"Zion,
in the glow of your beauty, awaken longing, awaken love. The souls of
your children are forever bound to you. They still rejoice in your
well-being; they still mourn for your desolation; they still weep for
your downfall. From the dungeon their longing still bears their
greeting to you; towards your gates they still bow in prayer from
afar...The realm of idols will vanish and pass away. But your realm
remains forever, and all that is dedicated to you is forever. God has
chosen you for His abode." (From the elegy, "Ode to Zion,"
by the noted 11th century Sephardic sage, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi)
Dear
Friends,
On
the Fast of Tisha B'Av, we are mourning for the destruction of our
Holy Temple, and for our long and painful exile from Zion. During the
Temple era, Zion was also the abode of the Shechinah - the Divine
Presence which seeks to dwell with us on earth.
The
Ramban, a leading Sephardic sage and kabbalist of the 13th century,
explains that the Shechinah is also called "tzedek"
(Ramban's commentary to Genesis 14:18). Tzedek - justice and
righteousness - expresses the spirit of the Shechinah; thus when
tzedek is present, the Shechinah is present. According to Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch, tzedek refers to the Divine plan whereby each
creature is entitled to receive what it needs in order to fulfill its
purpose within the creation (Commentary to Genesis 15:6). When we no
longer lived in Zion according to the principle of tzedek, we were no
longer able to experience the full presence of the Shechinah in Zion.
The loss of our ability to fully experience the Shechinah is known in
kabbalistic literature as "the exile of the Shechinah." And
when the Shechinah went into exile, the Temple was destroyed. It is
therefore not surprising that our return to Zion and the future
Temple is through benevolent acts of tzedek known as "tzedakah"
– the sharing of our resources with those in need. As it is
written, "Zion shall be redeemed through justice and those who
return to her through tzedakah" (Isaiah 1:27).
During
the 19th and 20th centuries, there were Jews who argued that the
fasting and mourning of Tisha B'Av was no longer relevant. For
example, in 19th century Germany, some "reformers" argued
that the new civil rights granted to Jews had made Tisha B'Av
outdated. In their view, the primary reason for the mourning for the
Temple and Zion was the loss of our civil rights; thus, now that some
of our civil rights were being restored in the new Germany, there was
no longer any reason to mourn. In the second half of the 20th
century, there were Zionists who argued that since we have a Jewish
state, Tisha B'Av should be abolished. In their view, the primary
reason for the mourning for the Temple and Zion was the loss of our
political sovereignty; thus, now that we have our own country, flag,
and army like all the other nations, there is no longer any reason to
mourn. In fact, Avraham Poraz, the former Israeli minister of the
interior, ridiculed Jews who still mourn for the Temple, and he said,
"Jews concerned about the destruction of the Temple nearly 2000
years ago were being absurd. " (Poraz is a major leader in the
anti-religious Shinui party, and his various comments ridiculing
Jewish tradition are cited in Isi Leibler's article in the Jerusalem
Post, July 31, 2003.)
In
an article written in 1855, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch describes the
attempt of one "modern" rabbi to abolish Tisha B'Av:
"One
evening on the Ninth of Av, the Rabbi of a small town in South
Germany had his synagogue brilliantly lit up and invited the members
of his congregation to attend in their best clothes. This was the
night when over the whole face of the earth, wherever a small group
of Jews form a congregation and come together for prayer in the House
of God, light, cheerfulness, and festive mood are banished from the
gathering. Every person who calls himself a Jew sits mourning on the
ground, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah over the orphaned city of
God find an echo in every Jewish breast. And it was on this evening
that the preacher mentioned mounted the pulpit and raised a loud
protest against this sadness and this mourning and this yearning for
Palestine. He accused the millions of his mourning brethren in the
whole world around him of treason and enmity toward the state and
fatherland (where they were now living), and he called upon his
dismayed congregation, in contrast to these millions, to show by
means of a festive celebration their repudiation of the out-of-date
yearning for Palestine...Jerusalem, he said, was here. Palestine was
now situated on German soil." (Collected Writings, Vol 1)
Rabbi
Hirsch writes that those who wish to abolish Tisha B'Av totally
misunderstand the primary reason for our mourning. They do not
realize that Jewish tears are shed and Jewish hearts grieve over the
withdrawal of the Divine presence from Zion - "the exile of the
Shechinah." They forget that Zion is meant to serve as the
"Sanctuary for the Shechinah." And they forget that this
Sanctuary of the Shechinah is destined to be a center of justice and
peace for all humankind, as it is written:
"It
will happen in the end of days: The mountain of the Temple of the
Compassionate One will be firmly established as the head of the
mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the
nations will stream to it. Many peoples will go and say, 'Come, let
us go up to the mountain of the Compassionate One, to the Temple of
the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk
in His paths.' For from Zion will go forth Torah, and the word of the
Compassionate One from Jerusalem. He (the Messiah) will judge among
the nations, and will settle the arguments of many peoples. They
shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they will no
longer study war." (Isaiah 2:1-4)
When
we yearn for the resurrection of Zion, teaches Rabbi Hirsch, we are
not only yearning for our own renewal; we are also yearning for the
renewal of the entire world. Rabbi Hirsch therefore makes the
following, passionate protest to those who would abolish the mourning
for Zion:
"Does
Israel alone scan the future for a sorely needed deliverance? Does
only the Jewish salvation depend on the resurrection of Zion? Ask the
states themselves whose jealously guarded interests you think it your
duty to defend: ask these very states if they consider themselves to
have reached the summit of human attainment, if they feel themselves
already in possession of the magical wand of paradise which will
bring the world eternal joy and peace. As them how much consolation
they are bringing into the slums, how much joy to the poor. Have they
been able to lift up the downtrodden, to banish wretchedness, crime
and vice, to give strength to the lowly and humility to the highly
placed? Ask them whether they have been able to banish the curse from
this earth, when God had intended that it be blessed, whether they
have already discovered even the rudiments of a political system
which unites justice and love, and where saintliness and earthly joy
can dwell side by side without conflict." (Collected Writings,
Vol 1)
Rabbi
Hirsch adds: "Does the telegraph convey only, or even mostly,
tidings of joy and peace throughout the world? Does the locomotive
transport only wares of blessings and salvation from one land to
another? Does the light of knowledge, the magic of technology, bring
the world to the peak of happiness? Has the formula been found for
resolving the contradictions of science so that, like the
seven-branched menorah of Zion, the heavenly lights are turned
towards the earthly and the earthly towards the heavenly, fusing into
one
flame which illuminates on high? Has the formula been found for
turning man-made bread into the show-bread of God's blessing, each
person having sufficient for himself and the wherewithal to help his
neighbor, as well as the incense of contentment and cheerfulness that
goes with it?"
Rabbi
Hirsch then observes: "The persecuted, despised, misrepresented
Jewish people is not the most unfortunate on earth, the one most in
need of deliverance on earth. The whole earth is thirsting for
deliverance. Sorrow and misery in hovels and palaces, in cities and
states, arouse messianic yearnings in every heart. It is not only the
Jewish people whose redemption depends upon the rebuilding of Zion,
and surely, their confident expectation that the redemption will
indeed come about is not the least valuable dowry which the Jew
brings with him into the community of nations."
In
this spirit, during the afternoon service of Tisha B'Av, we chant the
words of the following Divine promise:
"I
will bring them to My sacred mountain, and I will gladden them in My
house of prayer; their elevation-offerings and their feast-offerings
will find favor on My Altar, for My House will be called a house of
prayer for all the peoples." (Isaiah 56:7)
Until
that day arrives, we, together with all humankind, have reason to
mourn the exile of the Shechinah and the loss of the Holy Temple.
Shalom,
Yosef
Ben Shlomo Hakohen (See below)
Related
Teachings and Comments:
1.
Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi said: "If the nations of the world would
have known how valuable the Temple was for them, they would have
surrounded it with fortresses, in order to protect it."
(Bamidbar Rabbah 1:3)
2.
The Fast of Tisha B'Av begins Wednesday evening, August 6th. On this
evening, we gather in our synagogues, and the Book of Lamentations is
chanted to an ancient and haunting melody. On Tisha B'Av, we study
Torah themes relating to the destruction of the Temple, the exile,
suffering, and "teshuva" - the process of returning to the
path of the Compassionate One.
3.
Although the Shechinah is in exile, there are holy places where the
hidden Shechinah is more revealed; thus, to a limited degree, we can
experience the Divine Presence. For example, Rabbi Acha said, "The
Shechinah will never move from the Western Wall" (Exodus Rabbah
2:2). There are also holy days when the Shechinah is more revealed,
such as Shabbos and the Festivals. For further study on the Shechinah
and Zion, see Letter 9 of our series titled "The Reunion with
Mama."
4.
Through living an ethical and holy life, one can also merit to
connect to the hidden Shechinah. A source for this idea can be found
in the following words: "As for me, through tzedek, I shall
behold Your Presence" (Psalms 17:15). The Talmud, in its
commentary on this verse, gives one example:
"When
a person gives a coin to a needy individual, he becomes worthy of
welcoming the Shechinah" (Baba Basra 10a).
Hazon
- Our Universal Vision: www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/
