There is something profoundly right about Tisha B’Av. It is the one day each year when we stop as a people, fast, mourn and force ourselves to remember the immense suffering that has marked Jewish history. We recall the destruction of the Temples, our exile from the Land of Israel, the horrors of the ghettos and the pogroms, the sheer horror of the Holocaust, and the recent October 7 massacre. We do so not because these are distant historical events, but because they remain part of the story that defines us as a nation. Yet I cannot escape the feeling that something is missing from the way we observe the day.

Do we truly remember, or have we become so accustomed to the language of mourning that it has become almost ceremonial? We speak of destruction, of exile and of tragedy, but often as though these belong to another people in another age. Tisha B’Av is not simply about what happened to our ancestors. It is about understanding why those events happened, what they reveal about us as a people, and whether we have learned anything from them. If we leave the synagogue having shed a tear but return to exactly the same behaviour the following morning, then I wonder whether we have honoured the memory of our past or simply observed another religious ritual.

That question feels especially important as Israel approaches another election. Elections should be........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)