An Easy and Meaningful Fast

Since we arrived in Israel at the end of March we had been blessed with good weather. The humidity is typically low here, we are at about 2,400 feet above sea level and even late in June we found it could be quite chilly at night. Though warned that it gets hot and miserable here during the summer (there is after all a real sand-dune desert just miles to the east) it seemed only plausible. June and the beginning of July were, literally, a breeze. Our unairconditioned apartment stayed cool and comfortable.The only trick necessary to bearing the heat outside was to stay inside or, when outdoors, stick in the shade.

Not to complain, but starting about three weeks ago the breezy days and chilly nights ended. It’s hot, very hot, and afternoons have been a challenge.

Interestingly enough, this year the truly miserable weather roughly aligned with the beginning of The Three Weeks of Sorrow beginning July 19 on the Gregorian calendar, a period of observance among religious Jews extending on the Hebrew calendar from Tammuz 17 to the 9th of Av when the five calamities occurred.

1. Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai;
2. The daily tamid offering ceased to be brought;
3. The walls of Jerusalem were breached (leading to the destruction of the Temple);
4. Prior to Bar Kokhba’s revolt, Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll;
5. An idol was erected in the Temple.

The time is commemorated by fasting and introspection. Israel has a lot to consider now, past and future. In September, the international community may have to deal with the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State (this link provides a biblical prospective). All indications are that the President of the United States supports it.

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The Obama administration has asked the Palestinian Authority to halt talks on a unity government with Hamas, according to a senior PA official. The official said the White House fears a unity government with the Islamist group would make it difficult for the U.S. and European Union to support the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state in the United Nations. The information is the latest indicator Obama will not veto the controversial U.N. resolution, which would recognize a Palestinian state in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, purportedly including the Temple Mount.

Caroline Glick wrote an excellent piece on this in May.

So Israel and Palestine seem to be on a collision course with the blessings of the American president.  Seventy-eight percent of American Jews voted for Obama during the last presidential election. His current popularity among American Jews (63%) is still high. These must obviously be the “thoughtful and intelligent” Jews a “progressive” friend of mine mentioned to me when defending the American president, post Netenyahu shunning, against the opinion of those obviously less thoughtful and less intelligent Israeli Jews who approve of him at the shockingly more modest clip of 6-9%. Why the striking difference?  Consider the words of Arey Rubin in an editorial written for Jewish Week:

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…I have not elevated liberalism to the status of religion. I do not blindly follow the liberal agenda and my convictions take a backseat to my commitment to the well-being of Israel and the Jewish people. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the majority of U.S. Jews, who have substituted liberalism for Judaism and whose actions are often governed by misguided priorities…When the lives of my family, my friends, and my people are in jeopardy because we are Jewish, when there are very real threats to the continued existence of the State of Israel and by extension the Jewish people, when our enemies have declared that their intention is to annihilate us and are acquiring tools to this end with the world standing by, then my pro-humanist beliefs give way to my commitment to the sanctity and security of Israel and the Jewish people.

It seems so straightforward. A blessing I’ve heard here regarding the Three Weeks of Sorrow: May you have an easy and meaningful fast, a wish, minus the ease, I now extend to all the thoughtful and intelligent Jews in America who, in their high regard for liberal principles, seemed to have turned their backs on Israel.

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In the following video you can see some of the stones that the Roman legions cast down from the temple walls in Jerusalem in 70 AD.