Sunday, August 11, 2019

Tisha B'Av

During the nine days, the rules we keep are similar to the halachos of someone who mourns the loss of a close relative. We don't listen to music and we don't wear fresh clothing. 

But on Tisha B'av, the mourning intensifies to another level. We don't eat or drink, we don't wear leather shoes and we don't greet people with a warm hello. When someone loses a loved one, they don't have an appetite and they don't feel like greeting everyone they meet. They miss their relative and nothing else matters!

This is why we fast.

On Tisha B'av, we mourn the loss of the closest relationship we once had with Hashem. How can we eat when we are so far away from the ideal lifestyle? We use the sadness of the day to propel us to make better choices so we can experience that same closeness once again.

May the confusion and distance we live with be replaced with clarity and closeness as we do everything in our power to bring the Geula!

2 comments:

  1. Tosefta, tractate Menachot,
    last chapter (13), end of last paragraph (4):


    Why was the First Temple in Jerusalem destroyed?

    Because of idol worship and forbidden intimate physical relationships [gilui arayot] and bloodshed that were in it.

    But [concerning] the Second Temple in Jerusalem [literally, the next one] we recognize that they labored in Torah [study] and they were careful with tithes [maaserot], so why were they exiled [from the Land of Israel, and the Second Temple destroyed]?

    Because they loved money and hated each other.

    This teaches you that hating each other is considered by G*D [literally, The Omnipresent] and the Written [Torah] [the Tanach] to be equal to: idol worship and forbidden intimate physical relationships and bloodshed [combined].

    ReplyDelete
  2. Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:

    The Grand Mufti [Islamic leader] of Jerusalem,
    in addition to becoming Hitler’s ally during
    World War II, adapted Nazi genocidal
    theory to Islamic theology.

    He called on his Muslim brothers to:

    “Murder the Jews! Murder them all.”

    Other Islamic leaders used Nazi words like
    “extermination” in referring to the goals
    of Arab victory [against Israel].

    SOURCE: Chutzpah
    by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter 4, page 119)
    published in year 1991, by Little Brown & Co
    ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374

    ===================================

    Martin Gilbert said:

    Determined to keep Jews from Palestine,
    on 12 May [1942 CE] Haj Amin [al Husseini,
    the Mufti* of Jerusalem] asked
    Hitler to press the Bulgarian government
    not to allow the [Jewish] children to leave.

    His intervention was effective.

    On 27 May [1942 CE], Clifford Norton reported
    from Berne that the Bulgarian government
    “have now decided, under German pressure,”
    to close the Bulgarian Turkish frontier
    “to all Jews.”

    * NOTE: A mufti is an Islamic
    scholar and interpreter of Islamic religious laws.

    SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
    (chapter 17, page 194) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE

    ===================================

    Mr. Sean Durns [a senior research
    analyst for CAMERA dot org] said:


    In 1937, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
    Amin al-Husseini released an
    “Appeal to All Muslims of the World,” urging
    them “to cleanse their lands of the Jews”
    and laying the foundation for the anti-Semitic
    arguments used by radical Arab nationalists
    and Islamists to this day.

    SOURCE:
    The Mufti’s war against the Jews
    by Mr. Sean Durns, 2019 July 24
    www.jns.org/opinion/the-muftis-war-against-the-jews/

    ReplyDelete

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