Today is the last day of July.  Tonight is also the 9th day of Av. The end of this Hebrew month is the day my mother died and the day my oldest daughter was born. An auspicious moment.

In my religion, this (past) weekend, we began reading from the fifth book of the bible and from the first chapter of Isaiah, in preparation for this evening.  The verbiage catches our minds vividly, amplified by current events. Verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1 (Deuteronomy) finds Moshe, the leader of the wandering people some 4400 years ago, asking , “How can I bear your trouble, your burden, and your strife all my myself.  Prepare for yourselves wise and understanding men, known among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you…”

I thought we did this.  Some of you also thought you did this.  We thought that we elected wise and understanding representatives who would take our needs and aspirations into consideration and govern accordingly.  How’s that feeling right about now?

Back to those wandering people, who entered the promised land; they reached their zenith under Kings David and Solomon (3000 years ago), then split into a Northern and Southern Kingdom, bickering among themselves, falling prey to outside interests.  (Sound familiar, America?)

So much so, a seer (someone who could see the obvious, as others fail to do so) some 200 years later proclaimed,  “How this faithful city has prostituted itself. She was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her…Her silver has become dross..Everyone loves bribes and chases after rewards.”  (Isaiah 1:21-23). Does this not sound like Washington, DC?  The concept (even if overblown) of American Exceptionalism has been sullied by lobbyists (pimps to the city),  devalued credit ratings, and letting the rich prosper at the expense of the rest of its citizens?   But, that is still not the ultimate topic.

You see, as I said above, tonigh is the 9th day of Av.  This is a holy day- not a holiday- one where we are in near mourning.   Because on this day, the first Bet Hamikdash, the first Great Temple, built by King Solomon (on the site where Avraham [Abraham] was commanded to sacrifice his son, Yitzchak [Isaac]) was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.   Oh, and on this day, the second Bet Hamikdash on that same spot (the site is now the Dome of the Rock), commissioned under Cyrus the Great and aggrandized by Herod, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.   Oh, and the revolt that continued under Bar Kochva was terminated on this date in 137.  Oh, and the First Crusade was declared in 1095, and while the ostensible aim was different, mass killings of my people were effected.  Oh, yeah- England expelled the Jews on this day in 1290; my relatives (literally) were expelled from Spain (after enduring the Inquisition) on this day. Oh, and the date that Hitler deliberately chose to begin his Holocaust; the list goes on.

As you can see, this is not a very happy occasion. And, it is said that the second destruction of the Temple arose because of our inability to respect one another.

Which is an amazing situation when one considers that the major tenet that Rabbi Akiva, the great leader of the people at the time,  was “V’ahavta l’reyacha kamocha”, love your fellow as yourself.   So, how could this be true?

It is customary to read the Book of Lamentations and the Book of Yoav [Job] today.  Interestingly, the first book’s real name is  “Aicha” in Hebrew.  Aicha means “how could this possibly happen?”  The same word that Moshe used 4400 years ago.  The same word Isaiah used 2800 years ago.

But, you should know that Hebrew has no letter vowels.  That means this past sentence would be written:  ‘Bt, y shld knw tht Hbrw hs n lttr vwls’.  Obviously, that means one must understand the context of the words.  Or the context of the events that led those words to be written.  Hence, my examinations.

Another way the letters could be pronounced (given that vowels are lacking in written Hebrew) is that instead of “Aicha”, we read “Ayecha”. And, that means, “Where are you?”, or, perhaps, “What are you doing?”.

It’s time to stand up and do something.

• Instead of walking by the homeless person on the street, when the temperature is 90+, averting your eyes, get a bottle of water and a nutritious bar (or a box of them). Hand them to the person and walk away.
• Go to a local school or library and volunteer to read stories to those who can’t (either the very young, the very old, or the blind)…

To the world, you are one person.
To one person, you are the world.
Make that world a reality.