I first encountered Tisha b’Av at Jewish summer camp. There, surrounded by my peers and the counselors we adored, we re-enacted the Warsaw ghetto uprising, were roused from our beds and forced to submit to the orders of “soldiers” in a cruel role play of the World War II roundups of Jews (an educational technique that is now, thankfully, prohibited), and we read Night by Elie Wiesel in an attempt to grasp the suffering of our people. (Though Tisha b’Av’s observance was instituted before these events, at camp they were central.) Then at the close of the day, our camps always incorporated a celebration of Israel with waving blue and white flags and the dramatic ignition of a Magen David shaped fire sign crafted by our Israeli counselors. Something that was emblematic at Jewish camps east of the Mississippi, though illegal in the Western states, for obvious reasons. The message was clear: the Jewish nation is the vindication of thousands of years of powerlessness. We were proud Zionists.
Years of experiencing the stories of Jewish subjugation at the hands of power-hungry, nationalistic, manifestly antisemitic regimes, and my subsequent decades studying the history of the Jewish people have ingrained a particular perspective in my mind. We have seen the murderous dangers of the race driven nationalism of the Nazis—so many of our own families have experienced that firsthand. We have lived the deadly effects of the Islamist expression of supremacy and hate at the hands of the Middle Eastern Axis of evil led by Iran and its proxies. Supremacy, nationalism, dehumanization of the other, a willingness to stir the hearts of a compliant and disgruntled population into a frenzy of often deadly hate – we Jews have felt it over the thousands of years of our history.
We have history in our souls. Our holy days wrap the worship of God into powerful events in our past. We retell the stories of the triumphs of a sea parting, powerful enemies bending to our will or encountering miraculous defeat at our hands. At the same time, in the shadow of the fast day of Tisha b’Av, it’s clear that we do not shirk from recalling the tragic defeats and centuries of suffering.
And, because of our tormented (and astoundingly resilient) history, we have served as history’s canary in the coal mine. We know it when we see it. We know the effects of runaway nationalism that permits extremists to assert their control. We understand what happens when a free press is sanctioned and controlled by those same extremists or when propaganda is mistaken as fact. We’ve been there – Tisha b’Av is our enduring reminder of the destruction such policies and practices have wrought against us.
Preceding Tisha b’Av there are three haftarot of rebuke. The words of the ancient Biblical prophets are harsh harangues of the Jews for their proclivity to stray from the ethical path that Judaism dictates. Then, after the day of mourning and fasting which is Tisha b’Av, our sages designated seven haftarot of consolation. See endnote below for more details. They are intended to transform the lessons of a painful history into messages of comfort and wisdom. The layering of history, sacred texts, liturgy, and contemporary context in nearly all of our holy days were never intended to be merely lachrymose recollections of past misery. Each carry important lessons and reflect Jewish values that can be derived for our own present day.
Our world is still afflicted with many of the same failures and cruelties that gave rise to our Jewish story. Carrying that awareness in our souls mandates that we cannot remain quiet in the face of those conditions when they resurface in our world. The gift of Jewish historical memory is the quest for moral clarity. Though the lens is often clouded by our own ambitions and desires, though we often gaze through a fog of conflicting claims for truth, we are not absolved from the search and the assertion of the values that our own path through history has taught us.
ENDNOTE:
The Seven Haftarot of Consolation are a series of prophetic readings from the Book of Isaiah that are traditionally recited in synagogues during the weeks following Tisha B’Av, the Jewish fast day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. These readings focus on themes of comfort, hope, and redemption for the Jewish people after their suffering.
The Seven Haftarot of Consolation are as follows:
Isaiah 40:1-26 – “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.”
Isaiah 40:27-41:16 – “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel…”
Isaiah 41:17-20 – “The afflicted and needy are seeking water…”
Isaiah 54:1-10 – “Sing, O barren one, you who did not bear…”
Isaiah 51:12-16 – “I, I am He who comforts you…”
Isaiah 52:7-12 – “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring good tidings…”
Isaiah 61:10-62:5 – “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God…”
These readings serve to encourage and uplift the spirits of the Jewish people, reminding them of God’s presence and the promise of eventual restoration and comfort. Each Haftarah builds on the themes of hope and divine compassion following the lamentation of Tisha B’Av.