HaRav Zev Leff shlita - M’Aivel L’Yom Tov: How Can we change the Nature of Tisha B’Av - Torah Efrat

Morasra, I see uh that you have in this Kahila they have a tremendous trust and uh of their rabbi. There's not one clock in this room. where I am the rob. They have clocks on every single wall. I have a watch though. I want to uh thank the OU and the Rabbi Shore for inviting me and giving me this of being able to address you. Amadosh and Leadosh I think has another twist to it. It's an a sorakov. We are living through very difficult times, times of misfortune. We have brothers and sisters who are hostages in the most cruel way possible, languishing in the tunnels of Hamas. We have wars on every side of us and uh people being hurt and people being killed. and so many of our uh holy and precious kayim who have fallen during this time. It's an a sorakov. It's a time of misfortune, difficult times. But say that if we approach and deal and know how to utilize these difficult times properly, we can change them into times of sima. So we are a nation that's going through difficulties. We want to be an amados. We want to renew ourselves to be in situations that are not the way that they are now. And the only way to do that is to get a ledos is to renew our hearts and use our hearts in a better way than we using it in the past. Kazal tell us if someone sees that they are beset with suffering then they tell us to do the following we should investigate our deeds and see if there's things that we can correct things that we can improve. And that's the first way to deal with difficult situations. It always bothered me and I saw that my rebi gifter was bothered with the same thing. Why does it say a person sees suffering coming befalling him? You don't see suffering, you feel it. Should have said a person who feels suffering that is coming to him. Why? one who sees the suffering. I think perhaps it means the following. The Torah describes Mosher Rabenu as Vloenu went out to his brethren and he saw their suffering and Rashi says what does that mean to see someone else's suffering? He put his eyes and his heart to suffer along with them. He not only had mercy on them, but he commiserated with them, he felt their pain with his eyes and with his heart. And that means that it's not enough just to feel somebody else's pain. But you have to have intellect also and know what the pain is and how it's possible to alleviate that pain. If you only have a heart, so you may do things that will harm a person thinking that you're helping them. And if you only have an intellect and eyes to understand their pain, you may write uh papers about poverty, but you'll never give a penny to. So you need eyes, you need uh intellect to understand and you need a heart to be able to feel also. So if you have that heart and you have those eyes and it's not only your own suffering but it's the suffering of cloud Israel, it's the suffering of your neighbor, the suffering of those that maybe you don't even know but you read about and even those that you don't read about. So then what should you do? You want to help correct the situation. So say the says what's the double thing one is investigate what you're doing and see if there are things that you can correct nobody is perfect there's always things that we can correct and do better that's see what you can correct negative things that can be corrected And your mash is then look at the good things that you do and see if you can improve on them. You give saddaka you do you learn Torah. Can you do it better? That's a mashar. I think there's another meaning also. Bes the Mishna says that in the basikdash there were little doors or little windows called pishushim. Through them you could see and and and uh hone in on uh very small things. First a person has to investigate their deeds and see specific things they can correct and specific things they can improve. But then you mash the Rambam says that when a person repents and wants to get better and be better. So he shouldn't only concentrate on the things that he's done wrong but he should look and see what caused it. Maybe there are bad character traits that need to be corrected. Maybe bad ideas, bad world views, bad uh um ideas that a person may have, values, standards that maybe have to be altered. So first you fash concentrate on the individual things and then you mashm pick them up and see what's under them. See what's causing them and maybe then it's a greater thing to work on one's character traits, one's ideas and one's values that brought him to bring those things that need to be corrected and improved. So then after one investigates one's actions and nobody can do it for you. It's a very private and individual thing. So the Gmorrah gives you a program of how it's possible to induce this kind of change. The Gmorrah says the following. A person should always try to agitate his good inclination over his bad inclination, right? To uh see to it that you're able to follow what your hat wants you to do and not the nitro. If you're successful with that, fine. What if you're not successful? Doesn't work. So then should open a safer and learn some Torah nits the Torah helps to uh protect a person from sin. So if you're successful with that learning of Torah, fine. What if you weren't successful? Didn't help. Then read the also a protection. If you're successful with that, fine. What if you're not successful even with that? Then then you should remember that you're a mortal being. Remember the day of death. Remember that nobody's here forever and that we're mortal. human beings. So they ask very simply if in the end remembering the day of death is going to uh help you to avoid sin and to correct things then why beat around the bush. You know learning Torah is very nice and reading keshma is very nice but right now we're working on ourselves. So get to the point and remember the day of death right away. forget about the other things right now. If that's in the end going to help. Perhaps the answer is the following. Remembering that we're mortal and remembering the day of death can have negative implications. And a person can come to negative responses by remembering the day of death. And until you negate those negative responses, remembering the day of death isn't going to help. What are those negative responses? The first one is person knows that he's mortal. Here's the news that god forbid a missile hit here and people were killed or whatever. And you remember that you're also mortal. So the first negative response is I can control my fate. just have to do the right things. If I'll jog and I'll eat health foods, I'll live forever. Nothing can happen to me. By the way, the person who um initiated jogging died of a heart attack while he was jogging. That doesn't