A brisk breeze blows through the concrete canyon created by the buildings that make up Jerusalem's municipal complex, Safra Square. The wind ruffles the sackcloth garment worn by a youngish woman sitting alone on the hard ground in the middle of the square as Tisha B'Av descends on Jerusalem.
Along with hundreds of others, she's there to mourn the long litany of national tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people around this date all through Jewish history. While Yom Kippur is the day for personal reckoning, Tisha B'Av is the occasion for some national soul-searching over what led to our various ancient and recent disasters.
As we sit waiting for the start of the recitation of Eichah, the mournful lament for his people penned by the prophet Jeremiah, a friend reminds me that we spent last Tisha B'Av together at Mt. Herzl attending the heartrending funeral of IDF soldier Michael Levin z"tl, a young American immigrant killed in the Hizbollah war.
There were civilian casualties too last Tisha B'Av. Five people were killed by rockets fired into Israeli towns that day. Shimon Zribi, his 15-year-old daughter Mazal, Albert Ben-Abu, and Aryeh and Tiran Tamam all perished in Akko last Tisha B'av.
At this year's march around the Old City walls, Knesset member Aryeh Eldad and Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich, the former Soviet Prisoner of Zion, both drive home the message that last year's war as well as the previous summer's tragic expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, both resulted from weakness. MK Eldad told marchers that the people are stronger than the leaders and expressed confidence that we could "turn the wheel back."
Mendelevich, one of Israel's most unsung heroes, explained that he felt compelled to say Kaddish at this spot just outside the Temple Mount "for the heroes who fell here." He turned to face the site of the Temple and the thousands of marchers who had listened quietly to his stirring talk rose behind him to gaze up at Lions Gate and join in the response to his passionate rendition of the ancient words of praise and hope.
Last night, more than ten thousand took part in the revival of the tradition of walking around the walls of the Old City on Tisha B'Av that has captured the attention of growing numbers of Jerusalemites in recent years. It's difficult to estimate the crowds, but it took the better part of half an hour for the masses to move out of Safra Square at the beginning of Jaffa Road and set off on their way after the public reading of Eichah.
Article comments
1 - troll
bitter herbs....sleeping in sackcloth on concrete....being a Jew is certainly a dramatic life
Judy - I enjoy your descriptive work and am saddened by the senseless losses you report
with all of the reflection is there a consensus forming in Israel on what led to her latest tragedies - ?
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Judy,
Great to see that your article got published! Excellent read!!
I'm tired of being the lone wolf crying from our country!
Brukhá haba'á!!
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Troll,
I'm not trying to take away from Judy's desire to express her own views and answer your question, but with her permission, I'll fill you in on the "Walk Around the Gates."
In the days of King Saul and later King David, Rosh Hódesh was a celebration with a big meal and get together, a festival that has been lost over the millennia. Ruth and Nadia Matar, who head "Women in Green," or "Women for Israel's Tomorrow" came up with a way to begin to revive the holiday AND raise Israeli awareness of the Walled City and its importance to us, both as Jews and as Israelis. So on each Rosh Hódesh, the beginning of the month on the Rabbinic calendar, they sponsor a walk around the gates of the Walled City of Jerusalem. This is normally supposed to be a festive event, and a reminder to Israelis never to forget the Walled City.
What happened on Tish'á b'Av was in Judy's words, "not a demonstration or a rally, nor ... a social event."
4 - MAOZ
Ruvy, don't confuse the Women In Green's annual Tisha B'Av march around the wall of the Old City with the monthly (erev Rosh Chodesh) Sivuv Shearim, making a circuit of the various gates to Har HaBayit. The Sivuv Shearim is not a WiG event. And yes, it is festive -- after all, it's in celebration of Rosh Chodesh, as distinct from the WiG's Tish B'Av (i.e., once-a-year) event.
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nu, MAOZ, no good deed goes unpunished.
6 - jonolan
While I heartily endorse ANY day of remembrance, I'm somewhat concerned about your chosen verbage.
Isreali Jews = Jews
Isreali Christians = Christians
Isreali Muslim = Arabs?
"Spotlights and snipers are dotted on the rooftops and although most of the Arab stores are shuttered tight, soldiers keep a tight watch over several dozen Arabs who watch us march by"
Because, of course every Muslim in Isreali reall is a terrorist deep down in their hearts?
Please note that I'm not Muslim, and yet the intrinsic bigotry of your wording struck me wrong. Think about it before you delete my post.
7 - MAOZ
jonolan, why do you assume those being referred to in the passage you quote are Muslim? Perhaps there's a touch of "intrinsic bigotry" on your own part showing through here?
(Ironically enough, note that the specific paragraph from which jonolan quotes makes reference to the "Christian quarter".)
8 - troll
jonolan - it might surprise you but unlike the 'strong' editing of ideas at many sites BC's comments editor doesn't remove comments for their ideological content
9 - Judy Lash balint
Jonolan wrote: "Because, of course every Muslim in Isreali reall is a terrorist deep down in their hearts?"
