Welcome to the website of Ohev Sholom -- The National Synagogue.

Last December a group from our synagogue went to Jerusalem. I thought of one night in particular as I was reading the Book of Eichah this week. We were enjoying a delicious, five-star meal in the hotel, when we saw that a party was about to take place in the courtyard of the Hotel.

The courtyard overlooked the walls of the old city in Jerusalem and around 100 people speaking Russian had gathered in the courtyard on the occasion of someone's birthday. They had their own private party which I crashed as I wanted to meet the people. But then suddenly we began to hear explosions. When you hear explosions in Jerusalem, you normally get very nervous. So I got nervous. No one knew what was happening. But, Baruch Hashem, this time the explosions were fireworks that the party was setting off over the walls of the old city.

So there we sat right near the old city of Jerusalem, the Holy City, and watched a dazzling fireworks display.

I do not think that this is what Jeremiah had in mind when he wrote the book of Eichah which discusses the fall of Jerusalem. He wrote: "Vayatzet esh be-tzion, God kindled a fire in Zion." Jeremiah wasn't referring to this type of fire. And when Jeremiah wrote, "chomot armanoteah kol natnu, they made a noise around the walls of her palace." He wasn't referring to this type of noise over these walls.

And certainly when Jeremiah wrote, "eichah yashvah badad, how does this city sit alone," he wasn't referring to the streets being quiet because everyone is inside the hotel partying.

Some of the verses of Eichah seem like a distant memory, a reminder of a time that is no longer. Some people have even argued (I believe, wrongly) that we should not commemorate Tisha Be-Av anymore. After all, Tisha Be-Av commemorates the destruction of the Temple, and the plowing over of Jerusalem, while today we are seeing a Jerusalem that is thriving and an Israel whose economy is booming. Are the words of Jeremiah dated?

How I wish that were true? But the sad reality is that the words of Jeremiah are now still truer than ever.

Here are some of Jeremiah's words that to me reflect a sad reality of modern day Israel and Jerusalem.

Hazot hair sheyomru kelilat yofi masos lekhol haaretz, is this the city that people called the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth! (2:15)

Kol amah neenachim, mevakshim lechem, natnu machamadeihem beochel lehashiv nefesh, reah Hashem vehabitah ki hayitte zolelah. All her people sigh, they seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. Look, Hashem, and see how despised I have become. (1:11)

Le-imotam yomru ayeh dagan veyayin, children turn to their mothers and say where is our grain and wine. (2:12)

Kumi roni balilah stand up and cry in the middle of the night on behalf of young children that faint for hunger at the head of every street (2:19)

Thank God, we do not have children starving in the streets of Jerusalem today. But the only reason that that is the case is because we also have tremendous people and organizations and services that reach out beyond normal human ability to help the poor.

While there is great wealth in Israel, there is also great poverty.

Here are some scary statistics. Israel is a tiny country with approximately 7 million people. 1,647,800 of those people are living in poverty -- including 804,600 children (%35.9 of all Israeli children). That is a staggering number and definitely we can ask: Is this the city of beauty and splendor?

In the capital city of Jerusalem over half of the city's children live below the poverty line. The yearly report, published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS) and the Jerusalem Municipality, indicates that 56 percent of the capital's children and 33 percent of the city's families live in poverty

According to The National Insurance Institute 23.5% of Israeli elderly in Israel live in poverty, and some of those are Holocaust survivors.

Thank God, the country of Israel offers services and contains people with enormous hearts and endless energy who reach out to the poor and make sure that they eating with dignity.

In my mind this is the essential challenge of Tisha Be-Av. When we fast on Tisha Be-Av what should we have in mind?

There is a custom on fast days to donate to poor people all the money that we might normally spend on food. This custom relates to a basic idea in the Talmud.

This idea is encapsulated in a special blessing that was once recited on fast days. The Mishnah in Tractate Taanit discusses special fast days that were called in response to a drought. The congregation would gather for prayers on these fast days and would recite an additional six blessings. One of those blessings ended with the following words: "Mi she-anah et avoteinu al yam sufm hu yaaneh etchem ve-yishmah et kol tzaakatchem hayom hazeh. Baruch atah Hashem zocher hanishkachot." May the one who answered our forefathers as they stood in the middle of the sea and felt the enemy closing in upon them, and as they felt totally abandoned, let this One answer your prayers and the sound of your cries today. Blessed are you Hashem who remembers the forgotten, zocher hanishkachot. Blessed are you Hashem who remembers the forgotten, zocher hanishkachot!

This is the essence of Tisha Be-Av today, to remember the forgotten. We sit by ourselves on Tisha Be-Av, we mute our greetings to our friends, because we are remembering what it is like to be forgotten, and we are challenging ourselves to be Godlike in our actions and remember those who are too often forgotten.

The test of a society is not how it treats its most powerful members, but how it treats its most vulnerable members.

There are wonderful organizations in DC today that do this. One example, which I saw with my own eyes is the organization Bread for the City. In Israel there are many great organizations that make sure that there are not people starving in the streets. On a recent trip we personally toured the kitchen of the charity Yad Ezra, which one of my teachers Rabbi Zvi Waldman is involved in running and which miraculously provides food for people all over Israel.

Also on a recent trip to Israel we connected with my friend Joseph Gitler and the food rescue organization he founded, Table to Table, and helped pick food from the fields to distribute to poor people. Joseph’s organization literally gives away more than a million sandwiches a year.

I called up Joseph this week and asked him about some of his challenges. He said the challenge is that of zocher hanishkachot. There are services available, but many people are too afraid or too proud to allow services to give them the help they need. The challenge is to remember those in need, to seek them out, and not to give up on helping them. He recounted with pride about one recent success he had where after two years of trying he was finally able to provide help to one specific Ethiopian community which had been resisting help because they were afraid.

Tishah Be-Av is a sad day because we remember all of the destruction and troubles that we had in our history. But it is also a very happy day. The rabbis interpret the verse, ve-karah alai moed, to mean that Tishah Be-Av will one day be a great holiday. For this reason we have some customs like not reciting certain prayers that reflect the joyous nature of Tishah Be-Av.

The reason it will be joyous is because the Messiah will be born on Tisha Be-Av. The Messiah will be a real person who brings peace to our world and ends our suffering through human actions.

What this teaching means to me is that the Messiah comes into the world on Tisha Be-Av and sees the suffering and the human needs around him. He sees the vulnerable, forgotten people of the world and he works to help them and to provide for them. That is what makes him the Messiah.

This Tisha Be-Av our challenge is to realize that the words of Eichah are alive and real. It is our challenge to realize that and to seek out the nishkachot, the forgotten ones, and if we do that then perhaps one of us who is sitting and listening to this talk is already the Mashiach.