Of Nightclubs and Kollelim

“Why mourn on Tishah B’Av,” a man asks me, “for an event that happened thousands of years ago? We finally have a Jewish state, a flourishing economy, outstanding high tech, innovation, military. Mourning? We should be celebrating!”

A legitimate question, but only on the surface. For Tishah B’Av is the ultimate reality check, and a candid look beneath the surface reveals not celebration but concern. For Tishah B’Av haunts our history; it deals not only with the Jewish past but with the Jewish future.

Here are some unvarnished items of concern, over and above the worldwide recrudescence of anti-Semitism, which reminds us, as we recite the ancient kinnos, that nothing has changed and that Jewish defense agencies need not fear for their jobs. Eisav still hates Yaakov.

More insidious is our self- inflicted destruction: We are losing millions of Jews to Jewish ignorance and assimilation, with Europe and America showing intermarriage rates of 80%. Oy lanu, cries Yirmiyahu in 4:13. “Woe — oy vey — to us!” What our enemies could not do, we are doing to ourselves.