Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Receptibility and Confidence in Hashem's Love

Okay, everybody. Thank you. Thank you for coming. This year tonight is dedicated for a refuah shleimah for Ben Frida for the liberation of Israel from its enemies, safe return home of soldiers and hostages, the lasting unity of Israel, and for all those whose health has been affected by the war. And we are also dedicating the sheer to the release of Arvin Nathaniel Ben Sonya Tzivona, the young man in Iran that is under a death sentence. I should also have a shleimah Aliyah Neshamah Yitzchak Hersh Ben Eliezer, and Yehuda Zvi Ben Chaim Spritzer, and Chana Leah Bas Peretz Bas Shayna. And finally, an anonymous contribution for the of all of our soldiers, and for the hostages to return safe and totally healthy to their homes, Hashem's protection of Israel for the shleimah in these in these days. Um I I had heard that there was a bombing in Tel Aviv, but I I'm not sure. It seems from what I saw that only the the suicide bomber got killed, and no one else. I hope that's the case. I It's a miracle. There was more than one person injured. Injured? Okay, Hashem. It should It should be to Hashem's in difficult and very very difficult times. And listen, we're going through the Mashiach, the birth pains of Mashiach. So, there are going to be difficulties. This is unavoidable. But at the same time, the Vilna Gaon reminds us that all of the awful things that are described as the wars of Gog and Magog are really what are called worst-case scenarios. And by teshuvah and maasim tovim, by achdus, by ahavas Yisrael, we can kind of change the script. The script does not have to follow the pattern, the apocalyptic pattern that is in the book of Zechariah. That is indeed one possible scenario, but there are alternative pathways. And really, it's totally on us, totally on Am Yisrael responding in the in the appropriate way. And that really brings me I want to today start off with a number of interlocking ideas, although they're a little bit separated. The first is that starting last Shabbos, we are entering a certain pattern of haftorahs in which before Tisha B'Av, we had three haftorahs dealing with tragedy, catastrophe, They are called the shalosha d'paranusa, three haftorahs of destruction from Yirmiyahu, and then Yeshayahu chazon Yeshayahu. And then afterwards, we have seven haftorahs of comfort, all taken from the latter third of sefer Yeshayahu, who is the great prophet of comfort, starting with nachamu nachamu ami, where he calls on the prophets to give nachama to Am Yisrael. And we have seven weeks. It's very important to note that is more than double the haftorahs of tragedy. This is called nachama b'chiflayim. God comforts us more than double the amount of tzar that that we go through. And that takes us all the way to Rosh Hashanah, right? The last of the seven weeks is the last Shabbos of the year. And then we run into the haftorahs of teshuvah. Now it's interesting to point out that the Gemara normally does not tell you what haftorahs you're supposed to read. That's why there are many different customs for haftorahs. Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Chassidim, Hungarian, Yekke, Teimanim, Italkim, or Italians have their own nusach of which haftorahs. Because essentially Chazal didn't really care. They left it to every kehilla to choose the appropriate prophetic passage as long as it was connected to the parsha or to the chag, whatever it would be. But Chazal did lay down a rule that the three weeks before Tisha B'Av we no longer connect it to the parshas shavua, we connect it to the theme of korban, and the seven weeks following Tisha B'Av we no longer connect it to the parsha necessarily, but to the theme of nachama. And then we move to teshuvah. So note the pattern here. The pattern here is poraniyos, tragedy, catastrophe, nachama, comfort, redemption, and then teshuvah, repentance. The problem is that that particular thematic pattern is not the way the Torah describes it. The Torah describes it, this was actually last week's parsha, which was also the kri'as haTorah for the 9th of Av. And that is we go through tzaros, we go through korban, we go through galus, we go through all of the persecutions, and that brings us to teshuvah. And from teshuvah we then have redemption. So the pattern is not tragedy, redemption, teshuvah. The pattern is tragedy, teshuvah, redemption. Indeed, although it is a machlokes in the Gemara, Uh, the Ramban paskens like the opinion, Ain Yisrael nigalin ela bitshuva. The Jewish people are going to be redeemed only by teshuvah. And our davening bears that out as well. Look at the way the Shmoneh Esrei works. We start off saying, Hashiveinu Avinu, help us do teshuvah. Selach lanu, forgive our sins because we've done teshuvah. And then Goel Yisrael, you are the redeemer of Israel. In other words, the bracha of geulah only comes after teshuvah. So, the question is, the pattern of the haftarahs seems to be a little contradictory. Because the pattern of the haftarahs is from tragedy we come to redemption, and redemption brings us to teshuvah, when in fact it's the other way around. Tragedy brings us to introspection and teshuvah. And from teshuvah we come to geulah. Right? So, why do the haftarahs work it around in an opposite way? So, I would suggest that the answer be the following. I think there is a nafka mina, there is an important difference between the chronological unfolding of events and the psychological order in which you have to process it as an emotional matter. You know, one of the things that hits people about haftarahs, and this is why learning a book like Yeshayahu is so difficult, you know, when I mean, the truth is, you know, nobody learns Nach properly, it's very good. In fact, I not that I want to give you a little advertisement, I I bracha sham with Zohar for Kol Halashon to actually complete Nevi'im and Ketuvim. So, if you want a a shiur on the book of Zephaniah, you can actually get it. Meaning, from Yehoshua to Divrei Hayamim, we actually covered every perek. So, go