“I’m fasting on Tisha B’Av for the first time this year,” a makeup artist told me last week in the TV studio. She isn’t alone. Many people fasted this year for the first time and there is no need to explain why. Last Shabbat, I met another young person who told me the same thing.
More than 100 survivors of the Nova festival had come to spend a Shabbat together in Jerusalem. One participant, who lost several of her friends at the festival, told me that she has been waiting for Tisha B’Av so she can sit on the ground, cry, recite the kinot, and feel the pangs of hunger from last Monday until Tuesday night.
She had never felt any connection to the word churban – it seemed to be from another world. But now she feels directly connected to the mourning and is searching for away to express her pain. She explained her feelings in a profound way: “I didn’t sit shiva for my friends because we weren’t family. But Tisha B’Av is the national day of shiva for our entire Jewish family.”
This year, Tisha B’Av was not just symbolic, but painfully real. It is not a coincidence that our enemies are threatening to attack us on that day, G-d forbid. This day has been “prime time” for all of our suffering: the day when both of our Temples were destroyed, the day of the Sin of Spies, and the day on which countless tragedies have befallen our people throughout the ages.
But I told that survivor, who so desperately wanted to fast, that there is another side to this story; Tisha B’Av is also a day for us to notice how much progress we have made and where we are heading.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach said that there are two types of tears: ones that flow down from our sorrow and pain, and those that rise up through our hopes and prayers. The second type of tears are the tears of Tisha B’Av.
It is the day to take all of our tears – not only those we have shed since October 7th – and direct them upward: to scream, to pray, to hope, and to dream great dreams for the future. It is for this reason that already on the afternoon of Tisha B’Av, we get up from the ground and shake ourselves off. Some communities even have the custom of sweeping the house to welcome the arrival of Moshiach.
Yes – Mashiach! If we have learned this year to adjust our thinking, then maybe it’s time for us to start using terms like “complete redemption.” Just as we were shocked this year by the enormity of the evil we faced, we look forward to being surprised by the amount of good that that will come our way.
We have witnessed a nightmare that we could never have imagined; but we have also been promised the fulfillment of visions of beauty, consolation and joy, beyond our wildest imagination.
True Joy At Kibbutz Kerem Shalom
This story should have made the headlines because it’s important that we recognize the victory it represents: the children appearing in this photo, along with hundreds of other people, arrived this morning at their kibbutz, Kerem Shalom, for a festive planting ceremony.
It was the dream of Amichai Witzen, a member of the community’s emergency defense team, to plant a vineyard in Kerem Shalom. Amichai fell in battle on October 7 while valiantly defending the moshav against the terrorist onslaught.
Members of the kibbutz are yet to return home, but last week they planted 4,400 vines in a new vineyard that will also house a visitor’s center. It will be waiting for them when they come back. Most fittingly, the vineyard will be called Kerem Shalom.
Participants in the emotional event included President Herzog, Minister Itshak
Waserlauf, and Benny Gantz. But I would like to quote the words of Amichai’s widow, Talia Witzen, who spoke at the event:
“Today we are actualizing Amichai’s dream, which has also been the dream of the Jewish people over the generations: to plant roots in our land. We are planting vines in the same earth that absorbed the blood of the holy members of our emergency team.
A well-known verse in Psalms reads: “Ha’zorim Be’dima Be’rina Yiktzoru” “They who sow in tears, shall reap with songs of joy.” We are planting with tears, but we will soon reap with joy. I have discovered over this difficult period that only what is true can bring happiness. I am feeling true joy this morning because we are dedicating ourselves to a momentous project that will leave a lasting impact.”
May you be blessed, Kerem Shalom, with all good things and many occasions of true joy (simcha).
Translated by Janine Muller Sherr.
