Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Rectification Process from Tisha B'Av to Tu B'Av

You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay, thank you. Uh, thank you for Thank you for staying and I apologize for uh being late. I had a a very very crazy day today. I uh had to go to Leva in Bamesh and then immediately go to aa really in the middle of nowhere. Have you ever heard of um Eritious? Have you ever heard of that? >> Yeah, it's the middle of nowhere. >> Is that Is that cool? in the middle of nowhere and and uh the traffic was awful going coming anywhere I went today. Uh there was just picakim all over the place and uh so not uh giving you an excuse just explaining why why I am a little a little late today. Okay. uh praying for victory of our soldiers and all the fronts of the war, the lasting unity of the people of Israel, for all of those whose health has been affected by the war and of course as always for the safe return of all of the hostages. Rafua Schma for Borak Benfreda, Alexander Aaron, Ben Shandel, an Aliat Nama for Nama Bat Mikel and an anonymous contribution for the of Raayim and again for the hostages to return safe and totally healthy to their homes. Hashem's protection for all of Kali Israel and for the gulma in these days. Uh we of course uh just commemorated on Sunday uh the 9th of A uh the saddest most tragic day of the year. Uh but this shabas we have the happiest day of the year. Uh this shabas is going to be the 15th day of and uh the Mishna says in makistanis that loy Israel there were no festive days in Israel greater than yum kipper and the 15th above. So the gammoran tinus asks the question we understand why yum kipper is such a happy day because it's the day of forgiveness. What could be happier than forgiveness of aos? But what is the great simkha of the 15th of Af? uh and the the Mishna by the way describes a ceremony which uh I think would be frowned upon in bashakovs or seminaries today uh in which uh women would go out uh and they would wear everyone wore the same white plain white dresses so there shouldn't be competition and they would kind of make you know indicate that they were available for the choosing and it became a day in which many many shidim were made uh but that's not the reason why it became name. In other words, because it was a festive day, it became the day of marriages. But what made it festive to begin with? So the garra gives no fewer than six reasons why the 15th of a is such a festive day. Reason number one is connected to the of the moraglin. We know that the of the Moragim where they they came back on the and they gave lash and har about the land and that night the people cried and sobbed and wept and didn't have amuna and hashem decreed because they were crying because they were crying for something that had no reason this will become the day of for all future generations. Now we know that the way the dorham died, meaning anybody that was 20 years old would die before they reach Israel, except for Yeshua, Kh, and the women by the way. But all men who were 20 uh would die, but they didn't all die at once. They died over the course of 40 years. And the tomashi brings in tinus uh the tomi that every tishabove all of the generation of the midbar would dig graves for themselves and they would sleep in those graves. They probably didn't sleep but they they you know they went to bed in those graves. And anybody who had reached their 60th birthday in the preceding year did not get out of the grave. And those who were not yet 60, they got up the next morning. In other words, the concept was that the gazer was uh anyone who was 20 years old at the time of the sin would die in the midbar, but nobody died before the age of 60. So everybody experienced a death experience the night of tishab but the only people who actually died were the people who had reached their 60th birthday. So therefore the concept would be over 40 years anyone who was 20 would be 60 the last year. Lami said there's a tremendous problem here because there actually were not 40 tissue buffs. There was only 38 tissue buffs that they dug their graves. how you work out the numbers. I've been uh trying to figure this out for uh for 50 years. I have not quite worked it out yet. Uh of course there are you know people much greater than than I have worked out. I mean Einstein tried to work out a unified field theory for also around 50 years and was not successful. So I don't feel that bad. But the math does not work because you don't have 40. But but but putting aside the problem that you don't have 40 tissue buffs, the general idea is relatively clear. Nobody died before the age of 60. Now in a base population of around 600,000 people, if you divide 600,000 by 40, you get an average number of deaths of 15,000 a year. Again, not exact, but an average, you know, 600,000 people dying over 40 years is 15,000 a year. So now we now come to the last tishabove in the desert. The last tishabove our own is in fact our own died, right? Just nine days before Miriam already died. Moshe is going to die in next. So, there are not that many people left of the old generation. Based on the average, there's only 15,000 people, we'll go with the average, who expect that they're going to die overnight. They dig their graves. They get into the graves and lo and behold, the next morning, those 15,000 people are still alive. Somehow, they didn't die. So they figured, well maybe