Rabbi Daniel Glatstein | CHAZAQ Tisha B'Av Marathon

It's a great honor to be here. It's been a number of years since I had the opportunity to make it back to my old stomping grounds. The Kinos that we said this morning is not only an opportunity to mourn the destruction of the base hamikdash, but there are many important principles in Jewish thought that we need to focus on, glean, and learn from to take with us for our daily life. There's a philosophical question that the Kinos itself raises, which in a certain sense is the central question that we grapple with every single day of our life. In Kinos Tesayan, the following scenario is portrayed. Remember Titus? Remember Titus? Titus is a son of of Vespasian, and he begins his assault on Yerushalayim and the base hamikdash with this audacious claim. He says to God, "A Eloheinu, where are you?" And according to the Yerushalmi, Titus actually challenged God. He says, "I'm a king, you're a king, let's battle each other." Titus then takes his sword, and he pierces the paroches. The paroches is the curtain that separates the heichal from the kodesh hakodashim. It's practically in the holiest spot on Earth. He then enters the holy of holies, and without getting too graphic for a general audience, he spreads out a safer Torah, he takes a zona, he takes a harlot, and he commits the unspeakable act in the holy of holies on the safer Torah. Can you imagine? There is no greater desecration of the temple than for this wicked man, this rasha, to enter the holy of holy. You know, if a kohen gadol entered the holy of holies on a random Tuesday, he would die immediately. If an unworthy Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, he would die immediately. There were literally hundreds of Kohanim Gedolim during the era of the Second Temple because they couldn't survive entering the Holy of Holies. And here this rasha enters the Holy of Holies. He spreads out a safer Torah with the zona. He commits the unspeakable. You would expect that lightning should come down and zap him and fry his brain. He should have died on the spot. What happened to him? Nothing. Not only did nothing happen to him after he committed the act and he got himself back together, he took the paroches. He wraps all the vessels of the Temple and he carries it off to Rome. How did he get away with this? How did the man get away with such desecration? If a holy rabbi with a long white beard and a black coat would have sat and learned the Zohar and immersed in a mikvah 7,000 times and he would have entered the Holy of Holies without bringing the ketoret, he would have died on the spot. And here Titus enters the Holy of Holies and nothing happens to him. How's that possible even? You know who asked that question? The Kinos. The Kinos asked the question even more graphically. Remember Nadav and They were some of the holiest men who ever lived. In a certain way, Chazal say they were greater than Moshe and Aaron. And all they did wrong was they brought a fire into the Temple to serve God that they were not commanded to bring. And immediately a fire emanates from the Holy of Holies, goes into their nostril and snuffs out their soul and they died instantly. I don't get something. There's something that doesn't add up over here. Here you have two tzadikim, they were trying to serve God, they believed in God, they were trying to serve him in his temple, and they died immediately because they didn't do the avodah in the most appropriate way, and yet Titus takes the safer Torah and he violates his own eye in the Holy of Holies and nothing happens to him? But this question really reverberates until the end of time. This is a question that we're constantly thinking about. Why is it that sometimes the Jewish people may do something slightly wrong, and we have this whole book called Kinos of all the atrocities that happened to them, and yet the nations of the world who are light-years more wicked than we would ever think of being, and they live life peacefully. Why are they never punished? Why don't they have a book of Kinos? Why don't they recite all the atrocities that happened to them? How do they get away with this? And the answer says in Nefesh HaChaim is very simple. You ever hear of Ruvein? How you doing? You ever hear of Torah anytime? Oh, it's Shimon Zerouassa. torahanytime.com. Now I'm going to tell you I'm going to give you some Torah anytime therapy, you know, that every speaker needs. What's the biggest fear that any speaker has, especially on Tisha B'Av? Is the camera plugged in? You know, you're always checking, is the camera plugged in? Are the batteries in the Bluetooth? Because you could speak for an hour, 3 hours, but what if what if it didn't come out? My Kinos this morning, one slight