A Tisha B'Av Conversation: Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

First of all...what is Tisha B'Av?

Tisha B’Av is the major day of communal mourning. First and foremost Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of both the first and second temples in Jerusalem (586 B.C.E, and 70 C.E respectively), but many other travesties have occured on the same date, including:

• It was decreed that the Israelites, after leaving Egypt, would wander in the desert for 40 years, until a new generation would be ready to enter the Promised Land.
• The First Temple (that Solomon built) was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia, in 586 B.C.E.
• The Second Temple (that returning exiles built and then Herod rebuilt) was destroyed by Titus and the Romans in 70 C.E.
• Betar, the fortress headquarters of Shimon Bar Kochba, fell to the Romans in 135 C.E.
• Hadrian, the Roman [emperor] and ruler of Jerusalem, in 136 C.E., established a heathen temple [in Jerusalem] and rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city.
• The Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from England was signed by King Edward I in 1290.
• Ferdinand and Isabella decreed this to be the official date of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Led by Isaac Abarbanel, 300,000 Jews began to leave Spain on that date. Columbus set out on his first voyage of discovery on the day after Tisha B’Av (after delaying his sailing by one day).

How do we observe this day of mourning?

• On Tisha B’Av the book of Lamentations is read with a unique special melody.
• As a sign of mourning it is customary to fast, refrain from bathing, wearing leather shoes, and having sexual relations.

Something that separates this day of mourning from other days like Yom Kippur, is that we are not allowed to study Torah, because we are supposed to be joyous when studying Torah!

Questions:

1. Have you heard about this day in the Jewish calendar before?
2. How does it make you feel that the Jewish people have a day commemorating such horrific events?

“The Bible, after all, repeatedly speaks of God as the special protector of the poor, the widow, and the orphan, without
raising the question of how it happened that they became poor, widowed, or orphaned in the first place.”
― Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Questions:

1. In these 2 sources we read that God is our protector, when have we experienced that in our lives?
2. Referring back to Kushner's quote, why do you think we see God as a protector when those who he is supposed to protect often get neglected?

“We may not ever understand why we suffer or be able to control the forces that cause our suffering, but we can have a lot to say about what suffering does to us, and what sort of people we become because of it. Pain makes some people bitter and envious. It makes others sensitive and compassionate. It is the result, not the cause, of pain that makes some experiences of pain meaningful and others empty and destructive.”
― Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"When I say we live in the time of the death of God, I mean that thread uniting God and man, heaven and earth, has been broken. We stand is a cold, silent, unfeeling cosmos unaided by any purposeful power beyond our resources. After Auschwitz, what else can a Jew say about God?

- Prof. Richard Rubenstein, After Auschwitz

Questions:

1. Do you find that being Jewish and suffering go hand in hand? Why?

Below you will find the blessing that people often say after they use bathroom. By being grateful for things like our body working properly, does that enlighten our thoughts that God blesses us every day?

Quetions:

1. Do you thank God or pray to God only when something bad happens?
2. What would it be like if we also thanked God about the mundane and positive things in our lives?