The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Redemptive Tisha B'Av by Rabbi Dr. Yosef Bronstein

thank you so much for the introduction and if anybody else wants to go upstairs to hear R Bri with rmo I would definely understand um I assume the only reason that people are here in the be medish and not up it's not because of me it's because of the Babi so we'll get straight to the but before that I just want to post to thank to really thank for the ability and the opportunity to be to be able to teach Torah here and for the U Sam reached out to me again I assume he also didn't reach out to me because y gr reached out to me because I was recently able to be to put out a book about teachings of the bab I think that that the that the title for this this program broken hearts yearning for Gula ready for Gula something that very much describes the Bish rabi as we'll see and therefore it's something which fits which fits into the program if anybody has any questions or comments please feel free to please please feel free to please feel free to to chime in along the way usually if you're preparing a Shear about theaba sherei on any particular topic there is no problem with Gathering Source material he spoke non-stop for 40 plus years there are books that are filled with every single hog every imaginable date on the Jewish calendar even dates that most of us are not familiar with there are there are still books that are filled with his talks on that topic when you think about the Obama on Tish though the problem is actually the opposite there is a POS there is a dth of source material he never spoke on Tish when I started thinking about the bab and Tish a couple years ago when I when I when I was researching this topic I just realized that the dates go from shabas K to the chabas after tab to TU he never spoke on Tish when I asked my kabad friends about this they said yeah he never spoke onsh he heard he said Kos and then he left he went to his office he he went home and for me this was astounding because coming from my background I come from a Yeshiva University background we all know that one day of the year did Robbie salv the great rash University speak the most year in year out which day was it Tish there are literally books that are filled with his with his with his expository AOS he would speak from 8:00 in the morning to 400 p.m in the afternoon when they would go ahead and and go ahead and D my father-in-law who was a Teter of of year in year out he leads Kos this year actually he has a grandson getting married in America on so he's not he's not here this year right now but he also he speaks from 9 in the morning until Kos pushing Kos a little bit beyond and he told me he could really go on for for more hours it just that the wants once once once they're able to why did RV speak so much on TI what did he speak about AOS some people who live Jewish history people that understand what the Jewish people have gone through what the suffering and and the despondency that we felt they feel like Tish day to share that Ian Salvia came from a world with the European world the ISA World which was totally decimated totally destroyed in the Holocaust you want to give that feeling over to the next Generation my father-in-law is is a child of survivors he wants to give over to the next Generation what then means to suffer in Jewish history it's a day of a it's the day of we don't D in we sit and requet and remor and if anybody knew the pain of Jewish history anybody knew the pain of Jews it was the Babi and yet he never spoke anov and it's astounding just as an introduction as to perhaps why he never spoke on tiab and when he did speak about tiab what he spoke about I I want I want to tell the following story this is from anash.org anash anyone know what anash stands for that's the way people people refer to themselves um it's a It's aabad News website and there is a certain Rabbi ruin who was a Shia in Baltimore and he tells the story that one day during the 1980s he gets a call from Rabbi gruner one of the one of the Rab's main secretaries one of the RB's one of the one one of one of the people one of the people running the Reb's office he gets a phone call the rabba very much appreciated the ad you put out in your in your Journal okay which ad the ad is in front of you look on the left side Tish has two sides to it Tish is the darkest day of the Jewish calendar observed this year on Saturday night August 6th and Sunday August 7th sh commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem's Holy Temple etc etc etc know a black background with white font very very despondent look at the the bottom of the page the bottom of the left hand side it's telling the story of seeing the fox coming out of The KES kashim the sages burst into tears it's going on to the right side but if youa laugh the SES were shocked how can you laugh the SES skipping down the SES conceited saying AA you have comfort us Tish is a negative once we have the negative it takes only time and effort to develop it beginning of the next paragraph Tish expresses strength rather than weakness the beginning of the next paragraph it is customary to rise Tish afternoon and clean the house showing our renewed Faith and Hope on the positive side tiab marks the birth and potential of redemption by the righteous MSI most important Jewish principle I fully believe in the coming of mhia and though he may take time each day I eagerly anticipate his coming what is the purpose