Consider, if you will, the numbers six, eight, and nine. Two are divisible by two, two by three, two are consecutive, two have only one number in their set of prime factors. Only one of those facts is known because they are part of a well known group that is famous/distinguished by precisely that fact: six and eight are both even numbers, and all even numbers are divisible by two. (In fact, the even club is pretty non-discriminating -- if you are divisible by two, you are in; it doesn't care about your shady past.)
Still reading? Here's the point: by just reading that list of facts, there was no way for you to know which were happenstance and which was/were associated with an underlying principle. Once I started the statement with "Only one of those facts is known because...", you pretty much understood where I was going. Had I said, "six and eight are even", you also would have known they were even, but -- again -- you wouldn't have a basis for believing "evenness" was some kind of group worth contemplating.
Still reading? Here's the real point. When HaShem, or one of His true prophets asks you a question, be on notice that you are being asked to take a deeper look. You are not really being asked a question, you are being told that you are missing the point. When HaShem asked Bilaam, "Who are these men?"; HaShem was not, chas v'shalom, displaying a lack of knowledge -- though Bilaam took it that way and ran with it. Nor was HaShem even asking Bilaam if he knew who they were. HaShem was telling Bilaam -- straight out -- contemplate well, my dear Bilaam, who they are and what they offer and then make a decision: are you on My team, or are you a free agent?
This coming motzei Shabbos, we are scheduled to once again hear the prophet Yermiyahu ask us, איכה/Alas! How can this be happening? This word, אֵיכָה, was also used by Moshe, when he told Klal Yisrael -- on the last day of his life and on their standing ready to enter the promised land -- "how can I do this alone, dealing with all your troubles and issues?" (Devarim 1:12) See Rashi there. This week's parsha, which is always read before the fast of Tisha b'Av. Finally, in the haftara that preceded the fast of Tisha b'Av, the prophet Yeshayahu also asks, "How has the faithful city (Yerushalyim) become (like) a harlot?" (1:21, see commentary there).
Chazal tell us that this question/statement has been posed three times in Jewish history. The letters in the word איכה, though -- spelled this way and not with a final א, the usual spelling for the denotation that Yermiyahu meant -- can also be read as אַיֶּֽכָּה/"where are you?" In this context, then, we can understand themidrash that relates this word to the question HaShem asked Adam -- after his sin -- "where are you?
The question איכה always, always means: stop right now and contemplate the focus and direction of your life. What is happening here is not due to a single error in judgment in how to handle what just happened. This happened because you are on a crash course toward self-destruction. Take stock! Make real, substantive changes! Do it now; it is never too late!
You will ask, but wasn't R' Yermiyahu telling them it was too late? No; absolutely no. He was telling them, now see where you are and how you got here, and realize that you have no rational choice, so rational alternative, except one... The One. Now, with all lost except your relationship with HaShem, turn toward him. He's been waiting for you so long already.
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