Look to the Rock From Which You Were Hewn

From the Desk of Cheryl Hauer

All my life, I loved it when my birthday landed on a Saturday. As a kid, it was wonderful. My dad was home all day, with no work or distractions, just a fun day to celebrate my life with my family. However, as an adult who is a Bible believer connected to the Hebraic roots of my faith, it hasn’t always gone that way. Like this year. The evening of my special day coincides with Erev Tisha B’Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day of fasting, sadness, and mourning for Jews worldwide. It marks the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem and commemorates many other tragedies throughout Jewish history, all of which notably happened on that same day.

The record is horrifying in its cataloging of the suffering the Jewish people have endured over thousands of years of anti-Semitism. Most lists start with the destruction of Solomon’s temple in 586 BC and the Second Temple in 70 AD. However, according to Jewish history, it began long before that, when the spies returned from Canaan with a bad report, causing widespread despair and condemning the Israelites to 40 years of wandering in the desert. In 135 AD, the Bar Kokhba rebellion was crushed with the destruction of the city of Betar and the massacre of hundreds of Jews, and in 136 AD, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount, both on the 9th of Av. Jewish populations were expelled from England in 1290 and Spain in 1492, while Germany declared war on Russia on Erev Tisha B’Av in 1914, which precipitated WWI and eventually led to WWII. During the Holocaust, several events occurred on the 9th of Av, including the approval of the Final Solution in 1941 and deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, resulting in the murder of 275,000 Jews. There are even more incidents, including the AMIA bombing in 1994 and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which led to 20 years of terror and set the stage for the atrocities of October 7, 2023.

To the Jewish people, history is not just important, it’s a means of survival. Looking back is the only way to prepare for what the future will surely hold. And in today’s world, where anti-Semitism is raging across the globe, Tisha B’Av seems even more relevant, made more poignant yet as the nation of Israel staggers in the aftermath of the October 7 invasion and subsequent war.

The Three Weeks, or Dire Straits, is the name given to the 21 days leading up to Tisha B’Av. It is a time when bathing, celebrating, eating meat and drinking wine (except on Shabbat), are restricted. No weddings or wearing new clothes. No shaving, music or dancing. Days are spent in mourning, reflecting on the past and crying out for the future redemption.

I can’t help but wonder if the Evangelical church would be stronger and more unified if we had a day like Tisha B’Av. What if we set aside a time to look back and remember the countless individuals around the world, throughout the ages, who suffered and died, sometimes horrible deaths, defending the very principles we sometimes so carelessly take for granted. Perhaps if we took some time reflecting on the past we would be more intensely longing for the future redemption…and more committed to being prepared for it when it comes.

Blessings and Shalom,

Issachar Community