Bee's Note: I read Jeff's amazing article last week and wanted his observations to be one of the first posted this week for the benefit of all who may have missed it last Friday. Without further comment, please read (and weep):
This Saturday evening begins Tisha B' Av (the 9th of the Jewish month of Av). Since the time of Moses and the exodus-through modern times, horrible things have happened to the Jewish people on or around the 9th day of Av. Generally not recognized is the fact that the President of the United States, Barack Obama has a eerie connection to this sad day.
Tisha B' Av is one of only two full day (27 hour) fasts on the Jewish Calendar, the other being Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is considered a happy fast, Tisha B'Av is a sad mournful fast. You see, this is a day of great tragedy. While the day centers around the loss of the two Temples. they are only two of the horrible things which have occurred on Judaism's saddest day.
As a kid I would cry at the drop of the hat, my mom would tell me that if I continued to cry she would give me something real to cry about. My Mom however, wasn't the first to use that phrase, it was God who invented it, and he invented it on Tisha B'Av
When Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, ten of them came back with a report that the land was unconquerable and the fledgling Israeli nation could never defeat those Canaanite giants. This report caused cries throughout the Israelite settlement, they begged Moses to take them back to Egypt.
Just a short time after they witnessed all those miracles; the ten plagues that gave them freedom, the splitting of the Reed Sea, the revelation at Sinai when they received the Ten Commandments, the newly freed slaves lost their faith in God, and his promise to help them conquer the land. They were afraid and wanted to go back into bondage.
God's response was not only the generation that knew slavery would die out in the desert, but that Tisha B'Av will be a horrible day for the Jews until the coming of the Messiah. In other words, like my mom God would give the Jews something to cry about.
From that day forward, horrible things happened to the Jewish people on or around Tisha B'Av. Some of them include:
Tisha B'Av became the saddest day in the Jewish calendar because we didn't trust God and his promise to give us the land of Israel. In a way our collective egos were too big. After witnessing all of those miracles, the nascent Jewish people felt they knew better than God and didn't believe that he would keep his promise.
Thirty-five hundred years later we are still weighted down by our large egos. Many American Jewish leaders seek to gain favor from an anti-Israel President who became famous on Tisha B'av. Jewish organizations, such as the ADL and the Conservative Jewish movement have put progressive politics in front of their Jewish objectives, thus worshiping the "Golden Calf of big government."
Democrats who were once seen as Israel supporters refuse to stand up to this President and his policies designed to de-legitimize the Jewish State. There is some hope the polls show the Jewish Vote is slowly drifting away from this anti-Israel President.
Thirty-five hundred years ago, Israel said they could not conquer the land and were punished. Today many Jews still show no faith in God and God's promise, even worse they support a President (who has his own ties to Tisha B'av) who would become an even bigger disaster for the Jewish State should he (God-forbid) be re-elected. Remember what Obama said to Mevedev, " I will have more flexibility in a second term." While he wasn't talking about Israel, that flexibility would apply to her also. Remember how he is trying to hide his policy regarding Israel, how just yesterday his press secretary Jay Carney refused to define the administration's policy regarding Israel's Capital.
On this Tisha B'Av, as well as every other day, I will pray that my Jewish brethren wake up before November.
Tisha B' Av is one of only two full day (27 hour) fasts on the Jewish Calendar, the other being Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is considered a happy fast, Tisha B'Av is a sad mournful fast. You see, this is a day of great tragedy. While the day centers around the loss of the two Temples. they are only two of the horrible things which have occurred on Judaism's saddest day.
As a kid I would cry at the drop of the hat, my mom would tell me that if I continued to cry she would give me something real to cry about. My Mom however, wasn't the first to use that phrase, it was God who invented it, and he invented it on Tisha B'Av
When Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, ten of them came back with a report that the land was unconquerable and the fledgling Israeli nation could never defeat those Canaanite giants. This report caused cries throughout the Israelite settlement, they begged Moses to take them back to Egypt.
Just a short time after they witnessed all those miracles; the ten plagues that gave them freedom, the splitting of the Reed Sea, the revelation at Sinai when they received the Ten Commandments, the newly freed slaves lost their faith in God, and his promise to help them conquer the land. They were afraid and wanted to go back into bondage.
From that day forward, horrible things happened to the Jewish people on or around Tisha B'Av. Some of them include:
- The First Temple was destroyed
- The Second Temple was destroyed
- Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome failed
- Roman general Turnus Rufus ordered that the Temple area and its surroundings were to be plowed-under. Jerusalem was to be rebuilt as a pagan city – renamed Aelia Capitolina – and
access was forbidden to Jews.
- In 1290 King Edward I expelled the Jews from England
- In 1492 the deadline for Jews to leave Spain, Convert or Die
- The beginning of WWI –which lead directly to the rise of Hitler
- 1941 Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to make all the necessary preparations for the Final Solution.
- The first transports reached Treblinka and the extermination of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto began on July 23, 1942, Tisha B'av
- In 1955 El Al Flight 402 was shot down over Bulgarian airspace on the 8th of Av.
- The AMIA Bombing (Asociación Mutua Israelita Argentina) by terrorists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 86 and wounded more than 120, was on July 18, 1994, the 10th of Av.
- In 2004, Barack Obama Gave the Keynote speech at the Democratic Convention on Tisha B'av and was crowned the heir apparent of the Democratic Party. He has proven to be the most anti-Israel President ever.
- The Disengagement from Gaza began on the 10th of Av 2005, leading to years of rocket bombardment from Hamas into Israel.
- 2009? President Obama sends Robert Gates to Israel in his first of many attempts dissuade the Jewish State from carrying out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. Three years ago as of today, the US preached patience while Iran inches closer to Atomic Weapons. Earlier that week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Israel that it would be place under the United States' nuclear umbrella, meaning if the Iranians used nuclear weapons against Israel, the US would retaliate with its nukes (wouldn't that be too late?)
Tisha B'Av became the saddest day in the Jewish calendar because we didn't trust God and his promise to give us the land of Israel. In a way our collective egos were too big. After witnessing all of those miracles, the nascent Jewish people felt they knew better than God and didn't believe that he would keep his promise.
Thirty-five hundred years later we are still weighted down by our large egos. Many American Jewish leaders seek to gain favor from an anti-Israel President who became famous on Tisha B'av. Jewish organizations, such as the ADL and the Conservative Jewish movement have put progressive politics in front of their Jewish objectives, thus worshiping the "Golden Calf of big government."
Democrats who were once seen as Israel supporters refuse to stand up to this President and his policies designed to de-legitimize the Jewish State. There is some hope the polls show the Jewish Vote is slowly drifting away from this anti-Israel President.
Thirty-five hundred years ago, Israel said they could not conquer the land and were punished. Today many Jews still show no faith in God and God's promise, even worse they support a President (who has his own ties to Tisha B'av) who would become an even bigger disaster for the Jewish State should he (God-forbid) be re-elected. Remember what Obama said to Mevedev, " I will have more flexibility in a second term." While he wasn't talking about Israel, that flexibility would apply to her also. Remember how he is trying to hide his policy regarding Israel, how just yesterday his press secretary Jay Carney refused to define the administration's policy regarding Israel's Capital.
On this Tisha B'Av, as well as every other day, I will pray that my Jewish brethren wake up before November.
