ChinuchAtHome

The following Aish.com article, "The Heart-Rending Cry ", will teach us how we should mourn for for the loss of our Temples. It's like mourning for a loved one, whom we longed to see but didn't know of his departure.

I attended a phenomenal lecture by Rabbi Mendel Kessin recently on this topic. Here is some of what I've learned from this great Rabbi.

We should each ask ourselves how we should be connected to Tisha B'Av. It is easy to say that our ancestors of old are to blame for the destruction of the Temples. It is easy to identify this holiday as a mourner's day. However, our Rabbis also tell us that in each generation that the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as if we are responsible for the Temple not being rebuilt.

Do we feel guilty today that in our generation we still don't have a Temple? We should rightfully feel such. The last Temple was destroyed due to the gravest sin of baseless hatred perpetrated among ourselves. If we look at ourselves today, we should be ashamed at the continued tradition of this grave sin. We should ask ourselves, "Who do we hate today among ourselves? Our relative(s)? Our neighbor (s)? Certain Jewish populations who are different than we are (either in dress or behavior)?

There are many other reasons why we should be mourning, not only for the loss of our Temples. We have lost much much more besides the Temple. The Bais HaMikdash (Temple) is not only a physical building of magnificence in beauty and stature but it also serves as a place where one would seek G-d and be able to be convinced that there is a G-d.

There are 10 miracles that occur at the Bais Hamikdash daily, and they are:

1. The smoke from the sacrificial altar always appeared as a straight column from the pyre into the heavens, regardless of the wind.
2. The fire on the Altar was never extinguished by rain.
   
3. There was no sight of flies hovering around the countless sacrifices.
4. There was always enough room for every Jew to prostrate.
5. Each Jew who prostrates has enough room for 4 amos.
6. The sacrificial meat never spoiled.
7. No woman miscarried frmo the smell of sacrificial meat.
8. Snakes and scorpions never hurt people in Jerusalem.
9. No one ever said to his friend that there is no place for him to stay in Jerusalem.
10. The Divine fire that consumes the sacrifice has an appearance of a lion.

We lost these miracles when we lost the Temple.

The Divine Presence is said to have left Jerusalem altogether when the Temple was destroyed. In actuality, the Divine Presence never left, but the holiness that Hashem bestows upon the Jews were given over to the nations. In the first 100 years after the destruction of the First Temple, new religions emerged -- Buddishm, Confuciunism, Taoism, and various other -isms. Right after the Second Temple was destroyed, emerged Xianity. The other religions claimed knowledge of the Divine, even though their perspective is distorted.

We lost our holiness and our Torah. This translates to loss of our dignity and our respect among the world. Jews are no longer regarded as the Chosen Nation. All this leads to anti-semitism.

Imagine living in the times of the Temple period. There were thousands of prophets living among the Jewish nation. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, to name a few. Imagine having five prophets living on your block. Isn't that amazing?

We have lost prophecy, a truly Divine gift of unimaginable proportions.

Today, we have synagogues and yeshivos, some more magnificent in stature than the others. But the nations have even more wonders of the world than us today. Even their smallest humble colleges boast of more beautiful campuses with elaborate buildings than a Jewish institute of learning.

We have lost our might and our wisdom.

So, if we were to look at our losses and what could have been, maybe we will have a better connection to Tisha B'Av.

May we merit celebrating Tisha B'Av as a day of rejoicing speedily in our days. Amen.

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