When Cracks Show Up In Your Life, Marriage, and Job

The Yeshiva.net There's a famous story in Medrash Medrash Eicha, Medrash Rabbah on Eicha. And it's also in Talmud Yerushalmi in Taanis about a Jew who was plowing with his ox in a field outside of Jerusalem in the region close to what's known as Midbar Yehudah, the Judean deserts. And he was busying himself with plowing his field for a new year of growth and harvest. Nearby say the sages, says the Medrash there was an Arab Bedouin who was also plowing his field with his ox. And this Arab Bedouin apparently had that unique skill I don't know what the proper term is to be able to be sensitive to the language of animals. And the Chazal, our sages, continue goss paroso pamachas. His ox, the Bedouin's ox mooed that um grunted. Is that the word? Not a donkey, an ox, an ox. It gave It gave a I can illustrate it, but I don't know the word. But it gave a long extended moo as an ox knows how to do. And this Arab Bedouin turned to the Jew and said, "It's time for you to stop plowing because your temple just went up in flames. Your Beit Hamikdash was just destroyed. It was just decimated. You should stop plowing." Meaning, even though the distance was quite far, it was far beyond the Judean deserts, but from the language, from the music, the sound of the ox, he said, "This is the end. Stop plowing." A moment later, says the Midrash, his ox gave a second a second grunt, a second moo. And the Arab Bedouin turns to the Jew and says, "You could resume plowing." Why? Because nolad moshiach Yisrael. The savior, the redeemer of the Jewish people was just born. You could resume the plowing again. This is the end of the story in Talmud Yerushalmi and in Midrash Rabbah Eichah. The Midrash Rabbah is, of course, the oral tradition and commentary of the sages on Chumash and on Tanakh and on the book of Eichah, the book of Lamentations that the Gemara says in Bava Batra was written by Yirmiyahu in uh section 1 51, perek aleph, parsha aleph, piska nun aleph, the Midrash tells this story. In fact, parenthetically, in parentheses, this Midrash was brought to the fore in a very public and sad debate that took place in the year 1263 in the 13th century between one of the greatest sages of Jewish history, the Ramban, Rabbeinu Moshe ben Nachman, Nachmanides, and a Jewish convert to Christianity by the name of Pablo Christiani. In the Middle Ages, the Christians often forced rabbis to hold public debates with Christian scholars and representatives to debate the authenticity of Christianity versus Judaism. The challenge was there was no way the Jews could win this debate because if you lost the debate, well, you lost the debate. And if you won the debate, you lost even more because the penalties for winning such a debate were extravagant. The Ramban himself, Nachmanides, was forced to leave Spain and ultimately left to the Holy Land, Eretz Yisrael, where he settled during the last years of his life and he passed on. You have in Jerusalem still Beit Knesset, Beit Knesset Ramban, famous shul that the Ramban built in the 1200s when he left Spain, his homeland, his original where he was born and raised and led the Jews and ultimately moved to Eretz Yisrael. The debate was often held by Jews who converted to Christianity and therefore wanted to appease the church and wanted to out-gentile the gentiles, meaning they wanted to show that they're more Christian than the Christians, so nobody should accuse them of being Jewish and sometimes Jews suffered from them more than everybody else because they had to show their extreme fundamental fundamentalist allegiance to the church. And in this case, Pablo Christiani debated the Ramban and one of the one of the the items he pulled out of his bag was this Midrash. He says, "You see, the Messiah was born right after the destruction of the Temple." The Midrash says, "You claim that the Messiah still has to arrive, but your sages your sages have clearly said that he was already born." And the Ramban responded, the Ramban wrote up this debate. It's called Milhamot HaShem. The Ramban wrote up the questions that were put to him and his answers. And he responded to this to this question. I mean, the response is not a very complicated one because he said even according to their calculations the redeemer of the Christian world by the time the second temple was burnt, he was already dead. He was already killed. The second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed in the year 70 after the common era. According to Christian sources, he was born in the year zero, which is when the secular calendar begins. 2018 is 2018 since the year zero, which was the year zero, and then 70 70 years after that, the second Beit Hamikdash the second temple was destroyed. So, he was born much earlier, and he was already gone by the time the second temple was destroyed. So, he said this Midrash anyway completely doesn't work with any of uh of your calculations. The Ramban said other things about the Midrash, but I'm just mentioning what a significant uh important role this story about the mooing of the ox on the day of Tisha B'Av when the temple was destroyed occupied the later in Jewish history and more than a thousand years later in the 13th century during this great debate in Barcelona, in Spain, in the presence of the king. What I want to ask today is what is really the meaning of this Midrash? It's interesting that this story is also brought in Halakha. In the laws of Tisha B'Av in Shulchan Aruch, the poskim many of the Halakhic authorities bring that the reason that when Tisha B'Av in the afternoon, the ninth day of Av in in afternoon, we say Nacham, there's a special prayer of comfort that is said Tisha B'Av in the afternoon is because on Tisha B'Av, even though it's the day of destruction, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av is the day that this happened, the day that the temple went up in flames, both of them, the first in 586 BCE, before the common era, and the second in 70, but since it's also the birth the birth as this better one testified from the sound of the ox, the birth of Messiah, so the place can bring that the Tisha B'Av, based on this Yerushalmi, the Tisha B'Av no one would Messiah, the Tisha B'Av is also the birthday of Messiah, and that's why in Tisha B'Av there's also the theme of consolation and redemption and comfort, which is brought in the name of the Arizal and other places can bring it why we say Nachem in the afternoon of Tisha B'Av. But what does this really mean? What the what what is the meaning of the story? Moments after the ox grunted the first time, it gave a second grunt, whether it was a minute afterwards or a few seconds afterwards, this says right afterwards, and they say, "Your redeemer was born." What is the significance of it? What does it mean? Does it mean literally he was born? I mean, Jews are still in exile 2,000 years later, so obviously he wasn't born, doesn't mean somebody who had the potential to be Messiah was born. Is it a symbolic idea? So many of the commentators discussed this over the generations. I'm going to present one possible interpretation today, but first introduce another exhibit, another subject. We have a principle in Yiddishkeit that uh the possuk says in Tehillim, we say it in the morning in davening, it's in the Psukei D'Zimra, King David says in Psalms, I translate everything into English, I try to, so everybody could understand. Magid D'varav L'Yaakov, Chukov U'Mishpatav L'Yisrael. He relates his words to Jacob, his laws and statutes to Israel. The Medrash Rabbah, again the Medrashic commentary in Shmoise Rabbah, I think parsha Lamed, Medrash Rabbah on Shmoise section 30, focuses on a nuance. It says he relates his words to Jacob, his laws, his statutes to Israel. You would think it should say he gives laws to the Jewish people. He presents a constitution to the Jewish people, we call it the Torah the mitzvahs. But the possuk, the verse in Tehillim says it's his laws, chuko u mishpato. So from this the sages derive ma shehu mitzaveh l'acheirim laasos, hu oiseh. Whatever he tells others to do, he also does. He is so to speak bound, k'vayachol, by halacha. It's not just the king, you know, they say say as I say, do as I say, not as I do. I say one thing and I do something else, I'm the king, I can do what I want. So the Medrash says no, Magid varov, chuko u mishpato, these are his words, his statutes, his laws, meaning he himself, so to speak, confines himself, behaves according to these laws. Which is why the Gemara in Maseches Brachos asks what does Hashem put on tefillin, what does it say in his tefillin? What's written in his tefillin? Or other mitzvahs that he performs, what does it mean he puts on tefillin, it