 | Our long, luxurious summer continues, yet already change is afoot. This month brings the Great Turning of Judaism's spiritual year. It's something that maybe many of us never knew in our Jewish lives. The Great Turning runs like a background program – just under the surface, animating the flow of spiritual time. It heralds hope from despair and resilience from the bottom of a well ... ... which is exactly what we need right now. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Happy August, Shir Ami! I hope you've been enjoying this bright and beautiful summer.
By the time this Rabbi's Corner column appears in the August 1 newsletter, plans for our Repentance & Repair series will be ready. Plans for the High Holy Days will start picking up speed. Whether we steeped in Judaism as kids, rediscover(ed) Judaism as adults, chose Judaism long ago or are choosing Judaism now, tradition's ancient calling soon will stir. A quickening flow of time and energy will lift us up and through the Season of Meaning awaiting us.
But the Great Turning comes sooner. This year, on August 12-13, will be Tisha b'Av – a day of such devastation and loss that most liberal Jews don't commemorate it. Yet even this day that many don't commemorate wields profound background power.
I dedicate this month's Rabbi's Corner column to the geopolitics, emotions and spirituality of this pivotal mid-August day, and how we'll use it (even in not commemorating it traditionally) to launch our runway into the High Holy Days of 5785.
The Backstory: From Spirituality to History
As I wrote in my very first Shir Ami column laying out the Jewish calendar's organic flow to Rosh Hashanah, its spirituality reflects history, and both are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and particularly the Jewish spirit.
Happy August, Shir Ami! I hope you've been enjoying this bright and beautiful summer.
By the time this Rabbi's Corner column appears in the August 1 newsletter, plans for our Repentance & Repair series will be ready. Plans for the High Holy Days will start picking up speed. Whether we steeped in Judaism as kids, rediscover(ed) Judaism as adults, chose Judaism long ago or are choosing Judaism now, tradition's ancient calling soon will stir. A quickening flow of time and energy will lift us up and through the Season of Meaning awaiting us.
But the Great Turning comes sooner. This year, on August 12-13, will be Tisha b'Av – a day of such devastation and loss that most liberal Jews don't commemorate it. Yet even this day that many don't commemorate wields profound background power.
I dedicate this month's Rabbi's Corner column to the geopolitics, emotions and spirituality of this pivotal mid-August day, and how we'll use it (even in not commemorating it traditionally) to launch our runway into the High Holy Days of 5785.
The Backstory: From Spirituality to History
As I wrote in my very first Shir Ami column laying out the Jewish calendar's organic flow to Rosh Hashanah, its spirituality reflects history, and both are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and particularly the Jewish spirit.
In the year 70 CE, on the 17th day of Tammuz (this year, corresponding to July 22-23), Roman forces breached Jerusalem's walls. Like Babylonians before them in 586 BCE, Rome was intent on total control of the Land of Israel. And like the Babylonians, Rome's way to assert total control was to destroy the Temple, the political and spiritual heart of the Jewish people.
Three weeks later, on the 9th day of Av (Tisha b'Av – this year, corresponding to August 12-13), Rome destroyed the Temple and with it Israelite autonomy. The last fleeing Jewish fighters died at Masada, taking their own lives rather than be slaves to Rome. Thus began 1,800 years of Jewish exile, privation, discrimination and mass murder. Only with the modern State of Israel in 1948, from the Holocaust's ashes, did Jews renew sovereignty.
Judaism might well have disappeared after the Temple's destruction. Against all odds, Judaism survived and thrived by transforming. That you read these words, the fact that Judaism still exists at all, is a testament to Jewish resilience.