to Kol Halashon, you can see it in English with with a video. It's Again, it's relatively quick, but it does cover everything. And one of the great difficulty we have in Nach is this. When it comes to Yehoshua, Shoftim, Shmuel, Melachim, you have a storyline. You have a story. You have stories. And stories are interesting, gripping. The stories of David Hamelach's life, you can even make a movie out of it. Indeed, movies have been made, l'havdil, out of the life of King David and and the like. But once you get to the Nevi'im, uh like Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, although there is a little bit of narrative, but not too much. It's mainly mussar, well, either it's either chastisement, tochacha, or comfort. But there's kind of a lot of repetition. Either the navi is saying how bad we are over and over and over and over again. Or the navi is saying how beloved we are over and over and over and over again. So, it's hard sometimes to kind of figure out. But I mean, I knew a person who was giving a shiur in Yeshayahu, and he had to give it up because what he said in his language was the narrative is not moving. It's not moving, you know. So, if we were to ask, and and I hope this does not sound um a lack of respect, like, what is the theme of the haftarah that we read last week? Shabbat Nachamu. What is the theme? So, the answer is, "Oh, it's beautiful. God is comforting the Jewish people. God is telling them that although we've suffered so much, he loves us, he will bring Mashiach, he will restore the Beit Hamikdash." Baruch Hashem, inspiring, beautiful. Okay. We then ask, "So, what is the theme of the haftarah this week?" Uh well, God loves us. We went through a lot of galus, went through a lot of persecution, but he's going to bring the Mashiach and rebuild the Beit Hamikdash. Okay, I thought that was last week. Then, we're going to ask what's the haftarah next the week after that? Um same thing. Week after that, same thing. Week after that, same thing. Week after that, same thing. Week after that, same thing. What's the point? What's the point of kind of giving the same message over and over and over? We heard it already. We got the message, God. You love us, okay. How many times do you have to say it? But the truth of the matter is you have to say it a lot of times. You know, most people remember I That's what I'm told, but I remember it. The first time they were uh involuntarily separated from their parents. You know, you're you're you're going shopping with your mom and somehow you lost her. Even if it was like 30 seconds. And that's apparently is one of the great traumas of childhood. I remember it. I actually remember it very well. Uh four was I think I was 4 years old, I think. I don't know the age, I'm not 100% sure. And I used to have this tendency of if we would be in department stores, when I was growing up that was still the age of the big department stores that they kind of in America that's kind of dead now. And they had a really, really nice toy department. So, if my mother would be going shopping, I would kind of wander over to the to the toys. And then I didn't know where my mom was. And I immediately started thinking, "Oh, I'm abandoned. I'm an orphan. This is it. I'm going to be lost here forever." Maybe sleeping with the toys wouldn't be so bad, but but you know, and and it was and literally it may have only been 30 seconds. Very short. It was very, very short. In those days life was simpler, life was safer, so you weren't you wouldn't really that afraid of being kidnapped like God forbid today. So, it's unfortunately a very different world, but it was scary. It was traumatic. I felt I had lost her. So, when she found me, I was crying. She hugged me, said, "I love you. I love you. You're okay. You're okay." Now, if I would have been a a little brisker analytical thinker, I would have said, like a Yeshiva guy would say, "Why do you have to say you love me a second time? You already said it the first time." But, why is that absurd? Because the language of the heart is very different than the language of the mind. The mind might hear a certain idea and take it in without having to repeat it over and over and over again. But, it doesn't penetrate the emotions and the feelings. You need reassurance. You need security. You need to hear it over and over and over again. This gives a person hisuk. I mean, this is a an issue sometimes that that that rabbis face. We have to remember, we have to try to emulate Hashem. Our rabbis are parents. Meaning, sometimes you tell somebody something, and somehow that they need to hear it again. And No, the rabbi might be thinking, you know, I said it already. No, I said it already. I know. But, they need to hear it again. Just like I needed to hear it again. You see? That's how the Nevi'im work. Because Hashem is talking through the Nevi'im. Yeah, we got the message already last Shabbos, how much God loves us. But, he says it again and again and again and again. You have to remember, too, this is very important, that Nevu'os were originally given orally. These are actually When you read a book of of Nevuah, like Yirmiyahu, Yeshayahu, you have to imagine the Navi addressing a live audience. He is giving them comfort. He is giving them strength. And that's why the Rishonim are willing to do something in Nach that maybe the modern tendency has been not to do this. You know, there's a lot of what you might call synonyms, right? The Nevi'im in particular, they use many, many different words for joy and for love, you know, many different words. These are called in Hebrew uh shemos nirdofim. And commentaries like the Malbim go to very, very great lengths to kind of show you subtle distinctions. If it says simcha and sasson, simcha is this, sasson is this. Like the Malbim does not tolerate synonyms. The Malbim says every single word in Tisfey HaKodesh has to have a distinct and unique meaning. And sometimes he cuts it very, very thin and very, very subtle. And yet, when you look at the Rishonim, if you look at the classical Rishonim on Nach, such as the