we made a mistake in the meaning maybe we thought it was the nth of Av when really it was the seventh or the sixth of A. Who says it's the night? So they repeated the sleeping in the graves on the 10th on the 11th on the 13th on the 14th. But when it was the 15th of Av they saw a full moon. When they saw a full moon they know that the ninth of Av had passed. And somehow Hakodesesh Boru gave an amnesty. He gave a vetor for the last 15,000. And therefore according to the way Rashi understands the sima of the 15th of A was the amnesty of the last 15,000. The gazer of the dora midbar was butel. It was nullified. Now again, Lama, we we don't have the time uh to go over all of the complexities here. Uh but there is an obvious question. The Tyra itself says that the only people of that generation who entered Erat Israel were Yeshua and K. So we'll include the women too because the Torah is talking about the only men who entered is Yeshua and Kh. But according to this interpretation, it's Yeshua and K and 15,000 other people. Now, that's way beyond the margin of error. That's not like, you know, one or two extra that we forgot to mention. 15,000 people. So, some learn, well, the 15,000 people didn't die the night of Tishab, but they died before they crossed the Jordan River. Well, if that's the case, I don't really think that's any joyous occasion for the 15th of AB. If lice, so either way, you got a problem. Meaning, if they didn't die, then how could the Torah say, in other words, if they entered Erit Israel, how can the Torah say that the only people who entered Erit, the only men who entered Eritel from that generation is Yeshua. if you're going to give me a ter. Well, they didn't die the 9th of A, but they died in the months until because remember, we're not going to cross the yard till Nissan. That's 8 months later, right? Nissan of the next year. Uh because in the Torah, the years change in Nissan, not not in Tish. So Nissan or you know the Adar is still the 40th year and we cross in Nissan. But if you're going to learn that all the 15,000 died before Nissan, then that kind of takes away the joy of the 15th of Aav that in which we knew that they weren't going to die in the gazer of Tish. Okay. But be it as it may, that's reason number one. Re in other words, the anulment or the cancellation of the gazer, the evil decree on the door Hamidbore. Now we then come to reason number two and uh this is connected with the benosk right the bos bos is a play in two two acts basically act number one was a man who died in the desert without any children I'm sorry without any sons he had five daughters without any sons and there was a dispute a legal dispute between Savv's brothers and Safha's daughters as to who would have the right to inherit the land that he would have gotten inherit Israel because the Tyra at that point only revealed that sons inherit. It does not say that daughters have inheritance rights. The brothers made the argument in the absence of male sons. The Arouchia goes to the brothers of the deedent. The daughters of Salafh made the argument that it should always go to children before siblings and if there are no sons then daughters should inherit. Mosher Rabenu did not know the answer to this question. That's another question of why didn't he know? Maybe we'll leave that for another discussion. He asked God and God established the precedent, the rule that when there are no sons, daughters do inherit. So that's act one right and that has nothing to do with the 15th of a but then there's an act two at the end of safer midbar where the brothers came back with the following argument the daughters of right now are single they are not married they could marry any Jewish person who wants to marry them and they want to marry them so what's going to be happens to be of the tribe of Manasha. Now what's going to be if the daughters of Salaf marry somebody from the tribe of Yehuda? So if these women die in the lifetime of their husbands, their husbands will inherit them from Shvet Yehuda or if their husbands die first, it will go to their children who are from Shva Yehuda. So the shvet manasha made the argument that it's not fair to let unmarried single women inherit property because they could marry men of other tribes and that would be taking away the tribal inheritances and moving it to another tribe. So Mosher Rabenu again didn't know how to resolve this claim. So we asked Akadesh Boru and Akadesh Boru's answer was any single woman who inherits property inherits Israel is only permitted to marry a member of her tribe. Meaning they were not allowed to marry Yehuda or Zulen. They could only marry manasha which will ensure that manasha's tribal inheritance does not get diluted. That is what the Torah says. The Torah actually says it is prohibited for a single woman who inherits if she doesn't inherit property because there are brothers there's no problem. But if she if she is does inherit the property she must marry a man of her tribe. Now what's interesting is if you look at a list of the 613 mitzvah you will not find such a mitzvah there and in fact there is no such. Now, how can I say there is no such if the Torah says there is such a kazal understood that this was a temporary measure that was to remain in effect only until the division of the land was officially completed to ensure so to speak that the an initial division would be accurate. Now the division of the land occurred uh in the uh first 