Dear NILI Community,
The Gemara in Taanit 30b states “כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה” - Everyone who mourns for Jerusalem will merit to see her happiness.
What does it mean, practically speaking, to mourn for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash today?
In the words of Rachel Sharansky Danzinger, “The building was important because it encompassed an ever-evolving relationship with God, an ongoing act of creation. Without the relationship, it was but mortar and stone….In the Temple, we constantly recreated and expanded our relationship with God through a variety of moments and actions and experiences. And today, we mourn the loss of all those moments” (Times of Israel).
The Temple’s destruction was more than the loss of the physical structure. What we are mourning is a palpable absence—the loss of a relationship with Hashem that was the composite of everyday moments, actions, and experiences.
As we continue to long for redemption, perhaps our avodah is to create moments in our own lives that deepen our relationship with Hashem—through prayer, learning, chesed, and mitzvot—in ways that echo the closeness once experienced in the Beit HaMikdash and that we continue to yearn for today.
May this month of Av, and this upcoming Tisha B’Av, bring us closer to our anticipated geula where we can once again “merit to see Jerusalem in her happiness.”
Chodesh Tov,
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