Friends,
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hazon after the vision of Isiah seeing the destruction of Jerusalem. It is the Shabbat that comes before Tisha b'Av, the 9th of Av, which falls this Wednesday night and Thursday. It is a day of mourning and loss as we commemorate the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples and other tragedies of Jewish history, including crusades, Spanish Inquistion and the signing of the Final Solution. It is the only other full fast along with Yom Kippur, meaning from dusk to nightfall the following day.
Externally, the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the 2nd by the Romans in 70 CE, yet the Talmud, in classic rabbinic thought, looks for the internal cause. "Why was the 1st Temple destroyed?" they ask, "because of idolatry, sexual immorality and the spilling of blood." And the 2nd? Because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred between Jew an Jew, which it is asserted is equivalent to all the other three sins!
HaRav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine, pre State of Israel, taught, “If we have been destroyed and the world has been destroyed with us, because of sinat chinam (baseless hatred), then we shall rebuild ourselves and the world with us, with ahavat chinam (baseless love.)”
On this Shabbat that leads us into Tisha b’Av, whether it is our intention to fast or not, there is a profound invitation in this teaching to challenge the forces of darkness, destruction and hatred in the world with the conscious practice of looking for reasons to love the other, even or maybe especially the one who most irritates us, or the person who sees the world so differently. Just six days after Tisha b’Av is Tu b’Av, celebrated as a day of love, and perhaps the solemn day of Tisha b’Av helps us open to that force more. Olam hesed yibaneh, says the Psalms, the world is built (and rebuilt) through love.
I have been reading a book by the Dutch author Rutger Bregman called Humankind: A Hopeful History, which challenges the notions that humanity is inclined towards evil and cruelty and that our true nature is for kindness and love.
May we rebuild this broken world together through random acts of love and kindness
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Marc
PS - The fast in Boulder begins on Wednesday night at 8.21pm and ends on Thursday at 8.51pm and there services and programs throughout the day at Bonai Shalom.
