After partaking from the forbidden fruit Adam and Chava subsequently hear G-d's voice moving about in the garden, go and hide among the trees in the garden.
ויקרא — G-d called out to them אַיֶַכָּה — "Where are you?"
Adam responds that he hid out of fear since he was 'naked'.
G-d asks מי הגיד — "Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree I have commanded you not to eat?"
Adam tells how Chava gave him to eat, after which G-d turns to Chava inquiring how she came to do this and she in turn reveals that the serpent seduced her to eat it.
G-d probing as to where they were is most often understood as a rhetorical question — since He certainly knew where they were, leading into the interrogation that will eventually result into a distribution of punishment to the various parties for their participation in the sin.
The Midrash corresponds this summons of אַיֶַכָּה — Where are you? — to another expression found in Megillas Eichah, where the prophet Yirmiyahu bemoans the distressed state of exile the Jewish nation suffered, expressing אֵיכָה — How, ישבה בדד — sits in isolation a city that was full of people!
Just as I sentenced Adam to expulsion, as it is stated: “He expelled the Adam”, and I lamented over him: ‘How could it be as it is stated: “The Lord G-d called to the man, and said to him: אַיֶַכָּה — Where are you?”, so it was with His descendants: I brought them into the Land of Israel, I commanded them and they violated the command, I sentenced them to banishment and expulsion, and I lamented over them: אֵיכָה — How, ישבה בדד — sits in isolation a city that was full of people.
Although the letters are the same the vowelization is different, one meaning 'where' while the other 'how'.
The commonality appears to be in G-d's bewilderment, "How could you have brought yourselves to hide from me or be driven out of the land?"
The late beloved Mashgiach of Chevron, Rav Meir Chodosh, offers a novel approach in interpreting these expressions.
Perhaps, he suggests, G-d in calling out 'Where are you' is a loving expression of 'I am seeking you, please do not fall into a depressed state of failure, there is hope. I am here to embrace you!'
In the beginning of the Book of Vayikra the first words ויקרא — And He called to Moshe; we are taught indicates a language of חבה — endearment.
It's been observed that the first letters of the lament — איכה-ישבה-בדד, equal thirteen, the gematria of אהבה — love.
When G-d speaks to Adam asking of his whereabouts the Torah uses the word ויאמר rather than וידבר to introduce the inquiry, as the former indicates רחמים — warmth, and the latter דין — harsh judgment.
When Adam apologizes for his reticence to face G-d by hiding his 'nakedness' out of shame and guilt, G-d responds מי הגיד — who told you, using the verb הגיד which is associated with the word גיד — a tough tendon, intimating to Adam, 'whoever introduced to you that rough attitude that you must hide from me'.
'I am here for you and will never reject you! There is never a need to hide.'
The consequences of their sin were never intended as a mere punishment, but rather as a path to rediscover G-d and His unconditional love for us even in the most seemingly harsh and implausible situations.
In man's pursuit of sustaining life, man will have to sweat the hard stuff but ultimately find G-d always by his side if he truly seeks Him.
In the challenges of raising families with all its travails, women will endure pain, loss, and stress but will come to fathom how G-d is the force of their strength.
Navigating relationships will be tough but if we emulate G-d's attributes we will peer into G-d's eyes when we view one another through the lens of Torah's prescription for character development.
It was the catalyst for sin, the serpent, that G-d expels forever, providing him with an eternal supply of food, עפר — dust, denying him the privilege to seek and find G-d in his endeavors — the ultimate curse.
The world became disjointed with sin of Adam. With G-d now camouflaged in nature and invisible in His orchestration of life's circumstances it is incumbent on us to scream out to the world "G-d is One" — the unifying force within all events without exception.
The G-d of י-ה-ו-ה — compassion is also the G-d of אל-הינו — judgment.
Accepting the Divine presence and His abiding love in all circumstances exemplifies the notion of אַיֶַכָּה — G-d is seeking us out to embrace us.
The Holy Chida writes that the need to express Shma Yisrael and its message of G-d's compassion is embedded from the moment of creation.
The letter value of these two words, בראשית ברא equal 1116, adding two for the number of letters, 1118, is the gematria of the entire phrase, Shma Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad.
The Talmud says whoever lingers over the word 'Echad' in Krias Shma has his days and years lengthened.
The late great Maggid, Rav Yankel Galinsky quoted this passage at a celebration of his 70th birthday, after reminiscing the difficult challenges he endured over his lifetime, with the following remarks.
The Vilna Gaon explains that the first and deepest problem a person faces in life when life becomes hard — when the gezeiros come, when everything is taken away, when there seems to be no way forward — is the feeling that 'm'hut im ibergeluszt af hefker', that he has been abandoned. That no one is watching and no one is arranging and no one cares. That the Eibershter of the good years has nothing to do with the Eibershter of these terrible ones. That Hashem and Elokim, the middos of rachamim and din, are somehow two different forces, and that you have fallen out of the hands of one and into the hands of the other.
Echad. He is One. The same Being everywhere, at every moment, in every country, under every regime, in every circumstance without exception. The Hashem of the beautiful years and the Elokim of the terrible of the terrible ones are one and the same, operating with one and the same intention, moving toward one and the same purpose.
Hashem Hu HaElokim. Internalizing that, not merely knowing it as an intellectual proposition but feeling it as a lived and breathing reality, the way you feel it when you are sitting in a Siberian labor camp or a Soviet courtroom facing a death sentence or isolated in a detention cell is what gives a person the strength to keep going when there is no earthly reason to keep going. That recognition itself, says the Gaon, is the source of long life. Maarichin lo yamim v'shanav.
He ended by saying, " I know this not as a vort. I know it as the story of my life."
May we each work towards righting the world back to its original axis by living this reality and lingering over the notion of Hashem lovingly seeking us out in all circumstances!
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן
