Parshat Devarim Schedule

Weekly Words of Torah

To A Noteworthy Tisha B’Av

Insights into Tisha B’Av by our Recording Secretary, Phillip Vedol.

I see the visitors and tourists approaching the Kotel from the southern walkway, viewing the rhythmic arrangement of stones and mortar as they walk. As is the norm for most, non-frequent guests rend their garments in mourning of the destruction of the Temple. After entering the Kotel Plaza, some recite Tehillim while sitting on stone benches mounted at the rear court; others pray Mincha as they lean against the Wall, reaching their hands, impossibly, for the Wall’s ledge; and not to leave out those who deposit folded notes of request in between the aged off-white Jerusalem stones. Some who remain, opt to join a guide through the archaic tunnels adjacent the Wall, with an entrance opening from southern ward.

The tour guide’s first significant pause is to develop the historical background of the Temple Mount as followers surround models of the pre-existing, present-day, and yet to come sites of Har HaBayit. Afterwards, the crowd walks through the tunnels as they learn more about the construction of the walls and the underground thoroughfare, examining the surroundings with bulging eyes and curious hands–especially the children. Led slowly, they arrive at a slab of concrete, mismatched against the natural stone, where many recite verses of Tehillim as another remembrance of the Bet HaMikdash’s temporary loss. As the group continues to the end of the tour, the scent of mildew sours the air where walls are cascaded with stains of green on white. The audience is told about the twenty-five-hundred year old reservoir that remains functional to this day. Final questions are asked to the guide before exiting into the northwestern courtyard located in the Arab Quarter, where the visitors are met by armed Israeli soldiers who escort them through the dreary, unkempt, shopping area and, finally, delivering them to the southern walkway of the Kotel.

As for those who participated in the tour ponder a meaning of Tisha B’Av and why to lament on this day, perhaps the tourists can recall their attention to the halfway point of the tour: the slab of cement. According to geological atlases, behind there lies the Kadashei HaKodashism, the Holy of Holies, where the Kohen Gadol is to enter every Yom Kippur to atone for B’nei Yisrael’s sins of the prior year. Today, they are not privileged to carry out this duty, for there is a block. The people, they are blocked; blocked spiritually from a closer relationship with G-d — that slab of cement is a tangible reminder of our disconnectedness. The Gemara states ‘That every generation in which the Bet HaMikdash is not rebuilt, it is as though that generation destroyed it.’ Today, the incineration continues to blaze, figuratively, as a result our generation’s actions, or inactions. And as a continuing call, today, this day begs us to ponder our yoke of responsibility for adding to this estranged relationship. This is why we cry.

May this Tisha B’Av be memorable and significant.