There are some good reasons why many religiously liberal, non-Orthodox Jews choose not to observe Tisha B’Av: We do not yearn for the restoration of animal sacrifice to our worship of God, so it seems strange to take part in that day’s mourning for the First and Second Temples, both of which are said to have been destroyed on the ninth day of the month of Av. Nor do we particularly identify with the day’s dominant theological message, namely that we are responsible for the catastrophe, that God permitted our enemies to lay waste to the land and our people as an act of judgment of our sins.
We liberal Jews, of course, are not the only ones who find it difficult to swallow these themes. But for us, that difficulty lies at the very heart of our liberal religious identity. We are liberal Jews in large part because our modern sensibility recoils at this simplistic notion of guilt and punishment. We cannot say with the traditional Siddur that “on account of our sins we were exiled from our land,” and we most definitely refuse to join those who apply such logic to rationalize the subsequent persecutions, pogroms and exterminations that darken the pages of our history.
Yet some of us liberal Jews insist upon observing Tisha B’Av. This is true even in my own Reform movement, where the holiday has made a rather impressive comeback in recent decades. Given all the above, what gives? How do we explain this apparent inconsistency?
The answer, perhaps, is that we have learned some valuable lessons during the two centuries of liberal Judaism’s existence.
We have learned, first of all, that there is no such thing as Judaism without the Jews and the historic experience of our people. Our religious ideas, however high-minded, remain lifeless abstractions so long as they are divorced from the concrete experience of the Jewish people throughout the ages. We have learned that our Judaism requires that we identify with that experience in its entirety. Churban habayit, the destruction of the Temple(s), is a symbolic memory for the Jews, a commemoration not only of those traumatic historical events but also of the ongoing experience of trauma in our history. No, we do not mourn the disappearance of sacrificial worship, and we do not look forward to its return. Yet we are Jews, and we cannot contemplate Tisha B’Av and remain dispassionate and unmoved by all that it has come to represent.
We also have learned something about our response to tragedy. No, we do not buy the theory that our own sins are the sole or even predominant cause of our suffering. (Neither did Job. And, as it turns out, he was right, and his so-called friends were wrong.) But we have discovered that the struggle to find meaning in suffering, even in suffering that defies all attempts at rationalization, can be an uplifting thing.
We have learned to read the traditional liturgy of Tisha B’Av — the biblical book of Eicha (Lamentations), the day’s Torah readings, the kinot (dirges) — not as an effort to explain or to justify the destruction but as a call to respond to it by redoubling our commitment to search our souls, to purify our conduct and to renew our shaken-but-not-shattered faith in the ultimate triumph of good over evil. This way of response permits us to acknowledge tragedy in all its darkness, but it forbids us to yield to a sense of helplessness and despair. And that’s why some of us liberal Jews will be in shul this Tisha B’Av.
May God comfort us all among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Mark Washofsky is a professor of Jewish law and practice at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He chairs the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
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Within Orthodox circles Tisha B'Av has also become a time to think about the Holocaust or the cycle of holocaust events going through our history.The main focus of Tisha B'Av is not the loss of animal sacrifices, but the loss of our closeness to G-d, our strength as a people of G-d. These things we can feel. Today Obama has also placed the yearning for Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel center of the agenda for Tisha B'Av.
What a bizarre comment by s.c., who seeks to persuade as to which territories should be under the control of the State of Israel based on religious arguments as to the status of the City of Zion. The State of Israel is a modern nation-state, not the next coming of a post-Temple Jewish kingdom. The religious status of Jerusalem, while of interest, is a rather different issue than the boundaries of that state. Even under Palestinian sovereignty, holy places will remain just that.
Some don't celebrate it because it seems to align with the judgement that came in Ezekiel 8 where they mixed pagan worship in the 1st Temple with the Spring & Summer Tammuz weeping in their feasts. It did not make Elohim happy.
They did add this fast and others after they came back from the Babylonian captivity from what I read. However, to me, it commemorates a warning that reminds me to repent and follow the Torah, not human tradition or other philisophy.
The author should note that many "orthodox" do not relish the return of animal sacrifice and that there are many opinions amongst the commentators that state that there will not be animal sacrifice in the 3rd Temple. The Temple is the focal point of prayer and is a unifying factor. In fact Isaiah states..."that my house shall be a house of worship for all the nations." Second, we are responsible for our own sorrows. The Second Temple was not destroyed because Jews didn't keep ritual, rather because of "Sinat Chinam" free (baseless) hate. You are just as guilty as the orthodox with respect to using and applying labels. Who says the people in the picture are orthodox or for that matter, that you are liberal. Oh and by the way, suffering from visiting the family a terror victim in Israel to a victim of the Holocaust who is being victimized a second time by the inertia of the Jewish establishment is not "uplifting".
