One of my teachers pointed out that two of the most common criticisms of Orthodox Judaism directly contradict each other. One criticism is that Orthodoxy is a fossil, never changing and frozen in the past. The other criticism is that we are constantly inventing new humras – new ways to be strict! “My parents’ Orthodox shul had mixed dancing at their annual ball and everybody there ate fish in trayf restaurants etc.” Is Orthodoxy a fossil or is it constantly creating new ways to be strict?
I don’t think you will be surprised to hear that I believe that neither criticism is cogent and that we see at times, literally today, a coalescing around new lenient positions. The internet this past week, at least my corner of the internet, has been filled with Orthodox rabbis sharing lenient positions about Tisha b’av. These serious and experienced scholars, including Rav Yosef Tzvi Rimon from Yeshivat Har Etzion, Rav Sperling from Nishmat, and my rosh-yeshiva Rav Dov Linzer, all came forward to teach leniencies in the laws of fasting which had not been as widely shared a generation ago, or even ten years ago.
According to Rabbi Akiva Eiger, one of the most brilliant and significant halakhic scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries, based on an earlier position of the 16th century scholar Rav Yaakov Reischer, when the observance of the Ninth of Av is delayed to Sunday, as it is on this year, the status of the fast is no different than any of the other minor fasts, such as the 17th of Tamuz or 10th of Tevet and anyone who feels sick, even in a completely non-threatening way, or anyone who is pregnant or nursing, even without any complications or special risks, should not fast. Their rationale is compelling, if not conclusive, and it is certainly better to err on the side of more support for those who are sick, or for those who need extra nutrition and hydration while pregnant or nursing.
Why are these opinions, that have existed in print for centuries, become newly prominent today. One obvious reason is that the rise of a cadre of halakhicly committed and halakhically literate women have forced the halakhah to contend with greater seriousness with experiences like pregnancy that have been outside the personal experience of those offering halakhic judgments for centuries.
But I think there may be another dynamic at play as well and this dynamic can be seen in another current Tisha B’Av practice that has no precedent whatsoever in halakhic literature and completely overturns the way that the day was observed for generations. When you switch on your computers this evening, you can find videos of tens of thousands of Jews, gathering as we speak, in Jerusalem, filling the kotel plaza and commemorating the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, not by crying (remember the kotel used to be known as the “wailing wall”), but by singing. It’s beautiful to watch. It’s a truly unique experience for anyone fortunate enough to spend the summer in Jerusalem, and it’s a complete overturning of how the day was experienced for generations stretching back into antiquity.
Professor Chaim Saiman wrote about this phenomenon last year and declared it to be one of the most blatant, and yet unremarked upon, halakhic shifts of our time. I encourage you to read his short article. It is thought provoking and worth reading.
There is a trend towards leniency in the observance of Tisha b’Av which manifests itself in the celebration of lenient halakhic positions and in softening some of the harshness of the day’s observance. This comes from an intuitive sense that things aren’t quite as bad of the Jews as they once were. For all of the threats and challenges facing the Jewish people today, is there any other generation in which we would choose to live? Is there any other generation in which we had as many opportunities and as much safety as we have today? The largest Jewish community in the world resides in the State of Israel and Yerushalayim is a flourishing and beautiful city; every time I visit Yerushalayim I feel like a fool for not living there.
We mourn on Tisha b’Av despite the fact that most of us are blessed with lives of safety, dignity, and basic comfort.
Three times today we will hear the word “Eicha” recited. Eicha, meaning “how?’ was called out by Moshe in the beginning of this morning’s parashah:
אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָ֖א לְבַדִ֑י טָרחֲכֶ֥ם ומַֽשַאֲכֶ֖ם וְרֽיבְכֶֽם׃
How אֵיָ֥כה can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!
Eicha, meaning how, was called out by Yeshayahu in the haftarah that was read this morning:
אֵיכָה֙ הָיְתָ֣ה לְזונָ֔ה קריָ֖ה נֶאֱמָנָ֑ה מְלֵאֲתִ֣י מִשְפָ֗ט צֶ֛דק יָלִ֥ין בָ֖ה וְעַתָ֥ה מְרצְחִֽים׃
How, ֙אֵיָכה has the faithful city become a harlot?! The city that was filled with justice, Where righteousness dwelt— But now murderers.
And finally, Eicha, meaning how, is called out by Yirmiyahu in the aftermath of the destruction at the beginning of the Book of Lamentations that we will hear this evening:
אֵיכָ֣ה ׀ יָשְבָ֣ה בָד֗ד הָעִיר֙ רבָ֣תִי עָ֔ם הָיְתָ֖ה כְאַלְמָנָ֑ה רַבָ֣תִי בַגויִ֗ם שָר֙תִי֙ בַמְדינ֔ות הָיְתָ֖ה לָמַֽס׃ (ס
How, אֵיָכה does the city sit so lonely! Once great with people! She that was great among nations Is become like a widow; The princess among states Is become a thrall.
The Midrash is sensitive to this repetition of the word Eicha three times and presents the three Eicha’s as three moments that mark the decline of the Jewish people that culminated in the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Moshe saw the Jewish people in peace and tranquility and nonetheless asked “Eicha.” Yeshayahu, Isaiah, saw the Jewish people at a moment of vulnerability and instability and asked “Eicha.” And, finally, Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, saw the Jewish people in our utter destruction and called out “Eicha.”
