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Opponents of Israel’s judicial overhaul see parallels in Tisha B’Av, this week’s Jewish day of mourning
(JTA) — The image started circulating almost as soon as the Israeli government finished voting to approve a divisive piece of legislation this week. “Shisha B’Av,” it said in white Hebrew letters against a black background – Hebrew for the Sixth of Av.
That was the Hebrew date on Monday, when right-wing lawmakers signed off on a law limiting the judiciary’s ability to review government decisions.
But the image, which spread widely within the sweeping movement protesting the legislation, wasn’t just marking the calendar. It was also invoking the fast day of Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, just days away, which mourns the destruction of the ancient Holy Temples in Jerusalem. Rabbinic tradition says that collapse of Jewish sovereignty resulted as much from infighting as from external attacks — if not more so.
“No one is missing the symbolism on the left,” said David Selis, a graduate student at Yeshiva University who is researching the use of Jewish text and images in Israeli protests over time.
Selis had participated in multiple protests against the legislation in Jerusalem but was in New York City when it passed. In the hours after the Knesset vote, he tweeted a suggestion to read the Book of Lamentations, Tisha B’Av’s central scripture, outside the Israeli consulate when the holiday began on Wednesday night.
Others also suggested turning Tisha B’Av into a focal point for Jews mourning what they see as a catastrophic development in Israeli politics. Jewish leaders in Israel and the United States are invoking the fast day in their statements, rabbis are planning to speak about Israel at their congregations’ services and special events are being held to observe the day of mourning in public ways. The groundswell of attention, some say, could make Tisha B’Av newly relevant to non-Orthodox American Jews and secular Israelis, who have historically been less likely to observe its rituals.
“We are now a little over 24 hours away from Tisha B’Av, the day when we mark the loss of our sovereignty 2,000 years ago, due to internal fighting,” Julie Platt, chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, said during an online briefing about the legislation on Tuesday. “The parallels to today are frightening.”
Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, added on the call, “I see radicalization right now on the street. And I really hope we’ll be able to contain it…. Let’s hope Tisha B’Av will be only a memory, not a reality for us.”
According to Jewish tradition, a string of calamities have befallen the Jews on the Ninth of Av. The destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE — both known as “hurban habayit” in Hebrew — are the most prominent in a list of events cited by Talmudic rabbis in prescribing a day of fasting, prayer and mourning rituals. A series of more recent Jewish tragedies also took place on or near Tisha B’Av, including the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, France in 1306 and Spain in 1492; the beginning of the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, and the deadly 1994 bombing at the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
No one has died in Israel because of the right-wing government’s judicial reforms. But those who oppose the government say its aggressive bid to sap Israel’s judiciary of its independence does threaten the country’s security and stability in the future, and will put vulnerable Israelis at risk absent the court’s protection. Reportedly beginning with former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan 50 years ago, Israelis have often referred to the modern state of Israel as a “Third Temple,” or third Jewish commonwealth, following those that existed millennia ago.
“In Israel, even in the most secular spaces, people are referring to what the government is doing as ‘hurban habayit,’” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, the liberal rabbinic human rights group. “It’s really clear that this is just a major incident that is going to have really lasting negative repercussions for Jews and also for Palestinians.”
The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the second by the Romans. But the ancient rabbis offered a slew of additional explanations that were enshrined in classic Jewish texts, including the Talmud. Chief among them, regarding the Second Temple, is the idea that “sinat chinam,” or wanton hatred, among Jews weakened the city, and there are others.
“One of the reasons that the Talmud mentions for the destruction of Jerusalem is the way that the judges were judging,” Jacobs said. The explanation is complex, she said, but boils down to the idea that the judges were applying the law very narrowly and not bringing in their own wisdom.
“The reason the Rabbis taught us all these reasons that the Temple was destroyed was not so they could say, ‘This is what people were doing back then. Weren’t they terrible?’” Jacobs said. “It’s about teaching us a lesson for today.”