14 years of Yoshua's reign. Seven years of conquest, seven years of division, which means once the was completed, then women could marry anybody that they wanted to marry. And therefore, it's true. It's true that if you were to take a snapshot at any point in history after the Kalucasuritz of Manasha's land, Yehuda's land, Ruven's land, you would see a lot of other tribes owning land there because indeed uh eventually over time tribal inheritances did get diluted. But the Torah just wanted there to be kind of an ideal moment where the land was divided without any interference. According to rabbitic Messiah tradition, although there is no textual evidence of this, it was on the 15th of A in the days of Yoshua that women who inherited property were able to marry anybody they wanted. The marital restrictions were limited. That's a great sim because it makes availability of all of and that by the way would also explain why the 15th of A became connected to marriage because it was the day in which marriage options were totally expanded. Okay, so that's reason number two. Reason number three is also connected to marriage but in a much more darker sinister way. uh in the book of chauffeim at the end of the book of chauffeim which was a 300year period where we were ruled by different judges some were righteous and great and some were not and the infamous refrain that goes through the book of chauffeim when it describes many many immoral behaviors is yam in those days there was no melik inher Viasa people did whatever they wanted to do. It was the wild west. I know that a libertarian reads that verse and says, "What a wonderful society. Everybody did whatever they wanted to do." Or an anarchist. Well, it's very very clear in the narratives that that puss is always invoked in the aftermath of describing very severe social breakdown. And one of the saddest stories frankly somewhat unbelievable story is the story of the concubine in Ga Plesh Begiva. And the basic story was that a man was traveling with his concubine. He sought hospitality one night in the tribe of Benyamin. And then there is a scene that is very reminiscent of Saddam and the language is deliberately chosen to echo Saddam in which the house is surrounded and a bunch of ruffians there may have been a small number are demanding that uh the the guest be delivered to them for homosexual abuse and instead uh they throw out the people in the house throw out the the maidervant the uh the concubine. So again, I mean, nobody comes out looking good here. The concubine is gang raped for an entire night. In the morning, she is found dead. The man, in other words, the uh the the master, the husband, however you want to describe him, then takes her dead body. He cuts it up into 12 pieces. He sends a piece federal express I don't know he sends a piece to each of the tribes and you're obviously counting Levy here because Binyammen is the perpetrator so the 12 besides Binyam would be Ephraim Minasha you're counting as two and Ley would be the other one and he says what are you going to do about this and a mass convoc convocation of almost half a million people is gathered and war is declared. Well, well, the first demand is Binyammen is uh a demand is made of Binyamin to extradite the wrongdoers to be tried so to speak as like war criminals by the nation. She biny had a political point. They said that the crime was committed in our territory and only we have the authority to adjudicate. It was it was fought over that particular issue. So when you think about why was there a war against the tribe of Binyamin, it wasn't because of the outrage. The outrage was committed by a relatively small number of people but it was over the issue of Shabbet Pinyamin refusing to kind of accept the national authority of Kali Israel in the administration of justice. In fact in that way it is remarkably similar to the United States civil war. Uh if you study the civil war the civil war was not fought as a war against slavery. I mean, Lincoln did not like slavery, but he understood that it would be abolished over time, and he wasn't going to impose it on the southern states that had slavery. But the civil war was fought because the southern states took the position they have the right to secede from the union and not accept national authority. Shvet Binyamin was making a very very similar claim of not accepting the authority of the nation to address matters of outrage. Byam essentially wanted to be its own sovereign nation and the war was fought. And the point was, amazingly enough, Shvid Binyamin obviously is vastly outnumbered. But for a while they were quite successful. But eventually they were decimated and at the end there was only 600 binyites in the whole tribe who were alive. Uh even the women and children had been killed. uh the 600 they were able to get 200 wives from one place uh from one city in Erit Israel but there's still a 400 person deficit and the problem was this Kali Israel had made a shua in the heat of battle that no man shall ever give his daughter to a binite in marriage. This was a solemn shoo. So now we have a problem. There are 400 binyammonites who will not be able to marry women from binyamin because they're gone. They're dead. They cannot marry women from any other tribe because of the shoo. If they're going to die without a wife, without a child, the tribe is going to be extinguished. And Clausel understood maybe too late they understood this