The Holy Ruzhiner (Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin,
1797-1851) rejected all feelings of sadness, even of bitterness. So his followers would engage in all sorts of
practical jokes on the Ninth of Av in order to mitigate the sadness of the day.
They would throw burrs at each other. Then they conceived of the following prank:
they opened a skylight in the roof of the study hall and dropped a snare; when
someone walked into the study hall, they would yank on the rope so that the
snare fastened itself around him, and pull him up to the roof.
It happened that the Ruzhiner himself
walked in to the study hall. Those who
were up on the roof could not see clearly who was coming in, so they pulled him
up. To their dismay, they saw that they
had pulled up their rebbe! As soon as
they recognized who it was, they let him down.
Cried out the Ruzhiner: "Master of the
Universe! If Your children are not
properly observing Your 'festival,' take it away from them!"
What did the Rebbe mean? I think he meant that Moshiach should arrive
so there will be no more Tisha B’Av. (That
sounds good to me, too.)
This story makes me wonder what is the “proper”
way for us to observe Tisha B’Av today?
How can we make it a day where we appreciate the tragedies of Jewish
history and recognize that the world is broken and, at the same time, commit to
do something about it?
It starts with something we all know about
Tisha B’Av: it is uncomfortable. We are
fasting. We sit on the floor. We are losing another summer Sunday. Embracing the discomfort of the day is a
tangible feeling that something is wrong.
We should take that feeling and run with it. Allow the destruction of the Book of Eichah
to bother us. The terror of the Kinot
should disturb us. The content of
classes, readings, and films should move us to feelings of sadness and unease.
Let’s not forget the headlines. There is the Iran Nuclear Agreement which
draws our attention to an unstable Middle East.
How about this
headline about world Jewry growing ever more distant from Israel? Or the sad
story of a young woman who left her community and committed suicide – just one
example of many who feel disconnected. I
can go on, but you get the picture.
A proper Tisha B’Av begins with
discomfort. That discomfort should lead
us to really feeI that there is a lot that is broken in the world. A proper Tisha B’Av will also include reflecting
on what we will do to fix it.
Wishing all of us a meaningful and proper
Tisha B’Av.
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