 Back on Tuesday, and guess what? Rabbi Itchel Krasnijanski, the Rabbi of Chabana, Hawaii, is with us to share the Jewish calendar and some of the holidays that are coming up soon. Hi, Rabbi. Nice to see you yet again. Thank you, Jay. Always a pleasure to be here. Well, let's talk. There are many holidays through the year, and they're all very symbolic and interesting. They're all ancient holidays, having existed for many, many, many years. The one that's coming up soon is Tishubav, which is a celebration of the ninth day of Av, and what happened on that day, Rabbi? Very interesting. It's not really a holiday. It's actually a fast day. There are two major Jewish fast days in the Hebrew calendar. One is Yom Kippur. Coming in September. Which is coming in September. It's a 24-hour fast, as well as Tishubav, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. It's also a fast day. Tishubav is actually a very dark day, so to speak, because it commemorates very tragic events, many tragic events that happened in the Jewish history. It began in the Bible in the Torah, while the Jews were in the desert after they left Egypt. Moses, who was the leader of the Jewish people, sends 12 spies to enter into the land of Canaan, and to come back with a report as to how best the Jewish people to conquer the land. This is when he was leading the people out of Egypt and through the desert, looking for a place. Is it fair to say that Canaan is in the same location as the current state of Israel? Exactly. So in the biblical, in the Torah, in the Bible, before the Jewish people inherited the land, it was the land of Canaan. There were several nation-states there. However, when God appears and reveals himself to Abraham, who's the first Jewish person, God promises to him and to his descendants that he will give the land of Israel, the holy land as it is referred to in the Torah, as an eternal inheritance to the Jewish people. That's written in the Torah? Yeah, in the very beginning, in God's appearance to Abraham, the first Jew. In the Bible? In the Bible, in Genesis. As well as to all the patriarchs, it reaffirms the promise of the land of Israel as an inheritance of the Jewish people. Moses was going to lead the Jewish people from Egypt. He made a stop at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, which is the mission statement of the Jewish people. From there, they were to go into the land of Israel, which is actually not that far. Egypt from Israel is not that far. But what happened was that Moses gathered 12 heads of the tribes, because the Jewish tribes consisted of 12. 12 tribes of Israel, yeah. 12 tribes of Israel, and it was a representative from each tribe. They went into the land of Canaan to spy and to come back with a report of how best it is to come back. What was going on there? So the story is told in the Torah that they actually came back with a very disparaging report, saying that it's a wonderful land, but the people, the inhabitants are too strong for us to overpower them. And they said that our attempt would be a futile attempt. So the Jewish people went into great despair. Because here they had just left, they were in the wilderness and they had left Egypt and with the alleged promise to go into the land of Israel, the promised land, and now they're being told by these representatives that it's never going to happen. So they cried and they weep, they wept, and this whole journey of the spies took 40 days. They left the Jewish people, got into Israel, 40 days, they spied. So God appeared in the Bible, says God appeared to Moses and said that they are crying for nothing, because in fact they will be able to conquer the land. However, even though God forgave them for the sin, God decreed two things. Number one is that that generation would not enter into the land of Israel and the 40 days that the spies spent in this reconnaissance mission, it was decreed that the Jewish people would remain in the desert for 40 years for every day of the mission corresponding year. Like in that way, that generation would die out and it would be their children that would enter into the land of Israel. The day that they came back and they reported this negative report was ish above, the ninth of of, and God said that the Jewish people, but now you weep, you weep for nothing, but I will mark this day as a day for weeping throughout your history, the history of the Jewish people. And so what happened on Tisha Bov, the tragedies that we commemorate on Tisha Bov and mark it as a sad day, a day of fasting and prayers, is that the first temple that was built by King Solomon after the Jewish people conquered the land of Israel and the first Jewish king was King David, his son King Solomon actually built a temple. David started the plans for the temple, but God said that because his hands were soiled with blood because of all the wars that David had to lead the Jewish people, so it wasn't for him to build this temple, the house of peace, it was for his son King Solomon. Solomon built a temple and the temple lasted for 400 years. Solomon is associated in common parlance with wisdom. Yes. Is that coming out