that in ways we don't truly perceive the total extinction of a tribe would affect Hashem's relationship to Ami Israel. We would no longer be a complete nation. Even today where we say the 10 tribes are lost. The truth is there are remnants of every tribe even within Kalisale. So we don't know what our tribe is. But unless you know that you're a Cohen or a Ley, you can be anything. You can be a Ruvane. You could be a Shimon because there are remnants of tribes. We have a Messiah. No tribe. God will not allow a tribe to be totally extinct. But in the case of Pilgesha, the tribe of Binyamin was on the verge of extinction. So the plan that was devised was the following plan. And again, this too is is something that sounds pretty bad. Like every part of the story, even the good parts of the story are bad. They came up with this legal argument. Well, let's see. The oath simply was no man shall give his daughter to a binite. Okay, so let's do it this way. Let the girls dance around and let the Binyammonites just take them without getting the permission of the fathers. That way the oath has not been violated because no father has given his daughter to Abin Yemeni. The daughters were just taken. Again, we we still assume that you know it was not against their will. the the the the women agreed to it but the parental consent was not asked and in that way binyamin was enabled to survive by a legal loophole right she bam must have had u or not well either shv binyam or kalisel as a whole they must have had a good lawyer who was very attuned to loopholes and said wow the shva simply was no man shall give his daughter but what it doesn't say No man shall not let his daughter be taken. Let them be taken. The tradition was that was on the 15th of a which once again is connected to marriage and that's a sim even though it's a little distasteful to us but it's a sim because binyam was resuscitated and able to enter into Israel. Okay. So I've mentioned three things so far. One is the anulment of the uh the gazer in of the dorham. Uh the second was the permissibility in the days of Yahushua for women to marry husbands outside of their tribe. The third was shvet binyam being able to marry and not be uh be extinguished. Uh now the fourth one is uh later and this deals with the 10 tribes. Remember that Claus Israel was divided after the death of Schlommo. There became two kingdoms. the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes that is called Malus Israel or sometimes it's called Malus Ephraim because the kings of the north the northern kingdom were always from Shva Ephraim and the kingdom of the south which is just Yehuda and Binyamin centered around Jerusaleam and the Bameikdash was called Malos Yehuda. Uh and it is said that the it says in the book of Malikim that Yuravam ben Nat who was the first king of the 10 tribes didn't want anyone from his kingdom to ever visit Jerusalem to go to the B mikdesh because that would create a certain allegiance to the south. So what he did was he put guards like the Berlin wall. He erected barriers and guards so that no one from the north would be able to go to the basa mikdash for the shish regul or whatever it would be. Remember that by the time your raam was living had already built the basa mikdash right the basa mikdash was already inlay. So the very last king of the 10 tribes was a man calleda benah. It was under his rule that Sanker, the king of Assyria, destroyed the kingdom of the 10 tribes and exiled them. But one of the things he did was he removed the guards that prevented people visiting the Ba Mikdash. He gave free access to the Bas Mikdash. And the tradition is that was on the 15th of A. So the 15th of A is a joyous day because that is when Yidden were given the ability to go to the B mikdash. The Berlin wall was turned was torn down. Now the Gmorrah asks an obvious question. If Hosa benah did such a wonderful thing and he removed the barriers that prevented people from going to the basikdash, why was the northern kingdom destroyed in his daytime in his days? Why did son have the power to exile hose had a great great here? So the Gmorra says, well, it's not so clear because he removed the barriers and he gave people total access and ability to go, but nobody went anyway. And that's kind of all the years there were guards, even though God knows the your true motives anyway, people at least had a certain excuse. Well, Hashem, you can't blame me for not going to the B mikdash. There were armed guards that would shoot me if I tried to go. Hosa bena on one hand did a wonderful thing but he took away the excuse. No excuses. So ma if the yidden don't go even when they're able to go that's worthy of a divine punishment but still the potentiality of being able to go is enough to make the 15th of Aava. Okay. So that is the fourth simra of the 15th of Aav. I'm going in chronological order. Uh, the fifth sima of the 15th of Aav goes all the way back to the aftermath I'm sorry, all the way forward to the aftermath of the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in the year 70. And then uh in the year 135, 65 years later, we have the Barba revolt uh which was initially very very successful, but it was eventually crushed mercilessly in Betar. And the massacre of B which also occurred on the 9th of A as the did was actually much more bloody than even the B mikdash. The number of Jews that were murdered in Betar was much greater than the Ba Mikdash. And