There is a lot to be said about reading Eicha on Tisha B'Av, and learning from the past, and understanding the sinat chinam that led to the destruction of the First and Second Temple, and avoiding this baseless hatred that leads to internal divisions that can tear us apart from the inside.
And yet, especially in regards to the destruction of the Second Temple, we must also recognize that we were facing down the Roman Empire IN ITS PRIME.
When Golden Age Rome wanted you dead, you were dead. The Pax Romana was as much a threat as it was a promise.
And so, with this additional understanding, we must not take on any undue self-blame that comes from internalized antisemitism.
In Rome, we were facing an enemy that was much more powerful than than the Babylonian Empire, which was defeated only a few decades later by the ascendant Persian Empire.
The Roman Empire of 70 CE was a WAR MACHINE. Just a few decades prior, Rome under Emperor Claudius had successfully launched an invasion and conquest of Britain, which even Julius Caesar had been unable to achieve during the Gallic Wars. Rome of 70 CE under Emperor Vespasian was young and resource rich, and even the corruption, debauchery, and madness of previous Emperors like Nero and Caligula did nothing to dampen the War Machine.
We were truly David against Goliath, and it is easy to think that we lost. The Romans destroyed our Temple. They slaughtered us by the thousands. They dragged many of us into slavery in Roman Diaspora. They forced us to build their Theatre of Death -- the Colosseum. And only a few decades later in 135 CE, the Romans under Emperor Hadrian crushed the Bar Kokhba Revolt, slaughtered our people, and even tried to wipe us off the literal map by renaming our land after our enemies.
Because we outlived them.
We outlived the Roman Empire, just like we outlived the Babylonian Empire. Just like we will outlive the Islamic Regime that has hijacked Iran.
Because, who are the Romans now? Certainly not an Empire. Nowadays, Roma is a city in Italia. The Romans of today dress as plastic gladiators and sell cheap souvenirs to tourists who come to see the Colosseum that our enslaved ancestors built.
We Jews are still a people. We worship Hashem now as we did then, with the provision, inspired from Hosea 6:6, that Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai used to change the course of our history:
For I desire loving kindness, not sacrifice;
Devotion to G-d, rather than burnt offerings.
It is still crucial to acknowledge that sinat chinam is what contributed to bringing down the walls of our Temple in 70 CE. The Romans were masters at sowing discord within a population -- they recognized that it was much easier to sack a city when the people within were divided against each other. And so we must remember that we must NEVER AGAIN fall prey to the machinations of enemies that seek to turn us against each other.
AND we must also acknowledge the most important reality of all: WE ARE STILL HERE. We have survived every empire that has tried to destroy us:
The promise made to our forefathers holds also for us
For not just one enemy has risen against us to destroy us
But in every generation they rise against us to destroy us
And the Holy One Blessed Be He saves us from their hands.
We've survived every empire that has sought to destroy us, and most important of all, we must remember this -- every empire that has sought to destroy us was itself destroyed:
Haman will always hang on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai.
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