of his ad that you start off Tish thinking about despondency thinking about depression thinking about sadness and AOS but really what is Tish about the right side of the column the white side of the column the this a message of Hope a message of optimism a message of resilience that no matter what's going on msia is on his way and the RAB grer called up RAB Ruben to say the Bist RAB very much appreciated this ad there's actually another ad in the same Journal you know how they have signs in Israel sakim so apparently there was a parallel English English version um danger we are building over here and that was on the title that was on that was on the front page of his journal he put out about about a there's danger Jewish history is sad they're suffering why because because we're building whenever you're building there's going to be sadness going to be going to be hurdles along the way but s so with in the next couple minutes what I would like to do is two things number one is to go through some of the RAB Tas about and we'll see he's going to try he's going to take the most negative maku he's going to take the most depressing ideas and with a flat with with a slide up hand with a turn of a source with a new idea transform them into positive messages of optimism resilience we're going to see a couple of examples of that maybe just one or two and then the second half of this year is going to be what in the world is he trying to do what is the purpose of this is like a game that we're trying to not feel the sness of Tish trying to get around the AOS so everything is going to be positive everything's going to be about optimism everything is going to be about Mah coming everything is going to be about resilience what what would purpose what's the agenda what's the mama as he say in this country what is the m is trying to accomplish by constantly emphasizing messages of optimism and resilience whenever he actually chose to speak about tab which he didn't actually do onto shabab itself fantastic so far so good those those are going to be the two parts of this year hopefully 10 minutes for one 15 minutes for the other we'll get upstairs for the k for front row seats in the K fantastic par so I I had little excerpt of these talks these are these These are these are much longer talks in this talk is always is always points out as follows where is the first time in the Torah we hear about the concept of G the concept of Exile the concept of Jewish suffering the bris ofar Hashem tells Abraham that your children are going to be Exiles in are going are going to be exiled to foreign lands and they're going to suffer there but what is the context of that message that your children are going to suffer an exile it's a bris what is a bris it's a treaty it's a convenant it's an agreement agreement between two parties let's look at the B's formulation what does it mean to have a bris with with another entity why do you make a brece with somebody while you're in love with them while everything is going great you don't need the contract you don't need the agreement you don't need the confidence everything is going great what is the purpose of formalizing it of concretizing it in a breath so even when things begin to fall apart you make sure that your commitments are still there and your love is still there so it bris represents like like those people that that heard heard David a couple minutes ago loving the other entity because they are another person because of who they are that is the meaning ofus and in hashem's first bris with Aram as the father of am Israel the first bris but one of the major Bros that hasem makes withu what does hasem tell about go so how do these two things fit if the point where hasem is expressing his utmost love for for and for Isel why then would hasem tell AB about the despondency and the suffering and the Aus that you're going to be experiencing in the gas look look um look look at look at the second to last line of the first verse it's not understandable is about punishment it's about suffering the opposite of love and epitomizes hashem's undying love for Israel great question what do you start seeing what is going to be the nature of gas the nature of suffering something about love second question asked in the same talk look at source number two the says when the nonews enter what did they see the on the AR own intertwined in rra with each other and want did they go go outside and and and and and tell all their non-jewish friends that these Jews say they're not Pagan worshippers but really they are really inside their Kash inside inside their holy their holy aite there are these two figures that are en wrapped that that are en wrapped with love what's the problem with this gamar there's another gamar which I didn't put on the sheet that says and when was that the crew the crew on top of the arm sometimes they were in wrapped with love and sometimes they were facing away from each other when were they in wrapped with love when had a good relationship with when was doing when were they facing away from each other well the other side when wasn't doing so at the point of the when when the non-jews are going into destroying how did they exceed clearly there is some love that hasem has for am Israel at the time of theban but it should be the opposite theban should represent the has turning away from Israel and theban represent the Corp should be represented by the by the facing away from each other this question is already