Last month, we spent some time in Brooklyn and cherished visiting Shainy’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor well into her nineties, may she live and be well. Her generation truly expresses what it means to be Jewish, not because of the horrors they experienced, but because of what they did in the aftermath of it all.
Here is a snippet of how the Yad Vashem website describes the post-war years. “Most survivors had lost their entire families, and alongside the feelings of loss and loneliness was the yearning to establish families of their own, resulting in a marriage boom after liberation. In the years 1946-1948, the birth rate in the DP camps was the highest in the world.”
This is so inspiring to me because despite suffering most from all humanity during the war years, and still not knowing what the future would bring, these survivors did everything to bring more life to a world that had brought them so much death.
This week we observed Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, the Jewish day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of both Holy Temples, the second of which was destroyed 1,995 years ago. Every Jewish calamity after that is connected to this one intense day of mourning, but its impact on the Jewish people predates the first Holy Temple by close to 900 years.
As the Jews were about to enter the Promised Land, a little over a year after the exodus from Egypt, ten elders convinced them that war with its inhabitants would be certain suicide. The people wept the entire night of the 9th of Av, bemoaning their fate. Since they wailed for no reason, G-d decreed this date would give them legitimate reasons to cry. Immediately, entry to Israel was delayed by four decades so that the entire generation would die in the desert, and their children would ultimately inherit it.
Every year on the eve of the 9th of Av, the Israelites would sleep in prepared graves, expecting tens of thousands of men to die that night. On the morning of Tisha B’Av of the 40th year (3,295 years ago), everyone was very much alive. Figuring they miscalculated the date, they returned to their graves each night until they saw the full moon shine brightly, signaling it was the 15th of Av, many days after the 9th, evidence that the national death sentence was over and all of them would make it to the Promised Land.
The moon’s participation in communicating these good tidings was significant. Even before they entered their homeland, the Jews learned to take inspiration from the moon, which disappears every month and reappears to its full strength. To understand that even when things are so bad, it seems Judaism and Jews may disappear, our rebirth and ultimate return to full strength is guaranteed.
The 15th of Av became an annual celebration described by the Talmud as “the most joyous holiday on the Jewish calendar” because even though the major holidays of Pesach and Sukkot are also celebrated on the full moon, this full moon is different. Because it follows our greatest destruction, it signals our rebirth even from the depths of the abyss.
The post-Holocaust baby boom in the DP camps is precisely what the Jewish nation was conditioned to do since that fateful day 3,295 years ago when the full moon signaled our travels in the desert were over. We are never identified by our suffering or persecution but rather by our ability to move forward and rebuild with more passion and vitality.
As we celebrate 15 Av this Wednesday, let’s translate this empowering message into action by increasing our Mitzvah observance and Torah study, and may we merit the ultimate rebirth and liberation with the arrival of Moshiach, who will usher in an era of true peace and tranquility for all.