Remembering

Good Morning Everyone,

This morning we went for a three mile walk on city streets in Sonoma Ranch with our friends, Allen and Eve.  It was a good walk: downhill out, uphill back. So, by the time we got back to their house the sweat was pouring from us. It wasn't that it was particularly hot...we began our walk at 6:30 AM.  It was simply humid.  We are desert people and not quite used to such humidity as we have been experiencing of late.

 

We are approaching Tisha B'Av, the ninth of the Jewish month of Av (begins evening of the 9th of August, concludes evening of August 10th ). This is a day of fasting and mourning.  We are to remember the many losses that occurred on this day, the destruction of the Temple...both times, as well as other tragedies.  Of what value is mourning?  Of what value is fasting?

 

We are asked to remember.  Always to remember.  I picked up a grey wrist band at the El Paso Holocaust museum recently.  It is emblazened with one word, "Remember!" It would seem that our practice as Jews is to remember.  The thing about remembrance is that it seems to collapse time in on itself. Acts of oppression, hate and cruelty, take place on a daily basis in our world.  By remembering, we learn that there is both a history to suffering and a history to survival.: both are contemporaneous.  As I mourn for the loss of the Temple, mourn for the loss of our land and expulsion into the diaspora, I also know that I am here now.  

 

Fasting is a way of separating ourselves from the consumption we have become accustomed to.  We live in a land of plenty, no doubt. Yet plenty should not define us.  We are so much more than what we have. By fasting, we remind ourselves of this fact.

 

Not everyone can fast.  Our practice should incorporate this reality. We set aside joy during this time.  We experience loss.  This is the most important thing.

 

Our people have survived and thrived in spite of our history..  We continue to be a remarkable people, made stronger for our trials.  Too often the phrase "stiff-necked people"  has been understood as if it were wrong to be so.  I am not so sure. I think sometimes that God abandons us on purpose, not so much to make us suffer, but more for us to learn to survive.  So, as we mourn our losses, know that to do so is to also honor our survival.

 

Be well.