Tisha B'av Thoughts

Here we are again, another Tisha B'Av is upon us.

We weren't strong enough, good enough, righteous enough...

We didn't do enough mitzvos, learn enough Torah, daven enough tefillos, or do enough teshuva...

We harbored too much resentment of our neighbors and friends, we didn't forgive enough, we didn't try to make peace enough, we didn't look for enough opportunities to help another...

Our chessed wasn't enough, our tzedaka wasn't enough, our kavana for brachos wasn't enough...

Bottom line: we didn't care enough, want it enough, beg for it enough, cry for it enough...

And now another Tisha B'Av is here - a fast day, and not a mo'ed. No Moshiach, no rebuilt Yerushalayim, Beis Hamikdash, no shirei levi'im, no kohanim performing the avodah...

Just nothing.

Again.

Why can't we be better, care enough about each other and about the Beis Hamikdash to have it rebuilt in our lifetime?

We haven't derserved it almost 2,000 years... so how can we merit to properly deserve its return to our lives?

We don't even know what we're missing. As my Rav said, it's like asking a blind man if he missing seeing the world - there is simply no comprehension of the loss we choose to live with each and every day of our lives - in galus and in Eretz Yisrael, because we're all in this together.

I was reading the YU Tisha B'Av To-Go packet for 5771 (find past years here) and something Rabbi Kenneth Brander quoted in his introductory remarks struck a deep chord with me:

Rav Naphtali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin explains in his introduction to Sefer Bereshiet that the calamity of the Diaspora occurred when those involved with Torah study were not willing to recognize that there are multiple gateways of service to God. “The pious, the righteous and those steeped in Torah study were not virtuous in their interactions with others. They had baseless hatred of others in their hearts. They looked askance at those who served Hashem differently … thinking that they were zadukim and apikorsim, apostates and heretics. It is for this reason that death and civil unrest [came to our people], and all the evils that happened in the world culminating with the destruction of the [second] Temple occurred.”

It's as true nowadays as it was then that it's scary - and it's keeping the Beis Hamikdash from being rebuilt.

Too many "frum" Jews look down upon their brethren, whether they are very right wing looking down on their more modern brethren, chassidish looking down upon yeshivish, or shomrei Torah u'mitzvot of any banner looking down upon their less religious brothers and sisters with disdain. It's horrible, simply outrageous, and it shouldn't happen, ever.

Enough is enough.

Enough with the sinas chinam.

Bring on the ahavas chinam.

Bring on the Moshiach.

And bring back the Beis Hamikdash - amein, kein yehi ratzon.