Napoleon’s Jewish Insight

For children, time seems to move slowly and ponderously. Most of us can remember a school year that seemed to last for 20 months, or a birthday that surely took more than 12 months to return. Adults often have the opposite experience. “What! It’s time to pay taxes again!” Or perhaps, “Didn’t we just put away the holiday decorations?”

Each year, when the tragic day of the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av comes, Jews pray that this should be the last time the day’s mourning practices need to be observed. We hope that God will redeem us before the next year’s day arrives. When we are disappointed, as we have been for over 2,000 years, we grieve once again. As an increasing number of Americans and Europeans are ignorant of and reject or distort their history, we would be wise to understand some of the lessons of the Ninth of Av. In that spirit, we are reprinting this classic Thought Tool.

Once upon a time, the great Napoleon paid a state visit to Russia. Proud of the enlightened way his country, France, treated its Jewish population, he asked to see some Russian Jews. His hosts brought him to a St. Petersburg synagogue.
Entering the synagogue lit by only a few flickering candles, they found it filled with Jews sitting on the floor weeping in the dark. Napoleon swung around accusingly to his Russian hosts and asked, “What did you do to them?”

Just as astonished, the Russians hastily denied complicity in whatever horrible calamity had produced this misery. Napoleon turned to the bereft community and asked what tragedy had befallen them.

The rabbi stepped forward and softly sobbed, “Our Temple has been destroyed.”
Turning a reproachful face to his Russian guides, Napoleon asked why the Czar had done such a terrible thing. His hosts insisted that they were baffled by the accusation.

Questioning further, Napoleon soon discovered that the Temple in question had stood not in Russia but in Jerusalem and had been destroyed not recently but over 2,000 years earlier.

Napoleon is said to have proclaimed, “Any nation linked so powerfully to its history that it agonizes over such an ancient loss will ultimately outlive both France and Russia.”

Unbeknown to the government delegation, Napoleon’s visit took place on Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av), which falls this year on July 27th. On this saddest day of the Hebrew calendar, committed Jews everywhere will grieve and lament, neither eating nor drinking for 25 hours.

The date’s significance traces back to the Israelites wandering in the desert. As the time arrived to enter Israel, Moses sent men to spy out the land. Instead of returning with an encouraging report, they terrified Israel with their cowardly depiction of an unconquerable land. Ignoring God’s promise to take them into the Land the children of Israel wept in despair.

Numbers 14:1—The congregation lifted up their voice and cried; the people wept all that night.

Ancient Jewish wisdom informs us of God’s response which is both eerily prophetic and a solemn warning for our own lives.

…God said to Israel, “You cry for nothing, by my life I shall give you something to really cry about on this date in every generation.”

This is not a vindictive or petty response. God is recognizing a deep flaw in the people, who are all too quick to lose faith in Him and thus in themselves as well, and a tendency to find it easier to weep than to rejoice.

All nations have sad days in their histories, but as you’d expect, they are distributed randomly around the calendar. However, with Jewish history, there is nothing random. In a way that utterly defies rational analysis, for three thousand years Jewish national tragedies have clustered about this date of the Ninth of Av.
The destruction of both Jerusalem Temples, massacres, expulsions, pogroms, and other disasters for the Jewish people, occur disproportionately on or near Tisha B’Av—the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av.

But we Jews recognize that the Temples were not destroyed because of the overwhelming power of the Babylonian army or the relentless advance of Roman forces. Sadly, we know that both Temples were destroyed because of flaws in Jewish behavior.

It is an act of kindness that God clusters the tragedies most mysteriously around the date of the Ninth of Av to remind us that these tragedies are not random. If we only lived as we should, God would offer His protection over us just as surely as He would have brought the Israelites safely into their land.

We still mourn so deeply over the tragedies that God sends to His people century after century, because they remind us of how much in our present lives needs to be examined and improved. In that mourning there is comfort. Just as God brings calamities, He can and will also bring salvation and redemption.

To move on the path of redemption, one first small step is to teach ourselves and our children that rather than being petty grumblers who allow our complaints and fears to overwhelm us, we should strive to recognize God’s goodness and blessings, seeking joy and happiness. We must also recognize that national security and continuity are in no way guaranteed and that we must fight for the spiritual state of our country. When tragedy strikes a nation, the good suffers along with evildoers. We are, indeed, our brothers’ keepers.

This Thought Tool is a reprint and is published in our book Thought Tools Volume 1. Get your Thought Tools Book Set and unlock 150+ insights that reveal secrets of ancient Jewish wisdom providing practical advice in the area of family, fitness, friendship, finances, and faith.

---

An additional thought for the Ninth of Av from our daughter, Rebecca Masinter:
Holding a Relationship Through Pain

---

What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this Thought Tools post.
We Happy Warrior members can both read and write comments HERE.

Not a member yet? Thought Tools is a reader-supported publication.
To support our work, consider signing up for a Basic membership and join the conversation.

---