??Tisha B’Av?? Why Bother??
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Why bother mourning two buildings destroyed thousands of years ago by rampaging empires doing what they always do — burning, destroying, beloved places and beloved people?
We bring not real felt grief but only wisps of remembered ancient grief. Why bother?
Well, OK, we are urging that we substitute real felt sorrow for Earth that rampaging corporations are burning right now — real sorrow for people driven from their beloved homes by flood and fire. Still — what’s the lesson?
There are two stories the rabbis tell about redemption from the fires of violence. We invite you to learn the stories and gather to act. Act to create communities of compassion.
Please register to learn from two great story-tellers of loving hope and three great mobilizers of action.
Register at https://theshalomcenter.org/events/templeearth5783 to gather this coming Sunday evening, 7:30 pm Eastern Time (4:30 pm Pacific).
Story 1:
The embers of the Temple are still burning when the Babylonian Army begins driving ancient Godwrestlers — Israelites— on a Death March to captivity in Babylon.
Jeremiah, the great Prophet who had warned of exactly this disaster wrought by God, YHWH, the Breath of Life, if the Israelite community did not clean up its own corruption, violence, and idolatry, cries out to God: “Such suffering! You are violating the covenant you made with us!”
The Breath, the Wind of Change, become a Hurricane of Destruction, the Spirit speaks: “I always said I was a jealous God, and your people would not stop whoring after strange destructive gods. I warned, even you warned them: Dabble in violence, torment the poor, and you will suffer torment. It is my Truth of Consequence! Do not pile up your empty prayers before this Truth!”
But Jeremiah appealed to Abraham, who spoke the same language of the lawful covenant, and got the same answer. Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Torah, the very letters of the aleph-bet that are the moral atoms that constitute the world, all cried out. They all got the same answer:
“I always said I was a jealous God, and your people would not stop whoring after strange destructive gods. Do not pile up your empty prayers before My Truth of Consequence!”
The world seemed empty of comfort, consolation. All protest failed, fell silent.
Then our Mother Rachel rose. “You are a jealous God. I know from jealousy! I was a jealous woman. I knew that my father would play that trick upon me, send my older sister Leah to her marriage bed with my beloved Jacob instead of me. I was so jealous that I taught Jacob secret signs to know whether in the dark the woman he embraced was me or Leah.
“And then — I could not bear the knowledge of how shamed and disgraced my sister would be when Jacob called out that it was not me, his promised wife, who was in his bed. So out of love and compassion for my sister my jealousy vanished like smoke and I taught her the secret signs.
“You are a jealous God? Jealous of what? Empty sticks and stones, idols, yes, markers of wrongdoing. But the people’s suffering is far worse. I was a jealous woman, jealous of a real live woman and hungry for the beloved husband I was promised. I acted out of love! You, jealous God? How dare you!”
And the Holy Spirit whispered, “Yes. Seventy years of captivity in Babylon, and I will end their pain. Just seventy years.”
I see this story from the ancient rabbinic midrash as the post-Holocaust theology of the ancient Rabbis. Active, vigorous love — that is the only answer to cruelty, our own and the vicious violence of our enemies.
Story 2:
It is the tale the Rabbis told of messianic redemption — that on the very day the Temple burned, the baby Messiah was born into the world. Born, but hidden away till we are really ready.
But I will hold that story till Sunday night. Register here for learning together, at 7:30 pm ET on Sunday, July 23. We will record the gathering and share the video with registrants; so please register now even if you have a prior commitment for that time.
We will learn with:
Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Chief Program Officer at Moving Traditions, and author of “Eicha for Earth,“ a Tisha B’Av lament
Madeline Canfield, Jewish Youth Climate Movement’s Organizing Coordinator
Mirele Goldsmith, Ph. D., co-chairperson of Jewish Earth Alliance
Joelle Novey, director of Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA)
I hope to see many of you on Sunday evening!
With blessings of shalom
— Arthur