RABBI ELCHANAN POUPKO: Looking Forward to Tisha B’Av

(VINnews) — For the first time in my life, I am very much looking forward to Tish B’Av. Strangely, the reason I look forward to Tish B’Av began on Simchas Torah, on that dark morning of October 7th everything has changed for so many people. As whispered reports kept coming into Shul, our holiday continued. As we did not use our phones, we did not know what was confirmed and what was a rumor and in hindsight, even if we did turn on the news we would not have gotten a proper picture of what had happened.

The stark contrast between the spirit of the day and what was actually happening in Israel at the time was an added trauma to the horrors of that day. This Tisha B’Av, for the first time in more than 300 days, there will be a day whose practices will meet what so many of us will be feeling.

Unlike Simchas Torah, where we were forced ourselves to dance in shul, even as our hearts were bleeding, this Tisha Be’Av, my feelings and practices will finally have a place where they can meet. On Tisha Be’Av I will be able to reflect on the deep hatred–Sinas Chinam–that tore us down, destroyed the Beis Hamikdash, and sent us into exile. This Tisha Be’Av I will finally be able to sit on the ground, cry, mourn, and feel the pain of destruction. This Tisha Be’Av I will finally be able to lament with others for all the suffering we have been through. This Tisha Be’Av I will think about the Jews sent into exile 2000 years ago and the more than 100,000 Jews who have been put into exile this year, leaving their homes on Israel’s northern border and in the Southern cities and Kibbutzim.

This Tisha Be’Av I will finally a prayer book in front of me that says in large letters “Eli Kavod Asher Chulal”, lamenting the honor of our people which has been violated in the most profound ways, ways in which we have not seen since the Holocaust, the Kishenev programs, and the Chmelinitzki massacres.

After decades of people questioning whether we should really be saying Nachem, during Mincha of Tisha I will get to say those words which are painfully relenevnt saying: “Your people Israel, smitten by the sword, and for her children who gave their lives for her, Zion cries bitter tears. Jerusalem gives voice to her anguish: “My heart goes out for the martyred; my entire being mourns the slain.”

I will be able to say, “For you Hashem has set it ablaze with fire, and with fire you will rebuild it.”

After calling and rallying for the return of more than 100 hostages from Gaza and seeing the world begin to forget about their horrific plight in the dungeons of Gaza, I will sit on the floor in Shul and cry “Tzion Halo Tishali Li’shlom Asirayich?!, Zion, will you not demand the well being of your hostages?!” This is why I look forward to this Tisha Be’Av.

I look forward to all of us as a people trying to speak about the Sinas Chinam and the self-destruction we have inflicted on ourselves 2000 years ago, and to see if that knowledge has any way of changing the way we behave today. Perhaps the politicians who keep stoking division and hatred will have a solemn moment of realization; they are not much different than those who dragged us to destruction in the exact same way 2000 years ago; perhaps somehow they will change their ways.

Perhaps a nation that has experienced so much pain, exile, and persecution will be able to stop for a moment and ask ourselves if we are not causing ourselves more of that by forgetting and repeating our own history.

I look forward to the day of Tisha Be’Av for the sake of the families of hostages whose loved ones are languishing in the worst of conditions in Gaza, in the hands of the world’s most barbarian terrorists, who see a world around them that has seemed to move on.

Walking on the streets of Manhattan Shabbos morning, thinking of what to say in my sermon, I did not have to prepare much. I looked around me and saw countless posters of hostages torn down by antisemites who believe there is something acceptable about the horrors of October 7th. On Tisha Be’Av I will have a place to mourn the madness of this world we live in.

I look forward to staying together with Jews around the world. “Zchor Ma Haya Lanu, remember Hashem what has happened to us, though this year I may say “Zchor Ma Yesh Lanu,” remember what we are going through right now.

After almost a year, which has been the most difficult year for the Jewish people in my lifetime, we will finally have a way to express what we have been through as a people. After wondering how we can celebrate during times so many of our brothers and sisters have been exiled, taken hostage, killed, maimed, and lost children and fathers, Jews around the world will be able to sit down on the floor and say, “Oy, Meh Haya Lanud?!” woe, what is it that has happened to us. I hope this upcoming experience is not just cathartic and time-appropriate but that it also serves as a wake-up call for all of us to stand together against the arrogance, overconfidence, division, and lack of vision that have brought on us previous exiles and destruction.

Rabbi Elchanan Poupko is a New England based eleventh-generation rabbi, teacher, and author. He has written Sacred Days on the Jewish Holidays, Poupko on the Parsha, and hundreds of articles published in five languages. He is the president of EITAN–The American Israeli Jewish Network.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF VIN NEWS.