The Diaspora Jew

No, I'm not talking about Yitzhak Baer's Galut, but about the way so many Jews – in Israel and outside – naturally live as though tomorrow will be the same as yesterday, as though Diaspora and distance from Gd is the normal state of the Jew.

I've written before about how hard it is to believe in a mashiach; see here, for example. It is hard.

And the difficulty is reinforced by the fact that our yeshivot learn the 'practical', 'relevant' subjects, not Kodashim and Taharos.

And it's reinforced by the fact that we learn Shulchan Aruch which ignores the korban, and not Rambam who includes it.

And it's reinforced by the rabbis who numbly end speeches "and so we should merit mashiach bimheirah biyameinu amen." (I wonder if they daven that mashiach shouldn't come, lest they be stuck for a closing line for their derashos.)

And it's reinforced by the ritualization of our grief, the printing of Three Weeks manuals and Tishah b'Av kinos, the annual programs on-line and on video from many well-meaning teachers of Torah and inspirers of mitzvos.

My barber told me last week that he was scheduling his vacation for Tuesday, knowing that Jews wouldn't be coming in for the next few weeks. Sam Rezzo has absorbed from the Jews that mashiach isn't coming any time soon.

Have you heard the story about the Rav who was such a believer in mashiach that he put down a non-refundable deposit with a caterer to have his daughter's wedding during the Three Weeks, since he was sure mashiach would come tomorrow?

No, because it hasn't happened. We don't do that, we don't even imagine doing it.

And so rabbis who should know better say, "Of course we can't have visible demonstrations of Gd's existence, that would devalue Emunah (faith)," ignoring the fact that we had centuries of visible miracles when the Beit haMikdash stood, and we will again, Gd-willing.

And so we refer to the Beit haMikdash in the past tense, saying things like, "There was a mitzvah to do X when there was a Beit Mikdash" instead of "There is a mitzvah to do X, although right now there is no Beit haMikdash and so we don't do it."

And so we think of Prophecy as an artifact of history, not a normal part of our relationship with the Divine.

At least for these three weeks – until Tishah b'Av arrives as a day of celebration, I pray – I will work on being מצפה לישועה, anticipating redemption. May my prayers be answered positively.

New clothes and haircuts for the Three Weeks?

[See the bottom of this post for explanations of the 17th of Tammuz and the Three Weeks of mourning.]

Today’s fast of the 17th of Tammuz, and the whole start of the Three Weeks of mourning, came with an odd feeling this year.

At minyan last night I looked around and saw all the fresh haircuts and trimmed beards, and couldn’t help but think it looked like Rosh HaShanah, or Pesach.

The feeling was amplified by my own pre-Three Weeks shopping spree. Since the traditional practice of Ashkenazi Jews is that we don’t buy new clothing during the Three Weeks, and since our family is moving, Gd-willing, soon after this mourning period ends, I’ve purchased new shoes, slacks and ties recently. Although I’ve been wearing them for the past several days, a definite newness remains.

Fresh haircut, clean-cut beard, new clothes… yes, it feels much more like Yom Tov than a fast day mourning the destruction of the Beit haMikdash.

But I suppose I could look at it this way: We’re all set for the arrival of mashiach!

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The fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, observed Thursday July 9 this year, commemorates five tragedies:

1. Moses descended from meeting Gd and receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai, saw the Jews celebrating with the Golden Calf, and broke the two tablets Gd had given him.

2. The daily Tamid offering, which had been brought regularly in the Jerusalem Beit haMikdash [Temple] from the time the Jews built the Mishkan for over one thousand years, was halted during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem before the Beit haMikdash was destroyed.

3. The Romans invaded Jerusalem, prior to destroying the second Beit haMikdash. (The Babylonians invaded Jerusalem to destroy the first Temple on the 9th of Tammuz.)

4. A Greek or Roman official named Apostimos held a public burning of the Torah.

5. Idols were set up in the Temple itself; it is not clear what year this happened.

The 17th of Tammuz begins a three-week Jewish national period of mourning for the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, as well as numerous other nation-wide tragedies, such as the Chmielnitzki massacres, the Crusades, and the Holocaust. This period culminates with the fast of Tisha b'Av, the ninth of Av.