of the Bible? Yes, that's the story in the Bible in the Old Testament that God blessed Solomon with wisdom beyond any other living, any other person. And David is the same David with the slingshot? Yes, in Goliath, David and Goliath. So David was King Solomon's father. So King Solomon built the first temple, lasted for several hundred years, and then the prophets came, the prophets of Jeremiah, began to prophesize to the Jewish people that if they did not move away from idol worship, because that was the thing of that era, people worshiped idols, and idol worship is something which is a big no-no in the Jewish religion in the Ten Commandments, the Second of the Ten Commandments, not to worship any other idols. They shall have no other gods before them. Exactly. And God, the prophets in the name of God said that the temple would be destroyed. And the Babylonian king, the Vuchad Netsar, I'm not sure exactly how it's pronounced in English, and E-B-U-C-H, the Vuchad Netsar. So he destroyed the first temple, and he exiled the Jews out of Israel into Babylon. The current day, Iraq. And that's where the Jewish people settled. And then when the Babylonian, and this was about 580 BCE, around then. Otherwise known as before Christ, before C. So the destruction of the first temple happened on Tishabub. Then the Babylonians were fell, and they were taken over by the Persians, the Persian Empire. Down-known as Iran. Down-known as Iran. And there was a Persian king named Cyrus, and he actually gave the Jewish people the green light to rebuild the temple. And the Jewish people... Is this the same story as Al-Mantashan and Esther and Bordecai? Yes, yes. And Purim and all that you spoke about in an earlier show? Yes. That's the same Cyrus. Yes, Cyrus was actually... Yeah, he was a good king, kind to the Jewish people. Then there was another Persian king called Deryovish Darius, who was the child of Esther and Achashverosh. And he also gave the Jewish people the green light to build the temple. Then there was a Jewish prophet named Ezra, and he led the Jewish people from Babylon back to Jerusalem. They began building the temple. All these names are... People are named after these people in the Bible. Significance even today. Just to fast-forward quickly, that the second temple was built and it also lasted for several hundred years. And then the Assyrians took over from the Persians, and they defiled the temple. There was a Jewish leader named Matis Yahu, who led the Jewish people in a rebellion against the Assyrian Empire, because they tried to Hellenize the Jewish people. They tried to tear them away from their religious practices, and they actually prohibited keeping the Sabbath. They wanted for the Jews to assimilate in the Greek culture, the Greek-Hellenistic culture. Which was still influential. Right. Is that the same as Syria today? No. Syria, I think, was conglomerate of nations, was led by the king of Assyria, but it does include Syria today. And then the Romans came into the picture, because they took over from the Assyrians, and the Romans were the ones who eventually destroyed the second temple, which was in the year 70 of the Common Era. 70 years after Christ's birth. So, okay, why did the Romans destroy the second temple? Well, the Romans persecuted the Jews. They wanted not only to conquer all the lands, but they also wanted to wipe out any independence of the peoples that they conquered, and they also wanted to assimilate them into the Roman culture. The Jews didn't want to be assimilated. And the Jews resisted. And there was a Jewish leader, whose name is... It'll come to me in a second. The rabbi, the big rabbi at that time was Rabbi Akiva. And one of his students was the Arkokhla. He led the rebellion against the Romans, and eventually this rebellion was crushed. This was the Hanukkah Rebellion? The Hanukkah Rebellion was the Matisyahu against the Greeks. And the Hanukkah story took place about 100 and somewhat years before the destruction of the temple, before the Romans entered into the picture. But the Romans came in and they destroyed the temple and exiled the Jewish people. And that also happened on Tisha Bov on the same day. It keeps repeating itself as a bad day. Fast forward many, many generations later, when the Jewish people were expelled from Spain, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was in the year 1492. They edict the Jews to either accept Christianity or leave the country. It's the same issue, isn't it? You'll have to join our religion, and if you resist, we'll punish you. The day that was decreed that the Jews who had to leave the country was Tisha Bov. Another major tragedy, because this was a major, major tragedy amongst the Jewish people. Not all Jews were expelled. Some outwardly adopted the Christian way, but secretly they held on to their Jewish beliefs. They were called by the Spanish, the Maranos. Marano actually means pig in Spanish. They were looked down at, they were looked at with suspicion. And this is what the Inquisition... Because they weren't converting to Catholicism. They were the Spanish version of Catholicism. They were converting to Catholicism, but they were suspected as not being true converts. They were just doing it to save their lives, and they would buy on them and those Jewish people that were caught practicing Judaism were brought out to the fire or to the fey and burned alive. Oh, no, the fey. Remember that? That was death by fire? Yes, that's the Inquisition. That also happened on Tisha Bov. Fast forward closer to our times. Okay, but we're going to take a short break now because I'm really interested in that. Tisha Bov has a long history, a long and half history and more recent times that continue. Let's take a short break. This is Rabbi Itchel Kwasimchansky. The Rabbi of Khabar of Hawaii will be right back here on Community Matters. Aloha. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, Sister Power here at Think Tech of IE. Sister Power is all about motivating, empowering, educating, and inspiring all people. And we have various subjects here. Sister Power is here at Think Tech every other Thursday at 4 p.m. Again, my name is Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, host of Sister Power. We look forward to seeing you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at sistersandpowerandkawaii at gmail.com. We look forward to chatting with you soon. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. My program airs every other Monday at 1 o'clock on Think Tech Hawaii. Most of my programs deal with my own life and law experience. Recently, I interviewed Alex Gempel, who I have known for over 30 years about his voyage across the sea as a lawyer from Tokyo to Hawaii. Those are the type of stories that I like to bring and like to talk about. Human stories about law and life. Aloha. Okay, we're back. We're live with Rabbi Itchel Kresnerchansky of Rabbi of Chabad of Hawaii. We're talking about Tish above, which is a sad holiday day of commemoration. Many things happened over the history of the Jews that were unpleasant and unhappy on that day. And indeed, I just want to identify the graphic behind us. That is a mock-up, an archeological mock-up of the second temple, right? And you can't see it right now, but the western wall, right? The second temple is just behind me. And if you go down from that wall, that's where the whaling wall is. And this is old Jerusalem as it existed in the day of the second temple. Correct. The second temple, as we mentioned before, was built by the Jewish people after it was green-lighted by the Roman king at the time, Cyrus. But actually, one of the later kings, King Herod, he was the one that actually built the wall and fortified the temple in Herod. The temple was destroyed, as we said, but what remained from the entire temple was the western wall, which is the wall of the courtyard. It's called the whaling wall, because that's the only remnant that we have of the holy temple. And throughout the generation, Jewish people would find their way to the wall and wail and pray to God as it being one of the most holiest sites in the Jewish religion. And the custom, if anyone who goes to the western wall or the whaling wall is in the crevices of the stones, some pieces of paper in the tradition is that people write notes past the God, and their deepest requests and prayers. There must be a million notes there by now. There is a million notes. I believe what they do is after every once in a while, how often they take it out, and they just burn it in a room from new notes to come in. And right on top of the whaling wall, I guess it would be in that image, that mock-up of the temple, again, behind me, behind my left shoulder, is the El Soxa Mosque, right? Somewhere around there. The El Soxa Mosque is in the place of where the Holy of Holies was, which is actually that structure. That structure in the center of the courtyard. That happened many, many centuries later. After the destruction of the temple. That was when the Muslims conquered and ruled that place. Going back to the history of Tishabab, in our century or in the 20th century, World War I began on the Jewish calendar on Tishabab. Now, World War I was actually the war that unsettled the entire world order of that day. It didn't really end. It led to World War II, which culminated for the Jewish people with the Holocaust. And all of that started on Tishabab. So even in our contemporary times, Tishabab, you know, marks a very, very sad day. Up until World War I, people lived in their towns and stettles and little cities for centuries. The whole upheaval of World War I is when the mass migration of people from Eastern Europe began. Then most people still didn't leave World War II broke out, and then for the Jewish people, our member, as a kid, we celebrated Tishabab by singing various songs about the Holocaust. And one of them was Anima. I mean, that means I will continue to believe. I will believe. I guess it means I will continue to believe in God. What's the meaning of all that? The Jewish philosopher and great, great codifier, Maimonides, many, many works of Jewish law and Jewish philosophy. They also codified a small little booklet that summarizes or expresses 13 principles of faith of the Jewish