Considering ... Response/s to tragedy Wed. 8/10

We are coming up to Tishah b'Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. It is a day on which Jews throughout the world commemorate collectively all the tragedies experienced by our people. It was on this day, according to tradition, that both of our ancient, sacred Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, the first by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE, the second by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Many more horrific acts committed against Jews have been associated with this date as well.

Tishah b'Av has thus become a day of intense mourning and introspection for the Jewish People. We take great pains to remember our suffering. In fact, a deep and abiding consciousness of Jewish suffering has been firmly embedded in the culture of Judaism, regardless of how each of us personally engages (or doesn’t engage at all) in religious practice. It might be accurate to refer to it as a kind of spiritual consciousness of Jewish suffering. From a social-psychological perspective, our collective memory of communal suffering has served to bond together the many factions of our community despite deep and troublesome disagreements, and it has helped to keep our people alive through dozens of generations. (It may also be an origin for a sense of "Jewish guilt.") The commemoration says to us, "See how your ancestors suffered through exiles, pogroms, and other calamities. See how they survived! Don't even think about leaving the tribe!" (A oft-told joke reveals our collective sense of suffering and persecution in nine words as the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of almost all Jewish holidays: They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat!"

q/q: When calamities befall you (or those close to you), what’s your spiritual response? How do you deal with the situation? How do you deal with other people either in your situation or the people with whom you are close who are going through a difficult situation?