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Observing Tisha B'Av
As A Day Relevant To Us All

Jews judging the religious value systems of oth-
er Jews.
"Rikht wing" Jews vs. "left wing" Jews.
Recent inexcusable Shavuoth scenes at the
Wall.
Tisha B'Av, which begins at sunset on Mon-
day, Aug. 11, and ends the following evening,
is a day that marks terrible tragedies in Jew-
ish history. The destruction of the First Tem-
ple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E; the fall of
the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E.;
the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
Tradition holds that the Jews brought the first
destruction on themselves through idolatry and
corruption, and the second through causeless ha-
tred of fellow Jews. The point of focusing on so
much bad news is that our grief will help mend
our ways and repair the world, the theme of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
We don't need any biblical codes or mysteri-
ous symbolism or even acts straight out of the

Torah to tell us that Tisha B'Av is as relevant to-
day as it has ever been. Maybe our idolatry has
been modernized in terms of the financial and
the material, but certainly our grief should be
overwhelming when we think of the continued
strife happening within our own "community."
It's difficult to even consider Judaism under
one umbrella. Yet, we need to make sure that we
spend our time encouraging Judaism rather than
discouraging it. Our common fear generations
ago was that our dirty laundry should never be
made public, that it would be a "shande for the
goyim."
The shande or sin we now face is among our-
selves. At a time when the words "Hear, 0 Is-
rael" should bring us together, it seems the last
thing we're doing now is "hearing." We should,
instead, be validating our differences, yet re-
specting one another's Jewish point of view.
Lo, that they'll be lamenting our divisiveness
as a people generations from now if we don't.

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Aside from the devastating loss of innocent hu-
man life, the great tragedy of last week's cow-
ardly suicide bombing in Jerusalem was what
didn't happen. That is, once again there were few
if any words beyond routine condemnation from
the top offices of the United Nations.
Pathetically, the reaction would have been pre-
dictable had the situation been reversed and Jews
slaughtered Arabs. With much fanfare, an "emer-
gency session" would have been called. Israel
would then be roundly condemned in a day of
demagoguery; in the vogue of the 1990s, inter-
national trade sanctions would be discussed. Fi-
nally, the United States would again be forced
to be "the bad guy" by vetoing an unbalanced, bi-
ased anti-Israel resolution.
Mind you, murder need not be the catalyst for
this. After all, Israel recently only had to start
building houses on an empty Jerusalem hilltop
to gain such a reaction. As we said then, the Is-
raeli government handled that situation poorly.
Yet, the resulting Palestinian violence was in-
excusable.
Meanwhile, as Palestinian riots raged in the
West Bank, the Palestinian Authority justice
minister, in words endorsed by Authority Pres-

Think?"

PROMISED LAND

THE CONTINUING STORY OF JEWISH LIFE IN THE DIASPORA

by Jordan B. Gorfinkel

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ident Yassir Arafat, declared a death penalty for
Palestinians selling land to Jews. At least three
Arab murders have been connected to that call.
The United Nations held no meeting to condemn
this outrageous anti-Semitism.
This is part of a long history of the body's anti-
Israel actions. Several examples: In 1967, at the
unilateral urging of Egypt, UN observers pulled
out of the Suez Canal region. This set the stage
for the terrifying battle cries of the Arab nations
that they would soon "push the Jews into the
sea." Less than a decade later, Arab states led
the United Nations to brazenly declare Zionism
equal to racism.
But with progress on the peace front in recent
years, the anti-Israel mood seemed to lighten.
Five years ago, then President George Bush suc-
cessfully lobbied for a reversal of the shameful
1975 resolution. Now, with the peace process on
a respirator, the world body has slipped back into
bashing Israel instead of treating it and the Arab
states with equity.
In doing so, it makes a farce out of itself. Fur-
ther, it loses the opportunity to play a meaning-
ful role in solving one of modern history's most
protracted conflicts.

TheDJN@aol . corn

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Does Tisha B'Av mean
anything to you? What?

To respond: "So, What Do You Think?"
27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034
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Letters

Pluralism
Is Vital

Pluralism fits the Jews like wa-
ter fits ducks. (In response to
What Do You Think (July 18): "Is
pluralism the No. 1 issue in
World Jewry?")
Why else do we laugh at the
joke, "If you put two Jews in a
room, you get three opinions"?
Jews are clearly opinionated in-
dividuals, a "stiff-necked people,"
if you will. Since that is the case,
and since it is the case that we in
America and increasingly in the
rest of the world live in a free so-
ciety where individuals can
choose their activities and affili-
ations, it is very clear that one
mold of Judaism will not satisfy
every Jew.
For example, fitting a round
secular Jewish peg into a square
Orthodox hole doesn't make
sense when there are round Jew-
ish holes to choose from. So in
every branch of Judaism, we're
still talking about pegs and holes,
but we have to find the right hole
for each peg. If we fail to provide
this variety, then most of those
round pegs will not bother to try

to fit in the one square hole which
they find uncomfortable; they'll
either quit the game altogether
or find a round hole in a non-Jew-
ish setting, like Ethical Culture
or Unitarianism. Pluralism is es-
sential to Jewish survival and to
improving the quality of Jewish
life.
The myth of the pluralism de-
bate, however, is that pluralism
is a new issue for the Jewish peo-
ple. In fact, throughout their his-
tory the Jews have always been
pluralistic. Every heretic pun-
ished in the Bible represents a
Jew expressing his differing opin-
ion to a hostile audience. The Es-
senes, Sadduccees and Pharisees
didn't like each other too much
some 2,000 years ago; but they
were all Jewish groups. In the
same period, the Jewish life prac-
ticed in Greece in Alexandria was
far different from the Jewish life
observed in Jerusalem.
The Sephardim and Ashke-
nazim maintained different cul-
tural practices and sometimes
different legal practices.
The Ashkenazim abandoned
polygamy in a Christian context,

PLURALISM page 32