doesn't mean physically puts on tefillin, black boxes on a head and in an arm like a mortal human being, but it means that the concept of the mitzvah of tefillin is observed not only by the Jewish people, but also by the creator of the world, by God himself, because what he the chukim, the mishpatim, the laws that he gives the Jewish people, he himself also observes. Says in Sifrei, how does he observe the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem, loving God? Loving God, is it the love of self? It's also the love of the Jewish people. I have to ask him I love you cuz every Jew is a piece of God. So by loving the Jew, he also loves God. The question that's brought in the name of the market of Misrich is how does Hashem observe the mitzvah of Yiras Hashem, fear of God? How does God observe the mitzvah one of the mitzvahs is Hashem to fear God. How can he observe the mitzvah of fearing? How does God observe the mitzvah of Yiras Hashem? And the answer that's given is because the Gamorah says Hakol B'Yedei Shamayim Chutz M'Yiras Shamayim. Everything is in the hands of heaven besides fear of heaven. Meaning, everything that happens is in the hands of heaven besides the moral choices that a person makes. That's depending on the person himself. So Hashem, so to speak, is is fearful or apprehensive about what is going to be the next move of the human being because here he waits in great anticipation and awe and a form of fear and reverence what is going to be your your next move. You know, they say that there was once a The Midrash brings a story there was once a wise man who would travel to various cities and he always had the answer to all the questions. And finally, one, you know, smart aleck decided he's going to get him. And uh he uh he lifted up his uh his fist that has been uh clenched and he says, "The butterfly that is in my hand, is it dead or is it alive?" The butterfly is it dead or is it alive? And of course, there's no way to get that answer right cuz if he says the butterfly is dead, he just uh opens his fist and the butterfly soars. And if he says the butterfly is alive, well, he tightens his fist and uh that's the end of the butterfly. So uh he says, "Tell me, you wise man, is the butterfly dead or alive?" And he looks at him and he says, the answer to that question lay in your hand. And that's true about much of life. So, Yiras Shamayim, the fear of heaven, but not the fear of heaven, the fear that heaven has, the fear that God has is of those questions that the answer to them lay in your hand or my hand or our hand. How does Hashem observe the mitzvah of mesirus nefesh, of sacrifice? And the answer that's given to that in S'varim is the Gemara says, Chazal tell us, Parshas Naso in Maseches Sotah, that there were situations where God, in order to create peace in a marriage between a husband and a wife when there was uh profound suspect of betrayal and no therapist or counselor could be of help so God says, I myself will intervene into this marriage and I will serve as the therapist for this couple. And in a very fascinating procedure that existed during the time of the Mishkan in the Beis Hamikdash, the couple would come to the Beis Hamikdash a cup of water was filled from the Kiyor, earth was placed into the water, and water with earth, and then the Kohen wrote on a piece of parchment a portion of Torah of Parshas Naso with Hashem's name, and they put it into the water where it dissolved. And God's name was erased. When Hashem's name is written, it's actually a presence of the Shechinah, it's not just a symbol. When God's name is written on something, there is kedusha there, there is holiness there. So, Chazal say, Hashem nimcha klal Yisrael bein ish u'beim ishto, this is God's form of mesirus nefesh. We, so to speak, sacrifices himself just to make peace between a husband and a wife, to have the name, his name dissolved and erased in the water, which usually it's forbidden to erase his name. Not because not just because it's a sign of absence of respect, but also because there's a genuine manifestation of holiness in that name, which is now obliterated and erased and dissolved. So, for to make peace, to create harmony in a couple's marriage, he's ready to sacrifice himself. These are different examples. According to this, the question the following question is asked. It was raised first by a famous Turkish leader and Rabbi of Chaim Palagi, who asks the following question. How was God allowed to dispatch agents to destroy the Beit Hamikdash, the first one and the second one? Yirmiyahu Hanavi says in a few places, the prophet of doom, the one who prophesied the destruction, in a few places in the book of Jeremiah, the book of Yirmiyahu, which is which consists of 52 chapters and is dedicated to the theme of destruction and redemption, the Gemara says, Yirmiyahu Kulo Churbana, it's the great book that deals with the final years, the sunset of the Jewish people. Yirmiyahu Hanavi, who in English is known as Jeremiah the prophet, his prophecy spans through the last five kings of Judah, the last five kings of Yehuda. His prophecy spanned a few decades, the last five kings, Yoshiyahu and uh and Yehoyakim and Yehoahaz and Yehoyachin and the last king, anybody remembers? Very good. Tzidkiyahu. Tzidkiyahu was the last king who observed the destruction and ultimately was exiled to Babylonia. And Yirmiyahu Hanavi saw that final chapter of Jewish independence, of Jewish commonwealth. He observed the sunset of the Jewish people. And he prophesied about it at length. He wrote two books. The book of Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, and the book of Eichah, Lamentations, that is read in Jewish communities the world over on the night and the morning some of the day also of Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av. And Yirmiyahu says in a few places that God tells him, "I'm going to send Hineni sholeiach, I'm going to send Nevuchadnetzar, the emperor of ancient Babylonia, present-day Iraq, in order to destroy the Beit Hamikdash. Now, one of the 365 prohibitions in Torah, one of the sins in Torah enumerated in Deuteronomy in Parshas Re'eh is, "Lo sa'asun kein lashem Elokeichem." There is an absolute prohibition of destroying even one brick, even one brick, in the Beit Hamikdash, in the sanctuary. To quote the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim, he says, "Hamoyseis even achas min hamizbei'ach." The Rambam in Hilchos, I'm sorry, Rambam in Hilchos Beit Habechirah, "Hamoyseis even achas min hamizbei'ach." Somebody who smashes or destroys one stone from the altar, "O mikol haheichal o from the entire chamber, o mibein ha'ulom v'eilam mizbei'ach, o from the corridor, derech achashveira, to destroy it, lo yikah." This is an absolute negative prohibition with a penalty of lashes, "Shenemar, 'V'nisatzu es mizbeichosam lo sa'asun kein lashem Elokeichem.'" And certainly the entire Beit Hamikdash it's absolutely forbidden. Not only that, this applies not only to the Beit Hamikdash, but any shul, any Beit Midrash, any Beit Haknesses, any synagogue, any center of learning, to destroy it is one of the 365 prohibitions. So, you might say, "God felt that the Jewish people are not deserving of it." Okay. So, you can expel them from the Beit Hamikdash, or you could do what you did to the Mishkan. The Mishkan that Moshe built in the desert wasn't destroyed, it was hidden. In fact, there were some pieces of furniture of the base of migdal that also went into hiding or were taken away or went into different places. Hazal say that the doors of the Bet Hamikdash the gate sunk in the ground. There's different methods to deprive the Jewish people from using and continuing to function and serve in the Holy Temple. But what was the heter? What was the permission halachically asks Rav Chaim Palagi in the safer nefesh chaim for God to dispatch his agents as he testifies through the prophet to destroy the base of migdal when you say that every mitzvah you tell the Jewish people to do, you yourself are so to speak bound by that mitzvah. There is a very interesting madras in Yalkut Shimoni in the beginning of Yirmiyahu. Yalkut Shimoni is one of the midrashim which are again the commentaries of the sages on various books and chapters of the Hebrew Bible of the Tanakh. And in Yirmiyahu the beginning of Yirmiyahu the Yalkut Shimoni gives the following little poem or rhyme. And I'll quote he says Allah aryeh bemazal aryeh vehechriv es Ariel. The lion ascended during the constellation of the lion and destroyed the lion. Al menat on the condition sheyaveh aryeh bemazal aryeh veyivneh Ariel that the lion should ascend during the constellation of the lion and rebuild the lion. You understand what this means? The month