ON BEES AND WORDS AND PROTEST AND TISHA B'AV

ON BEES AND WORDS AND PROTEST AND TISHA B'AV

This past Shabbat morning, our rabbi was chanting the Torah and came across this word in the unpointed scroll – דברים   At first, he pronounced it as “devarim”, meaning “words” or “things” - in a pointed text it would have been written thus – דְבַרִים  But then he caught himself and used the correct pronunciation - “devorim”, meaning “bees” – in a pointed text, it would have been written thus - דְבֹרִים    See the difference? It isn’t easy. Only the context can tell us how to properly pronounce the word.

And it occurred to me (this I am sure is not a chiddush, i.e., it’s not a new insight that hasn’t been taught before), that a reason it is so easy to mistake the two words is because midrashically, I think, they are related.

Bees can bring sweetness into our lives with the honey they produce. And it can be enjoyable to watch them work and hear their buzzing as they move from blossom to blossom, literally creating so many of the foods we eat and the flowers that beautify our world.

But bees can also hurt us with their stings – and for many species of bees, those stings are suicidal. And if a person is allergic or is stung too many times, those stings can kill a person.

Words are like that too. We can use words to comfort, to teach, to bring joy to others – that’s the sweetness of words. But we can use words to inflict pain, to anger, to ruin reputations, to destroy relationships – and perhaps even destroy ourselves in the use of words.

What happens if the bees do not do their work – what happens if they die out - what happens if there is no pollination? There is much less food, there is much less beauty – we could starve. With the reality of climate change, this is an actual possibility. But, that’s not what I want to discuss today. What I really want to discuss is, what happens when WE DO NOT SPEAK – when we could or should speak up, but we do not use our words at all?

Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem - Francesco Hayez, mid-19th-century

The most famous story in rabbinic literature about the cause of the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple, i.e., about the reason we observe the upcoming Tisha B’Av day of fasting and mourning, is found in the Babylonian Talmud at Gittin 55b-56a. It’s often called the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, and it’s about mistaken identity (possibly intentional) and hatred and harsh words and humiliation and anger and silence and revenge and punctiliousness. You can read a good explanatory English translation with thought-provoking questions here:

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/331946?lang=bi   

Or, you can read a succinct more or less correct version here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamsa_and_Bar_Kamsa 

But to me, the story glosses over an important point – in my view, it was the silence of the Rabbis, their failure to speak up, to reprimand or protest, not once but maybe twice, that led to the destruction of the Temple and the Exile of the Jews from Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

A much more interesting Talmudic story about the obligation to speak up, to protest, and to reprimand, is found at BT Shabbat 54b-55a. You can read it here: 

https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.54b.20?lang=bi  (54b paragraphs 20-21 and 55a paragraphs 1-4) 

In brief, rabbis who themselves had committed no sin, but who could have spoken up against the excesses of the Exilarch, the leader of the Jews in exile, are punished for failing to reprimand and protest – even though they believed, correctly, that they would have been ignored. The proof text is: “Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13). To me, this is the real reason for Tisha B’Av.

The failure to speak, the failure to protest and reprimand the acts of the powerful with words, with devarim, words that are necessary even if they are not so sweet, even if we think we will be ignored or even punished, can lead to misery for us and for the world.

Have a meaningful Tisha B’Av. 

Rabbi Richard A. Flom

Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim

.אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם? הַלוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם

Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.

Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1

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