From: Uri Marcus
To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Tisha b'Av


Shalom Yedidai (My Friends) from Jerusalem,

WHOLENESS
---------

If you but glance at the newspapers in Israel these days, it will
reveal that the birthpangs of Messiah abound. The moment for which
history was created is about to debut. Reports of false messiahs are on
the rise; the occult and every form of a sensualized, hellenistic
gospel has invaded the church; terrorism and threats against Israel and
those who love her are rampant. The cry for peace is upon the lips of
all the inhabitants of the Earth.

Nothing is more desired in this world than peace. Yet nothing is more
elusive. Everyone wants peace. Every person wants to sit under his own
tree, secure that no one will come and take away his family or
posessions. Yet almost since the beginning of time peace has been
elusive and illusory.

If there's one Hebrew word that everyone knows, it's "Shalom." Every
school child knows Shalom means "peace." Shalom is the Hebrew form of
greeting. But why do we greet each other with Shalom?  What is so
special about Shalom?

The Talmud tells us that Shalom is one of the the names of HaShem. But
what does this mean for those of us who pursue it?

Real Shalom doesn't exist in this world because Shalom means perfection
or completion. The world contains many wonderful things -- truth,
kindness, love, mercy -- but perfection isn't one of them. The world is
a creation which is lacking. That's the way it is meant to be. The
world is a place which strives to arrive somewhere beyond itself.  The
word for "Earth" in Hebrew is "Aretz" which comes from the root word
"Ratz," meaning "to run", because this world is always running, moving
towards its completion. But its completion comes from above. The word
for "Heaven" in Hebrew is "Shama'im," from the root "Sham" which means
"there."   This world is always "running" to "there" -- outside and
beyond itself.

This is why HaShem's name is Shalom. Hashem is the Perfection of all
the lacking of this world.  Every single thing in this world finds its
fulfillment, its completion, in Him. It's not here.  It's above. It's
"there."

Yet, soon, G-d intends to bring it "here." That's why we wish people
"Shabbat Shalom!"  Shabbat is rehearsal for the future completion,
purpose and fulfillment of creation. When we say "Shabbat Shalom!" we
bless each other that Shabbat itself should be Shalom -- that it should
be the completion of all our lacking to the extent possible in this
world.

These ideas are most important at this time of the year, since this
Shabbat marks the end of the three weeks of mourning between the 17th
of Tamuz and the 9th of Av, a period in which the destruction of the
Temple and the beginning of our long exile are remembered.

This is the time we remember Eretz Yisrael, the cradle of the world and
the heritage of the Almighty. During these days we feel the sharp sense
of loss, that we and the whole nation have been abandoned, together
with our homeland. Yet, we sit by and watch as politicians would
further sever sections of our Land, and give them to terrorists and
murderers who were never before a coherent or unified nation and who
never lived here as such.

What better opportunity than now, to ponder these words given the
Prophet: "Scheme your schemes, and they will be cancelled; say your
words, and they will not remain, for G-d is with us" (Yeshayahu
[Isaiah] 8:10). "For G-d will not forsake His nation, and He will not
leave His heritage" (Tehillim [Psalm] 94:14).

Birthpangs of the Mashiach? Yes. But is it any wonder? Materialism is
the god we worship today. Our heros today are those with big bank
accounts. We engage in widespread pursuit of honor, we indulge in
anger, we entertain false beliefs, slander and falsehood. Nations have
alligned themselves against the Holy One of Israel and His anointed.
And it never seems more evident that at this particular time of year...
at Tisha b'Av.

The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av is laden with eternal
significance. For us here in Israel, this day is about to begin at
sunset tonight, Friday the 31st of July.

It seems that G-d has built-in a reminder into the Calendar used by the
Jewish People, that we along with the rest of the world have gone sour,
and have lost our sanctity (separation) towards Him. We are once again
called upon by the Creator of Heaven and Earth, to rekindle the Light
of Torah. The world needs to be given this light once again that they
might know the true Mashiach who has been appointed to rule, even
Yeshua. Let us pray that we are worthy enough to carry this light.


MOURNING MIXED WITH HOPE
------------------------

Tisha b'Av is a night and a day of separation (Havdalah). On this day,
as we chant the bittersweet melody of Eicha -- Lamentations (Literally
"How can it be?" in Hebrew), we also remember, just as upon every
Saturday night, when the Shabbat concludes, that our expections of the
appearance of Eliyahu the Prophet, who heralds the coming of Mashiach,
are near. We are reminded by the separations in our lives, the holy
from the profane, the light from darkness, Israel from the nations, the
Shabbat from the other days of the week.

