The Three Weeks

The Jewish people has searched for some sort of physical and psychological response to the destruction of the Temple. The pain of centuries of humiliation, discrimination and violence cannot easily be replaced or erased even by the miraculous resurrection of the Jewish people and the state of Israel in our time.

A survey recently published reveals that a third of American Jewry has completely disconnected from the Jewish people. Another weighty survey reveals that a quarter of American Jews have become addicted to the anti-Semitic belief that Israel commits genocide against Palestinians, just as the Germans did to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

When half of the People of Israel reside in the Land of Israel, Jerusalem is continually being built, the birth-rate increases, our enemies destroy themselves, the Land gives of her fruit luxuriously, and anti-Semitism becomes less frequent, it is incumbent on us to define for ourselves what we mourn on the 9th of Av, and what we lament during the weeks of "between the straits".

Just before the somewhat sorrowful Tachanun prayer in our prayerbooks appears a small notation saying that we are not to say it on Tisha B'Av – because this day is a mo'ed, a festive day. How can it be that a day commemorating such a grave national calamity as the destruction of the Holy Temples and the exile of the nation could actually be considered, in any way, a festival?

Many people focus on the physical loss we suffered, as the magnificent Bet HaMikdash went up in flames. But long after the fires died down, we were left with the burning question: “Where did we go wrong?”

Could you please explain how to handle the transition from Shabbat into Tisha B’Av (when it falls on Motzaei Shabbat) regarding se’uda shlishit, Havdala, and changing clothes?