Should We Still Be Reading the Book of Lamentations on the 9th of Av?

Let me say this as simply and concisely as possible: As long as the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple is not rebuilt, Jerusalem cannot be considered rebuilt, and the reciting of Eichah (The Book of Lamentations) and kinot is still quite relevant. You do not have to be a man of great erudition to know this.

Therefore I was quite surprised to see this piece from Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo. After begging his forgiveness I must disagree with what he wrote:

But in the here and now, where I live, Yerushalayim is a city of splendor, full of life, and contradicting everything I read in Eichah.

How can I, in good conscience, utter or even listen to words claiming that I live in a desolate city, when in fact I look out of my window and am amazed to see Yerushalayim rebuilt so splendidly, as if mocking the Scroll of Eichah?

There is something totally wrong about this. Isn’t it a slap in the face to the Holy One blessed be He, Who granted our generation such a magnificent, colorful, and lively city, with its spectacular views, parks full of beautiful flowers, impressive museums, and luxury hotels, to name just a few attractions?

And then we publicly read aloud that all this is not true, as if denying this divine blessing bestowed upon us after thousands of years of disaster and exile?

Rabbi Cardozo is correct in that we have been blessed that we have a "lively city", with "spectacular views, parks full of beautiful flowers", etc. We should certainly be grateful for this constantly. Being an ingrate is a terrible thing. Where I learned, we recited Hallel on Israeli Independence Day and Jerusalem Day in order to thank God for the wonders he has wrought for us.

However, all this does not diminish the deep pain and mourning that dwells in the heart of the Jew who longs for the Temple. In some ways it even deepens the sense of loss. “The Temple Mount is in our hands”, however, in spite of this, two legged "foxes walk upon it" (Lamentations 5:18). We are so close, yet so far away.

Reciting Eichah on the 9th of Av is in no way a "slap in the face to the Holy One blessed be He", as Rabbi Cardozo suggests. Rather it is the genuine expression of mourning, still relevant today perhaps more than ever, of the loss of our Temple, and the ability to fulfill God's Will that was lost along with it. The return to Zion and the establishment of Jewish sovereignty over part of our holy land is wonderful indeed, but we are still far from where we really want to be.

May we merit to see the return of the Davidic dynasty and the building of the Holy Temple speedily in our days!

Kahane Memorial: It's Been 25 Years

Time does fly. It's been 25 years since Rabbi Meir Kahane of blessed memory was murdered by an Al Qaeda terrorist. Last night I attended the annual memorial in Jerusalem.

I've been to a few of these memorials in the past. It seems to me that every year the crowd attending the memorial grows. I am always surprised by the number of young people that attend. A very significant percentage of those there were born after Kahane was assassinated. A lot of those attending had that "hilltop youth" look, sporting large knitted skullcaps and long sidelocks. There were also a few Hareidi youth there. I don't know if they came out of curiousity or if they identify with Kahane.

One of the recurring themes of the evening was that we do not have too look hard for what is causing the recent terror wave. It's written in the Book of Numbers chapter 33:

51 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. 53 And ye shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for unto you have I given the land to possess it. 54 And ye shall inherit the land by lot according to your families--to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer thou shalt give the less inheritance; wheresoever the lot falleth to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall ye inherit. 55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell. 56 And it shall come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you.

"They must go." "There is no hope for coexistence with the Arabs." "If there are no Arabs there is no terror." Etc., etc. etc.

The Temple Mount also took center stage. Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer mentioned how more and more people are going up to the Har HaBayit. Aviya Moris, who famously called the "prophet" Mohammed a pig after being harrassed by Muslim women on the Temple Mount also spoke.

Another theme of the evening was reviewing the activities of various activists. Bentzi Gophstein mentioned that in the previous week his Lehava organization had rescued six Jewish women, some of them with children, from Arab villages. A film was shown that depicted some of the antics of activists Baruch Marzel, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Gvir.

Naturally, there was also an appeal for contributions. I don't think that these people are not receiving too much support from the government. :) I imagine that they were able to raise a little bit of money from the sale of Rabbi Kahane's writings and other goodies that was taking place at the entrance to the hall.

Rabbi Dov Lior arrived and was greeted with the singing of "Yamim Al Yemei Melech Tosif". He talked, among other things, about Rabbi Kahane's commitment to Torah study and his fine character traits.

To sum things up, Rabbi Meir Kahane and his son Binyamin may have been murdered, but their ideas live on.

Feeling the Destruction

What happens if you say Shema Yisrael on the Temple Mount?