Radak and the Ibn Ezra, you will find that they were not bothered by repetition or synonyms. They would say something like kaif al inyan, b'milim shonos, it's the same thing with different words. They didn't feel the hechrech. They didn't feel the compulsion that later Meforshim have that every word got to be unique. And I would suggest that maybe it falls under the same line. Because if you're talking about words of the heart, rather than words of the head. Then yeah, there will be redundancy. The redundancy is part of the message. Instead of looking at it like a question, why are you repeating something? It's part of the emotional connection that Hashem is making with us. I love you. I treasure you. I cherish you. I want to have a relationship with you. See, so the need that every term has to be In fact, Reb Volbe used to say this about Meforshim and Tefillah. Davenning is a similar problem. Davenning has a lot of synonymous language. And if you look at the many commentaries on Tefillah, they try to show you all of these differences. Reb Volbe actually said he he he discouraged people from learning commentaries on Tefillah because Reb Volbe said that turns your Tefillah into academic learning. Which is Talmud Torah as opposed to an emotional communication with Hashem in which you let the words carry you. Right? So, now you're sitting in davenning and you're saying, "Okay, what's the difference between Chochma and Binah?" And it's like you're sitting and you're learning Gemara. But but the emotional mood that you should be in in Tefillah is not the same space you're in when you're learning Gemara or whatever it is. Right? So, we've kind of turned Tefillah into a branch of Gemara learning, which is is not really what it's supposed to necessarily be. So, he actually said that uh commentaries on Tefillah one should not necessarily spend a lot of time on. Now, you'll be in the middle of Shmoneh Esrei and you'll be thinking, "Okay, what's that word I said? What's the difference between this one and that one?" And it's fair. Uh why does this Bracha only say one word and the other one You know, there's there is there is what to analyze, of course. But that's not necessarily what your mind should be preoccupied in. Okay, so this is a general perspective on the idea of what the Haftarahs of comfort are and why there's so much repetition. Now, it's true chronologically, going back to my original question, right? My original question was, why is the pattern of the Haftarah a tragedy, redemption, repentance, when in fact, the true pattern is tragedy, repentance, redemption? And the answer is it's very very true. Chronologically, we're not going to be redeemed until we do teshuvah. 100%. Teshuvah got to come first. Ain Yisrael So this kind of the good news and the bad news. The bad news is we're not going to get redeemed unless we do teshuvah. Mhm, that's a little scary. The good news is the Rambam writes, "Hashem has promised that Am Yisrael will do teshuvah and bring the goal." Uh this, by the way, is an enormously difficult theoretical question, given the fact that the decision to do teshuvah depends on our free will. Hakol bidei Shamayim. Everything is in the hands of heaven. Chutz meyerat Shamayim. Except the decision to fear God. That's not God's decision. That's my decision. So how is it yetakhen that God promises that the Jewish people will do teshuvah? I'm going to leave that as a difficult philosophical question to ponder, but that's what the Rambam says. So certainly, if we're talking about sequence, there is peraniyos, there is teshuvah, there is geulah. But here is the problem of the psychology. If I feel that God has rejected me, if I feel that God hates me, or if I feel God is indifferent to me, he's not listening, he doesn't care. Where am I going to get the psychic energy to feel that I can have a relationship with him? Where will I develop the capacity to have children? So, the answer is I must internalize in my mind that God loves Am Yisrael, that God wants to redeem us. So, yes, the actual redemption is not going to come until after teshuvah. But what brings me to teshuvah is the self-awareness of what we might call my redemptibility. And therefore, the haftarahs are not expressing the actual chronological sequence of how things unfold, but they are expressing the internal psychological dynamic of what brings a person to teshuvah. What brings a person to teshuvah is not an awareness of their depravity. What brings a person to teshuvah is an awareness of their goodness, an awareness of the purity of their soul, an awareness of Hashem's love. When I'm confident in that love, then I'm able to have the inner strength and even the self-confidence to be able to rebuild and connect. When all I can look at myself is I'm broken, I'm worthless, I've been thrown into the garbage, whether individually or nationally, whatever the view would be. Then where will I get the wherewithal to be cloud do chuvah? I think I'm unfixable. I think it's too late. I think God has rejected me just as this week's haftarah. The second of the seven of nachamas, but timer at see I know Zev Anya sham. Zion declares that God has abandoned me. But Hashem Shakira me God has forgotten me. And Hashem has to answer through the prophets. Hatikvah Isha Ula. Does a mother forget her baby? May Rachel been bitna. Does a mother not have rachamim on the child that emerged from her womb? And then it goes on. And God may not to shkakhna. And even if a mother were to forget the love she had for a child. I know she is shkakhaycha. I will not forget you. You have to hear that. And you have to repeat it and you have to hear it over and over and over and over and over and over again. And then you know that chuvah is possible. Because there's somebody who is waiting at the other end. Someone is there waiting for us. So, the point I'm making is yeah. We're not going to get go Ula until we get chuvah. Until we do chuvah. But I have to have the vision of go Ula as the motivator that gets me into that into that sugar. Because the sugar has to come from an awareness