A Lurking Bear Lies in Wait
Tisha Be'av is one of the hardest days for a Jew to encapsulate in our modern times. Even a few hundred years ago, and perhaps even in more recent history, the plight of mankind was very great. Life. from one day to the next, posed great challenges. Financially, we have seen greater success than any previous generation. The stature of Jews worldwide, especially in Western societies, has grown, many of the travails recorded in the Book of Lamentations seeming ever so distant. For many, even the memory of the Holocaust has receded; I remember that is used to be normative to boycott German cars - now, for many, the mere thought is considered antediluvian, backward, a contravention of Western values, and pluralistic thought.
In what way, then, do we remember?
The metaphors and similes employed by Jeremiah reflect a world view that most of us eschew on a day to day basis. The symbols used in the kinot, or corpus of elegies, are foreign to us. Jeremiah refers to God Himself as an "enemy," a "bear lurking in wait," a "crouching lion" ready to attack. God is seen as the enemy, the one who brought His people to the most desperate of fates. Jeremiah relates that God enshrouded himself in a cloud that could not be pierced, impervious to the former's prayers. The great poet, Eleazar HaKalir, shares that Jeremiah, in his angst and agony went to Ma'arat Hamachpelah, the Tomb of Patriarchs, and called out to the bones of the forefathers, "Why are you idle? Why are you not moving? Your sons are being exiled!"
Our sages share that when the Temple was burnt, it had already been destroyed from the inside out; a Heavenly voice called out, "It is a burnt tabernacle that you have burnt." Eleazar HaKalir employs a form of anthropomorphism so powerful, as if to depict God's powerlessness as Titus degraded the Holy of Holies, spearing the holy ark, intoxicated by the thought that he had killed God; blood trickling to the ground, HaKalir shares that God looked on impotently "His hands tied."
These are emotions, thoughts that are aimed at bringing us to a sense of desolation, thoughts that are we allowed to have one day a year. The same way that the Torah commandment to mourn in the event of the death of a loved one is only one day a year, likewise, we are allowed to experience such emptiness, vacuousness one day a year.
Jeremiah, used these metaphors - as did Eleazar HaKalir centuries later - to help the message reverberate at times when we are so distant, when the laws of impurity, and purity, ritual sacrifice and miracles themselves, seem to be no more than a feint imagination. The world of the divine presence, though, was one that brought Jews together, in the Temple, three times a year, where miracles were made public so Jews worldwide could feel God's closeness to them. Despite the rigors of an agrarian society, where feast or famine hinged on the year's rainfall, every Jew knew that he could come back to the Beit Hamikdash, and pray for salvation, and know in his heart of hearts that were he to pray with all of his brothers and sisters, God would be quick to answer. As Jeremiah shares in Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, "Had they only cried one time, then they never would have been exiled."
b"h
ReplyDeletemy dear yoav gedaliah -
this year just before tisha b'av i read an article that really hit home with me.
the gist of the article is that we need to focus on what we have lost with the destruction of beit rishon and beit sheni. and being so many years from this, it is very hard for us to comprehend or understand what we have lost.
and you pointed this out in what you wrote. the days when we could ascend to har habeit on the 3 festivals is gone. the days, when we could pray to KBH knowing He would answer our prayers for sufficient rain, so our crops would grow and be harvested successfully are also gone.
we live in a time where gashmius is everything, and ruchnius is nothing. and to me this is the major problem. the older i am the less i want gashmius in my life, and the more ruchnius i desire in my life.
what i dislike the most about tisha b'va, even when it is pushed off to yom rishon, as happened this year, is that i cannot learn my daily seder.
every year on tisha b'av i read all the kinnos in my artscroll tisha b'av siddur. of course, i read it in english because i want to really understand what i am reading. and i try to relate to them as best as i can. be it parents eating their children. be it the plight of jewish people in the times of the crusades. be it the two kinnos related to the shoah, i try to take it to heart how much the jewish people have suffered over these millennium
i am really into learning midrash. so this year i purchased an artscroll midrash rabba eicha. i learned the 1st midrash in the pesichta (introduction). i am goal oriented, so i looked ahead, and saw that there are 34 midrashim in the pesichta. i am 71. if i learned just one midrash from the pesichta every tisha b'av, i would have to live to 105 to learn the pesichta.
so what i decided is that next year, when we get to the 17th of tammuz, i will start learning midrash rabba eicha. i think that will put me in a better frame of mind during the 3 weeks, the 9 days, and most importantly on tisha b'av to comprehend all that we jewish people have lost, and all that we have to gain.
and i take as much comfort from this as i can from the 3 weeks, the 9 day, and tisha b'av. we jewish people are like a metal, such as gold or silver, being smelted to remove the impurities that exist naturally. and in the end, when Melech Moshiach comes, we will be as pure as pure can be.
it is not an easy process, and we can all testify to this with all the trials, tribulations, struggles, hardships, and the suffering each of has endured in our life.
the goyim rarely suffer as the jewish people do. and that is because they are inherently tamei, whereas we jewish people are inherently tahor.
so i bless you, miriam, yocheved, adina, and rina simcha with everything good in a visible, apparent, and meaningful way, and that your next child will be a boy, so that you will impart your incredible wisdom to him. and may moshe ben esther live to 120.
with much love and respect!!!