Some thoughts on Tisha B’Av this year
Tisha B'Av, the 9th of Av, is a day dedicated to the remembrance of great tragedies in our people's long history. Today we recall the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE on this date, and of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the catastrophic annihilation of our nation and our great city of Jerusalem, also on Tisha B'Av. It was the last of these that ended 1000 years of Jewish sovereignty in Israel.
Today we recall as well the fall of Beitar in 135 CE on Tisha B'Av, bringing a disastrous end to the Bar Cochba revolt, the final great, failed effort to recover Jewish freedom and independence. The Jews of England were expelled in a royal writ issued on Tisha B'Av 1290. The expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492, destroying a great Jewish civilization that had flourished for hundreds of years, was timed to coincide with Tisha B'Av, to add misery to misery.
In the aftermath of the Shoah in the 20th century, the rabbis initially recommended remembering the dead of the terrible Holocaust on Tisha B'Av. But the Jewish people demanded a unique day of remembrance, which became Yom HaShoah, and is now additionally reflected in International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In this 5784 year of tragedy for the Jewish people, when October 7th brought so much horror and suffering, we also remember the 1200 Israelis, Americans, and the dead of many other nations slaughtered by an enemy no less merciless or brutal than our previous tormentors.
What is different about the tragedy of October 7th and the many previous disasters in Jewish history, inflicted by enemies that despise us because we are Jews? Perhaps only this: that today we have a Jewish nation, Israel, strong enough to defend itself, able to prevent atrocities from turning into ultimate collapse, destruction or exile from our land.
Today we acknowledge the dark history of our past, and our recent suffering, too. But there is so much more to our religion, people, and nation: Judaism is an incredible, life-affirming faith, filled with joy, warmth, creativity, brilliance and enchantment. Even in Aycha, the Book of Lamentations we chanted last night, there are moments of hope. Hatikvah--the millenia-old hope of a people for our own, precious land.
On this day of memory, may we also, always, embrace that hope.