Learning From History - Tisha B'Av

"Experience is that wonderful thing that lets you know you are making a mistake when you are doing it again." - Aphorism On A Sugar Packet"Thus says The Lord, 'Stand in the ways, and gaze, and ask for the old paths where the way is good, and walk in it: and you will find rest for your souls." – Jeremiah 6:16Nearly everyone educated in history or literature knows the famed quote from Spanish historian, Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás:  "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."  A less well-known quote from historian Santayana, is "The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by waking from it."A potato trying to be a radio has a long wait.It is hard for a potato to be a radio.A carrot longing to be a violin bow has a long wait.It is not easy for a carrot to be a violin bow.A cat hoping to teach calculus has a long wait.It is rough for a cat to do calculus.There are things we are, and things we are not.As a human, I run fairly well; but I would lose every race I would ever run against a greyhound.Part of the positive adventure of life is to find out what we are, and what we are best suited to do; and then be and do those things. It is a very hard road to be other than one's createdness enables, and to do things for which one's created nature is ill-suited.Yeshua, our Messiah, taught us "the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)Free, in this contemplation, is the freedom from wasted time and wasted life.As a young man, a few lines from the inspired writ of our nation forever changed my understanding of my choice-making: The God of Israel cries out to us in the voice of the Prophet,"Like a belt clings to the waist of a man, that is how I created the whole house of Israel, to cling to me that they might be a praise, renown, and glory through the whole earth; but they would not." - Jeremiah 13:11 These words awakened me to the truth that I could spend my entire life doing activities of various vocational and recreational nature, and never once touch the purpose for which I was created. I seriously wanted to avoid that pitfall.The whole House of Israel. All means all. It means me. It means you. It means us.How many assimilated Jewish people and Jewish Yeshua-followers are there living a dream from which their God is trying to wake them?I am X. I am Y. I do A. I do Z.How many such personal decisions are completely devoid of "clinging to God the way a belt clings to the waist of a man?" If "all of us in the House of Israel were created" to function a certain way – what are we doing if we are not functioning that way?Losing our destiny.A potato wannabe-radio. A carrot wannabe violin bow. A cat wannabe calculus professor.Too many of us, as Jewish people scattered throughout the world, have forgotten who we are.Thus also, have forgotten from where we come; and naturally, what we are here for.The recent book, "Elvis in Jerusalem" dealt with the nearly pandemic desire of Israelis to be like Americans. Israel is small – Israelis want to feel the natural confidence Americans feel from having a country that is big. Israelis pay over 50% of their wages in taxes, and serve in the Army by draft from age 18 to 21, and then for at least 1 month of every 12 for the rest of their lives to age 55. America has no draft, and people are free to pursue their personal dreams with minimal drag on their time and finances by the State.Oh, to be an American.Looking at Israeliness through this lens gives rise to "Yordim.""Yordim" are the opposite of "Olim.""Olim" (pronounced "oh-LEEM", meaning "those who ascend") are immigrants to Israel. Jews coming home to their nation to live and build. It is a holy word, and it delights Israelis to meet new olim. The country's tax and legal system are built to receive and encourage Jews to become olim. While native born and acculturated Israelis would pay over 100% tax on an item like an air-conditioner, new olim get the item 100% tax-free for the first few years after they immigrate. They same for cars, refrigerators, all the basic building blocks for starting a new life in a new land. Many such benefits accrue for new olim."Yordim" (from the root 'yarad', to descend) are Israelis who abandon ship. They leave Israel because it is easier to live in New Rochelle than in Netanya. They descend, not rise. There is a tangible collective shame among Israelis living outside Israel: their conversations are straining under the effort to avoid focus on Israel. Their platoon is still on the battlefield, still fighting the battle – and they have gone to play, to build for themselves the American Dream, while forgetting the dream of Herzl and generations of Zionists, and the call of The Scriptures, and the mandate of God Almighty upon Jewish people. The