Two stories from the destruction of the first Temple stuck out for me. The first was what the Levyim were singing when the doors were brought done. It was a verse from the psalm for Wednesday (which happens to be today) that acted as a prophecy -- As the Levyim recited "And God turned upon them their own violence and with their own evil God will cut them off..." the hoards busted through the gates. This happened before they had a chance to conclude the verse -- "...But God will cut them off." If only they would have sung a little faster...
The other story is about the Kohanim throwing the keys to the Heichal up to heaven as the Temple was burning before jumping themselves to their fiery deaths. The Talmud tells that a sort of hand reached down from heaven and caught the keys. What a powerful story. It is as if God is the safety deposit box who keeps those sacred things necessary for the future. But what about the people?
And Jeff Arnowitz says hello.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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3 comments:
Both these stories are great. I also am struck by how important it is to the rabbis to gather all these horrible events onto the fewest days they can. It's as if they don't want to overwhelm people with the mourning. One Tisha B'Av is enough. (I know that this is perisely the argument used by those who did not want there to be a special day for Yom Ha-Shoah, and I have to say, in some ways, I see their point.) Jewish history being what it is, we have to be carfeful lest the mourning overtake us. For this reason, I have some serious issues with the extended mourning periods over the summer. 9 days seems okay, but three weeks? And then add the Omer? Maybe too much...
Think about this: If you add up the 7 weeks of the Omer and the 3 weeks before Tisha B'av, as well as the one day for Yom HaShoah, that is 10 weeks of mourning--nearly 20% of the year! We've had a rough history, but that seems excessive.
I'm with you. Which is why I think we need to write some good tschuvot on the subject of some of these longer periods. The three week plays out at cmap of course (this year, for example, visiting day is 17th of Tamuz) and folks like me that want to actually run a summer camp within the bounds of halakhah are often at a loss.
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