Understanding the 3 weeks and Tisha B'Av - Rabbi Benzion Klatzko - Library of Torah Thought

[Music] welcome everyone to the jewish podcast fellowship a library of torah thought we spent some weeks speaking about hashgaffer which means judaism and jewish thought and jewish philosophy and really where judaism is coming from on different issues whether it's life after death or whether it's god or whether it's uh the uh veracity of torah and so on and then some weeks especially around times when there's a holiday we speak about what the holiday is all about and while the these talks are in general for more of a beginning audience i tried to put in uh enough depth that uh everyone will gain something from it so uh the three weeks three weeks so the first thing i want to mention is that this is a period of time when we're sad now if you think about it in america there's no real equivalent to the three weeks maybe the closest thing would be memorial day but a day a day or weeks that are dedicated to sadness is sort of an extraordinary thing to think about like why would we dedicate days to being sad the opposite judaism is all about being happy we say that when you're happy you can serve hashem better when you're happy you're going to be your mitzvoth are going to be done with more joy it's a better relationship with hashem why would we go out of our way to be sad so much so that we have not one day but weeks dedicated to sadness doesn't that seem like the most non-jewish thing possible hey everyone let's be sad and we we don't just say let's be sad as a theoretical state of mind but we do all sorts of things that solidify or concretize the concept that it's time to be sad we don't go out and buy brand new things that give us joy uh we don't listen to music unless it's our living if we have to make a livelihood through music then we're allowed but otherwise we don't just listen plain for pleasure as the days get closer and closer to the most devastating day of all which is tisha b'av which we're going to talk about the laws get even more sad more full of mourning so during these days we certainly don't make weddings uh we don't um play music like i mentioned during the nine days before tish above we don't even eat meat because meat can make a person happy of course if you're a vegetarian that doesn't apply to you but if you're uh if if you're an omnivore and you enjoy your uh meatatarian pescetariate you'll enjoy your meat and we don't have it we don't have meat during those days we don't even shave you see over here i don't usually don't have a beard and here's a beard we don't take a haircut during the three weeks and we are we prac this morning all the way until tisha b'av itself and on tisha b'av which is coming up in just a few weeks on tish above which is the most devastating day the culmination of the morning we don't eat we don't drink we don't even sit on a chair until noon of that day we don't wear leather shoes uh we don't take showers the truth is even during the nine days we don't bathe for pleasure if you're one of those kind of people who enjoy just like taking a bath because you know you enjoy that we don't do that during the nine days and um people who do need to shower because they really stink the laws you should do something to minimize that pleasure so if you usually like a really hot shower you should make the water a little more lukewarm maybe as little as shampoo we do things to minimize our pleasure to to uh emphasize or uh to put a magnifying glass on the sorrow and the morning that we feel during that time and the question is why why do we do that why why is that a jewish thing to do now i'm gonna i'm gonna mention one more thing that i think is really interesting and important judaism has this rhythm whereby we build up to a day we build it up we prepare for it and it's really unique it's not like the the christians go xmas shopping so that's i mean it's a build up for not a phillip that's not actually filled up or they prepare their tree but that's not a build up i'm talking about a build-up so i'll give you an example yom kippur coming by yom kippur big big day young kipper yom kippur doesn't begin on yom kippur it begins 40 days before in the month of ello and we build it up slowly but surely we begin to blow the chauffeur each day we say which is those special prayers we say a week before rosh hashanah if you're smarty you say it the entire month of ello ello is the time for doing teshuvad contemplation introspection and then we have rosh hashanah which is really big it's long prayers blowing the shofar it's a holiday that's followed by some kidalia and that's followed by thousands made true for the ten days it's true and it's building and it's growing and it's getting more intense and we feel it and if you're in a yeshiva or you're in a seminary you'll hear talks about this and you'll hear people that they're learning a little more a little bit more they're they're just trying to build and grow till the big day of yom kippur where all that feeling and all that emotion explode within us and we feel oh no this is the ultimate and even on the day of yom kippur it builds and builds and builds until you have naila which is the culmination of the culmination of the culmination you've got elo then you got joshua shiva then you got yom kippur and then he got into ila and it just explodes and judaism is amazing in preparing us mentally and emotionally to be where we need to be on the day that we need to be there and it does this constantly it does this after pesach when we prepare for spirits during his first homer when we prepare to accept the torah so each day we're counting one day two days three days one week two weeks three weeks it's getting closer we've got a breaking lag of omar but now it's the final stretch then you got the three slash bala the three days before uh rosh hashanah and finally that culminates in staying up all night uh and then it culminates in the beautiful shabbos where we are ready to accept the torah so there's this build up that judaism uh professes and implements in the most really dramatic way purim doesn't begin purim they have the apartment it begins in the month of adar when other comes misha nicholas and we build and we build and that's what the three weeks are doing as well [Music] we we know how to build up how to prepare ourselves so that when the day comes