of how I live, how beloved we are in the eyes of a condition work. I remember in in college took a course in um in American literature. So it was an anthology of a lot of different things. So there was a very very famous Puritan preacher from the time of the pilgrims before you know in the 1600s Jonathan Edwards. And they reprinted a lot of anthologies. They reprint one of his sermons. He was really kind of fire and brimstone talk about tough muscle. And it was called sinners in the eyes of an angry God. And he writes there. I mean I hate to say it you know I don't want to scare anybody. He says you of course always you and he never never included him. He didn't even at least he could have said we. You he says are like a repulsive insect in the fingers of someone that you absolutely disgust. And he's grabbing you by the wings and he's going to throw you into the fire because you are so loathsome. You're so ugly. You're so repulsive. You're so disgusting. Apparently he was quite popular in those days. They they I guess the the the taste were a little were a little different. And in truth you know it's hard to see you know either I shut off and I don't listen to that message or I am just so terrified that I'm just broken. I I can't I can't go on. And suffice to say that that is not how we bring people to chuva. We bring people to chuva through the message of nachama. Comfort. Geulah. That gives a person the chizuk to go on. Because God is waiting with with love and care and concern. All right, so that would explain a little bit the sequence of the of the haftarah. Now, the truth of the matter is that even in the churban itself Hashem showed us rachamim in the churban itself. In the tragedies itself Hashem showed us love and rachamim. And we see this in really two different ways. You know, it's interesting halacha to go back a little bit about Tisha B'Av that we find that um in the afternoon uh after chatzos, after the middle of the day we have certain leaniances. The laws of the morning of Tisha B'Av, the m o u r n i n g are somewhat relaxed. We're allowed to sit in a chair and the like. And the Vilna Gaon asks a very logical question. When was the Beit Hamikdash actually destroyed? The Beit Hamikdash was set on fire towards the late afternoon of the 9th of Av and most of it burnt on the 10th of Av. Rabbi Yochanan generations after the churban said if he would have been around in that generation, he would have made the fast on the 10th of Av. Because most of the temple burnt on the 10th of Av. But be it as it may, even if we say, well, as the Gemara explains, we commemorate the beginning of the tragedy but still that was in the afternoon. So, if anything, why are we make it after Mincha or after chatzos? The other way around. We ought to be machmir after chatzos because that was the actual zman of the churban. That's a good question. So, the Gra gives an ingenious answer. The Gra says, you know, in one of the kapitlach of Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech with Ruach Hakodesh prophesies that there will be a churban. He says, "Elokim, Hashem, bo'u nachalasecha. The The nations have invaded your inheritance. They have made Yerushalayim a ruin. They have desecrated your mikdash." Obviously, Dovid lived before there even was a Beis Hamikdash, but this was Ruach Hakodesh. He sees all of this. Now, the problem is that that chapter of Tehillim begins with the words, "Mizmor l'Dovid," which normally means a joyous song. So, the Gemara in Berachos asks, "How could this be called a mizmor, a joyous song? Elokim, bo'u nachalasecha. It shouldn't be called mizmor l'Dovid. It should be called kinah l'Dovid, a lamentation of Dovid." So, the Gemara says, "Ah, this was Hashem's chesed that when there's anger against the Jewish people, His anger can be diverted in part to the sticks and the stones and the woods, and therefore, Klal Yisrael is not destroyed entire in in its entirety. This is called shafach chamaso al eitzim v'avanim. Of course, that doesn't mean we escaped. Plenty of Jews did die. Plenty of Jews did suffer tremendously. But, there was a certain rachamim that Hashem's kaas was able to be diverted, as it were, to the churban of eitzim v'avanim. And that's why Dovid could call that a mizmor l'David that shafach chamaso al avnei ha avanim. So, based on that Gemara, the Vilna Gaon says the following, it's precisely at the time that the physical building is set to fire that we have the beginnings of the nachama that God diverted his anger to the building away from us. Meaning, until that point, we didn't know. Maybe all the anger will be on us. By shafach chamaso al avnei ha avanim, when did we perceive that God's anger is on the building? Bedafka, after Mincha. And that's why the aveilus is a little uh more lenient because that is the nachama. In fact, there was an old minhag, I mentioned this on on Tisha B'Av. You know, the author of uh many, many kinot is the very famous most famous of the liturgical poets named Elazar Hakallir. And there's a lot to say about who he was exactly, when he lived, but he is the main author of the kinot, many other things as well. Now, it is interesting that side by side with the lamentation poems And by the way, we recite uh like around 21 of the 45 are from Elazar Hakallir, but he actually wrote around 60 or 70 kinot. He wrote many, many, many kinot that aren't even included in our standard collection. Like, he wrote a lot of things that didn't make the machzor or didn't make the kinot in the light. Uh but, side by side with the kinot, he actually wrote poems of comfort for Tisha B'Av as well. And in some kehillot, they had a very interesting minhag. They would read the kinot before chatzos, and they would read the poems of comfort after Tisha B'Av. That was actually the custom. Um the poems of comfort uh I was looking for them because I they really they don't appear anywhere. Uh but they are for those who are interested in historical liturgical issues, they survived in the Italian right. The Italian siddur machzor Rome Rome is a very very fascinating machzor. It's