Tisha B’Av: an opinion on what it means in 2019, and why we should still observe it.

This was my second Tisha B’Av observance. I followed the laws from not voluntarily playing or listening to music, unless it was involved with Synagogue service, to fasting from the Havdalah night before to the following evening, including not drinking water or showering. A number of meditation sessions happened throughout the day, culminating in a 17 minute meditation at a local cemetery. The appropriate Torah and Haftarah scriptures were read, as well as the Book of Lamentations. For an observance that mourns the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples, the wisdom and overtones of Lamentations indicates that the people of Israel became their own Sodom & Gomorrah. Whatever the transgressions the Israelites were practicing, it was enough for Hashem to allow invading enemies, namely the Babylonians and Romans, to destroy Jerusalem and the Temples. As the mournful holiday of Tisha B’Av continues in observance for generations, it also traditionally yearns for a moshiach to lead the Jewish people to rebuild the 3rd Temple. 2000 years after the destruction of the 2nd Temple, this seems more unlikely of a scenario to unfold any time soon. What nugget of wisdom can be gleaned from a holiday that never seems to offer solutions to the recurring devastations? I have come up with my own purposeful opinion. The fasting and mourning is also about the Israelites and The Jewish Community not uniting differences in religious, political, or socio-economic classes to become a “3rd Temple” to the world in a corporeal sense. This makes more sense to mourn a divided community and to yearn for a day that all Jews unite and shine an inspirational figurative light on the world through Tikkun Olam, and not only assisting in repairing the world, but assisting in repairing the collective Jewish Identity.