Women & men praying – Tisha B’Av at the Western Wall, mid-19th century Once Upon A Time In Jerusalem
Tisha B’Av is a date that has accompanied the Jewish people since its inception and marks central events in our history that we will always remember and never forget.
On Tisha B’Av, it was decreed that our ancestors in the desert would not enter the Land of Israel after the sin of the spies who spoke slandered on the land: “You cried unnecessarily, and therefore you will cry on this day for generations to come.”
Later, the First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, about 500 years later, the Second Temple was destroyed by Titus and the Roman army, the city of Betar fell during the Bar Kokhba revolt, the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, the expulsion of the Jews from France, the outbreak of World War I, the beginning of the uprise in the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp, and other events that are hard to remember and absorb, even today.
What was common to the destruction of the temples was baseless hatred and lack of unity among the different parts of the nation with its diverse opinions.
On this day, there is another dispute since the renewal of the Zionist enterprise and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland from the mid-19th century and especially since the establishment of the State, regarding whether Tisha B’Av should continue to be observed after the establishment of the State in a way that is stuck in the past and foreign to the present and the fact that we have an independent and sovereign state. Is closing entertainment venues on the eve of Tisha B’Av religious coercion or rather a reminder of our shared past as a people?
These questions are valid and timely, and unfortunately, this year, more than ever.
Tisha B’Av is a painful and bleeding reminder to all Jews, wherever they may be, of the price of internal disputes, baseless hatred, the rejection of others because their opinions do not align with mine and my worldview, and the desire to impose my opinion on the general public, thinking that justice is completely on my side.
Tisha B’Av, in my opinion, is not a commemoration of events or a lesson in distant history about the sin of the spies in the desert journey or about the destruction of the First Temple 2,446 years ago.
This year, more than any other, the existence of internal disputes, baseless hatred, the rejection of the other’s opinion, and the belief that my truth is the only one that is correct and nothing else, has taken from all of us, from each and every one of us, a terrible and unbearable price.
We are still in the midst of the longest war in the history of the State and after the greatest disaster to befall us since the establishment of the State.
Babies and children from kibbutzim who were taken from their beds, young people who just wanted to dance and rejoice, citizens who rose to action and left their homes to save their brothers with bare hands, leaving their families behind,
IDF soldiers who fought and continue to fight with supreme bravery against a ruthless enemy, hostages languishing in the tunnels of evil, thousands of psychological trauma victims, and the chilling list goes on.
The price we all pay every day for internal disputes among us is unbearable and threatens our existence as a people.
Tisha B’Av is not distant history but a daily painful and bleeding reminder of what is happening to us as a people and the terrible price we all pay when there is no internal unity (not uniformity) and love and respect for others.
May we all merit to learn the lesson and also apply it daily and look inward each of us and decide how to be better.
This is not a messianic aspiration or an unattainable utopian vision,
we simply have no other choice, as the price is known and unbearable.
May the hostages return home safely with the IDF soldiers and all the people of Israel who truly need comfort.
Next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem, as one person with one heart, and may the mourning turn into great joy in the near future.
A peaceful Sabbath to those far and near from the renewed Jerusalem that will never fall again.
Photo – Postcard collection, the National Library.
