|
Tisha
B'Av
I. The Tragedies of Tisha B'Av:
A) The Destruction of the Holy Temples - The destruction of both
the first and the second Holy Temples were among the greatest tragedies
suffered by the Jewish people. While the Temple stood, G-d's presence
rested in Jerusalem and the Jewish people had a tangible sense of
the Divine Presence.
1) The First Temple was destroyed
a)
In the year 586 BCE, during the reign of King Tzidkiyahu, the
first Holy Temple was razed by Nebuzaraden, the general of Nebuchadnezer,
King of Babylon.
b) It was destroyed because the Jewish people had consistently
violated three major prohibitions:
i)
idol worship
ii) murder
iii) forbidden sexual relations
2)
The Second Temple was destroyed
a)
In 70 CE, the Romans, under the leadership of Titus, destroyed
the Temple which had been rebuilt more than 400 years before by
Ezra and Nehemia.
b) The traditional reason given for the destruction of Second
Temple is sinat chinam, baseless hatred.
i)
Although a period of religious revival was at hand, there was
much infighting among the Jews. Instead of focusing on their
common enemy -- the Romans, Jews demeaned their co-religionists
and made false accusations against each other to the Romans.
ii) The Talmud amplifies the level of sinat chinam with the
powerful story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. One day a wealthy man
had a party and instructed his servant to invite his friend
Kamtza. Mistakenly, the servant invited Bar Kamtza, his master's
enemy. When Bar Kamtza arrived, thinking perhaps all was forgiven,
the host was enraged and demanded that he leave. Not wishing
to be embarrassed, Bar Kamtza asked if he could stay and offered
to pay the cost of the meal...half the party...the whole party,
but the host refused and had Bar Kamtza ejected, disgracing
him in front of everyone present, including many sages. Bar
Kamtza was so irate that he went to the Emperor and told him
that the Jews were planning to rebel. To prove his contention,
he told the Emperor that the Jews would not accept a sacrifice
sent by the Emperor. The Emperor then sent a young calf to the
Temple, but on the way, Bar Kamtza blemished the eyelid of the
cow, rendering it invalid as an offering. After much debate,
the rabbis decided that they could not accept the blemished
calf. The Emperor's fury eventually led to the complete destruction
of Jerusalem.
B)
The Bar Kochba Revolt was crushed
-
After the Temple was destroyed, some Jews were exiled, while some
fled to other parts of Israel. An attempt was made to overthrow
the Romans. The Jews were led in their revolt by the great Jewish
general, Bar Kochba. On Tisha B'Av, in the year 135 BCE, the
revolt was crushed and the city of Betar, Bar Kochba's last stronghold,
was destroyed, resulting in the slaughter of thousands.
C)
The Site of the Temple was Ploughed Over
-
Turnus Rufus, a Roman General, ploughed over the site of the Temple
and the Romans began to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city known
as Aelia Capitolina. Their goal was to eradicate Jerusalem from
the memories of the Jews, making them easier to subjugate.
D)
The First Crusade
-
In July of 1095, Pope Urban II began a preaching campaign to rally
the people to battle to recapture the Holy Land, thus unifying
Christendom. As the excitement spread and bands of unruly Crusaders
gathered throughout Western Europe, the Jews, so easily at hand,
became their first victims.
E)
The Expulsion from England
-
In July of 1290, the Jews were expelled from England. All of their
property was seized by the King. The expulsion was the culmination
of pogroms and blood libels that had been common occurrences in
medieval England.
F)
The Spanish Expulsion
-
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ordered all Jews to
either convert to Catholicism or to leave Spain. The Spanish Inquisition,
by which the Spanish monarchs were determined to create a completely
Catholic country, had been raging for nearly one hundred years.
Any professing Jew not gone from the country by July 30, 1492,
Tisha B'Av, would be put to death. In Spain, Portugal, and their
respective holdings, the Inquisition continued for centuries against
converts suspected of still practicing Judaism. For those Jews
who fled, it was the beginning of a period of continuous upheaval.
G)
The First World War
-
On August 1, 1914, Britain and Russia declared war on Germany,
officially starting World War I. While World War I brought starvation
and devastation to all of Europe, the true scope of the destruction
of World War I would only be realized two decades later. As historians
point out, the unacceptable resolution of World War I was a direct
cause of the world-wide economic depression of the 1930's which
gave rise the Nazi's and World War II. The opening date of World
War I, therefore, can also be tied to the horrific events that
followed a few decades later.
H)
The Warsaw Ghetto Liquidation
-
In 1942, two years after the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto, the
Nazis began the liquidations of the Ghetto by transporting the
Jews to the Treblinka death camp, to be murdered. Between July
and September 1942, nearly 300,000 Jews were put to death.
(-The
list, unfortunately, could continue with many smaller calamities
around the world.)
|
