(RNS) — The day marking the destruction of the first and second temples in ancient Jerusalem is traditionally observed by fasting, mourning and lamentation.
But this year on Tisha B’Av, which begins the evening of Saturday (Aug. 2), some Jews will mourn another destruction — not of the historic temples, but of Gaza.
Israel’s brutal military campaign in the enclave, almost two years in the making, has most recently drawn attention for the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including what one United Nations-affiliated group says is a “worst-case” famine scenario. As global outrage to starving Palestinians grows, more than 1,000 rabbis from across the world signed a letter this week urging Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The rabbis said they cannot keep silent about what they call “the use of starvation as a weapon of war.”
This letter suggests there may be a line some rabbis are not willing to cross, and starvation is that line.
The signatories from across all Jewish denominations say they still “unequivocally support” Israel’s battle against Hamas, which to date has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians living in Gaza.
But for a number of left-leaning Jewish groups, that line was crossed long ago. They say Israel’s campaign in Gaza is both criminal and genocidal and has been for some time. They are using Tisha B’Av to march in the streets.
“It was important to me and to all of us to make Tisha B’Av a public ritual action,” said Rabbi Cat Zavis of Beyt Tikkun, Synagogue Without Walls, in Berkeley, California. “Most of us are really quite horrified. And so we thought it was important to mark it publicly.”
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On Sunday at 2 p.m. PST, Zavis, along with rabbinic student Rinat Abastado, will lead a public grief ritual at the UN Plaza in San Francisco. The event, called “Crumbling the Walls of Siege and Starvation,” will include readings from the Book of Lamentations interspersed with poetry by Palestinians and a ritual of marching with the Torah scroll around the plaza and blowing the shofar.
The idea is to reenact the biblical story of Joshua and the conquest of Jericho, in which the Israelites marched around the city of Jericho seven times, blew shofars and shouted, causing the walls of Jericho to collapse.
The event is being sponsored by Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace, and IfNotNow, as well as a couple of Bay Area synagogues. It will be livestreamed.
In New York, another group, Smol Emuni US, or The Faithful Left, will hold an online reflection Sunday at 2 p.m. EST on the health crisis in Gaza, featuring an emergency medical physician who has treated people in Gaza. Separately, on Sunday, the Halachic Left will hold a silent vigil on 96th Street on the Upper West Side, outside the subway station beginning at 8 am EST. Members plan to dress in black and hold photos of those killed in Gaza and sit in silence.
“How can we mourn the suffering of Jews 2,000 years ago, see the destruction of Gaza now, and not act in the name of ‘never again’?” a Halachic Left email asked.
This past week, more liberal rabbis demonstrated in the streets to demand an end to the war and increased food aid relief for Palestinians in Gaza. On Monday, the groups T’ruah and New York Jewish Agenda held a demonstration outside of the Israeli Consulate in New York City, leading to the arrest of eight rabbis. On Tuesday, more than two dozen rabbis staged a sit-in at the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and were then arrested.
In a commentary in the Forward, David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at UCLA, said such actions and others are necessary to address the staggering pain perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians.
Addressing Jewish readers, he wrote “… We must demand that our religious leaders summon up the courage to turn their gaze directly to the suffering civilians and starving children of Gaza. They must guide us in repenting for the sin of apathy. And they must reinspire in us an inviolable belief in the dignity of all human life.” He concluded, “For the sake of our souls and the soul of Judaism, we must now also search within ourselves to atone for the most profound Jewish moral failing of our time.”
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