בס''ד
The one question that
seems to allude us every Tisha B’Ov is what exactly we are mourning for and how
to feel the loss of something that we have never experienced or felt? A further difficulty may be in trying to
understand why it is that the loss of the Beis Hamikdosh and Hashem’s presence
is so directly related to the way in which we treat each other. Why is it that a decline in the love the Jewish
people had for one another led to the departure of Hashem from amongst us and
why this continued failing is said to be that which keeps Him away from us?
Perhaps we can answer these questions with a
short moshol. There was once a man who
needed to work on the roots of his peach tree in order to ensure its
survival. As he was knelt down, busy
ensuring the tree would be able to absorb the nutrients it needed, an overly
ripe peach came plummeting down from the tree, landed on his head and sprayed
him with its juice and pulp. A passerby,
witnessing this all, was astonished to see the man wipe himself down, then
continue undeterred with his work. “Why
would you carry on like that after what the tree did to you?”, the onlooker
asked. “My dear friend” the farmer
replied “You make an error. I am not doing it for the tree, I am doing it for
myself so that the tree will continue to give fruit”. More often than not the source of our
mistreatment of others is because we feel slighted ourselves or feel this
person unworthy of our beneficence. The grave
error we are making is in focusing on ourselves or the recipient as the motive for our potential kindness, when in truth the
motive should be simply the fact that Hashem wishes that we do so. We should be doing it for Him. Disharmony between us is a reflection of
Hashem not being sufficiently in our lives, hence the cause of His departure
and the void we still see.
The absence of Hashem in the world is not just
an absence as an external element of our Judaism. It means that there is a lack of correct
focus in the way that we live our lives.
Hashem’s absence as a tangible part of our existence means that He is
missing as the focal point of what we do.
No matter what approach to Judaism you ascribe to you find those with
their motivations far from what it should be.
Whether it be Judaism determined only by the expectations of those
around them or Judaism limited exclusively to those practices that do not
impede on their life, the one thing that is missing is Hashem. We should be living our lives in a way that
our sole inspiration for what we do is what Hashem would want from us in that
moment. How we treat each other would be
different, our davenning would become genuine and meaningful and everything we
do would become G-dly in its very nature.
This is an aspiration we can determine to work towards this year, a
readjustment of our focus. This is what
we should lament in our exile; a deficiency of Judaism lived in its purest form
that would bring perfection to the world around us, may it come speedily in our
days.
*May the
mourning of Tisha B’Ov bring our immediate redemption*
לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם
לרפואה שלימה: שרה יעל בת ברכה אסתר
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