Parashat Matot/The Three Weeks pt.2

The Power of Mourning

by: Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon

Founder and Board Chairman, Gush Katif

The following question is probably going through many people’s minds during the Three Weeks and the Nine Days: why do I have to be so stringent?

Seemingly tangential to this topic, the Shulchan Aruch 180:5 states that there is a custom to cover any knives on the table during Benching. This custom stems from the story of a person who was benching and upon reciting the bracha about rebuilding Jerusalem, remembered the destruction of the Holy Temple and how the Shchina no longer rests amongst the Jewish people in its rightful home. He then took his knife from the table and stabbed himself.

Looking at this reason we certainly laugh to ourselves, and think: this is ridiculous! I would never stab myself. Do we think this because of the Torah prohibition against

harming oneself or is it really because we no longer feel the loss of the Temple? As

humans, time heals all, but that cannot be so with the loss of the Temple. Today, there

are more prohibitions during the Three Weeks and the Nine Days than there were years ago simply to combat human nature. When our actions display mourning, our hearts follow suit and also feels the loss.

Another idea is that when we mourn for the absence of the Temple we also feel the absence of G-d’s presence. This actually prepares us for the building of the Third Temple. When we remember that G-d no longer has a “house” to rest in, a place that is tangible where we can connect to him, we must work harder to maintain a relationship.

The weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av are actually what will build the foundations for the redemption if we approach them in the correct way.

With the help of G-d and with all our prayers this Tisha B’Av, may the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of all of Israel arrive in our time.

Shabbat Shalom!