quite quite amazing. Quite unusual. It's not Ashkenaz style or Temani. It's like a whole different thing. Uh in fact they they put kinos in chazaros hashots interestingly enough in the middle of chazaros hashots and they also have the kinot not the kinos but the poems of comfort as it were. So one aspect of Hashem's rachamim even in churban is shafach chamaso al eitzim v'avanim. That God poured his anger on sticks and on stones. And that itself was a bracha. That's why we say to this very day you know um if a person loses money, a person loses property God forbid you know something difficult happens but they survived with their health and the health of their children there is a certain aspect in which a person could be besimcha that Baruch Hashem Hashem punished me for my sins through my money. And not through the the body, not through the person. One could be sameach in that. Now there's a second aspect as well. And again this is uh last week's parsha but it was the kriasa Torah of Tisha B'Av. Where God warns us ki solid banim uvnei banim when you have children and grandchildren v'noshasem ba'aretz and you will be habituated in the land and you will do idols and you will do sins, I will exile you, I will destroy you. Above to they do my hair, you will be destroyed. Now, Hazal point out a very fascinating gematria. If you take the word vin nosh antem, you will be habituated in the land. The word vin nosh antem, uh trust me on this or unless you can add up gematrias real fast, is 852. 852. So, Hazal understood that God is giving a prophecy that if you remain in the land 852 years with sinful behavior, you will be utterly destroyed. I don't know why, but that's what the formula is. How many years were we in Eretz Yisrael? From the time of Yehoshua bin Nun crossing the Jordan until the Hurban Beit Hamikdash, we can prove it was 850 years. How do we know this? So, this is important. Probably the single most important chronological marker in Tanakh is the pasuk in Melachim Aleph that says the Beit Hamikdash was built years after we left Mitzrayim. That is kind of the nail in which all sorts of biblical chronologies are constructed. years from Yetziat Mitzrayim is the building of the Mikdash. Now, since we wandered in the desert 40 years, so from the time we entered Eretz Yisrael until the building of the Temple is 440 years. Hope everyone's following me. We also know, if you add up the reigns of the kings, and you can you know, you can tell you how long every king reigned, the first Temple stood 410 years. So, it was 440 from Yeshua crossing the Ardein until the building of the Temple. And then, the Temple itself stood 410. 410 and 440 is 850. We were exiled years after we entered. Now, a person might say, "Hey, that's cruel. That's unfair. God God promised us 852 years." So, Chazal have a drasha. God brought the galut two years early. Now, why two years? I don't know. Two years earlier. Ikdim shnei shanim. Liveno shantem? Because that way the rest of the pasuk, "I will destroy you utterly," will not be fulfilled because we never met that quota of in o'shantem. So, the point of these two examples, whether it's shafa chamaso al eitzim v'avanim. Or whether it's that there's God diverted his anger on the wood and on the stones. Or whether it is ikdim shnei shanim, he brought the galut earlier. Which seems to be a punishment. It seems to be a severity. It seems to be a rejection. Actually turns out to be a hidden rahamim. Even in the darkness of galus. Now, forgive me if I'm going back to Tisha B'Av. You know, the kinos we generally say sitting down. Kinos are recited sitting down. Ideally, until chatzos, you're either sitting on the ground or sitting on a low chair or the like. But the very last kina, I guess it's the next to the last kina, is the one kina that we say standing up. And in most minyanim, I think, uh it is actually sung like a bit of a a bit of a song. Like I still have a memory uh growing up when Reb Moshe Feinstein would occasionally come to Hartford, Connecticut uh to uh visit a relative. So, I remember uh he was always honored to lead Eli Tsiyon Ve'areha. So, I always have in my own mind Reb Moshe Feinstein uh saying it. I remember the the way the way he sang it, you could really feel the the heartbreak of Jewish galus almost 2,000 years just coming coming from the purity of such a righteous great person. But that last kina, which is extraordinarily beautiful, is Eli Tsiyon. Now, Eli, I want to correct a a common uh pronunciation error. A lot of people think that the word Eli is referring to God, my God, which in which in which case we would say Keili Tsiyon. Like I've heard people discuss the kina and they say in the kina Keili Tsiyon Ve'areha. Uh that's totally incorrect. Eli is a verb. It is not a description of God. Eli means to lament. Eli Tsiyon Ve'areha. Zion and the cities that were destroyed, lament. Or or we should or we're called upon to lament, say in via round. Now, issue number one is, why do we stand up for that Kinos? Why do we stand up for El Ecienne? So, Soloveitchik used to say a beautiful thought. You know, there is a concept that when you sit Shiva for a relative, for a parent, so there is a concept called getting up from Shiva. Now, getting up from Shiva is not just a technical idea that Shiva ends the morning of the seventh day, which it does. There actually is a ceremony that you're supposed to go through. You're supposed to leave the house with somebody and walk around the block. They're actually I I again I'm I'm not saying it is an absolute obligation. It's not an absolute obligation, but this is the minute of Israel. You get up from shift. What's the purpose of this ceremony of getting up for Shiva? Because God says, "You suffered morning. You suffered bereavements. There's a tragedy, a pain in your heart that really will never go away. But you got to live. You got to keep going. You got to rejoin life. You don't throw away the towel. Get up. Get up. Doesn't mean forget. Like there's so many things we do with the Eli in the Shama for people. We don't forget. But we got to keep