Tisha Be'Av

B"H

Today is Tisha Be Av and, therefore, things go a little slower.

Last night, I worked half of the night at the bakery and had some small drinks in the middle. In the morning I went back to Tel Aviv and the weather here is hot but not as bad as last week.

I slept the whole afternoon and now we still have almost three hours to go until we can eat and drink again.

In Jerusalem shops and restaurants were closing early last night. People ran to buy food from the Machane Yehudah market and later on went to the Kotel (Western Wall) or to their local Synagogues saying Kinnot. I was a kind of upset that I had to work; otherwise I would have made my way to the Kotel as well.

This morning there was a report on the Israeli radio "Reshet Beit". Some journalists were talking about "Sinacht Chinam - baseless hatred" in our society. A sin eventually leading to the destruction of the Second Temple.
And where are we today ? Are we Jews without Sinat Chinam ?
Of course, and sometimes it seems even worse than during Temple times. Especially of what has happened during the past weeks. Haredim throwing stones and some Israeli policemen reacting like madmen and out of control. Not everybody, but there were incidents.

The journalists claimed that there is so much baseless hatred in Jerusalem at the moment: Haredim against the secular and vice versa.

I don't agree. There are tensions when a person not really belonging to Mea Shearim is walking the neighbourhood but I don't see Jerusalem full of Sinat Chinam. Things go as usual and I don't understand what the media is trying to tell us. However, the next sentence was that especially the Haredim should understand Sinat Chinam.
Why "only the Haredim" ? What about everyone else ?
Wasn't this another baseless hatred accusation ?
The guy is talking about Sinat Chinam and does it himself at the same time !

What happened to our society ?
The positive point is that more and more people have started talking and recognizing Tisha Be'Av. If they fast or not, people notice it and some Israeli radio channels play sad music today. I consider this as an improvement. And not only in Jerusalem are many shops closed but also in Tel Aviv.

Enjoy the last hours of the fast - Zom Kal !