Tonight begins the 9th day of Av, which continue until tomorrow.  (Remember that the Tora said, “There was evening, there was morning, one day”.  That is why our days begin in the evening- and why there’s a Christmas Eve and a New Year’s Eve.) The very end of this Hebrew month denotes the day my mother died and the next day (also a new moon) is the day my oldest daughter was born. All auspicious moments.

In my religion, this morning, Shabat,  we began reading from the fifth book of the bible and from the first chapter of Isaiah, in preparation for this evening.  The verbiage catches our minds vividly, amplified by current events. Verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1 (Deuteronomy) finds Moshe, the leader of the wandering people some 4400 years ago, asking , “How can I bear your trouble, your burden, and your strife all my myself.  Prepare for yourselves wise and understanding men, known among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you…”

I thought we did this finally this past November.  Some of you also thought you did this.  We thought that we should elect wise and understanding representatives who would take our needs and aspirations into consideration and govern accordingly.  After the last four years, this feels pretty good right now.

Back to those wandering people, who entered the promised land; they reached their zenith under Kings David and Solomon (some 3000 years ago), then split into a Northern and Southern Kingdom, bickering among themselves, falling prey to outside interests.  (Sound familiar, America?)

So much so, a seer (someone who could see the obvious, as others fail to do so) some 200 years later proclaimed,  “How this faithful city has prostituted itself. She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her…Her silver has become dross..Everyone loves bribes and chases after rewards.”  (Isaiah 1:21-23). Does this not sound like Washington, DC?  The concept (even if overblown) of American Exceptionalism has been sullied by lobbyists (pimps to the city),  devalued credit ratings, and letting the rich prosper at the expense of the rest of its citizens?   But, that is still not the ultimate topic.

You see, as I said above, by the time you are reading this, it is the 9th day of Av.  This is a holy day- not a holiday- one where we are in near-mourning.   Because on this day, the first Bet Hamikdash, the first Great Temple, built by King Solomon (on the site where Avraham [Abraham] was commanded to sacrifice his son, Yitzchak [Isaac]) was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.   Oh, also on this date the second Bet Hamikdash on that same spot (the site is now that of the Dome of the Rock), commissioned under Cyrus the Great and aggrandized by Herod, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.   Oh, and the revolt that continued under Bar Kochva was terminated on this date in 137 CE.

There’s more troubles.  The First Crusade was declared on this date in 1095, and while the ostensible aim was different, mass killings of my people were effected.  Let’s not forget that England expelled the Jews on this date in 1290; or that my relatives (literally) were expelled from Spain (after enduring the Inquisition) on this date. Oh, this was also the date that Hitler deliberately chose to begin his Holocaust; the list goes on.

As you can see, this is not a very happy occasion. So, it won’t surprise you that is also a fast day.  No food, no water- all day.  And, this day and Yom Kipur are the only fast days that require us to fast even if it falls (like this one does) on Shabat.  These “trump” the joyousness of the Shabat.

Rabbinic sources claim that the second destruction of the Temple arose because of our inability to respect one another.

Which is an amazing situation when one considers that the major tenet that both Rabbi Akiva and Rav Hillel, the great leaders of the people at the time,  was “V’ahavta l’reyacha kamocha”, love your fellow as yourself.   (Actually Hillel said, “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor.”)  So, how could this be true?

It is customary to read the Book of Lamentations and the Book of Yoav [Job] today.  Interestingly, the first book’s real name is  “Aicha” in Hebrew.  Aicha also means “how could this possibly happen?”  The same word that Moshe used 4400 years ago.  The same word Isaiah used 2800 years ago.

But, you should know that Hebrew has no letter vowels.  That means this past sentence would be written:  ‘Bt, y shld knw tht Hbrw hs n lttr vwls’.  Obviously, that means one must understand the context of the words.  Or the context of the events that led those words to be written.  Hence, my examinations.

Another way the letters could be pronounced (given that vowels are lacking in written Hebrew) is that instead of “Aicha”, we read “Ayecha”. And, that means, “Where are you?”, or, perhaps, “What are you doing?”.

It’s time to stand up and do something.

• Instead of walking by that homeless person on the street, when the temperature is 90+ or freezing, don’t avert  your eyes.  Instead, hand him or her a bottle of water and a nutrition bar (or a box of them). And, then, walk away.
• Go to a local school or library and volunteer to read stories to those who can’t (either the very young, the very old, or the blind)

To the world, you are one person.
To one person, you are the world.
Make that world a reality.