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Feel the Churban?
Sadly, I’m among the many who are inured to the Churban.
A child was hit by a car and lost both legs. Tragic. Half a year later his classmates visit.
‘How are you doing?’ they ask.
He says ‘Great! This motorized wheelchair moves wherever I need by the press of a button. It even climbs steps! And I play great games on its built-in computer’
His friends nodded sympathetically. ‘Nebech!’ they think, ‘He is even happy about it!’
Happiness does not diminish pitifulness. A man may be happy because he is used to his miserable existence. He is happy with his lot, yet his lot is not good.
We think ourselves very happy without the Beis Hamikdash. All that means is that we have forgotten what life with the Beis Hamikdash was.
Where to begin?
Perhaps think of our deepest wishes. Consider if they will not be realized by having the Sh’china with us.
Parnassah, perhaps. His Presence means prosperity.
We lack guidance. There may be an illness in the family. At times we feel spiritually stagnant.
Will having the Sh’china back among us affect these?
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Tish’a B’av is a hard day to relate to, for the Churban is abstract. The Midrash relates that Rebbe explained the pasuk “Bila Hashem v’lo chamal” 25 ways. Rav Yochanan explained sixty. The Midrash asks: Was Rav Yochanan greater than Rebbe? The Midrash answers that when Rebbe began speaking and explained the first idea, the many Churban survivors in the audience began weeping. Rebbe simply could not continue until everyone calmed down. Then he explained the next idea, and the scene repeated itself. Rebbe spoke the whole day but simply could not get past twenty five. Rav Yochanan, however, lived many years after the Churban. When he spoke, no one cried. So he completed sixty explanations.
Even then people began to desensitize to the Churban; its normative human behavior.
Here is a thought:
A company formed with a powerful vision; they had a great idea that would revolutionize the business world. Trouble with licensing and capital made a rocky start, so to tide them over, the CEO bought up a few vending machines and set them up around the city.
Selling soda and snacks was not their mission, but sometimes it is what it is.
The president serviced the machines in one district, the VP in another and so on. And every year the company held a conference developing their Big Idea.
One year a new worker stood up at the meeting ‘Hey, we do soda machines. Why talk about business ideas?’ The president replied ‘True, we are temporarily in vending. But that is not our real business. That’s the point of this convention – that we never forget and fall into thinking we are soda machine operators!’
Every year we reaffirm: we are the nation of the Beis Hamikdash. We are sidetracked and distracted. We lose track of our mission. But at least we repeat the words: We are the People of the Temple.
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What Is Tisha B’av?
The second Beis HaMikdash was just built. The Jews asked the prophet Zechariah ‘Should we continue to fast on Tish’a B’av, as we have since the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash?’. He received the prophesy: ‘The fast of Tish’a B’av, with the other fasts, will turn to rejoicing and happiness’ – i.e.; Don’t fast.
The Gemarah comments that the pasuk persists on calling it ‘the fast of Tish’a B’av’ even as it is tells them not to fast. Therefore, it concludes, both are correct; when times are good – ‘rejoicing and happiness’, when times are bad – fasting. In medium times fasting is appropriate, but not obligatory.
Most Rishonim interpret that ‘good times’ is when there is a Beis HaMikdash. There was no fasting, only rejoicing and happiness. The Rambam, in his commentary on the Mishna, maintains that Tish’a B’av is appropriate – but not obligatory – to fast, even during the Beis HaMikdash. This was because Tish’a B’av had always been a sad day for us, from when we were sentenced to wander the Midbar, down to the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash.
(The other commentaries maintain that Tish’a B’av was a holiday during the second Temple period; what did they celebrate??)
Here people in full possession of their Beis HaMikdash fast, albeit voluntarily. So can fasting on Tish’a B’av be merely mourning the loss of the Beis HaMikdash??
Looking through the Kinos it seems we are doing a few things:
? asking for the geula, yearning for Tzion.
? realizing the state we are in: far from Hashem, nationhood, land and honor.
? realizing why we are suffering, so that we may profit a lesson thereby.
? mourning the past, crying about our pain and loss.
Perhaps the experience of our yearly Tish’a B’av, in the aggregate, is assimilating our collective national experience into our consciousness, becoming wiser and more experienced. There is a world of difference between a man of experience and a novice. They may have taken identical courses, or the novice may even have the advantage of more recent and updated training. Yet no one hesitates in choosing the man of experience. He has developed judgment, knowledge of the field and practical hands-on ability. Wisdom cannot be obtained from a course.
One personality factor we as a people need to generate is experience, wisdom and depth of field. We need to integrate our collective experiences and give them meaning, learn from them and develop from them.
Many of us are comfortable and happy. Perhaps we are happy because we do not know what we lack, much as a blind man is cheerful. Indeed, why mourn, awake old losses and make ourselves uncomfortable? Because we have not yet given up the fight! We still keep hope. We want to return to what we have been. To do so we need our goals, – and the desire to reach them, – alive in our breast.
