Tisha B'Av

I don't want a restored monarchy

I don't want another big slaughter house

I don't want to live in a theocracy

I keep reading and hearing the most delusional things about the temple era from religious Jews.

"There was achdut (unity) then"

"There was justice then"

"There was everything good you can think of back then!"

Hmmmm well....
Let's just say it wasn't exactly heaven on Earth back in the day. Only someone who has never touched a history book (or a Tanakh!) can seriously say that they want to "go back to the way things were"

People have a sort of idealized version of what things were like when the Temple was standing so let's set some things straight.

First Temple Era

If the prophets are any guide then this must have been the most blood drenched, pestilence ridden, sexually decadent epoch in human history. I'm not quite sure why anyone would want to return to the way things were in the First Temple Era when autocratic kings slaughtered dissidents and barely anyone was interested in keeping the Law of Moshe.

Second Temple Era
Okay at least there's no idol worship. YAY! And everyone is keeping the Torah law more or less so this perhaps is a more inspiring time period for religious Jew. Wrong! Vicious politics, fluctuating regimes, various massacres and internecine warfare characterized this era of Judaism. Not much of a golden age if you ask me.

So when people say things like "well we pray for the return of the Beit Hamikdash so there will be once again achdut in klal yisrael!" I make a sarcastic snort at this lack of historical knowledge.

So nu what's it all about?

These sort of things often tempt me to throw up my hands in despair in the face of the ubiquitous stupidity. However perhaps we can understand Tisha B'Av in a less fundamentalist manner. The best I can come up with, , is we pray for the myth (not meant derisively at all) of the Temple Era. In other words the reality is the Temple Era was not really special at all. People got along with their lives pretty much the same Temple or not (besides Pesach barbecues and all) However in the Jewish collective memory the Temple Eras have been remembered as an idyllic age an age of peace, justice and all the other good things all represented by this one building - The Beit Hamikdash. This is the myth of the Beit Hamikdash and the Temple Era and in a sense it is more real than the actual facts.

Every time a Jew was persecuted or suffered in our long and arduous history s/he has longed for the lost age of the Temple. To the oppressed Jew the flawed diaspora was merely a stop off point, a minor interruption in the grand plan. All would be set right and returned to "it's former glory." Was there a former glory? Not at all. But the idea of a long lost age became a reality in the memory of the Jewish people. Just as we are affected by the real events in our history so too we are affected by the myths in our national memory.

The idea of a mere return to a once glorious and ideal age is a very meaninful idea. And is a worthwhile symbol to hold onto. Symbols need not be real in the historical sense - as long as they continue to give us meaning today they are fictions worth retaining. (EXCEPT WHEN YOU'RE STUDYING HISTORY! THEN MYTHS GET YOU NOWHERE!) It is the false - yet beautiful memory of a once perfect age that has contributed to Jewish survival throughout the eras and has culminated in the Jewish state (which I, Zionist that I am, think is a mostly good thing)

So, if you insist on crying on Tisha B'Av cry for the myth of a glorious age and pray that that symbol of a lost past will one day become a modern reality. But for God's sake if I hear one more inane comment about "if only we had a big slaughterhouse!" and continue to hear people taking the notion of a "Perfect Temple Era" seriously, I might just lose my stomach for the seuda hamafseket.

(Hopefully you'll focus on important things like social justice and peace instead of rubbish like a theocracy and a house where a ravenous YHWH can finally get some food to eat, unfortunately the kinnot seem to focus on many of those themes)

Once I'm at it let me rant a little more about Tisha B'Av

Anyone who says that Tisha B'Av is the day we mourn ALL Jewish tragedies is spewing BS. How many kinnot are about the frikkin' temple? Like 40 or 50.

And how many about the Holocaust, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, The Takh V'Tat massacres, the progroms and all the other bad things that have happened to us? Maybe like 5 or 6.

Gimme a break Tisha B'Av is about the temple and almost nothing else.

And my final rant:

Who's fault is it that the Temple got destroyed? Hmmm? Maybe it had a little something to do with the religious fundamentalist zealots who deluded themselves into thinking they would beat the Roman Empire in a revolt. Nah that can't be it it's all the Romans fault. Evil Romans! How dare you put down a revolt in one of your provinces! Have you no heart O Romans? Why are you so cruel to us poor little Jews?

At least that seems to be the theme of most kinnot - Evil, Barbaric, Heartless Romans mercilessly attack quiet, innocent, little Jews.

I would much rather mourn something that wasn't our fault.

Have a "Happy" Tisha B'av! And try not to asphyxiate from the fumes of the people who took the nine days too seriously.