Tuesday, 29 June 2010
For EVERY Generation: The Beginning of the end ... of the Holy Temples
The story is told of Napoleon walking through the streets of Paris one Tisha B'Av. As his passed a synagogue he heard the sounds of mourning and crying. "What’s this all about?" Napoleon asked. An aide explained that the Jews were in mourning the loss of their Temple. "When did this happen?" Napoleon asked. The aide replied, "About 1700 years ago." Napoleon said, "Certainly a people which has mourned the loss of their Temple for so long, will merit to see it rebuilt!"
Today is the 17th of Tammuz. It is the beginning of The Three Weeks and a fast day (one of four that last only from dawn until dusk). The fast actually commemorates five tragic events that occurred on this date:
- Moses
The bullet holes are from 1967, when the gate was stormed by Israeli soldiers to reclaim East Jerusalem from Jordanian control. (techhouse.org)I was an eeeejot. When I first began my Jewish practice, in preparation for conversion, I compiled a family hagadah for Passover. In doing so, I had the idiotic audacity to take out the part about "in every generation they rise up against us." I thought "all that" was over; I thought that after the Holocaust, no one would dare. I was an eeeejot.
But that was more than a decade ago. These days I am slightly more of a Jew and hopefully, slightly less of an eeeejot. So now when I read that "the sages explain" --
"Every generation for which the Temple is not rebuilt,
it is as though the Temple was destroyed for that generation."
-- I try to be more attentive.
The 17th day of Tamuz marks the beginning of the end of the Holy Temples. The Temple was destroyed, the sages tell us, because of "baseless hatred. Because we did not treat each other properly, not only was the Temple destroyed, but the Jewish people were sent into an exile which has not yet ended.
.... The Talmud tells us that we learn an important rule from an aspect of Moshe's behavior. From the fact that we see Moshe did not break the Luchos [the tablets containing the Ten Commandments] until hesaw the nation engaged in idol worship, we learn that a person cannot judge based on an estimation.Though Moshe heard the nation's celebratory noises and had a clear picture of what was occurring, he did not break the Luchos until he saw with his own eyes that the nation was not deserving ...The Chasam Sofer, in explaining this Gemora, notes that G-d informed Moshe that nation had become corrupt even before he descended the mountain. In fact, Moshe asked for forgiveness for the nationbefore he descended. So why then did he wait before breaking the Luchos?.... Moshe felt that perhaps the people had some explanation behind their actions. Perhaps they were not really denying G-d's providence........ In Pirkei Avos (The Ethics of Our Fathers) our Sages tell us that we should always be careful to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If Moshe, who was told information by G-d about the Jewish nation, still gave the people the benefit of the doubt and did not act until he knew [i.e., saw] the circumstances with certainty, we, who usually do not have a source as reliable as G-d for our information, should certainly give others the benefit of the doubt and not jump to conclusions.
In conjunction, we are taught that the month of Tammuz "represents the power of sight..."
.... A few weeks ago, we read in the weekly Parsha how Moshe sent spies to scout out the land of Cana'an, the land that the nation of Israel was destined to enter and to settle in as their homeland. Spies were selected from each of the tribes. These men were each great in their own right, and collectively were a group of pious G-d-fearing men. This group of spies began their journey at the very end of the month of Sivan. The entire month of Tamuz was spent viewing the land, taking in the sights of the terrain, the inhabitants, and the cities and towns. In the month of Av, these spies returned.Unfortunately, although all of these men started their journey as righteous, their report about the land clearly indicated their lack of faith in G-d. They all, except for Calev and Yehoshua, stated that they would not be able to challenge the inhabitants of the land. They provided what the Torah terms "Can evil" report, that caused the nation to panic and regret leaving Egypt. For this blatant lack of faith in G-d, the failure to recognize all the great miracles that He had done for the nation until that point, the entire nation was punished. The spies died from a plague. The nation had to spend 40 years in the desert before they would be allowed to enter the land that they so foolishly feared. And the entire generation of men alive at the time would never merit entering the land. The day on which this occurred was the 9th of Av.During the month of Tamuz, the spies were engaged in an extensive use of their power of sight. They viewed all they had to see about the land. In the month of Av, the spies had to use their power of speech to report that which they had viewed. In both instances, the spies could have put these powers to good use. They could have construed what they saw in a positive light, instead of attributing to it the negative characteristics they subsequently reported. This report, also, could have been positive, focusing on the great benefit that was to come to the nation, of course with G-d's assistance. Yet, the spies abused these two powers, an abuse which resulted in a downfall for the entire nation of Israel. This downfall set the stage for these two months being months of sadness for all time.During the Three Week period, it is up to us to recognize the powers that these months represent. We, if we use our powers of sight and speech appropriately, can rectify the sorrowful situation that began with the spies. If we make sure we only watch that which is befitting out pure eyes, and refrain from uttering words that only serve to defile our lips, we will bring ourselves closer to the time when these two months will be turned into months of joy....
May we spend this day wisely.
