Torah Connections Tisha B'Av Program 5784

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com you instructed us to know that is God there's nothing besides him we just read this in this morning's this fundamental is one of the highlights of but there's one other occasion there's one other occasion that the kahila reads and recites this of as a at least according to and that is on before we open up the even before we say somebody to recite the how unusual for these two days to have this commonality says of kasani in the saer AR this teaches us that Tish and the two days we highlight this P it teaches us that there's a profound connection between Tish and Sim perhaps in the past we may have wondered Tish and what possibly could be the connection between and Tish but unfortunately this year we have come to learn the frightening connection between Sim and Tish in k he laments over the destruction of the temple that was trampled that was torn down I will compose a new elegy annually annually a new elegy a new K why would we compose a new K every year it's same old the story is static nothing changed it is what it is why compose a new story every year but the story is not static the story changed there's a new story this year there's a new story this year when we read in this year when we read the joy of our hearted our dancing turn to m morning do you understand what these words mean this year are dancing turned to mourning literally s was transformed into mourning the were literally interrupted by people who heard the news they came running in from sh to sh from neighborhood to Neighborhood telling everyone who hadn't heard Hamas broke through the Border fences of Gaza they're racing through the South the murdering Jews in middle of hak they stopped the hak they ran to the to say toim most couldn't even continue the it [Applause] was this year when we said the words this year when we said my children were laid desolate it wasn't referring to Children only 2,000 years ago it wasn't only referring to children in the times of the Holocaust it was referring to Jews Jewish children murdered this year in the most UN inhumane barbaric fashion according to reports children were put in ovens this year when we said Inu we are orphans without a fire a father who cannot think about what happened in karaza a massacre of historic proportions did you know 60% of the whole village was annihilated brutally murdered atrocities that mirrored some of the horrific tragedies of the Holocaust you know in one home a father and mother went into the safe room with their twin baby boys they took twin baby boys they're locked up for hours and hours the babies are crying the mother neb has nothing to feed the children the mother has no choice she figured the coast is clear she didn't hear any noise she leaves the safe room the moment she left the safe room the terrorist found her she's tortured the most despicable way and then she's murdered then her husband was murdered because he came to save her and you know when United hatela volunteers were waiting outside of karaza they're stunned when they saw two soldiers come present them two twin baby boys who were crying for 14 hours no one was able to answer their cries they didn't even know these babies were that the parents were killed how did the babies survive the babies were literally in the hands of the Terrace The Terrace were holding on to the babies knowing the babies were starving crying they were going to use the babies to lure residence of karaza to come to save the children and then they would Ambush them and kill them and the residents of karaza knew what the plan was so they had to restrain themselves and make themselves deaf to the heart-rending cries of these babies eventually the soldiers came they fought off the Terrace in the middle of the battle the soldiers grabed the babies run out with bullets flying overhead jumped into a Jeep drove away they present the babies to United hat Sola volunteers well what are they going to do with two little babies they're looking for the parents NE the parents were killed they present these two babies to Leno the grandmother to the grandmother who neb lost her son and her daughter-in-law and now she has two babies who are too young even to understand that they are when we say in could you not think of a young wife of Y Galia who is married for one year and he went off to Gaza to fight and he never came back and his wife Sinai in Alona at 23 years old this didn't happen 2,000 years ago this didn't happen in the Holocaust this happened now this year when we say women in abused on the Pinnacle of on when tells I just want one more day together with you Ben is are abducted and violated you know the whole world has changed since October 7th you know it used to be post September 11th now it's post October 7th it's a different world we now live in the world after October 7th you know people who around in 63 they remember where they were in November of 63 when JFK was assassinated I personally I'm not remembering that so well right now we could all remember where we were when the Twin Towers came falling down we will remember forever where we were when we heard about the October 7th attack so it's the script but now there's a new story some of the details of the story we've never heard before on we l says when you stretch out your arms in prayer to me I ignore you I'm not listening I'm not listening to you anymore for the first time in the history of the Jewish people we now have they were that are closed they weren't closed