The Original 9/11

By Michael Freund
The Jerusalem Post
July 17, 2002 

Tonight marks the beginning of Tisha B'Av, the fast day 
that so many people love to hate. It is hot, it is long, 
and, unlike Yom Kippur, the bulk of which is spent in the 
synagogue, there is little to keep us occupied until the 
fast is over. 

Furthermore, Tisha B'Av commemorates seemingly remote 
historical events - the destruction of the First and Second 
Temples in Jerusalem - that would appear to have little 
bearing on our daily lives, a fact that hardly makes 
forgoing food and water any easier. 

And, one might suggest, since Israel recaptured Jerusalem's 
Old City in 1967, liberating the Temple Mount and the Western 
Wall, why should we have to spend the day fasting and mourning? 
After all, didn't we get everything back?

The answer, quite simply, is one of perspective, both historical 
and national. Indeed, to better appreciate the meaning of the 
day, let's put it in modern terms. Tisha B'Av, it so happens, 
is the ninth day of the eleventh month on the Hebrew calendar, 
which means it is the original 9/11, the Jewish people's day of 
infamy.

"Ground zero" is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the two 
Temples stood before being sacked by the Babylonians and the 
Romans, centuries apart.

Jerusalem's skyline has never been the same since that fateful 
day, over 1900 years ago, when the emperor Vespasian's troops, 
led by his son Titus, set the Temple alight, mercilessly 
pillaging and ransacking the place where the Holy of Holies had 
stood. 

According to the historian Josephus, in Book 6, Chapter 9 of 
"The Jewish War", some 1.1 million Jews were murdered by the 
Romans during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and another 
97,000 were taken captive, many of whom were either sold into 
slavery or fed to the lions. 

It was the ancient equivalent of a Holocaust, one that devastated 
world Jewry both demographically and spiritually, shattering the 
Jewish commonwealth and sending its sons and daughters into an 
exile from which they have yet to fully return.

Practically overnight, Judaism's established order was dealt an 
enormous blow, as the daily sacrificial rites, the priestly 
service and the thrice-annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem were 
no longer possible.

Osama Bin-Laden attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 
because they symbolized America's financial and military might. 
Titus and Vespasian targeted the Temple because it embodied the 
Jewish people's spiritual strength and power. Despite the passage 
of nearly two millennia, it is a wound that has yet to heal.

And that is hardly surprising. For, the destruction of the Temple 
and the loss of Jewish sovereignty was a near-death experience 
for the nation of Israel, a blow that came perilously close to 
being fatal. Just as a person is unlikely to forget a harrowing 
brush with death, so a nation forever recalls the most traumatic 
moment in its history.

Thus, we continue to mourn. Not only for what happened back then, 
but also for what it still does to us today. 

The events of Tisha B'Av set the stage for the blood-soaked 
travails of the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora, across 
the length and breadth of history. Had the Jewish people not gone 
into Exile, then every tragedy over the past two millennia, 
every pogrom, every massacre, every blood libel and concentration 
camp, might very well have been averted. 

The fact that there are Jews living today in the Diaspora is 
because the Romans deported their ancestors long ago. Consequently, 
any Jew who abandons his identity or is otherwise lost to the 
Jewish people is a modern-day casualty of Tisha B'Av, making it 
an ongoing tragedy, even though our Roman foes disappeared 
long ago. 

And though our ancestors somehow survived the capture of Jerusalem, 
and the centuries of persecution that followed, we nevertheless 
owe it to all of those who did not to perpetuate and preserve 
their memory. 

When we sit down on the floor tonight, read the prophet Jeremiah's 
Book of Lamentations and deny ourselves food and drink, we are 
doing precisely that. We are mourning for the Temple and for 
Jerusalem, but we are also mourning over the current plight of 
our people. 

And if that is not worth commemorating, then what is?

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The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy 
Planning in the Prime Minister's Office from 1996 to 1999.