Tenth of Av 5784: Why I Took Down My "Why I Love Tishah b'Av" Post

In the free part of this article, I explain why I preemptively took down this morning's post titled "Why I Love Tishah b'Av." The post is behind my paywall.

The Torah Content for the first two weeks of August has been sponsored by Avital, "in gratitude for all the incredible brachah in my life right now and Mishlei and Stoicism for helping me handle it. Thank you Rabbi!"

A link to a printer-friendly version of this article can be found at the very end, for paid subscribers only.

Tenth of Av 5784: Why I Took Down My "Why I Love Tishah b'Av" Post

Those who follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Substack Notes, or my Rabbi Schneeweiss Content Group (the “admin only” WhatsApp chat where I post all my articles, videos, podcasts, Zoom info for public shiurim, and other content) are familiar with the short “What I’m Thinking About This Morning” thoughts which I post every weekday morning. This little writing project which I began in January 2024 has been a Godsend. It has allowed me to informally formulate thoughts on a variety of topics that have been on my mind which I want to share but aren’t quite at the level of deserving their own substack article.

If you checked any of the aforementioned social media between 11:40pm - 12:15am Pacific time (2:40am - 3:15am Eastern time, or 9:40am - 10:15am Israel time), you might have seen a post titled "Why I Love Tishah b'Av" that I wrote after Tishah b'Av ended.

Right before going to sleep, I had a gut feeling that said, "MAYBE you shouldn't post this." So, I decided to play it safe and took it down.

I knew the title might raise some eyebrows. I acknowledged this in the first sentence, writing: "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm not 'supposed' to say that." Earlier this year, I republished a Substack article about my rebbi, Rabbi Moskowitz zt"l, titled "Tishah b’Av: The Most Enjoyable Day of the Summer," which was meant to be provocative, but wasn't as bold—especially since it wasn't paired with an image of a shiny red heart with the words "I Love Tishah b'Av."

Why did I choose to take this post down? For three reasons:

1. Tishah b'Av is a day of deep tragedy. No matter how compelling my personal reasons are for loving it, my post could understandably be seen as tone-deaf or offensive. (And if YOU don’t find this to be offensive, imagine how someone might react to an article titled, “Why I Love Yom HaShoah” and maybe you’ll get it.)

2. I recently read the haftarah of Yom ha'Kippurim, where Yeshayahu rebukes the Jews for "finger-pointing" (58:9) at each other. I don’t want to trigger that kind of behavior, even in the form of social media comments.

3. I’ve been thinking a lot about cancel culture. I recently read "The Canceling of the American Mind," and someone close to me, with 340k subscribers, was recently targeted by cancel culture for the most trivial of reasons.

I was sad to take the post down because it captured an important point about what Tishah b'Av means and gave an authentic glimpse into my personal relationship with Hashem.

But when I woke up with 4am insomnia this morning—thanks to the late break-fast—I had an idea: to share it as a paid subscriber post on my Substack! This is exactly why I created the paid subscriber tier in the first place: to post writing that’s too controversial for general audiences or too personal for public consumption. This post fits both categories perfectly.

And so for those of you who are paid subscribers, here you go!