The Tisha B'av fast is the second most important fast in Jewish tradition, after Yom Kippur. The fast was established to commemorate the destruction of the Temple, the most important place in the history of the Jewish people, which was destroyed two thousand years ago. Despite the many years that have elapsed, the Jewish people have assiduously observed this fast.
Recently I read the chilling testimony of a Holocaust survivor, who told her granddaughter about a Tisha B'av that she had spent with 400 Jewish girls in a concentration camp in Germany during the Holocaust. "We woke that morning in the camp as hungry as always, and there was a smell of fresh food in the air," she said. The terrible Dr. Josef Mengele knew it was Tisha B'av. He decided to "challenge" the women, serving them a kosher meal, fresh and abundant.
"'Eat!' we were ordered," the woman tells her granddaughter with tears of pride. "We looked at the amazing apparition of the food. Our bodies trembled with hunger, and despite this, without speaking to each other, we knew we would fast. Dr. Mengele turned away with a wicked grin. The sun came up and it was hot. We stood with emaciated hands, lifted upward, the sun burning into us and Dr. Mengele mocked: "It's okay for you to eat. It's pikuach nefesh [the rabbinic principle that one can violate certain commandments to save a person's life]."
"By the end of the fast, we had fainted on top of each other, but we fasted."
It's hard to imagine what those women experienced amid the horrors of the Holocaust, their strength of spirit and ability to keep Jewish tradition in spite of everything, often at risk to their lives. Even after the Holocaust, many Jews continued to observe tradition. Many Jews today devotedly observe the fast days, which mark the events our people experienced.
In Israel's law books, there is a prohibition on opening places of entertainment on Tisha B'av. Each year this law is flagrantly violated by many businesses. Recently I was asked by an acquaintance why we should continue to commemorate events that took place thousands of years ago. First, he asked, how can we know for sure that they in fact occurred? And second, what do we get out of marking them thousands of years later?
Take Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 20 or 30 years there will no longer be any survivors among us. Such is the way of the world. And after there are no survivors left, what will the proof be that the Holocaust happened? Even today, some people deny the Holocaust. From our own point of view, the most meaningful proof that the Holocaust occurred is to observe a commemoration day established for the generations to come. Photos and videos can be fabricated. In our technological era, other evidence as well can be contrived. But no one can say that Holocaust Remembrance Day was fabricated. We began to observe it right after the Holocaust happened. This is also the reason for observing Jewish remembrance days, including Tisha B'av. Their purpose is remembrance, and they are proof of the experiences undergone by our people since the Exodus from Egypt.
There is no law in Israel obligating citizens to fast on Tisha B'av, despite the fact that our people have done so for millennia. The law does mark this historical day, and that is for the sake of future generations. For the sake of preserving Jewish tradition, let us all observe the fast.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו