I noticed that with respect to describing the fall of Betar, which took place on 9 Av, the Rambam (Ta'anis 5:3) writes:
ונלכדה עיר גדולה ובית תור היה שמה והיו בה אלפים ורבבות מישראל, והיה להם מלך גדול ודימו כל ישראל וגדולי החכמים שהוא המלך המשיח, ונפל ביד גויים ונהרגו כולם, והייתה צרה גדולה כמו חורבן המקדש
Why does the Rambam needs to add that the calamity was so great that it was like the churban? Isn't that derash, not halacha?
I haven't looked around to check if anyone says this, but it sounds like the Rambam holds that the mourning of 9 Av was instituted specifically for churban-related events. The fall fall of Betar, as great a calamity as it was, is thrown into the mix only because it was an event that in the eyes of Chazal could be equated with the churban itself. Would the Rambam agree with Rashi (Divrei haYamim II 35:25) that ALL tragic events should be commemorated in the kinos of 9 Av?
The first one on the list -- the decree that dor hamidbar would die in the desert -- is not clearly linked to the mikdash. Perhaps you can say a nice vort on how it is linked, but at a surface level the fate of dor hamidbar really seems less connected to churban hamikdash than the fall of Beitar. So if Rambam truly needed to explain connections to Mikdash specifically, all the more should he have done so for the dor hamidbar tragedy.
ReplyDeletePersonally I read Rambam as adding these words about Beitar to help explain why it was such a huge tragedy, because the significance of the loss at Beitar is not as self-explanatory as it is for the other four sad events.
So why not just say "tzarah gedolah" - why the equation specifically to the churban?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that churban habayis = galus, which would fit with dor hamidbar. Once you are already in galus, do the tragedies of one year or another, or one community or another, belong in the kinos acc. to the Rambam?
I can hear it both ways.
Maybe the Rambam compares it to the churban to tell us that the loss of Jewish life and/or sovereignty is as important to commemorate as the churban itself. If he had just said tzarah gedolah, we still might think that it should take the back burner when compared to the churban - ka mashma lan that this is as serious even as the churban itself.
DeleteMaybe the Rambam compares it to the churban to tell us that the loss of Jewish life and/or sovereignty is as important to commemorate as the churban itself. If he had just said tzarah gedolah, we still might think that it should take the back burner when compared to the churban - ka mashma lan that this is as serious even as the churban itself.
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