“Nine days in Av. Our enemies do not only wish for our destruction. They pursue it. They want these days to echo for us through Jewish history as days of mourning and hurban, destruction. They see themselves as the modern incarnations of those who have hated the Jews through time and sought their ultimate demise. They revel in it. They define themselves by it. And their societies rot because of it.
In seeking to repeat history, they have forgotten it. We are not, as Menachem Begin said, the Jews with trembling knees. We are a nation of lions. And they forget that each force that has sought our destruction has, in turn, ended up in the dustbin of history.
What will determine these days is not what our enemies plan, but our response to it. And three components of that response will be key.”
You care about Israel, peoplehood, and vibrant, ethical Jewish communities. We do too.
Join our email list for more Hartman ideas
