Of Memory, Meaning, and the Enduring Message of the Ninth of Av

This year, Monday night August 12 to Tuesday night August 13 marks the 9th of Av in the Hebrew calendar. Among traditionally observant Jews, it is a day of mourning (including fasting), commemorating tragedies of the collective Jewish experience. The date is associated with the destruction of the First and Second Temples, in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., respectively. In addition to those events, a series of subsequent, tragic episodes in Jewish history at various times and places is also recalled on the 9th of Av.  

Though the events remembered on Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) are historical, the focus of the day is memory, not history. “History,” writes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “ is about facts; memory is about identity.” Put otherwise, history is an attempt to reconstruct what happened; memory is about meaning making.  

In considering the underlying causes of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the sages of the Talmud taught that, in the first case, Jews collectively transgressed cardinal precepts of the Torah, engaging in the idolatries of the time. In the case of the Second Temple, they pointed to baseless hatred among and between Jews as the root cause of the Temple’s destruction. Remembering these things is to serve as a collective call to positive action. 

In the annual cycle of Torah study, reading the Book of Deuteronomy begins during the days before Tisha B’Av. Deuteronomy consists of the closing addresses of Moses in the final weeks of his life to the Israelites who are soon to enter the land of Israel. He reminds them of the imperative of teaching successive generations of their collective experiences and of the commandments of the Torah. The prophetic reading for the shabbat before the 9th of Av is the first chapter of Isaiah. The prophet points to the incongruity of performing ritual acts while perverting justice and ignoring those in need. “Zion will be redeemed with justice (mishpat),” the prophet Isaiah pronounces.

Mishpat (justice) comes from the Hebrew word shofet, judge. Commitment to actions that are just and right can sometimes mean acting in ways that differ from prevailing norms or worldviews. A rabbinic comment (midrash) suggests that Abraham was called ha’ivri “the Hebrew,” because “all the world was on one side (be’ever ehad) and he was on the other” (Genesis Rabbah 42:8).  

In every generation, the descendants of Abraham are summoned “to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19). The Torah is the lens through which successive generations of Jews understand and give expression in action to this enduring call. Today, more than ever, we owe it to ourselves, our children, and the world of which we are part, to engage with texts and teachings of a tradition that can guide us in the direction of righteousness and justice. It is, as Isaiah recognized more than 2700 years ago, nothing less than the starting point of redemption.