Er..well, considering that on an average day in Jerusalem there are dozens of thwarted terror attacks (prevented only due to amazing police, army and intelligence work) and that we know from years of bloody experience that those terror attacks do tend to be perpetrated by people of the radical Moslem persuasion, I'm not sure I quite understand why Israeli security policy of being rather careful where Moslems are concerned should be considered anything but a prudent carrying out of measures to protect innocent civilians.
How would YOU carry out security here, Jonolan, given the solid record of terror attacks? Would you act like the good folks at US airports and search little old Jewish ladies, Christian merchants and have people in wheelchairs remove their shoes, or would you go after those who most resemble the profile of the pereptrators of previous attacks??
10 - Zedd
Judy,
Drama off course!
I remember when I was flirting with radicalism in my college days, everything meant a lot more than it should have. The slightest thing had universal significance. Your article reminds me of that time. I was however very young and unsettled in my understanding of the world around me including myself and my own personal frailty and contribution to what happens.
I don't get what the point of this walk was. Was it to ensure that you never forget just how everyone picks on you??? I mean really folks pull yourselves together.
Now the people who were waiting at the gate, were they trying to get to work or were they just there hanging out?
11 - Zedd
Judy
"Spotlights and snipers are dotted on the rooftops and although most of the Arab stores are shuttered tight, soldiers keep a tight watch over several dozen Arabs who watch us march by"
And this is fine with you? Who are the victims?
12 - Judy Lash balint
Zedd wrote: "you never forget just how everyone picks on you???" well, I guess that's why we're still around and the Romans and Canaanites and Selucids and Mameluks etc have gone the way of the dinosaur. Remembrance is a key component of Jewish tradition--trying to learn from the past is not such a bad thing. the 9th of Av commemorates the destruction of 2 Temples so a tradition arose to walk around the remnants of that site to rededicate ourselves to overcoming the factors that caused that destruction.
Why the heck anyone should object to that--least of all the Arabs who built 2 of their mosques on top of the ruins of the temple and who completely rule up on the Temple Mount these days, anyway--is a mystery to me. A group of people on an almost silent walk...now there's a provocative, dangerous act...
It was around 10 at night, so the Arabs waiting at Herods Gate were not there to work. Hanging out...well, I guess you could call it that. If you've ever been in this part of the world you'll understand that there's not really any benign "hanging out" going on...and of course, no women to be seen at all.
13 - MAOZ
An excellent piece by an excellent writer, writing of the city so dear to my heart and soul (and thank You, G^d, that I have the zechut to be here physically as well) -- Judy, I salute you!
Shabbat Shalom.
14 - troll
Reuven and Maoz - I appreciate your input concerning the event but my question to Judy remains unanswered
...I assume that her silence is just another example of antitrollism which (woe is me) I'm used to
have a peaceful day off
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Judy,
The fellow who signs off here as 'troll' has changed character in the last couple of years. He is asking an honest question, not merely trolling about to make you life miserable...
I'll put it forward for you to answer if you wish.
" with all of the reflection is there a consensus forming in Israel on what led to her latest tragedies?"
Shabbat Shalom u'mevorakh, v'yihye lakh shavua tov b'Hazaratekh...
16 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Troll,
Actually, there is quite a bit of reflection and thought in Judy's writings that go far beyond the offerings she brings here. See if there is some way to check her articles on-line. If not, it is truly worth your while to contact her and seek to be put on her e-mail list for articles. Since she doesn't write all of them, she can't post them here. I get them in my in-box and they are a regular staple of my reading.
IN addition, I strongly recommend her both books entitled "Jerusalem Diaries." They are a compendium of essays going back to about 2000 or 2001 and give a stunningly accurate picture of life here.
17 - troll
thanks Ruvy (I guess)...kinder genteler troll - that's me
I'll check out her site
the apparent reflexion and though was why I asked her the question
18 - Zedd
Judy,
I hope for your sake that you thaw out from your view of the world. How you see things is a choice. Perhaps what you think the world is like doesn't exist. Its all a matter of perspective.
19 - Nancy
I have to agree with Zedd, in wondering why on earth anyone would want to make a holiday & a tradition out of being picked on. Jews seem to hug any & all offenses to their breasts like starving children, to be nurtured & loved in perpetuity. To me, at least, this seems perverse. What about moving on? What about forgive & forget? Why do Jews insist on their children & childrens children inheriting ancient grudges & hatreds? Or Arabs/muslims, too, for that matter? That's insane & just invites if not engenders continuation of it all.
If I followed Jewish practice, I'd be harboring grudges against most of Nordic Europe for offenses against my peasant ancestors, or for US southerners against my yankee antecedants, or against Germans for my granddad & dad in the WWs, or ... & the list goes on & on. Why not let it stop?
20 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nancy,
Tish'a b'Av is not a holiday. It is a fast day. It is not a day of joy, it is a day of remembrance - not a day to remember what assholes the Romans or Babylonians were when they destroyed the Temples here, not a day to wave our fists in the air like Arabs screaming for blood, but a day to remind ourselves of our own shortcomings in bringing about the destruction of these Temples.
