Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah on Tisha B’Av;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

Moshe begins his revision of the Torah to the assembled Children of Israel, reviewing the events that occurred in the course of their 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, rebuking the people for their failures and sins, and encouraging them to keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the land that G-d is giving them as an eternal heritage, into which they shall cross after his death.

Moshe recalls his appointing of judges and magistrates to ease his burden of judging people; the sending of the Spies and the people’s subsequent rejection of the Promised Land, so that G-d decreed that the entire generation of the Exodus shall die out in the desert. “Also against me,” says Moshe, “was G-d angry for your sakes, saying: You, too, shall not go in there.”

And at the end of the parsha, Moshe gives assurance to his successor, Joshua, who will take the people into the Land and lead them in the battles for its conquest: “Fear them not, for the L-rd your G-d, He shall fight for you.”

” Dvar Torah ”

“Mourning”, is a period of time that a person grieves for the death of a loved one. Mourning can be a very difficult and devastating period of time. A loss of life can be very painful, since it creates a vacuum in a person’s life which is very hard to fill. So, how can you be comforted in these difficult times? How do you cope with the pain? How does a mother who loses her dear child in defending our land continue with her life? Will she ever find comfort and solace?!

Well, our sages tell us that in order to receive comfort and feel relief from the pain of mourning, G-d has blessed us with a sense of “forgetfulness”. As the time passes by, and as much as we try not to, we start to forget about the deceased. And as we tend to forget, slowly, slowly, the pain starts to go away and we begin to get a feeling of comfort. If G-d forbid, the human mind didn’t have the power to forget, then the mourning period will never come to an end and the people will continue to mourn for the death of a loved one till the end of their lives. Although, memory is one of the most important functions of the mind, but on the other hand, forgetfulness which is the loss of memory, is a great blessing that Hashem has bestowed upon us in order to get consolation in a time of mourning!

Tisha B’Av is also a period of mourning for us. We are mourning for the destruction of our two Batei Hamikdash (Temples) which were destroyed almost 2000 years ago. We are not simply grieving over a magnificent building which was destroyed a long time ago, nor are we crying over the Temple’s physical structure which was burned, but rather, we are crying over the loss of our connection to G-d which we still miss to this very day. By losing the Beit Hamikdash, the Shechina (G-d’s presence) seems to have left from our midst. We can no longer witness open miracles; we can no longer bring sacrifices for Hashem on daily basis and we cannot perform the Yom Kippur services in the holy of the holies. To this day, many people still cry heavily and mourn on Tisha B’Av because of the loss of our connection to the G-d Almighty.

But the question that you may ask yourself is why can’t we get comforted after so many years? Why doesn’t the formula of forgetfulness work in the case of Tisha B’Av? Why do the tears still come out of our eyes after so many years? Surely 2000 years should be enough to forget!! Why should the Tisha B’Av mourning be any different to the mourning for a loved one?? After all, we tend to forget a loss of life after a few years, but it seems that we can’t get over the loss of our connection to G-d after 2000 years?!

Once again, Rabbi Frand gives the following explanation which really touched my heart. He says that we start to forget about someone, and feel relieved from the pain of mourning, only after the person is actually dead. But if the person is only missing and he is still alive, then the formula of forgetfulness does not work. Yaakov Avinu continued to mourn for his son Yosef, for a full 22 years and couldn’t find comfort– because Yosef was not dead; he was still alive! Accordingly, if we still feel the pain, if we still express the sorrow over the loss of Shechina, then it surely means that our connection to G-d is not dead. It is still alive! We just don’t see it, but the connection is still there! Although, the Shechina is not among us anymore, but the Torah tells us that Hashem would never abandon us and he would still protect us from the far. And this is why we still can’t get over the pain!

On the day of Tisha B’Av, “Tachanun” is not recited because the day has elements of festivities to it. Although, Tisha B’Av is the saddest day marked on the jewish calendar, but it’s also the ultimate day of “hope”! We believe that Mashiach is going to come and build the third Beith Hamikdash and the Shechina is going to come back to us once again. Even though, we might not have the “zechut” to see the Beith Hamikdash rebuilt in our times, but we are confident that our children, our grandchildren or great grandchildren will have the merit to see the glorious Temple build once again. And because of these happy thoughts, we don’t say Tachanun on this day.

Indeed, Tisha B’Av will be a day of festival and celebration one day and the whole world will know that our G-d is the only true G-d and we are his chosen people. We will all go back to the land of Israel and we will be respected by all of the nations around the world. We have no doubt that the Beith Hamikdash will be built again. The question is not “if”we’ll ever have a Temple again, but it’s only a question of time, “when”?!

I wish everyone an easy and a meaningful fast and hope that Hashem will answer our prayers and protect us from the hands of our evil enemies.

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin