By Yochanan Gordon
Tishah B’Av has a bad reputation. Presumably, the problem is that we tend to think about the day from the vantage point of our sitting on the floor, boiling and extremely hungry and thirsty, reciting kinos that we can’t translate and have little context behind, despite the endless commentary that accompanies it year in and year out. Many communities seek to overcompensate for the lack of knowledge by showing videos of the most displeasing aspects of exilic life in the hopes of getting its viewers to shed a tear or perhaps to muster forth a repentant thought to carry meaning to the day’s observance.
However, looking at Tishah B’Av from the vantage point of the day itself would only be seeing half the picture. Our sages tell us that the events within any given week originate in the preceding Shabbos. Traditionally, the Shabbos before Tishah B’Av is called Shabbos Chazon. Despite the fact that many people seize the opportunity to sing the haunting tunes associated with the Three Weeks, Nine Days, and Tishah B’Av in the prayers of Shabbos Chazon, the truth is sadness is antithetical to Shabbos.
In fact, the word chazon means a vision, which is taken from the first words of the Haftorah read following the Torah reading of the day that talks about the rebuilding of the third Temple, which we should merit soon in our days. In fact, the great chassidic master Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiver used to say that on Shabbos Chazon Hashem shows every Jew a vision of the third Beis HaMikdash.
Certainly, the hopefulness of the vision of the Beis HaMikdash and the Haftorah from the prophet of salvation is counterintuitive to the frightful undertones that we tend to associate with Tishah B’Av. Obviously, then, the mitzvas hayom isn’t to be sad, rather it’s to try to reflect on how imperfect our lives are in exile, distant from the truth and potency of our relationship with our cosmic husband G-d Almighty.
I decided to title this piece “Gog Umagog,” which like Tishah B’Av is a most misunderstood event and continues to be the reason why Jews who pray for the redemption three times a day, in their heart of hearts hope not to see it materialize in their or their children’s lives. I’ll never forget the time one of my kids came home from yeshiva in tears and visibly shaken saying that he did not want Moshiach to come after hearing the way his rebbe spoke about the manner in which he would arrive to the world.
I’m here to tell you that your conception of the war of Gog and Magog has been influenced by the Christians who view it as a war of Armageddon. Our tradition as passed down from all of the great tzaddikim is that the war of Gog and Magog will take but a few minutes and, no, it is not a nuclear war as some doomsday rabbis would have you to believe. The war of Gog and Magog is an existential battle that we have been battling and we continue to battle in clarifying the exclusivity in our relationship with the Aibershter and the fact that every Jew, regardless of the level of their observance, has an equal part in that relationship. Talking about Moshiach, for many years I used to think that Moshiach’s coming is contingent upon a mass teshuvah movement that requires every last Jew to return to G-d. It was a troubling thought knowing that just a fraction of world Jewry has even heard of the concept of repentance! What would have to happen for people to wake up to the reality of G-d’s existence and to the fact that they are distant from Him and need to come close? It is this reality that has led many people to think that only a fifth of the Jewish people will leave this exile similar to the way it was when we left Egypt, G-d forbid. What’s more, this was a consoling thought to them since they could not envision another way that we as a nation could ever be deserving of Moshiach. However, if the thought of one Jew being left back in exile with the arrival of Moshiach was as frightful to us as our Christian conception of Gog Umagog then Moshiach would have truly already come. Moshiach’s coming isn’t contingent upon a mass teshuvah movement; it is contingent upon one person doing teshuvah to the point where we could see every other Jew as completely deserving of being in an intimate relationship with G-d, to let go of our feelings of self-righteousness and to realize that without Reb Yisrael there is no Klal Yisrael. If there is anything that should cause us sadness and discomfort this Tishah B’Av it is the fact that we don’t have eyes that are capable of seeing the true value of every Jew. If we could just love every Jew with all of our heart, our soul, and our might surely Moshiach would be here and the war of Gog Umagog would have passed and there would be no need to sit on the floor this Tishah B’Av.
When Miriam criticized Moshe for marrying Tziporah she was stricken with leprosy. The message that she received was: “Madua lo yireisem ledaber b’avdi Moshe?” Why are you not afraid to speak about Moshe my servant? Our sages teach us that each of us possesses a spark of the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu. Therefore, the message that Miriam received, “Why are you not fearful of talking about my servant Moshe?” should reverberate in our ears before talking negatively of another Jew.
That is our ticket to redemption and celebrating the birthday of Moshiach. n
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
