Comfort me, please

by: Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg

Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 11:56:21 AM EDT

This morning as I read and was moved by the postings from rejewvenator and Jeremy Burton related to Tisha B’Av, I also felt a sense of relief. We have made it through yet another Tisha B’Av, and we are now on the other side – in the period of consolation.

I am struck by the optimism of our Jewish tradition, that there are only three weeks of admonition prior to Tisha B’Av as compared to seven weeks of consolation following that mournful day. For three weeks we read haftarot that admonish the sins that led to the destruction of the Temple, but for seven weeks our Prophets console us with hope that reversal, restoration and repair are possible.

Lamentations

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 10:25:41 AM EDT

This sunday, August 10th, is Tisha B'Av - a historical day of Jewish mourning, originally tied to the date of the temple destruction and then added in over the centuries with layers of mourning for tragedies of Jewish history (e.g. the expulsion from Spain, the Holocaust).

Every year I end up in conversations with my modern minded friends of diverse political persuasions who struggle with this day; its relevance to a politically empowered Jewish people; its Jewish-centered focus in the space of so much else that goes on in the world; its orientation of mourning for things lost that some may not wish to see returned (e.g. animal sacrifice).

For myself, I seek to connect its core with our contemporary experience, and to see the connection with how those who lived in lamentation 2500 years ago experienced their world, and how we experience the world around us.

Given my obession with coal miners, my friend Seth Winberg (a student at Chovevei Torah)  reminded me today of the passage from Eicha (Lamentations 4:8) describing the scene in the streets of Jersualem in the days of destruction of the first temple.

Their appearance has become blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones, it became as dry as wood. 

Why Will You Cry?

by: rejewvenator

Wed Aug 06, 2008 at 20:43:24 PM EDT

The Rambam writes in the Mishneh Torah (Laws of Fasting 5:3) that five events happened on the ninth day of Av: the sin of the Spies (about which we read in this week's parsha), the destruction of the First Temple and the Second Temple, the capture of Betar and the killing of the proto-messianic Bar Kochba and all his people, and finally, the plowing of the Temple Mount by Turnus Rufus. In short, for the Rambam, Tisha B'Av is the betrayal of hope. It is the time when the three promises that God makes the Jewish people are all reversed: that He will give them the land of their forefathers, that He will dwell among them, and that He will bring a messiah to redeem them.