Another Tisha b'Av in the Shadow of War

My friend, the Nameless One, says the current feeling in Israel is depressing; and the gravity of his sadness can be heard in his voice. 

He says,  “It’s very, very hot,” compounded with the fact that the holiday of Tisha b’Av is fast approaching (and by this reading, will have passed). 

Tisha b’Av, one of the saddest dates in the Jewish calendar as the major day of communal mourning, is the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. This year, Tisha B’Av is observed on the Gregorian calendar on Saturday night, August 2, through Sunday, August 3.

Although a large number of disasters are said to have befallen Jews on this day, the major commemoration is of the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. Also, the 9th of Av is believed to have been the official start of the First Crusades; the expulsions of Jews from England, France, and Spain at different points throughout the Middle Ages; and the approval of the Final Solution in 1941 and formal beginning of the Holocaust during the Second World War (in fact, when Israel was founded in 1948, roughly 25% of the population were Holocaust survivors).

The Nameless One says that Tisha b’Av is depressing every year, though this year the sadness is all the more palpable.

Part of Tisha b’Av is fasting for 25 hours, which the Nameless One says the difficulty of which is compounded not only by the heat, but also by the stress and sorrow in the war that began with the horrors of October 7.

The Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eicha) and other dirges (kinot) are read in the synagogue in remembrance.

The mourning is both historical and immediate, simultaneously.

Rabbi J.J. Schacter suggests that one way to cope with October 7 is to include it in the “9th of Av, the day which all Jewish tragedies should be remembered.”

Schacter says that there has already been an effort to designate a day to remember October 7. 

He says how important it is to understand the past in order to move forward, which is true for a nation as well, to try to pass on the value of that history for the next generation.

Otherwise, if it weren’t relived in memory, there would be a flattening of this history.

Tisha b’Av allows the Jewish people to grapple with what has happened to them, while at the same time remembering their connection to God.

In this profound way, Tisha b’Av reminds the Jewish people of what they have gone through, the depths of which is soul-clinching, but subsequently risen up from in an almost super-human way.

Such fundamental perseverance is what evil forces like Hamas seek to extinguish. 

There is comfort knowing that the Jewish people will continue - with allies. 

Mike Huckabee and his daughter, Governor Sarah Sanders of Arkansas, were received by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the Western Wall in honor of Tisha b’Av on August 3. 

Rabinowitz is the Western Wall’s rabbi, who shared with them “an overview of the site’s spiritual and historical significance as a place of prayer, hope and longing for the Jewish people throughout generations,” the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said.

And America remains staunchly at Israel’s side, despite the media campaign of Hamas.

The Nameless One reminds me that he’s been saying Hamas would use video for propaganda purposes. Gaining world-sympathy is their goal, for in this way the world becomes blind to what they do and will do.

“They are going to put civilians in harm's way for propaganda,” he clearly said at the beginning of the war, and thus they have.

There has also been a video released in recent days showing emaciated Jewish hostages, Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, imprisoned in the tunnels of Gaza. Israel collectively feels their pain, and is even further embittered. 

Yet, Israel will rise out of the sorrow once again (which will be the ultimate victory against Hamas).