The case for the Three Weeks
Today I am fasting (despite having to teach a class) to acknowledge the 17th of Tammuz (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_of_Tammuz for more discussion). This begins a period known as the "Three Weeks", in which an escalating set of restrictions are observed. (Honestly I personally don't do much between now and Rosh Chodesh Av; I do observe more of the restrictions of the "Nine Days" between then and the 9th of Av fast). These days primarily mourn the loss of the First and Second Temple and the events leading up to them (and, to a lesser extent I think, medieval Jewish tragedies such as the expulsion from Jews from Spain in 1492 and various massacres associated with the Crusades).
A few years ago, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, former head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, wrote:
Three weeks of escalating mournfulness, beginning with the fast day on the 17th of Tammuz, threatens to turn martyrology and victimhood into a world view. The creation of Israel has endowed the Jewish people with an unprecedented degree of power that is ill-served by a festering sense of resentment, an abiding angst over insecurity and a messianic zeal to right past wrongs. To brood on our long history of impotence can only blunt our political judgment in an age when so much has changed and obscure the ideals of justice and righteousness that were to mark the descendants of Abraham and cast a beacon for the world.
Needless to say, R. Schorsch was excoriated by Orthodox commentators and pretty much ignored by Conservatives (since so few of them pay attention to anything before Tisha'b'Av).
And rightly so in my view. I don't see any reason to believe that 3 weeks out of 52 turn "martryology and victimhood into a world view." If anything, I find it hard to observe what I observe with any kavannah (internal dedication), not to have TOO MUCH kavannah (which is what R. Schorsh is obsessing about).
Furthermore, the Three Weeks are not just about "victimhood" and "impotence" but about our own failures- because of our own mistakes (or sins or whatever) we lost the Land of Israel. So the notion of the Three Weeks as solely about the gentiles being out to get us strikes me as just dumb.
But plenty of people smarter than I have taken issue with R. Schorsch (not just Orthodox either- the late Alan Lew, a Conservative rabbi, has written a book tying the Three Weeks to the High Holy Days, which I consider kind of an implicit rebuke even though I don't recall him focusing on the Three Weeks that much).
The more interesting question is: why would R. Schorsch think that? Why would he think that 3 weeks out of 52 focusing on Jewish failure, in a calendar filled with joy- inducing events, makes us obsessed with victimhood? I think he is really talking about more recent unfortunate events. The subtext I think I see here is that his generation of Jews, which either lived through the Holocaust or have parents who did, is obsessed 52 weeks a year with Jewish victimhood: both the Holocaust itself AND Arabic attempts to create a new one in Israel. And if you start off by making the Holocaust and Israel's problems as central points of reference, naturally the extra horror of the Three Weeks will seem much more burdensome.
So even though I disagree with R. Schorsch I can understand where he's coming from. Having said that, I think his criticisms are more directed at Yom Hashoah, or at Jews' focus on Israel, rather than at the rare observances focused on other tragedies.
Moreover, I think that as the Holocaust fades into memory, and its survivors die off, our focus on Jewish victimhood will fade a little every generation, and thus the force behind his argument.
Posted by conservadox
at 10:40 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 10:53 AM EDT
