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Does Judaism have a global mission, and if so, can Tisha B’Av help us fulfill it? Strange pair of questions?
Not to Rabbi Benzion Meir Hai Uziel, Israel’s first Sephardic Chief Rabbi. “The message that Judaism brings to the entire world is for global peace,” says Rabbi Uziel. “Judaism does not only seek peace for the Jewish people, but for all of mankind – for every individual, nation and religion on earth.”
In Rabbi Uziel’s grand vision, Judaism’s global mission is to help eradicate war and eliminate oppressive dictatorships who rule by the sword.
“A world without justice and filled with war is an ugly and frightening world,” says Rabbi Uziel. “Our goal as a Jewish people must be to help bring peace into the world – for all of humanity.”
How do we get there? What will it take for the Jewish people to realize Rabbi Uziel’s lofty aspirations for our transforming the world from a global battlefield to an abode of peace?
“We will never be able to achieve our global mission of bringing peace to all of mankind without first achieving internal peace amongst the Jewish people,” says Rabbi Uziel. “The prerequisite for fulfilling our larger mission on earth is to remove all causes of divisiveness and disputes from within, and replace them with with mutual respect and love, fostering peace and unity amongst us.”
Tisha B’Av is our annual reminder of what divided us two thousand years ago, and what continues to divide us today: sinat hinam – baseless hatred. As Maimonides teaches, the deeper message behind fasting and mourning on Tisha B’Av is “to arouse our hearts and initiate the paths of repentance, so that we will improve our conduct.”
For Rabbi Uziel, these “paths of repentance” towards “improving our conduct” will not only make for a better “Jewish world” – but for a better world, for all of humanity. The internalization of Tisha B’Av’s message of healing from within is, so to speak, our “first giant step for mankind.”
Rabbi Uziel challenges us to take Tisha B’Av seriously, because a larger mission awaits us. He invites us to imagine what we can achieve as a united Jewish people. He invites to imagine the Jewish people working together to eliminate war, violence, oppression and injustice from the world. He died in 1953, so he imagined this long before John Lennon did.
On this coming Tisha B’Av, let’s imagine – together.
Shabbat Shalom
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