mean that a person shouldn't jog and that a person should not eat health foods and good healthy food. It's not what it means. You should you have to do your histadas. You have to make your effort to do things that will protect you. But never think that you're in control because people can do all the right things and ramanl doesn't help and people can do all the wrong things and uh they're the ones who live to be 105. So a person is required to do what's right and to do what is healthy but never think that you are the one that's totally in control. And therefore the first thing is the only thing that we are in complete control of is our fight with the moral choices that we're in charge of that gave us. Everything else everything is the hands of heaven except for our moral choices. So the first thing to do is remember what's in your hands to control and what's in God's hands to control. So you won't come to the negative response of remembering your mortal to think that you can control that totally. Second negative response, we're going to die anyway, so nothing's worth anything. And person goes into depression, pulls the covers over his head and stays in bed for the rest of the day. What's anything worth? It's all going to end uh in the bay. So what life in this world is not important on that said to learn a little Torah. Torah takes every physical thing in this world and makes it important. Either there's a mitzvah or something to avoid. But everything in this world has in intense and eternal importance. Every second in this world is important. And everything you do, everything that you come in contact with, every person that you interact with gives you the opportunity to create eternity. So don't think that the world is worthless just because you're not going to be here forever. But while you're here, do what you can. Better than the whole world to come is one second of using this world properly. Because if you use this world properly, you create more and more eternity, more olhaba, which you can't do once you're there. Once you're there, whatever you have, you have. So this world is infinitely and eternally important. So don't make the mistake to think that because we're all going to die, so life isn't important at all. Just the opposite, life is very important. And the third negative response is eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. A total abandon. Might as well enjoy yourself while you're here. Not going to be here, right? In a few years or in a few decades. So, you might as well enjoy yourself while you're here. Total abandon. Eat, drink, and be merry. on that the Torah says read the creeshma. The Schma tells us that there's reward and punishment and there's a yoke of heaven that a person has to accept and this world is not a world that's heer. It's not a world of abandon. It's a world where a person has responsibility and has to live according to that responsibility. And after you've negated those three negative responses, now remembering the day of death can be very positive. What's positive about it? That every second of life is important because it is limited. It's not here forever. This life in this world is a means. It's a it's a means to reach a goal. The goal is eternal life. And every second in this world, you have the ability to create more and more of that eternal life. And the situation we're in lends itself to remind us of these responses because we're reminded of our mortality daily. Pick up a newspaper. Listen to the news. This one perished. This one died. This one was was wounded. And we are very very much aware that life in this world is limited. There's always a constant danger that we are are in. And we also come to the realization that every second is important. When you have 10 minutes of a warning to get to a safe place because there are ballistic missiles coming, you know how important 10 minutes in this world is. And maybe sometimes it's down to a few seconds, but those seconds are extremely important. And your life may depend on a second. So then we come to the realization that life is not something to squander but life is very important and every second is important and use it properly. Fill it up with good deeds with mitzvah with Torah learning. Next time you have an opportunity to do a kindness to a neighbor take the opportunity. Don't let it slip through your hands because how who knows if that opportunity is going to come again. That is the positive response. And we have hostages that we're constantly reminded about who languish in tunnels in kamas and nothing is in their control except one thing. Their moral choices. There it's clear that we're not the balabatim. We're not the ones in control. If you think about those hostages, they have no control over their life. The only thing they control is how they react to the situation they're in. And we know of stories already of heroism, spiritual heroism. One example, but not the only example. A gamer in the situation that I wouldn't I couldn't imagine being in. I couldn't imagine remaining steadfast in that situation. So, So that's what we're in control of even when we're in control of nothing else. So the situation lends itself to tell us that the rabban shalom is the one who runs this world and there is den vian there's a judge and there's a judgment and every bullet has an address and every missile has an address and the world's not heer and all the negative responses to remember that we are mortal uh we have a daily daily reminder that those negative responses hold no water. And it's clear that if it would wouldn't be for things that we do that are not proper, if there wouldn't be the word doesn't mean sin. I don't know what sin means but means something's missing right says by uh and and means you missed the mark something's missing so if it wouldn't be that because of our actions there's things missing in this world the world would be a beautiful place the world would be a utopia. So what causes it to be a world that's less than utopia? The fact that we do things that make the world less than utopia and all sorrows are caused by those things. So if you want to be an amados, if you want to be a new nation and get out of this misfortune and these difficult times, then kadosh, you need a new heart. You need to direct your heart in the right the right direction. And I'm not here to tell you what you have to work on. That's again a very individual personal thing. But I can tell you what Kazal said were the causes of the destruction of the basikash. And it's not just the second basikdash because we haven't yet gotten back what was lost with the first basikdash. First basik second basikdash was not a replacement of the first one. It was missing five incidental things like the like the oron like the uh urinum. It's