Rabbi Mordechai Kraft

We have a fascinating halakha on Tisha B'Av, [music] and that's a halakha that says that we're not allowed to greet one another. The question is is that this halakha seems to be somewhat strange. On the one [music] hand, it's true that it's part of a veil of mourning, that's true, and the mourner also can't greet. But then again, we [music] are 2,000 years away from the actual event. But what's perhaps even [music] more outstanding or more more interesting is the fact that the reason why the Second Temple was destroyed was because of sinat chinam. It was destroyed because [music] Jews couldn't get along. It was destroyed because we didn't see each other as brothers and sisters. We didn't see each other as [music] belonging to one family. And the Shulchan Aruch says, "If you can't see yourself as a family, I have to take away the house, [music] the Beit Hamikdash, and put you in a world where you have no one to depend upon except yourselves." [music] So, if the Second Temple was destroyed because Jews couldn't get along, and the reason why we're still in exile [music] perhaps is we haven't yet fixed that up. We still don't properly see one another as brothers and sisters. One would think that the halakha on Tisha B'Av should be that Jews should get up in the morning and greet one another. >> [music] >> Again, the question is astounding. On the way we're trying to fix up sinat chinam, baseless hatred, [music] shouldn't we say these greetings of love and concern for another Jew? It must be that sometimes [music] our greetings are not sincere. That we look at another Jew, we look at another human being, and [music] we greet, but we don't really mean it. How are you? Do we really care about the response? >> [music] >> For one day we have to be real, we have to go back inside of ourselves and say, "Am I really looking at this Jew properly?" [music] You can't greet today. Today you have to be real. And b'ezrat Hashem, [music] the day after Tisha B'Av, we're allowed to greet again. A greeting which we will greet with will be sincere, will come from the heart, and [music] that is the way we're going to fix up sinat chinam.