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Tisha B’Av – A new approach

Written by Rabbi Moshe Kormornick

The Medrash notes a peculiar choice of words when Dovid describes the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash in Tehillim: “A song of Asaf. O Hashem, foreign nations have entered into Your inheritance.”[1] Surely, explains the Medrash, the destruction should not have been referred to “a song of Asaf” which represents joy, it would have been more appropriate to refer to the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash as “a weeping of Asaf”?

Why was the destruction such a joyful event?

The Medrash answers that the joy of the destruction was that instead of taking out His wrath on the Jewish People, Hashem destroyed mere “sticks and stones.”[2]

A simple interpretation of the Medrash’s answers is that Hashem ought to have destroyed the Jewish People for their sins, but instead, in His abundant mercy, He destroyed their most precious possession — the Beis Hamikdash.

However, basing his words on those of the Prophet Yirmiyahu, Rav Pincus introduces a much deeper understanding of the Medrash’s answer, together with the reason why Hashem specifically destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. Yirmiyahu said, “Can one steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely…and [then] come and stand before Me in this House, upon which My name is proclaimed and say, “We are saved” in order to keep doing all these abominations?”[3]

Rav Pincus explains that the Beis Hamikdash was a place where complete atonement was freely available to all. Any and every sin could be atoned for by bringing a sacrifice. From Yirmiyahu’s words we see that the Jewish People were abusing this power in order to sin, for they would then go to the Beis Hamikdash the following day with a sacrifice to attain atonement for their wrongdoing. As such, performance of mitzvos became light in their eyes, and even potentially sinning became a risk worth taking— because, after all, what’s the worst that could happen: a sin could easily be rectified with a sacrifice to Hashem and perhaps even a small donation to the Beis Hamikdash fund!

Therefore, it was not the case that Hashem merely took vengeance on the Beis Hamikdash in place of the Jewish People; He destroyed the very thing that was causing them to sin and warrant their destruction. By doing so, He was sparing their lives, because without the Beis Hamikdash, they would begin to realize that they no longer had a means to rectify their sins besides for deep introspection and sincere teshuvah.

Rav Pincus explains this with the following parable:

An artist decides that he wants to produce a masterpiece, so he goes with a friend to the peak of a high mountain and paints for days on end until he has produced the best painting he has ever seen. After he has put the final touches to the painting, he steps back to get a better view of his work. In getting a better appreciation of his picture, he takes many steps back until he is almost at the cliff’s edge. His friend, who sees what is happening frantically shouts to his friend, but the artist’s focus is so strong that he does not hear his friend’s warnings. Unable to reach him in time, and not able to get the artist’s attention any other way, he does the only thing that he can do — he lunges for the painting and destroys it. The artist immediately snaps out of his trance and realizes that with one more step he would have plunged to his death.

Similarly, the Jewish People were so focused on the power and blessings that came from the Beis Hamikdash that they forgot that their role in life was to forge a deep and personal connection with Hashem through His mitzvos. They did not listen to the warning of the Prophets to remove their focus, and so the only thing that was left to do in order to save their lives, was to destroy the Beis Hamikdash.[4]

Unfortunately, we still lack a Beis Hamikdash, which means that we still need to build our relationship with Hashem directly through taking the mitzvos seriously and approaching teshuvah with sincerity.

B’ezras Hashem if we are able to live up to this ideal, Hashem will once again see that we are capable of relating to the Beis Hamikdash properly, and bring it speedily in our days.

[1] Tehillim 79:1.
[2] Eichah Rabbah 4:14.
[3] Yirmiyahu 7:8-10.
[4] Sichos Rav Pincus, Galus v’nechama, chap.2.

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