asked by the it we don't give such positive optimistic inspirational answers look at RIT on the page but the B says as follows we see from these two sources number one that Goos is is is Galos is mentioned in the context of a bris number two that the Kim are in with each other that the G itself the herban itself not only leave to something more positive in itself represents something positive how could the G and represent something positive he says as follows says let's say he he always likes giving is fil filled with Parables and analogies it's like let's say you have a brilliant teacher and the teacher is sort of is sort of is is sort of limiting the the the Brilliance of his mind to explain things on a simple level to students then all of a sudden the teacher gets a h gets a lightning Bol gets a new idea now the teacher is in sort of a dilemma on the one hand they they want to process this new idea they want to be able to give over this new idea to their students but on the other hand in order to do that they have to sort of Turn away and focus on their own mind for a minute or two in order to understand the idea itself and then figure out how to best give how to best give it over to their students Aly said that is sending into gas Hashem had a certain level relationship with us relationship at the first B mdash relationship of the an amazing relationship but not the ideal Hashem was giving us part of himself but there was something that was missing he sees the light he wants to give us more he sees a more brilliant idea a world that's filled with more light but in order for Hashem to be able to give that to us similar to the teacher one does have to do turn away from us for a moment turn away from us for a little bit of time so himself could process the idea figure out how to best give it over to us and we as students we as the children ofes the students ofes we realize Hashem has something amazing in store for us we have to prepare ourselves and we have to we have to we have to focus ourselves to be able to receive that amazing life that is the meaning of and that is the meaning of according to this turning away from us not only because of our sins not as a punishment not as an expression of hashem's hatred for us but realizing that there was so much more he wants to give in the current situation he can't give it for whatever reason he needs some time away we need some time away hasem has to prepare himself for how to best give it to us we have to prepare ourselves for how to best receive it and that is the meaning ofan that is the meaning of gas and therefore what why when why when the non-jews enter the with the why were they intertwin with each other why was thean itself an expression of divine love not because eventually 2,000 years in the future it was going to lead to some it was it was going to beos it was going to lead to some type was going to lead to some typeia no right now realized there was so much more he wanted to give and the only way he could give it to us is by turning away for a moment so he could focus so we could focus so so we could reconnect in the future and that is why Galos is first introduced in the in the Torah in the context of abis which epitomizes K's undying love for us because the gist itself is an expression of divine love that is a wild message that is not the message you get if you read tanak simply that is not the message you get if you read the Ric literature simply it's not the message you get if you read the Kos simply maybe that's why he didn't speak about the kenos directly he said them he skipped them he spoke about the paros of the weak but you see what type of radical approach this is it's not just a gus leads to something more positive in the future because it's M for our sins gas itself is a necessary stage of spar's way of of showering us with Divine love and at the same time the bab trei really realize You' been suffering still what suffering was it wasn't like he was blind to was he was blind to suffering in the pain of Exile but when you spoke Torah suffering itself the gas itself was a positive phenomenon one more radical reinterpretation of what what what G and kurban is the the Zohar and understands that not only do we have to keep the Torah but himself has to keep the mitv so this this this creates a whole interesting literature everything hasem does in T is it really based on does really fit in does it does it really fit into it does it really fit does it really fit into a Mitzvah so the B starts a a couple maybe like 20 30 years later in 1980s with the following question we know there are two in the Torah about destroying things there is a general isas now supposed to destroy things and there's a separate and additional to destroy a to destroy you cannot destroy a you cannot destroy so said we know the Z teaches us teach us keeps so how could destroy isn't a violation of these two these two a these two in T is destroying something and not only that is destroying destroy that is a violation so he says maybe you'll tell me that is not such a not such a big question because anytime there is some positive benefit down the line it's not a violation of alas if you have a tree in your yard and you want to play football there and you want it to be open and you want and you want to have the want to have the open space you could destroy the tree to have the open space because it is for a Positive Purpose therefore it's not B so maybe you'll say had to destroy the for a Positive