“Then Jesus went out of the Temple and was walking away when His disciples came up and drew His attention to the buildings. ‘You see all these?’ replied Jesus. “I tell you every stone will be thrown down till there is not a single one left standing upon another.” (Matthew 24:1) Phillips translation
It was a powerful vision—that the building most beloved of anything built by humans to honor the Almighty would be in a few decades razed to the ground and would remain that way to this day. It was for all Jews both symbol and evidence of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham’s offspring regardless of the occupation by the Romans. Countless tears have been shed through the years at the remnant left, the renowned Western Wall, called the Wailing Wall.
Eastward from the New Jersey shore, in full view of the Statue of Liberty and the site of what once was the World Trade Center, stands a 100-foot tall monument miming the Trade Center tower—but the center is hollow, a jagged scar framing a 40-foot silver tear drop. Each morning the sun rises through that gash containing the tear. Poetically it demonstrates both definitions of the word tear, the two distinct meanings of the term spelled with the same four letters, yet with different connotations: a) The spillover in salty liquid from an eye overflowing with emotion; and b) a rip or rending of material. This was the inspiration of a Moscow architect and renowned artist, Zorab Tsereteli, who agonized over the wounds to the souls of all Americans on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center twin tower atrocities. Here stands his gift as an eternal memory to those whose lives were ended by terrorists dedicated to murdering innocent people. The monument was sent as the expression of sympathy from the people of Russia in the name of then President Vladimir Putin, who came to our country to dedicate the poignant gift to us.
I’ve been receiving e-mails from friends, all of them asking: “Why had we never heard of this? Why was it not given proper publicity, at least as a gesture of our appreciation to the nation and the artist?” Well, the answer is not clear. Is it welcome and was it appreciated? It may not be politically correct to reach out a hand across the ocean and shake the hands of Russian leaders and people. President Obama in his inaugural address claimed to be ready to offer his hand to our enemies if they would just unclench their fists and grasp his in friendship. A handshake is just a gesture, a sign of openness to show there is no weapon in one’s fighting fingers. It’s done as a symbol of peace, or the intent of it. A teardrop is a sob from the heart. It is a burst from the soul, an eruption of compassion—literally, to join in the agony of a fellow human being at a time a great distress. Russians are saying: We are crying with you. Like Jesus Christ when He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, He did so in empathy with His friends Martha and Mary at the death of their brother. Russians are empathetic by instinct. They identify with Americans in our sorrow. It’s not as a gesture, an affectation or pretense. Their feelings start in the heart. Why had that noble gentle gesture not been properly reported?
Is it because we don’t welcome their tears, or that we feel they are insincere? Are we so British that we keep a stiff upper lip and consider weeping as maudlin or feminine? I think it’s more than that. We inherit an adversarial relationship to Russia from our British ancestors that is already centuries old. That’s one reason. Another is that our leaders prefer to hold Russia at arm’s length in global politics.
Contemporary Jews are not interested in Gentile tears. Like the Holocaust, this is their grief; but we Americans comprised of people from all nations ought to welcome and be grateful to all nations and people who express their affection for us and communicate their empathy on our behalf.