This week we read the third of three Haftarah portions that precede Tisha B’Av, the day that commemorates the fall of the great Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70. These three portions each admonish the Israelites for straying from God, from Torah and from their fellow Jews. This third portion, which comes from the Book of Isaiah, includes the iconic verse: ‘Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, and they rebelled against Me’ (1:2). According to the sages, the Temple fell not because of outside forces, but rather because of our own infighting, pettiness and arrogant behavior. We lost our way. The portion is harsh and foreboding to be sure. It calls on us to wake up, to choose morality, to come back to the values of our people. 

This year, I am entering this difficult time on our calendar with an especially heavy heart. Yes, I am mourning the great tragedies that have befallen our people, from the fall of the Temple to more recent calamities, including the great sense of loss we experienced on 10/7/23. We have all felt, indeed, no shortage of heartache and pain. Our people have been hurt and hurt again. I learned this lesson anew on our recent congregational trip to Poland. There I saw with my own eyes the vast, gray landscape that is Auschwitz – Birkenau. I saw where so many of our brothers and sisters met their devastating end.

This year, as we approach Tisha B’Av and read verses such as the one from Isaiah, I am particularly mindful of the crisis unfolding daily in Gaza. It is a humanitarian crisis. Let’s not mince words. Families are dying. Children are starving. The Israeli government’s approach to establishing peace and bringing the hostages home is failing and failing on the largest possible stage. This does not absolve the terrorist leadership of Hamas. It does not absolve the antisemitic press or other bad actors. It does not undo Israel’s need to defend itself against every existential threat. Rather, we must be clear that Israel has come up painfully short when it comes to upholding the virtues of our Torah and most fundamental teachings of our tradition. I believe that to be a Jew in the summer of 2025 is to speak up boldly and to come to the aid of all people bearing the burden of war – Israeli and Palestinian alike.

I invite you to give to the New Israel Fund, a non-profit agency I know and trust. They have established a fund to aid those suffering most egregiously in Gaza: https://www.nif.org/nifs-campaign-to-address-humanitarian-needs-in-gaza/.

Allow me to end with this: I am a proud Zionist. I believe Judaism is rooted in the land of Israel. I believe Israel is a place of great sanctity, great history and great beauty. I believe in the very idea of Israel, as I believe in the idea of America. Yet, as with America at present, I am deeply concerned by Israel’s leadership. I believe Israel can and must do better, in the name of the great heroes of its past and the promise of its future. I am with the vast majority of Israelis who are ready for this war to end and ready for a leadership of moral clarity and high ideals. May peace come soon and may we know a world of greater compassion.