every month those familiar a little bit with astrology, you know, that there are the 12 mazalot, the 12 groups of stars that parallel each month. The constellation you have tleh shor te'omim sartan aryeh betulah moznaim akrav keshet gedi dli dagim. You know, when you were born, I'm sure somebody once asked you when you were born and they explained to you all of your wonderful features and values and why your mother-in-law loves you because you were born either you're a Gemini or whatever you are. The mazel, the constellation of the month of Av is Aryeh. Aryeh means a lion. What do they call it? Huh? Leo. Which is lion. I think the Latin for lion. So that's mazel Aryeh. That's the month of Av, the month of course when the temple, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, both the first one through Babylonia and the second one through Rome a few hundred years apart. The first as I said 586 BCE and the second 70 after the common era. Nevuchadnetzar, the emperor of Babylonia is defined in the book of Yirmiyahu chapter 4 as a lion. He was a lion. Allah Aryeh misubacha, the lion ascended from his den. It's like when the lion comes out of his habitat and is about to go and protect his territory or or hunt. Usually the lioness hunts, but the Aryeh comes up from the den. Nevuchadnetzar is is compared to that lion. The Beis Hamikdash in Tanakh is also called Ariel. Yeshayahu navi calls it Ariel kiryas chana David. Also also a lion and God in Tanakh is also called a lion. The navi Amos says Aryeh sha'ag mi lo yira. When the lion roars, who will not who will not fear? So the Yalkut Shimoni does display on words. The lion, Nevuchadnetzar, ascended in the month of the lion, the constellation of the lion, Av, and destroyed the lion, the Beis Hamikdash. So that the lion God, Hashem, who's is a lion, will come up in the month of the lion and of and rebuild the lion by Nebuchadnezzar Hashem in the month of of. Now, at first glance, it seems like it seems cute. But, what's really the Medrash trying to say? It's like, okay, so we have a positive Nebuchadnezzar is called a lion and Hashem is called a lion. And we know of this a lion. So, the lion came up in the month of the lion to destroy the lion so that another lion, which is Hashem, was quite a Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was a Russia Marusha. He was He was a vicious lion, an egomaniac, a narcissist a narcissist. He said about himself the Nabi says, "I don't know how you are alone but mostly of a dominant alien. I will be I will be God. I am in the lieu of God. I will ascend to the heavens. I don't know I will become I will be compare myself to alien to the supernal one." That was Nebuchadnezzar. The megalomaniac, a a quite a tyrant and a dictator and his ego knew no bounds. If you're familiar with the story in the history of Nebuchadnezzar, especially in the book of Daniel, what he did and how he uh created the culture of self worship in a quite an exaggerated and dramatic way. So, what's the point of the Medrash comparing Hashem to Nebuchadnezzar all through this image of the lion. The lion comes up in the month of the lion to destroy the lions that another lion comes up in the month of lion to uh to destroy the lion. But, here we will see that this rhyme or uh or prose of the Medrash is not just to engage the audience and inculcate within us the image of the lion in terms of the Bais Hamikdash in reference to the Bais Hamikdash, but really a very profound question is being answered, the above question question, and that is how the Rebono Shel Olam, so to speak, who observes all the mitzvahs that he gave the Jewish people, how does he allow, and not only allow it, but it's his shlichus, was part of his agency. He didn't he say "Leiyach Nevuchadnetzar Melech Bavel Avdi." I'm sending, he calls Nevuchadnetzar my servant. He's so to speak doing this as my servant, even though he had obviously other intentions to destroy something that a Jew is not allowed to destroy even one brick of it, one one one beam, one piece of wood, one iota of it, and here the entire structure was almost completely destroyed and decimated. You all know that the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av is called by the Jewish people Shabbos Chazon. Why is it called Shabbos Chazon? Chazon means a vision. In Hebrew, Chazon means a vision, because the Haftorah of the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av is not the regular Haftorah that we read every Shabbos, which is connected primarily to the theme of the Parsha, but the three Haftorahs that are read on the Shabbos between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, the three weeks when the destruction really became a real reality in the Jewish world, because on the 17th of Tammuz they managed to breach through the fortresses, the walls of Jerusalem, and three weeks later on the 9th of Av they got to the Temple Mount, and they put out they they they put the Temple ablaze. So, those three weeks the Haftorahs are dedicated to the theme themes of exile and the destruction and the impending and the following redemption. And the last, the first two are from the book of Yirmiyahu, the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and the third week is the first chapter of Yeshayahu, Isaiah. And it opens up with the words Chazon Yeshayahu ben Amotz. As Chazal say, Yehudah va Yerushalayim. The vision of Yeshayahu, the prophet Yeshayahu, who lived, by the way, a century before Yirmiyahu, a century, a century and a half before Yirmiyahu HaNavi. The vision that And therefore, his his days were more tranquil than Yirmiyahu. Yirmiyahu was mamesh there at the end. Yeshayahu HaNavi was more than a century earlier, 150 years earlier. But Yeshayahu HaNavi saw, he saw a vision for Yehudah and Yerushalayim, and it's read the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av Chazon Yeshayahu. And when you read that vision, it's naturally a disastrous vision. Some of his famous lines, Eichah hayisah l'zonah kiryah ne'emanah tzedek yalin bah atah maratzchim. For example, how did such a faithful city like Yerushalayim become a zonah, become a harlot? Justice used to live here, and now it's filled with murderers. Similar verses about the terrible moral failure and moral ruin and destruction that the inhabitants of the Holy Land, the Jewish inhabitants, have have reached as a result of their surrender to idolatry and paganism and so forth. There was a famous interpretation by the great Chassidic master Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, who wrote a famous work Kedushas Levi, and passed away in the year Tav kuf ayin, 1800, or actually 1799, it was still in the It was after Tishrei, it was still Tishrei time. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, who was the Rav of Berdichev, Berdichev is a city in the Ukraine, you could visit it, and he's buried there in the cemetery of Berdichev. He has a very different interpretation. And he says the reason it's called Shabbos Chazon is because on that Shabbos there is a vision. A vision of what? Everybody is given a vision or at least everybody is potentially given a vision of the third base of Mitzvah. And because they're given a vision of the third base of Mitzvah, that's why it's called Shabbos Hazon, the Shabbos of seeing, the Shabbos of vision. Now, this is a classical Hasidic positive twist on Hazon. Instead of saying the vision of destruction, it's a vision of the base of Mitzvah. Yet, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but I want to wonder about his interpretation. I mean, any child, anybody, layman or scholar, who looks at the haftorah and knows that Hazon is not a vision of the base of Mitzvah. The vision of Yeshayahu at that time, sadly, was the vision of absolute moral, spiritual ruin and destruction, which would result in physical ruin and destruction. That's what he meant. Hazon, that's why it's called Shabbos Hazon. So, Yitzchak comes and says comes and says, "No, it's called Shabbos Hazon, it's the vision of the third base of Mitzvah, which says the exact opposite." So, you could say it's just a cute, nice vertel. You know what a vertel means? A vertel means a vart. You know what a vart means? It's like a saying, okay, you know, somebody said something nice, so are you going to start challenging them? But that's the real question. Does an interpretation like this, is it consistent with the literal meaning of it? Or it's just, you know, uh just a nice homeopathic remedy or a lozenge to make people feel a little better and give it a positive twist. So, you have followed with you followed me with all the questions? We started off, you remember, with the ox mooing and grunting and what the meaning of that is. We moved on to