By Sam Glaser
I am writing this on a long, lazy Tisha B’av afternoon. The sky is brilliant blue and a gentle breeze is beckoning me to leave my air-conditioned studio and get on my bike. No, not today. I must conserve my energy and saliva. At my synagogue we have undertaken a dramatic journey using prayer, speakers and chanting of Kinnot, the anguished poetry of Jewish suffering through the ages. We sit on the floor, wearing wrinkled clothing and simple, non-leather shoes. We are unshaven and unkempt and no one cares. A custom particularly hard for this extrovert is not greeting friends. We acknowledge each other with a stare, realizing that this day is not about camaraderie, it’s about alienation and exile, death and mourning, dashed hopes and endless tears. Tisha B’av was once a universally observed commemoration of disaster befalling the Jewish People. It is now observed by perhaps 10% of the tribe. That in itself is reason to mourn.
This current war with Hamas in Gaza has corresponded appropriately with this Three Weeks of “decreased joy.” It has also done wonders for Jewish unity. Among Israelis there is 95% agreement of the justice of our acts of self-defense, in a country that can’t agree on anything. That same unanimity of purpose is sweeping the Jewish world and has created a sense of clarity that is rare in a world clouded in shades of grey. This intense galvanization of the Jewish spirit began when we were praying for the well being of the three kidnapped teenagers. As the atrocity of their senseless death spiraled into war, the Jewish people remained united in their revulsion of the unmitigated evil of Hamas and the need to be rid of the menace of their arsenal of rockets and terror tunnels. My brother Yom Tov, who has lived over two decades in Jerusalem told me that he’s waited twenty-three years to feel this degree of unity. As we go from ceasefire to ceasefire we stand together in prayer for a peaceful, lasting resolution. And perhaps more importantly, we should pray that we remain in this holy state of achdut, unity.
I realized this week that the Jewish nation can be compared to aspen trees. Ask anyone what the largest organism on earth is and they will likely respond: the blue whale. No! It’s the beautiful aspen tree that festoons the High Sierra with brilliant color. What you cannot see below the earth’s surface is a network of roots that comes from a single source. Aspens are not separate entities. They are often separate expressions of a single subterranean root system, sometimes stretching up to 130 feet from the parent tree. One such colony in Utah is estimated to be thousands of years old, having survived many forest fires because the roots survive beneath the heat of the fire. Do you see the analogy? Aspens occupy a sweet niche in a coniferous forest, swelling their collective Autumnal sunshine-yellow glory wherever the colony can obtain enough light. The Jewish People is an interconnected family that has weathered the storms of history, shining the light of peace, love and innovation on the world whenever given the chance.
It took the kidnapping of three of our kids to remind us just how tight knit a family we are. Synagogues of all denominations worldwide were praying for their lives. Gentile friends of mine couldn’t quite understand why I was so rattled by their abduction. We didn’t know these kids or their families personally and yet we had their names on cards in our pockets and their images engraved in our minds. I wish I had the aspen analogy then to explain this connection. It’s super-rational. Even weird. Why do we care so much about one another? As individuals we may appear like separate islands in an archipelago but drain the water and one will see that we are all connected. Jews are like fingers on a single hand. Cut one and we all bleed. The fires of the destruction of Jerusalem, pogroms or the Holocaust may rage but they cannot extinguish the spark that animates every Jewish soul. It is this very spark that Hitler vowed to obliterate in Mein Kampf, may his memory be erased.
We all feel the pain of our fellow Jew because in essence we are one entity. In our day-to-day we may not dwell on the miracle of eternal Jewish unity. But attack us, steal our children, murder the elderly who cannot make it to bomb shelters quickly enough…you have unleashed the fury of the Tribe. We will not be kicked around anymore. Now we are back in our land. Now we have the IDF. We have more learning of Torah than in any point in history. When we stand together we are invincible. Even my musician friends who haven’t been to the synagogue in decades are ready to take up arms. These days even the most ardent lefties are taking a stand as militant members of God’s Chosen People, rising to the defense of the beloved holy nation of the Creator of the Universe.
