Notes regarding Tisha B'Av

Tonight begins our annual observance of Tisha B'Av, not one of our more well-known observances. It is not a holiday; it is an observe of mourning. In fact, it is a nod to fragmentation and disconnection in our calendar of holy days. 

Tisha B’Av is an entirely different observance from most of our holy days. It is a sad commemoration of fragmentation and disconnect. The spies’ negative report induced great fear and a feeling of disconnect from the land; the Temple, the symbol of the connection between heaven and earth and source of wholeness in the world, destroyed–not once, but twice–on this day… 

The 9th of Av is called a moed in Hebrew, literally a meeting in time with G!d.  There is tremendous opportunity on this day, for fragmentation is the very human tendency of feeling separate, alone, other, falling into a sense of despair and disconnect.

Interestingly, the root of the Hebrew word for dispute, machlokes, is chelek, or fragment. It is often noted that what we think about surrounds us; where we focus our minds becomes reality. If we think negatively, we seem to attract more negativity, while if we concentrate on more positive things, we perceive more positivity around us. While we cannot always control what thoughts pop into our heads, we can choose our reaction to them, and shift away from the self-dispute. Perhaps the worse sense of fragmentation comes from this dispute we carry on within, the mental negative self-talk loop. We too often get lost in this dispute within ourselves. 

In feeling our fragmentation, disconnection, dysfunction, we often look for someone or something to blame; usually others or G!d. Yet in pointing outwards, all we find is more dysfunction and disconnection. Perhaps the biggest lesson of Tisha B’Av is the reminder that it is our own small thinking that leaves us feeling so lost, fragmented, disconnected. The spies’ report came from small thinking, and the loss of the First and Second Temples, while certainly devastations, each loss brought with it such tremendous gifts that propelled us away from small thinking and into larger, more global potential, once we finally embraced the new reality and moved forward.

The prophet Jeremiah (13:17) reminds us, “My soul will weep in secrecy for your [lost] pride.”  The Maharal of Prague explains this verse, that G!d’s “secret place” is our souls, that “piece of G!d” that resides in each of us. While a day of mourning, Tisha B’Av is truly a moed, a meeting place in time with G!d, in which we can again connect, and in that connection, find new hope and courage to move forward into wholeness. Is not Yom Kippur also a moed, a time to reconnect, to defragment and un-schmutz our souls?