Spirit

 JULY 30 • 2020 | 37

Jews and Aspen

Thoughts on Tisha B’
av.

M

y first Tisha B’
Av memory took 
place at Camp Ramah, just out-
side Santa Barbara, California, 
the summer after third grade. I was a 
precocious seven-year-old in edah aleph
(group one, the youngest 
class of campers). Our edah 
worked together to fashion 
a beautiful outdoor beit k’
nes-
set (synagogue) beneath a 
sprawling oak tree with cus-
tom painted benches and 
our artwork hanging from 
the aron hakodesh (holy ark). 
One fateful morning, we awoke to 
find someone had upended our precious 
prayer space. The aron was on its side, 
benches strewn about, our works of art 
scattered on the ground. 
I was shocked to the core. Who could 
do such a thing? Then our counselors 
explained the destruction in Jerusalem 
transpiring three millennia earlier on that 
very day. This re-creation of the tragic 
events of the past created an indelible 
memory and allowed our bunk to bond 
during the rebuilding process.
The Jewish people are connected more 
profoundly than any of us realize. In 
many ways we’
re like the aspen, one of 
the largest organisms on earth, famous 
for decorating mountain ranges with bril-
liant autumnal radiance. Aspen groves are 
not collections of disparate entities. They 
are typically distinct expressions of a sin-
gle subterranean root system, sometimes 
stretching over a hundred feet from the 
parent tree. Deciduous aspens occupy a 

precarious niche in a coniferous forest, 
swelling their collective sunshine-yellow 
glory wherever the colony can obtain 
enough light. Similarly, the Jewish people 
are an interconnected family weathering 
the storms of history, shining the light of 
peace, love and innovation into the world 
whenever given the chance. The fires of 
the destruction of Jerusalem, European 
pogroms or the Holocaust may rage, but 
they cannot extinguish the spark ani-
mating the collective Jewish soul. We all 
feel the pain of our fellow Jew because in 
essence we are one entity. 
Tisha B’
Av is hard on even the har-
diest individuals. In the waning hours 
of the holiday, everyone is disheveled 
and drained. Jewish law stipulates we 
can’
t don tallis and tefillin until the sun 
is about to set, having been denied the 
glory of these crowns earlier in the day. 
We lumber into a Mincha minyan where 
we are comforted by the words of divine 
forgiveness in the Torah reading, which 
depicts the aftermath of the sin of the 
Golden Calf. Then in the Haftorah, the 
prophet Isaiah proclaims: “For you shall 
go out with joy, and be led forth with 
peace; the mountains and the hills shall 
break forth before you into singing, and 
all the trees of the field shall clap their 
hands.” 
Even when all seems lost, God is with 
us, guiding us and giving us hope. Even 
on this most mournful day, we must 
serve God with joy. We then utter the 
Amidah and special insertions with an 
intensity only possible when ravenous 

and parched, poignantly aware of one’
s 
mortality.
Tisha B’
Av is the saddest day of the 
year for those steeped in the joy of 
Judaism. Our collective primal scream 
echoes throughout history like rolling 
thunder from the original lightning bolt 
of destruction, the obliteration of our 
faith by the spies in the desert. Even at 
the nadir of our joy continuum, there is a 
kernel of hope. By the end of the fast we 
teeter on shaky legs, ashen faced and cot-
ton-mouthed. Finally, at the conclusion of 
Ma’
ariv services we drink delicious gulps 
of water and step outside the synagogue 
to celebrate the end of the three-week 
mourning period with Kiddush Levana 
(Blessing the New Moon), dancing 
together in the darkness.
May we continue to dance together like 
aspen trees shimmering in a gentle alpine 
breeze. May our unity be as self-evident 
as the aspen’
s subterranean inter-con-
nectedness. May our miraculous survival 
mimic that of the age-old grove of this 
hearty species, with roots so deeply inter-
twined it can withstand the heat of any 
conflagration. May we bring life, love, 
peace and the awareness of the Creator to 
all nations. 

Sam Glaser is a performer, composer, producer and 
author in Los Angeles. He has released 25 CDs 
of his music and his book “The Joy of Judaism” is 
an Amazon bestseller. He produces albums and 
scores for media in his Glaser Musicworks record-
ing studio. Visit him online at www.samglaser.com. 
Tisha B’
Av runs from 
 sundown July 29 to sundown 
July 30.

PIXABAY

Sam Glaser