the question of how Hashem could destroy a Beit Hamikdash that he himself prohibits the Jewish people of doing, of engaging in such an act. We moved on to the Medrash about the lions, and finally the dual and paradoxical interpretation of the meaning of Shabbos Chazon. And the answer to all of these questions is really one, and it behooves us to be able to open our eyes and see the deeper layers of meaning that are being conveyed through all of these above stories, ideas, Medrashic insights, and laws, and many more. I just used these these four exhibits. There are many more, but I limited myself to these four to be able to give you a glimpse into the deeper perspective that is really being conveyed via all of these, via all of these items. The Zohar says, Zohar volume three 221 says that the first two temples, the first two Beit Hamikdash's, for those who don't know, the Beit Hamikdash means the house of holiness. In English, they call them the holy temples. I say the Beit Hamikdash, but if you don't know the term, it's the holy temple that the first was built by Solomon 480 years after the Jews entered into the holy land, and the second was built by Ezra and Nehemiah and his colleagues when they came back from Babylonia 70 years after they were exiled there by Nebuchadnezzar, by the emperor of Babylonia. The first two temples, the first two Beit Hamikdash's were built by people. The first, as I said, was built by Hamelech, by Solomon, and the second by the group of Jews who came back from Babylonia. Says the Zohar, fascinatingly, everything that is built by people is destined to mortality. Humans are mortal, and our structures are mortal. Even Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, powerful, powerful companies, dare I say the Titanic, which some said even God couldn't sink, but humans are mortal. Because humans are mortal, so the death sentence that is imposed upon humans is also imposed upon human enterprises. What humans create are cursed by the curse of mortality. They may be powerful. The Roman Empire ruled for 500 years, and it cast a dread and a fear on every living person. But ultimately, ultimately, it failed. Uh you don't really have to look far. I grew up in a home of Russian parents who suffered terribly under the hands of Stalin. Nobody imagined that the Soviet Empire would come crumbling down just one bright morning and without a single bullet, without a single gunshot in 19 89, 1990, when communism fell for 70 years, it didn't only cast a dread, it's dread, but it literally it ruled hundreds of millions of lives. It held them in its grip of of aggression, of terror, of tyranny, of of evil, and one day it it crumbled. One of the miracles of our days, those who remember not so long ago, 1990. But, everything, every human enterprise, certainly evil ones, but even neutral ones, it it comes to an end. I'm not going to talk today about Coca-Cola or the Yankees. Hopefully, maybe they'll live for eternity in your merit. But, the bottom line is nothing lives forever. It's just the way it is. Nobody and nothing lives forever since our dear forefathers and foremothers decided to eat from the delicious tree of knowledge. Says the Zohar that the two temples, the two base hamikdashas were built by people, great people, extraordinary people, but they were built by people, and therefore they ultimately also could be destroyed. The third one, the Zohar says, is binyona d'kusha b'richo. It's a structure built by the divine. Versus the first two, which are binyona d'varnaash, to quote the Zohar, a structure built by humans. And therefore, mikdash adna k'nunya d'acha, we say in the shira, because it's going to be a a structure built by the divine. So, just as the divine is eternal, chaila ad v'kayam l'netzach, we say in baruch she'amar, he lives forever, or we say in the pasuk, Malachi says, ani Hashem lo shaniti, I did not change, I did not falter, v'atem b'nei Yaakov lo chilitzem, you also will not perish. It's going to be an eternal structure. It will not be destined to the powers, the the the weakness of mortality, as we say in the unsaneh tokef for shana yam kippur, adam y'sodo me'afar, v'sofo l'afar, chavak pareach v'chachaloyim ya'uf. That which comes from the earth ultimately ends back up in the earth. That's what the fate of the first two batei mikdash and that's why the Zohar says the third one is going to be a binyan nitzachi, a third Beit Hamikdash, an eternal temple, an eternal structure. This now gives us a glimpse to come back to our previous question of how God was allowed to, so to speak, according to the Midrash, destroy his own Beit Hamikdash even if he felt the Jews were on were undeserving of it. The halakha is the law remains in Shulchan Aruch, you have it in the Chaim in Siman Kof Nun Aleph and the commentators explain we're not allowed to destroy a shul. You're not allowed to demolish a Beit Midrash or Beit Haknesset, certainly a Beit Hamikdash, but even what's called a mikdash me'at, Yechezkel Hanavi, Ezekiel, calls every shul, every synagogue, every place of davening and learning a little Beit Hamikdash, the Ehel Hamikdash Me'at, has the same concept, it has the not the same level, but it has the holiness which is a reflection of the holiness in the Beit Hamikdash and one is not allowed to destroy it. Is there any dispensation? Is there ever a heter to destroy a shul? Is there? For example, let's say we want to the halakha asks, we want to in this in the olden days this was a very practical question, we want to build a shul elsewhere. We want to go to a different street, a different section of the city, a different part of the neighborhood and build a shul. So we want to destroy it here and build it there. Maybe they'll even use the material. You know, the old material is is expensive today and it was expensive in the days of yore and they'll take the material and put it there. And the halakha doesn't allow it. You're not allowed to destroy a shul even if you're going to build it elsewhere. Is You could of course build a second shul, that's perfect. But you cannot destroy this shul. So the question the halakha asks is there ever a dispensation, is there ever a heter, is it ever permissible to destroy a shul? And the answer that's given is there's only one way. And the answer is and this is the Halacha commentators discuss in Shulchan Aruch and the Taz in Kuf Nun Aleph comes from one of the Rishonim, the Mordechai in Maseches Megillah, and he says if you're going to renovate it in this is very place. If you're renovating it in this very place, meaning you want to expand the Shul, you want to make it larger and more glorious, then you're allowed to destroy it. Why are you allowed to destroy it? How could you demolish a Shul? Doesn't the Torah say Lo Sason, can you not allow them? So the Mordechai, one of the great Rishonim, he gives a very sharp, very accurate description to explain it. He says in Maseches Megillah, "Haheena Sitsah Binyan Mikri." When you demolish a structure as part of the renovation, it's not called destruction. It's called construction. Everybody understands that renovation of a home includes two phases. Phase number one, which is not Gishmak to talk about, but it's part of it, is called demolition. Phase number two is called construction. Renovation. Anybody of you any of you who built a home, whether you gutted a home and you built a new one or you destroyed a home that was too small or uncomfortable for you and you rebuilt it, everybody knows Dagmas Nefesh, the mental stress and anxiety that people who build a home have, especially if God gave you a real contractor as a winner, to give you endless nights of migraine headaches, stress and anxiety, and when he thinks everything is done, you walk into the house and you're like, "I really don't I really don't like this work." The Gemara says people who build homes, it's not easy. Mismaskan, it's a difficult difficult challenge. And yet, if I have a small kitchen, not enough bedrooms, a small dining room, a small living room, without demolition, it's impossible to rebuild a grander, more comfortable, larger, more glorious, more beautiful home. Demolition is always the prerequisite for construction. And the answer The reason is very simple. The confined walls are there. If I'm not ready to break down those walls, how can I expand the rooms? How can I expand the home? So, first I have to smash the walls. And when I smash the walls, I can then rebuild them in a different place, from a different angle, from a different perspective, and create a new home. So, somebody comes running to you and says, "There are tractors that are destroying your home. Call the police. Call the city." And you'll say, "They're not destroying my home. They're