Monday, August 12th, 2024
No Laughing Matter
I come from a family that likes to laugh. We’re all pretty funny and we know a lot of jokes. In my auditioning days back in NYC, my resume listed under Special Skills Ability to Remember Jokes and, at many an audition, the casting director would ask me to tell a joke. (My response was always, “Give me a category” and then I would accommodate the request.) I was simply brought up to laugh a lot. I learned to look for, and appreciate, the humour in almost everything.
With that in mind, it makes sense that, living in Israel in the 1970s, my favourite part of the daily Jerusalem Post was the Dry Bones cartoon. It offered, with a chuckle, a pictorial commentary on current events in Israel (something that certainly helped young, unsophisticated me to understand a lot during the Yom Kippur War). The title refers to Ezekiel’s vision of the “Valley of the Dry Bones” but I thought it referred to the dry humour of the writer/artist Yaakov Kirschen. The comic still runs, but I am now on Kirschen’s mailing list so I receive the daily cartoon via email. Here is what I received today:
This is what we would call Dark Humour. The cartoon refers to, of course, the imminent attack on Israel by Iran, supposedly in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas’ top leader while he was visiting Iran. Israelis have been told to stock up on food and water in fortified safe rooms, hospitals prepare to move patients to underground wards, search-and-rescue teams are positioned in major cities. Neighbours are comparing checklists of what they’ve stored (“don’t forget the can opener!”) and the IDF has forbidden all soldiers to leave the country. Israel is preparing itself for a Tisha B’Av that, in the words of Yaakov Kirschen, “has never been so exciting.”
In the Diaspora, outside of the religious communities, Tisha B’Av goes almost completely unnoticed. The Ninth of Av is the date that commemorates the destruction of not one but TWO Temples in Jerusalem, same date, centuries apart. They say that the Temples were destroyed because of “Sinat Chinam” – baseless hatred. In short, the Jews weren’t getting along. There is much to debate here, and much to learn. Last year at this time, the Jews weren’t getting along and the public demonstration against Israel’s government was an avalanche that kept picking up power. After October 7th, we were suddenly united. Today, our People are united and strong, although we still disagree about a lot. So I wonder, what is mere differences of opinions, and what is hatred? We need to be careful to not let the former lead to the latter.
Tonight we’ll be reading the Book of Eicha and talking about Tisha B’Av and all its dimensions. Whether or not you are joining us at The Song Shul, I ask you all to pray for peace, for miracles, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, for the safe return of the hostages, for the protection of our brave soldiers, and for an UNEXCITING Tisha B’Av for our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael.
Am Yisrael Chai!