Yesterday was Tisha B’Av — the saddest day of the Jewish year, commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the fall of Beitar, the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition, and the commencement of the deportation of Warsaw Ghetto Jews to Treblinka, among other calamities.
I’ve observed Tisha B’Av in different ways throughout my life — at Herzl Camp with fasting, readings from Lamentations and Job, and a documentary about Michael Levin. At Alexander Muss High School in Israel in 2008, I gained a deeper understanding of the Temple’s destruction — idol worship and corruption leading to the First Temple’s fall, and baseless hatred causing the Second’s.
This year, I spent Tisha B’Av volunteering at a vineyard in the Kinneret region. Something about fasting while simultaneously laboring in the land of Israel was profound. I found myself participating in the constant rebuilding of the Third Temple by helping make this land beautiful and prosperous.
The Third Temple is not a building. It is the State of Israel itself — established in 1948 following victory in the War of Independence. UNITY, and only unity, will leave us victorious in this time of the Third Temple.