[img]96|right|Shachar||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem – Those of us in Israel are especially cognizant of the significance of the next three weeks. This week is the first of three weeks of mourning, from the 17th of Tammuz through the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av), during which most calamities and disasters facing Jews throughout their history have occurred.  Danger, tragedy, and misfortune are the themes for this ominous time.  During these three weeks, Jews all over the world try to avoid dangerous situations, like having a major operation, swimming in the ocean or taking an airline flight. Even Christopher Columbus postponed his departure from Spain in 1492 by one day so as not to travel on Tisha B'Av.

The 17th day of the month of Tammuz commemorates the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem. The 9th of Av commemorates the day of the actual destruction of the Holy Temple by fire, the Kotel (aka the Western Wall or Wailing Wall), the only part of the Holy Temple remaining today. That is why the Wall is the most sacred place in all of Judaism. It is why going back to the pre-1967 borders when Arabs had for the first time control of the area (for a mere 19 years) and forbade Jews to worship there, is not a viable alternative to a future “peace.”  Jews have been mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple for thousands of years. The capture and return to prayer at the Wall was a milestone event that cannot be compromised by dividing Jerusalem, the continuous home of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years.  There is a story about Napoleon traveling through Europe and observing Jews weeping on Tisha B'Av over the destruction of the Holy Temple.  When learning that the Jews had been mourning the loss of the Temple, he commented, “A nation that cries and fasts for over 2,000 years for their land and Temples will surely be rewarded with their Temple.

Trail of Tragedies

Events that occurred on the 17th of Tammuz in Jewish history include Moses smashing the Torah Tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments upon descending Mount Sinai and observing Israel's worship of the Golden Calf. In 423 BCE, the daily sacrificial offerings in the Holy Temple were discontinued. Three weeks later the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and over 100,000 Jews were killed and those remaining were exiled to Babylonia and Persia.  Then the walls of Jerusalem were breached in 69 CE by the Romans, and 2½ million Jews were killed, 1 million exiled, and 100,000 sold as slaves. The Torah was burned and an idol was placed in the Holy Temple.

Not all the tragedies occurred in ancient times. On the 17th of Tammuz, Pope Gregory ordered the confiscation of all manuscripts of the Talmud in 1239, 4,000 Jews were killed in Spain in 1391, the Jewish Quarter of Prague was burned and looted in 1559, the Kovno ghetto was liquidated in 1944 with all its Jews being murdered and/or sent to concentration camps, and in 1970 Libya confiscated all Jewish property on that day.

Why It’s Not the Saddest Day

Yet the 17th of Tammuz is not the saddest day in the year for Jews.  It is the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av).  In addition to the burning of both Temples on that day, the First Crusade in 1096 commenced on Tisha B'Av, killing 10,000 Jews during its first month and destroying Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland. By the end of the First Crusade, 1.2 million Jews were killed. This happened with just the first crusade that began on Tisha B'Av.  On that date in 1290, King Edward I ordered all England's Jews exiled and no Jew was permitted to remain in England for over 400 years.  In 1306 Jews were expelled from France. In 1492, all Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal. If they remained, they faced forced conversion and/or death during the Inquisition. 

The events of modern times occurring on the 9th of Av include Britain and Russia declaring war on Germany during World War I.  But Russia also mobilized its army that day. Four hundred 400 pogroms (persecutions and attacks against Jews) struck throughout Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, and Poland. 

It is said that the events of Tisha B'Av commencing World War I were just the beginning and never ended until World War II was over, as though it was one continuous war.  That is why many religious communities mourn the loss of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust when observing Tisha B'Av.  In fact, in 1941 German SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval for the Nazi Final Solution, which captured and killed almost half of the Jews of the world at that time. On Tisha B'Av the following year, the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto began en route to the Treblinka concentration camp.  More recently, in 1990 the Gulf War began on Tisha B'Av and Saddam Hussein went to war against Kuwait, eventually shooting missiles into Israel as well.  It is interesting to note that in 1977 Saddam Hussein named his nuclear reactor “Tammuz I,” and the Israelis were the ones to eventually destroy it in 1981. 

Since the Second Temple continued to burn into the next morning on the 10th of Av, part of that day is also observed.

A tragedy that happened on that day was the unilateral disengagement of Israelis from Gaza in 2005, resulting in rockets, missiles and mortars being fired into Israel ever since.  Instead of “land for peace,” we have had nothing but war with the Palestinians as a result of appeasing them. On the 10th of Av in 1994, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, was bombed. Hundreds were killed and wounded. Iran's allegedly “moderate” new President-elect, Hassan Rowhani, was on the special Iranian government committee that plotted the bombing.  I guess “moderate” is a relative term, especially when describing Israel's enemies. Palestinian Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazon) has been described as moderate. He is responsible for funding the Palestinian massacre of Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics.

The next three weeks should be a reminder of what has happened in Jewish history during this time and a lesson to us all. History repeats itself. Considering the climate in Europe with respect to anti-Semitism, the worst since World War II, and that the Palestinians refuse to accept the existence of Israel, these events only make for perilous times ahead.

L'hitraot.  Shachar