we're able to feel it so we've got the three weeks which begin the time that the walls of the city of jerusalem were breached during the second temple period we'll discuss the actual history very soon and then we've got these three weeks of morning and then the three weeks which we're in the middle of build up until we have the nine days nine days from rosh chodesh aadh which is this friday all the way into tiltish above and that's going to be the following sunday and it's building up and then you've got three weeks then you've got nine days and then you've got the the day of tishbo of itself and then judaism does a really interesting thing as well after that what judaism does is it says after we have a day and we have this big big build up we should not just say okay i had the build up i had the day it was awesome let's move on judaism always tries to hang on to inspiration which is why you'll find one holiday after the next the day after the holiday or immediately following the holiday we have sort of the icing on the cake or the extra credit or the lingering it's known as israchag the day after the the holiday it's still a very special day and each day we allow we each holiday we allow it to linger so for example tisha b'av this very sad day that we're going to talk about the next day afterwards we still mourn until noon we're allowed to eat but usually we don't shave we don't take showers all the way until the next day we allow it to linger purim has shushan purim we allow it to linger rosh hashanah the next day we have zom godalia right after yom kippur we run out and build the sukkah each holiday we try to allow it even shabbos we have malava malka we hold on to the inspiration because we spent so much energy to build up inspiration we don't want to say okay wow i'm done i did the best that i could i reached it now washing my hands moving on to the next thing no then what's the point so it's really cool to understand that there's a rhythm to the days in judaism so let's go back to why sadness my son gavriel got up this shabbos and he spoke to my children speak on chavez and he had a talk that i would title if he didn't give it a title but i would title it if i were to have titled it as sadness is your friend it's a very interesting thing he spoke about how in this world everything that we do is to run away from sadness whatever whenever possible if something is sad i run the other way i don't want to be connected to sadness i don't want to be depressed i want to be up up up all the time up up up and therefore we don't have in the american uh gregorian or at least american holiday calendar a day of actual sadness memorial day they got memorial day sales and best buy unfortunately that's memorial day thanksgiving more shopping all about shopping it's all about shopping and football thanksgiving day football new year's day football amazon day amazon prime day football and shopping it's a crazy world why anyone takes it seriously is beyond me but for us sadness is like a real thing but we don't run away from sadness says says king solomon there's a time to laugh and a time to cry there's a time to love and a time to hate it's interesting we don't look at hate as a good thing i hate crime hate this is a very strong word but you know all these things are called midot and we often translate middot as character traits but the word meda means measurement and measurement is means that every character trait can be used for good in the right measure think about it jeffrey tastes delicious chocolate chocolate's sweet right everything's really good chocolate so there is something that has been around for a long time but over the past few years it's become a thing you cannot if you like this there's something called [Music] sea salt chocolate or chocolate with sea salt you guys like chocolate sea salt yeah i said those crunchy bits of sea salt himalayan pink himalayan sea salt on your delicious right makes me happy that's my goodnight treat i think it's true actually got a little little salt chocolate now you think about that makes no sense chocolate is sweet who needs salt in something sweet the answer is for the sweet to be sweet we need a little salt it's very interesting there's an understanding that everything when it's presented to us in the correct media and the correct measurement with the correct degree in the correct time the correct way what we have is something that's powerful and impactful and so there is a time to hate as crazy as that sounds and i'll tell you when we say in dominic on friday night oh they hashem [Music] the ones who love god hate evil what does hate evil mean it means can you shut off your can you put it on uh mute please thanks hashems means that those who love hashem hate evil meaning when you see evil that exists if you're okay with it if you have a live and let live attitude when it comes to evil you can be sure that you're not a godly person if that media that character trait in the correct measure doesn't doesn't foster in you a feeling of despicableness like this is disgusting this is awful this is this is a hateable offense this is something that should never be it's a travesty then we're not godly so even things like hatred have a godly angle that's correct now if you're consumed with hatred that's not the right media that's like putting more salt than chocolate no one's going to want to eat that i'm telling you you got to have the right amount so too we need sadness in our lives [Music] there was a film that came out called inside outside where this young lady thought she only needed to be happy and eventually she understood that every character trait is important and sadness is important as well there are times that it's important to mourn and there are many many reasons why this is so if we don't mourn then we don't miss if we don't miss then we don't love if my wife can go away for weeks and i'm not sad then maybe the bridge to love is is broken if somebody that i love passes away and i don't allow myself to feel sad well then i had to curtail the love that i had and the and the lessons that they taught me and what they meant to me in my life because i didn't give myself the permission to be sad and more than that when i don't give myself permission to be sad then i won't trust myself to be happy either because how can i be happy if i know one day that happiness is going to