thing, the cameraman forgot to press record. And I only spoke for 4 hours. So, no problem. I'll do we'll have to do it again. What do you do? The biggest fear in this world, if you're a speaker, and you you're being recorded, is is it plugged in? Cuz if it's not plugged in, nothing's happening. You know, they you know they say if a tree falls in a forest, but nobody heard it, did it actually fall? If a speaker speaks today and Torah Anytime didn't record it, did it happen? Well, what if you're not plugged in? Then there's no record of it. You don't even know if it happened. I can't believe I've been doing this at Torah Anytime for so long. I remember Eliezer when he was born. Right? I was at your your bris. You know, when I started speaking You don't know about this. When I started speaking, I was on Main Street. I used to go to some computer store. What was it called? The Computer Doctor with my SD card so they could upload the shear for me, which I did once a week. Anyway, here's the difference between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. You see, the thing is, we're plugged into the system. If you're plugged into the system, every act, thought, word that a Jew does has ramifications throughout the whole universe. We're plugged into creation so that when we say when we davening, it actually enhances the ecosystem. It changes the stock market and all the worlds are affected. When a Jew puts on fillin, you become healthier, the world becomes more successful, the world becomes a better place. When you make a bracha, when you say a kind word, it affects all of creation. Therefore, if a Jew even has an immodest thought, it wreaks more havoc to existence than if Titus goes into the Holy of Holies, spreads out a safer Torah, and violates his ona. You know what it does in this world? It does nothing. It has no ramification at all. You know why? Cuz Titus is not plugged into the system. God created the soul of the Jew that all of your actions, all of your words, and all of your thoughts have universal ramification. Not so the nations of the world, says the Nefesh HaChaim. You ever hear the expression on some uh urns, it says, "Da mala mala mimcha." Literally, it means, "Know what's above you." Who's above you? God's above you. Says the Nefesh HaChaim, it means more than that. Da, you should know, mala mala, whatever takes place in all of creation, mimcha, you caused it, you brought it about. I'm going to tell you something. It's going to be a shocker. Usually, people don't speak this way. Who runs the world? You're not going to I'm telling you. I know you you heard a lot of shiurim, that's your problem. You're not going to You heard too many shiurim to get the right answer to this question. Who runs the world? Hashem, right? That's what you thought before you came here. You thought Hashem runs the world. Hashem created the world, he plugged you into the world, you run the world. You control the world, says the Arizal HaKadosh. K'i amar Baracha Yaakov, literally, it means, "So says your creator, Yaakov." Says the Arizal HaKadosh, read it as follows, "K'i amar Baracha." So says, you know who your creator is? Yaakov Avinu. What? What does that mean? Says the Arizal HaKadosh, the Nefesh HaChaim says this as well. Do you remember when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt and the Egyptians were chasing after them and the Pharaoh and all the Egyptians are riding after the Jews? That was a bad decision, that was a bad move. After all, the sea is there, it's coming crashing down. Why didn't the Pharaoh pull back on his horse and tell the horse, "Stop going into the sea." The answer is he tried. Pharaoh had no interest in running headlong into a sea that was going to come crashing down on him. Pharaoh tried to stop running into the sea. But he couldn't. You know why? Because he lost control of the horse. The horse ran headlong into the water even though the Pharaoh was trying to stop the horse. You know, sometimes when you see someone riding a horse, you see you think the rider is in control. But sometimes the rider is not in control. The horse is in control. We say in Shir Hashirim, Lasusati Berichvei Pharaoh, Dimisich Rayasi. God says, Now, men, never try this at home. You know that Shir Hashirim is a love song between a groom and a bride. And the groom, who's God, says to his bride, that's the Jewish people, "I love you so much. You're like the horses of Pharaoh's chariot." Never say to your beloved, "Dear, you're like the horses of Pharaoh's chariot." She will serve you hay if you say that. What does Shir Hashirim mean? Lasusati Berichvei Pharaoh, Dimisich Rayasi. That I liken you to the horses of Pharaoh's chariot. Says the Nefesh Hachaim, You look around the world. You see war in