The Destruction of My Temple

It has become well known around camp this summer that I go by the moniker “ShabBatman,” as a result of being the Jewish Program Director at Camp Chi and an avid Batman fan. What can I say? I love Batman. I also love going to movies, and I love going to the movies to see Batman. The movie theater is my personal temple; a place of innocence where I can go for a couple hours to get lost in a fantasy world brought to life. For me, and I'm sure many others this week, that temple was destroyed. As you can imagine, I was particularly disturbed by the news last week to hear about the terrible tragedy that occurred in Aurora, Colorado when an armed gunman walked into a crowded, midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” and opened fire on an innocent and unsuspecting crowd, killing 12 people – the youngest of which was a 6 year old girl - and injuring 59 others. I was at a midnight screening of the movie myself that night and I couldn’t help but think about what I would I have done had I been in that theater. Would I have been frozen in place by fear? Would I have tried to escape the theater as fast as possible? Would I have done the unselfish thing and tried to protect those around me from flying bullets? Would I have tried to be a hero and attempted to stop the gunman myself? Who knows? It’s impossible to say and I hope I never have the chance to find out. In the wake of such senseless violence it’s hard to get an even grip on reality and really know much of anything. 

This coming weekend, the Jewish people are going to be celebrating the holiday of Tisha B’av, which commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Over the years, Tisha B’av - which gets its name from the date on which the event it remembers happened, the 9^th day of the month of Av -has also become a day that remembers many other terrible events that have befallen the Jewish people throughout our history. There is 3 week period leading up to the holiday that starts on the 17^th day of Tammuz that begins a sad and solemn time when more observant Jews refrain from public celebrations, weddings, and even eating meat. The actual day itself is a day of deep and intense mourning, practiced by observing a full 24 hour fast, reading from the Book of Lamentations - or Megilat Eichah - refraining from washing one’s body, and wearing leather; mirroring many of the practices observed on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.  

So what does Tisha B’av have to do with the so called, “Dark Knight Massacre?” One of the themes we discuss on Tisha B’av is the idea of Sin’at Chinam, or baseless hatred. It is one of the rabbinic explanations as to why the Temple was destroyed, that there was so much senseless hatred that Jews had towards each other at the time, that God punished the Jews by destroying the Temple. One of the more sickening parts of the shooting story I’ve seen this week have included various individuals who have tried to explain away the shooting for extraneous reasons, such as there must have been something that the victims did that made them deserve to die. I do not accept this. In fact, I flat out reject it. I reject any notion that says innocent people deserve to die or terrible events happen for a reason. I believe that these people died for the same reason that the Temple was destroyed over 2000 years ago - there are evil people in this world who do terrible things and commit senseless acts of violence. We will never understand it and cannot begin to try.

But all hope is not lost. If there is one thing I take away from this, and other terrible events that have occurred throughout history, is that in times of extreme situations and terrible circumstance, there is something in the human spirit that never loses hope. In the face of evil, good people will always pull together through acts of kindness and help each other get through difficult situations. Tikvah and chesed, or hope and kindness, are two central ideas in Judaism. Judaism says that G’milut Chasadim, or acts of kindness, are one of the three pillars on which the world stands and a mitzvah we are obligated to do as Jews. Judaism also teaches that hope is an important piece of the Jewish soul and anyone, for that matter, who experiences suffering. Hope is a theme that weaves itself throughout our history and has kept Jews alive through all sorts of trying times. The hope for freedom delivered us from slavery and sustained us in the desert until we reached the Promised Land; it kept us alive while we were in exile in Babylon and other foreign lands and yearned to return to our home; when all seemed lost for some in Nazi occupied Europe, hope and some small - but incredible - acts of kindness kept some people alive during the Holocaust. The 2000 year-old hope for a Jewish State inspired Theodore Herzl to start the Zionist Movement that eventually gave us the land of Israel and became the title (Hatikvah, The Hope) and overall theme of the Israeli national anthem.

In the immediate aftermath of the recent Batman shooting, one of my first thoughts was, “How could someone ever do something like this? How could this happen? What hope does humanity have when someone decides to shoot up a movie theatre for no reason?” But alas, hope is never lost. I’ve loved Batman my whole life. He is a reminder that a man who witnessed his parent’s senseless murder right in front of him didn’t give up on life. Instead, through extreme acts of kindness and selflessness, he set off on a life-long mission to rid his city of crime and inspire hope and good in the people of Gotham City. However, it’s hard for me to accept Batman as a hero in the wake of some of the stories that have come out about acts of real heroism; stories such as the 3 men who died shielding their girlfriends from gunfire or the young woman who in all the craziness threw herself on top of her friend and plugged a bullet hole in her neck with her finger which saved her friend’s life. I’m sure there are more stories of other heroic acts we have also yet to hear. It’s given me hope to see the outpouring of support from people all over the country who have sent their thoughts and prayers to the people of Aurora and to the victims and their families. But just when I thought there was no need to love Batman anymore in face of real heroes, in one extraordinary act of kindness, Batman himself, Christian Bale, made a surprise and unpublicized visit to Aurora to spend some private time with the recovering victims. After everything, this is what brought a tear to my eye. The actor who played Batman, without any obligation to do so, showed up to do his part. I can’t imagine the tremendous effect this had on the people he visited. If you have ever wondered what the value is in the mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim, or visiting the sick, this might forever be my prime example.

I’ve always believed in the power of superheroes to show us the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. It‘s the core element that has kept me attached to Batman, even in my adult years. In times of uncertainty, some people look to superheroes for help with working out our complex moral dealings. Likewise, in times of sadness, we look to Judaism for help with sorting out our sometimes complex feelings about humanity and human nature. In all, it’s a religion that values the sanctity of life above all other things, teaches us to always choose good over evil, and to always help out a fellow man in need. In times of tragedy, we have a choice of whether we want to focus on the good or the bad. Too often, as a society we focus on the bad. But no matter what, if you look hard enough, you will always find the good in people, the kindness that exists in the human heart, and the ever-present desire to never lose hope.

When we think about the events we will commemorate this Tisha B’av and of the past week, and the senseless hatred that does exist in the world, it can be hard to not lose hope sometimes. But whether it comes from fictional superheroes or real life ones, from the words of Anne Frank (of all people) who said, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” or per The Dark Knight which says “please keep your faith in people,” don’t ever lose hope in humanity. Shabbat Shalom!