renovating my home." Don't use the word destruction. The word is not destruction. The word is renovation. Renovation has two phases. Phase number one is demolition, which looks like destruction, because they are physically destroying the home. But it's a prerequisite. It's a beginning. It's a It's a preparation. It's a It's the catalyst. It's what allows you then to rebuild the structure in a completely new and different way. So, the Mordecai says, "If I come and destroy your shul, cuz I want to take the material, I want to take the lumber, and build somewhere else a shul, this shul got destroyed." I'm not allowed to do that. I'm not allowed to do that under ordinary circumstances. There are unique circumstances, but usually you're not allowed to destroy your shul. But if I'm renovating the shul, so I take down a wall, I of course smash the bricks. That you're allowed to. Why? Because you're not destroying the shul. You're trying to build the shul. But in order to build the shul, and you want to expand it, and you want to redo it in a much more powerful and glorious way, you have to do that. This is This is what the Halakha explained and we could we all understand the profound difference. Ah. So, now when we look at the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, we could really look at it in two ways. One is the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed. It went up in flames. It was decimated. It was demolished. And that's what we call Hurban Beit Hamikdash. And it's true. And the pain of that and the grief of that is real, authentic, and profound. But there is a deeper perspective. And that is, of course, it was destroyed. But the destruction, the demolition, was really the beginning of the renovation of the third and eternal Beit Hamikdash. Because back to the Zohar, if the mortal structure remains, it's ultimately destined to die. In order to create a divine structure, the mortal structure has to give away. It has to yield to the divine structure. So, by being demolished, it's creating the space, the opening for a new type of Beit Hamikdash, of temple to be rebuilt in that very space. Like the renovation of a shul, which is as the Zohar says, Binyan Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the divine structure. Let me take this for a moment from the world of the collective of the Jewish people in Jewish history to personal lives in different areas. A couple gets married. The marriage is nice. It's fine. She's excited. He's excited. It's peaceful. It's tranquil. Life moves on. A family is created. A home is built. People become a little older, a little more mature. The scars and pains of life affect every person in their own way. People observe certain things. People become open to certain things. Certain triggers create new realities for people. And one day, you take a look at your life, at your married life, and you see there are cracks everywhere. And just as in your home, if you come one day and you see cracks in the ceiling here and cracks in the ceiling there and cracks in the wall cracks in the wall, you immediately call an expert because even though right now it's still standing, it's not dark yet, but it's getting there. It's not broken yet, but it's getting there. And one day, and this happens to many a couple, 5 years later, a year later, 10 years later, 15 years later, 20 years later, whatever the situation is, sometimes little cracks show up in the beginning and then they grow and expand, and there are cracks in the marriage. There are cracks in the relationship. Suddenly, there's a lack of trust. There's a lack of openness. There's a lack of vulnerability. There's a lack of just natural joy, exuberance, happiness. The relationship is suffering. And every Jewish home is a little base hamikdash. When the Torah introduces the building of the first sanctuary, it says, "I will dwell not in it, but in them, among them." So, the Alshich and the Rashba say that Allah says it means in every person's heart, in every home. So, every home is that little temple, that little base hamikdash. The shulchan, the table is considered the mizbeach, the altar, which is one of the reasons we have salt on our mizbeach. We say Torah on our tables, etc. Tables are important institutions in the Jewish home. They're compared to the mizbeach, to the the And suddenly, there are cracks in this home. So, when there are physical cracks, hopefully you have in your telephone the number of the person or people call and the first thing you think about is who are we going to sue. At least if we can make some money from the situation. But what happens when the cracks show up in the spiritual home and the emotional home and the psychological home? The marriage is just not what it was. Maybe it revealed that there were always cracks. It's just for a few years people are in denial. Denial is not only a river in Egypt. It's also part of people's part of people's lives. I was once in Palm Beach for a Shabbatone in Florida. So, there was a couple there in shul and they were celebrating their 60th anniversary. And they seemed very happy. So, I asked the husband, I said, "Tell me, what was the secret? Maybe we could, you know, spread this truth around the world. What's the secret of such a good marriage?" He says, "For 60 years I've been half blind and half deaf." So, I turned to his wife and said, "And what was your secret?" She says, "For 60 years I've been completely blind and completely deaf." So, she made sure to get back at his at his comment. And sometimes these cracks reveal what was always going on, but they're, you know, pushed pushed under the rug. And at some point one can't push them under the rug. What ought to be one's approach at such a moment? Now, I always say that what I'm going to say I'm going to say, but always with the greatest qualifier that my following words do not apply to every situation. Sometimes the cracks are so dangerous and so severe and so overwhelming that the following words do not apply to that situation. But I'm talking about what should be the proper response at least often in many situations. I could look at these cracks in two ways. One, it's the end. My base amic dish is being destroyed. What I thought would be a blissful and beautiful loving marriage never materialized and I don't think it will materialize. I always imagined when I was young, when I was 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 30, that my marriage is going to be different, as somebody once told me, than my parents' marriage or my grandparents' marriage or my uncle's marriage. I'm going to have the most beautiful relationship. I learned from all of my mothers' and fathers' mistakes. And then years down the line, the same person takes a look and says, I never thought which means, I don't know how you translate that. It didn't It didn't work out that way. That's one way of looking at it and people resign. They resign to mediocrity. They resign to despair. They resign to what one poet said most people live lives of quiet desperation. Thoreau? T. S. Eliot. Thank you. Quiet desperation. Quiet desperation means most people won't even know. There won't be a ruckus. There may not be a great commotion. If both of them are civil and more or less menschlich, they can work it out in a subtle way, but you become like a cold business partner. You do your duties, he does his duties, but the fire, the joy is gone. That's one way of looking at the cracks showing up all over the walls. But there's another way of looking at it. And the other way of looking at it is this is God's invitation to build a completely new structure. But to build a new structure, the old one has to go. Is it possible that the marriage of old existed, and for some years it was nice, but ultimately it didn't have the real depth and maturity that comes from two people who are really ready to open up their souls to each other, express their ultimate vulnerabilities, and recreate a foundation of trust that is deeply and truly profound because it takes into account all of the voids, all of the pain, all of the insecurities that we so often run away from. Any relationship that doesn't take into account the cracks of people's lives, the vulnerabilities of people's lives, the pain of people's lives, the fears of people's lives, and the inhibitions and limitations that each of us as being part of the human race has. If a marriage ignores that, if a marriage doesn't encompass that, how real can it be? How deep can it be? How authentic can it be? Perhaps this is actually an invitation for a marriage and a relationship that is so deep that it will trump the previous blissful-looking relationship on the outside. And the difference is that was a human edifice, and this will be