Torah for the Three Weeks

This Shabbat, in addition to reading Parashat Matot-Masei and concluding the book of Numbers/Bamidbar, Jewish communities around the world will announce and bless the new month of Av, which begins next Wednesday. Those who follow the Jewish calendar closely know that this places us squarely in the midst of "the three weeks" -- that is, the period leading up to Tisha B'Av, when we commemorate the tragedy of the Temple's destruction.

Given that the Temple hasn't stood for nearly 2000 years, it can be hard for us to imagine today the degree to which it once functioned as a central hub of ancient Jewish life. This was true on multiple levels: the Temple was the exclusive site for animal sacrifices and other religious rites, it was understood as God's dwelling place, and it acted as a national unifier, drawing pilgrims to Jerusalem during major festivals. Thus, each destruction of the Temple was beyond devastating for our ancestors. The First Temple, built by King Solomon in about the 10th Century BCE, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the Jewish people sent into exile in Babylon. The Second Temple, constructed later in the 6th Century BCE, stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. 

Strikingly, Jewish tradition does not blame our Babylonian and Roman conquerors for bringing about this devastation. Rather, our Jewish tendency is to look inward and reflect on what we, as a people, might have done to bring such destruction upon ourselves. 

On Erev Tisha B'Av -- Wednesday evening, July 22nd -- I hope you will join us as we gather to chant Eicha (Lamentations), a book of poetic laments about the destruction of the First Temple. That evening, we will also study together a very famous story that our rabbinic tradition tells to explain how the destruction of the Second Temple came about (sometimes called "the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza"). This text can be found in its entirety and in the original Aramaic in Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 55b-56a; meanwhile here's a translation / summary, in three parts:

Part I: Rabbi Yoḥanan asked: What is the meaning of the verse: “Happy is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief” (Proverbs 28:14)? Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza.

There was a certain man whose friend was named Kamtza and whose enemy was named Bar Kamtza. He once made a large feast and said to his servant: Go bring me my friend Kamtza. The servant went and mistakenly brought him his enemy Bar Kamtza.

The host came and found Bar Kamtza sitting at his feast. The host said to him: "You are my enemy. Whatdo you want here? Arise and leave!" Bar Kamtza said to him: "Since I have already come, let me stay and I will give you money for whatever I eat and drink. Just do not embarrass me by sending me out." But the host was insistent that Bar Kamtza needed to leave. To avoid public embarrassment, Bar Kamtza offered to pay -- first for half the feast and then for the entire feast. Still, the host took Bar Kamtza by the hand, stood him up, and escorted him out of the banquet.

Part II: After having been cast out from the feast, Bar Kamtza thought to himself: Since the Sages were sitting there and did not protest, they must have been content with how the host humiliated me. I will therefore go and inform against them to the king. He went and said to the Emperor: "The Jews have rebelled against you." The emperor asked: "Who says that this is so?" Bar Kamtza said to him: "Go and test them; send them an offering to be brought in honor of the government, and see whether they will sacrifice it."

The emperor sent with him a choice three-year-old calf. While Bar Kamtza was bringing the calf to the Temple, he made a blemish on the calf’s upper lip. (Some say he made the blemish on its eyelids, a place where according to Jewish law, it is a blemish that makes the animal ineligible for sacrifice, but according to Roman rules, it is not a blemish.)

Part III: The blemish notwithstanding, most of the Sages thought they should sacrifice the animal as an offering due to the imperative to maintain peace with the government. But Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas said to them: "If the priests do that, people will say that blemished animals may be sacrificed as offerings on the altar." Knowing that Bar Kamtza had purposefully blemished the animal, the Sages proposed to kill him so that he could not go and speak against them to the emperor. Rabbi Zekharya said to them: "If you kill him, people will say that one who makes a blemish on sacrificial animals is to be killed." As a result, they did nothing, bar Kamtza’s slander was accepted by the authorities, and consequently the war between the Jews and the Romans began. Rabbi Yoḥanan says: The excessive piety of Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas destroyed our Temple, burned our Sanctuary, and exiled us from our land.

If you managed to take in the whole story, I'm sure you can see that it doesn't provide a single, simple answer to the question of why the Second Temple was destroyed. In Part I, it seems that the Roman conquest would never have happened had the host not hated Bar Kamtza so much (we don't even know the reason!), or if he had at least been willing to put aside his hatred to allow this mistakenly-invited guest to stay at his party. In Part II, it seems that the blame lies with the Sages' unwillingness to condemn bad behavior when they witness it, and with Bar Kamtza turning a personal slight into a justification to sabotage the Jewish people as a whole -- clearly very problematic. Finally, in Part III, Rabbi Zekharya ben Avkolas's insistence on strict adherence to Jewish law while failing to take in the broader context and implications of his actions makes it look as though he's "lost the plot" of what commitment to Jewishness should mean.

The purpose of the rabbis recounting a story like this to explain why the Temple was destroyed -- a story that is multi-faceted and contains so many possible take-away messages -- is to give us ample opportunity to reflect upon the lessons of the destruction for our own day and age. In this way, their story-telling helps us make meaning from our annual remembrance of the Temple, and pivot towards introspection and teshuva, which in turn will lead us towards a more loving and caring community and world.

This is precisely what I hope we will do together as we read the story together on Tisha B'Av: unpack each part and discuss what can learn from it -- from lessons about interpersonal relationships and leadership, to reflecting on our commitments to our people and the Jewish future. Only by reflecting on these lessons and trying to learn from the mistakes of the past can we prevent destruction in our future.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom, even as we continue to feel the weight of this moment,

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum