I have trouble being extra gloomy on Tisha B'Av; I guess that's because I'm so gloomy all year round about the state of Am Yisrael and the behavior that brings it about. As I said once before in another blog, after 120 years when I face the Divine court, when I am asked, 'Tzipita L'Yehoshua?' (Did you anxiously await the Redemption?), I will have a lot of trouble answering yes to that question. To be sure, every day I hope for the coming of Mashiach; but deep down I don't believe conditions are favorable for the foreseeable future. So Tisha B'Av for me is just another reminder of everything that bothers me year-round.
One thing that I miss about my old days in Galut; in the Young Israel of Passiac-Clifton, we didn't just SAY the Kinot, but every year either Rav Chaim Wasserman or Rav Yaakov Love would give detailed EXPLANATIONS of what we were saying. Since the Kinot are full of obscure references to Biblical events and Midrashic stories, without the explanations much of the meaning is lost. I can sit for a lot longer time with that kind of Kinot-study. (I know it happens here in Israel in some places, too, but not in my shul.)
Rav Love also gave a shiur before Mincha every Tisha B'Av. His theme one year was that the Geula can't come until we fix all the reasons for the Destructions...and we haven't. He went through a number of the faults pointed out by Chazal and for each one showed that in our day, as he said, "it's still broken." We are STILL faced with Sinat Chinam and with pious hypocrisy in the dati community. So how can we expect Hashem to restore us?
We are still blaming everyone but ourselves for our suffering...the one-two-three punch of the Shabbat Chazon haftara (see my next post), Eicha, and the learning we do on the day of Tisha B'av of the story of Kamtza bar Kamtza (Gittin 56) all point the the fact that it is hypocritical frum Jews that bring about the destruction. Yet we persist in blaming anti-Semites and chilonim. We have put the cart before the horse...our behaviors CAUSE Hashem to DELIVER us into the hands of those enemies.
I noticed an excellent quote about this in one of our Kinot today; the Kina called Sh'churat V'lo MiYayin, Drunk but not with wine, by Solomon Gerondi. This translation is from the Rosenfeld edition of Kinot, page 151. Zion is lamenting her destruction, and the payyatan says, "...why should you complain, o Zion, seeing that your guilt is known? It is for the abundance of your iniquity, want of knowledge (of God's ways), for abandoning your seers and enquiring of the (false prophets who worshipped) idols, your people were exiled!" Exactly.
One last random thought. In my shul in Kochav Yaakov this year, they handed out an extra Kina mourning the Hitnatkut. This did not make me happy. People have gone way too far in their reaction to the Hitnatkut...it truly upsets me, for example, when I hear it described as a crime against humanity. As I described in
a previous post, this, too, we brought upon ourselves. I am not denying it was a horrible thing...but NO ONE died, and although people were removed from their homes and STILL do not have new permanent homes (including my cousin and her family), they are STILL IN ISRAEL. So we have to keep a sense of proportion! Meanwhile, I noticed in one of the Kinot a mention of a martyrdom in Medieval Europe that caused the death of 10 Jews. A lot more than that have died at the hands of terrorists since Intifada II started; and even move have died defending our land since the modern Zionist movement started in the 19th century. It would be much more appropriate to add Kinot for them first.
It's time to really learn the lessons of Tisha B'Av; to fix the things that are broken; then we can turn it into the Yom Tov it is destined to be.
