Is the Churban the Source of All of Our Troubles? Chazkeinu Tisha B'Av Event

Okay. >> Okay. We just want to welcome Rabbi Gladstein token's um tishab event. Thank you for taking the time. Rabbi Gladstein is a RV respected author and international speaker. He has delivered thousands of widely viewed and downloaded sharim on platforms like Torah Anytime, U Torah and Karama. Ravi Gladstein is also a renowned art scroll author and continues to teach and inspire audiences around the world. Thank you for and you can begin. Okay. Thank you for the generous introduction. So, I'd like to uh speak with you today about somewhat of a philosophical question that could help us perhaps put into more of a personal context. In one of the kinos, we say for the destruction of the temple that was destroyed. I'll compose a new eulogy every year. In other words, we're saying that as bad as the destruction of the B mikdash was, it gets worse and worse every year. So, the question that I would like to uh discuss is do all of our problems come from the destruction of the Ba Mikdash? You know, everyone has challenges in life aside from the fact that we don't have a BA mikdash and we're in gulas. Everyone has personal challenges and personal difficulties whatever it may be. Does that come from the fact that we don't have a bas mikdash or if somebody is suffering emotional distress? If someone has a family issue does that is that sourced in the destruction of the ba mdash? Somebody has a health crisis is that somehow connected to the destruction of the ba mikdash. So there's a medish. The medish is also found in the Gumar. The garish the the story is recorded about a broken woman who resided in the neighborhood of Rabin Gaml. And this woman had a child who suddenly died. And this woman would cry every night about the loss of her child. Whose heart would it melt hearing the woman cry over the the the death of a child? And the medish adds that Ram Gaml would listen to this woman crying and he too would cry along with her. But when Ram Gaml would cry, he would cry over the destruction of the Ba Mikdash. And the Medish says that Ram Gaml had to relocate because it became too painful to be in the vicinity of this woman. That's the Medish. The medish is teaching us that somehow the cries of this woman prompted Ramen Gaml to cry over destruction of the Ba Mikdash. So why was that? How did the cry of this woman who was crying over her personal situation? How did that inspire to cry over the destruction of the Ba Mikdash? And gifter said that from here we derive a very uh an important principle that Ram Gamiel in his discerning ear in his sensitive heart he was able to go to the root of the matter he was able to trace back the root of the woman's suffering and the root of all suffering the root of all suffering is the fact that we live in a world without a ba mikdash. So when Ram Gaml heard this woman cry, he discerned in her tears that it was really could be traced back to the destruction of the Ba Mikdash. Because in a world where we have a BA mikdash and Hashemina is seen and felt and and recognized, there's no suffering. You know the the Mishna says at the end of that it seems that all deficiency even in the physical world is rooted back to the destruction of Ba Mikdash. For example, there the garra says that from the day the base of mikdash was destroyed, there is no day whose curse is not greater than the day before and the dew stops falling for blessing and fruits don't taste the way they used to and even the the luster of fruits has diminished. In other words, what the garra is saying is even the physical world plummets daily. So therefore there's an idea that in a certain sense all of our troubles are rooted could be traced back to the destruction of the B mikdash and that's the meaning of what we say in kinos that every year we would compose a new ele ka every year because as bad as the destruction of the temple was last year well this year the world is in even a worse state and I'm in even a worse state and therefore I need to compose a new ka to mourn a more intense feeling for the destruction of the bdash. So that's one perspective. That's a certain perspective you could have that all troubles and all difficulties and all challenges are rooted in destruction of BA mikdash. And therefore as so to speak as the world plummets the the the the destruction of the bas mikdash becomes more intense in our hearts. But there's another another way to look at this uh that I would like to share with you that could be used so to speak as a technique and a tool because it's not so clear that all of our troubles are rooted in the destruction of the bas mikdash. I want to share with you an interesting idea. You know that on tishabove we only mourn certain tragedies. We don't mourn all historical tragedies. For instance, there were pgrams in 1648 1649. It's called the kalminitki pagrams. We actually don't speak about it at all on tishb. They're not mentioned on tishb. Some Jews actually fast on the 20th day of Sivan to commemorate the kalmini pagrams but we don't mention them at all on tishab and raosha fee explained why don't we speak about the kaniski pgrams on tishaba said because they're not really connected to the destruction of the bas mikdash you see if a tragedy that could be that was that's perpetrated by government power for example the holocaust where Germany had a uh had an empire and they perpetrated horrors against the Jewish people that could be traced back to the destruction of the B mikdash and therefore we speak about the holocaust on tishb and many great luminaries even composed a kina for the holocaust whether it's the bub of a rebba whether it's shimanab because holocaust could be traced back to the destruction of mikdash but says kmanitki pgrams are not really are not rooted in the destruction of Ba Mikdash because they were anti-government rebels and therefore they don't trace back to the B mikdash. So Misha seems to be saying that not every time that I have a difficulty in life am I going to say well that's because there's no BA mdikdash. We don't necessarily say such an idea. So I want to present to you uh a powerful tool in life in general. It could be utilized tish. It could be utilized to make tishabove more meaningful. And it could be utilized whenever we're challenged by difficulties or whenever we have the good fortune of a a happy occasion in life. These are all tools and I want to share with you an idea of how we could harness these tools. Tells us in excuse me in on a good day be good and on a bad day look. What exactly does this mean? On a good day be good and on a bad day look. So I'll give you an example. probably if you're fasting now, you're probably hungry. You're pro you might be even dreaming about whatever you're going to be eating when the fast is over. So imagine you're preparing a delicious sandwich um