New Challenges for the Ninth of Av

by HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

“On the 9th of Av, we are obligated to fast… ...because of the bad things that happened then” (Orach Chaim 549:1). And what are those things? There was the terrible destruction of the First and Second Temples. Also, on this day, it was decreed that our ancestors in the desert would not enter the Land. Also, Beitar was conquered and tens of thousands of people there were killed. On the Ninth of Av, the wicked Turnus Rufus plowed the Temple sanctuary and its environs, to fulfill the verse, “Zion shall be plowed as a field” (Yirmiyahu 26:18). (Mishnah Berurah, ad loc.)

Since the decree upon the generation of the desert that they would not enter Eretz Yisrael due to the sin of the spies on the Ninth of Av, Israel have faced terrible calamities on this day down through the generations. For example, on this day the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was completed. One of the refugees from Spain told what happened to his family:

“There was a ship full of Jews expelled from Spain. The owner of the ship cast the Jews out on dry land in a place where there was no human habitation, and most of them died of hunger… One Jew, with his wife and two sons, made an effort to walk, but the wife died. The man was carrying his sons, but he, too, fainted, and then his two sons died of hunger. When, when he awoke and found his two sons dead, he got up on his feet and said, “Master of the Universe! You are doing so much to make me abandon my faith. Be aware that despite what is being done to me by heaven - a Jew I am, and a Jew I shall remain. Nothing You have done to me and nothing you shall do to me will help You!” (Ma’arechet… Shefot Yehuda)

Just as in the past - where the Ninth of Av was a day on which terrible calamities befell the Jews - so too more recently (on the Ninth of Av in 2005), to our great sorrow, the Jews were expelled from Eretz Yisrael - from Gush Katif and from Northern Samaria. Just as in the past, where the sin of the spies brought about destruction and exile, so too here, the sin of the spies brought terrible calamities upon Israel, including the expulsion of Jews from their land. And what is the sin of the spies? The lack of faith in our ability to conquer and control Eretz Yisrael. As the Torah states, “In this matter, you had no faith in the L-rd your G-d” (Devarim 1:32), regarding which Rashi comments, “G-d promised you that He would bring you into the Land, but you did not believe Him.”

The time has come for us to repent, for us to return to ourselves, to our land, and to our holy Torah. With G-d’s help, we will always be led by men of faith, people of vision - people whose goal will be unity and togetherness. And just as that Jew from the Spanish exile rose up and declared, despite all that had befallen him, “A Jew I am, and a Jew I shall remain!” so too in our own generation, we must rise up and call out the words of Calev, son of Yefuneh: “We must go forth and occupy the land. We can do it!” (Bamidbar 13:30).

Looking forward to complete redemption,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,

Shabbat Shalom.