Let's face it: Israeli children know almost nothing about Tisha B'Av. This is also true of the counting of the Omer, and this, we must honestly admit, applies to too many basic concepts in Jewish history and heritage. Tisha B'Av always "falls" during the summer vacation, which is a wonderful excuse, but the truth is even sadder: we adults know too little about the legends of destruction. I am embarrassed to reveal publicly at what age I was exposed to stories about Kamtza and Bar Kamtza and Rabbi Zechariah ben Abacules – stories that do not come up in the public debate, but whose message must resonate powerfully in the consciousness of every Israeli.
For some reason, even in history lessons about the revolt and the destruction of the Temples, the question is rarely asked: How can we get to burn barns? How is it possible, when the external enemy is literally knocking on the gates of the house, to sink into an internal war that consumes everyone, and therefore also the dispute?
The State of Israel was established, among other things, on the ruins of the extermination camps. Our founding fathers, quite simply, were close to the event. Chronological, emotional, familial. Finally, after a period of silencing and shame, they instilled their anxieties and Holocaust lessons in the education system. Even today we teach, send our children to Poland and try to remind ourselves of the lessons of the Holocaust. We do not always excel in their implementation, but are justifiably shocked when they carry her name in vain and degrade her memory. No more external annihilation. That is what we have determined, and so it will be.
But today we are paying the price for the fact that, alongside the collective trauma from foreign enemies, we did not take care to assimilate the historical tragedy of civil war. The danger of domestic annihilation that arose in the loss of sovereignty is not as seared as the Holocaust in our flesh and soul. We dealt extensively with the mood that led to the rise of Nazism, but we learned nothing about the process that led the Jewish people to internal collapse. And so suddenly, these days, the terrifying gallop to self-destruction and the burning of barns is broadcast live.
As a woman and as the CEO of the Traditional Movement, I think that the current government is acting aggressively. This is perhaps the most dangerous government imaginable for a life of pluralism, equality and democracy. And yet, in the same breath: there must be a way to deal with this without completely dismantling the State of Israel, causing the loss of all of us and therefore also the loss of Jewish division in this country.
The first step on the road to correction, and we must believe that it can be corrected, must be to pass on the story of the destruction and the psychological process that led to it in the formal and informal education system. Elected officials, led by the Minister of Education, must instill this painful history in the education system to such an extent that in a decade or two there will not be anyone passing through school, university, the army and any framework of the State of Israel who will not know the legends of the destruction of the Temple. Perhaps this way we and future generations will be able to argue about what the Third Temple looks like without undermining its foundations.
Jewish DNA is steeped in trauma and paved with domestic and external vulnerability. For too many years we have focused on external calamities. The time has come to remember and remind ourselves of those we caused ourselves, so that we will not write the next legend of destruction ourselves.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us