I would even say the aftermath of betar even spiritually to some degree was even worse than the basikdash because yes losing the basikdash is an incalculable loss. But after the bas mikdash the Romans didn't care if Jews kept their religion or not. Meaning okay we took away your basa mikdash because you revolted against us but you want to wear fill in you want to keep shabish. You want to keep kosher, you want to learn Torah, we don't really care. Do what you want to do. It's none of our business. It's been what it's been remarked very often that paganism is much more tolerant than monotheism because paganism a little bit of a tongue and cheek. Paganism can accept your religion because just we'll just add another god. We worship 50 gods. Okay, you're 51. when you're a monotheist, you can't be tolerant of other gods because there are no other gods. Right? So, initially, we don't people don't have this impression, but initially in the aftermath of the devastation of the Bikash Jewish Jewish religious life was actually able to continue. See, people don't realize that. So what is all of this stuff about the Romans would kill, you know, Rabbi Yaka, they would comb his flesh with iron combs because he was teaching Torah. That's not the aftermath of the Ba Mikdash. That's the aftermath of Betar because at this point um Tadrien had lost his patience. This was the second major revolt of the Jewish people in 70 years. And at this point he was merciless. He was brutal. Uh all of the gizeros against circumcision, against Torah teaching, all of that was a result of the Barba revolt. Uh Jews were banished from living in Jerusalem. It became a pagan temple. Alia Capalina was the aftermath. And even in the massacre of Betar, Hadrien decreed that none of those hundreds of thousands if not millions of bodies would be buried. They were left to rot on the ground so the Jews would learn once and for all to behave and not rebel. That was Hrien's plan to have, imagine this, to be surrounded with hundreds of thousands of human remains that could not be buried, were not allowed to be buried, and they would just decompose. What a lesson that would teach these rebellious Jews. But Hashem did a great miracle. And those corpses didn't decompose. They didn't decompose after one week. They didn't decompose after one year. They didn't decompose after two years. They didn't decompose after three years. A supernatural miracle. I mean, you that still means you're surrounded by gazillions of dead corpses, but they didn't decompose. At this point, Hrien realized that he really wasn't accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish. He gave permission to the harug betar to be buried. Arug betar on the 15th of A and therefore the 15th of A became a sim because although it's the aftermath of an awesome tragedy but if God gave us the opportunity to honor the dead and give them a proper burial that's a cause for simp that's a kind of a unique Jew Jewish idea that the simka is even in the tragedy because was a tragedy but hashem we have the opportunity to bury there that that's why you know even today Israel does not only want obviously we want the live hostages of course and that that has to be our priority lumisa but we want the dead ones too because burying the dead gives the nishama repose. It gives the nishama comfort and it's a way that we show our honor for the lives that they led. There is something else connected with darug betar being given a burial and that is an extra blessing was added in birkatamazan until the rug beta were buried. Batamaz had only three brahas that God gives us food. He sustains us. We the second one is that Hashem gave us the gift of Israel. The third is he gave us and the bikash and benching ended with bonet of and the reason why it says a there is because even though you normally don't say a to your own braha but to show that this was the end of the original benching we put in an a. Now the next braha of Benjing hat God is good and God does good was added in the aftermath of Harug betar. God is good shalom that the bodies did not decompose and he does good that we were able to bury these bodies. Right? So uh the and that and that braha ends by the way with so so as far as kazal are concerned before the massacre of beta or before the arug being buried benching ended with bon after harug we added the fourth bra so benching ends with there were nos all of The harams are later. They're postmudic. Uh they are really only mhagim. Uh that is why you are allowed to talk after haram. That's why if you're benching on a cup of wine, you put the cup of wine down after because you finish the four blessings. Uh that's why the vil nagong for example did not say the harams on chabas because he said that since it's a min you don't ask for things on chabas unless it's part of the fixed liturgy of and I am told that the yeshiva uh apparently wants to be even uh stricter or more lenient depends how you describe it than the vagon they do not say the even during the Um, what's the justification? Well, Torah, the amount of time it takes to say the will be what? Three more minutes that we could use for learning Torah. Hm h well if the vil nagon were to say that he never says the harakams I could buy that because the vil nagon did indeed you know look at his bit tora in terms of minutes per year but the vagon said the haram so the villagon apparent during the week he didn't say it on chabas he apparently was not