Psalms cry out, "Our captors demand of us, 'Sing one of the songs of Zion!' But how can we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" The Yordim learn to sing Elvis's, "All Shook Up" and stop singing, "Al Kol Eyleh" because it is just too painful. That song of prayer is prayable in good conscience only by Israelis living in – or for – Israel. I add "for Israel" because Israelis assigned to security or diplomatic work in New York are not "yordim" any more than American CIA agents in Morocco are expatriates.If Tisha B'Av is not to be merely a bummer in the calendar each year, we must assign it redemptive meaning that is genuine, not forced, and not mere avoidance of its message.I see it as similar to a moment in Disney's remarkable story, The Lion King."Simba, you are more than you have become. You must rise up, and take your place in the circle of     life." said Mufasa's spirit to his deflected and dilettante son.It might be hard being what you were created to be; butIt is harder NOT being what you were created to be.Yeshua said, "Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:29)The phrase, "rest for your souls" was lifted by Yeshua from Jeremiah 6:16 –"Thus says The Lord, 'Stand in the ways, and gaze, and ask for the old paths where the way is good, and walk in it: and you will find rest for your souls."Our souls will find rest when we find our way into the 'old ways, asking for the old paths where the way is good" – we are told to stand (stop moving), gaze (look intently) and ask (invite God to make clear to us) what way for us is good – and then live that way. Thus, we can find our way back to what we should be, and thus, find rest for our unrestful souls.What do the 'old ways' say were we created to be?As Jews we are to exist visibly as a nationality: "So long as the sun and moon are in the heavens, so long shall the House of Israel (any of us with Jewish blood in our veins), endure before me as a nation." - Jeremiah 31:35-37 This midah (precept) is called, "Ahavat Tzion" – love of Zion. It is an acceptance of our createdness as Jews, and all the rights and responsibilities naturally attending it.We Believers are to exist visibly as sources of good works in the world. "You are the light of the world, a city set upon a hill. No one lights a candle, and then hides it under a bushel, but puts it on a stand where it can give light to the whole house. Let your light shine so people may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16 This midah is called, "Gemilut Chasidim" - while ussually translated "good works," the phrase actually means "consequences of 'hesed'" – the natural outworking in deeds of the inward relationship with God. Hesed is one of those Hebrew words hard to express with a simple English translation. It is often rendered as "charity," but it is better expressed as a label for someone driven by God's Spirit, by connection to God.The Scriptures define us, saying, "These are the Lord's people, but they have been removed from His land." (Ezekiel 36:20) God, Himself, identifies us, saying, "Like a belt clings to the waist of man, that is how I, the Lord, created the whole House of Israel, to cling to me, that they would be for me a name and a glory throughout the whole earth: but they would not." (Jeremiah 13:11)We lost our Land and our Temple and our Capital by over-identifying with other nations and "forgetting the Lord, our Maker," (Hos. 8:14) by forgetting how and for what we were made.– To cling to God.–To be visible ambassadors of the Kingdom of God and Messiah.–To live such that our Jewish national identity and perpetuity do not diminish."The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by waking from it."We can know the truth – about God, about ourselves, about Israel – in ways that set us "free, indeed." Freedom from delusion, freedom from waste of time, life and resource – we can be free all these ways.May the heart of our Tisha B'Av experience each year be found in the words of Eichah we read by traditional practice: "God's mercies are new every morning." Lam. 3:22-23If we have forgotten – we have a reminder in our calendar, allowing us to remember.When a reminder goes off in my iPhone's calendar, the beep pulls my attention away from whatever I am consumed doing, and refreshes to my awareness some commitment needing my attention.Tisha B'Av has just passed. How have our attentions been renewed?Let the next year's 9th of Av find all of us farther down the path as individual forces for "the good way" of which God spoke to us through the prophet's voice: people walking paths preventing such calamities as the fallings of our Temple from ever being seen again.Margaret Meade said it beautifully: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."Rabbi Bruce L. CohenManhattan 17 July 2013