This past Thursday, July 27, 2023, Jews around the world observed the day known as Tisha B’av, the Ninth of Av, the day on which tradition has it that both of the Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. The first was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the second by the Romans in 70 CE. Jewish tradition teaches that both of those shattering events took place on the same date, the Ninth of Av.
It thus made Tisha B’Av this year all the more poignant, given the events in Israel of the past week and the profound, existential dangers many of us believe the Jewish state now faces.
In anticipation of Tisha B’av, Rabbi Marc Baker, President and CEO of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, reached out to me asking if we might have a conversation for his community on that day. I happily and readily agreed because Rabbi Baker is such a thoughtful, knowledgeable, nuanced and wise community leader, and because we are friends. We had a wonderful conversation which we are happy to share with you today.
Prior to our getting online, Rabbi Baker shared with me a word of Torah that deeply touched me. (He mentioned it again in our conversation.) Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, credited as being the father of Modern Orthodoxy in America in the 20th century, asked whether Jews who were alive during the Second Temple observed Tisha B’Av in memory of the first — even though these very Jews were living with a Temple. The tradition says that yes, the Jews who lived during the Second Temple did observe Tisha B’Av. Why would they do that, when their Temple had already been rebuilt? Rabbi Soloveitchik said (as passed down to us by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein), “because the ghost of churban [destruction] still haunted the land.”
I was deeply moved by that teaching, because indeed, the ghost of destruction now haunts the land once again.
I am very grateful to Rabbi Baker for inviting me to have the conversation, and to the Combined Jewish Philanthropies for allowing us to share it with you. Paid subscribers to Israel from the Inside are receiving the full 35-ish minute conversation, while free subscribers are receiving an excerpt. Either way, we hope that you enjoy the conversation and that it leaves you more knowledgeable about the profoundly frightening challenges facing the Jewish state at this unprecedented time.
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