Blog

We have entered what we call “the three weeks” in the Jewish calendar. It begins with the 17^th day of Tammuz and concludes with Tisha B’av. On the 17^th of Tammuz in the year 70CE, the Roman army breached the walls of Jerusalem, leading to the destruction of the Second Holy Temple on Tisha B’av. The First Holy Temple was also destroyed on Tisha B’av in 586BCE by the Babylonia Army, with the siege of Jerusalem beginning on the 10^th day of Tevet in 588BCE. The Rabbis of the Talmud decreed that not only was Tisha B’av a national day of mourning for the Jewish people, with a 25-hour fast, but the two aforementioned dates also were days of mourning with fasting from dawn to dusk. 

Our calendar has other days of fasting, some familiar, some less. Yom Kippur is known to all, and it is a 25-hour fast. Taanit Esther, the fast of Esther, is lesser known. It recalls Esther’s fasting and praying to God before she appeared before King Ahashverosh. Tzom Gedaliah is most likely the least familiar to many. It occurs on the 3^rd of Tishrei, the day after Rosh Hashanah, and recalls the assassination of Gedaliah, the Jewish governor of Judah appointed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, by Ishmael, a member of the former royal family. Except for Yom Kippur, a fast day ordained in the Torah by God, all the others are rabbinically ordained. To the Rabbis, calamities that befell the Jewish people were the result of sinning by the Jewish people, and they used the numerous occasions in the Torah when God brought a plague upon the Israelites for straying from God as their prooftexts. To them, the solution was to fast as a people, confess sin, and ask God’s forgiveness in the hopes that Divine compassion and protection would return to the Jewish people. 

I often think of the timing of this period as it relates to our personal calendars in the United States. We are amid Summer, a time for vacations, experiences with our families, visiting friends, and a bit more relaxed atmosphere. While I have not done the research, I would anticipate that far more people will engage in outdoor activities in the Summer than in the Winter. Despite turning our attentions elsewhere, Judaism hits us with the reality of Tisha B’av and more. The 9^th of Av is the nadir of our social-emotional calendars, and begins the slow healing process over seven weeks, taking us directly to Rosh Hashanah. From the perspective of healing, there was a unique understanding of this by the Rabbis who established this lengthy period. They not only perceived the need for healing after two national traumas but also recognized the proximity of Rosh Hashanah that inspired them to craft a trajectory towards the New Year replete with seven special Haftarot from Isaiah that gently helped the people heal. 

Many might question the efficacy of Tisha B’av with the establishment of the State of Israel, that it is no longer necessary. I think that the words of Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana in 1905 are appropriate: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Just as we start anew the Torah reading on Simchat Torah, so too lessons remain from Tisha B’av that need to be relearned and reemphasized every year.