Tisha B'Av and the memory that commands us to live - by Dror Eydar

Remembering this day is what enabled us to arise from the ashes and return to our land after being on the margins of history for centuries. Here we are, in our independent country, 1,947 years after the Second Temple was destroyed, and the memory is still alive and well, infusing us with motivation, inspiration and strength. Thanks to the power of memory, we were wise enough to keep our assimilation a matter of appearance only, because we were expecting to wake from this long nightmare at any moment and restore ourselves to what we used to be.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
01 August '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19587

Today is Tisha B'Av. We remember the destruction of our country and our Temples, or the reasons for that. Today is Tisha B'Av, and all the troubles visited upon us as a nation and as individuals are buried under and bound up with the pain of this day.

The Prophet Jeremiah, who foretold the destruction of the Temple in the sixth century BCE, put this at the very top of the lamentations that are read out each year: "Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress" (Lamentations 1:3).

Remembering this day is what enabled us to arise from the ashes and return to our land after being on the margins of history for centuries. Here we are, in our independent country, 1,947 years after the Second Temple was destroyed, and the memory is still alive and well, infusing us with motivation, inspiration and strength. Thanks to the power of memory, we were wise enough to keep our assimilation a matter of appearance only, because we were expecting to wake from this long nightmare at any moment and restore ourselves to what we used to be. Thanks to the power of memory, Rabbi Moshe Ben Nahman (the Ramban) arrived in Jerusalem in the year 1267 to re-establish the city's Jewish population, and the memory of Jerusalem gave the Jews expelled from Spain the courage and comfort to keep going in the countries where they scattered.

Today is Tisha B'Av, and if it weren't for this day, we would not have survived as a people. We would not know our traditions or our history, and we would not have brought the world the great spiritual treasures we created in the Diaspora. If it weren't for Tisha B'Av and the memory of grieving for Zion, Zionism would never have been born, and a sovereign Israel would have remained confined to the pages of history, never again to become a living entity.


The clashes on the Temple Mount in recent weeks have clearly demonstrated the importance of maintaining the customs of mourning and fasting on Tisha B'Av. As early as the start of the 20th century, our enemies knew that the political battle, and by extension the battle for our hold on the land, would transpire on the Temple Mount. It is no coincidence that they are focusing most of their efforts on eliminating any remnant of Jewish sovereignty over the mount while trying to cover up their own abuse of it: The power of the mosque on the Temple Mount stems from the place's holiness to the Jewish people and the Temple structures that once stood there. Indeed, the Temple Mount question is not only a religious one, it's a national one, and is an integral part of us gaining complete sovereignty over the land.

Benjamin Ze'ev (Theodor) Herzl also gave the Third Temple a place in his utopian novel "Altneuland" ("Old New Land"), in which he described a future Israel as he imagined it. In the fifth part of the book, the travelers reach the Old City of Jerusalem on the eve of Shabbat: "There she lay in the afternoon sunlight, on the farther side of the Kidron Valley. ... Now he asked, what was that wonderful structure of white and gold, whose roof rested on a whole forest of marble columns with gilt capitals? Friedrich's heart stirred within him as David replied, 'That is the Temple!'" Clearly it was important to the national visionary, who was swept up in the passion to found the modern state but died so young to include the Temple in his description of it.

In light of the above, on Tisha B'Av we must remember: We traveled to the land of Israel and we fought to build it, but that is not how we treat the Temple Mount. One does not force or impel one's way up to the Temple Mount; one can only ascend through an awakening of consciousness and mass popular demand. In the year 1139, 128 years before the Ramban traveled to Jerusalem, Rabbi Judah Halevi ended his book "The Kuzari" with a prophecy that came from the depths of his longing: "For Jerusalem will not be rebuilt until the Jewish people yearn for it with an utmost longing." A year later, he left Spain and set out for Israel, and we all followed him.

Today is Tisha B'Av. By remembering this day, we have commanded ourselves to life and to responsibility.

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