Thirsty for Knowledge.
Who Are My Teachers?
My reading, listening and watching habits are a little odd.
I’m not looking for entertainment or distraction, an escape from real life.
I’m seeking answers to questions.
Sometimes I watch too much news but often I hit the jackpot,
like these recent three YouTube talks.
Last week the worldwide Jewish community set aside the annual day of mourning, Tish’a B’Av, remembering the destruction of the First and Second Temples, plus all the continuing disasters we have experienced and including present perils.
Qué es Tisha B’Av, YouTube Trailer
It is the custom to read all 5 chapters of the book of Lamentations in Synagogues on this day.
So with the help of Aneirin Glyn on the Bible Matters YouTube channel, I listened and entered Israel’s desolation after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, absorbing the hope filled words of chapter 3 and connecting the interweaving threads of judgment and hope in the book of Lamentations with the Gospel of Matthew.
Continuing the theme, I found further understanding of the historical background by watching an in depth YouTube lecture given by the Jewish Historian, Henry Abramson,
delivered on August 13, 2024, on the Anniversary of Tish’a B’Av,
titled, The first Roman-Jewish War from the Post-October 7 Perspective.
In the question and answer time he was asked, What can we do
to break the cycles of tragedy?
Among his thoughtful list of answers, one word stays in my forgetful mind…
Repent.
And then I watched Yossi Klein Halevi on The Daily Briefing, engage with the question, Will Israeli society survive this war?
Henry Abramson | Source: YouTube Profile
Yossi Klein Halevi, author and journalist.
He lives in Israel and toward the end of the interview, he was asked another question,
How do you try to deal with all of this personally?
And he answered,
I’m a person of faith.
I’m a believing Jew and
I believe that God is in this story.
This is the testing ground of Jewish history.
This struggle here in Israel internally,
Ultimately is a spiritual struggle,
For the soul of Judaism, for
The meaning of the Jewish story.