The 9th of Av fast approaches. That infamous day of Jewish disaster, suffering and tragedy. A date on which we've suffered the destruction of Temples, mass expulsions and genocides. Desolation reigns where joy once flourished—silence, where songs soared to heaven.
Our Sages trace the genesis of Tisha Be'Av to the spies' defamatory reports on the Land of Israel. Moshe had sent these representatives to scout Canaan. After forty days, ten of them returned with damning evaluations. They admitted the land was rich in "milk and honey" but swiftly shifted attention to its dangers: fortified cities and formidable inhabitants. Mass despair ensued as a pall of weeping washed across the Israelite camp. Unthinkable cries for a return to Egypt rang out. Alas, their mistake in judgment carried immediate repercussions. As punishment, God decreed that the Exodus generation spend forty years wandering in the desert until the faithless perished. Those who rebelled against entering the promised land would never reach it. But their bitter fate was not the end. It was only the beginning. Our Sages paraphrase God's response to the people's misdirected fear:
"You cried for nothing! I will keep you crying for generations to come"
{Ta'anis 29A}
The night they wept was the 9th of Av. On that date, centuries later, the second Holy Temple lay in smouldering ruins, desecrated by jeering Roman legions. As many as one million Jews were slaughtered or enslaved. People wailed in the streets without consolation, shattered by unspeakable loss. Most horrors fade into history's inky mist. But this catastrophe would not quietly surrender to the passage of time. Instead, it would set in motion a recurring cycle of tragedies, an endless chronicle of grief we continue to bear. Tisha Be'Av became the fulcrum of mourning for all future generations.
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Yet, no apparent connection between the spies' sin and the expulsions from our land seems to exist. Given the exalted nature of the Exodus generation, we can grasp that their misdeeds might have disproportionately destabilising effects on the nation's destiny. Nevertheless, it's difficult to tell how the punishment fits the crime. It all just feels a little arbitrary.
Addressing our contention, Maharal offers a thoughtful reading into the spy's tragic error. Somewhat laconically, he notes that this national transgression meant there would no longer be, as planned, a single entity that left Egypt and also entered Israel. Instead, these seismic milestones in our people's formation would be experienced by two separate generations.
Rav Moshe Shapiro brilliantly fleshes out Maharal's argument. He explains that our status as the nation who left Egypt and became God's people is eternal and unimpeachable. This is encapsulated in God's repeated declaration, 'I am God your Lord who took you out from Egypt'. Under a counterfactual scenario in which the Jewish people hadn't sinned, our Exodus from Egypt and entry into Israel would have been a single event. God would then declare, 'I am God your Lord who took you out of Egypt and brought you into Israel'. And our possession of Israel would have become an equally definitive fact as our Exodus from Egypt. Such a scenario would have avoided all the tragedies and tribulations that arose due to the fragility of our hold on Israel.
Yet because of the spy's sin, entering our land was not considered a culmination of the Exodus. Instead, it was a separate event experienced by a different generation. The Hebrew nation's landed status was condemned to be tenuous, entirely reactive to our merits or lack thereof. A couple of spies separated one Jewish generation from another. To this day, we suffer the devastating consequences.
This Tisha Ba'Av, many of us will grapple with the main themes of a most dreadful day. Without a doubt, the recent horrors of Hamas’ October 7th massacre will bring everything into painfully sharp relief. Given what I have written, I would like to suggest an extra thought, a framework if you will, for all the other relevant points we will undoubtedly be reflecting on.
The underlying damage wrought by the spies was to splinter generations of Jewish people into isolated groups. Likewise, modernity and the post-modern air we breathe make it challenging to recognise Jewish history's overarching patterns. It is tempting, perhaps even comforting, to regard our people's struggles over the millennia as singular, disjointed events. After all, if there were rhyme and reason to our story, we would be responsible for doing something about it.
Our Sages teach that all Jewish people - including those in every subsequent generation - were present at the Sinai revelation. Let us understand that we are one undivided nation, not just across the world but also across time. Today's sufferings are part of a larger story. A chain linking every Jew throughout the ages. This overarching perspective carries enormous pain. Yet, it also offers tremendous meaning. We must seek God in our national story, silently guiding both our past and present. Our greatest hope and prayer is that we swiftly merit the ultimate redemption. It can't come soon enough.
Keep Pondering, and Have A Meaningful Tisha Be’Av!
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צום קל לכל בית ישראל. 😢
I think we may be a bit harsh on the Jews who left Egypt. They and their forebears were slaves for 210 years or whatever and so had a slave mentality. Freedom was uknown to them.
Similarly travelling in a strange hostile environment -the desert - which is naturally without food and water and having to rely upon the Almighty with food appearing every day just for that day (apart from Shabbos ) is a massive ask. The stress levels on people with children having to handle and accept and rely on the Almighty and the unknown must have been considerable.
People are always afraid of the new - it challenges them. They prefer the known.
The situation of jailed prisoners freed after a long sentence who want to go back inside is well known. Life outside jail is full of challenges and difficulties.
Hashem therefore decided that only a new generation born into freedom (or very young when they left Egypt) could take the challenges of freedom. It is easy for us to judge them - we know the whole story - they didn't and lived it stage by stage.