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The Charlotte Jewish News - June-July 2012- Page 25 On Tisha B’Av, Laments for a Jewish State That Seemingly is on the Edge of Ruin By Uriel Heilman Jerusalem (JTA) — Commemorating Tisha B’Av in Jerusalem is a bit of an exereise in paradoxes. On the one hand, the remains of the Holy Temple whose destrue- tion we lament on this national day of fasting and mourning are just a stone’s throw away, on the same hallowed ground where gen erations of Jewish soldiers died fighting for their land. On the other hand, we live in an era when the Jewish people have the good fortune of being able to live freely in our own state in the plaee our aneestors prayed about for millennia. We read the Book of Lamentations and the Kinot prayers that bemoan the destrue- tion of the Jewish nation-state and our subsequent dispersion to the Diaspora, yet we have returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the Jewish state. Today, our holy temple is the State of Israel. In 1948, when Israel was founded, and again in 1967 after Jerusalem was returned to Jewish hands, some Jews saw the vieto- ries as the beginning of the Age of Redemption — the most erueial step toward transforming Tisha B’Av into a eelebration of the reeonstruetion of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. But for most Jews living in this saered land, there is a sense that 60 years sinee the state was estab lished and 40 years sinee Jerusalem was liberated, somehow there is something rotten in the State of Israel. It’s in the news every day, it’s talked about at dinner table eon- versations, moeked by satirists, lamented by rabbis and analyzed by pundits. Sixty years on, the temple we have built seems on the verge of ruin. The threats eome from within and without. Not far enough away from Jerusalem, the modern-day king of Persia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, threatens to wipe Israel off the faee of the earth, and he’s building the nuelear eapaeity to make that hap pen. Closer to home, Hamas is aequiring the weapons it needs to turn southern Israel into the firing range that northern Israel was for Hezbollah during last summer’s war. Hezbollah, for its part, has restored the weapons arsenal it lost last summer and appears eager for another opportunity to humble Israel’s no-longer-invinei- ble military. And from Durban to The Hague, from Geneva to New York, the nations of the world bear wit ness to the eastigation and delig- itimization of Israel, at times lend ing their own voiees to the elamor ealling for Israel’s destruetion, either explieitly or implieitly. At home in Israel, the sense of ruin is palpable in other, more immediate ways. The state built on soeialist underpinnings now has one of the highest rates of poverty in the developed world. The leaders of the government we hoped would be a light unto the nations have proven either grossly inept or eor- rupt. Even when found guilty by the eourts, Israeli leaders seem impervious to punishment. In the last month alone, ex- President Moshe Katsav eseaped rape eharges in exehange for a deal to plead guilty to sexual harassment and indeeent aets; Omir Sharon, son of the former prime minister, had his jail sen- tenee for a fraud eonvietion redueed by two months and post poned yet again; and just this week former Knesset member Naomi Blumenthal had her eight- month prison term for bribery eommuted to two months proba tion and six months eommunity serviee. The preponderanee of eases like these give the Jewish state the appearanee of a plaee where power, not justiee, prevails. It’s not only the government’s eorruption and ineptitude that has Israelis lamenting the ruination of the Jewish state. It’s the people, too. Seeularists blame the Orthodox for ruining the state, siphoning off tax money to sehools whose kids who won’t serve in the army, don’t believe in the legitimaey of the state, and will uphold the Orthodox stranglehold on issues like marriage, eonversion, and religion in Israel. Orthodox Israelis say seeularists are purging the state of its Jewish eharaeter through shortsighted edueation polieies, unfair eourt deeisions, and lax immigration polieies. Settlers feel abandoned by a government that uprooted 9,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip during the 2005 disengagement and still eontemplates trading away the West Bank for a false peaee that will only hasten Israel’s demise. Left-wingers say the settlers have wrought Israel’s moral eorruption by turning the Jewish state into an oeeupying power that perseeutes an entire people in order to sur vive. It’s not just about ideology, either. Israeli drivers have turned the nation’s roads into avenues of death, where fatalities from ear aeeidents far exeeed those from wars and where even a normal ear trip beeomes an exereise in rage and survival. Real estate developers snap up Israel’s few remaining open spaees and transform them into apartments, roads, and offiee buildings while the government planning boards responsible for land management authorize wide- ranging eonstruetion projeets with alarmingly short-term vision, all in exehange for easy money. Even the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, a national treasure, are now bloeked from view by a new mall that has gone up right outside the Jaffa Gate. Thirsty eities divert water from Israel’s few freshwater sourees and turn a blind eye to wealthy eorporations’ dumping toxins baek in. Some of Israel’s most prized sites — among them the polluted Jordan River, the shrink ing Dead Sea and the inereasingly toxie Mediterranean shoreline — seem in various stages of ruin. Israel’s best and brightest are moving overseas to take higher paying jobs, govemment-eon- trolled food priees are rising, and every day seems to be hotter than the last. So what do we do about all these problems? First, we