The Transformation: From History to Spirituality
Surviving and thriving amidst all couldn't have happened without making meaning of the destruction and exile, and finding ways for community and spirituality to continue without a central Temple. History drove new spirituality. The breach of Jerusalem's walls on 17 Tammuz would be cast as a breach of our inner walls that grew back since last year. The Three Weeks from 17 Tammuz to 9 Av would be cast as a time of expectant anxiety, our annual descent into stuff in our core that we know is there but don't want to see – a prelude to the teshuvah journey of repentance and repair. Tisha b'Av, the Jewish year's lowest day, became tradition's impetus to let ourselves (and even force ourselves to) feel what we most hold at bay, for we must feel in order to empower.
That day's brokenness inspired tradition's teaching God goes with us into exile and comforts us so we can journey forward into the new year. The descent of the Three Weeks leads to the Great Turn of Tisha b'Av. Descent inverts to ascent: it's why our Repentance & Repair series starts during the last hours of Tisha b'Av – the Great Turning toward spiritual ascent.
A crude physical analogy: Pick up any object to toss underhand, and slowly begin your hand movement to toss it. You'll notice that nobody can throw underhanded without first lowering their hand: lowering the hand is necessary to toss the object upward. Jewish spirituality teaches likewise. A tree can grow tall only with deep roots: depth must precede height. To truly do teshuvah, first we must descend into ourselves before we can rise higher.
Three weeks later, on the 9th day of Av (Tisha b'Av – this year, corresponding to August 12-13), Rome destroyed the Temple and with it Israelite autonomy. The last fleeing Jewish fighters died at Masada, taking their own lives rather than be slaves to Rome. Thus began 1,800 years of Jewish exile, privation, discrimination and mass murder. Only with the modern State of Israel in 1948, from the Holocaust's ashes, did Jews renew sovereignty.
Judaism might well have disappeared after the Temple's destruction. Against all odds, Judaism survived and thrived by transforming. That you read these words, the fact that Judaism still exists at all, is a testament to Jewish resilience.
The Transformation: From History to Spirituality
Surviving and thriving amidst all couldn't have happened without making meaning of the destruction and exile, and finding ways for community and spirituality to continue without a central Temple. History drove new spirituality. The breach of Jerusalem's walls on 17 Tammuz would be cast as a breach of our inner walls that grew back since last year. The Three Weeks from 17 Tammuz to 9 Av would be cast as a time of expectant anxiety, our annual descent into stuff in our core that we know is there but don't want to see – a prelude to the teshuvah journey of repentance and repair. Tisha b'Av, the Jewish year's lowest day, became tradition's impetus to let ourselves (and even force ourselves to) feel what we most hold at bay, for we must feel in order to empower.
That day's brokenness inspired tradition's teaching God goes with us into exile and comforts us so we can journey forward into the new year. The descent of the Three Weeks leads to the Great Turn of Tisha b'Av. Descent inverts to ascent: it's why our Repentance & Repair series starts during the last hours of Tisha b'Av – the Great Turning toward spiritual ascent.
A crude physical analogy: Pick up any object to toss underhand, and slowly begin your hand movement to toss it. You'll notice that nobody can throw underhanded without first lowering their hand: lowering the hand is necessary to toss the object upward. Jewish spirituality teaches likewise. A tree can grow tall only with deep roots: depth must precede height. To truly do teshuvah, first we must descend into ourselves before we can rise higher.
Our seven-week "Repentance and Repair" series will map to our seven-week runway from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashanah – our ascent into the 5785 Season of Meaning. Materials will draw from R. Danya Ruttenberg's eponymous book, plus traditional and modern spiritual teachings about actually doing teshuvah – the repentance and repair of this season. Some of our learning will be "frontal," some discussion, and some with R. Danya herself.
I look forward to sharing this series with you, and to the Season of Meaning ahead. May these weeks, the anxiety of these times, our learning and the rest of this beautiful summer be for the sake of ascent into a sweet new year for us and all our loved ones.
I look forward to sharing this series with you, and to the Season of Meaning ahead. May these weeks, the anxiety of these times, our learning and the rest of this beautiful summer be for the sake of ascent into a sweet new year for us and all our loved ones.
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