Purpose to be on our sins and therefore there's a Positive Purpose involved therefore it's not he's like well that gets around Bashas but what about the AA of low then is a blanket is you cannot destroy a even if you want the space to create a football field so how could destroy the even even it's for a Positive Purpose you can't destroy we can't destroy also can't destroy so the B says if you go through H literature he qu a and him there is one situation when you are allowed to destroy a what is the only situationally that you're allowed to raise a I guess yeah sorry guess outside sorry exactly if you want to build a sh in that same location if your destruction is itself part of the process of building a better and bigger and more more elaborate and more spiritual sh in that same place some don't stay in the same place the says it has to be Mish in that same place said the only way to understand how KES was Hally able to destroy the was it's not enough to say he destroyed it to for our sins so that could survive that's a side reason that helps for doesn't help for the only way to say it is that the destruction itself is the beginning of the process of building a bigger and better and more elaborate that is going to exist like destroying a small sh raising a small sh to construct a bigger and more lber sh in that same location bab said that's the meaning of the med which I which I brought there on Source number four which you don't have to read inside what the wellknown M that Mia is born on the same day that the B is destroyed it's not that you destroy the the our so that we could do more MIT so that somewhere down the line is going to come no the actual coming of M the process of rebuilding the is an inherent part even Hally of the destruction itself look at source number five the B he says this says this very very beautifully says even more than this it's not just a side benefit of saving being for our [Music] sins there is no time Gap it's not that destroys that later on we could be [Music] redeemed the very destruction itself as you described in the earlier s is part of the process of a bigger and better and stronger revelation of ourselves Andes we need to be turned around we need we we need to face away fromes for a moment 2,000 years it's it's a long time we need have suffering in between but it's all built in not just to it is because this is the way created the world in order to have the third and ultimate ultimate revelation of in this world we need to have the destruction destruction itself is an inherently he calls it a terminology itself is an act of building a stronger and better again if you you are sitting there or standing there in 770 but the 1980s there's no place to sit anymore let's say you're standing there in 770 and you come in shabas and you want to hear about Tisha you want to learn how to mour you want to learn how to cry like like we just heard you want to learn how to feel the pain of the Bas of M what is the type of Torah the bab R is going to be telling you almost the opposite orientation it's almost like the pain is taken for granted it's almost like the fact that you feel the loss you feel the suffering is taken for granted but what is the message of Babi time and time and time again is going to be emphasizing the destruction is itself an inherently positive thing Gus is itself an inherently positive thing we have to understand that in order to order in order to help ring the G personally I think that's wild I think that there are again you have some sources that that they say things like this and this is not coming from somebody again that didn't feel Jewish pain this is coming from somebody that again had his entire world burned in the Holocaust he had siblings who were killed his sister-in-law his brothers in-laws who were killed in the Holocaust his entire world went up in flames and still time and time again a he avoided speaking on sh and B when he spoke about shabab it was these positive messages what's going on what's the goal what's the agenda what is he trying to accomplish by almost reorienting the the nature of Corban itself and and and the nature of goas any ideas I spoken in for too much I guess yeah I'm sorry what's your name AB please so so that is something he spoke about a lot um and that's why maybe I shouldn't say this in a Zionist institution like sh in aat but this is one of the reasons why he didn't he didn't actively encourage Aliyah from places like America South South Africa Australia Morocco because he really felt that the aod of the last generation of Gallas was Global and wherever there was a Jewish Community they had a mission to bring the light of Torah the light of God to that place in that in that location so yes so that is a positive benefit of gas though it's not necessarily something which would have you reorient the entire nature of of of of of of gas and corbon thank you please sorry what's your name right no long have to treat right meaning I think what's what's is saying is that Tish goes as we heard upstairs Tish changes over the course of his and while Tish shabab in a certain Century might be very focused on AOS on suffering on mourning on feeling the pain of the Jewish people and it's still partially about that you can't get you can't get away from that especially not this year but maybe as you get closer to the end the nature of Tish already begins to reorient itself and we already have the light of Messiah shining and we could tap into the mo aspect