Jacobs’ group has signed onto the public reading of the Book of Lamentations, known in Hebrew as Eicha, outside the Israeli consulate in New York City on Thursday afternoon, along with a growing number of local synagogues. The event marks the first time that the protest movement of Israelis abroad, which has organized solidarity rallies in New York City and elsewhere over the last six months, has partnered with synagogues.
The resonance makes sense, said Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, a Reform congregation that is participating in the rally.
“Someone said they are experiencing an overwhelming ache in their body, just like when someone they loved died,” Timoner said. “This is the exact feeling that Tisha B’Av is designed to evoke in us, to get us in touch with the collective grief of our people through time, and equally now.”
Timoner said she planned to speak “very very briefly” about “the pain and grief that Israelis and all who love them are feeling right now” during services on Wednesday night, even as many Israelis in her community will be joining a special Hebrew-language service targeted toward them elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Not everyone believes it’s appropriate to draw such a stark connection between Tisha B’Av and the contemporary political crisis.
“The talk of the lessons of Tisha B’Av are not as apropos as most of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s opponents would like us to believe,” Jonathan Tobin, editor in chief of the right-leaning Jewish News Syndicate, wrote in a column on Tuesday.
“While neither side in this dispute should behave as if it has a monopoly on truth or righteousness,” he added, “it ill behooves Jews and friends of Israel looking on from abroad to be lecturing the prime minister and his supporters about sinat chinam, especially when the mindless hatred against fellow Jews seems to be mainly flowing against those who support judicial reform.”
And some in Israel will be connecting Tisha B’Av to the protest movement not by honoring the holiday but by breaching it. Contrary to local ordinances, a number of restaurants in Tel Aviv plan to open their doors Wednesday night. Some say they’re doing so in protest of the government or as a gesture of principle to their secular Israeli patrons.
But even for some on the right, the Tisha B’Av timing has been a cause for concern. David Friedman, former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, called the confluence of the vote and the fast day “very bad timing.”
“Given the striking parallels between Israel’s current internal rift and the infighting that caused the destruction of the Second Temple 2000 years ago, why would the Israeli Government proceed with its Judicial Reform bill on the eve of Tisha B’Av?” Friedman, who has long backed Netanyahu but has criticized the judicial reforms, wrote on Twitter.
The judicial legislation is not the first time that the Israeli political calendar has delivered a major crisis on Tisha B’Av. In 2005, the government proceeded with its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on the eve of the holiday, against the fierce protests of many right-wing and religious Israelis who believed that ceding land represented a catastrophe for the Jewish people.
“I always found it chilling that the disengagement, that for many Israelis was physical destruction, was conducted on the eve of 9 of Av,” said Masua Sagiv, an Israeli professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies contemporary Judaism in Israel. “And now, again, with legislation that promises to be the opening of a constitutional structural change threatening Israeli democracy and the basic fabric of the society in Israel, [the] Israeli government chooses this date.”
Sagiv published an essay in April, as Israel marked its 75th birthday, noting that the Jewish people’s attempts at sovereignty have tended to fall apart after 75 years. So the fact that the current conflict reached a turning point so close to Tisha B’Av felt especially poignant to her.
“Symbols receive their power from the interpretation we give them,” Sagiv said. “But here these interpretations seem inescapable, and still an opportunity to remind us what is at stake, and how grave the danger is, and how much work is ahead of us.”
Some in Israel will be connecting Tisha B’Av to the protest movement not by observing the holiday but by breaching it. Contrary to local ordinances, a number of restaurants in Tel Aviv plan to open their doors on Wednesday night. Some say they’re doing so in protest of the government or as a gesture of principle to their secular Israeli patrons.
Selis said he thought it was more likely that Israelis would channel their political alienation through the traditions of the day. More modern practices include discussions of current events, which some communities use as a way to recognize the dissonance of lamenting Jerusalem’s destruction in a country that has a rebuilt Jerusalem as its capital.
“I think Tisha B’av is now going to be back on the secular Israeli consciousness,” Selis said. He added, “Secular or traditional sorts of Israeli society might be realizing that giving up control of so much of religious functioning of the state was a bad idea and… that they do, in fact, want there to be some religious identity for the state.”