Watch: Yehudah Glick Accuses Stephen Sackur of the BBC of Justifying Violence

According to Stephen Sackur's warped logic, the Charlie Hebdo magazine staff are responsible for the murderous attack at their offices. Yehudah Glick puts him in his place. See it at 20:30

Yehudah Glick Released From the Hospital

Listen to a walking miracle speak (in English):

How Muslims Behave When They See Jews on the Temple Mount

MK Moshe Feiglin on the Temple Mount

Before you do this, please consult your local Orthodox rabbi:

Sukkot Revisited

What's the point of writing something about Sukkot now that it is already Marcheshvan? That's exactly the point: we have to carry the memories of Sukkot all year round.

I like to walk around the older neighborhoods of Jerusalem. These pics were taken in the Batei Neitin neighborhood, if I am not mistaken.Sukkot everywhere!

I love the way that the stairways are built upon arches:

Decked in white for Hoshanna Rabba:

The Temple Mount:

I am able to get a close-up with my zoom. [sigh]

עַל-זֶה, הָיָה דָוֶה לִבֵּנוּ--עַל-אֵלֶּה, חָשְׁכוּ עֵינֵינוּ. עַל הַר-צִיּוֹן שֶׁשָּׁמֵם, שׁוּעָלִים הִלְּכוּ-בוֹ

At the Kotel its the last day to use your lulav!

These Japanese (?) tourists may have thought that it was exotic to photograph the Jews praying at the wall. I thought that it was exotic to photograph the Japanese tourists taking pictures of the Jews.

The typical "Jews at the Wall" picture:

I hope that we have a nice rainy winter.

הריסת העתיקות בחפירות הוואקף בהר הבית

Who Will Ascend God's Mountain?

Ha'aretz has an interesting article about those who ascend the Temple Mount. It does contains a few libelous slurs against politicians from the Israeli Right("members who are extreme in their xenophobia, such as MK Michael Ben Ari") ,as well as a little bit of pseudo-intellectual humbug, which, unfortunately, is to be expected from that media outlet. Excluding that, the author Shani Littman did a really good job.

Personally, I do not ascend the Temple Mount, since I was instructed not to by the late Rabbi Avaraham Shapira zt"l. However, I support the right of those who follow other rabbis and take the proper halachic measures to do so.

To give you a taste of the article, here is a question that the author asked Arnon Segal and his answer:

What is the Temple meant to do?

“It is the heart of Judaism. Numerically, one-third of the 613 commandments are not fulfilled today because of the absence of a Temple. The Temple is the Jewish public sphere that we lost. I want a transnational Judaism, which will encompass all the commandments. The rabbis will not confine themselves solely to the synagogue. A Sanhedrin is needed. That is an inspirational institution. People would come there and be impressed by the light that exists in Judaism. The Jews are one religion, not a collection of sects. A temple is something that is built together.”

Read the rest.

Thoughts on the Ninth of Av

"The three weeks", "the nine days", "the week of", with their various prohibitions, will soon culminate with the fast of the Ninth of Av. The various customs of mourning reach their zenith tomorrow. If not getting a hair cut, not eating meat, not listening to music, and the other customs of mourning have not made an impression on us, have not made us consider the depth of our tragedy, perhaps the fast, reading the Book of Lamentations, and the reciting of the Kinot will.

The corpse is laying in front of us. The Temple Mount is in ruins. The commandments that deal with the sacrifices, which comprise such a large part of the Torah that God has commanded us, are not being performed. Do we understand the scope of our catastrophe?

Tomorrow is our chance to contemplate not only the lack of the Holy Temple, but also the other tragedies that our generation is witness to. How can we not lament about the widespread ignorance of Judaism among the Jewish People? How can we not cry about the fact that the gates of the land of Israel are wide open and so many Jews despise the Desirable Land and choose to cling to their surrogate mother? Is it not a calamity that the wicked nations of the world, along with a few rotten, dangling grapes in the vineyard of Israel, are trying to limit Jewish settlement in the land of our forefathers? Shouldn't we tear our clothes in mourning over the plague of intermarriage and assimilation? Are we not witnessing a silent holocaust, sans death camps and gas chambers but a holocaust nevertheless?

If the Temple is not built in the meantime, may tomorrow's fast be a meaningful one. May we do our best to improve our ways in order to merit seeing the rebuilding of the Temple.

Temple Mount Destruction

As we approach The month of Av, the month both Temples were destroyed, the destruction of anything that might be left of the Temples is being conducted with the tacit approval of the Israeli government. You can see pictures of the destruction here. Jpost.com has an editorial on the matter.

We want Mashiach NOW!