Tisha Bav: Focusing Out There or In Here- Personal Reflections. Tisha b’av has never felt so personal. While reading Eicha and the lamentations the suffering is too relatable. We are living in a time of Anti-Semitism, hatred, violence, and war, and once again Israel is under siege. Over the past month I have felt myself becoming numb to the evilness of the world around us, numb to the war, numb to the injustice, numb to the bloodshed. My tears are beginning to run out. In the times of the destruction of the Temple the Jewish people murdered one another, and became numb to the violence to the point that they ate their own children. Their sensitivity to humanity was diminished. It jolted me; I can’t let my sensitivity deaden. So what can I do? I learned about the 3 weeks, the 9 days, Tisha b’av, the destruction of our holy Temple, and a theme emerged: our sages recognized the cruelty and evilness of our enemies, the Romans, the Greeks, the Babylonians, but what they focused on was not analyzing the flaws of their persecutors, but examining the ways of the Jewish people. They urged the Jews to repent from their acts of hatred and injustice. But their calls fell on deaf ears, In hindsight it is clear that these evil leaders were merely messengers from God. God wanted the destruction of the Temple and these wicked people happened to volunteer to be the ones to do the job. Our sages taught, “Any generation that does not see the rebuilding of the Temple in their days it is as if they saw it destroyed in their days.” If the Temple isn’t rebuilt, which it isn’t, we must be suffering from the same sins that destroyed it. It is incredibly easy to point fingers at “others”, I do it myself, Hamas are the terrorists, the anti-Semites are hateful, and the world is blind and biased. But after weeks of feeling infuriated with these “others”, I still felt angry and began to feel hopeless, so I finally looked within myself. We can look at what is wrong with the world, and there is plenty to look at, or we can look at the war, hatred and violence within ourselves. How often do we hurt and speak evil against our family, our spouse, our friends, our community. How often to we feel jealous or judgmental of our fellow brother or sister. Yes the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed for baseless hatred, we still possess that hatred within ourselves, but it is much easier and clearer to see it manifested out in the world, within others. Don’t get me wrong, we need to recognize and identify the evilness of Hamas and terrorists, we must protest it and have demonstrations, but that must not be solely where our energy lies, pointing out the bad “out there.” We must also look “in here” in ourselves, our community, our people. How can we show baseless love, increase in Torah learning, live more sensitive conscious lives based on the pursuit of justice, mercy, and kindness. I think these past few weeks have brought the Jewish people together in incredible ways. I hope it continues and we can show Hashem that we do not need a war to keep us bonded. Focusing on rectifying the war and hatred within myself, I feel the numbness beginning to melt, I feel more hopeful about the state of this world. This is certainly not the first time in history the Jews have been vilified, attacked, and called to be destroyed, but I pray it will be the last. May this be the last Tisha B’av we mourn, may we merit to be the generation to see our holy Temple rebuilt, may we learn from Eicha, from our past, and rectify ourselves and our people for a more beautiful peaceful loving future.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:52:51 +0000
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