The Other Yom Kippur

Today is Tisha B’Av, the most solemn day of mourning on the Jewish calendar. For some reason, Tisha B’Av doesn’t get the same press as that other holy day, Yom Kippur. In fact I was only reminded of the holiday by True Ancestor’s post on the subject. Obviously religious Jews the world over are observing the sacred day but it never quite made it to the Top Ten List for the rest of us. Fasting holidays are always a challenge since eating is such a central part of the Jewish experience. Say the name of any Jewish holiday and the first thing that pops into the heads of most people is the food associated with the event. Passover: matzah and gefilte fish, Hanukkah: latkes and chocolate coins, Rosh Hashanah: apples and honey, Shabbat: chicken soup and brisket, Yom Kippur: “Heeelp! We’re starving!”

Remember when Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah” came out in 1985? This impressive 9-1/2 hour film did not use a single frame of archival footage typical of most documentaries about the Holocaust. Instead Lanzmann interviewed survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis about the minute logistics of the campaign against the Jews. It is a powerful portrait of the Nazi genocide and many of Lanzmann’s subjects showed that anti-Semitism is still alive and well in Germany and Poland. At the time of the film’s release in Chicago, people had the option to see it on two successive nights or in one marathon sitting. My family chose the latter. Knowing that they’d be sitting for such a long stretch, I was shocked to see that most of the sold-out crowd brought huge coolers of food into the theatre—enough for several complete meals. I guess they were panicked that they might starve to death during the film’s extended running time. As a result, we had to listen to the constant munching of lox and bagels, chopped liver sandwiches, and smoked fish platters during the interviews. If I had my way, “Shoah” would be screened every year on Tisha B’Av. The content of Lanzmann’s work is a perfect match to the day’s commemoration of the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, and the fasting edict would help people focus on the messages of the film instead of their deli plates.

Many disasters took place on this day in history: the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed (the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the second by the Romans in 70 A.D.); the last fortress to hold out against the Romans fell in the year 135, sealing the fate of the Jewish people; King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree in 1492, setting Tisha B'Av as the  final date by which not a single Jew would be allowed to walk on Spanish soil; and World War I began in 1914, starting the downward slide that ultimately led to the Holocaust.

Do other religions have special days to remember their tragedies? Oh yeah...let's not forget the crucifixion! I'll bet that among Christian groups the Catholics have a special cache of somber holidays—nobody gets into suffering as much as that flock. Look at how the nuns used to wear “hair shirts” that ripped their skin to shreds to show how holy they were. I guess the Jewish equivalent of that kind of misery is forcing us to miss a few meals.

I’ve mentioned that much of my extended family is orthodox, and yet I had never heard of Tisha B’Av until ten years ago. The prohibitions on Tisha B’Av are many. No eating or drinking, of course (not even water), nor are you allowed to wash, sit in a chair (you can sit on the floor), wear leather shoes, or read certain parts of the Torah. And Tisha B’Av is one of the few days of the year when Jews are expressly forbidden to get married. So, in 1995, guess what day my sister inadvertently chose for her nuptials? You guessed it. What amazes me to this day is that some of the religious members of my family actually attended. Let me set the scene: the wedding was on Tisha B’Av, she was marrying a goy, the wedding took place at Lounge Ax, my sister’s beloved  (and now defunct) rock club, the ceremony was performed by a hip rocker girl who had just received her minister's license via the Internet, and my sister was very pregnant. Oy! Not exactly the profile of a Lubavitcher wedding but it was a blast. Sue and Jeff were preceded down the aisle by a band that was specially created for the day, conducted by her good friend Dave from Poi Dog Pondering and featuring musicians from many of the great bands that had played at Lounge Ax over the years. Tisha B’Av or no, I found Sue and Jeff’s wedding to be a very Jewish occasion. And they did smash a glass at the end, yet another reminder of the Temple’s destruction. I read an interesting article about Tisha B’Av by Sara Yoheved Rigler that said that we often misrepresent the tragedy of the day by describing it as the destruction of the Holy Temple, as if the catastrophe is simply the loss of a building:

