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Today was Tisha b'Av, the 9th of the Jewish month of Av. It is a day historically of sorrow, of recalling calamity, of mourning. It entails a 25 hr. complete fast--no food or water. No wearing clothes right off a hanger--you had to pre-wear them for a few minutes so you would not be enjoying fresh clothing. No wearing leather shoes. No bathing, no swimming, no washing your face, no studying Torah--nothing that could possibly give you pleasure. We are to feel the anguish of the destruction of both Temples on this day. We are to feel the anguish of the Jews starved to death--including infants at the breast--by the siege of Jerusalem in those ancient days, of virgin girls raped and the cream of young men and scholarly elders put to the sword. And then being exiled to Babylon and sold into slavery. Etc.

There were 5 national calamities on this very date: the spies Moses sent out to spy out the land of Israel came back with a false report of the desirability of the land which caused the Jews to be afraid and reluctant to go there; the First Temple was destroyed and millions of Jews were slaughtered by the Babylonians (led by Nebuchadnezzar); the Second Temple was destroyed and more millions of Jews were slaughtered by the Romans (led by Titus); the ancient city of Betar was utterly destroyed, along with 100,000 Jews; Turnus Rufus plowed under the Temple area and desecrated it. Non-Jewish-specific events on this very same day include the outbreak of WWI; the Spanish Inquisition culminated with the expulsion of Spain's Jews on this day in 1492; and on this day, the final transport of Jews began from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka.

Why were these tragedies visited upon the Jewish people? Because they did not observe the Commandments and allowed themselves to be led astray, to violate the Sabbath, to indulge in perversity and hedonism---just like the subjects of today's demonstration in Israel.

Perverts with Jewish parents protesting a restriction on their perversity. How sweet. Let them read Lamentations, the text we are bidden to hear recited the night of Tisha b'Av. Let them read of mothers reduced to eating their own children from their starvation; of living corpses falling dead of starvation in the streets; of young men fitted with millstones around their necks and marched off to a life of debased slavery. And their perversity, their sick lifestyle is among the very things that so evoked G-d's anger, violating the Torah in their sickness. The fact that they picked just this day only serves to underline how utterly sick these people are. No, they should NOT be allowed anywhere near children, nor should their ability to bear children raised in perversion be facilitated.