The Jews as a group always want to go back -- back to the Temple of
Shlomo (Solomon), back to our language, back to our Land, to everything
we lost after the destruction of the First and Second Temples. We go
back in search of our status as a separate nation from the rest of the
world.

ON THIS DAY, for a brief but anguished moment, we traverse 4,000 of
history, and link the tragedy of the desert (10 spies) with the tragedy
of the Temple, the despair of Moshe with the despair of Yermiyahu
(Jeremiah).

This Friday night and Shabbat - the ninth day of the month of Av -
thousands of Jews will gather at Western Wall, the last remaining
remnant of our Holy Temple, to cry and lament, to recite the Book of
Eichah (Lamentations), and to express our deep sorrow over the Temple's
destruction. Prayer parties are sometimes organized at the gates
leading to the Temple Mount. Tisha b'Av ends a three-week mourning
period, during which places of entertainment are closed, new cloths are
not worn, hair is not cut and weddings are not performed. The sadness
is mixed with a deep longing and sincere hope by many that the Holy
Tmeple will soon be rebuilt - the House of the Lord on Mt. Moriah in
Yerushali'im, a special edifice through which G-d's Presence will be
found within Israel.

This great dream should strengthen our faith because we know that in
fact it will happen. We pray several times a day at the end of the
Shmoneh Esrei (The Eighteen Benedictions or Standing Prayer), "May it
be Thy will, our G-d and the G-d of our fathers, that the Temple will
be rebuilt speedily in our days..."

For many who cannot travel to Jerusalem, this day will be wholly
dedicated to mourning. For this reason, the ninth of Av is a Jewish
Fast day. However, because the day falls upon a regular weekly Shabbat,
and because the joy of Shabbat takes presidence, this years fast will
begin on Motza'ei Shabbat (Saturday Evening), and observant Jews will
eat the traditional meal of hard-boiled eggs with ashes. Congregants in
the synagogues will sit on low benches to place themselves in a
position of grief. The lights are dimmed, candles are lit, the curtain
of the ark is drawn back as Eichah is read in a low, mournful tone.

It is no coinsidence that this month's sign is Aryeh/Leo, for the Lion.
The lion is the king of the jungle.  He encounters no opposition. The
lion demands to rule alone. He represents pride -- the collective noun
for a group of lions is a `pride' of lions.  But pride in the wrong
hands produces a fatal blow to the world, and to the Jewish nation
alike. That is why pride in the Torah and in the Jewish Prayer Book
(Sidur) is ascribed only to the Mashiach.

The month of Av is associated with the tribe of Shimon -- from the same
root in Hebrew as the word `hearing.'  Thus, Av is a propitious time to
correct mistakes in regard to false pride and true hearing -- i.e.,
listening to the Torah.

Yet, in the future, to that same degree that the ninth of Av has been a
day of tragedy, it will be a day of great happiness when the Mashiach
from the tribe of Yehuda (whose symbol is the lion) rules. How will
life be when Mashiach comes? Well, His coming will wipe the tear from
every eye. The Mashiach is going to build the Temple again and so
change Tisha b'Av from fast to feast in accordance with the Prophets
oracle:

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, FIFTH,
seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and
happy festivals for Yehuda. Therefore love truth and peace."
(Zechariyahu 8:19).

PRESSure Time
-------------

A Jew can always tell when the 9th of Av approaches. We all start to
worry more than usual. Who wouldn't? Take a look at these stories:

1. ISRAEL AGREES TO A DELAY IN CHARTER-CHANGE

   Arutz-7 correspondent Kobi Finkler reports today that Prime Minister
Netanyahu has given in and accepted Defense Minister Yitzchak
Mordechai's position regarding the changing of the Palestinian charter.
The new Israeli position is that the clauses calling for Israel's
destruction need not be changed at this juncture, but only after Israel
has withdrawn from an additional 11 to 12% of Judea and Samaria.  The
Palestinians demanded this as a precondition for continuing the
committee talks between the sides. Arafat has agreed to begin
preparations for the convening of the Palestinian National Council and
the changing of the charter when the withdrawal begins.