going. Because if God has given us life, there's a reason. We got to keep living. So, we get up at the end of Kinos as if to say, "We're going to rejoin life. But when we rejoin life, we don't forget the base of meaning it's important idea. You don't just say, "Oh, I had Tisha B'Av and now I can just put that behind me." Take it with you. Get up, rejoin life, but take the with you. This is what said is the deep meaning of getting up and at the same time lamenting. You don't get up because you forget about the dash. You get up because you have to get up, but you remember the every single day. Now, we then go further with the inner and you'll notice that there are two metaphors of of bereavement that are used. Lament Zion and the cities. Come on, Isha Bitzraha. Like a woman going through the pains of labor. The awesome pains of labor. Fagip Sulach Gurah Sak. And like a young wife who is wearing sackcloth. Al Bal Nural. Who has lost the cherished husband of her youth. Two metaphors are used here. One is the woman in childbirth and the other is the widow. Now, the notion of widowhood, of course, is the metaphor that Jeremiah the prophet himself uses in Megillah Aicha. How does Aicha begin? Aicha Yashva Vadad. How solitary has the great city become? Aicha Almana. She is like a widow. But note the difference between the suffering of a widow and the suffering of a woman in childbirth. The suffering of a woman in childbirth can be very excruciating. Very excruciating. But at the end, there is hopefully new life. And that makes all the pain worth it. The pain of the widow in many ways is much more difficult. It's a loss. But there's no clear resolution of that loss. So why is the poet, and by the way, this piyut was not written by Rabbi Elazar Hakalir. We don't even know. It's an anonymous poem, even though it's so moving and powerful. We look at the Hurban as widowhood. We've lost our relationship to God. Yeah, God didn't die. God's alive. But vis-a-vis us, we're like widows. In reality, it's not widowhood. In reality, it is the precursor to life and birth and redemption. And that's why Chazal even say, "Hoyisa ka almanah." The Jewish people is like a widow. Velo almanah mamash. And not really a widow. A widow, husband's not coming back. In this case, it feels like we've been widowed. But Hashem is coming back. Okay, so even in the Hurban, we look and we perceive rachamim. In fact, another Well, okay, this is Okay, um Well, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself here. So, the final thing I want to talk about a little bit even though we're a little late, so unfortunately uh we don't have our share on Monday, it's on Tuesday. But I want to talk about yesterday. Yesterday was the happiest day of the Jewish calendar. The 15th of Av. Although by now it's the 17th because the day changed over there. But you know, yesterday in the day was the 15th of Av. And what do Hazal say? Lo hayu yamim tovim l'Yisrael. There were no days that were as joyous in Klal Yisrael as Yom Kippur and the 15th of Av. And then even mentions, and it's quite amazing, I wonder what the Beshkovs of today would make of this behavior. That both on Yom Kippur and on the 15th of Av, even Yom Kippur, they uh the benot Yisrael, the unmarried women, uh would dress in plain white. Everybody wore the same dress, so not to create income distinctions. And they would parade in front of the men and they would choose their wives on that day. And sometimes you think, you know, almost like that this was a different religion in those days. But you know, we certainly wouldn't uh kind of endorse that today. And yet, and yet, the Mishna says this is what they did on the 15th of Av and on Yom Kippur. These were days of marriage, days of reunion. And the two days that were set aside, this we call the uh Jewish Sadie Hawkins Day, if anyone is familiar with the American comics, uh Al Capp, Sadie Hawkins Day, maybe. In fact, I have a suspicion that Al Capp somehow was aware of this Jewish teaching and kind of incorporated it because it's so similar in some way, although it's kind of the opposite. I think there the Well, whatever, okay. The girls were running after the boys, but but I but it's it's really just a reversal of the of the story. So, the Gemara then asks the following question. The Gemara then asks, "What is so special about the 15th of Av? I understand why Yom Kippur is so special. The day of forgiveness, the day of reconciliation, the day of mercy, the day of compassion. And by the way, we have to remember that as well. We sometimes look at Yom Kippur as a day of restriction. Yom Kippur is a joyous day. The day of forgiveness. Wow. And that's positive to the Gemara that Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year. But what is so great about the 15th of Av? So, the Gemara in Taanis gives no fewer than six reasons why the 15th of Av is a happy day. I'll go over them chronologically. Reason number one is it signified the end of the decree against the people who died in the desert. Because the way it worked was following. After the sin of the spies, God decreed that that entire generation from the age of 20 would die over 40 40 years. Actually, it's 38 years. That's a a huge mathematical problem there, but we'll just work with 40 years. Cuz technically, they only died over 38 or maybe 37 Tisha B'Avs. And I've been working on this problem for around 50 years, so I I still haven't gotten the numbers right. But the Gemara is working with the approximation of 40. Now, the way it worked was this. Th- They died over 40 years. So, every Tisha B'Av they would dig. Everybody, that whole generation, would dig their own graves. They would sleep in their graves. Although, I doubt that they slept. And anyone who had reached the age of 60 that year would not get up the next day. If you were younger, you did get up, but you still had to go through the symbolic death experience. So, based on that, on an average on an average, 15,000 died a year, because if you divide 600,000 men by 40, you get an average death of 15,000 per year. The last Tisha B'Av in the