As told to Barbara Bensoussan by Yehoshua Parker
It was the summer of 2002, and I’d been learning for a month in the beginners’ program of a kiruv yeshivah in Jerusalem. The content was interesting, but I wasn’t yet sold on Torah Judaism. Then I found myself at the Kosel Plaza at the close of Tishah B’Av, wedged among thousands of Jews praying and singing. Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by a profound sense of clarity and connection. All the classes I’d attended came alive for me Torah is emes, I realized. I had the same reaction Napoleon did when he saw Jews crying on Tishah B’Av: If the Jews were still mourning their Temple after 2,000 years, they would surely live eternally as a people.