Parshat Vaetchanan  15 Av 5761, 4 August 2001

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - The Sabbath following the bleak, black fast of Tisha B'Av is called Shabbat Nachamu (literally the Sabbath of "You shall be comforted,"), after the opening words of the liturgically ordained Prophetic Reading (Haftorah): "You shall be comforted, you shall be comforted, My nation, says your G-d" (Isaiah 40:1). As a consequence of these uplifting words, as well as an expression of relief and release after the "heavy" meat-less, party-less, barber-less period which has just passed, this Sabbath has always been one of consummate joy and even celebratory social interaction between young men and women looking forward to a better next year. But how can the prophet Isaiah command Jews in every generation, "Be comforted," "Feel optimistic," "Think up-beat"? Especially in times of stress such as almost daily terrorist attacks and the necessity for bullet-proof buses and vests whenever one sets out from Efrat to Jerusalem, how can we be commanded: "Don't worry, be happy"?! The Torah can rightfully ordain specific actions, but how can it command moods and attitudes?

Furthermore, the prophet Zecharia declares about the fast of the Ninth day of Av, (Tisha B'Av, anniversary of the destruction of the Holy Temple): "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: the fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month (Av, the ninth of Av), the fast of the seventh month and the fast of the tenth month shall be for the House of Judah (days of) rejoicing, happiness and Festivals - however, only when, you learn to love truth and peace (Zecharia 8:19). But how can Tisha B'Av become a festival? Our Festivals are marked by unique and even miraculous - and always joyous - events which occurred on specific days which the Torah wanted us to eternalize; the sanctity of the day is formed by the Divine miracles which the Almighty wrought for our ancestors "in those days, but at this time (in the calendar)". How can and why should we eternalize the day of most horrific destruction for our people? What can be the possible justification for endowing such a day with the inherent sanctity of a Jewish Festival - like Pesach and Sukkot, Purim and Hanukkah?

I believe the answer to both questions emanates from a careful study of the Torah reading for Tisha B'Av, a passage taken from this week's portion of Vaetchanan. Moses is presenting his farewell address to the Israelites before his passing from the scene and prior to their entry into the Promised Land. His words include a remarkable prophecy of the future history of his nation, as well as his unadulterated statement of faith in the invincibility and eternity of the children of the Divine Covenant. Yes, admits Moses, after several generations in the Promised Land you will act evilly in the eyes of the Lord; your punishment will be exile, and - as to be expected - a minority nation scattered from pillar to post, wandering amongst larger entities of rapacious idolaters at worst and immoral Gentiles at best, will naturally assimilate into the majority culture and descend into idolatry and impurity (Deuteronomy 4:25-28). From every logical, historical and sociological perspective, Israel should have ceased to exist as a separate ethnic entity if not after their first exile of fifty years in Babylon-Persia, then certainly after the first one-hundred years of the second exile which lasted almost 20 centuries, forcing small groups of Jews to seek safe havens from persecution in areas as distant from each other as Ethiopia and Australia.

But Moses foretold that the Israelites would never disappear as a separate nation with a unique mission, despite the improbability of such endurance and continued existence in defiance of all of world history. Indeed, the very Bible which "never promises us a rose-garden" - much the opposite, catalogues exile and persecution for its "chosen people" who all too often sell, pervert, or simply disregard its birthright - does promise us continued survival and ultimate redemption. Moses guarantees: "And you shall seek out the Lord your G-d from the (depths of your exile) - and you shall find Him ... When you are in narrow straits of tragedy, all of these (Divine) words will find you at the end of the days, and you shall return to the Lord your G-d and listen to His voice" (Deuteronomy 4:29, 30).

These four-thousand-year old prophetic words assumed profound significance for me when I found myself in Moscow in the fall of 1970, during one of the most bitter periods of Communist repression of Jews and Judaism. The Lubavitcher Rebbe had sent me on a mission to open four underground Yeshivot in Moscow, Leningrad, Riga and Vilna. During my first day in the Evil Empire, I met Lunya Rigerman, by then already a committed Jew whose Communist parents had made their "aliyah" to the Soviet Union in 1932 from Allerton Road in the Bronx. He helped me immeasurably to understand the plight of Soviet Jewry, he has since been most active in the Voice of America, and now he has children and grandchildren studying Torah. "How did you find your lost Judaism?" I asked him. "It found me", he replied, and went on to explain how, as a young physicist spending time in the library, he began idly leafing through an English Bible in a Moscow Library (the Communists would never permit a Russian Bible) and read of Joseph's search for his brothers. He realized in a sudden epiphany that he too was searching for his brothers - and in order to find them, he ran to the Main synagogue on Arkipova Street which he had never entered before (His Communist parents hadn't even allowed him a bar mitzvah). To his surprise, there was long "matzah" line in front of the entrance door - since it was the day before Passover - and for the first time he heard of the seder celebration of freedom and of matzah as "freedom-bread". When he reported to the Physics lab the next morning, he was informed that he was fired - a seeing-eye camera had picked up every individual under retirement age who collected a matzah and reported him to the Communist authorities. Lunye lost his job but found his Jewish vocation - and begun a new odyssey towards freedom and Judaism. As Moses promised, "the Divine words found him."

The reason, explains Moses, is indubitably clear. "It is because the Lord is a compassionate G-d, who will never forsake or destroy you; He does not forget the (eternal) covenant He swore to your fathers" (Deuteronomy 4:31). The Ninth of Av is a sacred and joyous day despite the Temple destructions - because we survived and continue to flourish in defiance of exile and persecution! It is a symbol not so much of our vulnerability as it is of our eternity. And our tradition commands us to be comforted because it guarantees our eventual redemption - as we have begun to experience in our own day. Despite our pressures and tensions, there is no generation of Jews in the last two thousand years which would not gladly have changed places with us. Ours is the great privilege of having witnessed the beginning of the fruition of Moses' prophecy.

Shabbat Shalom.

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