desert, there's only 15,000 of the old generation that's left. Almost nobody's left. They dug their graves with the full expectation that this was their last night on Earth. The next morning, they were up. They didn't get it. So, they figured, well, maybe we miscalculated that it's the 9th of the month. So, they did it the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. On the 15th of Av, they saw a full moon. So, they knew that the 9th of Av had already been passed. And according to one of you, God did allow the last 15,000 to enter Eretz Yisrael. This is based on the Yushami. It's a very difficult Yushami, because the Chumash itself seems to say that the only men men, women indeed survived, but the only men who survived the Dor midbar were Yehoshua and Caleb. According to the Yerushalmi, it seems to be 15,000 people made it. But be it as it may, this was a great simcha that on the 15th of Av, we we understood that God had forgiven the sin of the spies for the last generation. That's reason number one. Reason number two is that if you remember the daughters of Tzelafchad, their father had no sons. Uh at the time, Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know if daughters have inheritance rights when there are no sons. Tzelafchad's brothers were claiming they should inherit. The daughters were claiming they should inherit. Moshe asks Hashem, and Hashem says daughters inherit. But then there's an act two, a part two to the story. That the brothers made the following argument, that we're coming to Eretz Yisrael. The land will be divided according to the tribes. So Tzelafchad is from the tribe of Menashe. So what if these women inherit property, and then they marry husbands from the tribe of Yehudah? So when the women die, the husbands will inherit the property or the children will inherit the property who are Yehudah, and therefore what you're doing is you're diluting the tribal inheritances by having other tribes have ownership there. So because of this, Hashem decreed that if any daughter, any single woman inherits property, she can only marry a man of the same tribe. Right? So the daughters of Tzelafchad are only allowed to marry Menashe people. They cannot marry any other any other tribe. Now, this was understood to be a temporary measure just to ensure that the original division of the land would be fully based on tribes. Eventually, at the end of Joshua's life, it became abrogated. And women were given the freedom to marry anyone they wanted. And our tradition teaches us that this abrogation took place on the 15th of Av. And that's the association with marriage because that was the date that women were given the freedom to marry husbands of every tribe. That's reason number two for the 15th of Av. Reason number three is also connected to marriage, and this takes us to the end of the period of the Shoftim. The Book of Judges is really a very very fascinating book because it really describes a society of anarchy, of social breakdown. You know, you'll recall that the the the Navi Shmuel actually wrote the Book of Shoftim. And the most common refrain in the Book of Shoftim is "In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everybody did whatever they wanted." That is not meant to be complimentary. That is not meant That is not a libert- libertarian, you know, uh value. It's basically describing the afkeirus, the lawlessness that existed. And one of the probably the most disheartening story is the story of the concubine uh that was raped and died. And uh the tribe in the tribe of Benjamin as as a man was passing through the tribe of Benjamin. And uh the other tribes demanded that the tribe of Benjamin extradite the thugs that did this crime to be judged by Claudius realm. And Shaveth Benjamin refused. And the Ramban writes they they asserted a political point. That every tribe has exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate. It's almost like sovereign countries. It's very very fascinating. The parallels to the American Civil War are very very interesting. In which Shaveth Benjamin basically asserted we share a religion with you, but we are a separate country. We are the country of Benjamin, and you're the country of Ephraim, and you're the country of Reuben. And you have no right to intermingle in our affairs. Sovereign nation. Which exactly, if you know your American history, was the primary issue of the American Civil War. As the historians have pointed out, the American Civil War did not start because of slavery. The American Civil War started Lincoln himself Lincoln was a Lincoln was of course personally against slavery. But he said many times he would not have fought a war if the Southern states insisted on slavery. But the Southern states basically said they were a sovereign nation that had the right to secede from the United States. On that Lincoln said, "For that we have to fight a a war." So essentially, in the Book of Judges, it is said that the Jewish people declared war against the tribe of Benjamin. And quite amazingly, even though you'd figure Benjamin would be so vastly outnumbered, Benjamin was initially quite successful in this war, but eventually they they got defeated. And there were very very few Benjaminite's left. And to kind of add the final nail in the coffin, they took an oath, the Jewish the rest of the Jewish people took an oath that no man shall give his daughter to a Benjaminite, which would have meant the tribe would have become extinct in a very short amount of time. That would be a cosmic tragedy of which we don't really understand. That somehow God's whole relationship to Klal Yisrael depends on the 12 tribes being in the world. Even though many are lost today, but they're in the world somewhere. If a tribe would have become extinct, we don't even understand exactly, but that would have affected the whole relationship to the universe. So, we have a tradition that on the 15th of Av, the vow was annulled. Pinchas annulled the vow. And once again, that's the marriage connection cuz Shevet Binyamin was allowed to intermarry, so to speak, with the