On Tisha B’Av, facing a moment of reckoning
For several years now on Tisha B’Av, I’ve found myself returning to a single theme: how the Jewish people built a profoundly different future after unbelievable loss.
Two thousand years ago, when our ancestors faced the destruction of the holy Temple, they mourned and lamented. But then they got to work re-envisioning society. Crafting a new paradigm, they replaced the sacrificial system and built a Judaism centered on learning, prayer, and mitzvot. The religion we practice today is defined by how our ancestors reimagined Judaism in the wake of destruction.
We are facing a similar moment of reckoning now.
Eight months ago, as Donald Trump prepared to return to the presidency, we thought we were ready. But the waves of destruction have been beyond what we imagined. Every day brings a new assault, from a different corner of the government, targeting another group of vulnerable Americans. The cruelty, wanton disregard for legal norms and democratic institutions, and vile rhetoric of this Administration have understandably left many of us exhausted – even disoriented.
Much has been written in recent months about not simply returning to things as they were. This is, of course, true. But let’s be honest. It can be hard to find the optimism or creativity right now to envision and build a meaningful alternative to the status quo.
In my own work on climate justice, I have seen years of organizing washed away in an instant. Republicans in Congress, cowed by Trump and bolstered by fossil fuel interests, repealed hard won and desperately needed investments in clean energy – our only path to a sustainable future.
We’ve seen cruelty towards immigrants, erasure of racial justice and DEI, elimination of life saving programs in the developing world and here in America, defunding of science and take down of higher education, and the decimation of reproductive health care.
It is not just that the Temple walls are tumbling down, so to speak. The very foundations of our nation are being hollowed out by our own elected officials. That the recent bill stripping away funds for climate passed while children were literally drowning in Texas from climate induced floods is almost too much to fathom.
That this week the EPA – the institution charged with “protecting human health and environment” – announced it is tossing out the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions released by fossil fuels cause harm is a threat to the very idea of the public good.
On Tisha B’Av, we are in touch with what it means to despair in the midst of destruction. In the book of Lamentations, we read: My eyes are spent with tears, / My heart is in tumult, / My being melts away / Over the ruin of my poor people / As children languish…. (Lamentation 2:11)
So let us weep. Let us gevalt and doomscroll. Let us be simultaneously stunned and no longer shocked as we enumerate the newest horrors. Let us talk about how angry and worried and tired we are.
But then we must take a breath, and decide to move forward.
On Sunday as the sun sets, we will emerge from Tisha B’Av and our fast. We do not know what will come next — though we know the cruelty from this Administration will almost certainly continue.
We must try to envision the future amidst the darkness, but do so honestly, because we don’t exactly know how we will birth a different future. We have visions for a more just and sustainable future. But frankly, it is not yet entirely clear how we will get there. Many of our tried and true tactics are not working in this new era, but we were made for this time.
Tisha B’Av reminds us that just as generations before us survived horrific events, so too we will survive – grounded in our values and committed to the worth and dignity of every human being. We must refuse to become inured to the evil being enacted on a daily basis or, worse, let it infect the way we conduct ourselves. As our tradition teaches (Pirke Avot 2:5), at a time when people are acting in despicable ways, it is all the more important to act in accordance with our values.
There is a tremendous amount that is unknown. So now is a time to remember and recommit to what we know to be true: the value and need for community – and connecting with those beyond our communities. The power of movements as the only way deep and lasting change can be achieved. The paradoxical knowledge that there is both real urgency, and a long road ahead. And the faith that a profoundly different future is possible, and like our ancestors before us, it is up to us to build it.
