On Tisha B’Av, which occurs this year on July 23, the Jewish people remember the destruction of our holy temples in Jerusalem and subsequent tragedies that followed. We mourn, lament, and reflect. 

Tisha B’Av is interesting as a pluralism moment, or rather as a failure of pluralism. Jewish tradition teaches that the temples fell not because of opposing militaries, but because of internal strife and conflict within the Jewish people, because of “sinat chinam” —baseless hatred. 

This year, the year of America’s 250th, I am thinking less about the processes that led to the destruction of the temples, and more about the growth that occurred after they fell. 

Rabbi Sandra Lawson writes about Tisha B’Av, that the modern Jewish people would not have emerged without the destruction of the Second Temple, with the Rabbinic tradition that characterizes Jewish life today emerging out of practices that occurred outside the temple walls, carrying forward threads of past Jewish life into new interpretations and rituals. 

I would add to Rabbi Lawson’s interpretation that not only would the modern Jewish people not have emerged without the Second Temple’s destruction, but we also probably wouldn’t have survived as a people until now. We changed from a people tied to a physical place and structure, vulnerable to attack and destruction, to a people that could carry and pass on their beliefs anywhere in the world. We became the people of the book, the people of the world. What felt like a loss was actually an opportunity. 

Understanding and accepting this loss provides the opportunity to build something new. 

Change and growth both require and bring loss. When we first leave our parents’ homes, we lose a sense of safety and security and gain independence. When we meet a person or group that is different from us and truly try to understand them, we may lose the sense that there is only one way to see the world, and we gain new perspectives, relationships, understandings of ourselves and others, and opportunities to do mutual good.  

At America’s 250th and in the years leading up to it, there has been a profound sense of loss in this country on both sides of the political aisle. Many Americans feel that their vision of a country they loved is gone — whether that country in their mind existed in the 20th century or the 21st — and whether that country was defined by multiculturalism and globalization or by a single faith or heritage. 

Understanding and accepting this loss provides the opportunity to build something new. Just as the Jewish people grew and adapted after the Second Temple was destroyed, while still carrying on threads from the past, we must do the same. We must not cling to the past. We must embrace change and understand that America will never be the same country we imagined it was. And we can carry forward the threads of what made this country what it is, in order to make it the beautiful tapestry we know it can be.  

At America’s 250th let us take the chance to mourn what is lost and understand what should be saved, while preparing and working towards new growth and change that will remake our country in a shared vision, for the benefit of all.