Jacobs offered a similar prediction. “Many people in Israel feel like Judaism is something that’s coercive, something that’s only practiced by certain segments of the population, something that is used and misused for state power,” she said. “So it’s amazing that Israelis and others are saying, ‘No, actually, we’re going to claim Judaism and we’re going to find meaning in it.’”
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Examining Three Remarkable Women From Jewish History in These Turbulent Times
A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
Anyone interested in history will know that the Yalta Conference was a meeting between the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union that took place in February 1945 towards the end of the Second World War. There is a famous photograph of Roosevelt and Stalin sitting next to an unhappy Winston Churchill, who realized he was being marginalized. As we now know, Stalin suckered Roosevelt into believing him to be someone that could be worked with, when he was actually a murderous fanatic. And it seems so far that Putin is going to sucker Trump over Ukraine, and I fear Iran will too.
Like Roosevelt, Trump wants a deal. But as Barack Obama has shown, naive appeasement is the road to disaster. Only time will tell if the case with Iran is going to be another example.
But here, by way of distraction, I am writing about a person. This Yalta was a distinguished lady from a noble and wealthy family who lived in Babylon between the end of the Second and the Third centuries. She had a strong sense of self-worth, and self-confidence in an era of almost total male dominance. She was, according to Rashi, the daughter of the Exilarch, the head of the Jewish community in Babylon. She was familiar with Jewish law. But she had a temper. When she thought she was being slighted, she smashed four hundred barrels of wine after a guest offended her and women in general (TB Brachot 51b.)
Yalta showed her expertise in kashrut matters. In a debate that hinted at current questions of what constitutes meat if it is produced artificially, she asked her husband about kosher food that would taste like meat cooked in milk. She argued the halachic case expertly. And he accepted the argument (TB Chullin 109b). She also argued the law in other matters such as purity.
Yalta was a doctor too. She personally took Rav Amram to the bathhouse to soak in hot water for a cure when he was stricken with an unknown disease (TB Gittin 67b). And she offered her husband counsel on how to deal with someone who was arguing with him disrespectfully (TB Kidushin 70b). Perhaps these were not in themselves major issues — but they were indicative of her importance in that society, where the only chance women had beyond the home depended either on independent wealth or a compliant husband.
The more famous Talmudic woman however, was Bruria, the daughter of the saintly Chaninah Ben Teradion (an outstanding scholar, from a very wealthy family and martyred by the Romans). She was the wife of Rebbi Meir, who lived in Israel during the second century CE. He is the third most frequently mentioned rabbi in the Mishnah.
She was admired for her breadth of knowledge. She was said to have learned 300 laws from the rabbis on a single cloudy day (TB Pesachim 62b) and was happy to challenge rabbis she thought less knowledgeable than she was. She was also renowned for her sharp wit and often caustic jibes, attacking males for underestimating women. Rebbi Meir was sorely troubled by local louts and prayed that they should die. Bruria argued that he should rather pray that evil disappear. Not people.
The third important woman is Rav Chisda’s daughter. Her actual name is never mentioned. She was gifted with the power of prophecy. She predicted her marriage to her father’s two students (consecutively). First, she was the wife of the Rami Bar Chama, and after his death she married Rava (both were Amoraim of the third generation). She is mentioned many times in the Talmud and commentaries in the Talmud and its commentaries only as “the daughter of Rav Chisda.” The Talmud (TB Bava Batra 12b) says she sat on her father’s lap as he taught Torah in the academy and taught her and her sisters Torah and laws, personally. There were rabbis in those days and later who recognized the value of female scholarship and empowerment — even in times when the rest of the world resolutely refused to encourage it.
Right now, we need people who demonstrate leadership through creativity and flexibility. Most are being silenced by the plague of conformity and the fear of stepping out of line. But the reality is that more and more women within the Orthodox world are studying to the highest levels and making their mark. There are signs of their campaigning to achieve political power too. More power to their elbows (so long as they are covered of course)! You can’t keep a good woman down forever. And more young men are volunteering to serve in the army.