end so i need to i need to say that sadness is also my friend sadness can help me connect and that's the idea of sadness so hashem says you want to enjoy the gifts that i gave you you want to enjoy closeness to me then there needs to be sadness if i depart from you if you feel distance from me there's a there has to be a sadness you know we play a game with ourselves and this is a game that we play in order not to get hurt what we do is we think that loving somebody plays with house money like i'll love them but it's house money like if they don't love me that's okay because i don't really care but if they do it makes me happy sports fans do that all the time with their teams because they don't want to get devastated when their team loses so they say yeah when the team wins i'm going to be overjoyed but when the team loses i'm just going to shut off the television i don't really care cognitive dissonance but they do that because they don't allow themselves to be totally invested because you know the danger of being totally invested is you can get hurt but if you can't allow yourself to get hurt you can't allow yourselves to be close says hashem i want the closeness to you to be to be genuine to be real to be authentic to be lasting and that can only happen if you allow yourself the possibility of getting hurt when you feel a distance from me and i know that that's scary but i also know that that could create something else which is so important you know what that can give you a magical word the word is yearning you know what yearning means yearning means i pined for something i need something i desire it i i wistfully think about something in life we need to learn to yearn being a yearner being somebody who yearns for something brings out the best in your music brings out the best in your poetry it brings out the best in in in your in your in your interactions with people to be able to yearn means that i can emotionally invest in something even though it may be a scary thing even though i may get burned but i'm willing to take that chance because i'm not going to give up my yearning someone just told me a very nice expression don't give up on your daydream i love that instead of don't give up your day job don't give up your daydream right we have these dreams and i yearn i yearn to be close to hashem one thing i asked of you hashem oh so avocaish this is what i'm asking shift i want to sit in the house of the lord all the days of my life laxos benoam hashem to see the pleasantness of hashem will evacuate and to and to visit his his sanctuary i want to feel at home i yearn to live in the house of god all the days of my life this is what i want oh savage this is what i yearn for and david malek put himself at great risk because hashem said you may yearn to live in besan mikdash but you can't even build basalt maktash because you were a warrior and my best i make this my temple has to be built by somebody whose hands are not full of blood even though you were a warrior for good your son will build it you'll raise the money but your son king solomon milk he'll build it but that didn't stop david mellick from yearning that didn't stop him from saying oh savage this is what i want this is what i need the magic of yearning makes a person vulnerable to being sad but by taking the chance to be sad we allow ourselves to be happy says the talmud whoever whoever's is sad whoever cries over the destruction of the basal mikdash the temple will merit to see the temple rebuild and will rejoice in it you know we say in hebrews this one this one creates that one this one versus that one by being said when it's destroyed i am happy when it's rebuilt it's an interesting thing i want to share with you when the jewish state was acquired in 1948 when it was once again declared israel the first time it was under jewish rule since the end of first temple period that's the last time jewish people ruled over the land of israel who were the happiest who were those who celebrated israel and went out into the wilderness of the the kibbutzim and the moshavin who were they they were most of the time they were torah jews there were torah observant jews and the reform movement did not support 1948 they did not support israel they certainly didn't support it beforehand and i had the opportunity to sit down with one of the head reform rabbis in los angeles and i asked him this question i said like it's well known that the movement did not support israel right when it needed its greatest support you were not there how do you explain that to your congregants and you know what he told me he said well that's what reform is it reserves the right to change but it doesn't really answer the question it doesn't really answer the question but i do have an answer for him do you know why it is that the torah observant world rejoiced so emphatically about israel why those making aliyah the vast majority of those i don't mean those coming up from ukraine and russia right now because of the war i'm speaking about year over year the vast majority of those who are making aliyah are torah observant jews the vast majority you know why that is because every day multiple times a day it is the torah observant jew who says in shamona esri when we dive in the amidah we say the leader of him in yerushalayim to your shalom your city with mercy come back and live there like you said you would dwell there um build that everlasting building that temple we ask every dance one has three three times we yearn we're an expert at yearning when we bench uh nay we say again and again build your shalom we can't wait every day comes the redeemer we yearn again and again and again and again and again and again all day long everything is about eric's israel everything when you have a new house there's a there's an area uh amma buying amma two foot by two foot square that remains unfinished right when you come in you see a square that's unfinished that's the custom you know why so that when you come in and you feel joyous wow i got a new house you should say yeah but it's unfinished because it's not in yerushalayim and how can i rejoice over my nice little house when hashem's house is destroyed so if you're a torah observant jew every day you walk in the door and you see it when you go to a wedding and you smash that glass that's not the cue to scream muzzled of mazel tov why because the