a divine edifice. And every human edifice, by definition, is mortal. A divine edifice is timeless. Is it possible that our relationship was still governed by the ego. By human pompousness that says I want to protect my ego. I want to cover up my ego. I want to defend my insecurities. And what made it so powerful was human power and all human power on its own is destined to mortality. Maybe this is an invitation to create a new type of relationship that the foundations are not the human ego. The foundations are the divine eternal reality. The foundations of a marriage that come from the realization that I need not protect my insecurities and my egos because in my essence I am part of the divine. And because I'm part of the divine, I have the infinite wholesome confidence, happiness, power of invincibility like my creator. Each and every one of us is the divine light manifested in this world and therefore you never have to protect yourself from your core. Your core will never be revealed to be evil, grotesque, repulsive. How many people are afraid that if you really really knew me, you would run miles away. As long as you don't really know me, you say "Gut Shabbos, how are you?" May even invite me for a Shabbos meal. But if you would really really know me with all of my meshugasen, with all of my craziness, with all of my history, you would run to China. Deep down, this is what often motivates a lot of our behaviors. But what if really deep down you could surrender and allow yourself to be who you really are, the light of Hashem? Then you can create a divine base hamikdash in your home. And when a couple learns to do that, to be able to surrender all of these cover-ups that they're trying to protect themselves and others with, but really doesn't allow them to trust each other fully, to be able to open their wounds to each other and therefore also their love and trust to each other, it remains a very flimsy structure. Many marriages work, but they're flimsy. Flimsy means a hurricane comes, I don't mean a physical hurricane, an emotional hurricane comes and they collapse because the foundations are not there. The roots are not there. They're workable. They're both civil, they're workable. What if you can create a binyana d'kusha b'richu, a divine edifice. So, when I see cracks, I could look at the cracks and say, "This is the end." And you know what? It's true. I could look at the cracks and say, "It's the end of one phase and it's the beginning It's the beginning of a new one." I remember my father passed away 12 or 13 years ago, 2005. My father was a uh quite a gigantic personality, a very, very interesting and colorful person. And all of us, all of his children and many others learned a lot from him. He was a seasoned journalist. He was a a Renaissance man, a quite an interesting figure. And um I was talking to my nephew. I think it was the last day of shiva, the last days we went outside from the house. I was talking to him. And I said to my nephew, I said, you know, just instinctively I said, "It's the end of an era." And he looked at me and he said, "My dear uncle, that's true. That's true. But you'll make it the beginning of a new one." And it was a very It was a very He didn't mean it as a cliché or as some He's a poet, but he didn't mean it as you know, a cute poem. It also came instinctively from him. And what I understood it at the time and it meant a lot to me was, in life we always experience ends and disappointments. Doors close on us constantly. First of all, there are people that always slam a door in your face. Ever happen to you? But that's physically. Then there are emotionally the people that slam doors in your face. Disappointments of relationships that end, of seasons that end. You know, you look at your children, they're two, three, four, they're angelic babies. And then you blink your eyes, you close your eyes for a few seconds, and suddenly they have opinions, they have perspectives, they disagree with you, they have their own personalities that are very different than yours. And you look and go, "You? You little tsatske who I carried for 9 months in my womb and you were the hardest baby in the world. For 4 years you kept me up every single night." And there's always a loss. There's a certain loss of innocence. The loss of the easy years when, you know, the worst thing your baby can do is fight with you if he's getting another lollipop or another ice cream. When they're 17, suddenly the disagreements are not about lollipops and ice creams. You wish they were about lollipops and ice creams. And then as they get older, every phase of life ends and a new one begins. And when you look at these phases, there is an element of of sadness in it, even if it was very positive, but it comes to an end. You remember when you were a teenager and you took off two two weeks of school cuz you were reading a good novel, those 2,000-page novels and you tucked yourself under your blanket, officially you had a virus, and you made sure that the virus continued for a few extra days, and it was those cold winter days, snow all over the place, you know, a foot of snow, and you're under your blanket with your teddy bear, whatever you had there, your doll, and you're reading this 1,500-2,000-page novel, and you don't want it to end. But, then it ends. It ends. Zest sayfer told us Adam, life is really a book and a book ends. It ends and whenever you finish a good book, it's very sad. You don't want it to It was so entertaining. It was so enthralling. It extricated you from the realities of life and it took you into this fictional world of of the writer of the novel, whatever type of book it is. But, it comes to an end. And what happens now? What happens now is now you're summoned to write your own book. Now you're summoned to open a new chapter. One window closes and a new window opens. It's true in every area of life. How How deeply true when it comes to areas of of of happiness, of wholesomeness. You know, you grew up more or less a fine home, a functional home or not, but you made a life for yourself. You're successful. You're more or less happy. You already did your 2 years of therapy. You think you know yourself. You emerged more or less you're functional. You're not that neurotic, psychotic, chaotic individual. You know, things are more or less fine, but I say more or less. And then one day you wake up in the morning and and things are falling apart in your system. You feel miserable. You feel unhealthy. You feel unsatisfied. You don't like what you look like on the outside and especially on the inside. And this is where people see cracks everywhere. And this is a challenge and that's a challenge and people become very very uh hurt by who they are. Yes, we continue living. I mean, we're talking about responsible people who are committed and and are dutiful and fulfill their responsibilities, but the inner oomph, the inner fire, the inner passion is gone. And how do you look at all of these situations, whether it's your relationship with yourself, your relationship with your children, your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with God, and simply your own experience of life. And that's the depth of what the Midrash is saying. The lion came up in the month of the lion and destroyed the lion so that the other lion could come up in the month of lion and rebuild the lion. Is just just you found a word for lion found that's just called lion. God is lion make this is lion of is lion great we're bringing all the lions in together we have six lions playing a game. Wonderful. It's much deeper. What the Midrash is trying to say is there's two ways of looking at every destruction. And that's why the same name that is used for the one who rebuilds is the same name that's used for the one who destroys. Because when the inner netzer comes up and destroys your Beit Hamikdash in the month of the lion and destroys the lion. I could look at all of these realities. I look at my life and I look back and say where was I all these years? Why did I allow this to happen? Why didn't I deal with this problem 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago? If I was 19 and I would have just been a little more upright than normal and moral, I would have dealt with it I don't have to deal with it decades later. Why was I not attuned to what's going on in the life of my child? Why was I not attuned to what's going on in the life of my spouse? Why was I not attuned to what's going on in my own brains in my own life? Why did I allow myself to be sometimes manipulated by this person or by that person? Why did I allow myself to be manipulated by myself? By my own insecurities and voids and fears. Why? Why did I do this? So one person could look and