[MS: The crisis in Israel is real and ongoing. Below is the new post from Daniel Gordis about the peril that Israel is in. He asks this be taken seriously without unwise minimizing like: Protest is good for a democracy. Israel could be destroyed
Linked below are Sheets related to the crisis.
As Gordis explains, our Traditions especially for Tisha B'Av and the banning of Baseless Hatred or Sinat Chinam, can help us find compromise and survival. But, on August 1, 2023: "This is a country in deep, deep trouble...." writes Gordis.]
"This past Thursday, July 27, 2023, Jews around the world observed the day known as Tisha B’av, the Ninth of Av, the day on which tradition has it that both of the Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. The first was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the second by the Romans in 70 CE. Jewish tradition teaches that both of those shattering events took place on the same date, the Ninth of Av.
It thus made Tisha B’Av this year all the more poignant, given the events in Israel of the past week and the profound, existential dangers many of us believe the Jewish state now faces."
... Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, credited as being the father of Modern Orthodoxy in America in the 20th century, asked whether Jews who were alive during the Second Temple observed Tisha B’Av in memory of the first — even though these very Jews were living with a Temple. The tradition says that yes, the Jews who lived during the Second Temple did observe Tisha B’Av. Why would they do that, when their Temple had already been rebuilt? Rabbi Soloveitchik said (as passed down to us by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein), “because the ghost of churban [destruction] still haunted the land.”
[https://danielgordis.substack.com/https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGtwMkDDTmCXskrMHKpGgJgWGr]
[MS: Copyrighted material. Edits and comments are added.]
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""Why review all this? Why does all this matter?
Because, as I made clear in the video clip at the very top of this posting, which is the conclusion of my discussion with Rabbi Marc Baker of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, recorded on Tisha B’Av last Thursday ... this is not the time to lie about how deeply wounded Israel is. This is a country in deep, deep trouble, and pretending otherwise miseducates American Jews, making any real relationship between us just a pretense."
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Prior Sefaria Sheets:
[MS: July 31, 2023 noon; updated August 1, 2023]