Special Shabattot - Special Sabbaths

Submitted by Herschel Raysman on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 20:25

Special Shabbatot

A handful of Shabbatot (plural for Shabbat) deserve special mention. These Shabbatot have special Torah readings associated with them. These special Shabbatot will appear in some detail in a bulletin later this month. Because Tisha B’Av is looming, I want to mention the Shabbat that always precedes Tisha B’Av, Shabbat Chazon.

Shabbat Hazon means "Sabbath of Vision," and refers to Isaiah's vision of the destruction of the Temple, which is the haftarah reading for the week (Isaiah 1:1-27).

The Torah reading cycle is structured so that the parshah with this haftarah (Parshat Devarim) will occur on the Shabbat preceding Tisha B'Av, a fast day commemorating the destruction of the Temple.

TISHA B’AV

Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av. ...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years? -Zechariah 7:3

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month ...came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD... -II Kings 25:8-9

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month... came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD... - Jeremiah 52:12-13

How then are these dates to be reconciled? On the seventh the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth and towards dusk of the ninth they set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole of that day. ... How will the Rabbis then [explain the choice of the 9th as the date]? The beginning of any misfortune [when the fire was set] is of greater moment. -Talmud Ta'anit 29a

Tisha B’Av – the 9^th Day of the Hebrew month of Av

1. Israel condemned to wilderness wanderings for 40 years
2. Solomon's temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, 586 BC
3. Roman commander Titus destroyed 2nd Temple 70 AD
4. a year later to the day, Romans covered the Mount with salt

For these four events to happen by chance on the same day are 1*365*365*365 which equals 48 million to one (just one event happening by chance is 133,225 to one.

5. Hadrian defeated Bar Kochva (false Messiah) in 135AD. This brings the odds to 17,748,900,625 ,and the 6th event
6. WW1 was declared 1st August, 1914. This too happened on the 9th Av.

Furthermore, the persecution of Jews in Russia started on that day, bringing the odds to half a trillion which means thes events surely could not have taken place by chance !''

But, wait, there’s more! On the 9^th Av,

10. Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait; 1st Gulf War in 1991 which ended on Purim following.

11. Jewish synagogue bombed in Beunos Aires in 1994, July 18th.