Parashat Devarim/ The Nine Days

Advice for the G-d Fearing On Tisha B’Av

by Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon

Founder and Board Chairman, JobKatif 

The Shulchan Orach (1:3) offers advice to all G-d fearing people. He says that such a person should feel “sorrow and concern” over the destruction of the Holy Temple. This phrase helps us understand what feeling sorrow means. When we understand that the presence of G-d is missing in the world, we feel sorrow. But what does the Shulchan Orach mean exactly when it says we should feel concern?

When one worries, one gets upset because one lacks something, but one also believes it’s within one’s capacity to do something about it. For example, when a person’s son goes missing, he gets upset and worried about his son’s safety. But G-d forbid if this person is notified that his son was killed; he no longer worries because he can no longer do anything.

If we apply this analogy to the Shulcan Orach’s statement, we realize the source is sharing a wonderful thing! We are supposed to mourn over the loss that occurred thousands of years ago, but we are able to change that reality. The destruction occurred because of a lack of unity amongst the Jewish nation, which means the remedy must come from working on our love for one another.

The Yeshuot Yaakov raises a difficulty. He poses a question: According to halacha, we only mourn over the dead for twelve months because after that period, the ache of the loss fades. Why, then do we still mourn the destruction over the Holy Temple after so many years? The Yeshuot Yaakov suggests an answer: that this type of mourning is not like mourning over the dead where we must get over the pain and move on. The fact that we are still mourning over the Holy Temple shows that there is a solution. This is because we are ingraining a lack into our hearts.

The mourning leads us to feel concerned and concern leads to action. We will want to rectify what happened so long ago and we will bring the building of the Third Holy Temple.

With the help of G-d we will feel the sorrow, we will cry and grieve for the destruction and absence of the Divine Presence, and that G-d will see our tears, and accept our prayers.

Shabbat Shalom!