ר ְ ִ י ה ִ ְ נ ה ְ ִ נ
שְִׂו שׂ וֹ ןָשׂ
נָּשֶׁ ה, ִי
נ ָ סְו חָ ה, ְמ
צֵ אתְִבּ
ג וֹ ןָי
מּ ִ צ ְ ר ִָ מ
אֲנָחָ ה, ַו
םִ י
שׁ וּ בְִבּ
יְ קוֹנֵןַו
י ר וּ שָׁ ל ָ יִ םִל
מ ֶ שׁ ה, ִ שׁ י ר ל ֹ א י / / ְ מ, י, י צֵ אתְִבּ הָ י נָהָ הְו הָ י
“ Then Moses sang” an unforgettable song, when I ִמ י ר וּ שָׁ לָ יִ ם left Egypt;“ And Jeremiah lamented” with bitter sighing, when I left Jerusalem.” This structure repeats more than 20 times. The last line, however, changes the pattern and pictures a
י: liberation future“ There will be joy and gladness, and suffering and sighing will cease, when I return to Jerusalem.”
( The artist David Moss incorporates the Tisha B’ Av poem Esh Tukad Be-Kirbi into a perpetual calendar at the beginning of his masterful Moss Haggadah, indicating on what day of the week the first seder, as well as the Ninth of Av, will fall, for each year until the Hebrew year 6000, centuries into the future.)
For many centuries, Tisha B’ Av was the holiday that best summed up the existential condition of the Jewish people. Why are we scattered around the world, a visible minority and convenient scapegoat almost everywhere we live, with no national home? How did it come to be this way? The answer to these questions is the story of Tisha B’ Av.
And this theme highlights to me the extraordinary blessing to live at a time when Tisha B’ Av is no longer the holiday that best sums up the existential condition of the Jewish people. When hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors of the Nazis, many of whom were literally slave laborers, found a home for themselves in Israel, this was a reversal that echoed the story of Passover from long ago.
Jewish history has had its Passover eras and its Tisha B’ Av eras. Every year on Tisha B’ Av, I am reminded how grateful I am to live in a Passover era rather than a Tisha B’ Av era. And with all my heart, I pray that Israel’ s leaders will make wise decisions so that this Passover era will long endure.
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