Jewish people. So, I mentioned, I think, three reasons uh for the 15th of Av. One is the nullification of the sin of the spies. The other is was the heter of women who inherited property to marry into any tribe they wanted. The third was the heter of Shevet Binyamin to come into Klal Yisrael. The fourth occurs at the very end of the kingdom of the 10 tribes, which was destroyed by Assyria more than 100 years before the Churban Bayit HaMikdash. If you remember, the very first king of the 10 tribes was Yeravam ben Nevat. And Yeravam ben Nevat didn't want his people to go to the Bayit HaMikdash. So, he put armed guards on the roads so Jews from the 10 tribes could not go to Jerusalem. And those armed guards remained in effect for hundreds of years. But finally, the last king, Hoshea ben Elah, removed the guards. And he gave people free access to the Beis Hamikdash. And again, our tradition, we don't know this textually, our tradition was this was the 15th of Av. And therefore, it's a simcha. Now, the Gemara asks the obvious question. He did such a great thing. So, why was he the king under whom the 10 tribes were exiled and and banished? He did He did this good thing. The answer is, ah, he did a great thing. He opened up the gates and said, "Anybody who wants to go to the temple who can go." Nobody went. Talk about Stockholm syndrome or whatever however you want to describe it. They had the opportunity. All the years they couldn't go. Although God knows the story, they had the semblance of an excuse. Hey, we can't go. Armed guards. Once the guards are removed, then you still don't go? There's much greater accountability. But still, it's a simcha because we were given enhanced opportunities. The joy of the 15th of Av is an enhanced opportunity to serve God. Okay, so that's number four. Number five takes us all the way to the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70, right? The Churban Bayis Sheini. And it mentions that that happened in the year 70. But in the year 135, there was a actually 132 to 135, there was a second major revolt by the Jewish people against the Roman Empire. And that of course was the revolt led by Shimon ben Kuziba, who Rabbi Akiva nicknamed Bar Kokhba, the son of the star. Rabbi Akiva believed that Bar Kokhba could have been Mashiach. Maybe he could have been. And the Bar Kokhba revolt was initially very, very successful. Many, many villages and cities were liberated. Jewish independence. There is some archaeological evidence that Rabbi Akiva uh authorized the laying of a foundation for a possible third Beit Hamikdash. Bar Kokhba coins you can get for relatively um low price. And yet at some point Hadrian retaliated with massive force. And in 135, we have the very tragic equivalent of Custer's last stand, Beitar. Beitar massacre. The numbers that are given for the Beitar massacre are astronomically large. And again, the commentaries say they must be exaggerated. You're talking about tens of millions in terms of the numbers. But the fact that they're exaggerated to that extent means that the destruction was absolutely massive. And there was a lot of religious persecution afterwards. And Hadrian, as a sign of defiance, did not permit the bodies of the murdered to even be buried. He wanted them to putrefy and rot so the Jews would their rebellious spirit would be crushed. But a miracle happened. The bodies didn't decompose. And they were left on the ground for 3 years and a week. 15th of Av because again, the Beis Hamikdash was also on the 9th of Av, right? The Churban was 9th of Av year 70, let's say. And the Beis Hamikdash was the 9th of Av year 135. 3 years, 138 and a week, 15th of Av. Hadrian finally understood he was not really accomplishing anything by this. He gave permission to the Jewish community to bury their dead. And a blessing was added to Birkas Hamazon. Hatov Hametiv, that God is good and does good. He is good that the bodies didn't putrefy. He does good that we could bury them. Amazing that in the that tragedy, they also saw a bracha. And that's the the fourth reason for the joy. I'm sorry, the for three fifth reason of why it's a joy because the 15th of Av was when we got permission to bury the harugei Beitar. And the last reason I is that every year different families would donate they had certain days where they would donate the wood to the Beis Hamikdash. Wood was in very short supply for a lot of the Second Temple period because when the Greeks and the Romans had occupied the land, part of their policy was they burnt down a lot of forest. And therefore there was always at the base of make this needed a lot of wood every day. And there was always a question whether they would meet their wood supply for the year. But the quota for the coming year was always the 15th of Av was the last day of the so-called fiscal year because they didn't want to cut after the 15th of Av because you're past the hottest part of the summer so the wood is a little more moist. So basically the 15th of Av was the completion of wood cutting for the next year. And that was a great simcha. So we're running late. I I can't fully develop everything I want to talk about here but I just want you to go over for your own information the great simcha of the 15th of Av and I want to point out this idea. The 15th of Av itself is getting up from shiva. This is very very important. The 15th of Av is the seventh day from the ninth of Av. And in a sense all of the simcha that is associated with the 15th of Av is that God is telling us there's a korban and there's a galus but know that in life there is joy, in life there is opportunity. In life there is simcha. You have to embrace the sweet and the bitter. And you have to understand that Hashem has rachamim even in his din. And therefore that as I said the very beginning and that itself will be the seven the double nachama over the perenius and that will be the great motivator that will bring us to churban tisha of the chabas. Thank you for coming. Sure. Yibaneh, yibaneh Hamikdash, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye, Yitzion tetzaye.