lament. In our tradi tion, the eolleetive “Oy vey” we express on Tisha B’Av is meant to be our wakeup eall. Then, we aet, however we ean: We vote, we write letters to our representatives, we put a dime in the pushke, we volunteer, we make aliyah, we support worth while eauses, we treat our fellow Jews and Israelis with human deeeney, we aet like mensehes even when no one’s looking. Will this fix the problems of Israel and the Jewish people? No. But it’s a start, and we’ve got to start somewhere. Perhaps today it ean start with us. ^ Write Your Own Dirge for Tisha B’Av By Edmon J. Rodman Los Angeles (JTA) — Jewish tradition teaehes that we are eom- manded to write a Torah in our lifetime, but not a kinah, or dirge. For ages, our prophets and rabbis have done this for us, filtering and distaneing, putting our most painful group memories into aerostie, poetie form. Beginning with Eieha (Lamentations) and eontinuing with additional kinot, our fore bears have turned the darkest days in our history into a ready-to-use alef-bet of tragedy. Now as we approaeh Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, the fast day on whieh we remember the destruetion of the First and Seeond Temples and other disas ters that oeeurred on this date by ehanting these kinot, I am eneour- aging you in this age of immersion and Googley do-it-yourself to piek up peneil or pen and write your own dirge. Tisha B’Av, whieh starts this year on the night of July 27, liter ally eries out for our involvement. Writing your own kinah ean ereate a powerful eonneetion to a sum mer day that might otherwise pass you by. Historieally, not all kinot were in Hebrew — Italian Jews wrote them in their own language, so you ean, too. Through the kinot, Tisha B’Av lives as a eonstruet of memory. The day takes on new meaning as we plaee our own memories, in our own words, into the eonstruet. The writing of personal kinot is an aetivity that I have led several times in Los Angeles with a lay- led Jewish eommunity ealled the Movable Minyan. Partieipants have found that writing their own kinot helps them forge an intimate eonneetion to Tisha B’Av — a fast day many Jews find diffieult to eneounter — espeeially if they are read or even ehanted. In these kinot workshops, par tieipants have written about per sonal loss during the Holoeaust, onset and reeovery from serious illness, how Jewish generational links have been broken and re forged, earthquakes and riots. Over the eenturies the foeus of these poems — whieh began with the destruetion of the aneient Jewish Temples — has evolved to inelude other ealamities as well. There is a kinah for the York mas- saere in 1190 and one for the Freneh Crown’s order in 1242 that all eopies of the Talmud be burned. The Ten Martyrs — you will reeall them from Yom Kippur’s Martyrology Serviee — also have a kinah dedieated to their saeri- fiee. Several kinot have been writ ten about the Holoeaust and are now in use around the world. Sephardim have written them about the Expulsion from Spain. No one is expeeting you to be an elegiae master. With a few good moments of foeus and intent, the form of the aerostie kinah ean be yours to appreeiate and use. Don’t be thrown by the aerostie part. It is based on the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, with the aerostie being ereated by the ini tial letter of eaeh verse. Two eom- mon explanations for ehoosing this literary form are that the use of the entire alphabet represents the totality of the destruetion, and that even in destruetion there is a beginning and an end. In Hebrew, the lines of a typieal kinah gain strength from alternat ing long and short lines. Rhythmieally, the lines play off eaeh other, adding nuanee and meaning. In English translation, you ean reaeh some of the same rhythm. Take, for example, this seetion from the beginning of Eieha, the book read on the night of Tisha B’Av (it helps to read aloud): “Alas! Lonely sits the eity Onee great with people! She that was great among nations Is beeome like a widow; The prineess among states Is beeome a thrall.” (JPS Translation © 2000) And here, listen earefully to eaeh line’s rhythm: “Her enemies are now the mas ters. Her foes are at ease, Beeause the Lord has afflieted her For her many transgressions; Her infants have gone into eap- tivity Before the enemy.” For your kinah, writing ten lines will give you a good feel for the form. Alas, the wellspring for poetie inspiration about loss and tragedy in Jewish life often seems endless. Yet try to foeus on one theme. Your souree might be Jewish-related news, an e-mail or a late-night eall. Onee you have a theme, simply begin your first line with an “A” word and work your way line by line to “J.” There is no need to rhyme, only to reeall and feel. Think of the kinah as a soulful mnemonie in whieh eaeh line’s begin ning helps you to remem ber. As you prepare to write, get into the mood of the approaehing day. Many eongrega- tions ehant Eieha while seated on low stools or even on the floor. Lights are dimmed. For as the eommentary Eieha Rabbah teaeh es, “What does a mortal king do when he is in mourning, he extin guishes the lanterns.” Use a simple pen or peneil. Find an “un-easy” ehair. Go basie, light a eandle. If you ean, let some hope in, as Eieha’s elosing line is: “Renew our days as of old.” On Tisha B’Av, sitting together, we ehant the kinot. It’s a eommu- nal experienee where the memo ries and pain are mourning shared. Prepare and help others to prepare for Tisha B’Av by sharing your ereation. To awaken your inner poet, just listen a little, sift a bit, think and write yourself into this Jewish way of remembering. ^ (Edmon J. Rodman is a Los Angeles writer and designer of children's media and toys.) “Tisha B’Av” by Issachar Ber Ryback
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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