When the Chosen People get fired up, a fascinating counter balance is unleashed. God stays carefully behind the scenes…this is our drama to play out in this world. When the Jews are hitting all the outside shots there is a force in the world that goes insane with envy, filled with anger, frustration and a maniacal desire for revenge. It makes very little sense. After all, give the Jews some space and they will revolutionize computers, agriculture, medicine and the arts. For the whole world’s benefit. We send humanitarian aid to the enemy and treat their wounded in our hospitals. When and if Hamas can be neutralized, we will rebuild Gaza. Our enemy has had many names over the years: Arabs, Islamic fundamentalists, Germans, Cossacks, Romans…it doesn’t matter. Anti-Semitism is a force of evil that is backwards and irrational. But potent nonetheless. In this current conflict there is little question which group holds the moral high ground. But somehow this fact seems to be lost on many of our Hollywood celebrities, the European Union, in fact pretty much every nation except for Canada, God bless Prime Minister Steven Harper. This conflict seems to be serving two primary purposes: to unite the Jewish People and teach everyone else that neutrality is not an option.
In response to the current events in the Middle East I have a suggestion for my concerned Christian friends. When you find yourself in conversation with a Jew, don’t dwell on Israeli military strategy or politics. Instead, perhaps offer words of condolence. Our little nation is under siege. Our children are being killed. Bloodthirsty enemies with warped values that the Judeo-Christian world cannot comprehend surround us. Just offer words of support and friendship. Let us know that you share our pain and join us in prayer for a peaceful world. Stand with us in our time of need. Make sure you are a member of a church that “gets it.” One that isn’t neutral or trying to divest from Israel, but is bravely advancing the cause of the Children of Israel.
For my Jewish friends, let this be a time of deep reflection. You are in this boat, like it or not. Might as well like it! Rekindle a sense of wonder, investigate your roots, figure out why the messages of Torah are so powerful, meaningful and eternal. Don’t miss out on this greatest experiment in human history! It’s your most precious inheritance, your most important legacy to your offspring. Anti-Semites will hate you no matter how likeable you try to be. Hitler didn’t care much whether we were Reform, Orthodox or never Bar/Bat Mitzvah’d. What is this spark of light that lies dormant in every Jewish soul? My Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, zt”l used to say that if you don’t know what your willing to die for, you don’t know what you are living for. For what are you willing to lay down your life? Your children, your country, your people? So then LIVE for them!
We returned to the synagogue at 7:20pm for the mincha-ma’ariv prayers. At this point in the waning hours of Tisha B’av everyone was even more disheveled and exhausted. Only now, as the sun set were we permitted to don our tallis and tefillin, having been denied the glory of these crowns earlier in the day. We were comforted by the words of divine forgiveness in the Torah reading depicting the aftermath of the sin of the Golden Calf and the words of the prophet in the Haftorah: “For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Even when all seems lost, God is with us, guiding us and giving us hope. Even on this mournful day we must serve God with joy! We then uttered the Amidah with an intensity that is only possible when one is ravenous and parched, poignantly aware of one’s mortality. The Amidah includes a special insertion for a rebuilt Jerusalem, a paragraph only said on this day of destruction that echoes throughout history like rolling thunder from the original bolt of lightning when our Temple was destroyed. Finally at the conclusion of services at 8:30pm we drank the most delicious mouthfuls of water outside of the synagogue and celebrated the end of the three week mourning period by blessing the moon and then dancing together in the darkness.
May we continue to dance together like aspen trees shimmering in a gentle alpine breeze. May our unity be as self-evident as the aspen’s subterranean inter-connectedness. May our survival mimic that of the age-old grove of this hearty species with roots so deeply intertwined that it can withstand the heat of any historic conflagration. May we adorn humanity with beauty much like the stands of this stubborn deciduous species among the fringes of the coniferous forest, bringing life, love, peace and the awareness of the Creator to all of humanity.
A footnote: I just did a search online for “aspen tree poetry” and came across this lovely verse by Monica Sharman. Can you imagine my shock when I saw the biblical passage that she quoted, the aforementioned verse that I had already chosen to mention from the fast day reading? Another large-world, well-managed moment…just when everything in the world seems so random, chaotic and confusing. Thank you, God.
In the rising wind of a coming dust storm
a mini-stand of aspen planted between
the heron pond and the stucco home
made some noise; they say it’s
“quaking.” But that name makes one
think of timid fear. Listen like
a musician, with the psalter’s ear,
and hear, instead, the sound of applause
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
(Isaiah 55:12)