This midrashic construction of a decline that links these three moments in Jewish history allows us to reevaluate them.
Yeshayahu’s career spanned one of the most dramatic times in Jewish history. The Assyrian Empire, under the leadership of Sanherib was on the march, consolidating power throughout the Middle East up to and including the conquest and dispersion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. (That’s when the ten-lost-tribes got lost). The Assyrian army made its way to the outskirts of Jerusalem, before leaving under miraculous circumstances.
Yeshayahu, however, throughout this period, understood that the rise and fall of empires was not what would determine the Jewish future, but rather, that there was no future for Yerushalayim if it lost its status as the “faithful city.”
The haftarah concludes with Yeshivahu’s haunting prescription for the future:
צִי֖ון בְמִשְפָ֣ט תִפָד֑ה וְשָבֶ֖יהָ בִצְדקֽה׃
Zion shall be redeemed through justice; Her repentant ones, in righteousness.
And what about Moshe? The Midrash situates Moshe’s eicha at a moment of peace and tranquility and yet his words in this morning’s parashah are not about peace and tranquility at all! Moshe, at the capstone moment of his career, as he delivers a valedictory speech and prepares to hand over leadership to the next generation, is issuing a warning. He recalls a crisis in his own leadership that took place decades earlier when he was unable to shoulder the burden of leadership alone. And by using the word Eicha, in his recollections and retrospectives, Moshe also points us towards the future.
Sefer Devarim, the book of Deuteronomy is a retrospective. Everything in Devarim has the benefit of some kind of hindsight. That’s the framework for Moshe’s speech and that’s the framework for his Eicha. When Moshe looks back and recalls that moment of crisis, he deploys that historical memory to issue a warning.
Eicha means “how did this happen” but it also means “how can we move forward.” The question posed by Eicha is “What happened to us” but also “what will happen to us.”
That is the mode of Tisha b’Av. We look back at a tragic and dark history. We can’t change what happened. We tell stories about the past and give meaning to them by adding our own perspectives. The real message is looking forward: “Where are we now and where are we going?”
When Moshe looks back at a moment representing a crisis of leadership he uses the word Eicha. It’s a reminder that despite the peace and tranquility of the moment, there are hidden fissures that he was not able to repair and that would deepen and grow wider in the future.
Yeshayahu sees a nation that has the strength to withstand a political crisis and retain its freedom as empires rise and fall. But he sees a nation whose moral core is gone and he marvels, in sadness and horror, at a faithful city, Yerushalayim, being filled with murderers and without justice or any concern for those who are weak and vulnerable. His Eicha is a warning about what sort of future lies down that path.
Yirmiyahu and his Eicha reminds us, in case we ever forget, what sort of future lies waiting for those who ignore the warnings offered by Moshe and by Yeshayahu.
As Moshe himself tells the account of his leadership crisis, the moment when he was compelled to share the burden of leadership with others, he uses some very curious language when describing that shift:
וָאֲצַוֶה֙ אֶת־שֹ֣פְטֵיכֶ֔ם בָעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹ֑ר שָמֹ֤עַ בֵין־אֲחֵיכֶם֙ ושְפַטְתֶ֣ם צֶ֔דק בֵֽין־אִ֥יש ובֵין־אָחִ֖יו ובֵ֥ין גֵרֽו׃
“I instructed your judges at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow men, and decide justly between any man and a fellow Israelite or a stranger.”
Rabbi Hayim ibn Attar, known as the Ohr HaHayim haKadosh and author of a 16th century Torah commentary questions why Moshe had to instruct the judges to listen to the litigants before rendering judgement. How could they possibly render judgement without listening to the litigants? Among the answers he offers to this dilemma is the suggestion that the term “Shamo’ah” in contrast to the more expected “Shim’u” indicates a more intensive and deep listening.
Someone rendering judgement needs to listen between the lines and needs to listen behind the words. What is the baggage that motivates a particular position? What is beneath the surface of that argument? That is the task of judgement and that is the task of leadership, and that is the way to heal the fissures and division that Moshe decried when he said:
אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָ֖א לְבַדִ֑י טָרחֲכֶ֥ם ומַֽשַאֲכֶ֖ם וְרֽיבְכֶֽם׃
How אֵיָכה can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!
As I’ve shared before, all of us exercise leadership in some capacity. In our families, among our friends, in our communities or in our professional lives. We try to shape and improve the world around us within the spheres where we can influence things. We too need to get beyond and get behind the trouble, burden, and bickering of Moshe’s Eicha, by listening to one another and by hearing and understanding those before us with differing opinions.
This Tisha b’Av things are not so bad for the Jewish people. Jews in Yerushalayim enjoy a beautiful and thriving city. Things are not as bad as they were a generation or two ago and not as bad as they were a century or two ago. And perhaps this is why some of the halakhic strictness of the day has relaxed over the years even as the fast endures. But because things aren’t as bad as they once were, and the destruction seems somewhat less immediate, we can focus on what is still broken in the world. And we can focus on how to repair those breaches.
Let’s reverse the order of the Midrash. To avoid Yirmayahu’s “Eicha” of despair and destruction, let’s listen to Yeshayahu’s “Eicha” of warning. And from Yeshayahu’s “Eicha” of warning, let’s reclaim Moshe’s “Eicha” and take advantage of relative peace and tranquility to listen to one another and to keep our differences and divisions from turning into schism and argument and hatred.
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 