By Yochanan Gordon
One of the unique features of Tishah B’Av is the fact that we start to embody joy and move on from active mourning at the time that the destruction of the Temples intensified. The reason given for this is that it symbolized that G-d took out his wrath on wood and stones rather than with the destruction of His people.
This characterization of the Beis HaMikdash as wood and stone, despite having been aware of this teaching of Chazal previously, caused me to pause this year in wonderment. Is that all that the Beis HaMikdash is? The Beis HaMikdash is the epicenter of our lives! Although none of us have ever experienced Jewish life in the context of the Beis HaMikdash we recognize that a large part of our Jewish experience is left wanting in the absence of the Beis HaMikdash and therefore this outward description of the Beis HaMikdash as wood and stones is really shocking. You may be wondering why I haven’t moved on from Tishah B’Av. The truth is in previous years I would move on from addressing Tishah B’Av as soon as I could and here last week despite the paper being read on Shabbos Nachamu I decided to retell a story that occurred to me on Tishah B’Av and this week I’m back again addressing a teaching of our sages directly related to the destruction of the holy Temple? If it is only wood and stones then just get over it, right? The truth is that the lessons of churban Beis HaMikdash are relevant as long as it hasn’t been rebuilt. But even ritually, we are in the period that is known as the seven weeks of consolation, which represent one whole time period together with the Three Weeks of punishment, together a ten-week period corresponding to the ten sefiros. So, while we may have moved on from the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash the lessons continue to live on throughout this period of time.
Our sages teach, Kol hamisabel al Yerushalayim zocheh v’roeh besimchasa/b’binyanah. Anyone who mourns over Jerusalem will merit seeing its rejoicing and its renovation. Many have dwelled upon this interesting phrase that implies that the path towards seeing Jerusalem rebuilt is through mourning over it. Normally we view mourning as an exercise in expressing longing over something that we once had but now lack. If it weren’t for the fact that we lost that experience, then we wouldn’t have to mourn over it.
However, nothing in Yiddishkeit is ever reactive. In fact, if we ever find ourselves in a reactive mode then that is indicative of the fact that we are being controlled by a situation rather than being in control of it. Every situation that G-d sends us is an opportunity for light, sanctity, and redemption and that is what our focus and approach must be. I was once at a shivah house visiting a friend who was mourning the loss of a parent and Rav Yussie Zakutinsky brought up this point. He said, it looks like we are reacting to a situation that calls for us to sit on the floor and yearn for a situation that once was and that we no longer have. However, he explained, what we are accomplishing by sitting and reminiscing about all the good that the person did in this world is helping the soul acclimate to its new residence in the world of souls.
There are two dimensions to every experience. There is the experience as it seems outwardly and then there is the essence of that experience as it exists internally. Outwardly, mourning is a reaction to a new experience of loss whereas internally the ability to mourn is an indication of how much that experience continues to endure.
When the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed due to our sins it was a building that existed independent of us. It was the place we went to bring korbanos but the Beis HaMikdash was meant to represent a consciousness rather than just a physical edifice. The physical edifice was meant to signify the fact that consciousness existed but the moment that we no longer lived Temple lives that is when it was removed from us.
Chazal teach that G-d created the world in such a way that over time the living forget those who are no longer here. We deduce this from Yosef HaTzaddik. Yaakov’s inability to be comforted over the loss of Yosef was an indication that he was still alive. The truth is that although our rabbis are teaching us something about the ability of human beings to endure loss, what I believe Chazal are trying to impart is that as long as that person continues to live within our consciousness it is to that degree that they are still alive. As such, if we are capable of conjuring up real thoughts and feelings over the Beis HaMikdash two thousand years after its destruction that means that it still exists.
At the time that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed it was only wood and stones because the inner element that made the Beis HaMikdash unique was missing. What this teaches us is how important it is to connect with experiences on an internal level because without that the experience cannot continue to endure. “Gezeirah Al hameis shetishtakach min hachai” is a description of the law of entropy which states that all living things wane and die. This doesn’t just mean in a physical sense; rather, it means that as long as our relationships and experiences only exist outwardly without becoming deepened, they too are subject to the laws of entropy.
So the characteristic of wood and stones was not, G-d forbid, a description of the Beis HaMikdash in its essence, rather what it had been relegated to in the lives of the Yidden of that time and ours as long as it hasn’t been rebuilt. We need to rebuild the Temple in our hearts and the structure will surely follow. n
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