in covid they're closed now post October 7th meon was closed on La for the first time K on the fifth of just now was closed like we read in kin in you know there's always great sensitivity especially among Ben B Yesa from adding anything to the Liturgy of our from adding anything from to the Liturgy of our Pim you know we deem ourselves unworthy to join the ranks of by adding our own compositions but nevertheless you know it's interesting when it comes to kenos there is some precedent that as an individual as a y in order to elevate in order to make more meaningful one's recitation of kinus to make thear more real that one is given authorization for themselves at least to compose a there's a saer was written by he wrote The Following I hope you say it pause he's the author of this he writes in there's a Mitzvah on every individual to compose Lamentations kinis to say them on this bitter day it will be considered righteousness for him but if you can't do it then rely on what others have written just to evoke theha if I could read to you a few stanzas from one of these kinos that were written for October 7th not that we have the authority to add this annually to our liturgy or even to officially include it this year but just to get a little feel for what the M says ES this is a paraphrase of for this my heart cries all of these or what about this line how the world how how they've loved us so much since October 7th it's like the Jewish people we're just everyone's favorites now right the Eternal animosity for the Eternal people gets greater every day you know when it was reported in the news the atrocities that Kamas committed that they put children in the ovens or that they were beheadings the Jewish people were mocked that we reported this can you imagine they torture us they brutalize us and then they mock us for talking about it but let's come back to the unusual connection between the two polar opposite days we thought we would be able to celebrate the Day the to was given on but since that day my eyes pour forth with tears you know the tells us about a conversation between the the sages of Athens and Rish and they come to Rish with two two eggs two white eggs and they say Rabbi one white egg came from a white chicken a Visa chicken the other white egg came from a black chicken is this possible and he said yeah say what exactly is this conversation two white eggs white chicken black chicken says there are two periods in our calendar of 21 days the incubation period of an egg is days one time I was uh I got a call from my friends in Williamsburg they wanted to be to be M so they took me to the Brooklyn Navy yard and I climbed up I was m in the M I said what do I do with the egg they said eat it I said eat a Brooklyn pigeon's egg I you kidding me they said it's cleaner than anything you get in the stores these these pigeons are so healthy like clockwork every month they give birth to the egg the egg hatches 21 days perfect it's perfect Clockwork the incubation of an egg is 21 days we have two 21-day periods in our calendar we have 21 days of R from and 21 days of from from sh until they're asking rishu you have 21 days of rim and 21 days of panus can one God give one nation two 21-day periods that are so diametrically opposed to each other and the answer is of course because they're not diametrically opposed to each other because they're all they all bring and alah to two 21 day periods but theba took this further in his he writes why 21 it should be 22 let's count let's count Tish and in that case says theba not only did the days of sim correspond to the days of B but the days of of T sweeten Artic soften the blow of the 22 days of the b in fact in one of the editions of wolson in a not the classic edition he brings that not only are the 22 days of from rash toas not only do they correspond to the 22 days of panus of the B but it's the nine days and the nine days you have nine days of suus including and you have nine days of the nine days interestingly we have onus abrah MAV and who visits us on look at the is all about is the personality associated with and whose day is Tish Tish is the day of Yi Yia was born on TSH y cursed the day of his birth so we have these two polar opposite days Sim to and Tish says the ofba not only is Sim toim was a gift given to the Jewish people to sweeten to soften to lessen the blow of Tish says the something astounding you know and the yti of shatas why do we have the Y of shatas we have the says please you spent 21 days together with me it's like children who take leave of their father we're all familiar but we usually understand it to mean Hashem was with us 21 days can I please have one more more day together with you says there's a deeper meaning was given to soften the blow of Tish says Tish is so painful to me I so don't want to take leave of you because of Tish I have to leave the mik I have to leave clsh is going on I don't want to have to take leave of you on Tish so I'm giving you a gift I'm giving you to soften the blow of Tish you know Tish has a very unusual name we didn't say t what would have been if if would have tried to pull a fast one on you and said you would have let it slide now not a chance the able to pull off a today everybody knows is called well you like today you like sitting on the floor you like not eating you like torturous days why is Tish there's one day on the calendar that's not a it's a don't you dear a the says it's not a it's not a don't say it's maybe but it's not a in it of itself or Theo writes means a circle all the are on the perimeter of the circle because they revolve around the center point which isas which is a but not a says you know why Tish is called a it's because of the deep connection it has with the quintessential of you know on Tish our are blocked they're sealed what didn't we say last night in Kadesh says in the name of the what the do I can't tell you one thing I'll tell you all the of the whole year that are scattered and unanswered they go straight up to heaven they go up up to during the dancing of says the we know say for how many six what's theic what does p KAS stand for Pas the lottery in the mikdash theu the regel the carbon the all the that have been scattered the whole year and not accepted because or is was a gift to the Jewish people to give us some cut us some slack for Tish in fact what is called it's called where they so to speak with says forget the there very few only instead hasem I want to be with says the influence of onsh is so profound that when theim come into the bikash instead of seeing the Kim back to back which would reflect the the see the cre embracing that was the influence of on Tish in fact did you hear the good news did you hear who was born today Mia was born mhia is born on Tish after we get up we sit on the chair Mia is born onsh in fact last night I saw an amazing gach Raa wolson the potential for the onsh if you take the hidden letters of the word you spell out spell out the T the shin the the numerical value of the the third Bas mikash that's the latent potential of Tish where does this possibility for Mia come from that's also the influence of as the teaches the the harp of Messiah has eight strings the eighth days of sukus reflect the says the mar so what it does it mean if this year not only didas not influen Tish but what does it mean if sh itself is turned into Tish what does it mean for cl if Tish influenced sh what how great the Midas had must have been if this year we experience the Tish on of course there's no question did not abandon us even at the time of the greatest Hester Pim there was tremendous Gil there were Miracles and miracles you know during those early hours of s morning you think there were any police yet on the highways you think the Army was on the highways the highway to Jerusalem was clear what if theas would have continued to Jerusalem would have gone toim who knows what could they had they who knows what they could have done why didn't they it was a nce it was an open miracle every hotel in Yim was packed to the gills with American tourists with no security had Kamas continued on their way the result would have been catastrophic but they didn't it was a miracle you know rabor Rosen Blum he's a big maget in is so he tells the story that the morning of October 7th in the secret headquarter room all of a sudden they're watching Drone footage of a tank blow up and then a second tank blow up and then a third tank you know what it means for a tank to blow up 12 soldiers fit in a tank that means the Israeli Army would have the unfortunate job of notifying 36 nebuch families that their loved ones had passed away what happened how could there have been such a failure and all of a sudden they get a phone call who is it it's one of the soldiers huh now what what world are you calling from he's fine everything's okay say everything's okay we're watching Drone footage of your tanks being blown up what do you mean everything's okay say you wouldn't believe what happened minutes before the terrorist Onslaught we realized that a part of one of of the tank wasn't working properly we we didn't have enough time to fix it we had no choice we jumped out of the tank and we ran for cover the guys in the tank next to us they see that we Abandoned Ship they figure there must be a security concern they also jumped out of their tanks as did the third we're all okay that was an open Miracle but at the same time the tragedies that happened are unspeakable more than 1,200 Israelis were killed more than 250 taken hostage brutality and cruelty the likes of which we haven't seen since the time of the Holocaust and these are certainly tragedies worthy of mourning and crying on Tish and here is where we come to the most challenging part of the subject what's the point of remembering it what's the point of remembering tragedy isn't it bad enough we had to experience it in the first place now we have to torture ourselves and and not eat and sit on the floor and remember it we know what happened we didn't forget why do we have to rehash and make ourselves more miserable than we are already for what you like today you enjoyed it you like not eating you like sitting on the floor you like Tish for what what do we need this for you know there's a famous account recorded by the Rama in the of wheni was weeping on the harabas and he met none other than apalon Plato and Plato asked yavi you're a grown man you're an intelligent person what are you crying about you're crying over the destruction of your temple it happened are you going to bring it back why are you crying over spilled milk and that's a question we all have to ask ourselves in other words what is the point of this Tish what's the point of rehashing tragedies that happen we cannot change what happened you know that thebat authored an epic commentary entitled and in his introduction he advances there is no independent inherent value in Judaism of crying over tragedy to weep and mourn tragedy what's the value what do you get from that what do you accomplish you make yourself happy you think make the rebon