Iran. You see war in Israel. You see a stock market that's suffering. And you wonder, "Who's doing that?" And you think God is doing that. Sorry, you heard too many Shiurim. You're doing it. You caused the war. You caused the stock market to crash. The God runs the world through our actions. You know, God is likened to the rider of a horse. We say God's the rider. The thing is, we're the horse. And this horse is in full control. We control the world. Don't let anyone convince you and say, "Why is God doing this? And why God doing that?" No, you look at yourself in the mirror. Why are you doing this? Why am I doing this? Says God gave over the running of the world to cloud Israel. He plugged them into the system. If there's success in the world, it's your if there's failure in the world, it's your failure in that is principle number one. could be dangerous. You abdecate the world to God as if you know you know he controls the world. You control it. When you get up in the morning, don't listen to the news as if the news I wonder what will happen. You create the news. You get up in the morning. The way you dive in, the way you learn Tyra, the way you speak to other people controls what happens in the world. But that's only the Jewish people. Titus is not plugged into the system. Titus could go into the Holy of Holies and live with the Zina on a safer Tyra and it does nothing. It wreaks no havoc to the world. Says but a Jew if he allows an immodest thought to creep into his mind, that creates more disaster than even what Titus did. That's the first step of real emunah. Understanding the ramifications of our actions. Let's talk about another thing that happened to Titus. You know, he goes to the paroches, he slashes the paroches and blood comes gushing out of the paroches. So, you remember what happened? The Gemara says Titus thought, kavyochol, he's slain the Almighty. Why did Could somebody tell me how in the world did blood come gushing out of the paroches? The curtain in the Beis Hamikdash was laden with gallons of blood? Now, obviously it was a miracle. Who made that miracle? The Ribono shel Olam. Why did the Ribono shel Olam make that miracle? Well, he wanted Titus to think that he killed God. God made a miracle to trick Titus. Give me a break. God made a miracle for a rasha? Hashem doesn't make miracles for resha'im to trick them to think that they killed No, no, no. That's a secondary reason. Obviously, there's a primary reason here, says Rav Isaac Sher, Rosh Yeshiva of Slabodka. There must be a primary reason. Why did God make this miracle? And the answer is it's to teach us the most important lesson that we need to learn on Tisha B'Av. Queens is such a good place. It's amazing. There's so much Torah in Queens. Chazak. Torah anytime. All good things start in Queens, right? Queens, you know what else they have? There's Lakewood. Lakewood, Ir HaTorah. There's Flatbush, there's Boro Park, there's Monsey. There's where it's wonderful. There're pizza kosher pizza stores, sushi. What a great existence. No. It's a disaster. Jewish life today is a disaster. Why is it a disaster? What are we missing? We're missing everything. We're missing Zion. We're missing the base on mig dash. We're missing the life force of the Jewish people. We're missing Hakadosh Baruchu. Without a base on mig dash, it's all a charade. It's all a joke. It's a joke. Yeah. There's a lot of Torah today. Hundreds of lot of Gamara, daf yomi, thousands of hours of learning. It's a bad joke. We've We've deluded ourselves. I'm going to quote to you now to learn on Tisha B'Av. So, I'm going to tell you something George Bernard Shaw says, "When it comes to self-delusion, every man is a genius." We've deluded ourselves to think, "Oh, the most Torah ever. The most Torah ever. The most learning. The most learning. The most Gamara." WE'RE PATHETIC. WE'RE SO PATHETIC that we think we're doing well. That's how pathetic we are. Cuz we don't have a base on mig dash. Imagine somebody who had healthy eyes. You'll tell me when I need to stop. Had healthy eyes. Had good feet. Maybe even he had good lungs. The problem was there was a dagger stuck through his heart from one end to the other. How's the guy doing? He's doing lousy. He's basically dead. He's doing lousy. I don't care how good the top from his midsection and up. I don't care how good he's looking. And I don't care how he's looking in his lower section. If he has a knife stuck through him from one end to the other, he's as good as dead. Says Rabbi Isaac Sherr, "The reason Hashem made the miracle that blood began gushing out of the paroches is to demonstrate to the Jewish people with the destruction of the base on mig dash cloud Israel had suffer cardiac arrest were basically dead. You know, the