The Most Paradoxical Tisha B'Av

Perhaps in all Jewish history

I think that this may well be the most paradoxical Tisha B’Av in two thousand years.

Contrary to popular belief today, Tisha B’Av is not primarily about the destruction of the Batei Mikdash, nor about a loss of connection with God. To be sure, those are an aspect of Tisha B’Av, but they are not the primary focus. That’s evident from carefully studying the texts of Megillat Eicha and the Kinnot, which make relatively little mention of those things. Tisha B’Av is primarily about the loss of Jewish dignity and the suffering of the Jewish people resulting from the fall of the First and Second Jewish Commonwealths.

Yet now we have the Third Jewish Commonwealth. And never before have the Jewish People been in a position of such strength. Over seven million Jews live in the Land of Israel, in a thriving sovereign state that in the past year stunningly emerged as a clear regional superpower. There are more synagogues and yeshivot than have ever existed in history, there is more Torah (the real kind, not the toxic kind) being learned and implemented than ever before.

Various great rabbinic authorities of our era have observed that the Nachem prayer of Tisha B’Av, bemoaning Jerusalem lying ruined and desolate, simply can no longer be honestly recited in its traditional form. It would even demonstrate a lack of appreciation for God’s miracles to do so. They have suggested removing or modifying certain phrases, to comport with the amazing reality of our era that requires constant celebration.

And yet, simultaneously, this Tisha B’Av we are confronted with a video of one of numerous Jewish hostages being starved and tortured just a few dozen miles from where I write these words. In nearly two years, despite being able to vanquish Hamas as a serious threat (itself a remarkable testimony to have far the Jewish People have come), we have not been able to rescue all the hostages, and our attempts to do so have come at great cost, both internally and politically. Moreover, Hamas can share this video knowing that it will do little to harm the international support that it has, that it won’t make the UK condition its recognition of a Palestinian state on Hamas surrendering.

Internally, aside from the terrible losses and suffering of the past two years, we are also faced with unprecedented national division. The entire rabbinic and political leadership of the charedi sector, representing about a fifth of the current Jewish population of Israel and a third of the next generation, have effectively declared their secession from the nation. They publicly stated in three events - during the Nine Days! - that they are wholly opposed to helping relieve the war’s burden on the rest of the nation in the slightest. They made it clear that they do not care about the suffering of the rest of the people, and they only want to extract resources from them. In Lakewood, they compared those who want the charedim to help ease the burden of national defense (i.e. most of Israel) to the enemies of the Jews described in VeHe She’Amda.

Already a decade ago, Jonathan Rosenblum not-so-subtly pointed out in Mishpacha magazine that the contemporary charedi approach is an existential threat to Israel, as it will economically and militarily weaken Israel to the point where we can no longer defend ourselves from those who seek to destroy us. Not only hasn’t the war shocked them into changing their approach, they’ve doubled down on it. Meanwhile, they are enabled by elements of both the secular and National Religious communities, who are also so infatuated with current Jewish power that they do not see its limitations; they are no different from the Zealots of two millennia ago who confidently stated “Rome Schmome!”

There is so much to celebrate, and so much to mourn; so much to be confident about, and so much cause for concern. I have no answers for this paradox, and I don’t believe that one exists; often, life is extremely complicated, and multiple conflicting things can simultaneously be true.

Let us hope and pray - and most importantly of all, actually work to change things - such that the Third Commonwealth will thrive rather than fall.