667 Days Without A Day Of Their Own: Building B’Yameinu

By Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

667 days.

We daven from the bottom of our hearts that by Tishah B’Av, the hostages will be released, our soldiers will be with their families, and our enemies will be defeated.

But if not, Tishah B’Av will mark 667 long days since October 7, 2023. Six hundred and sixty-seven days in which innocent people have been held by cruel, evil terrorists. Six hundred and sixty-seven days that our heroic IDF soldiers have been fighting on several fronts, leaving their families, and risking their lives for our people and our land. Six hundred and sixty-seven days that an entire nation has lived with the constant reminder that they might have to flee to bomb shelters at a moment’s notice every time they leave their houses.

For 667 days, the hostages, soldiers, and the people in Israel have not been able to call any day fully their own. The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Yoma 5) tells us, Kol dor she’eino nivneh b’yamav, ma’alin alav k’ilu hu hecherivu: Any generation that has not rebuilt the Beis HaMikdash in their days is considered as if they have destroyed it.

Why didn’t the rabbis just say: Kol dor she’eino nivneh, any generation in which the Beis HaMikdashisn’t built? What is added by the words b’yamav, in their days? We use this same word daily in our daveningwhen we ask Hashem u’vnei osah b’karov b’yameinu. Again, why not just ask Hashem to build Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash? What is added by “b’yameinu—in our days” when that is inherently the request?

In his Zera Kodesh, the first rebbe of Ropshitz, Rav Naftali Tzvi Horowitz, explains that “B’yameinu” isn’t a prayer for when we want redemption and rebuilding, it is the formula and blueprint for how to bring it about. The letter beis, when used as a prefix, can mean two different things: B’yameinu can mean in our days, but it can also mean with our days.

The building blocks for a generation to build the Beis HaMikdash and bring about redemption are the words, “b’yamav,” which means they must use their days meaningfully, productively, and as fully as possible. Doomscrolling, mindless binge watching, criticizing, fighting, and sowing division are exercises in futility, an endless squandering of our days. If we waste our precious days, misuse them, and fail to appreciate the gift of the time we have been allotted, it isn’t just that we have failed to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash, we have also destroyed our most precious commodity: our days. Then it is “k’ilu hecherivu,” that we have destroyed what we could have done with them what we could have built with them.

For 667 days the hostages have not had “yemeihem.” Their days have not been their own. They have lost control over their time and their lives. They have lost their freedom and the ability to see their families. Maybe they have been plunged into darkness, not even seen the light of day for all this time. For 667 days they have been deprived of the ability to decide for themselves what they want to do, where they want to go, what they want to achieve. 

We daven daily that Hashem finally changes our condition in the world, that He brings a genuine and lasting peace, that He builds the Beis HaMikdash b’karov. How? B’yameinu, when we use our days to heal instead of to harm, when we create connection instead of divide, when we compliment instead of criticizing, when we build instead of destroying, when we unite in the face of overwhelming odds.

In Eichah, we describe the unbearable pain of yashva badad, feeling alone, a malady and condition that too many people continue to suffer from today. If loneliness is the problem, the antidote and the answer is to be nosei b’ol im chaveiro, to bear the burdens of our friends and our people, to feel their pain, empathize with their plight, and to become part of their suffering.

To be nosei b’ol im chaveiro means to not only feel bad for someone, but to feel pain with those who are struggling and to focus on filling our days with providing relief, support, and love.

If we want to change what is happening in the world, we have to be thoughtful and mindful of what we do to and for each other. We must fill yameinu, our days, with davening for the hostages, our soldiers, and all our brothers and sisters in Israel. We must ensure nobody is dreading the countdown to Shabbos, wondering if they will get invited or if they will have to, chas v’shalom, eat alone. We must make sure that nobody in our community loses sleep at night because they fear they won’t be able to cover their bills. We cannot allow an agunah to feel as if she is all alone, a victim of trauma or abuse that has been abandoned.

If you own and control your days, you are not only blessed, you also bear the awesome responsibility of filling those days with meaning, purpose, care, and concern. If we use the days leading up to Tishah B’Av well, we will merit to no longer have to sit on the floor and mourn, but will be able to celebrate the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash, constructed speedily b’yameinu, with our days. n

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg is the Senior Rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue (BRS), a rapidly-growing congregation of over 850 families and over 1000 children in Boca Raton, Florida.