Tisha B'Av thoughts -- 5774 (into 5775)

I have said some of this before. It's hard for me to be extra gloomy on Tisha B'Av because I dwell on these matters all year round.  In fact, this year I found something somewhat refreshing in the words of Yirmayahu and the paytanim.  They don't blame anyone but ourselves!

The biggest problem we have today in our attempts L'taken Olam b'Malchut Shakai is that it's far easier to blame everyone else for our problems.  "It's Bush/Obama/the EU/the UN's fault...they're all anti-Semites who hate us."  "It's the Arabs...kill them all and we'll be fine."  "It's the chilonim trying to destroy Torah."  "It's the government bowing to foreign pressures."  And on, and on, and on.  If we do whisper that there are problems with Sinat Chinam or anything like that, it's always "that other group." As Tom Lehrer might say, "The Chareidi hate the Dati Leumi, and the Dati Leumi hate the Chareidi, and the Belzers hate Chabadniks, and everybody hates the Jews."

Not so Yirmayahu, and not so many of the piyutim.  They admit that the punishments come because WE sinned.  This year I especially noticed this year the evening piyut "Z'chor Hashem Meh Haya Lanu."  Beginning with the forth verse, it lists point by point the various bad things that happened during the churban, and mida k'neged mida explains what sins they were punishment for.  That kind of cheshbon is exactly what we need before we can even begin to work on our problems.

Think for a minute.  Do you really think that God is stupid?  If He sent the Arabs/foreign governments/chilonim to punish us for our sins, and we go and wipe out those groups, do you really think He will say, "All right then, I'll let you off the hook this time?"

I don't think so...and I think that if we accomplish that destruction in anti-Torah ways, the next wave of punishment will be far worse.

I wrote this a year ago and was too tired from fasting to finish.  I don't remember exactly what else I wanted to say specifically, but you know what my inclination is. Suffice it to say...we can't fool Hashem...if we somehow weasel out of one of His punishments without actually fixing our evil behavior,  He will send something else.  So let's listen to the N'vi'im and the paytanim and start correcting our own mistakes; then this can be the last Tisha B'Av.

Red Mad Cow Disease

This news came in less than two weeks ago:  the Temple Institute is trying to raise $125,000 to partially cover the cost of their project to breed a Halachic Para Aduma (Red Heifer.)

What?  $125,000? I'm (almost) speechless.  Such a misguided use of money and a distortion of the idea of anticipating the Redemption.

I can understand if you find a natural-born Red Heifer that fits all the Halachic requirements, you keep it and take care of it.  Without trying to read signs and portents, there is at least a chance it was born for a higher cause than exciting all the fanatics, so you do what you can to preserve it and pray that Hashem will bring about the need for it.

But spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to breed more?  No.

Anticipating the Yeshua doesn't mean sitting around waiting.  It means working towards that end, and at the same time hoping and praying and believing that enough others are doing the same thing that at any second the balance could tip in our favor and we will hear the Shofar of Eliyahu.

What kind of work?  Helping the poor.  ($125K would do a lot of good there.)  Stopping dishonesty and hatred among the frum community, because we are the ones Hashem is judging by.  Changing our behavior so that we truly become an Or LaGoyim, and so that D'varim 4:6 comes true.

If we do all that, the Red Heifers and all the Kelim for the Mikdash will follow smoothly.  If we don't, we can breed all the cows we want, and make all the vessels we want, and nothing will come of it.

I should mention that I've had a problem with the Temple Institute for years.  Unfortunately, I no longer have exact links or articles, but I remember that during the Hitnatkut (10 years ago), someone very high up in the Institute made public remarks that were, in my opinion, very hateful towards the frum Jews who supported the frum soldiers who decided not to start a civil war and participate. They were not, obviously, the only ones making such comments, but it struck me as horribly ironic. Bayit Sheni was destroyed because of sinat chinam, and here we have people trying to build the third Mikdash while spouting the same sinat chinam! I would be horribly upset if such Kelim were used in Bayit Shlishi.

(Another side irony...I've seen the Menora they made...it looks just like the one on Titus' Arch.  But I learned in my Yeshiva University art classes that there is evidence that the actual Menora had a 3-legged base, and the massive square base was fitted by the Romans as a travel base.  So the new Menora intended for Bayit Shlishi was partially designed by the destroyers of Bayit Sheni!)

On this Tisha B'Av, let's keep our priorities straight.  It's wonderful that we want to meet Eliyahu Hanavi with physical things prepared for the time of the Geula, but if we don't make the spiritual preparations he won't even be there to meet!

I'm still hoping for that barbecue next year.  Together we can make it happen.

Mishenichas Av, Marbim b'Chillul HaShem? --Tisha B'Av 5775

Same old story, for the third time. Rosh Chodesh Av comes, so I can't listen to music.  I switch to a live stream of my old favorite New York news station, and wham!...there's a piece about frum Jews acting badly.

In this case it's about developers in the Satmar town of Kiryas Joel allegedly bribing New York Governor Cuomo to veto a bill that would stop the town from easily annexing surrounding land.  He vetoed the bill, and within a week $250,000 in campaign contributions were made to his campaign account, all from accounts linked to one developer who apparently has much to gain from the annexation. (See this article.)

This may not actually be a bribe according to U.S./N.Y. law. But it looks and quacks like a duck, so what else can it be? You can bet that's how people hearing the news are reacting...and that's enough to make it Chillul HaShem.

There was another item on Rosh Chodesh, but this one at least didn't make it across the pond...I saw it on the Jerusalem Post site here.  In the continuing war of the Hareidi world against the Women of the Wall (as if destroying them, many of whom are sincere, frum women, would solve all our problems), the Women tried again to smuggle a Sefer Torah into the women's section at the Kotel for their Rosh Chodesh davening. The woman who tried was arrested for "trying to bring a 'questionable object' to the Western Wall."

A Torah is now defined as a "questionable object?" By hareidim?  I thought "v'nahafoch hu" was for Purim?

The answer is, that once Sinat Chinam takes hold, nothing else matters.  The Women of the Wall never started any trouble...but their very existence is such an anathema to the Hareidi world that anything goes...including physical violence, throwing dirty diapers right under the Kotel, you name it.  And that leads to public Chillul HaShem.

We are supposed to anticipate the coming of Mashiach every day.  Every year there are people who invite others to their Tisha B'Av barbecues, in the event that Mashiach does come right before and the day changes to a Yom Tov.  Well, I didn't get my barbecue this year...and as long as frum people keep acting that way, I find it hard to believe I will even next year.

But I know that it can change; we just have to turn our focus back where it belongs.  Acheinu B'nei Yisrael.  The non-frum have to be loved, and respected, and encouraged to learn.  And the frum have to stop the hating and the hypocrisy, and set the kind of example that will help the others, and the entire world, to learn.  Only then will we be ready for Mashiach.  במהרה בימינו.