15 Av: Comfort in Faith and Good Sense
Comfort, comfort My people says your G-d…
This beautiful phrase initiates the readings of consolation that began this past Sabbath, after the 9th of Av. Its blessings of faith, love and renewed strength are as true as ever, and more needed in a time of wicked leaders who oppress, mock, mislead and crush the Jewish people, ravaging the vineyard, Israel (Isaiah 3:12-15, ibid. 27:6, cf. psalm 80:8-15).
The Oslo-Road Map era, indeed the period since the truncated military victory of 1967 reflects the words of the prophet of impending desolation: “we are hoping for peace but there is no good; for a time of healing but, behold: there is terror” as Israel’s rulers ‘deal’ with “serpents that cannot be charmed” (Jeremiah 8:15, 17). The dominant echelons are willing servants of the powers that intend to bury Israel and its light that sanctifies life. Their corruption of the direction of Israel’s way is seen in the rule of women and feminism generally (“women dominate them”) from the Knesset to the Courts to Foreign policy (Isaiah 3:12, cf. 27:11). This corruption of the path of wisdom and authority violates the basics of Judaism (Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 1:4).
But Isaiah, descended from the House of David (a nephew of King Amatziah of Judah) states that at this moment of degradation, loss and grief, epitomized by 9 Av, the Eternal One will thresh from the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, that “a great shofar will be blown” and Israel will be gathered in allegiance and might on its holy mountain. “Days are coming when Jacob will take root; Israel will bud and blossom and fill the face of the earth like fruit…” (Isaiah 27:6-13).
Jewish leaders are always present: they cannot fulfill their potential until a preponderance of the nation wants them and, thus, can recognize and serve them in raising the banner of the lion and the ox, of the Menorah, in the face of the nations.
Jewish tradition states that a descendant of the House of David fit to be the leader and king of the redemption, the Mashiach is born on the saddest day of every year, on 9 Av the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples. It states that he will reveal himself on 15 Av, six days later like a week of creation and when the moon is full as it is on the center of every Jewish month. 15 Av is six months after 15 Shevat, the “New Year of Trees” when the fruits for tithing are counted. Just so, from the beginning of redemption on 15 Av “man, who is like a tree of a field” will be counted anew and prepared for the Messianic work of tilling, cultivating, harvesting and bringing tithes to the rebuilt Temple, a fully reborn national life which is the crown of redemption.
Though redeemers are always present, for them to fulfill their potential requires that their own mode of expression interfaces fruitfully with the spiritual and intellectual level of the people who must hear and work with them for redemption to proceed. There is nothing magical or automatic about this restoration.
Although geopolitics, media and polemical histories obscure it Jewish is a profoundly sensible and reasonable way of living. Thus the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 1135-1204) specifies that “one should not presume that the Messianic King must work miracles or wonders, bring about new creations in the world, resurrect the dead or perform other miracles. This is not true.” What then will he do? “The Messianic King will arise and renew the Davidic dynasty, returning it to its initial sovereignty. He will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel” back to their entire land, fighting the wars and doing the work of G-d as foretold, supra, by Isaiah (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 11:4, 11:1).
Consistent with the theme of “consolation” in the seven prophetic readings that follow 9 Av, the Rambam states that “all the statements made by all the prophets,” all the warnings, assurances, judgments, and previews of geopolitics and morals go to the core of Judaism and its role, that “G-d will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you” (ibid. on Deuteronomy 30:3-5).
The reestablishment of the nation is a miracle of memory and applied faith; it is a wonder but not at all magic. It is the fulfillment of a dream, a dream come true through perseverance, love and care (cf. psalm 126).
This is the simple, reality-based test for the ultimate comfort: identity fully grounded in family and national identity that consists of actions, memory and faith. Thus, “if a king will arise from the House of David who is learned in Torah and observant of the commandments…and will fight the wars of G-d [to destroy Amalek, see below], we may with assurance consider him the Messiah. If he succeeds in this, builds the Temple in its place and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Messiah” (Melachim 11:4).
The Rambam intertwines the restoration of national sovereignty with the restoration of a true king from the kingly line, the reunification of the people on their land and the building of the Temple. Thus redemption reverses the grief of 9 Av. All the grieving and suffering consequent on the original 9 Av, when badly misled Israel grumbled about conquering the desirable land will be reversed when the Temple is rebuilt at the heart of the restored nation.
