For the last three years, ever since the creation of the State of Israel, many of our fellow Jews, good, synagogue-going Jews, have been coming to me with a very intelligent complaint. “Why,” they ask, “must we observe days of national mourning such as Tisha B’av when we already have a State of Israel? Why cry and mourn over some catastrophe which occurred almost 2,000 years ago when today G-d has helped us and the ingathering of the exiles has begun?” And this, my friends, is a query which is difficult to answer. Why, after all, will it be necessary for us to fast tonight and tomorrow, and observe the other laws of Tisha B’av, when the Jews in Israel now have a healthy, progressive government, which is something for which we have dreamed so long? Of what use is it to remember a past tragedy? In short, what meaning does Tisha B’av have for a Jew of Today?Before we attempt to answer that question, let us make one important observation on the nature of Tisha B’av. And that is, that Tisha B’av is an occasion which requires more than memory. Remembering alone is a dull, passive act. A memory by itself is merely a stagnant picture momentarily projected on the screen of one’s mind, and is overlooked as any dull commercial is overlooked by a typical television audience. It may be entertaining but it means little if anything. No, Tisha B’av does not mean remember, it means reliving. It means, if I be permitted to paraphrase the Passover Haggada, that בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא ראה בחורבנה של ירושלים, that in every generation every Jew must feel as if he himself lived in Jerusalem as it was being destroyed by the cruel invader, as if he himself was one of the faithful onlookers who wept endless tears as they watched the בית המקדש, the Holy Temple, go up in flames, desecrated by the inhuman legion of Rome, and then threw themselves bodily into those very same flames. Every Jew must feel as if he personally were uprooted from his own sweet Palestinian soil …

The theme of Jewish solidarity (or unity) invariably evokes from the listener an industrial size yawn leading to a religious experience, namely, the recitation of the blessing, בא"י המפיל חבלי שינה על עיני ותנומה על עפעפי. So, I to rise before you with a large degree of trepidation. The subject of Jewish unity is much more relevant now than it was before the onset of the recent Intifada #2, with all its attendant dangers. I am confident that world and American Jewry will not, indeed never, abandon Israel; that we are in the right; that our cause is just; that הנה לא ינוס ולא יישן שומר ישראל. What worries me more is the internal dissension within Israel and in the Diaspora —not differences of opinion or life-style, but the intolerance, the bitterness, the incivility, and the שנאת חינם-all at a time when unity is so vital to our future.Jewish solidarity, according to the Talmud, has one of two sources.כשניתנה תורה לישראל היה קולו הולך מסוף העולם ועד סופו, וכל מלכי עכו"ם אחזתן רעדה בהיכליהן...נתקבצו כולם אצל בלעם הרשע ואמרו לו: מה קול ההמון אשר שמענו, שמא מבול בא לעולם! א״ל (שוטים שבעולם!) כבר נשבע הקב״ה שאינו מביא מבול לעולם שנאי ה׳ למבול ישב וישב ה׳ מלך לעולם, א״ל: מבול של מים אינו מביא, אבל מבול של אש מביא! ...א״ל: כבר נשבע שאינו משחית כל בשר, ומה קול ההמון הזה ששמענו! א״ל: חמדה טובה יש לו בבית גנזיו תתקע״ד דורות קודם שנברא העולם, וביקש ליתנה לבניו, שנא׳: ה׳ עוז לעמו יתן הי יברך את עמו בשלום. (זבחים קט״ז).The Gentile kings expected the Jews to be disunited. When they heard the theophany at Sinai and saw the sudden expressions of Jewish unity, they thought it was a new Noahide flood that would engulf the world, and they trembled in fear. Balaam reassured them: this time the unity is not because of an external cause, but internal: מתן תורה.Hence, there are two separate causes of unity amongst Jews: threats from without, and inspiration from within.So what unites us today in both Israel and the Diaspora? Both things: the threats from without and the opportunities for …

Leadership — Jewish Insights – Gruss Inst., Jerusalem, Dec. 30, 2002 – Chose theme LP bee: theme intrigues me; Isr going into elections; Mostly: RJ. I: talking re J LP – nt poltcl, mostly spl / insttl; thrfr will illustrt fr If Moses. While I’ll tlk mostly USA, leave it t y to apply t ISR; סדנא דארעא חד הוא. J LP is distinguished by 1 phenomnn: what it is NOT, Lt m explain. M = boggddwn רלאת... יתרו: (בל תבל גם אתה גם ו) Yitro – hw t orgnz. M acccpts / implcments – YET (בהעלותך), M complains – identical lang – לא אוכל אנכי לבדי לשאת את כל העם הזה כי כבד ממני. God: אספה לי שבעים איש... HUT wasn’t that same advice Yitro gave? Ans: No – Yitro = mgt advc, Gd = LP. Yitro: MBA – MIT / Hrvrd – Bt Gd: SP’L LP – ואצלתי מן הרוח אשר עליך עליהם. Dn’t need jst gopher / execs; need men of sprt. Ths = charctrzs gennly J, esp rel, LP. Mgt = imp skill – bt not possess quality of commitment t רוח, beynd slf / constituency. W-o that spl comm’t LP nt J. So, we talkg LP; proceed t adumbrate salient features LP ~ our commy. But rmmbr: diffnt kinds Leadership – not all = M (radcal...) vs Aaron... 1st charctrstc = simple yet enormsly diffict: Courage – morl / psychic courage t walk by self / alone among disagree / deprecate / defame, & defy publ opinion & do wht = polity incorrect, guided only by committ t wht y considr right / true. LP, esp our commy / times, esp media... nt effectv w-o healthy diet courage. “ויהי בנסוע” (בהעלותך), מוקף בשני נונין הפוכין מדה״נ: הם כבודו של הקב״ה ממש, והם עיקרו של עולם, ובאלו נונין עתיד הקב״ה לפרוק להו לישראל ע״י משיח ובגינם ברך יעקב לנכדיו "וידגו לרוב בקרב הארץ" [“נון”־דג, ואונקלוס תירגם, "וכנוני ימא ישגון"]. W-o readiness to swim upstream when you are convinced it is the only right way to go, you will never get to the other side. Founders YU – TuM / mv Uptown. Assimilated: ridiculed Orthx upstarts nerve in encroachg on Enlghtnd ones. Frum: treasn vs “real” Js. Lttle hs changd snee Founders. St-Isr: evn greatr demonstrtn Courage. ST: B-G / Peres …