Build and Rebuild

Shabbat Chazon and Tisha B’Av

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Brumbach, Congregation Simchat Yisrael, West Haven, CT

In addition to beginning a new book of the Torah (Deuteronomy), this week marks a special Shabbat, Shabbat Chazon, which gets its name from the opening word of the haftarah read just before Tisha B’Av: “The vision (chazon) of Isaiah the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem . . .” (Isaiah 1:1).

Shabbat Chazon is the final warning of what is about to befall Jerusalem and the Jewish people because of our sins against Hashem.

Tisha B’Av begins this coming Saturday night, and marks one of the most tragic days on the Jewish calendar. Numerous atrocities have befallen the Jewish people on this date (or just around it) throughout the last 3,000 years, the pinnacles being the destruction of both the first and second Temples. 

Tisha B’Av is a timely reminder that although Jewish history is full of tragedy, it will not end that way. As our special haftarah promises, ultimately there will be redemption for Israel (see Isaiah 1:16-17). The cycle of Jewish time embodies this idea that redemption is birthed out of tragedy.

Although Shabbat Chazon contains a final warning, and Saturday night marks our mourning of the tragic events associated with Tisha B’av, next week is another special Shabbat, called Shabbat Nachamu (the Shabbat of Comfort). 

From the Shabbat following Tisha B’Av until Rosh Hashanah there is a seven-week period of hope and consolation. As Professor Rachel Adelman of Hebrew College points out, there are seven special haftarah readings from Isaiah between Tisha B’Av and Rosh HaShanah, which trace a movement from mourning to comfort, and from desolation to joy, over the course of these seven weeks. According to a midrash cited in Machzor Vitri, these haftarot “all speak of comfort . . . in the way that one comforts (a mourner) slowly by stages.”  

Therefore, beginning with Isaiah’s words in next week’s haftarah, “Comfort, Comfort, my people,” over the next seven weeks we move from the tragedy of Tisha B’av to Rosh HaShanah, with all its imagery of the coronation of God as our King. 

This idea of Tragedy to Redemption is so firmly built into the fabric of Jewish consciousness that there is even a tradition cited in the Jerusalem Talmud and in Midrash that Messiah will be born on Tisha B’Av. For out of tragedy, redemption will sprout forth! 

According to Rabbi David Wolpe, “The Talmud declares [Tisha B’Av as] also the day of the Messiah’s birth. Before God inflicts the wound, the rabbis teach, God sends the salve, the healing.” 

As a Messianic Jewish community, we might not believe that Tisha B’Av is the literal date of Messiah’s birth, but we are able to resonate with the understanding that out of tragedy redemption sprouts forth. Yeshua’s teachings also reflect this idea. Twice Yeshua refers to the forthcoming destruction of the second temple, in Matthew 24:1–3 and John 2:19–22:

Matthew 24:1–3 (CJB) As Yeshua left the Temple and was going away, his talmidim came and called his attention to its buildings. But he answered them, “You see all these? Yes! I tell you, they will be totally destroyed – not a single stone will be left standing!” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen? 

In the passage from John 2, Yeshua again references the destruction of the Temple, but this time he applies the imagery of the Temple’s destruction to himself.

 John 2:19–22 (CJB) Yeshua answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” The Judeans said, “It took 46 years to build this Temple, and you’re going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the “temple” he had spoken of was his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his talmidim remembered that he had said this, and they trusted in the Tanakh and in what Yeshua had said.

 According to the great medieval Torah commentator, Abravanel:

When the Torah speaks about the Temple, it is not only describing a sacred building in which worship takes place but it also has in mind the body of each human being. That is to say, each human being is a sacred sanctuary.

 And isn’t this exactly what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians?

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If any person destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. (1 Cor 3:16–17, NASB 1995 )

And again in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (NASB 1995).

 By applying this imagery of the Temple to our bodies, the New Testament and Jewish tradition are making a powerful statement. Our bodies can either be a center for what is holy or an object that can be destroyed because of our life choices.

Our rabbis teach that the reason the Temple was destroyed was because of Sinat Chinam – Baseless Hatred. And what is the cause of this kind of hatred? It is really a form of stubbornness . . . an inability to see others as B’tzelem Elohim, created in the image of God.

This inability to see the value in others, especially minorities or others on the periphery of society, has long been a path to dehumanization. When you no longer see each other as human, it then becomes possible to justify all kinds of treatment toward each other. And as Jews, we know of this kind of dehumanization all too well.

Therefore, if, according to our tradition, the Temple was destroyed due to sinat chinam, baseless hatred, it was because the people (and especially the leadership) of the time were taking advantage of, and misrepresenting, that which was supposed to be holy. And in the same way, we have to account for the way we use our own vessels to glorify God today.

In Exodus 25:8, God commanded us to build him a Sanctuary so that he could dwell among us. God was not just talking about the Mishkan, the physical Tabernacle. God was also providing a spiritual principle, that wherever we make a place for God’s presence to dwell, he will fill it. And that includes ourselves! This includes the ability to see the holiness in others as well.

The Kotzker Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, once raised a surprising question to a number of his chassidim who happened to be with him. He asked: “Where is the presence of God?” His chassidim laughed: “What a thing to ask! Isn’t the whole world full of God’s glory!” But then the Kotzker Rebbe answered: “God dwells wherever we let God in.”

On Tisha B’Av we mourn along with our people the many losses associated with this day. As a Messianic Jewish community, we mourn because these tragedies are ours. And yet, as a Messianic Jewish community, we also recognize a tension because ultimately, out of these ashes we will also gain a glimpse of something greater, the redemption that still waits to be fully attained and realized.

Since the Temple’s destruction we have been in exile, both physically and spiritually. However, we are also experiencing a powerful shift as we are now living in a day and age when we are witnessing God regathering his people, returning us to our Land, and revealing to us our beloved Messiah.

God is indeed strengthening us and giving us a renewed purpose. The Hebrew word chazon means “vision.” As Proverbs 29:18 states: “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but those who keep Torah are happy” (CJB).

We are called to be a people, spiritually and prophetically, who are able to see redemption arise out of the ashes of tragedy. We are those who must have a vision when the rest of the world is lost and without hope. And we must be those who not only understand that all of us are temples for God’s presence to dwell within, but are also able to see that same holiness within others.

During these days leading up to Tisha B’Av, we need to observe this period of mourning over the many calamities of our past, but we must also remember that we are always able to build and rebuild. With a clear vision we are able to build something beautiful for God’s presence to dwell within.