To the author of this article, I wish to say that it's very heartening to read that what goes around comes around. That a branch of Judaism means its connection with the Jewish religion, as well as what we've all come to know as "Jewish culture". Welcome!
There was much more to the Beis Hamikdash then just animal sacrifices (and as an Orthodox Jew, I too have difficulty with that concept). The fact is that the Temple was destroyed by baseless hatred. The story of Bar Kamtza can be found here http://www.aish.com/h/9av/ju/48949336.html. This incident was an example of baseless hatred (sinas chiyam). It teaches us that we are responsible for our actions. G-d gave people free will, but, unfortunately, that has often meant it has been used for the negative.
As far as the date, many things, besides the destruction of the two temples occurred on that date, among them the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition, and the assassination that set of WWI. Most historians believe that it was the outcome of WWI that almost directly led to WWII.
The nine days have begun this year with a focus on Judaic "corruption" in the arrest of the Rabbanim in Deal and Brooklyn.They are anticipated to culminate in a "demonstration" of (Jewish) assertion of rights on the Temple Mount this Tisha B'Av. As one whose family members perished at the stake during the Spanish Inquistion, and at Aushwitz,the relevance of Tisha B'Av has always been clear to me...
"We liberal Jews, of course, are not the only ones who find it difficult to swallow these themes". Actually, it is quite a mystery to me why any committed and educated Jew would feel any discomfort with the Jewish tradition. In the past, animal sacrifices were at the very heart of Jewish life. Be proud of it. We are an ancient people with a memory of our distant past. Most peoples in the world didn't come into existence until a much later time (the Middle Ages, most likely), and they don't have such memories. Moreover, the fall of Jerusalem with the destruction of the Second Temple became the point of reference of Jewish history. The entire identity of the Jewish people was focused on the aspiration to return; hence, we break the glass on weddings, we declare "Next year in Jerusalem" on Yom Kippur and on Pesach, etc. Zion is the name of the Temple Mount, so Zionism (a secular national movement) symbolizes in its very name that the memory of the Temple is the absolute center of the Jewish experience. The founding of a Jewish state in modern times proves the power of memory as a driving force in our history. It should be added that the Yiddish-speaking Jews who survived the Holocaust used the term "churban", the destruction [of the Temple], to describe the horror of their experiences. Indeed, the memory of the Temple remains the point of reference of the Jewish civilization even as a modern event should have overshadowed the ancient event.
So, feel "at home" with our memories and with our customs. They're part of being Jewish.
Ah, S.C., interesting formulation you have self-constructed on the irrelevancy of geographic locations and their perceived 'holiness' to their constituencies. I believe that such a novel and groundbreaking theory deserves much wider diffusion and can only hope that you will be shortly embarking for distant lands to preach your message. I'm sure the Christian, Islamic and Hindu peoples will be fascinated to realize that their attachments to Rome and Jerusalem, Mecca and Benares, among others, is the result of their 'idolization' of geography.
"We are liberal Jews in large part because our modern sensibility recoils at this simplistic notion of guilt and punishment"
ah, so I guess you guys have no problem with the kol nidrei nullification of vows, and the mesirah laws
"and we most definitely refuse to join those who apply such logic to rationalize the subsequent persecutions, pogroms and exterminations that darken the pages of our history."
but the talmud and orthodox judaism permit the persecution and extermination of gentiles and non-Jews, which has led to numerous Judaic crimes against gentiles and backlashes against these, surely this cannot be rationalized either
but the talmud and orthodox judaism permit the persecution and extermination of gentiles and non-Jews, which has led to numerous Judaic crimes against gentiles and backlashes against these, surely this cannot be rationalized either'
Kindly give some specific examples of these 'numerous Judaic crimes against gentiles and non-Jews' which you are holding up as an equivalency to all the recorded persecution and violence against Jews throughout history. Because as the statement stands, you are either a lunatic or an individual purposely lying to pursue a Jew-hater's agenda.
Gilad Atzmon (above) expresses my views completely. In this day and age, nobody should be permitted to malign the sanctity of the Jews. Those die-hard communists and neo-Nazis roaming the world in the trade union movement and in the universities are peas in a pod and should be derailed before their train starts to move. Once again, thank you Gilad and all your other correspondents who are on the path of truth.
George,
btw, the Talmud happens to be pro-pedophile. According to Yebamoth 57b, once a girl has reached the age of three years and a day, her father can arrange for her betrothal, which is then consummated through intercourse.
(this was deleted last time. why?)
Tony, George: 'sancity of the Jews" ? what racist calumny! It is the Torah which is holy and the commandments which bestow sanctity, NOT the Land nor the People. ("intrinsic sanctity of Land and People" - the Fatherland and the Master Race- is a Nazi concept!)
By your standards (and that of Gilad, whose bombast was deleted), the Hebrew prophets - who continually berated the Israelites for their sins- were the worst anti-Semites of all time!
shmuely, my reply was totally deleted. It was long and shattering to this thread. As the latin phrase says, "the fate of the work illustrates its argument"
and yes you're right, the talmud allows for sex with 3 year old girls, and 9 year old boys including by their mother
schmuely, you must be specific about which 'torah.' The human-made, pagan torah of the babylonian talmud which explicitly claims to override the torah of the Bible is what most jews (orthodox talmud) believe
self-deception and deceiving goys has an old tradition in talmudic judaism
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/talmudtruth.html
[Jewish Deception and Dissimulation
The response of the orthodox rabbis to documentation regarding the racism and hatred in their sacred texts is simply to brazenly lie, in keeping with the Talmud's Baba Kamma 113a which states that Jews may use lies ("subterfuge") to circumvent a Gentile.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a multi-million dollar rabbinical propaganda center dispatched Rabbi Daniel Landes in 1995 to deny that the Talmud dehumanizes non-Jews. "This is utter rot," he said. His proof? Why, his word, of course.
Lying to "circumvent a Gentile" has a long patrimony in Judaism. Take for example the 13th century Talmud debate in Paris between Nicholas of Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, whom Hyam Maccoby admits had "a good knowledge of the Talmud" ( "The Jews on Trial," p. 26) and Rabbi Yehiel. Yehiel was not under threat of death, bodily injury, imprisonment or fine. Yet he brazenly lied during the course of the debate....
...In 1994, Rabbi Tzvi Marx, director of Applied Education at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, made a remarkable admission concerning how Jewish rabbis in the past have issued two sets of texts: the authentic Talmudic texts with which they instruct their own youth in the Talmud schools (yeshiviot) and "censured and amended" versions which they disseminate to gullible non-Jews for public consumption.
Rabbi Marx states that in the version of Maimonides' teachings published for public consumption, Maimonides is made to say that whoever kills a human being transgresses the law.
But, Rabbi Marx points out "...this only reflects the censured and amended printed text, whereas the original manuscripts have it only as 'whoever kills an Israelite."(Tikkun: A Bi-Monthly Jewish Critique May-June, 1994).
The Jewish book, Hesronot Ha-shas ("that which is removed from the Talmud"), is important in this regard. (Cf. William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books p. 59).
Hesronot Ha-shas was reprinted in 1989 by Sinai Publishing of Tel-Aviv. Hesronot Ha-shas is valuable because it lists both the original Talmud texts that were later changed or omitted, and the falsified texts cited for Gentile consumption as authentic.
Historian William Popper states: "It was not always that long passages...were censored...but often single words alone were omitted...Often, in these cases, another method of correction was used in place of omission--substitution." (Cf. William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books pp. 58-59).
For example, the translators of the English Soncino version of the Talmud sometimes render the Hebrew word goyim (Gentiles) under any number of disguise words such as "heathen, Cuthean, Kushite, Egyptian, idolater" etc. But these are actually references to Gentiles (all non-Jews). Footnotes for certain passages in the Soncino Talmud translation state: "Cuthean (Samaritan) was here substituted for the original goy..."
The heirs of the Pharisees often deny the existence of the Talmud passages here cited, in order to brazenly claim that such passages are the "fabrications of anti-Semites."
In 1994, the 80 year old Lady Jane Birdwood was arrested and prosecuted in a criminal court in London, England for the "crime" of publishing in her pamphlet, The Longest Hatred, the truthful statement that the Talmud contains anti-Gentile and anti-Christian passages. (She was accused of violating the Public Order Act of 1986).
In the course of her Orwellian thought-crime trial, which was ignored by the U.S. media, a rabbi was called as a prosecution witness. The rabbi proceeded to flatly deny that the Talmud contained anti-Gentile or anti-Christian passages and on the basis of the rabbi's "prestige," this elderly and ailing woman was sentenced to three months in jail and fined the equivalent of $1,000...]