By remembering our history we gain experience. A. Our past makes us proud – we were sacrificing in the Temple when Queen Elizabeth’s cannibal forefathers lived in a cave. B. We feel secure, knowing that we are an undying miracle. C. We realize the transient nature of friendships and alliances with other peoples and powers, and D. we know the destructive power of internal strife. We preserve our experiences, for it makes us wise. It will make us a happy people, one able to focus on real goals, and ignore the trivial.
Rabbi Pincus z”l suggested that inasmuch as according to the Rambam we have never celebrated Tish’a B’av yet, therefore the celebration will be in Moshiach’s time. What will we celebrate?
On Tish’a B’av Hashem appears to us as a ‘bear in ambush’ (-Eicha). He puts on a mask of anger and aggression. That mask is a partition, and allows Him to draw close. Just as when we look at the sun we need a blocker, so that our eyes not burn, so too Hashem puts a partition in order to draw close to us. The mask of Tish’a B’av is so great, – Hashem SEEMS so far away, – because He is really so close! The greater the mask, the greater the closeness.
That closeness is what we will celebrate when Shalom comes.
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He Haw
Did you hear of the guy buying ten kinos? He wanted to demonstrate his absolute faith that Moshiach will come this year by throwing out the kinos after Tisha B’av, so he was buying for the next few years….
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The Tisha Bav Celebration
Tisha B’av is a Moed, a holiday. Perhaps this means that it will eventually be a festival when Mashiach comes. Either way, what’s so jolly about the Beis Hamikdash burning down? Perhaps we will have a new Beis HaMikdash, but what’s to celebrate about the loss of this one?!
The Rambam (censored in many editions) says that Christianity is alluded to in Daniel “also the children of the violent among your people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall stumble” He says that no stumbling equaled that which Christianity brought upon us: millions of Jews were murdered, the rest scattered across the globe, our national honor blasted. Truth was exchanged for falsehood, most of the world worships a false G-d.
Yet Hashem has seen fit to cause Christianity despite all its evils. His thoughts are not ours. For this creates a culture that Moshiach can arrive to. When all mankind talk of Moshiach, some claiming it is J.C. and some arguing, and when people discuss if the Mitzvos are binding today or not and what they mean, then when the true Moshiach arrives the entire world will welcome him in an instant. They are primed. This translates into the entire universe serving Hashem, He reigning supreme.
Sometimes great tragedy will be recognized as wonderful and purposeful. Indeed, we cannot see any good in the Churban. It is all black. But His thoughts are not ours. He knew that the ultimate redemption of the world needed the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. And although we neither can nor ought fathom why, we will one day drink champagne over the Churban. We will celebrate Tisha B’av as a Yomtov, even in times of Moshiach!
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The Small Stuff
The Gemarrah tells that on the triviality of the differences between the names Kamtza and Bar Kamtza the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed. The message is to sweat the small stuff, because sometimes that makes all the difference.
A recent example was how Mubarack, President of Egypt, was deposed in a military coup and imprisoned, his entire government toppled and his dominant party reeling. What caused it all? A soccer match gone bad. Port Said played Cairo and the fans fought wildly, leading to arrests, leading to demonstrations and finally to toppling the government.
Sweat the small stuff. Its all big stuff.
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Moed Defined
Tisha Bav is called a Moed. What is a Moed about it?
Rashi explains that Shabbos is not a Moed. Why not? Isn’t it holy? Isn’t it only once a week? How is it different from Rosh Chodesh, for instance, which does make it to the list of Moadim?
Time has a fixed track. Shabbos is embedded into the essence of Ordinary Time. It is part of the natural cycle. This is not a Moed, rather its antitheses. A Moed exists on a separate second track, superimposed upon the essential nature of Time.
Physics considers time as a part of matter, much as space is. Objects only exist within space/time. Space/time can be considered therefore a part of matter itself.
So time is not something that ticks on alongside us, rather we only exist within time, much as we only exist within space.
Which time do we exist within? The concept of Moed dictates that we exist in two separate time concepts; the usual cycle of time and the second cycle of Moed. This is a second existence for us. I think of it almost like a Giglgul, a second life.
Tisha B’av is not just a day of remembrance; it is a Moed, a time entity that we live in. It is part of our makeup, part of our existence, not something outside of us that we do homage to.
We cannot ignore it or wish it away. Study it, learn its meaning, for it is us…
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Giving A Hoot
The Midrash in the introduction to Eicha teaches; the prophet Yirmiyahu asked “Why was the Land destroyed…?” and answers “and Hashem said; for they left My Torah…”
Comments the Midrash; we know there were other great sins being done then, in particular the three gravest ones; killing, idol worship and immorality. Yet Hashem was willing to forgo all that. What He would not forgo was our despising the Torah.
Perhaps the word here ‘despising’ is key. A partner who despises what the other has to say is no partner. If one is not even interested in what the other wants, the relationship is kaput.
We need to care for Hashem’s opinion. In many ways, even more that following His directive, we need to care what He wants…