2 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday. July 26,1979
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reasons
Rabbi Dr, Shmuel Himelstein recounts the many reasons why the Ninth of A v(TishaB*A vjisa national day of mourning for Jews everywhere, it falls this year on Avgust 2, the commemorative fast and reading of Lamentations commencing at sunset the night before. A former American, Dr. Himelstein has been d teacher and principal in Israeli primary schools and is now in the Ministry ojfEducation inJerusalem.
BY HENRY tEONARD
WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR with the Biblical account of the twelve spies sent by Moses to investigate the conditions in Canaan, and how their negative report resulted in the Jews being punished by having to wander in the desert for forty years.
Less familiar is the Midrashic comment on the whole episode. The Midrash relates that the spies returned on the ninth day of the month of Av, and when the people heard their report they all began weeping and wailing. At that time, the Midrash relates, G-d told them: "On this ninth day of Av you have mourned without any cause. In future generations I will give you cause indeed to mourn on this day."
And historically, we know tliat both the First and the Second Temples fell on that same day, the ninth of Av. Both of our Exiles, the short one of 70 years, and the long one lasting close to two thousand, followed those two historical ninth days of Av.
But these were hot the only calamities that befell us on that fateful date. Let us examine other events that affected us on the ninth of Av. Some of them are more known than others, but they share a common characteristic — all were sources of mourning for the Jewish people.
In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain, with all its great Jewish scholars and statesmen, its^lpry and splendor, suddenly came to an abrupt end. With oiie stroke of his peh;Kih^i^er^inand gave all the Jews of Spain the option of converting or leaving the country.
Literally hundreds of thousands of Jews fled, many falling prey to brigands or being drowned in the small boats they were forced to use to leave the country at the last moment. The well-established Spanish Jews who fled were in almost all cases reduced to abject poverty in their new countries of residence.
WHEN WAS THE DAY when the decree came into effect? The ninth of Av, 1492.
Moving up about 150 years, we come to the Chmelnicki massacres by the Cossacks. In 1648, the Cossacks overran the community of Con-stantine, and killed three thousand men, women and children. The date was the ninth of Av, 1648.
And now we come to modern times. World War I broke out on August 1,1914, which that year was also the ninth day of Av. That was to be "the war to end all wars." Before it had run its course, millions lay dead, and a whole generation of young men in countries throughout the world vanished.
Of course when we come to the Second World War, we cannot single out any day as being a day in which the Jews were slaughtered, for the gas chambers worked 365 days a year, year after year, each day devouring thousands of our brothers. We
can, however, see that crucial events in the Holocaust were also linked tb that day.
The decree to establish the Warsaw Qhetto, for instance, was adopted on the ninth day of Av in
1941. It was there that half-a>millioh Jews were herded together, before being ultimately shipped to their deaths.
And exactly one year later, on the ninth of A v,
1942, the "relocation," as the Germans called it, "to the East," was begun within the Warsaw Ghetto. That was the day, as an anonymous writer noted in his diary within the Ghetto, that was "the blackest day in the history of the Jews in modern times."
That was when the Jews were first herded into the "Umschlagplatz" for deportation. It was the day that the "policemen" went about methodically from house to house, using their truncheons to force the cowering people into the station marked for death. It was the day that the "policemen" separated husbands from wives, parents from children and brotl(iers from sisters.
As the same diarist writes: "The cries and calls of anguish reached up to the very heavens, as the ^policemen* herded the people onto the railroad carriages, as if they were *sheep for the slaughter'." That was the night that echoed over and over to the sound of shots, as Jews fell in their hundreds throughout the Ghetto.
That same night the S,S. visited the head oif the Judenrat, and demanded that he "deliver" ten thousand Jews by the next morning. That night, the head of the Judenrat committed suicide . . .
THAT WAS THE NINTH DAY OF AV in the "enlightened" year of 1942.
Even the^State of Israel has not been spared its own ninth of'Av tragedy. In all its years of operation, £1 Al has only lost a single airplane, and that happened when the *p]aiie accidentally wandered into Bulgarian airspace and was shot down. The date: the ninth of Av, 1955.
Given all the memories which the ninth day of Av brings to mind, it is not surprising that in Israel the day is observed as part of the national heritage. The whole country seems to be clothed in mourning.