worried about bit tora so okay whatever okay that went okay be it as it may though uh the point about going back to 15th of a. So what's the point? This is the fifth joy. And the final reason for the simka of the 15th of a is an environmental concern. one of the most important supplies that the Bas Mikdesh needed and after the Roman uh conquest even before the destruction of the temple but the Roman conquest itself made it very difficult but one of the most important supplies they needed was wood. They needed a constant supply of wood to burn on the Misbayak for all of the different corbanos and part of the Roman conquest even when there was already remember Rome ruled over Eatel 100 years before the Corban. So there was plenty of bloodshed, plenty of wars and Rome decimated literally acres and acres and acres of trees, acres and acres of trees. In fact, for many many years, um, when Palestine Erit Israel began to be cultivated by the Jews and bloom, there were no indigenous date palms in Erit Israel. They were all destroyed in Roman times. And the date palms had to be exported from California. And the Israeli dates were California dates. So if you would have been in Erit Israel in the 1930s,4s50s and you would buy I don't mean buying California you bought Israeli dates you bought dates that grew here they were being grown from California date palms because the Romans had destroyed it. I think it was discovered in Msada or one of those places some actual seeds that could still germinate date palms and that started the movement of indigenous date palms and I think it was discovered that the sugar content of an indigenous Israeli date was double the content of a California date. I'm not sure if all my facts are correct. Maybe that's why Israelis have what they they say we're rated as the highest sweet tooth in the world. I'm not sure. Uh but it's connected to the notion of the land flowing with milk which is goat milk and honey which is date honey. The date honey was uniquely sweet. Uh and now you're able to experience some of it. So wood was a really big deal and different families were given the honor of contributing wood different dates of the year and the mission records that if your family's date was a certain time that was a yumpt for you a very very festive date in which you gave the wood for that day. Uh but there were days that were not assigned in which the base of mdash had to rely on its own wood cutting and the like. Uh but it is said that the last day for wood cutting for the coming year was the 15th of Av because after the 15th of Av the summer days are slightly shorter and therefore there's more moisture in the wood because the sun is less hot and as a result the wood is less suitable. So the 15th of A was the conclusion of the summer wood cutting that would sustain them for the coming year. So every time they were able to meet their target on the 15th of a that was a great sim gave us the wood that we needed and they would celebrate. Okay. So I think I mentioned six different reasons for the festivities of the 15th above. What I want to connect it to is I want to connect it to another list of the five tragedies that occurred on the ninth of. There were five tragedies that occurred on the nth of. So what I want you to look at is I want you to look at in your mind's eye, actually a PowerPoint would be good here, but I'm I'm low tech. a list of the five tragedies of the ninth of a and the six so unfortunately it's a five and the six simas of the 15th of a and you should be able to see as I'll explain how each sima of the 15th of a was a rectification a tikun a comfort a reassurance parents to address the tragedy that happened on the 9th of A. Meaning there is this relationship between the tragedies and the simas. Tragedy number one of the ninth of that was the day that God decreed that the generation of the desert would die over 40 years. Tragedy one. What is the first simka of the 15th of A? The anulment of that decree in the 40th year. Okay, so that's a very clear association. Now, tragedy number two of the ninth is the destruction of the first BA mikdash. Right, the first B mikdash was destroyed. That's tragedy number two. And tragedy number two say what? That the tragedy was mainly because of Gilas sexual immorality and and murder. But of those three, it's very clear from the prophets themselves that aora was the biggie. We don't understand the aahara of a zora. uh but it was an extremely powerful force and it was a zora that was gorim the kurban of the bias region. Where do we see a vaora being addressed in the simas of the 15th of Aav? We see it in Hosa Ben's action because again when Yurraam ben Nat set up guards I should have mentioned this before. So they wouldn't go to the Ba Mikdash he created a rival Basa Mikdash in Bay which had golden cabs of abara. So the tragedy the second tragedy of tish which is connected to a zora but one of the simas the order is not the same as I presented them. One of the of the 15th of is the undoing of a desor by giving people access to the basikt. Tragedy number three of the ninth of a is the of the second bas mikdash. And the primary aera that caused the of the second basikt was hatred polarization dissension makus. When Jews don't connect to each other, here's what you get to. Two of the simp of the 15th above are about unity, togetherness and akus. This is where you get the six. One is the ability of women to marry any Jew that they