like a shul without an aren't kesh without sidur just a place has just chairs it's very nice but that's not what a shul is not what the basikdesh was it was a poor replacement so we haven't yet replaced the first basikdash and I'm going to tell you which things cause that and continue to cors it because called dor shalom if the reasons for the would go away and we would we would correct those each person himself each person's a little basikdash you have to correct your own little basikdash your own little heart and if we each work on ourselves then together we'll be an amados with a lead but if it wouldn't be that those sins are continued then the B mikdash will be built. So what are those sins? I'm going to tell you what they are and each person hear what they have to hear. The famous Gumar the first was destroyed because of Gillarayor immorality murder and idolatry. And the second Bikdash because of means baseless useless hatred. What does that mean? Nobody hates people for no reason. What's ask anybody why you hate that guy? He has a list. So what is Cena? Who hates people for no reason? I think what it means is the following. sena does not necessarily mean you hate somebody's guts. I'll prove it to you. The Torah says eso says that loved more than two later it says God saw that Leia was hated. Now what he means hated said that he loved Raul more. That means he loved Leia. Jacob didn't hate Leia. If he did, he couldn't live with her. Not allowed to live with a wife that you hate. He just loved Ra more. So why does it say she was hated? Aa love means a feeling of unity, a feeling of connection. I feel connected to somebody. The word aa in gatri is one. When you feel one with somebody you like that person, you feel connected to that person only see good about them. You don't see bad about them. Cena is the opposite. It means you don't feel connected. We're all connected to one shama. All Jews, right, are one. The is part of the oneness of hemi because we're all one nation. We receive the Torah. But if you don't feel that connection to somebody else, then that leads to seeing all the negative things. Means sometimes the Cena the disconnection comes from reasons. You have reasons and because of that you feel disconnected. sometimes the opposite because you don't feel a connection that creates the reasons was mentioned kams and barams right if you looked at the garra there everybody was justified I could understand each one the guy who uh what's it called didn't invite his enemy to the party is ruining his simka so he asked him to leave the guy who innocently came thinking that perhaps this host wants to make peace right? Didn't want to be insulted and embarrassed publicly. The rabbis perhaps they had a good reason. They didn't want to get mixed in because they thought it wouldn't help. And uh why make things worse? Everybody had a justification. Except you know why they felt justified? Because they didn't consider the feelings of the other one. They only considered their position. Had they considered the feelings of the other one, they would have come to a different conclusion. Sometimes the hatred is not the result of reasons, but the reasons are the result of the hatred. That's the reasons don't cause your being disconnected. You just don't feel a connection to other people. And because of that, you create reasons why you want to be separate from them. So that is and then kazal say that these sins not everybody committed adult idolatry or adultery or were murderers. So there's other sins that are similar to them on a much lower level but they're also part of it. What were they shabas? People were m shabas. That doesn't mean that they necessarily lit fires on shabas but they weren't careful with the laws of shabas. Kisheshma they slept late and didn't say kisheshma. The marishaw says they used to have mo shabas malava malas and get drunk and therefore sleep o sleep in on Sunday and they weren't be able to say keshma. So we're not talking about terrible people. We're talking about sins that if you don't say keshma, that's something that is similar to a zora because you're not declaring the oneness of Hashem. And also because people weren't honest in business. They didn't uh deal in their business dealings, in their money matters uh honestly. And then the idea of sneas, they weren't modest. They didn't have the mida of busha. They weren't ashamed to do things. They didn't think that anything was inappropriate. And also cotton they uh what's it called? Um they they by murder says that they insulted or they uh took children schoolage children and took them away from learning Torah. All those things are taking life away from a person. You insult somebody publicly. It's like murdering him. And they didn't reprove and give muser to one to the other. and they made everybody equal and didn't look up to more important people and didn't understand a person didn't understand what his status was in this world and then kazal say another they detested Israel they didn't appreciate it they weren't willing to fight for it they weren't willing to give up for it and they didn't keep properly and they didn't make a on the Torah. They didn't appreciate the importance and superiority of Torah learning. All of those things are things that Kazal say resulted in the destruction that we are still in now. And every person who corrects and improves in one of these areas is creating a brick in the ongoing process. We say doesn't say in the future tense it's an ongoing process since the destruction says Messiah was born when the Bameitas was destroyed. It's a process and he'll come when all of those things are corrected. And each and every person can create another brick by correcting, by improving in one of these areas. And it's a very personal thing. You're not going to get from me what you should do. I have enough trouble telling myself what I have to do. I'm not going to tell you. But each person should search their heart and have a lab to see what we can do improve correct in one of these areas and we'll know that if we really really feel the pain of the and today it's easy to feel the pain because look around and see the misfortune we're in and how many people are suffering And uh what kind of anti-semitism exists all over the world? So the pain is easy to feel. If you really feel the pain, then it's not a future thing. But you'll understand how to alleviate that pain and you'll work on yourself and you'll work on your neighborhood and on your to it that bricks are made for that future said yes I destroyed the bikdash with fire but no what fire the fire in each person's heart the fire of every mitzvah that you do and every good thought and every is another brick in the building of a third base which we should see very very soon.