A TISHA B’AV TALE
By Yaacov Peterseil
(Based on Midrash Eicha)
When theTemplewas burning, Moses, in the Heavens above, ran to our Forefathers, shouting “Pray forJerusalem! Pray forJerusalem!” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prayed fervently that God have mercy on His people and save them from this catastrophe. But their prayers went unanswered.
At the moment when all hope seemed gone, our mother Rachel appeared before the Spirit of God and said: “Almighty God, you know that Jacob, your servant, loved me with such a passion that he worked for seven years as a shepherd for my father, Lavan. And when those seven years were completed, and the time came for me to marry my beloved, my father connived to switch me with my sister, Leah, so that Yaacov would marry her instead of me. When I found this out, I was so distraught that I told Yaacov what my father was preparing to do. In order to prevent this terrible act, I gave Yaacov secret signs with which he would be able to tell that it was I who was with him on our marriage night. In this way my father would not be able to switch me for my sister.
And God, you know that at the last moment I had mercy on my sister, whom I knew would be ashamed and debased when Yaacov would reject her and reveal what happened. And I gave her all the secret signs that Yaacov and I had agreed upon, so that he would think she was me and would thus remain his wife, and not be shamed.
Immediately, upon hearing Rachel’s words, God’s Mercy was revealed and He said: “For you, Rachel, I will resurrect the Jewish people to their previous glory.”
While this story is heartening, we might ask: Why did Rachel’s words have more affect on God than the prayers of our Forefathers?
The answer highlights a unique characteristic of the Jewish people, one that bonds us and has become our genetic marker since the moment Abraham recognized the existence of God.
After Rachel decided to give Yaacov signs that would assure him that his betrothed was his beloved, Rachel had a change of heart and gave over those signs to her sister. Even thought she loved Yaacov and he loved her, and though she wanted prevent a terrible injustice to her beloved, she couldn’t bear the thought that her sister would be humiliated and ashamed.
That is the special power of the Jewish people. Even after they veer off the path that God has set for them; even after they betray God’s trust in them, even after they act falsely against their fellow man, the Jewish people always have a twinge of regret, a sudden change of heart, and retrace their steps changing their indifference and apathy to mercy and empathy.
Perhaps that’s why all the other nations of the world have come and gone, determined, to the bitter end, to do it “there way”; while we persist, exist, and ultimately flourish doing it as the children of Rachel.
