A Day To Remember

Next month will be the tenth anniversary of 9/11…I’m sure that many of us remember exactly where we were when we heard about or witnessed the events of that day. It isn’t hard to recall the feelings that were going through us, the shock, the disbelief, the helplessness. I was just a small boy when JFK was assassinated, and yet there are still those who remember those things about that day as well. December 7, 1941 is another one of those days. Movies have been made about the emotion and effects of those dates. Commemorations continue in our country on those dates, so that we remember. For 2,500 years, Jews over millennia have remembered the 9^th of Av (Tisha B’Av) as a day of solemn recollection and somber ritual. It is the day the First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE…the day the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE…the day the Bar Kokhba revolt was thwarted by the Romans, 9 Av 132 CE…The First Crucade was declared on 9 Av 1095…The expulsion of the Jews from Spain began on 9 Av 1492…Deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka, 9 Av 1942. A day over history that we would rather not remember, and yet a day through history that we can not forget.

This past Monday evening we gathered to hear a reading of Lamentations, the book which is read over and over on Tisha B’Av. We heard it in the book’s unique melody, and read aloud the five short chapters in the book, it begins:

Alas, lonely sits the city once great with people!
She that was great among nations
Is become like a widow;
The princess among states
Is become a thrall

Verse after verse tells of the destruction of the mighty city of Jerusalem. Word after word recounts human beings alone and fighting for life, dying by the sword, or dying from hunger and despair. One cannot help but imagine the immensity of the moment, the bleakness of the hour. And yet, about half way through, hope appears inside of the writer:

But this do I call to mind, therefore I have hope;
The kindness of God has not ended,
God’s mercies are not spent.
They are renewed every morning…
It is good to wait patiently till rescue comes from God
It is good for a person, when young to bear the yoke;
Let him sit alone and be patient,
When God has laid it upon him.
Let him put his mouth to the dust –
There may yet be hope…

It is not just the moments of destruction that make us feel hopeless. It can be moments in our relationships with those with whom we are closest. It can be moments at work, where the pressure mounts. It can be moments like we’ve had this past week in the stock market, where people feel like they have no chance. Even in the midst of all of our troubles, the writer of Lamentations says…”there may yet be hope.” It just takes time. It takes patience. It takes remembering and letting go. It takes renewal. Even in our darkest hours, hope must fill our hearts and minds, fill them up with possibilities.

Rabbi Jonathan Aaron

Comments

[Debra Velick]

Hi Jonathan,
thank you for an inspiring and timely message. hope to see you soon...