Transcript of Sabbath Meeting - 07/16/99

THE FAST OF THE FIFTH MONTH

Zechariah 7:3 and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?"

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The message today is somewhat unusual for this service and for me personally too.

There will be relatively few scriptures and a good deal of Jewish tradition.

I do not present the Jewish tradition in order that we may follow it but rather to...

1. Help us to learn how our Jewish brothers think and live and

2. To gather what lessons we may from the important history of the ninth day in the fifth month.

TISHA B'AV… A DAY OF SORROW

July 22, 1999 is the ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar.

Tradition says it is the day that the spies returned from the Land of Canaan with a report that caused Israel to weep.

Numbers 14:1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

14:2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!

14:3 "Why has Yahweh brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

This was the land Yahweh had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for these people, their descendants.

When Yahweh saw Israel weep with fear, He told Moses and Aaron,

Numbers 14:27 "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.

Numbers 14:28 "Say to them, 'As I live,' says Yahweh, 'just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:

Numbers 14:29 'The dead bodies of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.

Numbers 14:30 'Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.

They were guilty of having a great lack of faith!

In spite of all the great wonders their own eyes had seen Yahweh do for them, our fathers still refused to trust Him!

Numbers 14:33 'And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.

Yahweh prophesied that their children would carry the burden of this unfaithfulness.

Numbers 14:34 'According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.

Numbers 14:35 'I Yahweh have spoken this; I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.'"

Notice that Yahweh pronounced the prophecy on the congregation rather than on those individuals who complained and wept. We shall see that this terrible prophecy has been fulfilled. So it is that the ninth of Av, Tisha B'Av in Hebrew, has become a day of tragedy, mourning and of sorrow. Because our fathers rejected Yahweh so long ago, their children today experience Yahweh's rejection many times on Tisha b'Av.

[ ‘Tisha B'Av' sounds a little like ‘tish abave' or ‘fish above']

:)

HISTORY:

The day of Tisha B'av has held many of the worst catastrophes in the sad history of the Jewish people:

It was on Tisha B'Av that Solomon's Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE.

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, ... came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, and he burnt the house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.(II Kings 25:8-9)

Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, ... came Nebuzaradan, ... and burned the house of Yahweh...

(Jer. 52:12-13)

"This seeming discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the troops entered the Temple grounds on the 7th. However, the Temple fire was probably started on the 9th and all the burning did not finish until the 10th." according to a Jewish source.

Several hundred years later, in 70 CE, the Second Temple was destroyed on Tisha B'Av; over 2.5 million Jews were killed during the war with Titus, and over 1 million were sent into exile.

About fifty years later, in response to the Bar Kockba Revolution, the Romans sent a powerful army to the land of Israel and, within three years, managed to suppress the rebellion. They first captured the Galilee - the northern part of the country - and later Jerusalem.

Betar, a small town near Jerusalem, served as the rebels' final fortification.

In 132 CE, the Bar Kockba Revolution was completely crushed, the city of Betar was destroyed, and Bar Kokhba himself along with over 100,000 Jews were killed, on Tisha B'Av.

The following year, on Tisha B'Av, the Romans ploughed the site of the Temple and rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, renaming it Aelia Capitolina. Entry was forbidden to Jews, with the exception of the Ninth of Av, when they permitted to visit Jerusalem and mourn the destruction of their land, their city, and their Temple.

In 1095, the first Crusades were declared by Pope Urban II on Tisha B'Av, which led to the total destruction of the Jewish community in most of Rhineland and France.

I saw a news article recently that said, "On July 15, 1099, tens of thousands of Crusader knights and foot soldiers breached the walls of Jerusalem and slaughtered its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants." I haven't checked, but I would guess that this event also took place on Tisha B'Av.

In 1190, on Tisha B'Av, the Jews of York, England committed mass suicide in response to the riots of the Third Crusade.

Only recently did the British government retract the Order of Excommunication which had kept Jews from settling in York.

