On Contemplating Tisha B'Av

Our world is not the perfect world it should be. According to the Scriptures, God tried to show us that all men and all mankind can find perfection if mankind wants it. If you look at most of the stories of the Old Testament you will see how mankind is as an immature child in need of guideness "In his pathways". The morality stories and the stories with the theme of jealousy are there to teach man to overcome his urge to be superior of others.

According to the Scriptures The Lord had originally intended for all men to share and share alike freely. To give and give of ones heart. Temptation, hatred and jealousy are the center of the dark side. The way of light and righteousness is in the individual's ability to accept all as ones brother, that is until we have the story of Cain and Abel.

The Lord stated that we should not know no more war for the immense pain, suffering and misery that it has visited upon us all. Yet mankind constantly engages in war to defame him and to drench the earth with the blood of innocents as well as that of the evil ones as did the paganists of old. If you close your eyes you can hear him as he whispers to you "Thou Shalt Not Kill" but yet we kill. And on the other hand it is written "An eye for an eye".

Today on Tisha B'Av we Jews mark the destruction of the Temple in Yerushalim that was brought on by division and hatred within the Jewish people. The belief by some within Judaism that their adherence to religiosity is THE" only way and that their way should be imposed upon all, by being forced down the throat of the other, is the cause of the 2000 year old Diaspora.

It is my hope that all men will come to realize that God/the Lord 'speaks" to us all equally and personally. There is no one human voice that speaks for all mankind there is only his voice. He beckons us and he speaks to us we only need to open our hearts and minds to hear him. As on Yom Kippur at the final service of Naleh the Gates of Heaven are open to all and he who is the most righteous sits in judgment of us all decides who will live and who will die. Who will have another year of chance to be inscribed his Book Of Life.

His voice says that no man/woman/child should know hunger. That all should overcome their perverse jealousy as symbolized in the Golden Calf. That all should walk in the path of righteousness. Yet do we all hear the same voice?

Before we can all walk in his "Way of Righteousness" we must prevail in our war against the forces of darkness and evil. Those imposed devices, false beliefs and ideologies that poison man's soul and cause death and destruction, must be overcome.

We must educate the poor to know better, we must guide them in the way of light and out of the darkness. We must create an alternative to the desire for escapism that is in the use of drugs and alcohol. We need to give housing and food to all. We must also educate against hatred and racist beliefs. We must uphold the belief that "All men were created equal". The word Communism is abhorred by many yet the pursuit of money and wealth is the eye of the sea of Jealousy that divides mankind. The fact that we must pay for the inequality of the work load necessitated to provide the needs of life for all is the evil that torments mans soul.

There is a void of darkness that surrounds us all and there is a deep crevice below our feet that is ready to devour our souls if we allow jealously and hatred to continue control us. We humans have knowledge of the symbol of the Yin and Yang, Light and Darkness, hate versus love, righteousness versus perversion. The tunnel with the proverbial light at it's end is the light of the Lord's righteousness that we all must strive to reach if we can control our inner urges for self gratification at the expense of others. The deep perfection that is spoken of by Budda is the same perfection in grace that was spoken by the Monotheistic voice in the vast void of the Mesopotamian desert to Abraham when he left Ur Chadess on his journey to Eretz Yisrael (the Holy land)

The deep hatred of the diversity of religions created by men is not what was in the voice of the Lord that spoke with Abraham in the vast desert. There are those who attempt to pervert mankind through the corrupt use of spirituality and by their imposed versions of supposed religiosity. They assume the clothing and visage of spiritually and they pretend to use his name but they do so in vain. The Lord never said that you can reach me by the way you dress or by some man made preconceived version of prayer. As the Lord said to Moses in the vision of the burning bush; "I am who I am".

What did the Lord say to David and Solomon when he told them to create and build the Holy Temple. He told them to build a house for him to dwell in so that he may teach his "Chosen People" the children of "Israel" the path of righteousness. 

David and Solomon built this permanent dwelling as a gateway to the Lord. The Temple built by them was a symbol of wealth and exorbitance far beyond the original simplistic Tent dwelling that had sufficed him and the Ark of the Covenant. What is the basis of this change from a frugal tent to one of majestic bombastic wealth?  

First the Babylonians came and later the Romans came and raised Yerushalim and looted and destroyed the Temple just as Moses destroyed the Golden Calf. This destruction was brought upon us all due to the wickedness that overindulgence and perversity that had begun to influence the inhabitants of Yerushalim. 

Why did the Lord allow such a terrible purge through the vast amount of his children who were slaughtered at the time of the Temples destruction? 

The streets of Yerushalim flowed with the blood of innocents!!

What a terrible thing for a "Father" to see his "flock" butchered in such blood frenzy. One can only ask, "Why?" 

If you HaShem are our Sheppard than how did you allow us to go astray?

Our relatives; brother's and sisters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, who were transported to the death camps of the Nazis and were gassed. 

Their bodies burned into gray ash that floated into the air through the chimneys of the ovens or from the piles of burning bodies. 

They cried out to Him, "Why?" 

Their cries and whispers hover even today over the remains of the Camps. If you stand silently you can hear them yet. 

They cried then...and we still cry and mourn today. 

"Why Lord? 

Why?" 

What did these six million plus do to be exterminated like in your blood sacrifice of old in the Temple?

It is said that The Temple is within us all and it is a symbol of the Lord's love for us all equally. Yet Lord at what cost? How many more must die? And "Why?"