Thoughts on Mourning, Comfort and Redemption
There is a very interesting story that concludes the Talmudic tractate of Makkot. Rabbi Akiva, together with a small group of other important rabbinic luminaries, has traveled to Jerusalem to gaze upon the ruins following the Roman conquest of the Holy City. The Talmud describes that as the Rabbis began to gaze out over Mount Scopus, they collectively ripped their garments to mourn the destruction they now witnessed first- hand. When they continued on to look at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox wandering in the area that once was the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the Holy Temple. While the sages began to cry, Rabbi Akiva began to laugh. The other sages were of course dumbfounded, how could Rabbi Akiva laugh when foxes are running wild on the holiest space on the Temple Mount?
Rabbi Akiva’s reply is both fascinating and challenging. Rabbi Akiva cites a verse from the book of Isaiah (Chapter 8, verse 2):
“ V’aeeda li eidim neemanim eit Uria HaKohein, v’et Zecharia ben Yeverechayu.”
“And I took for myself as faithful witnesses, Uria the Priest, and the prophet Zecharia.”
The Talmud asks the question- what is the connection between Uria, who lived during the First Temple Period, and Zecharia, who lived during the Second Temple Period?
Regarding the time period of Uria, the Talmud suggests, it is written: “And Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem should become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount a shrine in the wilderness” (Micha, 3:12). While in Zecharia it is written: “Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Old men and women shall again dwell in the broad corridors of Jerusalem.” (Zecharia, 8:4)
The Talmud then continues with Rabbi Akiva’s answer to the other sages:
“Until Uria’s dire prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction had been fulfilled, I was afraid that we might never again see the vision of Zecharia’s prophecy (of men and women growing old in the streets of Jerusalem). Now that I have seen with my own eyes the destruction prophesized by Uria, I know for a fact that Zecharia’s vision will one day come true as well...”
And the tractate of Makkot, concludes with this last line:
“They (the other sages) replied to him: ‘Akiva, you have comforted us, Akiva you have comforted us...”
Rabbi Akiva, upon seeing the ruins of the Second Temple, and the city of Jerusalem left decimated by the Romans; was able to laugh, to see that destruction as a step in the fulfillment of subsequent prophecies predicting the redemption of the Jewish people, and the building of the Third Temple.
Just recently, I was sitting with the newest, hot- off- the- press work by my favorite author, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, drinking my diet coke, in a beautiful little square in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City; a courtyard which sits between several buildings that make up the campus of the Sephardic Educational Center. Sitting on the other side of the square was an elderly couple, speaking Russian and playing chess. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the entire area became flooded with children, apparently on a recess from school. As I ducked the soccer ball that was kicked in my general direction, my eyes caught a glimpse of that verse from the Prophet Zecharia, the very verse cited by Rabbi Akiva in our story above, which had been inscribed on a monument right there, before me in this beautiful little square.
The words:
"Ko Amar Hashem Tzivakot, od yeshvu zkeinim uzkeinot b'rechovot Yerushalayim, v'ish mishanto b'yado mairov yomim. Urechovot Hair yimaalu yeladim viyeladot mischakakim b'rechovoteha."
"Thus says the Lord of Hosts, Old men and old women shall yet again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with a staff in his hand for long days. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets."
Each day in this peaceful little courtyard between several buildings, the activity, the Jewish life that takes place in this beautiful little park, is a manifestation, a fulfillment of Zecharia's prophecy. The Jewish people have returned home to Jerusalem, once again old men and women are sitting and playing chess in the holy city, and children are playing ball right here on the cobblestones!
There are still many challenges that face the Jewish people everyday, that face the Jewish State everyday, that face the entire world each and every day. The powerful lesson inherent in our Talmudic tale of Rabbi Akiva’s comforting the other Sages, is to take note of just how far we have come, even as we mourn for that which we have lost, and for that we have yet to achieve.
Each year on Tisha B’Av evening, we read the book of Eicha, of Lamentations. Megilat Eicha speaks vividly of the pain and despair following the destruction of the Temple. The concluding verse of Lamentations, reiterates the message of Rabbi Akiva, and the lessons of our History.
“Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha, v’nashuva, chadeish yameinu k’Kedem.”
“Return us unto you Hashem, and we shall return, renew our days as of days gone by...”
May our mourning this Tisha B’Av be tempered with some level of comfort, heeding Rabbi Akiva’s powerful legacy of seeing the tragedies of Jewish history within the context of our collective destiny, and our march to that ultimate period of redemption, unity and joy, speedily and in our days...
“Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha, v’nashuva, chadeish yameinu k’Kedem.”