In 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree, setting Tisha B'Av as the final date by which not a single Jew would be allowed to walk on Spanish soil. All of the Jews were forced to renounce their faith or leave Spain; nearly 200,000 left on one day. Many Jews may have sailed on Columbus' first voyage.

The Jewish ghetto of Florence, Italy was inaugurated in 1571;

On Tisha B'Av

On Tisha B'Av In 1648 three thousand Jews perished in Konstantynow in what were known as the Chmielnicki massacres.

The last group of Jews was forced to leave Austria on Tisha B'Av in 1670.

In 1882 on Tisha B'Av the Turkish government, which then controlled the Holy Land, barred immigration of Russian and Rumanian Jews and also banned the sale of land in Palestine to Jews.

Centuries passed, but Yahweh's prophecy did not fail.

So in 1914, World War I –– which began the downward slide to the Holocaust –– began on Tisha B'Av, Britain and Russia declared war on Germany.

Unresolved issues of WWI led to WWII, during which 75% of the world's Jewish population was murdered.

A decree went forth expelling all Jews from Hungarian Ruthenia on Tisha B'Av in 1941.

In 1942, on Tisha B'Av, as part of that extermination, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto were deported to the Treblinka Concentration Camp.

In 1989, on Tisha B'Av, the Iranian delegation walked out of Mid East Peace talks in Kuwait.

On Tisha B'Av in 1994, just five years ago, a most remarkable thing occurred.

It was that day the first of twenty-one mountain-sized parts of a comet collided with the planet Jupiter.

Is this significant? Was this one of the "signs in the heavens"?

OBSERVANCES:

I'd like to share with you some of the traditional Jewish ways of observing so you can appreciate the magnitude of their sorrow. (We pray that it is sorrow unto repentance.)

The Shabbat before Tisha B'Av, this Sabbath, is called Shabbat Chazon - the Shabbat of foretelling.

I feel that Habakkuk 1:1 to 2:4 is a good reading for this day. It seems to be a prophecy of events of Tisha B'Av.

The Haftara portion for the day is from the prophecy of Isaiah 1:1-27

Rabbi Mendel Hirsch points out, the prophet does not lament because the Bet HaMikdash (The Temple in Jerusalem) was destroyed; rather he laments over the underlying causes of that destruction.

This annual lesson must serve to focus the national mourning of Tisha B'Av not to the past, but to the present.

The observance of Tisha B'Av begins with the last meal before sundown when the fast commences.

Unlike the elaborate feast we have before Yom Kippur, this meal is typically one course, usually consisting of a hard-boiled egg and some bread. Also, this meal is generally not eaten with others. It is customary to eat this meal seated on the floor or a low stool.

The Jews have traditional prohibitions on Tisha B'Av. They are similar to those of Yom Kippur. In addition to not eating or drinking, they are not allowed to wash, anoint themselves or wear leather shoes. In a prohibition more stringent than on Yom Kippur, they are only allowed to study certain portions of the Torah and Talmud on Tisha B'Av.

Part of the day they try to avoid sitting on a chair or bench. Instead, the custom is to stand or sit on the floor, just like a mourner during the traditional seven days of mourning a loved one.

It is forbidden to greet friends or acquaintances on Tisha B'Av. However, if greeted first, one should answer in order not to arouse resentment, but in a low tone.

At the evening service, the entire congregation sits on the floor and recites the Book of Eicha (Lamentations) where the prophet Jeremiah laments the destruction, and we weep with him.

The morning of Tisha B'Av is the saddest part of the day. We recite Kinot, and the men do not don Tefillin at Shacharit, because Tefillin are called "Pe-ar," "Glory," and this is definitely not a day of glory for the Jewish People.

Jewish sages teach that whoever mourns over Jerusalem will merit the future vision of her joy. As it is written in Isaiah 66:10, "rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn her."

It is not enough to bemoan the great loss suffered by our people with the destruction of our Land, our Holy City, and our Holy Temple. We must use our mourning as a way of initiating an examination of our present-day feelings, thoughts and deeds.

What have we done to eliminate the attitudes and practices that thousands of years ago precipitated the destruction of the temple and sent our ancestors into exile - not once, but twice?