choose. Get rid of the barriers. And the second is binyam. This is how you get the two being readmitted into call Israel. So those are celebrations of Akus. If the third tragedy is the obliteration of Akus, two of the simp of the 15th of A celebrate Akus and unity. The fourth tragedy of the ninth of a was the destruction and massacre of betar in the year 135 65 years later. Well, very good. The fourth tragedy is the destruction of betar. But one of the simas of the 15th of Aav is the harug beta were able to be buried. In other words, there's kind of a compensation here. The fifth tragedy of the ninth of a and this is also in the aftermath of betar is your shalam and the area around you were plowed with salt and sulfur destroying apparently the fertility of the land. That's a tragedy. When the fertility of the land of Israel gets destroyed or impaired, that is a tragedy. But what happens on the 15th of A every year? We see that in spite of all that was done to destroy this landu gives us enough wood to meet our needs and the land somehow rejuvenates one way or the other. So the point is I hope you can see the correlation between the tragedies of the ninth above and the simus of the 15th above. But what does that mean? Why Bafka are they set up in that particular way? Because remember that the 15th of Aav is the seventh day from tishabuff. Tishabove we begin our morning. We begin our veilus. We prepared for it ahead of time. But tishabove we are the ael par excalance and inel sits shiva. But what do you do on the seventh day of Shiva? No the seventh day that Shiva you have to get up from Shiva. You have to resume your ordinary life. Hashem does not want you to be in perpetual mourning. So the 15th of A is when we get up this year it's Shabas which anyway you don't mourn but we get up from Shiva. We get up by Shiva and Hashem is enabling us to get up from Shiva by undoing in a little way or compensating for the loss by giving you brahos that redress the very loss that you suffered. Getting up from Shiva going back to life. Now here I want to mention you know we said kinos uh Sunday and um I heard it in our from a word from rabbi le very interesting he says kinos which is just lamentations that's the translation of lamentations has the same letters as tino a baby or a child because we should cry to god like a child and it also has the same letters as tikun to rectify or fix. So he said kinos and I hope uh those of you that said kinos even if he didn't say everything and it's much less important to say everything than to have kavan in what you say. So even if a person is only going to say five kinos instead of 45 kenos there are actually 45 or 46 kenos uh kinos is obviously something that's much more important in terms of kabana than in terms of the quantity of words uh that you say but the 45th kina again depending how you count it. By the way I just want to uh digress for a second. Um, you know, people talk about, you know, there's an expression in English, the greatest thing since sliced bread, like sliced bread is a real great invention. Um, I want to say that the greatest invention of Kenos is simply printing them as numbered poems. If if you look at the old Kenos books, it was unbroken 150 pages of text. Those were the kinos of my childhood. uh you know if if you understand that the kinos are 45 separate poetic compositions and each of them has a theme and each of them has an idea. Even if you don't have a translation which everyone should have but even if you don't have a translation it's much more manageable. It's not just 150 pages of unbroken. So I quite literally said that any kinos without number numbering the poems should be put in genea. Uh they shouldn't even be used at all unless unless you happen to know kinos well enough. I mean if you really are a buck and kinos you can follow anything but if you don't know kinos the vast majority of people uh you have to have it with numbers. Okay. No. So number 45 is the one kenum kinos are supposed to be said sitting down on a low bench. If you have back problems you can stand up. It's not an aa but ideally the kino's position is towards the ground. But there is one kina where the minis is everybody stands up and not only does everybody stand up but this kina is even sung to a niggan. It is sung to a very heart-rending tune. I remember uh growing up Feinstein would sometimes come to Hartford, Connecticut and uh in the summer for two weeks in the summer. Our joke was even as a kid we we made this joke. Uh he wanted to go to the one place in the world where they wouldn't bother him with Shilas. Uh so Hartford was a was a good place good place for that. But I remember on Tishabove he was always honored to say this kina and he would sing it with the niggan that is actually a familiar niggan. And in his voice, you could see, you could feel, you could hear and feel the heartbreak of Gulos and Kurban and the sufferings of the Jewish people and how he was pleading for Hashem to bring the gula. And this is the kina that is. And I want to correct a misconception a lot of people have. A lot of people think that the first word Eli is Hashem's name and they pronounce it kay. That is a total mistake. Ellie is not Hashem's name. Ellie is a verb that means to lament. In other words, we're turning to you as if she was a person and saying and all the cities lament cry out to God for your people just like your m talks to you shall that way. So you read it and it