Again, we mourn

This year Jews the world over got into the Tisha B’Av mood several months earlier than usual.

During a typical summer, we tear ourselves away from family vacations and various hot-weather diversions to enter a period of mourning during “the Three Weeks,” a process that gets more stringent in the nine days leading up to the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av. Those nine days, which began on Tuesday night, culminate on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year and the second most serious fast of the Jewish calendar.

On this day, not only were both Temples in Jerusalem destroyed (the first by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE and the second by the Romans in 70 CE), but other tragic events occurred as well. These included the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans in 133 CE that ended in bloody defeat for the Jews, in addition to Isabella and Ferdinand’s expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. More recently, on eruv Tisha B’Av 1941, Hermann Goring signed the “final solution of the Jewish problem,” and one year later — on Tisha B’Av — the first train filled with Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto arrived in Treblinka, a deadly journey that would include some 270,000 Jewish men, women and children over the following seven weeks.

In many ways, this Tisha B’Av (which begins at sundown Wednesday, July 29) will be no different: the mournful spirit, the fasting and special prayers, the reading of Eichah (the book of Lamentations, in which Jeremiah prophesized the destruction of the First Temple) and sitting on the floor or low stools (like a mourner) till midday on Thursday. But in other ways, this Tisha B’Av is destined to be somewhat different.

On a physical level, shul services and group readings of Eichah will be kept to a minimum in most communities and, when they do occur, they will often take place outdoors or, at least, socially distant and masked.

On the emotional and spiritual levels, the Jewish world will mark Tisha B’Av at a time of rapidly shifting realities: a global pandemic with no known expiration date, together with civil unrest and economies struggling to stay afloat amid closures and massive unemployment, adding a host of fears to an already somber day.

“Suddenly, we are able to relate to many of the things in our liturgy such as ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ (“Our Father, Our King, withhold the plague from your heritage”), which are infused with [added] meaning,” says Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, whose books include “American Judaism: A History.”

“Whatever’s happening in our world and in our lives, the beauty of our tradition is that it brings it into sharp focus for us,” he said.

One of the things that this Tisha B’Av is bringing into focus is bitter divisions, adds Sarna. “We know that the Second Temple was destroyed by causeless hatred between Jews, and now we are seeing massive disagreements and an unwillingness to understand each other or compromise,” he explains.

“So, yes, Tisha B’Av will resonate in these times as a day to mourn both the temples and the condition we find ourselves in — not just a plague, but society’s deep divisions now.”

Indeed, this day of communal mourning for what the Jewish people have lost over time dovetails with a season of loss, says Jewish author Jack Riemer. “Some of us have lost our jobs and some of us have lost precious friends to this invisible virus that’s brought the whole world to its knees.”

“The ‘new normal’ of separating people physically makes us mourn even more for the sense of togetherness and unity of purpose that was the Temple,” says Rabbi Yitzhak Breitowitz, a congregational rabbi and law professor in Maryland before making aliyah. He now teaches at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem.

To illustrate how remembering the past is crucial to the Jewish future, Breitowitz cites a story about Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s said that when Napoleon overheard the Jews crying on the night of Tisha B’Av, he asked why they were sad and was told they were grieving for their lost holy Temple. “How long ago did they lose it?” he wanted to know. “Thousands of years ago,” he was told. “Any nation that is still crying over a temple destroyed thousands of years ago is going to survive,” he is quoted as saying in response. “They haven’t forgotten.”

“And it’s true,” adds Breitowitz. “Jews do not forget.”

But as devastating as the losses throughout the Jews’ 4,000-year journey have been, and as discouraging and unpredictable the current situation, key to the holiday and Jewish history is a steadfast clinging to hope. Not only is it said that Moshiach will be (or was already) born on Tisha B’Av, relates Breitowitz, “but that the tears we shed on this day and our yearning for a better world reflect a very Jewish belief in a better future.”

In addition, the novel coronavirus “has taught us that despite all our science, we are not in charge.” By acknowledging that G-d’s in the driver’s seat, he says, “only then can we let go and say, ‘I’ll do my best, but I accept that the ultimate outcome is up to Him, which is actually a relief’.”

That’s why Tisha B’Av is at once the saddest day of the year and also the most hopeful, adds the rabbi. “In mourning the temple, we’re really mourning the disconnect between us and G-d. We’re showing G-d how much we yearn to be connected to Him, especially now.”

In fact, Jewish author Jack Riemer wants the Jewish people to consider another lesson from contemporary challenges — that “we are far more resilient and innovative than we realized.”

“Zoom and the other new technology show us that in these difficult times, we can rebuild our lives and our people in completely new ways,” he says. “If the virus can travel, so can Jewish life. And if we learn the lessons it’s here to teach, then the pain will not have been in vain.”

A vast menu of Tisha B’Av programs — including the reading of Eichah on Wednesday and shiurim all day on Thursday — can be found online.

INSTANT KIRUV: If you know someone who is unfamiliar with Tisha B’Av, send them this article, which is also available online.