Leo Baeck College |
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We are pleased to send you the latest in our series of Divrei Torah written by Rabbi Colin Eimer, Lecturer in Rabbinics at Leo Baeck College and Rabbi of Southgate & District Reform Synagogue |
31 July 2009 |
Sidra Va’Etchanan: Reflections on Tisha b’AvThere is no such thing as coincidence. By a curious vagary of the way the Jewish calendar is constructed, Tisha b’Av always falls on the same day of the week as Seder night - this year it’s Wednesday. Tisha b’Av is always bracketed by two Shabbatot: Shabbat Chazon (the ‘Sabbath of the Vision’) and Shabbat Nachamu (the Sabbath of Comfort.’) They take their names from the opening word of the haphtarah reading for that Shabbat: from Chapter 1 and 40 of the prophet Isaiah. Chapter 1 describes Isaiah’s vision of a sinful, immoral Israel which has abandoned God and whose behaviour will meet its recompense. An appropriate choice of reading for the Shabbat which precedes Tisha b’Av , commemorating the destruction of the First Temple and then a series of calamities throughout Jewish history. (How they all coincidentally happened to take place on 9th Av is a question for another D’var Torah!) The Haphtarah for the Shabbat after Tisha b’Av is equally appropriate, speaking of the comfort and consolation which Israel will, eventually, enjoy. Because of the way the Jewish Calendar is constructed, Tisha b’Av always falls in the week between the first two Torah readings of the book of Deuteronomy: Devarim and Va’etchanan. And the question of the Wise Son at the Seder (which, remember, is on the same day of the week as Tisha b’Av ) comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 20: “What is the meaning of the decrees, laws and rules that the Eternal our God has enjoined upon you?” By now it should come as no surprise to learn that Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verse 20 is in Sidra Va’etchanan. Among the liturgical specialités de la maison of Tisha b’Av are a series of poems, called in Hebrew kinot, meaning ‘sad, mournful poems.’ Given the events that Tisha b’Av commemorates, we would be surprised if the readings for that day were anything other than sad. And among those kinot is one with the refrain mah nishtanah ha-laylah ha-zeh mikol ha-laylot. Isn’t that remarkable! So here we have this really anomalous situation. Tisha b’Av, the ‘black fast’ of the Jewish Calendar, which makes Yom Kippur look like a happy day (which of course it really is), has as the refrain for one of its mournful dirges the phrase we sing at the Seder. There is no such thing as coincidence. Obviously whoever wrote that kinah and chose mah nishtanah as its refrain didn’t do so by accident. They consciously chose it knowing that anybody reading that kinah would obviously, virtually unconsciously, make that connection with Pesach. On the face of it there seems little that connects Tisha b’Av with Pesach. One speaks of total destruction, the end of a Temple and of a dream and the beginning of an exile. The other speaks of freedom, redemption and liberation, not just in the past – not just the Exodus from Egypt – but the final Messianic liberation and redemption. Then we will open the door for Elijah –and find Elijah standing there, bringing the message of final redemption. Chanting Mah Nishtanah on Tisha b’Av is almost a contradiction in terms. For it is saying that while there might be many a Tisha b’Av throughout Jewish history – and sadly there have been – Tisha b’Av is always followed by Shabbat Nachamu, offering comfort and consolation. Living through the experience of destruction represented by Tisha b’Av, it is easy to forget that it is followed by Shabbat Nachamu. The prophet Zechariah described us as assirei ha-tikvah, ‘prisoners of hope,’ holding on to an impossible hope that there will be a Messianic redemption. The same refrain of Mah Nishtanah recited on both Pesach and Tisha b’Av, connecting both, reminds us that there is a continuum, and Jewish existence calls on us to situate ourselves on it. There are those whose view of Jewish history is what the historian Salo W. Baron described as the ‘lachrymose conception of history.’ ‘Lachrymose,’ ‘tearful,’ means seeing Jewish existence as an almost endless vale of tears, with destruction as an almost inevitable feature of Jewish existence. There are others whose view of Jewish history recognises the destructive moments but refuses to see them as the norm, as the guiding principle in Jewish history, experience or identity. Tisha b’Av with its curious coincidences invites us to reflect on where we are on that continuum. Rabbi Colin Eimer July 2009
Click on link to see previous Divrei Torah: http://www.lbc.ac.uk/content/blogcategory/429/142/
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