Over a hundred-thousand people find their way to the Western Wall, the symbol of our past, to recite the Lamentations there. Radio and T.V. programs are all related to events of the day. If there is any music at all, it is that of a dirge. Sombre poems and tales replace the rock and disco melodies on the light channels. The whole nation seems symbolically to bow its head in mpurnihg.
The ninth of Av is indeed our national day of mourning --not only for the Temples that were destroyed thousands of years ago, but also for all the tragedies of Jewish life throughout the ages.
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EGYPT TO OBTAIN ARMS FROM CHINA
WASHINGTON - The State Departifient indicated that it had no advance knowledge that Egypt and China would sign a military treaty which President Anwar Sadat revealed recently.
Sadat announced the arms deal with China in a speech celebrating the fourth anniversary of the reopening of the Suez Canal, but gave no details.
Thought for the Week
Before you speak against someone else, think how you would like it if someone said that about you.
— Chofetz Chayim (from his ethical works)
Remember the Sabbath
Friday, July 27,8:40 p.in. Sedra Devarim, Deuteronomy Shabbat ends, Havdallah July 28, 9:40 p.m.
Friday, August 3, 8:30 p.m. Sedra Va'etchanan, Deuteronomy Shabbat ends, Havdallah August 4, 9:30 p.m.
JEWISH CALENDAR LUACH 5739 - 1979
The' State Department's chief spokesman, Hodding Carter, said in reply to questions, that with- the Soviet Union having cut off arms support to Egypt, "Egypt looked to a number of nations for assistance, including China.**
However, he said, to his knowledge, Egypt did not inform the U.S. of its pact with China.
But *'we had conversations with a number of nations regarding the Camp David process and support for Egypt and Israel," Carter said. He would hot name the countries.
Asked abdtit the jpossibility of a joint Egyptian-American venture in arms manufacture. Carter said no discussions have been held on a government-to-government level of a consortium to produce weapons.
He added, however, that private U.S. corporations have made proposals for co-prbductipn With Egypt. Such proposals would be subject to U.S. munitions control licensing.
There was speculation in Cairo that the arms deal included Chinese-made MIGs.
TishaB'Av Tu B'Av Rosh Chodesh
Elul Rosh Hashanah
5740
Fast of Gedaliah Yom Kippur Sukkot
Aug. 2 Aug. 8
Aug. 23-24
Sept. 22-23
Sept. 24 • Oct. 1 Oct. 6-14
Endorsed Appeals
Jewish Students 'Network' Campaign
July 1-31
Pioneer Women *Char .   Campaign       Aug. 15-Sept. 15
Social Gaieniiar
BONN — Frankfurt police cancelled the permit granted earlier to the neo-Nazi National Demo= cratic Party (NPD) to hold its convention there. A police spokesman said the permit was revoked for security reasons.
The NPD planned to bring some 6,000 delegates to the convention but counter-demonstrations were announced by several anti-Nazi groups.
The police spokesman expressed concern for law and order. "We could expect that protest demonstrations will lead ?o serious clashes whereby we cannot rule out bloodshed and damages to public and private property," he said.
Maccablah Hadassah MDA Car Wash July 29
Hadassah Medical Services
Tea Aug. 22
Hadassah MDA Garage Sale Aug. 26
The NPD has not reacted and it was uncertain whether they would appeal the police decision in court.
Although not mentioned in the official announcement, the cancellation order followed a clash between a gang of .15-20 NPD youths and a Czechoslov^kian television team that had been given official permission to shoot a film at the NPD's youth training camp in Kamen. Czech T.V correspondent Cyril Smolik, his wife and cameraman were beaten by the NPD gang and their cameras and film were destroyed.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that tjie Czechoslovak government has lodged a strong protest with
Bonn over the incident. A sharp letter of protest by the Czechoslo-vakian Press Association was presented to the West German Embassy in Prague.
While the Czech newspaper, Vecerni Praha, said the German police had acted promptly and correctly. West German newspapers demanded that authorities take action against the NPD and its bullies.
Commemorate resistance
COPENHAGEN - Jewish resistance fighters in Denmark's liberation from the Nazis in World War Two were commemorated at a ceremony held at the Monument for War Heroes here.
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Thursday, July 26,1979
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