"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: Every year I’m asked why it’s necessary to continue mourning with such intensity on Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month Av, marking the destruction of both of our Temples. Haven’t we returned to our homeland after nearly 2000 years of exile?  We have even returned to Jerusalem and re-established our Holy City as the capital of our re-established State. Yes, there are still Arab residents who claim Jerusalem as their own; yes, there have been despicable acts of terror within our "City of Peace;" yes, Jews cannot build a synagogue on the Temple Mount, and even individual Jews are forbidden to pray, attracting armed guards whenever they move their lips in a way that makes them look as though they are praying. Nevertheless, our situation is incomparably better than it has been for the past two millennia. So why not tone down the intensity of the mourning?  

My response always cites the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah, which teaches that in ancient times (prior to the establishment of a fixed calendar) agents would be sent out to inform the far-flung population the exact day when Rosh Hodesh (the new month) had fallen, so that the people would know when to celebrate the festivals and the Fast of Av.

"And when the Second Temple existed," concludes the Mishnah, "they would also go out on the month of Iyar because of the second Pesach" [for those who had been impure the prior month]. The Rambam, in his "Interpretations of the Mishnayot," correctly deduces that even during the Second Temple period the Israelites continued to mourn and fast on Tisha B’Av (B.T. Rosh HaShanah 18a). And Josephus confirms this fact.   

Hence, even after the Temple was rebuilt, we still fasted. But this fascinating piece of history still begs the question. Why mourn when the reasons for mourning have been largely removed, when Jerusalem has been transformed from a dusty outpost as described by Mark Twain into a thriving religious and cultural capital of a great city in a sovereign state?   

I once heard my teacher Rav Soloveitchik give a majestic answer: even after the Second Temple was rebuilt, the chanting Eicha (Lamentations) with its haunting question "How So?" remains relevant. After all, many righteous and holy individuals, many innocent children, were destroyed by the Babylonian hordes. Even the rebuilding of the Temple cannot remove the existential question as to why pure and good and innocent people were made to suffer such cruel tortures!  

Rav Soloveitchik offered a second reason. We continued to recite Eicha and mourn even during the Second Temple period – and certainly during the "beginning of the sprouting of Redemption" – because we must learn the lesson of the destruction, because we must take three weeks out and sensitize our souls to the specter of defeat, lest we fall into a similar trap and (Heaven Forbid) fail once again.

Allow me to share how I personally mark Tisha B’Av since coming to Israel.   

I mark the bleak fast day by reciting the Kinot (elegies) at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron - a custom I adopted from Rav Yisrael Shurin, a revered rabbinic leader in Efrat who passed away three years ago. What was the basis of his custom? As I’m sure you know, the Midrash teaches that it was the ninth of Av when the scouts returned with their evil report, and when the Israelites wept as they accepted the advice of 10 of their 12 princes not to attempt the conquest of the Land. This abandonment of Israel became the forerunner of our subsequent losses of national sovereignty, the desolations of Jerusalem and the destructions of the two temples (Numbers 14:1, additions to Rashi).

But Joshua and Caleb managed to defy not only their 10 colleagues on the reconnaissance mission but also the popular vote (ibid. 7-10). What gave them the courage to do so? Joshua was the beloved and special disciple of Moses, and his link to the Jewish past and the Jewish mission emanated from an intense relationship with the greatest prophet who ever lived. Caleb received his inspiration from a visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron before embarking upon his scouting mission. (Numbers 12:22, Rashi ad loc). Allow me to explain the significance of Caleb’s visit to the ancestral gravesite in Hebron.    

The Book of Numbers concludes with a catalogue of the wanderings of the Israelites, but with a strange linguistic introduction: "And Moses transcribed their places of origin toward their places of destination in accordance with the divine word, and these are their places of destination toward their places of origin" (Numbers 33:2).

This verse seems to have gotten it backwards. The point of every journey is to travel from one's origin to one's destination; no one wants to travel backwards! So why does the Torah write, "… places of destination toward their places of origin." Thomas Wolfe’s great posthumous novel is called, "You Can’t Go Home Again." I wouldn’t dream of leaving Efrat, the ‘West Bank’ of the Jordan River, to go back to the West Side of Manhattan!  

But the Bible teaches that you must go home again, if your original home was Israel.The Hebrew preposition lifnei is revealing: it can sometimes mean "before" as in "he was born one year before (lifnei) his brother, "and it can sometimes mean "ahead, in front of," as in "he is walking a meter in front of (lifnei) his brother;" when this preposition relates to time, it means before, but when it relates to space, it means in front of.   

Historically, the Jewish nation began in Hebron, with Abraham’s election by G-d; this first Hebrew then received his mission statement, to teach "righteousness and justice" (Genesis 18:19), and his ultimate charge, "…through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:3). Jewish continuity became confirmed with Abraham’s sacrificial walk [along with Isaac] to Mt. Moriah, (the location of Jerusalem) with G-d’s final confirmation, "…through your seed shall be blessed all the nations of the earth" (Gen 22:18).

In time, Hebron and Jerusalem may be first – but in space and in concept they must remain our ultimate destination. As Jews we’ve wandered the four corners of the globe, but our minds, hearts and souls must always be linked to Hebron and Jerusalem, our destiny, our ultimate destination.   

This is the teaching of Caleb, the real message of Tisha Be'av. In order for the "beginning of the sprouting" to turn into the real Redemption, we must return to our places of origin - our biblical values - and then to our original places of habitation, the great cities of Judea, committed to making the sacrifices necessary to transform our world into a place dedicated to righteousness, justice and peace.

Shabbat Shalom

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