Rabbi Howard Morrison

This past Thursday was Tisha B'Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. During the two ancient Temple periods, this period of the year was filled with internal strife and division among the Jewish people. During the first Temple period, Jews were committing acts of bloodshed among each other, acts of promiscuity, and acts of idolatry. During the second Temple period, Jews were divided along political and religious lines, often informing on each other to the Roman authorities. There was senseless hatred among our people. The internal divisions left our people vulnerable and fragile, leaving it easy for the Babylonians and subsequently the Romans to plunder Jerusalem and exile our people.

This year, two and a half days prior to Tisha B'Av, a Knesset vote of 64-0, which really would have been more like 64-56 without a boycott, has left our idyllic Israel fragile and vulnerable. Can you imagine an IDF where reservists are refusing to serve? It is not for me to judge or fully understand Israel's Parliamentary system. I have read many articles from different perspectives. Did the Supreme Court have too much power that the government could not make decisions and carry them out? Does the government now have too much power without the necessary checks and balances coming from the courts? Was the Supreme Court's use of "reasonableness" as a legal check on Government appointments and plans applied too broadly or not?

What I do know from history is that when the Jewish people are not united, we are weakened internally within ourselves and externally to the threats of foes around us. These matters concern me the most. Was there no way to pause further? To not find a way where different viewpoints could find enough common ground? Is it true that Israel has not been this divided since the events leading up to and including the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin?

The Shabbat following Tisha B'Av is called Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of comfort. The Prophet Isaiah, after the fall of the first Temple, cries out to God, "Comfort, comfort my people." I am not a prophet, but I too call out to God today, "Comfort, comfort my people. The Jewish people need to take a deep breath, find some comfort after this past week, begin to heal, and hopefully find ways to reunite and re-energize ourselves.

Perhaps today's Parsha has come at the right time. In the final chapter of his life, Moses stands over the promised land and has his people come back to basics. In the Parsha today, we have read for a second time the Ten Commandments. We have read the Shma. We have read the words we recite when the Torah scroll is lifted, "And this is the Torah which Moses placed before the Children of Israel."

All Jews are equal recipients of our Torah and our tradition. May we find common place in our heritage to utilize the upcoming seven weeks of comfort and be renewed, even as we will soon renew another year on the Jewish calendar.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard Morrison