Not your North American Tisha B’Av

Not your North American Tisha B’Av

I’m writing in the concluding hour of Tisha B’Av here in Jerusalem. How different than anything you can experience in the States, even if you go to a Jewish summer camp.

Most restaurants in the city, and for that matter, most places of business, closed before dinner time yesterday. Knowing that, I planned ahead and cooked dinner last night (baked chicken, Spanish rice and zucchini). I went to the evening service of Moreshet Avraham, the conservative synagogue in Talpiyot, which was held on a plaza of the scenic promenade looking north toward the old city. The view was breathtaking and the crowd was huge (I estimate 400-500 people, which is about 10 times what I’ve seen in any north American synagogue). A lot of movement luminaries were there – my teacher Saul Wachs from Philadelphia, Prof. Joel Roth, Rabbis James LeBeau, Reuven Hammer, David Golinkin (who led most of the singing), my brother’s colleague, Shalom Lewis. I ran into my madrichim from our 2004 visit to Israel with USY, Itzik Yanai and Deb, former Washingtonian Elliott Goldstein (brother of the famous (in our house) Aileen Goldstein). It was a very nice ma’ariv and Eicha, one of the best I’ve ever attended.

This morning I went to the Conservative Yeshiva, for a series of lectures, one on Jeremiah, one on the why’s of Tisha B’Av, and one on one of the kinot (religious poems) read today. Between that and mincha (I had hagba, I would have made my synagogues proud) I was there about 4 hours. I joined Scott, saw many of the people I saw last night, spoke with Rich Moline, Rabbi Jerome Epstein – Rabbi Steven Wernick was there but I did not get to speak with him.

Even now, late in the day, there is little traffic on the street, restaurants and stores are just starting to open and the streets are quiet. The fast ends in about 45 minutes. It made the day very meaningful.

I will say that personally, spending time in the rebuilt Jerusalem makes you wonder why this day is still observed. We have Jerusalem, and we are not exiled – those of us living outside of Israel do so voluntarily. I guess, since 1967, Israel could knock down a couple of mosques and rebuild the Temple (I can’t imagine if we did that we could be any more hated than we already are). As a democratic nation, Israel has chosen not to do so. I wouldn’t want to worship in a new Temple if it involved re-establishing animal sacrifices and the priesthood. So I can’t tell you why I fasted today, or why I observe 2nd days of holidays in the US, but I did and I do.

Tomorrow is our first USY day – we are going to Click in Hod HaSharon and Tech Careers at Kibbutz Nachshon (near Latrun) with group 4. Thursday we will be with Bradley Cohen of All for the Kids and Leket Yisrael (formerly Table-to-Table) I likely won’t have a chance to write about those days until Friday. Enjoy the week.