{"id":79448,"date":"2020-08-30T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-30T13:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79448"},"modified":"2020-08-30T16:08:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T13:08:44","slug":"abolishing-the-fasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/abolishing-the-fasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Abolishing The Fasts"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"79448","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":62571,"related_cahpter":"557","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A question for then - and now\r\n\r\n","content":"

Chapter 7 describes how the prophet Zechariah was asked a pointed question by residents of the Diaspora (v. 3) that has repercussions to the present day: \u201c\u2026Shall I weep and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have been doing all these years?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They queried: now that the Second Temple has begun to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and some of the Jews originally exiled to Babylonia have returned to their homeland, invigorating the Jewish presence in Israel, people wished to know whether the Ninth of Av (\u201cthe fifth month,\u201d counting from Nisan) marking the destruction of the First Temple, along with other communal fasts associated with this date, e.g., the 3<\/span>rd<\/span> of Tishrei (<\/span>Tzom Gedalia<\/span><\/em>; \u201cthe seventh month,\u201d v. 5) should continue to be observed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zechariah responds in the name of God, that these dates and the events that correspond to them (v. 9-10) should remind the people not of the actual destruction of Jerusalem, but mainly of the deep moral shortcomings and wide-spread resistance to improvement (v. 11-3) that led up to the profound tragedy of ruin and exile. God suggests that without annual reminders of what has already occurred, and can again take place as the result of insensitivity to the plight of the oppressed, human nature will allow for similar conditions to once more take root, leading to the terrible events of the past repeating themselves. Assuming the acceptance of God\u2019s response, i.e., the importance of the continuation of the observance of these terrible days, the lesson apparently went unlearned, resulting in several hundred years later, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the exile of vast numbers of Jews yet again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what about now? Particularly following the Six-day War in 1967, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the contemporary validity of the observance of these fasts, exemplified by the paragraph that is added to the Silent Devotion on Tisha B\u2019Av afternoon:<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh Hashem, our God, console the mourner of Zion and the mourners of Jerusalem and the city that is mournful, ruined, scorned and desolate: mournful without her children, ruined without her abodes, scorned without her glory, and desolate without inhabitants…\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t modern-day, \u201chustling, bustling\u201d Jerusalem, as well as Israeli society in general, no longer should be thought of in such incredibly sad, desperate terms? On the other hand, no one says that this wasn\u2019t an apt description of the Jewish settlement in its homeland in the past, and, God forbid, couldn\u2019t become pertinent once again in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ultimate question, similar to what was posed to Zechariah, becomes: should we recall the past in order to remind ourselves of what must be avoided in the present in an attempt to head off a disastrous future? Or, should the present reality determine how we relate to all current and future possibilities, with the operative principle to avoid misrepresenting a rosy present? Should God\u2019s answer via Zechariah to his ancient inquirers inform present-day policy, or is it time to break with the biblical past? Discuss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Shlomi Kakon, Tish\u2019a B\u2019av at the Western Wall, c. Aug 2015 \/ pikiwiki<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":79449,"id":79449,"title":"zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall","filename":"zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/abolishing-the-fasts\/zech7-tisha_bav_at_the_western_wall\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"zech7-tisha_bav_at_the_western_wall","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79448,"date":"2020-08-30 13:07:50","modified":"2020-08-30 13:08:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":536,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-768x515.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":515,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":536,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":536,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":536,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-627x420.jpg","home_baner-width":627,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Abolishing The Fasts","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A question for then - and now","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":79449,"id":79449,"title":"zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall","filename":"zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/abolishing-the-fasts\/zech7-tisha_bav_at_the_western_wall\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"zech7-tisha_bav_at_the_western_wall","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79448,"date":"2020-08-30 13:07:50","modified":"2020-08-30 13:08:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":536,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-768x515.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":515,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":536,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":536,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":536,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/zech7-Tisha_BAv_at_the_Western_Wall-627x420.jpg","home_baner-width":627,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79450,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79448\/revisions\/79450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}