The Babylonians and the Romans may have been the human destroyers, but the shield G-d gives us was removed to allow them to succeed because of the evil that we ourselves did. This is why secular Jews do not want to be bothered with this holiday - "what, us do wrong?" That is why the atheists here will sneer "that's stupid" - like you do. They do not want to even hear that their own behavior can have consequences - they want a free ride in the world. There is no such animal.
That is the first point.
The second is this. Much of Judaism is called "dat zékher" - a "religion of remembrance." This reliogion of remembrance was the only tool the exiled elders of the Sanhedrin had to kep the Jewish nation alive until today. And considering the shit we have had to put up with from non-Jews for over 17 centuries, the "religion of remembrance" crafted by the exiled elders of the Sanhedrin after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE has been a stunning success.
Tish'a b'Av is a prime example of how a religion of remembrance keeps a people alive.
21 - Nancy
Remembering the blessings & positives - like Succot - are one thing; nurturing old grudges & nursing old wrongs are another totally. You don't need to remember that kind of stuff to keep your identity. I know where my ancestors came from et al & I don't need to observe anniversaries of such & such massacre or this & that attack against them to have a sense of belonging. The only thing that nurtures is a sense of being picked on, which sometimes becomes, according to psychologists, self-fulfilling prophecy at the worst, & at the least an unhealthy sense of self-identity, as being a perpetual target, whether justified or not.
22 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
You've missed my entire point, Nancy.
BEHAVIOR HAS CONSEQUENCES!!
The elders of the Sanhrdrin sitting in internal exile had plenty of time to consider that point. They no longer had their court on the Temple Mount. They no longer had a Temple. They had no army; they had no method of enforcing their authority except their own moral strength. They had no method of keeping the Judean identity alive in a pagan world.
One question they had to face was; how the hell did we get ourselves in this fuckin' mess? Another was; how do we stop this from ever happening again?
So they looked at themselves and asked; what did we do wrong?
Tish'a b'Av and Yom Kippur are all about asking what did we do wrong and how can we right the wrong we did? Yom Kippur asks that question on the individual level. How did we sin against G-d as individuals? How did we sin against our fellows as individuals? Tish'a b'Av asks that same question on a national level. Asking these questions on both levels are essential to keeping a national identity alive AS A MORAL PEOPLE when there seems to be no nation.
Continuing to ask these questions even after the nation is re-established hopefully can keep the nation on a moral level. But that seems to have failed. And one of the reasons is that secular Jews refuse to ask that question - what did we do wrong as a nation to deserve the destruction of the Temple? The result is that the State is in the shithole it is now - waiting for war in the shards of shattered illusions.
23 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nancy,
I've been wrong in some of the things I said in the above comment. I need to point out that it is not merely secular Jews who do not want to ask the really hard questions. The religious sector is just as bad.
There is a basic refusal to list the things that ought to be reformed here - as a nation that we have wrought:
Prostitution: In a country where prostitution is legal, prostitutes need decent working conditions - this country is instead a hub for human trafficking and white slavery.
Foreign workers: Foreign workers are exploited like dogs here. The common culture is that they are labor that comes cheap and do the shit-work. This exploitation is wrong.
Abortion: There were 50,000 abortions here last year - this should not be. Each child aborted is a potential human being.
Pollution: Raw sewage flows into the Mediterranean, into the rivers and pollutes the sea and the water table. People don;t seem to care about polluting the air we breathe here - a country where one out of ten Israelis has asthma.
A culture of swindling and stealing that is so pervasive it is considered verging on righteousness: This is the worst of it all and everybody is involved in one way or another - from the prime minister and the president to the big rabbis. The rabbis make excuses, and the common people make jokes. This is a society where generally, one person cannot rely on another.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. And do note that I have not mentioned security or Arabs: this is our problem as Jews.
It is for reasons like this that we need badly a holiday like Tish'a b'Av. A day to remind us that at some point, the G-d who charged us to be holy because He is holy gets disgusted with our corruption - and brings consequences.
24 - Nancy
OK - THAT explanation I understand. That makes sense to me. But it sure doesn't come across to non-Jews that way, the way it's generally presented or spoken of by Jews themselves. All my Jewish friends seem to regard most Jewish holidays as self-pity-fests, memorials to being picked on & victimized. Their parents seem to positively wallow in it, some of them. In too many conversations with people (including some on this website) when there's been criticism of either Israel or Jews, the immediate response has too often been: you're antisemitic! You hate Jews! When in fact that was not the case, just that someone doesn't agree with Israeli or Jewish politics or policies - or seeming reasons for things, as in this specific case w/my comments. Fortunately you have been kind enough to work on presenting me with an explanation that makes sense - more in fact than the pityfest explanation I get from my Jewish friends, who obviously have never had anybody explain things clearly to them, either.
I gotta say, this is a common failing in all religions, because my Catholic friends don't understand why Catholics do anything, either. Not the "real" reasons, at least. It all somehow gets caught up in contortions & confusion.
Thank you, Ruvy. Now I understand.
25 - Tristan
Take a gander at the New York's Jewish Mayor and Kalifornia's son-of-a-storm-trooper Governor displaying a Nazi Totenkopf symbol on the cover of Time Magazine.