Trump seems to have learnt the lesson of Yalta. But will his natural desire for a long-term deal end up with his being suckered by Iran’s ideology of deceit to achieve victory? Time will tell. Meanwhile, I pray Israel will take a long hard look at its divisive politics.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
The post Examining Three Remarkable Women From Jewish History in These Turbulent Times first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Battling to Survive, Hamas Faces Defiant Clans and Doubts Over Iran
Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Short of commanders, deprived of much of its tunnel network, and unsure of support from its ally Iran, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is battling to survive in Gaza in the face of rebellious local clans and relentless Israeli military pressure.
Hamas fighters are operating autonomously under orders to hold out as long as possible, but the Islamist group is struggling to maintain its grip as Israel openly backs tribes opposing it, three sources close to Hamas said.
With a humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifying international pressure for a ceasefire, Hamas badly needs a pause in the fighting, one of the people said.
Not only would a ceasefire offer respite to weary Gazans, who are growing increasingly critical of Hamas, but it would also allow the Islamist group to crush rogue elements, including some clans and looters who have been stealing aid, the person said.
To counter the immediate threat, Hamas has sent some of its top fighters to kill one rebellious leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, but so far he has remained beyond their reach in the Rafah area held by Israeli troops, according to two Hamas sources and two other sources familiar with the situation.
Reuters spoke to 16 sources including people close to Hamas, Israeli security sources, and diplomats who painted a picture of a severely weakened group, retaining some sway and operational capacity in Gaza despite its setbacks, but facing stiff challenges.
Hamas is still capable of landing blows: it killed seven Israeli soldiers in an attack in southern Gaza on Tuesday. But three diplomats in the Middle East said intelligence assessments showed it had lost its centralized command and control and was reduced to limited, surprise attacks.
An Israeli military official estimated Israel had killed 20,000 or more Hamas fighters and destroyed or rendered unusable hundreds of miles of tunnels under the coastal strip. Much of Gaza has been turned to rubble in 20 months of conflict.
One Israeli security source said the average age of Hamas fighters was “getting lower by the day.” Israeli security sources say Hamas is recruiting from hundreds of thousands of impoverished, unemployed, displaced young men.
Hamas does not disclose how many of its fighters have died.
“They’re hiding because they are being instantly hit by planes, but they appear here and there, organizing queues in front of bakeries, protecting aid trucks, or punishing criminals,” said Essam, 57 a construction worker in Gaza City.
“They’re not like before the war, but they exist.”
Asked for comment for this story, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was working for an agreement to end the war with Israel but “surrender is not an option.”
Hamas remained committed to negotiations and was “ready to release all prisoners at once,” he said, referring to Israeli hostages, but it wanted the killing to stop and Israel to withdraw.
‘IT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD’
Hamas is a shadow of the group that attacked Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas.
The damage inflicted by Israel is unlike anything Hamas has suffered since its creation, with most of its top military commanders in Gaza killed. Founded in 1987, Hamas had gradually established itself as the main rival of the Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas and finally seized Gaza from his control in 2007.
With a US-brokered truce in the Iran-Israel war holding, attention has switched back to the possibility of a Gaza deal that might end the conflict and release the remaining hostages.
One of the people close to Hamas told Reuters it would welcome a truce, even for a couple of months, to confront the local clans that are gaining influence.
But he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terms for ending the war – including Hamas leaders leaving Gaza – would amount to total defeat, and Hamas would never surrender.
“We keep the faith, but in reality it doesn’t look good,” the source said.
Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said he believed Hamas was simply trying to survive. That was not just a physical challenge of holding out militarily, he said, but above all a political one.
“They face being eliminated on the ground in Gaza if the war doesn’t stop, but they also face being erased from any governing formula that ends the war in Gaza (if such a thing can be found),” he wrote in response to Reuters’ questions.
Palestinian tribes have emerged as part of Israel’s strategy to counter Hamas. Netanyahu has said publicly that Israel has been arming clans that oppose Hamas, but has not said which.
One of the most prominent challenges has come from Abu Shabab, a Palestinian Bedouin based in the Rafah area, which is under Israeli control.
Hamas wants Abu Shabab captured, dead or alive, accusing him of collaboration with Israel and planning attacks on the terrorist group, three Hamas sources told Reuters.