How have we improved our approach to the service of the Almighty as a way of life, a life devoted to duty rather that a substitute for it?

Are our verbal offerings, like the animal-offerings described by the prophet merely perfunctorily performed rituals, never internalized, never spoken from the heart, just from the lips and outward?

And, as Rabbi Hirsch put it, "is our Jewish contemporary present already so deeply imbued with the Jewish spirit, so filled with the Jewish way of thinking, with knowledge of the all-comprising and deep contents of the torah that it could form a worthy environment for a temple of G-d to be erected in our midst? Does not the gulf between Israel and its G-d yawn perhaps wider than ever?"

Bear in mind that this is merely background on Jewish beliefs and practices and not commands for us as believers in Messiah.

What is the lesson of Tisha B'Av for us as believers? There are several.

First, that those who lack faith shall not inherit Yahweh's kingdom.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Habakkuk 2:4 "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faithfulness.

I believe Yahweh has a great project planned for all His children to do and that faith is a necessary requirement for being able to accomplish it.

Second, that Yahweh watches over His word to perform it.

As Joseph told Pharaoh in Genesis 41:32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by Elohim, and Elohim will shortly bring it to pass."

And also: Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things of old, For I am Elohim, and there is no other; I am Elohim, and there is none like Me,

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,'

Isaiah 46:11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.

That last verse sounds like it directly applies to the destruction of Jerusalem.

The third lesson that comes to mind is about us.

Tisha B'Av is a traditional day of sorrow for the double destruction of the Temple of Yahweh.

In this present day, through Yahshua the Messiah, we are Yahweh's Temple;

We are living stones, from all backgrounds, even with many Jewish stones included.

We are the Temple and, sad to say, Yahweh's temple is not all it should be.

Many have allowed doctrinal differences and traditions of men to shape them, rather than to be formed exactly as Yahweh Himself ordained with all the stones fitting together perfectly.

There are things in the Temple that Yahshua surely would want to drive out.

We must repent. We must ‘clean house'.

It is appropriate for us to join our Jewish brothers in fasting, repentance, and sorrowful remembrance on this day.

Besides reading Habakkuk 1:1 to 2:4 this Sabbath, I personally plan to observe Tisha b'Av by fasting, repenting, and reading these suggested scriptures.

Many of them are traditional Jewish readings for the day.

The new moon was sighted in Jerusalem and in the USA on 7-14-99 which means Friday 7-23-99 is the ninth of Av. (The Jewish calendar has it on the 7-22).

Evening Reading on 7-22: The book of Lamentations

Morning Readings: 7-23-99

Deuteronomy 4:25-40, Jeremiah 8:13 - 9:23, and John 2:13-25

Afternoon readings (any time before sundown):

Exodus 32:11-14, 34:1-10, Isaiah 55:6 - 56:8, Hosea 14:2-10, Micah 7:18-20, and John 8:1-58

(I'm going to work on that day too.)

We know that Yahweh is an Elohim of grace, that just as He did not give up on the nation of Israel but disciplined them as a son and then put them in a position to bless them as He had promised, so we are disciplined when we fail, not to disqualify us from blessing but to allow G-d to move us back into a position from which He can fulfill His desires for us, for goodness and for Shalom.

We may, as Israel did, make foolish mistakes, but the true fool is the one who learns nothing from his mistakes. As the saying goes, those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it. We need to remember Israel's history and our own and learn from all the mistakes and build on all the victories.

Yahweh gives another prophecy to be fulfilled in the kingdom age:

Zechariah 8:18 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

Zechariah 8:19 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'The fast of the fourth month, The fast of the fifth, The fast of the seventh, And the fast of the tenth, Shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace.'

I would like to acknowledge the help I have gotten in preparing this message from many Jewish sources and from Rabbi Marty Cohen. (rabbimarty@hotmail.com)

You may visit his web site at www.messianicmessages.com

May Yahweh bless you all as you build strong faith in His power and love.

HalleluYAH!