The Cause of Tisha B’Av – and How to Fix It

The first Tisha B’Av in history was when the Meraglim – the Scouts – return after 40 days of scouting the Land of Israel (Numbers 13). The Scouts deliver their report and the People respond by crying all night, to which God replies, “You cried all night for nothing! In the future, I’ll give you a reason to cry on this night.” That night was the 9th of Av.

Why are they crying? What are they crying about? What really went wrong?

The Meraglim did exactly what Moses told them to do: he instructed them to discover:

“Are the people strong or weak… are the cities open or fortified…is the land fertile or not…” (Numbers 13:18-20)

After forty days they return with exactly that information: “The people are big, the cities are strong, and the land is quite fertile” (27-28).

The mistake they made was in adding an opinion to their factual report:

“We cannot conquer this land… We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes” (31-33).

The tears of the Jewish People that night were in response to this editorial comment and I believe that this is exactly the theme of Tisha B’Av: how we see ourselves and our potential.

God has allowed countless tragedies to occur to the Jewish People by the hands of people who hate us. Many Jewish people are feeling despair about the Antisemitism in the world, on so many college campuses, at places of work, and elsewhere. Is God giving up on us? Does God hate us? Of course not.

But we bring it upon ourselves. We don’t realize our potential as God’s people. We need to realize that we are a Sleeping Giant, and we need to wake up and rise to our potential.

I’ll give you a couple examples merely in the area of my own expertise of health and fitness.

• It’s a fact that more Israelis have died in automobile accidents – over 300 fatalities a year – than all of the wars and terror attacks combined. These are mostly caused by reckless driving and excessive speed.
• We are now learning that – as crazy as it sounds – smoking and vaping are on the rise in the Jewish world, including the Yeshiva world. Everyone knows that these drugs are harmful to both the smoker or vaper and the people around them – causing disease, infirmity and early death (and that also happens to cost thousands of dollars a year). It seems crazy to me – this is a poison! Why are we doing this to ourselves and to each other?
• When you attend a wedding, bar mitzvah or other joyous celebration, they’re still serving soda and orange juice, even though we know that these substances are harmful. Why would you serve something to your guests that is harmful to them? Similarly, the music at these events is often so loud that it is likely causing permanent hearing damage to everyone present. When we know someone in the 80s or 90s who has experienced hearing loss we of course feel great sympathy for them, but “we” have done it to them by inviting them to all of the weddings with all of the loud music.

These are just examples from my own niche and I don’t think that this topic is limited to health and wellness. In so many areas, we have the knowledge and tools to do better toward each other.

A few weeks ago for the Haftarah of Balak we read in the prophetic book of Micah (6:8 – and I paraphrase):

What does God care about? He doesn’t really care about your prayers. One more session of saying Tehilim (Psalms) doesn’t impress Him and get him on your side. You want to know what gets God on your side? When you act with justice and kindness and carry yourselves with dignity.

What matters, the prophet teaches us, is how we relate to other people – justice and kindness are about treating other people and dignity is how we present ourselves to other people.

We need to think about this – about how our actions affect other people, and not to do things simply because, “That’s the way it has always been done.” That’s not smart, that’s not wise, and that’s not holy.

If the Temple is not rebuilt this year, that means that we are still perpetuating the problem (Yerushalmi Yoma 1:1). But we can indeed fix it. God is sending us into a land full of scary giants because He knows we can handle it.

May we rise to the challenge of holiness and wisdom in all of our relationships and see the Redemption soon.