Dog DNA and Tisha B’Av

Even as I close in on becoming a septuagenarian, my routine on most days entails a morning physical workout run.  It is a habit acquired from my high school days as a Cross-Country letterman. No gym memberships or treadmills (although sometimes the public exercise equipment in the public parks of my city is put to use), just a good run outdoors.  In that way, I have familiarized myself with many neighborhoods of Petach Tikva.  No two workout routines are the same; in fact, at I try at least once per week to run along or through a theretofore unfamiliar street, alleyway, path, or park.  In doing my workout routine, I have mentally noted the locations of the public drinking fountains in order to maintain proper hydration.

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Of course, I did not do my workout run this past Tisha B’Av.  The ninth day of the month of Av is, of course, a very sad and mournful day of the Hebrew calendar.  Both the First Temple and the Second Temple were destroyed on that day.  Other tragedies occurred on the ninth of Av in other years, including the expulsion of Jews from England, Germany entered World War I, Himmler’s so-called “Final Solution” of exterminating the Jewish people was approved, beginning of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto being deported to the Treblinka death camp, et cetera.

But all of these tragic occurrences are traceable back to the incident of the spies sent by Moses to scout out the Promised Land.  Of the 12 spies sent, all except for Caleb and Joshua came back with a negative report about the land.  It became clear that the generation that departed from Egypt was not ready to take charge of the Land of Israel, and that a new generation needed to mature.  And so, the Jewish people wandered about in the desert for 40 years before Joshua led them into the land that Moses was privileged to only view from afar.

It is clear that we need to start talking positively about the Land given to us by G-d.  But merely saying nice things will not suffice; we need to treat our Holy Land for the special place it is.  History has conclusively shown that whether agriculturally or economically, the land can only prosper when it is in the hands of the Jewish people.

In such regard, on every one of my workout runs I encounter trash and other detritus on the streets and in parks; often only a few meters away from a trash disposal receptacle.  People throw litter into the streets and in the parks and on the beaches!  They take the attitude that someone from the city will come along at least once per week to sweep it all up!

For my part, every time I walk through a park, I will pick up a piece of litter and dispose of it into a trash receptacle; even if it is only a cigarette butt, I am then able to say that I left that park in better condition than it was when I entered it.

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While dogs and their owners do exceptionally well in Tel Aviv, my home city of Petach Tikva is also very dog-friendly.  There are plenty of pet supply and veterinarian establishments.  There are also many dog parks, some of which are being named in memory of military dogs who fell in Gaza.  I count at least five families in my building who have dogs as pets.

Dog park in Petach Tikva named in memory of “Toy,” an IDF dog who fell in Gaza.

Most of the dog owners in Petach Tikva take good care of their dogs.  Unfortunately, some fail to clean up after their dogs when their dogs do what dogs do, despite the wide availability of plastic bags in bag dispensers in our city’s parks (even the people parks in addition to the dog parks).  The problem has become so widespread that Petach Tikva has begun a program of requiring dog owners to submit a sample of their dog’s DNA so that any unremoved dog droppings can be traced to a particular dog.

This is all well and good, but the problem extends beyond doggie DNA; as with the destruction of our Temples and the other tragedies of Tisha B’Av, the problem sprouts from our holding in low regard our beautiful and precious Land of Israel.

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