say, "Why? Cuz I'm a disaster. Why? Because I'm a loser. Why? Cuz I'm a victim. Why? Because I'm traumatized. Why?" And this is a big one for many religious Jews cuz God hates me. Another one, "Why? Because of all my sins." That's one way of looking at it. Where does that bring you to? It brings you to wallow, to sink more into the quagmire of despondency, melancholy, dejection, despair, alienation, and depression. Alienation from yourself. Never mind from the people around you, close and far. But there's another way. And that is the lion came up and destroyed. So that the lion could come up and rebuild. They both have the same name, which means I have the opportunity to be able to look at the first lion and see him from the perspective of the second lion. I have the ability to look at every aspect of demolition in my life and see it as the beginning of destruction or the beginning of renovation. The fact is, everything you or I or anybody have been through, if you could view it from the proper perspective, it creates humility and awareness that allows you to rebuild a very powerful structure, unparalleled to any other structure that you ever created before. Ignorance is bliss. That's true, but you weren't privy to that bliss. If you were privy, God bless you, you could leave the class right now. Only people I know who are perfect are the people I don't know. The only people I know whose marriages are perfect, besides you, are the people I don't know. Not everybody is privy to that type of bliss. If you don't understand anything I said in this class, God bless you. Give us the recipe. Give us the tranquilizer. We'll all take it, right? Who they told Lincoln about General Grant? Some of his friends didn't like his performance and they told about General Grant that he's taking something. So, LINCOLN SAID, "FIND OUT WHAT HE'S TAKING AND GIVE IT TO ALL MY GENERALS." Find out what he's taking. Give it to all my generals if that's how they perform afterwards. But not everybody is privy to that. So, the Gamorah says in Maseches Suma page 86 that when somebody does truva out of love, is doing noise not so like is a curious. Their sins become mitzvahs. How can you say that a sin becomes a mitzvah? And the answer is because every mistake when we learn from it becomes a springboard for such a powerful level of awareness that creates a much deeper relationship than you could have had without it. So, every single aspect of my life I say there's a crack here and there's a crack there and the marriage is suffering and my relation with myself is suffering and there's an issue with the child and an issue with the career and an issue with my happiness and every person, whatever they have a or the family, a personal, emotional, psychological, physical, financial, spiritual, chemical, etc. The demolition is painful. Nobody says that on Tisha B'Av the Jewish people did not grieve and do not grieve. Demolition is always painful. Even when you're renovating your home, waiting for completion is painful. Because demolition is never fun, it's never exciting. But with the proper perspective, one realizes that every experience of demolition in life can be viewed from two very different perspectives. One perspective is God is trying to destroy me, life is trying to destroy me, nature is trying to destroy me, karma is trying to destroy me, this one is trying to destroy me, I'm destroying myself, or you're actually being summoned. You're being invited to rebuild your life, but in a completely different way. This time, you're going to rebuild it as a divine edifice. And a divine edifice will not be subjected to those levels of flimsy mortality and frailty that come from a very frail and weak structure. Rather, it will have the power of true depth, of infinite depth, of timeless depth, of the depth that comes from real, real awareness, from a real relationship with the deepest divine core in yourself, and your deepest relationship with the divine source of reality, so that you could connect the people, also your loved ones and other people from that space, and when you connect from that space, it's an entirely different connection, cuz nothing has to be covered up in order to be able to be joined into that part of the relationship. So, when the Medrash tells a story, the Bedouin Arabs' ox gave a moo, moo, and he said, "Stop plowing. Your temple was just destroyed." And a moment later, he mooed again, and he said, "You could resume the plowing. Your salvation, your redeemer was born." What is the meaning in this story? These are not two separate events. It's exactly the same event, and that is the point. Your temple was destroyed. That's true, and you should stop plowing, because that's very painful. A moment later, he says, "But your redeemer was also born." Phase two is not different than phase one. It's exactly the same thing. It's about perspective. When anything is destroyed, one could look at it at the as the end or what can what can one can look at it as the beginning. A door closes, but another opened. A window closed, but another opened. An era ended, but a new one began. The ending of an era is painful. I have to say goodbye to my comfort zones. I have to say goodbye to my status quo. I have to say goodbye to the life that was so familiar to me. Who wants to say goodbye to that which is familiar to us? And what is most familiar to us in life? Our thought patterns. My thought patterns. I have certain patterns, the way I respond to things. You say something, and you trigger in me an emotional response, AND I GO WITH IT, AND I TRAVEL TO New Zealand with it and back. You know that feeling? You come home, your husband makes that same comment he's been making it for 28 years. Almost every single day, it triggers an emotion. With your thoughts, you travel to China, first class or economy class? Usually economy class, smashed up. You go back if that thought process, but you're a mature woman. You're not a male baby, you're a female lioness. So, you don't respond. You want to save this home, you want to save this marriage, but your thoughts go there, and they come back, and then you say, "Supper will be ready in 6 minutes." But deep down, you know exactly what happened. Because our thought patterns are the most familiar thing to us, and we often fail to challenge them because that's who I am. But that's also not who I am. Those are also comfort zones, patterns that I developed as a result of the triggers that I created in me. What if I could say, "Stop! Halt!" And the THOUGHT PATTERN SAY, "DON'T STOP ANYTHING. THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO GO." NO, NO. We're redoing this. We're creating a new life. We're creating a new home. We're creating new paradigms. Let's face it, it's painful. It's painful simply because whenever the old gets destroyed, it's painful. Even if it was dysfunctional. Even if it was limited by my own insecurities, it's still painful because it's the breakfast that I know. It's the home I know. It's the life I know. Why do Jews keep on telling Moshe, "Let's go back to Egypt?" What do you have in Egypt? Tyrants, oppressors, killers. It's the evil that I know that is much better than the evil that I don't know. So, I'll go back. I'll go back. I know I'm familiar with it. We all know the battered woman syndrome. I go back to the places that I know. But even those who are not battered, God forbid. But sometimes we're battered by life and I want to go back to those familiar places even if they're dysfunctional. Never mind if they're more or less functional cuz I don't have that crazy in a life of some. But I still go back there. And for me, that's an old structure that ultimately cannot live forever because it's not based on eternity. Whenever you see cracks in your life, never see it as the end. Always see it as a beginning. It's the genesis of a new discovery. It's a genesis of a new awareness. It's your horizons being opened up to a new reality and therefore never be afraid of it. Look at it and say, "How am I and how are we going to be blessed through this?" But it could only come if there's an element of awareness of the pain of the challenge. If the Jews were dancing on Tisha B'Av, there would be something off about it. We don't dance on Tisha B'Av. We fast on Tisha B'Av. We grieve on Tisha B'Av. Why? Because when the is demolished and Jews are sent into exile and the place of is destroyed, it's not fun. It's not exciting. Cry they did. The pain they felt acutely, but they did not despair. They did not lose that word and language of hope. They did not cease to sing. They did not give up on their lives. On the contrary, they understood this is the beginning of an unprecedented structure. Now, how do I know God is Jewish? Because