‘Tisha B’Av feels closer to home this year’

    

chabad.org

Tisha B’Av, arriving Wednesday at sunset, is a Jewish observance that may be of interest to Freemasons in a counterintuitive way normally, but that bears greater meaning this year.

In the mainstream of Freemasonry, a lodge room is a place representing King Solomon’s Temple, and Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning a number of tragedies in Jewish history, including the destruction of that temple by the Babylonians circa 586 BCE. Observance includes fasting and reading from Lamentations.

Counterintuitive because in our lodges we do not think of the Temple as being destroyed. KST is viewed as architectural perfection for its proportions and its harmonious and artistic assembly to the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Well, except for that one thing.

But in current events, we plainly see reasons for worry—for lamentations even. In recent weeks we’ve seen violence against Masonic people and properties that we’re supposed to accept as independent uncoordinated attacks, but how coincidental can they be if the motives are similar?

Yesterday, an arsonist broke into the Scottish Rite Valley of El Paso and started a fire that damaged the ground floor. The Scottish Rite in Athens, Greece was targeted by a bomber July 13. Three days before that, Bro. Robert Wise was shot to death outside McAllen Lodge 1110 in Texas, after the lodge meeting. Last month, Leesburg Lodge 58 near Orlando, Florida was burned down by an arsonist. The list in the recent past is long, and takes us from Masonic Hall in Manhattan to Freemasons Hall in Dublin, and more.

I typically don’t write about these events; I cede the terrible news to the Dummies blog. But, since we’re on the eve of Tisha B’Av, these desecrating crimes trigger visceral energy beyond the pain of being victimized.

Last Thursday, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Washington issued a memo to be read aloud in the lodges that encourages the brethren to be alert, particularly when at the lodge and when wearing items that signal Masonic membership.

However you fit in the demographics pie chart—be you Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or whoever—and wherever dispersed about the face of the earth you are, be diligent, prudent, temperate, and discreet.

     

‘The saddest day: destruction of KST’

     

Courtesy chabad.org

In New York City, sunset is just minutes away, which means Tisha B’Av, noted as the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, will begin. The ninth day of the month Av is cited as the anniversary of many tragedies confronted by Jews throughout their history, including the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonians in 423 BCE. And this is not the only reason why the day should be significant to Free and Accepted Masons.

In religious practice, it is a busy day for the faithful, albeit one shaped by mournful prayer, fasting, and additional acts of solemnity befitting this day of grim remembrance. The relevant Scripture is the Book of Lamentations, the prophecy of Jeremiah that foretells the destruction of the First Temple.


“For these things I weep; my eye, yea my eye, sheds tears, for the comforter to restore my soul is removed from me; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.” (1:16)

“The Lord has rejected His altar, He has abolished His Sanctuary, He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the House of the Lord, as on a day of a festival.” (2:7)

“Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old.” (5:21)


In the Craft lodge, the Freemason speaks only of building the Temple, because the Mason is at once the builder, the raw material ashlar, and, in the end, the finished perfect ashlar fit for the Grand Architect’s designs. Even after the tragedy that befalls GMHA, we know from history that the labors continued and the Temple was completed. Although it was known what would happen to the Temple on Tisha B’Av, it had to be built. The Temple also is three-fold: the First Temple, as erected by Solomon; the Second Temple, of the post-Babylonian exile; and the “Third,” yet to be built, but inevitable.
     

‘Remember, remember the Ninth of Av’

     
On this Jewish calendar date, the Ninth of Av, Nebuchadnezzar’s troops took Jerusalem and destroyed King Solomon’s Temple in the year 587 BCE, and the Second Temple was destroyed by Roman forces in 70 CE. Many other calamities occurred on this date in Jewish history right up to the modern era.

Synagogue lights will be dimmed, fasting will commence, and the Book of Lamentations will be read.

It’s worth the attention of Freemasons too.
     

‘Tisha B’av 5774’

     
“For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not let you loose or destroy you; neither will He forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.”

Lamentations 4:31

Courtesy Aish

It must be daylight still somewhere, so we are in the final hours of Tisha B’av of 5774, the Jewish commemoration of the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem; the former—King Solomon’s Temple—was sacked by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the latter destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. It is a sad day of fasting and observance among Jews for obvious reasons.

Within fifteen years of the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem, the Arch of Titus, located near the Forum, was unveiled to the Roman citizens. One of its decorative marble relief panels depicts victorious Romans carrying plunder from the Temple, including its menorah, and possibly the Ark itself. Whether this art is journalistic accuracy or grandiose sycophancy or a little of both remains unknown.