A New Tisha B'Av

by Rabbi Ed Rosenthal  

Photo Credit: © Andrii Turtsevych

Tisha B’Av, the 9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is the traditional day of mourning of the Jewish People. On this day, throughout our history, calamities have befallen our people. The Mishna tells us of five tragedies that occurred on this day:

1: The people accept the negative report of the Spies that Moses sent into the Land of Israel to see if it was a good land. The spies were afraid and said the land was band, it was inhabited by giants and there was no way the Jews could live there. The people were scared by the report and refused to enter. As punishment, our ancestors were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years.

2: The Destruction of the First Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Built by King Solomon, the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, which led to the Babylonian exile from the Land of Israel.

3: The Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 CE. 

4:  The Fall of Betar, which was the final battle of the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans. According the Talmud (Ta’anit 4:5), the blood ran so high in the streets of Betar that it was up to the muzzle of a horse. According to the Roman historian, Cassius Dio, during the entire Bar Kochba Revolt from 132-135 CE, 580,000 Jews were killed, 985 villages and 50 fortified cities were destroyed.

5:  The following year, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount and sowed it with salt to represent the final destruction of Judaism.

There have been other tragedies that occurred on Tisha B’Av as well:

• In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England on Tisha B’Av.

• In 1492, we were expelled from Spain on Tisha B’Av.

• In 1914, the First World War broke out on Tisha B’Av, paving the way for the Holocaust.

• In 1941, the Nazi Leadership approved the plan for the “Final Solution” on Tisha B’Av.

• And in 1942, the order was issued to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto on Tisha B’Av.

On this Tisha B’Av, I can’t help that my brain takes me to Oct. 7^th and the rampant antisemitism that has spread in its wake across the globe like a fungus. I say specifically a fungus and not a cancer, because cancer can kill. A fungus is ugly and uncomfortable, but it’s not fatal, and that’s what we are experiencing today.

The Jewish People have experienced unimaginable suffering in the past. Yet, there is a clear distinction between past events on Tisha B’Av and the situation for Jews around the world today. The distinction is that no matter what happens, we are not the same Jews as our ancestors. We are no longer the oppressed people under the thumb of those who hate us. We no longer cower in fear. 

So, how should we commemorate Tisha B’Av this year? Be strong! Be Proud! Many have tried to kill and destroy us, and they have ALL FAILED. We’re still here. And for all those who wish to repeat today, the Tisha B’Av of the past…They too, will fail.

So, despite the fact that antisemitism is at its worst since the end of WWII, I am still hopeful. We have endured the past, we will survive the present, and we will thrive in the future.  I wish I could say the same for the Ocean and the Planet.

While the world’s attention is focused on Gaza, we continue in our willful ignorance about the destruction of the aquatic environment. Human suffering is taking place around the world, but I do not believe humans are the only beings that suffer. I am not anthropocentric. I believe humans are a part of nature, not a part from it. Should I only work to alleviate suffering if the one suffering is my own? Should I only feel the suffering of someone who is like me: a Jew? An American? A Human?

Jeremy Bentham, an 18th-century British philosopher, famously said: “The question is not, can they reason? nor can they talk? but can they suffer?” Selective morality and virtue-signaling are rampant in the world today. Currently, Gaza is the focal point of that selective morality. According to Jeremy Bentham, moral consideration should not be granted because of politics, or race, or even species. Moral consideration should be granted based on a being's capacity to suffer. It has been scientifically proven that fish feel pain and actively flee to avoid it. It’s a fact that some fish mate for life and know love in their fishy kind of way. The bond experienced by marine mammals is real, and the pain they suffer when members of their pod are killed is no less than the pain humans experience when a loved one of ours dies. There can be no question: The fish that are crushed beneath thousands of others as they’re hauled from the depths in trawler nets suffer. The shark whose fins are cut from its body while it’s still alive and thrown back into the sea to drown suffers. To be insensitive to the suffering of any living being diminishes us.

So, on this Tisha B’Av, I recall the suffering of our People throughout the ages, but I must also be mindful to the suffering of others, whether they are in Gaza, in Israel, in Africa, in Europe, in the United States…or in the Sea.