תִּשָׁע בְּאָב

[lethargic_man]

Today is Tisha BeAv. For some years I've been wondering at the disconnect between the liturgy, which goes on at great length about the great things G-d has done for us, and the actuality of Jewish history, which has largely alternated between calamities and low-grade oppression. How much sh*t do we have to take, I thought, before we took our heads out of the sand and recognised that a handful of miraculous deliverances—the Exodus from Egypt, Cyrus's edict allowing the return from the first exile, the defeat of Haman, the Hasmonean victory, even, dare I say it, the survival of the State of Israel in its first three months—do not outweigh the death, misery and servitude that accompanied the Destruction of the First Temple, the Destruction of the Second, the crushing of the Bar Kochba revolt, the exile from Spain, the Chmielnicki massacres, the Shoah, and centuries upon centuries of pogroms?

It was only yesterday that I managed to see it from the other side, and realised that the reason the liturgy is the way it is is because, to a people for whom oppression and persecution was all too frequently the way of life, it was necessary for them to cling on to the miraculous salvations of the past, as a way of retaining hope.

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Last night I went to a candlelit megillah (and kinot) reading organised (or at any rate publicised) by Sam Klein's Minyan Lev Simcha. Much to my surprise, after the megillah and a kinah or two, and a talk by Rafi Zarum, they did a lot of singing. Wistful singing, such as you might experience at a סְעוּדָה שְׁלִישִׁית, but singing nonetheless.

This evening I was thinking of going to this film screening. But then it occurred to me to wonder when mincha was. An investigation reveals there are two minchas at Kinloss today, one at 2pm, which I obviously couldn't get to, and one at 7:30, which equally obviously clashes with the KLC event. So now I have to make a choice between mincha and the film. (Or go elsewhere.) *growl*

Comments

[grumpyolddog.livejournal.com]

It was only yesterday that I managed to see it from the other side, and realised that the reason the liturgy is the way it is is because, to a people for whom oppression and persecution was all too frequently the way of life, it was necessary for them to cling on to the miraculous salvations of the past, as a way of retaining hope.

Also an anti-evolutionary pressure. Most species would have dropped whatever was causing the persecution long ago but oh no, humans are idiots.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

If by that you're referring to practice of Judaism, think again. Prior to the expulsion from Spain, many Jews were forced to convert to Christanity; their descendants still faced discrimination as Jews over four hundred years later, despite the fact it was their ancestors four centuries earlier who had been Jews, not them.

[grumpyolddog.livejournal.com]

Nah, just religion and especially fanaticism.