Vilna Gaon in describing the state of the Jewish people in the Galus, the Vilna Gaon says, "We're not just dead. Dead would be a compliment. If somebody would say about the Jewish people in 2026, 'We're dead,' that would be a gross exaggeration of how good we things are. We're not dead. We're not even decomposed," says the Gra. "Don't give us to say we've decomposed would be too complimentary." You know, the Gemara talks about a phenomenon that after the bones decomposed, it turns into rekev. Rekev is bone dust. After like thousands of years of bone decomposition, it turns into bone dust. Says the Vilna Gaon, "We have become bone dust." And we think we're doing okay. But without a Beit Hamikdash, it's a disaster. You know, Yoshiyahu Navih Daven to Hashem Hashem, "I want to die in peace." And the Gemara says Hashem answered in the affirmative, "Yoshiyahu died in peace." Are you kidding me? Yoshiyahu died in peace? The man we read in the Kinnos this morning was pierced with 300 arrows, went through his body like target practice. Says the Gemara, "How could you say Yoshiyahu Navi died in peace? He was pierced like a sieve." Says the Gemara, "He did die in peace because he didn't have to witness the all-time most disastrous event in history. He didn't have to see the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash." You know what the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash is? It's a sword through the heart. You sit here, you listen to good speakers before me and after me, and you think that it's a pretty good day. It's a disaster. It's not okay. We're not doing okay here in Queens, in New York, in the United States of America. We're not missing just a little bit. We have nothing. Here's another message of the blood that came gushing out of the Kodesh Hakodashim. There's a Kabbalistic teaching of Rab Chaim Vital that every human being has 248 limbs and 365 sinews. The 248 limbs correspond to the 248 positive commandments and the 365 sinews correspond to the 365 negative commandments. Each one of the mitzvahs gives life to another one of our limbs. Each one of the averos also by by not violating them breathes life into one of our sinews. But, says Rab Chaim Vital, the body is a cloak and it cloaks our spiritual entity. We have 248 physical limbs. We have 248 spiritual limbs. We have 365 physical sinews. We have 365 negative sinews. You know, just like in the physical body, if lo aleinu somebody didn't have an arm, they could still live. Someone didn't have a leg, they could still function. It would be difficult. They could still function. There are even some limbs a person could survive a certain amount of time without. We need eyes. But if someone lo aleinu only had one, they could still survive. But without a heart, ye'afshal heskayem v'lamed lifanecha afilu sha'ah achas. He couldn't survive even for a moment. Therefore, it's worthwhile to try to identify which mitzvahs correspond to which parts of the body. Because some of them will end up being a lot more important than others. And the most important thing would be to identify which mitzvah corresponds to our heart. Because the mitzvah that corresponds to our heart will be the essential ingredient in keeping us alive. Comes the Chofetz Chaim. And the Chofetz Chaim How am I doing? We're good? Continue? 2 minutes. Okay. I got the official 2-minute warning. Here we go. Which mitzvah corresponds to our heart, says the Chofetz Chaim? Lo sisna es achicha bilvavecha. Don't hate another Jew. That's the prohibition that corresponds to the heart. Says the Chofetz Chaim, if we harbor an animosity to another Jew, we have effectively removed our heart. We're no longer viable spiritual entities. Just call the whole thing a day. It's not just Shabbos. Shabbos is very important. If somebody desecrates Shabbos, they pick up a bottle of wine, can't drink the wine anymore. It's not mevushal. There's If somebody doesn't have emunah, they're like abandoning the faith. If someone hates Jews, just close the book. It's finished. You don't even have a heart. Your heart, your spiritual heart, has effectively stopped pumping. When Titus destroyed the Temple, why did he destroy the Temple? Because of baseless hatred. The heart of the Jewish people was gushing with blood. The message is, it's all over. If you don't have the basic ingredient of loving other Jews, all the mitzvahs don't even have a person to continue to perform the Torah of Hashem. These are some of the things we need to bear in mind as we continue through Tisha B'Av and as Hashem in the merit of us coming together to elevate ourselves, may we be so lucky this should be the last Tisha B'Av here in United States of America Lashanah Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim. Thank you.