with cheeses and and tomatoes. Sorry to talk about imagine a really nice sandwich. So you eat that sandwich and afterwards you're going to say you're going to say you're going to thank Hashem for the sandwich. But if you ever paid attention to you, you'll notice that we don't just thank Hashem for the food in we ask we we thank Hashem for giving us the Tyra in we thank Hashem for giving us is we thank Hashem for many things in why are we thanking Hashem for in taking us out of I don't understand I'm eating a salami sandwich why am I thanking Hashem for taking me out of Egypt. I was never in Egypt. And I'm very grateful that God took the Jewish people out of Egypt. But like why now? Why am I thanking Hashem during for going out of Egypt, for giving us the Tyra, for giving us Israel? So we could ask a similar question when after 22 years Jacob Ainu is reunited with Yois. Does anybody know what did Yakovino choose to do at that occasion when he was reunited with Y is? We know that Yakovino utilized that moment to say Kesha when Yakovino finally embraced his son after 22 years. Yakov used that moment to say kesha. Why was he saying shama then? So there's a very important limo a very important principle we learn from here. You see emotions are not always within our control. If it's very hard to tell someone, okay, today's tishabove, feel sad. Feel right now. Get that move for feel sad. I don't know if I'm feeling happy, I'm not gonna feel sad. And vice versa, it's hard to tell somebody, you know, today's a happy day. Today's a holiday. You have to be happy. I'm not feeling happy. How how are we given commandments of how to feel on certain occasions? And the answer is on a good day, be good. On a bad day, look, that means as follows. We don't always have control over our emotions. But when we have experiences in life that infuse us with certain emotion, we then have the ability to harness and direct those emotions for the right cause. So, you know, it's not easy to just feel love for Hashem. If I tell you now, love Hashem, love him right now. I don't know if I tell you to love broccoli, if you don't like it, you're not going to like it. So if you're not feeling love, it's hard to to somehow observe a command to to love Hashem. But there are occasions in life that you're feeling love. Anyway, when Yakov was reunited with Ysef, he was experiencing an outer outpouring of love toward his son. Yakovu then decided he's going to channel all of that love he has toward. He's gonna channel it to and say shama. Ordinarily maybe it would have been very difficult to have that outpouring of love to Hashem. But because he was feeling love to his son, he then utilized the opportunity to channel that love toad. Likewise, if you tell somebody in the middle of the day, thank Hashem for taking us out of Egypt. Thank us for the thank him for the Tory. Thank him for you say, I'm not really in a very grateful mood right now. I'm busy. I'm distracted. I'm in a bad mood. It's It's hard to tell someone, "Be grateful." But after you eat lunch or after you eat dinner and you had a good sandwich and you're content and you're in somewhat of a happy, grateful mood, we tell you, well, you have gratitude to Hashem now for the food you're eating. Channel that happiness and that gratitude to Hashem for other things that you need to be grateful to him for. be show gratitude now that he took us out of that he gave us and then he gave us a likewise we always want to feel a sense of mourning for the loss of the ba mikdash we would like to we know that was the source of our vitality we know what the ba mikdash meant to the Jewish people but we're not always able just to turn on our emotions and say okay I'm going to mourn the destruction of the temple. But when there are times in life that we're feeling down or we're feeling sad or we're feeling challenged by things that we have to navigate, whether or not those problems are rooted in the BA mikdash, that's a discussion. That's something we could think about. But one thing is for sure when there are occasions in life when we're feeling so to speak down or despondent a tool could be we could channel those feelings of sadness and say okay I'm feeling sad because of my personal issue. I will now like to ch I would like to channel that toward feeling a sense of mourning and loss of the basa mikdash. We may not always at will just be able to turn on a feeling of sadness about destruction of Ba Mikdash. But if for whatever the reason is we're feeling challenged, we're feeling pained by anything in life, we can then channel those feelings and harness those feelings toward the ba mikdash. And that's really what Ram Gamliel did when Gamliel when Ramliel heard the cry of that woman over the loss of her son. Ram Gamliel was saddened by that. He was pained by that. And he utilized the opportunity to channel those feelings of sadness over the destruction of the Ba Mikdash. And we all hope, we all pray that in our own lifetime, you know, uh you hear sometimes in the in the news that our enemies have hijacked the phrase in our lifetime. In our lifetime. In our lifetime. That's our phrase that belongs to us. This is what we we pray. This is what we we beg Hashem that we should merit to see in our lifetime. The return to and the rebuilding of the B mikdash. And certainly when that happens then Hashem's presence will be felt and Hashem's reality will be recognized and it will bring the world to a state of great blessing and will certainly help us navigate all of the issues that we have. But we always have to remember and I'm going to conclude with this. The cloenberba would say when he was in Awitz he said nothing hurts me and nothing scares me. I know that if Hashem sent me here, it's for my good. Hashem did it for my good. But you know what hurts me? He would say, even though I walk in the valley of death, I'm not afraid. But you know what hurts me? You know what's hurting me? I know you, Hashem, you're suffering with me. And it hurts me, Hashem, that you have to suffer with me. We always have to remember that whatever we're going through in life, Hashem is with us. And as much as it hurts us, it hurts Hashem even more. And Hashem feels our pain even more acutely than we feel our own pain. And when we dav for the coming of the gula, we're ding for Hashem's sake. We're saying, "Hashem, I know what you have, whatever you've given me in life, you have a reason for it, and somehow it's for my benefit. But I know that you suffer when I'm in pain. So I pray to you that you should bring the redemption for your sake, Hashem, because I would like to alleviate your suffering, Hashem. So these are some thoughts to make tishab personal and of course meaningful and I thank you for your kind attention. May you have a easy rest of the fast and may Hashem bless all of us with the great merit to see the rebelling of the Bikdash. Thank you.