Tisha B'Av is part of Jewish collective memory that foreshadowed and led to the creation of the state of Israel. The Reform movement is beginning to realize that on this 25-hour fast day the lamentations for the destroyed Zions of 586 BCE and 70 CE have been maintained for more than 2000 years and are at the core of our yearing as a people to return to our homeland. Whoever demeans this memorialization and fast day, says the Talmud, will never live to rejoice in the complete rebuilding of Jerusalem. Equally, growing numbers of Jewish ultra-liberals, formerly known as primitive Marxists and Bundists, are beginning to awaken to the glorious evolution of Jewish history and the proud Jewish state of Israel which no longer make it necessary for them to feel ashamed of their heritage in front of their Gentile peers or to kneel down to the Gentile ideological gods. For this we have Tisha B'Av to thank.
I find it annoying that the publishers chose a photograph of Orthodox men to illustrate a liberal perspective on Tisha b'Av from the Chairperson of the Responsa Committee of the (Reform) Central Conference of American Rabbis. I wonder if this was deliberate or - similar to my local newspaper's once accompanying an article on the Jewish new year by printing a picture of a chicken-waving Israeli - just a lazy attempt at depicting Jews via the "most 'frum' denominator."
Two people diffrent came back from exile. One weeping for the temple that was no more and the other did not weep or sheed a tear for the temple that mankind built for G-D. why .....For the ones that did not weep, while in exile repented for their sins against G-D and found the foundation of the true temple that G-D is building, that mankind can not enter in and defile with sin.
It is written in Psalm 51....behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
The inward parts are our hearts and minds that the law of G-D goes forth in all we do. We become the vessel that contains the law that was given to Moses that was written on both sides. We so to speak are a small stone that is placed upon the true foundation of the temple of G-D in the hidden part. This is the desire of G-D'S heart for his holy children that are brought forth with the breath of the Almighty.
G-D tells us in many ways...."Set Me As A Seal Upon Your Heart." Seals were inscribed with the owner's name . We who set this seal is inscribed with the name of G-D upon us, to identify, authenticate and protect the contents of documents the law and the vessels--us.
This is the foundation, the temple the mountain, the rock, the G-D of Host and our fortress, and the horn of our salvation. It is written... Psalm 118....The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this. and it is marvelous in our eyes.
That is why Jeremiah said the temple, the temple, the temple....he was mooking it. For Jeremiah also see what was marvelous in the eyes what the LORD had done. It is written....in Jeremiah 31 those that did not turn and what G-D will is for them. It is written Jer. 31...But thos shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those day-s saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-D, and they shall be my people. There is a big diffrence here and in Ps. 51 who have the desire, that G-D wants for them on their inward parts, and who truth let them know wisdom in the hidden part.
It is written......Behold, the day-s come, saith the LORD, ( the day-s are days in all our lives in every generation, days that we can become the vessel that contains the law on our inward parts.)...that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that i took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
We become the mirror image that we were made in. Having two sides, above and below. Now in ONE union with our G-D. Most seals were pressed into wet pottery used to secure scrools serving much like a signature, symbols and letters were often carved in reverse. When stamped into the clay, the seal images and inscription would appear correctly. We are like this. We need to turn and become the vessel and the mirror image that we were made for. It is written....Job 33.....The Spirit of G-D made me, (flesh of earth who death come to) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Father and holy child in the kingdom of G-D)
Note: it was the hand that brought them out in Jeremiah 31, and it is the breath of the Almighty that brought us forth into live. The breath of the Eternal G-D who has not end. We live with his eternal breath in us, when we come under the new covenant.
It is written EX. XXIV and who were then like angels, perfectly united, of whom the psalmist sings, "bless ye the LORD, ye angels, mighty in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word" Ps. CIII
It is written....And the wise shall be replendent as the splendour of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness shall be like the stars for ever and ever. Dan. XII
The wise are those who penetrate to the real essence of wisdom; Ps. 51 were truth will let you know wisdom, in the hidden part. "they shall be resplendent", with the radiance of superna; Wisdom, as the splendour, this is the flashing of the Stream that goes forth from Eden (Gen. XI) this is the firmament. There are the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon, and all the radiant lights, but the brightness of this firmament shines upon the Garden of Eden, and in the midst of the Garden stands the Tree of Life. Blessed are they who taste of it. they will live for ever and ever, and it is they who are called "the wise", and they the vessels that contain the law, in life in this world as well as in the world to come.