2. JERUSALEM CAR BOMB DID NOT EXPLODE

A major catastrophe was averted in Jerusalem last week.  A car-bomb full
of explosives caught fire on Jaffa Road - the city's main street - when
its 40-year-old Arab driver attempted to detonate it.

3. RABBIS ASK FOR NINE-DAYS DELAY

   Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and the Grand Rabbi (Admor) of Vizhnitz sent a
telegram to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, asking him not to
conclude any diplomatic agreements during the nine days before the fast
day of Tisha B'Av.  The rabbis wrote that this is not political
intervention, but rather a Halakhic ruling, as these nine days
commemorate various calamitous times of Jewish history.

4. JERUSALEM BISHOP GETS WORKED UP OVER BIBLICAL TERMINOLOGY

The Arab Anglican bishop of Jerusalem walked out of a world gathering
of bishops in the UK recently, upset by a reference in a play to the
Biblical name for parts of what is now called "the West Bank".

Riah Abu El-Assal, who was later persuaded not to leave the conference,
described the play as deeply offensive to Christians in the "Holy
Land", the TIMES reports today.

Almost 800 bishops meeting at Canterbury, along with many spouses,
watched a play called "Wrestling with Angels", written especially for
the conference and performed by a professional Christian drama group.

Bringing a message of reconciliation, the play depicted Jacob's
struggle with G-d, which ended with G-d renaming him "Israel".

Then, in a scene from the book of Ezekiel, the play showed two sticks,
representing the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah, joined
together. At this point El-Assal walked out, incensed because part of
the area today known as "the West Bank" (of the Jordan River) is called
by its historic and Biblical name of "Judea and Samaria" by those who
support Israel's ancient claim to it.

The TIMES quotes El-Assal as saying: "The least I can say about it is
that I was greatly disturbed. Judah in political terminology stands for
the West Bank, the occupied West Bank. I would have thought they would
have been more sensitive to the way people would understand the
presentation."

El-Assal is an Arab Israeli citizen, who once stood for the Knesset as
a candidate for a left-wing political party.

(FYI: The word "Judah"/"Judea" appears in the Bible -- Tanakh and New
Testament - 877 times, "Samaria" appears 123 times, and "Israel"
appears 2405 times. "Palestine" doesn't appear at all. "Philistia",
appears 10 times, and refers to the area occupied by the Philistines, a
non-Arab people who moved into the area from present-day Greece/Crete
in the 12th century BCE.)

======================================================================

On the eve of Tisha b'Av, as you read these stories, you can only come
to one conclusion:

Arab terror is not anti-Jewish, or anti-government. It is
anti-Mashiach. There is terror when there is no "progress in the Oslo
process," and there is terror when there is "progress in the Oslo
process." There is terror when a government of the left is in power,
and there is terror when a government of the right is in power. There
was terror before we returned to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in 1967, and
there has been terror since 1967, and up until this very day. Why?
Because it is not important who is in power, and it is not important
what are the boundaries of the State of Israel. Rather, the power
behind Islam cannot tolerate a Jewish entity here, because their
presence forms the very doorway through which the Mashiach must enter
and reign. Get rid of the doorway, and you prevent the Mashiach from
returning. Thus, the Jewish people in the world of Islam are viewed as
a cancer, and they will continue to do everything in order to drive us
out of the region, that they might avert the plan of G-d for the ages.


BACK TO THE FUTURE
------------------

Every action on Tisha b'Av designed to remind the participant that this
day, possibly above every other day, is a day to dwell upon the
terrible tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. Yet, it is a
day which ends the period of mourning. Therefore, hope is on the
horizon and History is not doomed to be repeated forever. On this one
day throughout history, however, the 9th of Av has been chosen by
HaShem, for reasons we may never know, to remind the Jewish people of
who they are. Some examples of this are as follows:

1. The 12 spies returned with their report ON THIS DAY. Israel loses
faith and is condemned to die in the wilderness (Ta'anit 29a) (BaMidbar
[Numbers] 14:1-10)

2. ON THIS DAY was the destruction of Shlomo's (Solomon's) Temple by
the Babylonians in 587 BCE.

3. ON THIS DAY was the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans
in 70 CE.

4. The Roman army plowed Jerusalem with salt in 71 CE, ON THIS DAY.

5. On the 9th of AV, in the year 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian ordered
Govenor Tineius Rufus to plow Jerusalem over. This "plowing" fulfilled
Micah 3:12 to erase "Yehudah" from memory.

