Why Tisha B’Av is still on our calendar

The Western Wall is where our people go to pray, to celebrate simchas, and to mourn the destruction of our Holy Temple. As next week we will mark Tisha B’Av, our national day of mourning, the Kotel will be the central point of our commemorations and prayers.

Once upon a time, there were some who wondered why we should still continue to mourn. After all, didn’t we have a sovereign state of Israel? Wasn’t Jerusalem united under Jewish rule?

But the fact is that no Israeli rabbi has ever suggested that Tisha B’Av be deleted from our calendar. Nor have the staunchest, most zealous Zionists ever proposed doing away with the custom of breaking a glass under the chupah. This tradition has always reminded us that our personal joy is incomplete until our nation’s joy is re-established. And that requires the total restoration of our national life, including a Jerusalem fully rebuilt.

Thank G-d, since 1967, we’re again able to visit the Western Wall. But every visit to the Kotel, as important as that sacred shrine may be, reminds us that it’s only a pitiful remnant of a glorious Temple that once stood inside those walls.

So, the reality is that although we have a Jewish state operating in our eternal homeland, the national state of exile is more than just geographical. Exile – galut – is a state of being, not a place on the map. Whether we live in Jerusalem or Johannesburg, we’re all in exile. Until the era of redemption arrives and the Temple is rebuilt, exile isn’t over. You might live in an apartment in the old city of Jerusalem overlooking the Western Wall but you, too, are in exile because the entire Jewish people is still in a state of exile.

Sure, it would have been wonderful if David Ben-Gurion’s announcement in 1948 spelled out not only a declaration of independence but also real, practical, and total independence. The truth, however, is that we’re far from independent.

We’re certainly not yet independent of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, or their supporters who threaten us daily and who declare brazenly that they would happily wipe us out if they could. Nor are we independent of the extreme pressure exerted on our leaders by our friends in Washington, London, and Paris.

When Jewish lives are being lost to terrorist armies, when rockets are still shot at Israel from north and south, and our neighbours are determined more than ever before to drive us into the sea, when they still deny us our basic legitimacy, and when world courts and the international media challenge our most basic right to defend our citizens, can we claim that we are really and truly independent?

Thank G-d we have the heroic and courageous Israel Defense Forces with an army, navy, and air force. Thank G-d they are fighting valiantly to thwart our mortal enemies’ murderous machinations. But true independence means that our national security is no longer threatened, and that a genuine and lasting peace has been achieved.

No wonder Moshiach is called the “messenger of peace”. Who else can we turn to for that long-awaited dream? Politicians? America? The United Nations? The European Union? None of the above inspire any confidence whatsoever.

And so, unless Moshiach comes before next Monday night, we still observe Tisha B’Av. And we’ll still fast and sit on low chairs in the manner of mourners. We’ll mourn the destruction of our Temple and the state of exile it created. And we’ll pray for the full return to Jewish sovereignty and total independence from our enemies, even from our so-called friends. We’ll yearn for the time when terror will finally be vanquished, and our children will feel safe and secure. May that time be now. Amen!

Rabbi Yossy Goldman is life rabbi emeritus at Sydenham Shul and president of the South African Rabbinical Association.