איכה
VA YOMER LO AYEKAH
And He said to him, where are you?
This is the question that G-d asked Adam in the Garden, after Adam sinned and when he hid from G-d.
Targum Jonathan rendered here: “Is not all the world which I created manifest before me? The darkness as well as the light? How have you presumed to hide from me? Do I not know your hiding place?”
The first thing to understand of course is that G-d knew exactly where they were. This is a rhetorical question. It was there in order to initiate a dialogue. The Rabbis said that in order for Adam not to be terrified, and in order for him to repent, G-d approached him in this manner. A similar approach of course can be seen also in the case of Cain (Genesis 4:9) and in the case of Balaam (Numbers 22:9) and in the case of King Hezekiah (Isaiah 39).
The question ‘where are you’ is one word in Hebrew – AYEKAH - איכה. But the Rabbis noticed that grammatically the spelling of the word AYEKAH and the word AICHA - איכה - is identical, only the vowels are different. And AICHA is the name of the book of lamentations in Hebrew. Therefore on this the Midrash commented: “G-d must have lamented over Adam and said – AICHA – alas! How have you fallen*!”*Midrash, commentary to Lamentations 1:1
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