Rebuilding Jerusalem | Sharona Margolin Halickman
As we commemorate the Speedy of the Tenth of Tevet, we have to move again and replicate on how we can rebuild Jerusalem.
What transpired on the Tenth of Tevet?
We examine in Melachim II (Kings II) 25:1-3:
And in the ninth 12 months of his (Zedkiah’s) reign (587 BCE), on the tenth day of the tenth month (Tevet), Nevuchadnezzar moved versus Jerusalem with his total army. He besieged it and they designed towers towards it all about. The town continued in a condition of siege until the eleventh 12 months of King Zedekiah. By the ninth day of the fourth month, Tamuz, the famine had turn out to be acute in the city there was no meals left for the widespread people.
The siege of Jerusalem and the encompassing cities lasted for a year and seven months ultimately culminating in the destruction of the First Temple in the Fifth Month (Av), 586 BCE.
Sixty-8 several years later on, in the 12 months 518 BCE, as the Jews were being returning to develop the Second Temple a query was asked (Zecharia 7:3):
Shall I weep and exercise abstinence in the fifth month (on Tisha B’Av, The 9th of Av) as I have been executing all these decades?
Zecharia gained the following prophecy to relate back (Zecharia 7:5-6):
Say to all the individuals of the land and to the clergymen: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months (Tisha B’Av and Tzom Gedalia) all these seventy several years, did you rapid for My benefit? And when you try to eat and consume, who but you does the feeding on, and who but you does the drinking?
Zecharia discussed what to do (7:9):
Execute legitimate justice deal loyally and compassionately with one one more.
According to Radak this usually means that when judging scenarios between two litigants, you should usually execute true justice and at times, you will have to prolong yourselves past the letter of the legislation with acts of benevolence and mercy.
Zecharia’s prophecy continues (7:10):
Do not defraud the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the inadequate and do not plot evil versus one an additional.
Zecharia is describing what was accomplished completely wrong in the past and what needs to be set. The worth of these fast days is not about refraining from ingesting and consuming but relatively about standard actions that was not adopted the to start with time about leading to the destruction of the Temple and exile. Now is the option to take care of this behavior.
Numerous of the issues that Zecharia describes are continue to with us these days. We have challenges in our courts as properly as poverty and unfair cure of sure segments of the inhabitants.
Covid-19 has exacerbated a lot of of these challenges. Couples who are about to be divorced are not in a position to full the approach since the courts are staying closed down owing to lockdowns. This is resulting in a great deal of unnecessary nervousness.
Because the federal government has continue to not authorized a spending plan and prefers to announce new elections, these who are living less than the poverty line have not been allotted the revenue that is because of to them.
In addition, several Israelis have been out of get the job done for months but not everybody performs in a class that is suitable for unemployment.
These difficulties will have to be rectified. These with the electric power should not be getting benefit of those people who are at their mercy.
Let’s see what we can do about correcting these faults. Only then can we halt fasting, begin feasting and actually rebuild Jerusalem.
Sharona holds a BA in Judaic Experiments from Stern School and an MS in Jewish Training from Azrieli Graduate Faculty, Yeshiva University. Sharona was the initially Congregational Intern and Madricha Ruchanit at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, NY. Following creating aliya in 2004, Sharona started Torat Reva Yerushalayim, a non financial gain group based mostly in Jerusalem which offers Torah examine teams for college students of all ages and backgrounds.
