Lessons from the Three Weeks

Rabbi 2 Rabbi

Each crisis contains seeds for both hope and repair, and periods of communal mourning can be times to reflect on how to wield power according to Jewish values and law


Rabbi Yael Splansky

Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto

Rabbi Mark Fishman

Congregation Beth Tikvah, Montreal


Rabbi Fishman: With the approach of summer, it seems time for everyone to let their hair down. Yet the Jewish calendar seems to “get in the way” of having fun during the three-week process of mourning that begins on the 17th day of the month of Tammuz and culminates on the ninth of Av, the day associated with the destruction of the two Temples. These days are marked with fasting, mournful prayers and a wilful decrease of joy.

Can these messages of mourning for ancient destructions still remain contemporary? And if so, what deeper levels of understanding can we glean from this lull in the Jewish calendar?

Rabbi Splansky: One highlight of my summer is an annual family reunion on the Rhode Island shore. It’s beautiful and quiet there, and many wings of the family come together. Sometimes Tisha b’Av falls during that vacation.

Just when we feel untethered from the outside world, just when we are free to just “live in the present,” we are pulled back into the responsibilities that come from our past and our future. It’s a study in contrasts. A summer vacation is a wonderful, temporary joy. Jerusalem at peace is a vision of perfection always on the horizon. We mourn the weight of our prayers.

Rabbi Fishman: The original Tisha b’Av took place in the days of Bible. The spies had been sent to the land and returned with their disastrous report: “We can’t capture the land… they are too strong for us… we are like grasshoppers in their eyes.” God, in a seemingly punitive measure, proclaimed: “You are crying for nothing – I will now give you something to cry for!” And accordingly, that day was set aside as a day for disaster.

It seems the cause of our troubles was our initial attitude and approach. If this is so, we can now see this time of mourning in a completely new light. Our attitudes and frames of mind are the starting point for each journey. Perhaps if we can see the good in our world and truly be satisfied with what we have, our time of mourning will come to an end.

Rabbi Splansky: In the 1850s, Rabbi David Einhorn published Olat Tamid, an early and radical Reform prayer book. In it, he asserts that Tisha b’Av should be recast as a day of celebration.

Einhorn taught that the destruction of the Temple and our exile across the lands was not to be mourned, but seen as an invitation to a sacred mission. It was God’s signal that we should bring Torah out into the world for greater impact beyond Israel’s borders. Rabbi Einhorn’s plan for Tisha b’Av was rejected by Reform congregations everywhere, but the ideas behind his proposed ritual are embraced by many throughout the Diaspora today.

Rabbi Fishman: An ancient custom, dating back to medieval Europe, perhaps even before, suggests that we clean our houses and sweep our floors on the afternoon of Tisha b’Av. The origin for this custom was the belief that toward the end of the day, the Jewish People would merit greeting the Messiah – and who would want to welcome the Mashiach with dirty floors and a messy house? Similarly, the midrashic tradition actually places the birth of the Messiah on Tisha b’Av itself.

There is an amazing concept being taught here – the idea that within each crisis is contained the seeds for both hope and repair. No matter the despair, no matter the upheaval, Jews have always insisted that tomorrow will be better than today. In the immortal words of Tevye, when asked how can he and his family can wait for Mashiach now that they are forced to leave Anatevka: “I guess we’ll have to wait someplace else.”

Rabbi Splansky: Waiting and working. It isn’t a passive hoping. Even the sweeping of the floor is an action. For 2,000 years, Tisha b’Av was about powerlessness. But today, there is Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel, and Diaspora Jewry is invited into the highest positions of leadership.

The Three Weeks can be a time for careful reflection on how to wield power according to Jewish values and Jewish law. We are relearning how to be both Jewish and powerful, how to embrace our God-given opportunities to build and rebuild.


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