SAN DIEGO — There is a very famous, very holy wall in Jerusalem called the Kotel, the Western Wall. It is all that remains of the two great Jewish temples built over 2000 years ago. It is the destruction of those two temples that we remember when we observe the holiday called Tisha B’Av.
The first temple was built in the tenth century BCE by King Solomon. People came from all over to bring gifts to God and to pray at this holy site on the three pilgrimage holidays mentioned in the Torah in Deuteronomy: “Three times a year shall all your men appear before the Lord your God in the place that God will choose, on the festivals of Pesah, Shavuot,and Sukkot. They shall not appear empty handed. Each shall bring his own gift, appropriate to the blessing which the Lord your God has given you.”
This temple was the center of Judaism, a place where each person brought an animal, usually a ram, and the priests would sacrifice it in the name of God. This sacrifice would bestow a special blessing on the man and his family. This practice continued for over five hundred years. Then, in 587 BCE, the Babylonian ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple on the ninth of the Jewish month of Av, Tisha B’Av. He exiled the Jews, and their entire way of practicing Judaism changed. With no spiritual center and no priests guiding them, the Jewish people had to rely on the Torah itself. Scribes were pressed into service to write the laws down and people worshiped in smaller communities.
About fifty years later, the Jewish people returned and were allowed to rebuild their temple. Although it took many years, the second temple was even more beautiful than the first. The prayer and temple rituals returned. This lasted for another five hundred years.
The second temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans and, again, the Jewish people were sent away. The date of this second catastrophe… Tisha B’Av. This exile was a more permanent one. Jews were dispersed throughout the land, and eventually, throughout the world. There would be no new temple to take the place of the lost ones. The way people worshipped would need to look different than before. With no temple, there would be no central place to gather for the festivals. There would be no place to bring sacrifices to God. Was this the end of Judaism?
No. The Jewish people have survived the destruction of those two important temples. They have survived many, many other disasters and attempts to stop them from practicing their religion. Some of these sad events also happened on the ninth of Av. This is why this holiday is important. It helps us remember the sad things that happened, but it also shows us that we can survive these things and come out stronger. If the temples hadn’t been destroyed, Judaism as we know it today might not have been created. When everyone had to leave Jerusalem, smaller communities had to form and figure out how to practice the Jewish rituals. They needed to find a way to gather together to pray, to observe the holidays, to celebrate and to mourn as described in the Torah. Thankfully, history shows they succeeded.
We are currently in a situation where people are being challenged to find different ways to successfully navigate life during the coronavirus pandemic. With the loss of normality in so many areas, many changes are taking place. If we look past the bad, there are a few wisps of a silver lining whirling around. Changes that, if they take hold, will be positive. Celebrations that must be held online can include friends and relatives from far away who wouldn’t have been able to attend. Jobs that can’t be completed on site are being successfully handled from home. Families are spending lots of quality time together. People are attending services online who didn’t get to them in person. If we can continue making these same benefits possible when the world returns to normal, then we will have created something good from a time of destruction and despair. Just as the Jewish people turned the tragic loss of their spiritual way of life into a new and perhaps even better existence, so do we, now, have that same chance of redemption.
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Marcia Berneger is a retired elementary school teacher as well as a teacher at Torah school. She is the author of such children’s books as Buster the Little Garbage Truck, and A Dreidel in Time.