Over Tisha B’Av, we read kinnos. Tragic poetry to help get us in the mindset of the day. One such kinnah that really struck me related to the death of Zechariah ben Yohayada.
Zechariah was a prophet in the First Temple period. He rebuked the people to stop worshipping idols. Not only did they not listen to him, but the people stoned him to death. Our Sages bring down in Medrash Rabah that this was a 7 fold crime:
1. They murdered an innocent man.
2. The man they killed was also the Cohen Gadol.
3. He was also a prophet.
4. He was also a judge.
5. The place where they killed him was none other than the courtyard of G-d’s Holy Temple.
6. This took place on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur.
7. That day was also Shabbat.
It’s hard to overstate how momentous this crime was. How could it even be conceivable to murder the Cohen Gadol on Yom Kippur in the Temple Courtyard?
As a result of this horrible crime, Zechariah’s blood remained on the Temple floor, in a pool, boiling continuously.
And then business apparently went on as usual around and despite the miraculously boiling blood. For 250 years.
It was only when a Babylonian general came to sack Jerusalem, that he called attention to the strange phenomenon. The people tried to play it off as common animal blood, but the general pressed on until he learned the full story.
Without getting into the graphic details, the general saw that the blood was calling out, and he took matters into his own hands to avenge it. And, eventually, the general cried out and asked that the blood be appeased, lest more damage be done on its account.
The question is, why did no one do anything about this boiling blood before this Babylonian general showed up? For two hundred and fifty years, no one who saw this strange blood and was horrified enough to do something about it? No one sought to right the wrong that was done? No one requested that the nation repent for their action? No one prayed that this would cease?
Why not?
There are things that we know in our bones to be terrible. They are so bad that we know intuitively that they are wrong. Our guts shout out that there is a problem.
But we see it happen a lot. And that it’s been happening for a long time. And that no one else seems to be bothered by it.
And we second guess ourselves. If no one else is bothered, maybe it’s not so bad. Maybe I’m overreacting and this is actually how things are supposed to be, we tell ourselves.
And we sweep it under the rug. Then people see us do that, and they sweep it under the rug too. Not only is the problem not dealt with, it becomes the new default. The new assumed common ground.
And when an outside force finally makes a course correction, it’s more painful than it could have been.
Don’t ignore injustice happening right in front of your face.
Don’t ignore the blood boiling in your own front yard.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi A and the JET Team
