We approach Tisha b’Av.
A cloud of darkness covers us. Unbearable tragedies occurred during these days and in the intervening millennia. The fast of Tisha b’Av creates an emotional atmosphere in which one feels enwrapped by events so powerful that their effects have lasted almost two thousand years and brought about catastrophes of unimagineable magnitude.
Who could have foreseen the events of our Galus?
Well, actually the Torah did foresee them. We had been warned.
Did the Tochecha not say that conditions will become so unbearable that “Hashem will strike you with madness and you will grope at noontime as a blind man gropes in the darkness.” (Dvarim 28:28)
Do we not say in the Shema, “Beware … lest you turn astray …. Then the wrath of G-d will blaze against you … and you will swiftly be banished from the goodly land which Hashem gives you.”
I would like to try to identify one midah which I feel is the most important thing we can work on during this season.You won’t be surprised, because I have discussed this previously. But, since the Bais Hamikdosh is not here yet and Moshiach has not been revealed, we clearly have not done enough.
Every day we say a Mishnah which details those precepts “whose fruits a person enjoys in This World but whose principal remains intact for him in the World to Come.” The last two are: “bringing peace between ‘adam l’chavairo’” and “Talmud Torah keneged kulam.” This implies that we cannot attain Torah if there is no peace among us.
In my humble opinion, this is our avoda: bringing peace to the Family of Israel.
There is nothing more pressing at this moment. “Why was the Second Temple destroyed? …. Because of the gratuitous hatred that existed there. This teaches you that gratuitous hatred is tantamount to the three [cardinal] sins of idolatry, immorality and bloodshed [which destroyed the First Temple].” (Yoma 9b)
My friends, can we get past this? We cannot close our eyes. Hashem has informed us that, unless we overcome this terrible and powerful gratuitous hatred among ourselves we are in great danger, G-d forbid.
If you don’t believe me, look around at the nations of the world. Is there a logical reason for them to hate us? Of course not! If you ask the hordes of Jew haters, I promise you that they will be unable to explain why they hate us! It is like my personal story when two thugs confronted me on the New York subway some fifty years ago. When I confronted them, they were literally unable to speak, despite the fact that I was alone and each of them was twice my size.
The haters have no clue why they hate us. That indicates that their hatred is a Heavenly decree. It is a decree against us because we need to become one nation again. The world is unified against us and we – lehavdil – must be unified in order to merit our own survival.
Where is this sinas chinom coming from?
In truth, if I search in my own heart, I see it there. I see hatred. I see anger. I see jealousy. I see my own desire to be on top of others. I see a lot of things I don’t like right there in my own heart and brain. It’s like lifting the rock and seeing all those disgusting creatures swarming there.
I believe that is why we look at the tzitzis every morning. We are begging Hashem to allow us to become engrossed with utter devotion to Torah and mitzvos, which are completely pure. They allow us to elevate ourselves above our own lowly desires, our competition with our own flesh and blood, Klal Yisroel, our sisters and our brothers.
Rabbi Eliahu Eliezer Dessler zt”l asks what is the solution for the sickness of the soul which afflicts us. And he answers: total absorption in Torah and mitzvos. How do you get to a world of Torah? It is what I said earlier: “peace between adam l’chavairo.”
All our gadolim were tzaddikim. The heroes in our history, the greatest people who ever lived, were all masters of chessed. Look at Reb Chaim Kaniesvky zt”l, before whom thousands of Yidden passed. He and his Rebbetzin were like fountains of pure water poured upon souls who desired to be cleansed.
At the entrance to the Bais Hamikdosh stood the kiyor. Before the Kohanim could do their avoda they had to cleanse themselves. My friends, we have to bathe in this water. We have to dive into the mikveh of purity. It all begins in our own neshomas. We have to look with courage and honesty and cleanse our souls of jealousy and competition.
“Reb Yechezkel of Kozmir said, the Temple was destroyed because of unwarranted hatred. It will be rebuilt because of unwarranted love.” (Nechmad MiZahav, Artscroll Maseches Yoma 9b, footnote 18)
This is the way to build the Bais Hamikdosh and renew the world!
GLOSSARY
Adam l’chaveiro: Man and his friend
Avoda: spiritual labor
Bais Hamikdosh: Holy Temple
Gadolim: great rabbis
Golus: Exile
Keneged kulam: is equal to them all
Kiyor: Vessel filled with water in the Holy Temple
Kohanim: priests
Lehavdil: to distinguish between …..
Midah: character trait
Mikveh: gathering of water in which a Jew immerses for ritual purity
Mishnah: part of the Oral Torah
Sinas chinom: unwarranted hatred
Talmud Torah: Learning Torah
Tisha b’Av: the 9th day of the month of Av, on which both Temples were destroyed
Tochecha: passages of Admonition found in the Torah
Tzaddikim: holy people
Tzitzis: the “fringes” required by the Torah, attached to a four-cornered garment
