August 10, 2010 | 28 Tammuz 5770

Although summertime is usually associated with attitudes of joy, carefree living and restfulness, our Jewish calendar marks the summer as a period of mourning, rebuke and restitution.  Beginning last week, we began to embark on the three week period towards Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, the date on the calendar which commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.   These three weeks are called t’lata d’puranuta, “Three Weeks of Admonition,” and they are considered a quasi-mournful period.  Some people avoid attending or fully participating in celebratory events like weddings and concerts.  Still others have the tradition to refrain from haircuts until after Tisha B’Av.  Of all the varying customs, most people experience this three week period by a chance at our haftara readings.  For these three weeks, the connections between our haftara and Torah readings are broken and in its place we read three haftarot which recount words of warning and admonition by the Prophets for our peoples’ lack of faith and deviation from the ritual and the religious of God. The Prophets predict our demise and warn us to change our ways or else.   

For me, the most remarkable part of these three weeks is not found in an addition or a change but in fact found by an omission.  Where is Moses during these three weeks?  Each week we read a special haftara but our Torah reading remains the same.  We continue on through to the end of the book of Numbers and into Deuteronomy like business as usual.  Wasn’t Moses our greatest prophet?  Doesn’t he have anything to say during these three weeks leading up to what amounts to one of the saddest days on the Jewish calendar? Couldn’t our rabbis have found a warning or admonition by Moses, and inserted it into our Shabbat Torah reading?  Maybe a Maftir aliyah perhaps?  By continuing the Torah reading with no change in schedule and no addition or supplement of Torah during these three weeks, it seems as though our greatest prophet Moses, didn’t see this one coming. Or maybe we just need to look a bit closer.

This week’s sidra, Mattot-Mas’ei, begins by elucidating the commands surrounding oaths and vows. Our Torah begins as follows:

If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not break his pledge; he must carry out all that has crossed his lips. (Numbers 30:2)

This commandment seems straightforward enough – if a person makes a promise, they must keep their word.  To fully understand how it relates to this mournful three week period leading to Tisha B’Av, we must understand how our Temple was destroyed in the first place.

According to historians, the Babylonian Empire destroyed the first Temple in 586 BCE and the Roman Empire destroyed the second Temple in 70 CE.  However, our rabbis understood the destruction of the Temples slightly differently.  Although the walls may have been forced down and the fires started by outside invaders, it was actually a malevolent enemy from within who was the real culprit.  Our rabbis called it – Senat Henam (“senseless hatred”). Loathing, mistrust and contempt of the Jew towards a fellow Jew was the true force that destroyed the Jerusalem Temples.

As we make our way through these three weeks remembering our shortcoming and our ancestral mistakes which caused one of the saddest days in the Jewish calendar, Moses, our greatest prophet, does have a warning for us.  As with any great teacher, he guised the warning in a teaching; rather than telling us what we shouldn’t do, instead he helps us to learn what to do – the strength of our community is found in its members making promises to one another and keeping them. If we can step up to this great task, we stand a better chance of rebuilding a place of holiness within our hearts and between each other. 

Shabbat Shalom.