it's taking him 2,000 years. Renovation should not be taking 2,000 years, in my opinion. The guy told you it's going to be 6 months. By Pesach, you're going to move in. Go to a hotel for Pesach. You come back, you move in. By the summer, you're moving in. Sure. That's why you're still renting. I don't know that. I don't know I don't have that answer for that. I don't know why God's con- contracting work takes so long. The Gemara says in Sanhedrin, "Kol kol hakitsin, ready the times of the Gemara, the ends are done." Ve'ein od avodah ela b'chush. But when Jews saw this on Tisha B'Av, they didn't only see destruction. They saw the beginning of renovation, of a new structure. Even as painful as it is, which is why the concept, the reality of Geulah of Mashiach became ingrained into the Jewish people cuz it was part of how they viewed the Churban. So, when it comes to Shabbos Chazon, what's Chazon? Chazon is a vision. A vision of what? Yeshayahu Hanavi had a vision of destruction. Comes Reb Itzik of Bardichev and says, "No, you have a vision of the Third Beis Hamikdash." Was he in Lalaland? He didn't learn the Haftarah? No, Reb Itzik of Bardichev wasn't imposing a cute, charming void by shalah shudos to make people feel good as they're eating sponge cake. Reb Itzik of Bardichev was revealing the depth of the real meaning of Chazon. Of course, Khazon means the vision of destruction, but what does it mean vision of destruction? What does it mean? What are you seeing? When you're looking at those aspects in your life that Khila are crumbling. When you're looking at a sense of dissatisfaction, disintegration, when things are just not working out, what are you seeing? You could look at it and say, "Wow, it's a disaster. My life is just a disaster." Or you could say, "You're seeing a third base Hamikdash. You're seeing the springboard, the catalyst, the groundbreaking of a completely new reality that can come into your life now. Not without a lot of inner work, the work of saying goodbye to the old and embracing the new. The work of education, the work of awareness, the work of trust, the work of opening yourself up to God's love, of opening yourself up to God's grace, of opening yourself up to possibilities of infinite joy. Opening myself up to those possibilities are very hard because the devils love becoming cynical on me and on us. They say there's no such possibilities. Just go back into your box and just just be satisfied and start comparing yourself to other lives, which is what we do when we want to justify our desperation. At least I'm not as bad as this one, not as bad as this one, and look at this one, and we read on the news websites all of the tragedies, and today everybody knows everybody's tragedies before even it happened, and you could crack and crack and crack and say, "Okay, let me move on." But the truth is, we don't help anybody else by us becoming small. We help other people when we can manifest the full infinity of our potential and our light and our love. We help other people be able to experience the full infinity of potential of their love. And the truth is, I should say it even it you know, this is also true in the world of finances. Very often you had a great job for 20 years. And I know there's some people sitting here in this room who are going to relate to this. And one day your boss calls you in and says say shalom shalom malachei hashalom. I was used to it. I was comfortable with it. A fellow came to me a guy came to me you know yeah there's a job for 23 years and now it was a whole new reality. The guy doesn't want him anymore. And here again, you could look at it as mama destruction. What did I do so bad to deserve such a horrible fate? And of course a person should always be introspective. But I told him how do you know it's a punishment? Maybe this is the greatest thing that ever happened to you. You're talented. You're skilled. Maybe God wants you to be autonomous, independent, creative. Maybe he wants you to change the world. Although over there you were mama shalom, mishubad you were subjugated, you had the yoke of somebody else on your head and you were plowing away from 9:00 to 5:00. Maybe it's time for you to discover that it's time to get out of the nest, find your wings and soar away. And I said in 5 years from now, I hope to hear some great things about you. He said I didn't think about it in that way. We always have to be able to look at every crack and say if it's coming from the source of goodness, it's not here to destroy. It's always here to build, to rebuild. I saw once a very powerful uh uh a little story that happened. There was a young chemist and he's been working for some time at developing a new bonding agent. He wanted to develop a type of glue. After years of hardship the work was complete. He finally developed or he thought he developed this new bonding agent. He tried it out and of course in good old Murphy's Murphy's law it didn't stick. Now, what is the use of glue that doesn't stick? Anybody? Nothing, right? It belongs in the garbage. So, most people told them, "Okay, you failed." And he told himself, "I guess I'm a failure. I'm a disappointment. Time wasted, money wasted, resources wasted, effort spent in vain." And the young chemist should have been broken and devastated. But this young chemist decided to think otherwise. Instead of deciding that his work was a failure, he asked himself a very different question. What if my work was actually a success? What if my work was a success? The glue that didn't stick was a success. What if I have discovered not failure, but actually discovered a solution? I discovered a solution. The only thing that's left is to discover the problem. But the solution, I got. Most of us it's like, I have the problem. Now, what's the solution? He said, "No, I got the solution. We're going to figure out the problem." He refused to give up and he kept on asking himself this question. What is the use of an underachieving adhesive? What is the benefit of an underachieving bonding agent of glue? Is there any benefit to an agent of adhesion of of connecting that is an under underachiever? Is there? Eventually, he found it and it became a huge gigantic commercial success. They're little and they stick, but not too hard. That's what we call Post-it. The Post-it notes were invented at that moment from this young chemist's invention. So, he made a lot of money. He became renowned. This was an a gigantic commercial success. You go to any office and on the computer, right? You'll have Some people have 30 Post-it notes. Some people have 80. The organized ones among you have only two. And the real, real organized ones to the point of absolute chaos won't have it because either you already took care of it or it should be in the garbage or you gave it to somebody else that took care of it. That if you took That's if you took a 6-week course on time management. But, uh most of us who are not as perfect have some of those have some of those notes. When anything happens in my life, in your life, you could see it as a failure or like the chemist, you can turn it into a success. And like the butterfly in the hand, is it dead or alive? The answer to that lay in your hand. Whatever our fate, whatever your past, whatever the realities you encountered as a child, as a young adult, as an adult, whatever circumstances were dealt and given your way, we always have a choice between seeing it as a crushing reality devoid of meaning, devoid of goodness, devoid of purpose, simply an act of destruction and more destruction and more destruction or as a challenge, maybe as a tragedy sometimes, which contains the seeds of something profoundly positive. The reason we're here 2,000 years later, Rome is gone like every mortal structure. Babylonia is gone like every mortal structure. As is Egypt, Assyria, the Greek Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Communist Empire, and the Third Reich. Like every human mortal structure, even those who are neutral, never mind those who are devoid of absolute meaning because of their depth of evil. The reason we're here is because when we saw that holy building, holy divine structure, Beit Hamikdash, go up in flames, the Jews never lost the word hope. And we refused to look at it as the end. We chose to view it from a completely different perspective. This was the painful genesis of the renovation of a new era, a new reality, new horizons, and a new world that will be completed bimheira biyameinu with the construction of the Third Beit Hamikdash, the eternal one. Have a wonderful week. This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. Please help us continue the classes. Make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net/donate.