We must remember why we lost the land

(JNS) — “How do we make sure we never lose the land again?”

This question caught me completely off-guard. I was attending the recent Zohar Conference in Tel Aviv when Yael Leibowitz posed it, saying it was the fundamental question facing the Jewish people. Every other issue, she suggested, was secondary.

I have found myself returning to that question repeatedly. At first, it sounded like a question about military strength or politics. The more I reflected on it, however, the more I realized it was asking the central question of Tisha B’Av.

The question, after all, is what Tisha B’Av is really...