6. The final destruction of Simeon Bar Cochva's army occured ON THIS
DAY, in 135 CE. In this crushing defeat of the "Second Revolt", the
last Jewish fortress at Betar fell. Bar Kokhba and his men were killed
and Rabbi Akiva was executed.

7. One year later, in 136 CE, ON THIS DAY, Hadrian established a
heathen temple on the site of the Jewish Temple and rebuilt Jerusalem
as a pagan city which was renamed "Aelia Capitolina" to which the Jews
were forbidden to enter. Hadrian also changed the name of the region
from Israel to "Palaestina."

8. ON THIS DAY in 1096, the Crusades began, killing more than 1.2
Million Jews along the way, as Christians marched across Europe to the
Land of Israel, to liberate it from the infidel.

9. ON THIS DAY in 1190, 500 Jews died in York, England during an
anti-Jewish riot during the Third Crusade.

10. Under orders from King Edward I, England banashed all the Jews in
1290, ON THIS DAY. They were given until "All Saints Day," October 31,
that year, to depart, and they did not regain the right to settle there
again until 1657

11. ONE THIS DAY in 1306, the Jews were expelled from France.

12. Spain expelled all the Jews beginning ON THIS DAY in 1492. 200,000
Jews had their property ceased and were forced to leave the country.
13. In 1555, on the 9th of Av, Pope Paul IV moved all of the Jewish
community in Rome into a foul smelling area near the Tiber River.  The Jewish
community was then forced to pay for the wall which was built around
this ghetto.

14. On the 9th of AV in the year 1626, the birth of Shabbetai Tsvi, a
false Messiah was recorded.

15. In 1882, the Pograms against Russain Jews began ON THIS DAY.

16. WWI is declared ON THIS DAY in 1914, and as Russia Mobilized for
WWI, it launched persecutions against the Jews in Eastern Russia.

17. On the 7th of Av, in 1941, S.S. Reinhard Heydrich was appointed by
Goering to carry out the "Final Solution", the murder of all the Jews
in Europe. Two days later, ON THE 9th of AV, 1941, S.S. Chief Heinrich
Himmler formally presented his plan to the Nazi Party on the final
solution to the Jewish problem. One year later, to the day, the plan
was formally implemented.

18. ON THIS DAY, the 9th of Av 1942, the first killings started at
Treblinka. The first transport of `deportees' left Malkinia on July 23,
1942, in the morning hours. It was loaded with Jews from the Warsaw
ghetto which was packed with 500,000 Jews transplanted from the now
"Jewish Free Zones" the Nazis created. Nazis began a systematic
liquidation of the Ghetto transporting between 6,000 to 10,000 Jews a
day to the extermination camps. By Fall there were scarcely 40,000 Jews
left in Warsaw.

19.In 1990, on the 9th of Av, Saddam Hussain walked out of peace talks
with Kuwait, signaling the beginning of the Gulf War and in the months that
followed he proceeded to hurl his missiles at Israel.

Fraught as it is with tragedy, the month of Av is the saddest time of
the year for the Jewish People. Untold thousands of Jews have been
massacred on this day through-out history. But what are the
mathematical odds that all 19+ events would occur by chance alone on
the 9th of Av? The chances are 1 chance in a Zillion (actually, its 115
plus 37 zeros tacked on). As you ponder this, remember that even though
our enemies have inflicted untold pain, the hope of Israel's future has
always remained in the hands of our the Holy One, blessed be He, and He
has always preserved His Remnant.

And that Remnant has but one mission. To call the world to repentance
before the great day of the Lord arrives, and judgement begins. Even as
we await the next tragedy which will befall uas as a nation, may the
comforter-Messiah turn the now tragic Tisha b'Av of destruction into
the anticipated Tisha b'Av of Redemption, soon, and in our days. Amen.

May it be the will of our G-d and the G-d of our fathers, to strengthen
Am Israel, to grant our leaders wisdom and understanding, to preserve
the unity of the Nation of Israel and the integrity of the Land, and
grant us strength and fortitude to withstand the pressures from within
and without, and to act on behalf of Israel for good and for blessing
amidst the appointed days of Ya'acov's trouble. May it thus be His
will, Amen.


Thank you, and may the G-d of Israel grant you and your house His...

Shabbat Shalom.

Uri Marcus

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