View current news articles, commentary, videos and more having an impact on Jewish culture, politics and religion at Rabbi Silverman's Sites to See
Bein HaMeitzarim: The Three Weeks between the Straits
Between our dates of July 17th to August 7th this summer, we interrupt the "easy living" of the months of warmer weather with the observance of "between the straits," the period of time in the Jewish calendar between which the gates of Jerusalem were breached and the time that Temple itself was razed the ground, in 586BCE, by the Babylonians.
Two events happen Biblically in the Torah, even before the destruction of the Temple. Moses comes down to give the two Tablets of Law to the Israelites and, seeing them dancing around a Golden Calf, smashes the tablets. God, at that time, had wanted to destroy the people, but Moshe advocates and then spends forty more days petitioning God to come among His people. The date, Tamuz 17, is exactly forty days after Moses and the people stood at Sinai and told Moses to go up the mountain. In the next year, Moses sends out the spies to reconnoiter the land. Ten of them come back pessimistic in their assessment and convince the people they cannot conquer the land. God again is furious, but Moses counsels against Him destroying the people who are, after all, the descendants of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs to whom God promised the land. So God requires that this presently pessimistic generation die in the desert over the course of forty years, and that the next generation may enter. One midrashist mentions that the very date the spies come back from their mission and on which the people suffer a failure of nerve is the 9th of Av. “You are crying for nothing!” God tells them at the time. “I’ll give you something to cry about!” So this was determined to be the day on which the Temples would fall. The salient features of these three weeks, then, is shattering, crying, and God's alienation from Israel.
These two dates, 17 Tammus and 9 Av, mark the three-week period in which Nebuchadnezzer and his army seiged and penetrated the ramparts of Jerusalem and eventually razed the First Temple. The Prophet Daniel apparently is the one who establishes this three week commemoration (Tur Orach Hayyim 551 Daniel 10:2). The book of Ecclesiates mentions, in a passage, the “almond blossoms…” (Chap.12:5). Jeremiah, in the first chapter we read on Shabbat of the three weeks, mentions “I see in my vision an almond staff.” The time it takes to see a new bud transform to a blossomed almond flower is twenty one days. This is the time that it took for the bud of siege to bloom into total destruction of Jerusalem. This rabbinic imagery is all the more jarring because it borrows the use of an almond blossoming staff. Such a staff is exactly what God uses to show favor and love to the tribe of Aaron and establishes the tribe as the line of Kohanim that would serve the altar in the book of Numbers (Nu 17:23). The very image of blossoming relationship between God and heaven is used for the measuring of a "blossoming" catastrophe.
Because the eternal flame of the altar and the wine libation ceased from that moment of siege, so we refrain in the three weeks from drinking wine and eating meat (excepting on Shabbat). Some don’t buy new clothing or tools so as not to need to say a shehehiyanu at this semi-period of mourning. Weddings and music are prohibited. The length of time for these restrictions is somewhat fluid. The Ashkenazim are most restrictive. Rabbi Yaacov Asher tells us that the Sfardim observe these customs for the Month of Av and Ashkenazim at 17 Tammuz on. Rashba (1300s Spain) notes in a Teshuva that though it’s customary to stop eating meat from the time of Av on, the Talmud doesn’t forbid it. Rambam’s (12th century CE) formulation in his Mishnah Torah forbids it on the week of Tisha Bav excepting Shabbat. The Selonker Community from Greece had no restriction in regard to wine, only meat. Haircuts, shaving restrictions and bathing restrictions, likewise, start for some on 17 Tammuz and for others as late as the week in which Tisha B'Av falls. Laundering is restricted on the week of Tisha B'Av. Even wearing a full suit on the Shabbat prior to Tisha B'Av (Shabbat Hazon) is discouraged. Bathing also has its increasing restrictions at this time. It is especially prohibited to take leisurely showers and to enjoy swimming at the beach. However, in contemporary times, bathing briefly for hygiene is generally permitted.
This period of time is also seen as "a time of misfortune" in some of the codes. Selling homes and buying them are put off to later dates, and travel for some, especially on Tisha B'Av, is ill advised. Some speak of not walking outdoors between the hours of 10am-3pm due to the "evil force" (ketev Meriri) that may affect young students. Although some communities allow weddings after Tammuz 17 but before the month of Av, especially in cases of widowers who have yet to have children, it is wise not to undertake such a chuppah, since it is “chamira secanta” –a time of serious danger.
Rabbi Yanki Tauber reminds us that the narrow strait, however, is not a roadblock. On the contrary, it is a mechanism for increased productivity. Hydraulic power plants, rockets and garden hoses employ strong pressure in a narrow space to squeeze a greater degree of power and velocity from the element they constrain. The shofar, sounded to waken man to repentance, is also such a device, with its narrow mouth-end pinching the stream of air expelled from the blower’s lungs into the piercing note that emerges from its wide, upward-sweeping sound, that draws, attracts and inspires.
The same is true of the strictures of Tammuz 17 and Av 9 and the two thousand years of physical exile and spiritual darkness they mourn. Twenty centuries of suppression have wrenched the Jewish soul through the funnel of exile, revealing its deepest convictions and provoking its highest potentials. From these terrible straits we have never ceased to seek God, and it is this seeking that will yield the "Divine expanse" of ultimate redemption and the perfect world of the messianic age. The jury is out on how long that will take and who primarily ushers it in (humanity or God). But even if that tarries for many years, let’s remember that narrow straits etch character and narrow straits allow us to rise above; narrow straits help us to understand that faith is both a refuge and reservoir or hope. Please join us as we, along with all the Jewish people, mourn the loss of the grandeur of the Holy Temple and the exiles of our people. Even as we are mindful and grateful of our reconstituted statehood, we are conscious of how far we are from a redemptive time.
Our reading Eicha will occur this year on night of August 6th at 8:30 pm, just after Shabbat. We will read the Torah and chant the traditional songs of lament the following morning at 9 am, in an in-person service. PLEASE LEND YOUR ATTENDANCE to these special days of observance.