That which is True is simply what is. That which is Loved is what can be, what should be, what ought to be, and what Becomes.
You can be prisoner to Truth. You cannot be tied down by Love.
Truth hurts, it cuts, it demands. Love heals, it surrounds, it gives and restores.
Judaism is built on Love which comes from Truth. Any elementary reading of the Rambam which describes how to come to Ahava and Yirah shows this. Our marriages are built on the same idea (we look for a True match, and then attempt to build a relationship on it), our religious laws are engineered to accomplish this experientially (we ascertain if something is defined as how we define Truth, and then through it experience the Love between Man and Gd), and our concept of the ontological realities of the world are built on such a concept being the bedrock of Existence itself (the dirah b'tachtona jazz, in its many manifestations across Jewish thought).
The problem arises when the delicate balance between the two is upset. Much as explored in the "Off the Rails" post, it is easy to get lost along the way and break free from the moors and underpinnings of a system. If Truth is a bedrock for Love, and Love-within-Truth is a bedrock for living life, then current "Yiddishkeit" is what happens when they are no longer in sync.
Tisha B'Av is a moed, a meeting point in Time between Man and G-d. It is a meeting about failures, about getting lost, about the sad Truth that Lovers can fall out (and the underlying happy Truth that they are still lovers and always will be). As the old joke says, only Jews can make a holiday about sadness, and this is exactly what we do - we sit on the ground and mourn for the meandering path we have wandered claiming to look for Truth while ignoring Love, or the madcap fruitless search for Love while steeped in Falsehood. It is a stark day in its bleakness and its acknowledgement that where we are is commentary enough of our lives. Yes, if there is no Beit HaMikdash today, it is us who have destroyed it; whether destroyed by our insistence on glatt kosher and exclusionary religious practices, or our complete revulsion for religion in the first place, whether our goal is to Jewish Americans or Israeli citizens of the world, whether we are guilty of ignoring G-d because we know better or because we dont care in the first place, it is not there, and we are here. Truth is Truth.
For those who listen closely, you can almost make out G-d's plaintive, whispering lament, "THIS is what you thought I wanted??? My Child, my Children...come back."
There is a song I believe to be the ultimate modern piyut in its simple stating the situation we find ourselves in, the confusion of being torn in two that Life can very much be. It is, perhaps, the most succinct prayer we can ever offer in explanation of who and what we are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrvMH0hQClQ
| I pursue Your laws, on the one hand On the other, my passion pursues me. Ashamed and embarrassed, I will enter Your gates. And the long nights and the loneliness and the years, And this heart that has not known peace. Until the sea becomes quiet, until the shadows disappear. |
אני רודף אחר חוקיך, מחד
מאידך תשוקתי אותי רודפת בוש ונכלם אבוא בשעריך והלילות הארוכים והבדידות ושנים והלב הזה שלא ידע מרגוע עד שישקוט הים, עד שינוסו הצללים |
| Where shall I go, to where will I turn, when Your eyes gaze upon me? Where shall I flee, how will I not turn away? Between truth and truth, Between law and practice. Between the days of yore and modern times. Between the hidden and the revealed, Between the world to come and this world. |
לאן אלך, אנה אפנה, כשעיניך מביטות בי
איכה אברח, איך לא אפנה בין אמת לאמת בין הלכה למעשה בין הימים ההם לזמן הזה בין הנסתר לנגלה בין העולם הבא לעולם הזה |
| I pursue Your laws, on the other hand my passion burns me Fierce as death, terrible as troops with banners The long nights and the loneliness and the years, And this heart that has not known peace. Until the sea becomes quiet, until the shadows disappear Bring me back! |
רודף אחר חוקיך, מאידך תשוקתי אותי שורפת
עזה כמוות, איומה כנדגלות הלילות הארוכים והבדידות והשנים והלב הזה שלא ידע מרגוע עד שישקוט הים, עד שינוסו הצללים השיבני |
Where shall I go, to where will I turn ... |
לאן אלך, אנה אפנה
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