, referring to it in the past tense.
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* Eichah Rabbah 1:1.
** Devarim 1:12.
*** Yeshayah 1:21.
**** Eichah 1:1.
***** Vayikra 1:1.
****** Devarim 3:26.
******* As per Melachim I 8:16: דודב ריעב רחבאו, referring to Dovid as leader of the city.
******** 112a.