Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Some critics of the Israeli government's judiciary overhaul see parallels in ancient calamities. At top: a detail from "La distruzione del tempio di Gerusalemme," by Francesco Hayez, 1867. At bottom: Police use water canons on anti-overhaul activists in Jerusalem, July 24, 2023.
(JNS) - When I was younger, I often struggled with understanding the purpose of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av. Why, thousands of years later, do we still fast and mourn the destruction of Judaism's two temples? Why do we continue to commemorate a way of life so remarkably different from the Judaism we practice today?
It wasn't that I couldn't appreciate the profound loss and anguish that the Israelites experienced when they were exiled from their lands in 70 C.E. But since then, we had become a different people - a rich mosaic of cultures, traditions and tongues that didn't exist when the T...
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