To start, I want to introduce myself. The name is hillel KAPS. Thats honestly all you need to know about me for right now. Everything else is for a different post.
Tisha B'av has now been over for around 2 hours or so and I think the big question is....... ( assuming that we connected to ANYTHING over this Tisha B'av)....... What is still with us?
I feel that once we break our fast and get back into the normal swing of things, it seems to be much harder to keep any and all messages that we may have gotten over the course of the day.
I myself watched numerous documentaries about the Destruction of the First and Second Beis Hamikdash and of the Holocaust and although I definitely gained a lot over the course of the day I highly doubt that I even grazed the tip of how large our nations loss was, and still is!
The root of this problem without even getting into the suffering of the holocaust is that we can't even begin to fathom what the Beis Hamikdash was for the Jewish People. As far as we know it was a mansion where Jewish people would go to bring offerings to G-d.
"Thats nice and all but big deal! We seem to be getting along at least somewhat fine these days except for a choice few that have it rougher than us!"
This is what being in Golus is.
I once heard a Mashal (a Parable) to explain to us what it means to be in exile.
A Man once came to the Chofetz Chaim ( I believe) and told him what we just said previously. He said "Whats the big deal about this "Golus" thing? I'm doing fine, never been better! What do I need Mashiach for?"
The Chofetz Chaim extinguished the lights in the room and asked the man "Can you see?"
The Man answered "Obviously not!"
The Chofetz Chaim waited a few moments and then asked the man again if he could see.
The Man's answer was in the affirmative because his eyes had now had a chance to adjust to the darkness.
The Chofetz Chaim explained that THIS is behind what he is saying! When the Golus first started it was a source of sadness to every Jew because they had seen how far they had managed to sink, but now that our generation has gotten used to it to such a degree we can't come close to understanding what being in a "Golus" really means.
This is only proved more and more by everything that I've seen online during Tisha B'av.
I myself am a big user of Social Media. Over Tisha B'av I barely posted online at all, except to share a few videos that I came across on Aish.com that I thought might be inspirational for others as it was for me. For the couple of times from right before Tisha B'av that I popped online, its actually sad to see what was out there. Everything from jokes about eating as much as you can before the fast, to jokes being posted on the fast itself, to countdowns, to pictures of food posted with a caption of "Getting Hungry?". I was actually in a bit of shock. Now, I don't think that anybody that did this type of posting was being malicious, nor do I think that they were writing it up to try and take people out of the "Tisha B'av Spirit", I do think though that the reason for all of this is just plain ignorance, If we can't understand what we lost doesn't that make it hard to keep in that spirit? I know for sure for me it was hard but I didn't end up going that route, probably just because i was able to keep myself occupied through other means (lots of inspirational videos, stories, articles, etc.) But if we think about it, as sad as it might seem according to that reason, it actually makes a lot of sense.
This much I think I can tell you.....
There's been many tragedies in the Jewish World in the last few years. Some recent, Some not so recent. I don't need to point any specific ones out because they are all here for the same reason, To Wake Us Up! We need to understand that If G-d feels the need to give us such a strong "Wake-Up Call", it's because we are being similar to a person sleeping so soundly that it takes pushing him off the bed, or dousing him with cold water (or both) to actually get him to wake up. In general, its a wake up call to become better people inside ourselves, in our interactions with others, and mostly in our relationship with G-d.
As far as the Beis Hamikdash - With all these tragedies in mind its important to understand that the Beis Hamikdash was the exact opposite of these. NO Jews being hurt let alone being killed, NO Jews being mocked or humiliated, NO Jews being blamed for things. The world was at peace in a certain sense and although through the times of the 1st and the 2nd Beis Hamikdash the peace was broken, The 3rd Beis Hamikdash which is being build right now even as I write all this will put a complete and final end to all Pain,Sadness,War,Injuries,Death, and the list goes on and on. There is much more to say on the topic and I hope to possibly share more on this topic with everyone but the main thing to take out of this post is this.......
No matter how many tzedakas we give to, how many funds we start, how many people we help, how many tears we cry, how many tefilos we say, in order to stop any forms of sadness.........
If we do everything we can in order for Mashiach to come and bring the Beis Hamikdash with him, All that peace will come along with it. Even if we can never fully understand what the Beis Hamikdash was until we have our 3rd one, we should at least keep in mind that whatever it is, all the peace and happiness we could ever hope for is coming with it.
I hope everyone had a meaningful fast and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to do so below.
Hillel Kaps
-www.hillelkaps.blogspot.com
