The 3-Year Old Who Truly Understood Tisha B'Av

When Rabbi Carlebach was a little boy of three, he noticed his parents not eating on Tisha B'Av. And he asked them, "Why aren't you eating?" He didn't understand the context of the day yet. But his father said to him, "Listen, my son, we're not eating because there was once a temple. It was a place where we sensed utmost love and oneness with the master of the world, and it was destroyed. It was burnt down. This is the day that it was burnt down, and we don't eat or drink today." So, later that night, Reb woke up from his sleep. After he had fallen asleep, he came downstairs, and he saw that his parents were eating. It was already after Tisha B'Av. And he started dancing and singing, and he was so happy. And his father asked him, "Why are you so happy right now?" He said, "Because the Holy Temple is rebuilt. The Holy Temple is back. God's love is back in the world." >> [sighs] >> Reb Naftali Carlebach started crying. He took little on his lap, and he said to him, "My sweet son, let me tell you something. The same exact thing that happened now happened to me when I was a little kid. And my father put me on his lap, and my father, your grandfather, told me, 'You're not going to believe it. The same thing happened to me when I was a little boy. And my father put me on his lap.' You know, this story has no end. And I think it's because we don't have any real answers to give our children. Why do we go back to life? Why do we start eating? Why do we start to drinking? Why do we start dancing again? Without the Holy Temple, there's no real answer. We're waiting for Eliyahu Hanavi and Mashiach to come and give us answers. But as long as each kid holds on to that memut, that purity of looking at the world with those eyes, we will make it.