For Israel to shake off the straitjacket of despondency and loss of purpose and the cause of much of this, — a treacherous Hellenistic elite and their foreign masters — there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Of course there should be a National Salvation Front to rally support for a long-standing and definitive application of Jewish law to a Jewish problem which also is a problem plaguing the entire maddened world.
For Israel toshake off the straitjacket of despondency and loss of purpose and the cause of much of this, — a treacherous Hellenistic elite and their foreign masters — there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Of course there should be a National Salvation Front to rally support for a long-standing and definitive application of Jewish law to a Jewish problem which also is a problem plaguing the entire maddened world.The Rambam, (”Maimonides,” how characteristic that the books of the West, when they mention this great scientist, philosopher, physician, and scholar Hellenize his name) in the Mishneh Torah, his authoritative review of the commandments in the Books of Moshe, specifies the very first Halacha (law, literally, way to go and do) to be followed by the Children of Israel when they return in might to their land.
Interestingly, the Rambam presents it as a three-part commandment whose sequence is plain sense and essential, as he explains in 1:2, “the appointment of a king should precede the war against Amalek” (quoting 1 Samuel 15:1-3), and “the descendants of Amalek should be annihilated before the construction of the Temple” (referencing 2 Samuel 7:1-2).
So the sequence for the first Halacha in Hilchot Melachim is this:
1:1a, Appoint a King
b, Cut down the descendants of Amalek
c. Rebuild the Temple
The Rambam is eminently rational.
In the following chapters of Hilchot Melachim the Rambam several times specifies who Amalek is and what it means to destroy them: all those people who come with decrees against the Jewish people (e.g. that they can’t live everywhere and anywhere in their land, which is another positive commandment) or with any forms of attack against Israel. They are to be annihilated, erased (Deuteronomy 25:19, cf. Exodus 17:8-16).
Israel and the world continue to suffer and grieve because this multi-stage commandment has not been carried out although the ingredients are all in place. Israel has had its constitution for more than 3300 years. It is meant to be a Constitutional monarchy with a limited and G-d fearing executive and regional leaders, “men of distinction, G-d fearing men who love truth and disdain money,” i.e. not politicians or those who whore after Edom, lusting like a wild donkey for her false foreign “friends.” The fig leaf of this “friendship” has been torn aside by the Road Map, the end of the end game of Hellenistic Globalism. For this agenda see the boasts of Pericles, of Antiochus Epiphanes or the Church of Rome…
The Sages state, “if the Temple is not rebuilt during the time of a generation it is as if it has been destroyed in that generation.” Responsibility and freedom go together: they involve remembering and repairing the past in the present so that there can be a future of life and abundance, not a virtual reality of fake security and degrading license called “choices.”
Israel weeps in the night and the stars weep with her: “Rise, O maiden of Israel!” (Berachot 4b on Amos 5:2 properly punctuated). “Restrain your voice from weeping; your children will return to their borders” (Jeremiah 31). The latter clause is the song of the Children of Israel to this day.
This is what Jews who attempt to settle the Promised Land seek to fulfill. It is brave, faithful, joyous and sane; as eminently reasonable as the Ramban’s criteria for redemption. “There will be no difference between the current age and the Messianic era except the end of our [Israel’s] subjugation to the gentile kingdoms” (Melachim 12:2). This lack of sovereignty and the attendant dividing of Israel indeed is what consumes and afflicts the world in our day. It is something that G-d will not forgive (Joel 3).
Again, there is nothing magical about changing this. “Do not presume that in the Messianic age the nature of the world will change…Rather, the world will continue according to its pattern.” Isaiah’s prophecy of the wolf and the lamb “are a metaphor and a parable [that] Israel will dwell securely by the wicked nations” (12:1). Nor, as the “apportioned inheritance” of Israel indicates, is this restoration about imperial conquest, “not to have dominion over the world, to be exalted by the world or to eat, drink and celebrate.” Rather, the sages desired “to be free to study Torah” so that “good will flow in abundance and the work of the whole world will be only to know G-d” (ibid. 12:4-5, cf. Psalm 67, ‘the psalm of the Menorah’).