Rabbi's Corner

We begin the final book of the Chumash, Sefer Devarim (the Book of Deuteronomy) on this Shabbat. read the following from this week’s parashah, Parashat Devarim: “And you spoke slander in your tents, and you said, ’With HaShem’s hatred of us He took us out of the Land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.’” (Devarim 1:27) A Midrash (a Rabbinic interpretive story/legend) tells us that HaShem saw the B’nei Yisrael (Children of Israel) weeping and said, “You want to weep. I will give you something to weep about.” Thus, the decree was issued from Heaven that this day, Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av) would become a day of mourning. It is on Tisha B’Av that a series of tragic events have overtaken the People Israel including the following: the destruction of both the First Temple and the Second Temple in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), the defeat in 135 C.E. (the Common Era) of Bar Kochba by the Romans, the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, the declaration of war by Britain and Russia (strange bedfellows!) against Germany beginning World War I (“The War to End All Wars!) eventually leading to the Shoah (the Holocaust) and World War II, and the beginning of the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. Tisha B’Av is indeed a day with a black cloud hanging over it.

There is an old saying that relates how every dark cloud has a silver lining. And this is also true with Tisha B’Av. What is the silver lining of Tisha B’Av? It is Yom Kippur. Tisha B’Av is known as “the Black Fast” in Jewish tradition because it is a day of national mourning. Yom Kippur is known as “the White Fast” because (im mertz Hashem) by the end of Ne’ilah, we believe our sins are forgiven. Both days are 25-hour fasts, but there is a difference. As one Jewish writer put it: “On Tisha B’Av, when we remember the suffering, who can eat? On Yom Kippur when our sins are being forgiven, who needs to eat?” We go from black to white.

But Tisha B’Av itself is not without tikvah (hope). The prophet Zecharyah speaks of the four fast days that will turn into days of rejoicing. “And the word of HaShem of Hosts came to me saying, ‘Thus said HaShem of Hosts: “The fast of the fourth month (the 17^th of Tammuz), the fast of the fifth month (Tisha B’Av), the fast of the seventh month (Tzom Gedaliah), and the fast of the tenth month (the 10^th of Tevet) shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Yehudah (Judah); but you must love honesty and peace.”’” (Zecharyah 8:18-19) And the greatest occasion of joy and gladness will happen on this day: the Mashiach (Messiah) will be born on Tisha B’Av.

This Tisha B’Av will be unlike any other ever observed. This year, we observe Tisha B’Av coping with the horrible pandemic of COVID-19. What is worse, because of the way in which we must protect ourselves from COVID-19, most of the worldwide Jewish Community will not be physically together to fast and to mourn and to pray. It seems to many that all tikvah will be lost this year. But as we hear the mournful words of the impending destruction of Yerushalayim as expressed by the prophet Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) found in this week’s haftarah, we must focus intensely on words found at both the beginning and the ending of the haftarah: “The Chazon (Vision) of Yesha’yahu, son of Amotz (Amos) that which he viewed concerning Yehudah and Yerushalayim…Tziyon (Zion) will be redeemed with justice and its return with righteousness.” (Yesha’yahu 1:1 & 27) This Shabbat is known as “Shabbat Chazon,” the Sabbath of Vision. May we take strength from the words of Yesha’yahu. May we envision the day when a vaccine has been created which will, at the very least, stop this COVID-19 pandemic in its tracks. And as prophesied by Zecharyah, may our days of mourning be turned into days of joy and gladness.