says let us lament over it and and it talks about all these things. It's a very powerful actually it's very very powerful. It talks about the suffering of the Jewish people. It talks about how many lives were lost, how many women and children were massacred or abused. It talks about how God's name has been desecrated and how God's glory cannot exist in the world. And we ask Hashem to return to us so that his name can be glorified once again. Very very very powerful. But the metaphors are very interesting. laments Cion and her cities like a woman going through the pains of labor and like a young bride who is wearing sackcloth over losing the beloved husband of her youth. Note the two metaphors here. Jerusalem in mourning is compared to a woman in labor pains and she is compared as your mo does in a to a widow who has lost her beloved husband. These are two types of very painful circumstances. One is the excruciating pain of labor and the other is the devastation of bereiement. And both metaphors are being employed. But there's a big difference between the two types of pain. The pain of labor is indeed very very intense. But in the normal course of events, it culminates in life in joy. So the labor becomes bearable because you know that in normal circumstances there's something very very good and beautiful at the end. The pain of bereavement is sadly a very very different type of pain at least until resurrection of the dead. It is a permanent pain. It's a pain that's not going to be redressed. in this world. So the Jewish people are describing themselves as a woman in labor here. Pay attention and like a widow. The the the word like is very significant meaning to say what the python is communicating is we may feel like a widow but that's not accurate the true description of our pain is childbirth not widowhooding and the gammor even darian not theor the medish even darian when your m says is like a widow says as the medish like a widow but not a real widow. A real widow husband's not coming back. Our widowhood, Hashem is for sure coming back. So it's so meduyak that the reality of ami Israel is the woman in labor but in her despair she looks at herself as a widow who has lost the beloved husband of her youth and that's not right that's incorrect that's bel okay but now let's take another point which would really connect to what we talked about tonight. Why do we stand? Kinos are supposed to be said on the ground or you know sitting low. Why do we stand and why do we sing? Savv Salvetic who was actually very very famous for his all day kinos Shiorim and uh there is a kinos published by the ou kinos of Rav Svik based on the uh rec trying to reconstruct his kinosurum of many years. It was a really famous famous thing. But Rafik explains that even on tishabove itself we get up from Shiva. You know we no longer sit in a low bench by Mina. And that signifies the idea. Yes, you mourn, you cry, you so but then you have to get back to life. You can't remain in mourning forever. Because if you remain in mourning forever, you will never accomplish the mission and the purpose that Hashem has for your life. The grief never goes away, but you compartmentalize it. It doesn't become the only thing in you. It's there but you go on. That's why you stand up. That's why there's actually a minute. Although there's no real mocker for it, but it's a very popular minute that when a person gets up from Shiva the morning of the seventh day, they take a walk around the block. Have you heard that or maybe experienced it? Again, there there's actually no macar for that. But it does represent the idea that it's time to rejoin life. But here's the thing. When you rejoin life and you get up from your morning, don't forget the B mikdash. Meaning, you don't simply say, "Oh, I finished kinos. I get up and I leave. I get up and I say the kina of a do you see how that's combining two things get up don't stay on the ground you got a life to live but in that life make room in your heart and in your soul for the bas mikdash and that's I we say the last kina as we're getting up because we're taking it with us and there the 15th in a very literal way is getting up from Shiva but even when we get up from Shiva just as a person who lost a loved one certainly has not forgotten the loved one after Shiva so too we don't forget the bas mikdash and our relationship relationship with Hashem after Shiva and that is the inner message the very beautiful message of Eli. It is fascinating that LHN which which may be I mean everyone has their own individual opinion but may be the most beautiful kina is totally anonymous and no one has any idea we know the authors of most of 95% of all the kinos that we recite razer kaler did around 50% of what we have but but even the other authors raid allevi uh ramy rutenberg wrote a well-known Kina about the burning of the wagon loads of Gomorrah. So we can look at virtually every kina and say I know who wrote this. Uh but elit seems to just be the expression of the Jewish people. It's it's not it's not even connected to a single person because it kind of just became the outpouring that we have. So we've left tishab and we're approaching the happiest day of the year the 15th of a but hold on to the bas mikdash hold on to the prayer for gula and of course uh the need for gula is very very obvious in the world as we see it and may a kadesh bring the gulma to Israel [Music] by Hey [Music] my birthday [Music] note.