This Shabbat is the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the day that we remember the greatest tragedies and sufferings of Jewish history beginning with the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem.
Tisha B’Av day falls this coming Thursday. If we want to know what day of the week Tisha B’Av will be, look at what day is the first day of Passover. Tisha B’Av will always be on the same day.
These two holidays though are linked by more than a quirk of the calendar, and they also link to our experience of Jewish life, and life in general, during these pandemic days.
On Passover we say, “Dayenu”, it would have been enough, if God had only taken us out of Egypt, Dayenu, if God had only given us Shabbat, Dayenu, if God had only given us the Torah, Dayenu, it would have been enough. All things Goddid for us.
And when the Rabbis looked back at the destruction of the Temples and of Jerusalem, they claimed in contrast to Dayenu that we caused the cataclysm. After all, how could God permit the Destruction of God’s House & city? The Rabbis teach the Temples were destroyed because we worshipped idols, we hated our fellow Jews, because judges ruled too strictly to the letter of the law, and we neither read the Shema morning and night, nor did we educate school children well-enough.
The litany of ways we caused the destruction of the Temple reads like Dayenu. If we had only worshipped God, and not idols, Dayenu, if we hadnonly loved and cared for each other, Dayenu…
Looking back on the Exodus from Egypt and our return at Tisha B’Av, how could it be that God led us to the Holy Land, established us here, only for us to be exiled again?!
God’s teaching after the Exodus though makes it clear to us God wants us to be a free people, independent, thoughtful, self-determining, able to care for ourselves and others as we shed the shackles of slavery in mind and body.
But he prayers and readings of Tisha B’Av speak of us as slaves once again, olale’ha hal’chu she’vi, in the opening verses of Lamentations, the children of Zion have gone into captivity.
So we clearly did not merit the gift of freedom God gave us at the Exodus. And then we search our souls to figure out what we did wrong, like we sometimes do in our relationships, especially when we have fights: if I had only kept my voice down, if I had only taken the time to look ahead and provided for the need I knew there would be. If only I had done it, dayenu.
It's important to look at ourselves, the way we think and act, the way we relate to others, we see that beginning next week we have 7 weeks until Rosh Hashanah. This is the time that teshuvah begins. This is the time to begin to unravel our bad habits and our beliefs, and how it is we find ourselves again and again in similar crises and conflicts.
And there’s something else that’s important to realize and internalize at this time, and that is the power of dayenu in the face of the continuing worldwide pandemic and all its bitter ripple effects, that in our religious life as Jews, as adults, as parents, as members of the Jewish and larger community, it’s important for us to give ourselves dayenus of a kind. It’s important for all of us to know that whatever efforts we’re able to make Jewishly and otherwise, whatever contributions to our communities we are able to make, or unable to make during these times, dayenu, our efforts are praiseworthy, they’re enough. If our children couldn’t focus this past spring on that day’s school or religious school Zoom call, or any more time online, dayenu, it’s enough. If Shabbat dinner became cold cereal in pajamas sitting on the floor, dayenu. If gemilut hasadim, service to others, can only be calling someone who lives alone or a single parent struggling between children and work, dayenu.
If our ancestors could have thought this way, maybe they wouldn’t have loaded their shoulders with burdens of blame in addition to watching the Holy City burn and going into exile. Maybe they could have focused their attention on the fact that they were, and we are responsible for our actions, but the invasion of Babylonians and Romans had nothing to do with whether we cared for each other enough.
And if we can adopt a dayenu mindset, a proactive, thoughtful, dayenu mindset, then instead of feeling constantly these days as thought we cannot find fulfillment, instead of feeling guilty, we can celebrate what is possible, what we are able to accomplish, and then, like our ancestors who walked out of Egypt, or like our later ancestors who went into exile with Jerusalem very much still alive in their hearts, no matter what the circumstances are, we will be free.
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