happy that you cried over something that happened that you can't change says in Aus it only has value if it's constructive it only has value if it's for the purpose of it only has value if you investigate and identify what caused the tragedy what was the K that elicited why did the shamayim respond that way and what could I do to make sure this never happens again otherwise it's pointless it's pointless what value is there crying over something you can't change and by the way just parenthetically in the Prisma of the nce before mourning and commemorating the Holocaust he would apparently maintain that in order for it to have value it has to be for the purpose of identifying what could be learned from the tragedy not for the sake of appreciation of History so let's talk about October 7th last night when we read in that yam and chabas were forgotten in it's above my pre grade andam to indict any Jews but the facts are October 7th was both a shabis and a and its Holiness Hashem was forgotten kab was forgotten was forgotten and look at the end of the P it elicits the r of the shim Sim was forgotten you know there was Yeshiva nearby TI with 1500 B and not a single gun they didn't go into Thea where it wasn't can you ignore the accounts of a number of mosim that were in line of their travels that the doors were locked because it was a shabus and they were unharmed I'm sure you know the story I'm sure you know the story about the one family in a particular kibutz who decided to take upon themselves Shir shabas and they weren they were not comfortable staying the shabas in this kibuts anymore so their practice was they would go elsewhere eat chabas comes October 7th and the mother is nearing her due date she tells her husband you know I know we're not comfortable here but I really I can't get out of bed let's just stay home for shabas and when the noise began and the commotion began and the terror began and they hear all the noise outside and they figure it's only a matter of time until it comes to them and hours and hours and hours pass and then the IDF comes and they C c a terrorist with plans on him and they have a map of the whole kibutz and every single home in the kibutz and information about the personal activities of each family and about that Family it says don't go there they're not home for chabas heaven forbid this is not about being judgmental or condemning Jews maybe they didn't know better maybe it was our responsibility they were never never taught the beauty of shabas they never taught the beauty of Tyra it's not about them he wants to give me extra time it's not about them you know there's a tradition from the B bov teaches that if you see somebody doing AA okay so you may have a responsib ility of that depends on the particulars of the situation but the question is why is showing you the AA the fact that yanle barl did the AA that's his problem that he has to work on but why is ranam showing it to you the ranam is telling you this is you this is your flaw this is your shortcoming the other guy that's his problem but I'm showing it to you because this is what you need to work on you know you say it's what could I do about it tells us to DAV for the door when a person does a Mitzvah the highest level of doing a Mitzvah you don't just put Onin for yourself you don't just put Onin for your family the highest level ofv for the entire generation to protect the generation to give the re from the whole do we do that when we're is it only for our children or is it also for the's children if what does it say to us not what does it say about them what does it say about our what does it say about our what does it say about the way we observe [Applause] to I know we can't indict but the writes in his commentary that there is no value in Remembering Jewish tragedy if you can't identify something to learn from it otherwise it's a effort and futility so I wrote a message to renas fredman this Friday in light of everything we learned in light of the compelling connection between and TSH how do we view this terrible tragedy that occurred on sasman wrote back to me I'll read to you the letter he wrote there's no doubt that there's a connection that if thousands of Jews instead of rejoicing with the Torah that protects us from our enemies but this the shared with me that this would give us a deeper insight into that which says is it's very nice that here in Brooklyn and in ours or wherever you may be you're rejoicing in a hasem but it's so difficult all the other Jews our brothers and sisters from the majority of Cl is who doesn't know what a shabas is who doesn't know what a is you know there's one more haunting connection between I don't know if you noticed the tune that we use this morning there's one other time that we use this tune why are we using the tune of Tish on this is the fundamental connection between these two days of the year the only thing is there's one little twist in the tune that in instead of ending like we do on instead of ending the tune picks up you know when M comes still going to be one of the books of T so the wrote a explaining how it could be interpreted when Mia comes all the to will emanate not from New York and New Jersey but from yeah but what's the tune we're going to use we'll take that little at the end of The Way We Sing It On that's what will happened to the tune then of being from the over we should be that if this year was commemorated on should should give us after of course is the beginning of the G you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com