So Much to Say, So Much to Say…
Never at a loss for words, I usually have something to say about a variety of topics. So I decided to give myself a place to stick my 2 cents in.” (That’s how I heard it growing up.)
Today is Tisha B’av, the saddest day of the year on our Jewish calendar. Maybe it’s not the most ideal day to start a blog, being that this is a day of mourning. Yet it is a day that is very thought provoking and I’d like to share a few thoughts, maybe not so random.
The Beit Hamikdash, Holy Temple, was destroyed because of sinat chinam — baseless hatred — because of the way individuals treated one another and the way community members treated each other.
The baseless hatred — well that happens in every generation, community, family, etc. Aka gossip, yenting, telling tales out of school (another one of those phrases I grew up with), jealousy, keeping up the Jonesbergs, etc. We are all familiar.
I just finished watching an online reading of Eichah (the Book of Lamentations) which took place last night at the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem. I had only just heard about this museum, a tribute/memorial to the once-thriving, beautiful and fruitful communities that were forced to abandon their homes exactly four years ago.
The megillah reading was followed by the reading of kinot, including a special kinah mourning the loss of the communities and the life of Gush Katif. (If you want to watch this moving video, take a look at http://bit.ly/JakvO)
As I watched, I was struck by the fact that within this small group was a range of people, from kipppah sruga to black hat and whatever comes in between. As I listened to the words of that very moving new kina, I felt the pain they share scream from the screen, as they repeated the refrain “Oy, meh haya lanu.” What has befallen us. What we used to have. Woe unto us…
The sinat chinam that came before and during the “separation.” The pain that so sadly unites this group.
Tisha B’av is a day for all Jews to be united by sadness, but this brought it home.
Ad hayom hazeh.
We are still grieving, for what we had so long ago, and for what we lost so recently.
When a person you love dies, you never stop grieving for them. The pain gets less intense — but it never goes away.
The lesson we learn? To be better people, to be nicer to each other, more thoughtful to members of our community (that’s another discussion…) and to be diligent enough to never let these tragedies happen again. With that in mind, read today’s Washington Post editorial. (If only the NY Times were as “liberal”.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072903167.html?referrer=emailarticle
In keeping with the spirit of the day, here are a few pictures I took while walking in Jerusalem’s Old City in March.
Wishing you a meaningful rest of Tisha B’av.
