Page 45 - HaMizrachi # 21 Tisha B'Av 2020 USA
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The house was little more than the Temple and the Jews’ special To my utter astonishment, the
a wooden box on stilts. It had duties as the Chosen People. preacher started sobbing. I watched
two rooms, a living room and a as he laid his head on his arms and
bedroom. The mezuzah on the front Jennifer calmed him down by cried from his very soul. Suddenly
door was surely the only one for telling him that her mother would he jumped up and begged me
hundreds of miles. be coming to Las Palomas in a few agitatedly in Spanish to please tell
weeks. “She is very religious,” she him it wasn’t so, that the Temple
The kitchen – a fire pit and informed him. “She will be able to still existed in Jerusalem.
worktable with a thatched roof explain.”
overhead – was outside. The Then, spent, he sat back down, his
bathroom was an outhouse situated The man had been counting the head on the table, and asked if we
down the hill. days until my arrival. Now he was would give him a few minutes alone.
here, eager to speak with me. His
Jennifer offered coffee. No espresso Spanish was too rapid for me to fully Jennifer and I stepped outside, but
machine here. She took her machete understand, so Jennifer translated. through the paneless windows we
and whacked a mesquite log until heard his painful sobbing, then his
she had a bundle of kindling wood, “The preacher knows that children pleading… to whom I wasn’t sure.
put a metal pot on top of the aren’t as religious as their parents Eventually, the preacher came
chicken-wire grate, and boiled water these days. He thought I was outside with his head lowered,
for coffee. We took our two cups making up stories about the wiping his tears on his sleeve. He
inside and were sitting at the table destruction of the Temple only couldn’t even say “adios” as he
in her living room when we heard because I had never gone to the walked heavily down the path, his
someone at the door. Temple myself or watched the
offering of sacrifices.” life forever altered.
Jennifer hopped up to greet the
visitor. “Hola, Padre. Pase.” The preacher said that since I was That was a life-changing moment
of the older generation, I could give for me. If only I could cry for the
My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I knew him a firsthand description of the destruction of our Holy Temple as
she was welcoming the preacher, not Holy Temple. Did the priests wear the padre had. Every Tisha B’Av, I
only because she referred to him as their vestments as described in the distinctly recall his tear-streaked
“padre” but because he was wearing Torah? And could I please describe face and reddened eyes, and even
the telltale clerical collar. in detail all of the aromas? more his expression of genuine pain
Jennifer quickly explained to me I was dumbstruck. The priest, at hearing the tragic news that we
no longer had our Holy Temple. I
that the preacher was fascinated having grown up in Las Palomas, a too now cry on Tisha B’Av.
by her Jewishness. Neither he nor village without electricity, had no
anyone else in the village of 670 How unfortunate that it took a
residents had ever met a Jew. exposure to the media. But certainly, preacher from Nicaragua to provide
the news of the Temple’s destruction
When he found out Jennifer was had traveled to Las Palomas in the tangible inspiration, to show me
Jewish, he begged for details of the last 2,000 years. how to mourn for the Temple.
Temple and the sacrifices. Jennifer A version of this article originally
told him that the Temple no longer The preacher sat across from appeared in Ami Magazine.
existed, and therefore we were no me, looking intently into my face
longer able to offer the sacrifices. to determine if I too was telling
the truth. I explained that the
To Jennifer’s bewilderment, the Babylonians had destroyed our Holy
preacher first politely argued with Temple, that it had been rebuilt 70 Judy Waldman is a freelance writer and
her, and then grew increasingly years later and destroyed again by motivational speaker specializing in
agitated. He insisted that he read the the Romans about 400 years after Emunah, special needs, and intermarriage
Bible every day and knew all about that. as well as general Jewish topics
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