On Tisha B'Av evening, I was invited to speak on Israel’s Channel 14 TV station, and was interviewed on a rooftop overlooking the Kotel. Before answering my first question, I asked if I could have a moment to tear my shirt, over my heart, in an act of mourning for the Temple. The video of that moment is here. (Borth links are in Hebrew)
Technically, there is a mitzvah to tear one's shirt (kriya) when one has not visited the site of the Temple for 30 days, although most Israeli Jews rarely do so (as there are various opinions about those residing here, ed.). However, I was overcome by the moment, by my grief over the loss of my wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina in a terror attack, by the war raging in Gaza and in the North, by the sacrifice of our heroic soldiers, by the pain being experienced for over 300 days by the hostages and their families, and ultimately by the destruction of our Temple almost 2,000 years ago.
So, that was the end of my £50 Marks & Spencer non-iron shirt, that I had no intention of parting with when I put it on earlier that day!
What was it about sitting there near the site of the Temple, looking at the golden Dome of the Rock that covers the Holy of Holies, the former location of the Ark of the Covenant, on the day on which we commemorate tragedies that happened so long ago?
Suddenly, I had an answer. The suffering caused to so many by this Iron Swords war is combined with a unique tragedy, one that has captured the hearts of every Jew in Israel and around the world: the plight of over 100 hostages still held in Gaza. They are stuck somewhere underground, starving, abused, frightened and feeling abandoned. On Tisha B'Av they had been there for over 300 days.
Sitting opposite the Temple Mount, I suddenly felt there was another hostage present, also underground and feeling abandoned. But this hostage has been stuck there even longer. Not for 300 days, not for 300 weeks, but for almost 1,300 years. That hostage is our holiest site, the place that Jews have faced for prayer since King Solomon built the First Temple. That place is the center of the Jewish world, the dwelling place of the Shechina (Divine presence), the Temple Mount.
After the Romans destroyed the Temple in 67 CE, the site lay empty until the Dome of the Rock was built in the 7th century to mark the Muslim colonization of the Holy Land. The Dome itself was transformed into a church during the Crusader era, and then turned back into a Muslim shrine by Saladin in the 12th century. So, for almost 1,300 years, as I wrote above, the Temple Mount has been occupied by invading cultures, preventing us from building our third and final Temple, in fulfilment of the words of our prophets.
We pray, every day, for the return of our hostages. Their pain, and that of their families, is unbearable and unending. What if Hashem wants us to remember His hostage in order for Him to release all of ours? Most of the fifteen million Jews around the world are thinking constantly about the 111 remaining hostages, both alive and dead, and praying for their swift release to freedom. Only a very small fraction of those Jews spends any time thinking about the Temple Mount, despite praying symbolically for the rebuilding of the Temple three times a day.
If Mecca had been captured by Christians and a church built on the Kaaba, wouldn't one expect the Muslims to rebuild their shrine when they recaptured the site, even after hundreds of years? If the Vatican had been captured by Muslims and converted into a mosque, wouldn't one expect the Pope to re-inaugurate St. Peter's Cathedral when it was recaptured, even after hundreds of years?
Why is there even a question about the rights of Jews to re-inaugurate the Temple, now that we have recaptured Jerusalem after hundreds of years of exile? Why instead do we ask ourselves a different question: what would the neighbors say?! Some of our neighboring Muslim states have declared war against us and sworn our destruction. Are they the reason that we feel we cannot rebuild our holiest site - in case they wage war against us and swear our destruction?!
Have 2,000 years of exile made us so scared of what other nations will think of us; more Christian than the Christians? What if Hashem wants us to liberate His long-held hostage in order for Him to liberate ours? The Crusades ended when the Temple Mount was recaptured, so perhaps the Jihadi crusade will end with us recapturing Temple Mount? If that doesn't make any sense, well, nothing at the moment is making much sense.
So, I tore my shirt, with all these feelings flowing through my mind. May this be the last Tisha B'Av of mourning for the Temple, and may we see it speedily rebuilt in our days. Amen.
Rabbi Leo Dee is an educator living in Efrat.
His book “Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity” was republished in English and Hebrew in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by terrorists in April 2023.