Abu Shabab controls eastern Rafah and his group is believed to have freedom of movement in the wider Rafah area. Images on their Facebook page show their armed men organizing the entry of aid trucks from the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Announcements by his group indicate that it is trying to build an independent administration in the area, though they deny trying to become a governing authority. The group has called on people from Rafah now in other areas of Gaza to return home, promising food and shelter.
In response to Reuters’ questions, Abu Shabab’s group denied getting support from Israel or contacts with the Israeli army, describing itself as a popular force protecting humanitarian aid from looting by escorting aid trucks.
It accused Hamas of violence and muzzling dissent.
A Hamas security official said the Palestinian security services would “strike with an iron fist to uproot the gangs of the collaborator Yasser Abu Shabab,” saying they would show no mercy or hesitation and accusing him of being part of “an effort to create chaos and lawlessness.”
Not all of Gaza’s clans are at odds with Hamas, however.
On Thursday, a tribal alliance said its men had protected aid trucks from looters in northern Gaza. Sources close to Hamas said the group had approved of the alliance’s involvement.
Israel said Hamas fighters had in fact commandeered the trucks, which both the clans and Hamas denied.
IRAN UNCERTAINTY
Palestinian analyst Akram Attallah said the emergence of Abu Shabab was a result of the weakness of Hamas, though he expected him to fail ultimately because Palestinians broadly reject any hint of collaboration with Israel.
Nevertheless, regardless of how small Abu Shabab’s group is, the fact Hamas has an enemy from the same culture was dangerous, he said. “It remains a threat until it is dealt with.”
Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran has added to the uncertainties facing Hamas. Tehran’s backing for Hamas played a big part in developing its armed wing into a force capable of shooting missiles deep into Israel.
While both Iran and Israel have claimed victory, Netanyahu on Sunday indicated the Israeli campaign against Tehran had further strengthened his hand in Gaza, saying it would “help us expedite our victory and the release of all our hostages.”
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that great progress was being made on Gaza, adding that the strike on Iran would help get the hostages released.
A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the group was weighing the risk of diminished Iranian backing, anticipating “the impact will be on the shape of funding and the expertise Iran used to give to the resistance and Hamas.”
One target of Israel’s campaign in Iran was a Revolutionary Guards officer who oversaw coordination with Hamas. Israel said Saeed Izadi, whose death it announced on Saturday, was the driving force behind the Iran–Hamas axis.
Hamas extended condolences to Iran on Thursday, calling Izadi a friend who was directly responsible for ties with “the leadership of the Palestinian resistance.”
A source from an Iran-backed group in the region said Izadi helped develop Hamas capabilities, including how to carry out complex attacks, including rocket launches, infiltration operations, and drones.
Asked about how the Israeli campaign against Iran might affect its support for Hamas, Abu Zuhri said Iran was a large and powerful country that would not be defeated.
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Israeli Strikes Targeting Hezbollah Pummel South Lebanon Hilltops
Smoke billows from the Nabatieh district, following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon, June 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
More than a dozen Israeli air strikes battered a row of hilltops in southern Lebanon on Friday, security sources said, with the Israeli military saying it had attacked a damaged military site that terrorist group Hezbollah was seeking to restore.
The simultaneous strikes hit a mountainous strip near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, according to the Lebanese security sources, who said Iran-backed Hezbollah likely still had arms depots there. There was no immediate comment from the Islamist group.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked a site used to manage Hezbollah’s “fire and defense system.” It said the site was destroyed in last year’s war but that Hezbollah was attempting to resume activities there in breach of the November truce that ended the conflict.
Lebanon‘s President Joseph Aoun on Friday fired the same accusation back at Israel, saying it was continually violating the US-brokered ceasefire deal by keeping up strikes on Lebanon.
The ceasefire deal stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of any non-state arms or fighters, Israeli troops must leave southern Lebanon as Lebanese troops deploy there. and all fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border must stop.
Israeli troops remain in at least five posts within Lebanese territory and its air force regularly kills rank-and-file Hezbollah members or people affiliated with the group.
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