On Tisha B'Av, 1934, Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson, was horrified by the news that one of the youth movements had headed off to summer camp on the annual fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. His shock was such that it led him to write his famous article, "Destruction and Disassociation."
In his piece, Katznelson wondered what value there is in a liberation moment that has no roots and suffers from amnesia. He noted that "had Israel not known how to mourn our destruction for generations, we would not have seen the rise of [French Jewish philosopher and Labor Zionism founder Moses] Hess, [Zionist activist and pioneer Leon] Pinsker, [Zionist visionary Theodor] Herzl nor [Zionist leader Max] Nordau … [Spanish Jewish philosopher] Yehuda Halevi would not have created 'Ode to Zion' and [Jewish poet] Hayim Nahman Bialik would not have written 'The Scroll of Fire.'"
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Eighty-five years have since passed, but as far as Tisha B'Av is concerned, not much has changed. The fast day still suffers from a lack of popularity among the general public. Many wonder why, as citizens of a sovereign Jewish state, they should mourn Jerusalem and the temple's destruction some 2,000 years ago. Only a few people still harbor real pain over the destruction of the temple, and only a narrow sector of the public is connected to the temple and yearn for it.
We must recognize this reality. The late Rabbi Shlomo Min-Hahar once warned that "when the central idea is the temple, we are destined to lose everything, and no one will understand us. Nor will we understand ourselves. … People don't understand what a temple is … and if you try to explain it to them, you will find you do not have the words to explain. The words will come out in such a way that the person will say, 'If that is what a temple is like, I am glad we don't have it.'"
Tisha B'Av should be designed in such a way that puts not just the loss of the temple but the loss of Jewish sovereignty and freedom, and the reasons for that loss, the division and the beginning of the long exile, at the center. This was an exile that saw us exiled from our land, persecuted, oppressed and murdered. Were it not for this exile, history could have gone very differently. It is not for nothing that late Prime Minister Menachem Begin sought to unify Holocaust Remembrance Day, which took place in a period of exile that began in the days of the destruction of the temple, with Tisha B'Av. Such a move would have given even greater relevance to Tisha B'Av and historical context to the Holocaust.
The Temple Mount, one of the symbols of the destruction, plays a central role in this web of incidents. Exploring your roots in Morocco or Poland is a worthwhile endeavor, but our genuine roots can be found on the Temple Mount; a tour of one's consciousness, of learning and study, with maps and history books, accompanied by archaeologists and historians and rabbis and academics and educators and commanders whose aim is to recall the Jewish people's lineage in Jerusalem.
Every Jew is afforded this basic right by Israeli law. The police have greatly expanded the ability of Jews to visit the mount in recent years, but this ability must be expanded further. The dozens of guides that work with the Open Gate organization, and who take care to coordinate their tours on the mount with police, could have a central role in this effort.
The Palestinians will not like this, and it is clear why: "Israel," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas once said mockingly, "can call itself the Hebrew Zionist republic, but I will never recognize its Jewish identity." Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the now-outlawed Islamic Movement's Northern Branch, in the past promised crowds of Muslims on the Temple Mount that "Tisha B'Av will go on forever."
Oddly enough, it seems the Jews owe both of them thanks.
There are times when a nation needs its haters in order to rediscover who they really are. The Temple Mount, Tisha B'Av, the exile, the long Jewish memory and also, but not only, but the memory of the Temple – these are also all the keys to doing just that.