fantastic we willing we'll get there in a second so when what we have in the next couple MOS are several overlapping but maybe distinct ideas as to what the babish rabi was trying to accomplish by the only disgusting Tish of in a positive light look at source number seven for a second sour number seven is psychological at least I think so says after one of these positive talks about itself is a form of if you understand it properly this is the message this for our own we shouldn't pay attention so much to the darkness of that the darkness of from one perspective is increasing as as the years go on that even though now is the darkest time of G for many in many in many respects and we live in a time of a double Darkness still don't become to affected don't get too the first message is psychological we need dark the G is so strong we're living in a post Holocaust generation many of the people that were coming were Holocaust Survivors or children Holocaust Survivors they knew what the darkness of Godless was B's message as as deep as a darkness is as dark as dumble and triple and quadrupled as the darkness is that itself shows us how close we are to G if we think about things from a certain perspective so yes the GS is very dark I we could talk about that for for hours and hours and hours let's not focus on that right now because that is not the message that this generation needs yeah I'm sorry exactly he was talking you quote that time and time and time again 100% so that's one message one reason why he would focus on the positive I think it's psychological but but there's more there look at source number eight Source number eight is from a talk that's not connected to um it's not connected at all to it's a speech he gave on the first y side of his wife which is so he's descri describing the uh the importance of the number 22 the 22 represents 22 letters with from which the world was from which the world was created skip down after the in the second line once we understand that the entire world was created from these 22 letters that hasem didn't think that hasem spoke this a classic comes back to time and time again hasem created the world through speech through the speech through the letters of the Torah we are similar to our speech has a creative generative capacity to it speech is not just a way of describing what is going on in our brains like like like Aristotle says the explicitly contrasted this speech in Judaism is creative it creates new realities created the RO through speech we want to create a new reality we want to manifest a new reality into the world think good and it will be good in a generative in a generative creative way we have to speak about good things the more we speak about the G the more we are going to create a Messianic reality in the world that's what the following but he but he time and time again he didn't like using the word he always said he didn't want to say bad things he he spoke to people in Israel he said you shouldn't call a hospital should follow the Americans they call it a hospital Hospital of hospitality Sor exactly or something of that sort the words we say is not just don't just have psychological impact on us like psychologist they actually have gener generative creative capacity in the world itself the more we speak about G particularly in the context of Torah even if it's creative even if it's not the simple if we find every every has to do with positive things and Gul we are actually bringing more G Redemption into the world that is something firmly firmly believed and something which again explains a lot I think a lot of the talk about the about the imminence of Yos mashia and Messianic reality already almost being here is here a lot of this is B manifesting creative when we see when we we bring reality into the world through our speech so I think one thing one idea is psychological second idea is really believe I'm not sure everybody in the room believes this but he really belied there was a gener capacity to speech particularly Torah speech if you speak about Gula then Gula is going to more quickly come there is a there's a there's a third element here I want to focus on Source number 10 for a second Source number 10 is a speech actually it's from a speech on Sor which which which is a little bit harrowing um and it describes how we should think about this world and events in this world it goes through we read the creation story we read and what is the recurring commentary himself on the world that hasem creates to it's always good always good always good what happens immediately after the creation story bad things start happening you have the different of you have kind and heav you have the no story you have lots of bad things that are happening so what is the relationship between the initial the the the initial evaluation that sparle has for his created world that it is good or very good and all the stories that happen afterwards which are filled with sins and suffering and all all the bad stuff that we know about from our own lives and all the bad stuff we know about we know about from from from human history was very clear doesn't lie if hasem says the world is good that means the world deep down is good bad things might happen Clos might get involved negative things might happen but similar to a human being deep deep down the gave us always remains T deep deep down the world that we live in the world that gave us always remains good it might take us a long time to realize that