The current Three Weeks period of semi-mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temples in the 1st-Century C.E. Promised Land commemorate ancient history. But their message is as contemporary as today’s headlines.

First, some background:

According to the Talmud (Tractate Gittin 55-56), at the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, a wealthy man who was hosting a party sent his servant to deliver an invitation to a friend named Kamtza. By mistake, the servant invited a man named bar Kamtza, whom the wealthy man despised. Bar Kamtza accepted the invitation.

The wealthy man, enraged, ordered bar Kamtza to leave his party. Hoping to maintain his honor, bar Kamtza refused. He offered to pay for half of the party’s expenses, then for all; the wealthy man refused, personally escorting bar Kamtza out of his home, within sight of the cowered Jewish community’s leaders. Who remained silent.

Humiliated, bar Kamtza vowed revenge. He visited the region’s Caesar, the Roman official in charge of Jerusalem, and claimed that the Jews were planning a revolt against the Roman Empire. The Caesar, in an effort to test the Jews’ loyalty, sent an animal to be sacrificed as a peace offering in the Temple.

Bar Kamtza secretly wounded the animal slightly in a way that would disqualify it as a Jewish sacrifice, but not as a Roman offering.

The Roman offering was rejected.

The Caesar was incensed.

And he struck out. “Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza.” Because of the slight, Jerusalem was besieged, and the Jewish people were exiled from the Holy Land.

A Jew turning against his people, seeking the approval of influential non-Jews, brought national catastrophe to Klal Israel.

That is the tragedy we remember during the Three Weeks, which began with the fast on the17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, and which end on Tisha b’Av, on July 22-23 this year, when the Temple fell.

The contemporary relevance of this story?

Republican Bruce Blakeman, Nassau County executive who is running against incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul in November’s election for New York State Governor, recently heavily criticized Brad Lander, the liberal Democratic (former New York City comptroller, former member of the Democratic Socialist party, former mayoral candidate) politician who won his party’s primary vote last month for the House of Representatives 10th District seat currently held by Dan Goldman.

Blakeman questioned Lander’s Jewish allegiance. “He’s anti-American, he is anti-Semitic, even though........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)