Tisha B'Av

Rabbi Haim Lifshitz

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Tisha B'Av:
The Fast of the Ninth of Av

 Translated from Hebrew by DR. S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai
L'ILUI NISHMAT MAYER HIRSH BEN LAIBEL

A number of differences separate the fast of Tisha B'Av from the Day of Atonement: The former is a day of mourning; the latter is a day of turning inward. The former mourns the loss of the capacity for doing; the latter turns inward for the purpose of rearranging one's existence. The first transpires at the level of “Doing,” whereas the second transpires at the level of “Being.” Tisha B'Av is the mourning over Jerusalem, over the Sanctuary, over the Land. A “Belonging to” that has been lost, and with it, its complement, “Freedom,” has been lost as well. We mourn the loss of the system of existence itself, in the sense of the loss of our ability to practically implement existence - a loss of the products of existence. We mourn having failed the test of ability. This mourning is intended to awaken our awareness of a disconnection between our “Being,” and our “Doing,” so that we might seek out the practical, real-world, value-driven causes behind phenomena, and seek to answer the question: “For what reason has the Lord done so, to this Land?” Mourning does not include any message that might undermine the intrinsic value of existence in the realm of “Being,” the intrinsic value of a human being as an unfolding experience and as an essential substance. Only the “Belonging to” status of the one who would serve God – has been damaged. We are facing the fact that we have not been successful at producing results. For this reason, “whoever mourns the destruction of Jerusalem, will merit the celebration of her rebirth.” Mourning is the tangible reality of the negative response that results from recognition of the loss of a positive reality. This explains the importance, in principle, of mourning as recognition of a vital and non-severable connection – a recognition of the connection between “Being” and “Doing” as a single entity that cannot tolerate division. Whoever mourns, testifies that he is attached to life, and that he is mourning over what is no longer living. Whover fails to mourn the passing of another, or if a scholar who has passed away is not eulogized adequately, this testifies to a lack in one's experience of life: “Better the living dog than the dead lion,” who is not connected to life, to the value of life, to “Being.”

An additional principle arises out of the differences between Tisha B'Av and the Day of Atonement. In the mourning of Tisha B'Av, the individual is identifying with the past and with the group, whereas Yom Kippur is a return to one's own self's existential reality.

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