you might have to study to understand that the same way you have to study parag basement perhaps to understand how every Jew deep down is really part of me and really K and really it's it's not manifest externally the same thing is true with the world as a whole deep deep down the true reality is everything in the world is good God created The World God said the world was good and that's what said in one speech God never changed his evaluation of the world it's it was good it is good and it will be good look at look at this ver for a second the world is filled with Divine Light God is the essence of good nothing bad can happen in the world we do see things in the world that seem to be bad we see the the absence of's presence that immediately after the light the world is filled with light there is a separation between the upper and the lower realm representing the fact that that we don't necessarily see the upper realm when we're when we're living here here comes the key lines we have to know this is not the truth of the world all of the bad things that happen this is external what is the purpose for the hiddenness what is the purpose of the absence what is the purpose of gullos it's so we as Jews could do mitos we as Jews could study could study Torah we we could realize that no matter how bad things are God is still good Jews are still good people are still good the world is still a good place and when you see the essence of everything essence of everything that really everything is good and everything is positive deep deep deep down what type of Consciousness are you living in what type of reality reality are you living in Messianic reality and when everybody in the world understands that yes bad things are happening and yes we we understand pain and suffering you have to be there with people when when when when when you have to be there with people when they're suffering you have to empathize with them you have to feel their pain but at the same time also realize that deep deep deep down things the thing everything about this world is good you are living in the Gula reality you are living in the osia reality when the or when the to when the goodness of is going to be fully fully revealed and this is the challenge I think that left his with maybe left all of us with that on the one hand to be there with people to understand there is pain and there is suffering the Shi was extremely empathetic and people that went into his office who were in pain and suffering felt the fact that he understood and felt their pain and their suffering but at the same time to always look at reality with a positive optimistic light not just because psychologically it's good for us like in the first piece and not just because we could bring g into the world if we speak more positively but also because deep deep down that is the true nature of reality the same way you look at somebody who's sinning and you get you're you could say deep deep down this person is the biggest s in the world that a that they're doing they're doing an a whatever it is it's external it's not who they are as a person the same things should be true about the world as a whole there's pain there's suffering there are bad things that are happening but those things those things have to be done de with they have to be experienced they have to be understood but those things are external the true reality never changed from Bar's declaration the world is good the the world is filled with light the world the world is positive the more we speak about that the more we bring that out the more we understand Torah on that level the more we are tapping in to the true nature of reality so just to summarize the Babi did not speak on T shabab itself as far as I'm aware he never spoke onab itself he spoke around after the messages were almost always positive the G is part of the G thean really is an act of he knew oric sources he was hadic knowledge of everything and he knew the traditional approach of why what was he trying to accomplish by reorienting I think perhaps three things number one we're living in a generation where there's a lot of Darkness we need positive Torah gives us number two we need to create G ourselves how do we create G one tool of creating Gul is through speech through Torah if you speak about positive Gul the Tor that brings those ideas into the world and makes them more real and the third and the third the third goal perhaps of speaking about positive Gulu oriented Torah is that deep deep deep down on some deep ontological level that is actually the true reality yes we live in the illusion we live with pain we live with suffering we live with all these things these things are these things are external the same way Jews AOS are are external if we tap into the true nature of reality that Hashem says the world is good and therefore it is a good world then it's going to help us understand Torah on that level and see events in that level and again without the crassness and the coarseness of saying therefore pain doesn't exist and bad things don't happen everything and we don't have to care about human suffering everything is really good understand at one level there's human suffering but on the other hand deep deep down everything is is really good if we could hold that Paradox in our mind then then we will be up to the challenge of we should we should be able to see the goodness of the World by by night and we shouldn't have to sit on the floor and and cry and cry [Music]