religion. Like the first one is the belief in God, a supreme being, our belief in reward and punishment, our belief in God's word being eternal. So the eleventh of these I-believes because in Hebrew, Anima Amin means I believe is Anima Amin in perfect faith via Hamashiach with the coming of the Messiah. And even though he tarries we've been praying and believing and hoping that he would come really generations, centuries, he calls there nevertheless, I eagerly await his arrival every day. And the song that you probably sang is a famous song of Anima Amin that was composed by a Jewish person in the cattle cars on the way to Auschwitz. It's haunting. It gets you right inside the song. I never forget that. Now there's an interesting story with Napoleon, the French emperor that one day Napoleon was passing through the Jewish community and it was Tishabov and he was passing by a synagogue and he heard wailing and crying and praying into the night. So he asked they stopped his wagon carriage and he asked for them to he asked his attendants to go in and find out what's going on. So they came in and they asked and they told him that this is Tishabov and they were learning the destruction of the temple. So they came out and they told Napoleon what they learned. Napoleon sent them back in and asked when was this temple destroyed that they were crying about. They said oh, about 700 years ago. So Napoleon said that a people that can mourn their temple hundreds of years where it was destroyed is a people that will live to see it rebuilt. If the memory of it is still alive then it will see it will see it rebuilt. It was very wise to say that. It was true to say that. Something even more recent happened on Tishabov, something very tragic that the world doesn't maybe know about. That is if you recall in Israel they gave back the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in the hope to attain peace. There were many many Jewish people that were living in that area. They left. They didn't leave. They were forced out by the then prime minister through the Israeli army. They were forced out, dragged out by many many instances and their whole lives came crashing down and destroyed. This was the Ariel Sharon who was then the prime minister all in the hope that this will bring peace. That we will give this land to the Palestinians. They'll have a land to call their own and they will build it and prosper and provide their people with a good life. Many people were opposed to this fearing that it would not bring peace. This whole formula of land for peace, giving up land to attain peace is appeasement and it's not going to work. It's not going to bring peace. Now in hindsight we know that it did not bring peace. They turned Gaza into a launching pad. The rockets were taking terrorists into the land of Israel. There hasn't been any peace. It hasn't been any peace. Manifest it got worse afterwards and the day that they were pulling Jewish settlers out of Gaza was Tishababab. That was the day when it began. That was a day that's marked with tragedy. Yeah, and it hasn't happened this year. So Tishababab falls out on August 11th this year. So that means the night before? So we Saturday night people stop eating? Yes, Saturday night until Sunday night. And what do you do? And then the special lamentations. It's prayers that lament the destruction. Because in the Jewish belief we believe that nothing happens by accident and nothing in history happens because the Romans took over and they were strong and they were hated the Jewish people and therefore they destroyed the temple. We believe that everything is ordained by God. Everything is orchestrated by God. Therefore, days like these tragic days, these fast days are reserved for days of introspection and repentance. Fasting is just to get us in the frame of mind of afflicting suffering. We can now sensitize ourselves to the tragedy of what happened because the temple wasn't just a building. It's not just a building that's being worn, but the temple was the center of Jewish life. God's presence was apparent at the temple. And the diaspora that followed is not just geographic dislocation that Jews no longer lived in Israel, but they are now scattered around the world, but it's also a spiritual dislocation. And that's why we focus, emphasize the day of spiritual introspection and fasting and repentance. However, you are right in labeling this show as a holiday because what is so foundational in the Jewish religion is that from the seeds of destruction is born redemption, that the redemption not only follows the destruction, but the destruction is the stepping stone for the redemption, that the good that comes from the bad, not that the good that follows the bad, but inherent in the bad is good that we need to tap into and uncover and meditate on. Well, thank you, Rabbi. That was really interesting to hear about this about coming soon. And we'll have another show you and me about other holidays that come soon. Yes, yes, yes. As we journey through the Jewish calendar. Yeah, thank you very much. Take care, thank you. Aloha and shalom. It was wonderful as always. Thank you.