“The American people do not mourn on 9/11 because of the destruction of the Twin Towers; they mourn the thousands of lives lost in the conflagration. Contrast a person who mourns the absence of the majestic towers to the New York skyline with a person who mourns the loss of his/her parents caught on the 98th floor. Tisha B'Av is more like a death than a destruction, because on that day the world changed irrevocably…The Holy Temple was the mystical vortex between the higher, spiritual worlds and this gross, physical world. The Temple service was an elaborate mystical procedure that kept the aperture between the worlds open and functioning. The Divine Presence manifested itself in the Temple and through the Temple. When the Temple was destroyed, that palpable Divine Presence removed itself from our world. It was a loss as real and as searing as death.”

I am very drawn to this explanation of Tisha B’Av and I would like to honor the sanctity of the day. However I can’t say that the orthodox rabbis would approve of my activities. For one thing, I just came from Leah’s debut performance in one of the two plays she’s doing this month, “The Secret Garden.” The play, based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, certainly fits the spirit of the day. It is a dark play which begins when Mary Lennox, the 10-year-old principal character, loses both of her parents to a cholera epidemic in India. She is sent to imposing Mistlethwaite Manor in England where she encounters the mean-spirited housekeeper Mrs. Medlock, a sickly cousin named Colin, a surly groundskeeper named Ben, and her emotionally distant uncle who has no time for the lonely girl. Of course all this changes when Mary meets a magical boy named Dickon who can talk to animals and she finds the key to the mysterious Secret Garden which reawakens the hopes and dreams of all the sad characters. As I watched two performances of this play this afternoon and thought about what my own key might be out of misery, depression, and fear, I don’t think I could have had a more appropriate Tisha B’Av experience if I had been sitting in an orthodox synagogue.

Tomorrow night Leah opens in “Aladdin” in which she plays Iago, the mischievous sidekick of Jafar, the sultan’s evil Grand Vizier. The Disney lyrics are not exactly a study in political correctness:

Oh I come from a land
From a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense, and the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!

Actually, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) did succeed in getting Disney to change the original lyrics to the end of that song (“Where they cut off your ear, If they don’t like your face, It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home!”). But the musical does offer up a hopeful resolution to the adversity of its central characters and I’m sure it will provide a good follow-up to today’s focus on tragedy:

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming.

A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you.

Comments

[Quinn]

I have a friend who swears that all Jewish holidays can be summed up by "They almost got us, but then they didn't. Let's eat!".
The eating during Shoah would seem like a statement of life-affirmation while thinking about unspeakable pain.
Or, Jews fear low blood sugar nearly as much as they once feared the Cossacks.

[Dave Crawford]

How nice to get a mention in your blog! That marching band at the ceremony,
The Lounge Ax Wall-of-Sound Cadets, truly was fantastic.
What I remember about Sue's wedding is inadvertently wearing a suit that was the EXACT same color as Jeff's (a very bitchin' gold number). I hope I didn't upstage him. Are you allowed to wear a gold suit and play in a marching band on Tisha B'av? They didn't mention anything about that, right?

[Rurality]

Do other religions have special days to remember their tragedies? Oh yeah...let's not forget the crucifixion!

Yeah but even then it's called Good Friday, you know? I don't think there are Christian holidays specifically for mourning... or if there were, they've been largely forgotten. I suppose the Catholics' Ash Wednesday and Lent are as close as you get.

Muslims have the The Day of 'Ashura. But I'm pretty sure there are no flogging days on the Protestant calendar.

[david]

Wonderful post, Danny. May you commemorate every Jewish holiday watching Leah star in a show!

[Danny]

Dave, I'm going to have to go back into my archives to find a photo of that suit, I don't remember it being gold! Did you ever see the video of the wedding? Damn, why didn't we reunite the Lounge Ax Wall-of-Sound Cadets for Sue and Jeff's 10th anniversary this month?

David, I already know that Leah will be appearing in "The Sound of Music" over the High Holy Days this fall. Oy, nuns and Nazis...but no Jews.

[Neil]

You know, your post made me think about why Tisha B’Av hasn't become a standard holiday for most American Jews who aren't Orthodox. I might do some research on that in Google.

Hanukah I understand was a nothing holiday until Jews needed something to compete with Christmas. Passover is about food. And the High Holidays somehow fit into the September-fall renewal feel, along with a similarity to the New Year celebrations of other cultures.

Maybe Tisha B'Av is just too depressing for the American spirit. Even though Yom Kippur is ultra-serious, it ends with a "happy ending" -- a new year. Americans like things with "happy endings." Tisha B'av does not have a happy ending.

Or maybe the holiday is too specifically Jewish and makes Jews uncomfortable with it. Although I've always known about the holiday, my family never made note of it. In fact, I never even knew Jews did anything special during this time until I met some Orthodox at college.

[Heather]

I had never heard of Tisha B'Av until I was watching The Daily Show the other night. My father was Jewish but my mom is Catholic and we were raised Catholic. My father never really told us about any Jewish holidays, although we did go to Passover seders at my aunt's house (still do) and dinner for Rosh Hashanah. Oddly enough, I was at a First Birthday party for my cousin on Sunday, and since I had just learned about Tisha B'Av, I wondered why my normally-observant (conservative, though, not orthodox) relatives were having an occasion on a day of mourning. Once again, Danny, your blog proves most educational! And I had never heard of Shoah so I just added it to my list of DVDs to borrow from the library where I work. We have it but it's checked out.

[Danny]

Heather, I hope you said something to your aunt. I love the idea of the Catholic niece shaming the observant Jews about Tisha B'Av!

Shoah is an amazing film but remember, it's nine and a half freaking hours long! Bring food!!

[Bad Maria]

It is a powerful portrait of the Nazi genocide and many of Lanzmann’s subjects showed that anti-Semitism is still alive and well in Germany and Poland.

I believe that's probably sadly true but wanted to share what happened to me this summer...

I went to Prague for a month to write and while there went to Krakow in order to go to Auschwitz. I am not jewish but I did play Anne Frank in college and part of the reason I was cast was because the head of the dept. actually thought I was jewish...so I guess I "look" jewish. Anyway, onto my story.
I can't explain in this comment the whole sequence of events but suffice it to say that the last barracks I visited (quite by chance) was 5 - "Evidence of Crime" which was all of the possessions found after the liberation...suitcases, hairbrushes, shaving brushes, eyeglasses, cooking utensils, bowls, etc., and most poignantly, shoes stacked to the ceiling on two sides of a room - it was the last room in the barracks I visited and after entering and being in it for all of two minutes, I was overcome with emotion and so walked straight through to the far end of the room where there was a window - it had been raining earlier and at that moment, the clouds were parting, the sun was shining through the wet leaves of birch and cottonwood and there was a small blackbird on the outside window sill, I suddenly thought "how beautiful" and the incongruity struck me so hard that tears came, large, silent. As I was standing there a man came and stood beside me, his wife spoke to him and he turned around and shushed her (in German) then he put his elbow on the sill where I was standing so that his left shoulder touched my right, as if to say "I see what you see" .. he stood there for a long time, while I wept silently, then he tilted his head down to look at my face (I could not look at him) and out of my peripheral vision, I glimpsed a full head of gray hair and a white mustache, he looked at me for a few moments, decided I would not (or could not look up), looked back out the window and sighed....when he went to move away, he leaned slightly toward me so that our shoulders pressed against one another and then left me in the room alone.....I was overcome by his generosity and his understanding and I wondered if he thought I was jewish, with the dark circles under my eyes, the curling dark hair under my stetson. I suppose it doesn't matter, the important thing is he felt it important to comfort me, but being a stranger could only do so much...I honestly felt a moment of reparation. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of it.