glass broke no it comes from the talmud that people were rejoicing so much that the rabbi said we're gonna forget to yearn for yerushalayim so we have to break something we break something of value so that's what we do is we break the glass we break it so that we're able to yearn very righteous jews every night at midnight they wait until midnight and they say something called they yearn they yearn for yerushalayim they yearn and they cry so is it any wonder that the vast majority of jews who run to eric's israel and make aliyah our torah observant jews it would be shocking if it wouldn't be like that what kind of yearning exists outside of torah america is great right we've got our we've got our democratic president uh we've got our all of our people and what do i need israel for apartheid state right let's go what do we need israel for let's let's shun it let's demonstrate on campus against my own people yeah you want to yearn you want to learn about yearning watch how the torah teaches us to yearn so the three weeks which we are in the middle of right now this is the grand buildup this is the build-up to get our engines of yearning started we have to start thinking what am i missing why am i missing it why isn't the basal mach dutch built what am i missing not having besan mcdush these are all valid important questions i need to be able to answer what is it about beissa mikdash let's take a step back when the jewish people left mitzrayim hashem gave them a commandment to build a tabernacle that's a word that's not usually used in the secular vernacular hey is that a tabernacle it's a tabernacle there that's like a very jewish word like phylacteries like it's just no one heard of these words it's a very jewish word or leviticus right here's the jewish jewish words that are translated to uh to latin okay what is what is a tabernacle hashem said the asuli mikdash the besikham make for me a temple and i will dwell in your midst it's interesting right away the commentaries say why doesn't it say in the passage make me a tabernacle and i'll dwell on the tabernacle why does it say in the torah make me a temple and i'll dwell in your midst the answer is it was never about god dwelling in a place god doesn't need a place we say mellow or its kavodo the whole world is god's place as a matter of fact one of the names of hashem is which means place wherever you find space place area you find god everything is within god god is not in space space is in god so god doesn't need walls and a roof what god wanted was a place where we would feel connected to hashem because we want to feel god's presence in the same way that we would want to feel a dignitary's presence in our midst let me give you an example let's say there was somebody really really important coming to town let's say not important important but let's say you admired a certain singer and that singer is in your town in your city and he's got a concert and you wrote the singer letter and he said you know what i don't know where you plan on sleeping the night of the concert but i'd be honored if you would come to my house i'd be honored if you would come and stay by me and to your shock and excitement to your surprise the singer writes back and said i would love to i'd love to meet you seem like a nice person so now the work begins you got to find a bedroom you're going to go maybe buy you're going to buy some new linen and the fluffiest pillow and you're gonna get you're gonna make a little nightstand with some bottled water and some snacks and maybe you'll write the wi-fi code right there and you'll you'll i don't know what you're gonna do you know you're gonna make that room just beautiful and sparkling and you want the singer to come in and look around and all the singer needs to do is say good job i'm feeling comfortable here yeah here's the thermos thermostat make it hotter make it colder you want me to wake up here's an alarm clock here's this here's that thank you and here here's the here's you make a coffee i brought a little coffee center to your room the hot water like you want them to feel good because you are honored that they're in your presence that's all we want oh we want this we want to be a host we want to host god sachin says okay that's wonderful i i get it like it's it feels like you want to host me well if you want to host me let's make a place but this place that you'll host me it's going to be full of symbols of what is important to me so here's here's news for you god does not need wi-fi we don't have to leave a wi-fi code on god's nightstand you know what god needs you know god wants he wants us to be full of charity he wants us to be full of torah full of wisdom so hashem says in my house i want a light oh like like a ceiling fan no i'm going to call it menorah and it's going to represent all sorts of torah wisdom i want the shokhan bread god's not eating the bread god wants you to eat the bread but hashem says i want things to symbolize purity and generosity and righteousness and wisdom so we fill up this house with god symbols now god didn't say oh put a picture of me enlarge no goof there's no way to picture god god doesn't have an image that we can picture which is great there's no idols it's just symbols of values of character traits that the almighty has shared with us that are valuable to him but a most beautiful thing it would almost be like a rabbi coming and there and you say to the rabbi what do you need in your room do you need like a foot massager and and the rap is you know you know what i'd like i'd like a hummus i like it stuck a box put a stack a box to give it charity i'd like that um you know maybe a maybe a gemara i would enjoy and maybe right and maybe a neglesser to wash my hands in the morning and when you come in the room what do you see you see it stuck stucco box you see a sitter you see a gemara you see a nagavasa and and and you've learned the lesson you've said wow to the rabbi this is important now all of this is only valuable if we value god's presence but what happens if we don't value god's presence what happens if what was once something really important has become a chore right let's say the singer comes every single week and soon instead of being exciting that he's coming you feel inconvenienced so soon you're not even home when it comes you leave him the key under the mat you do all sorts of things but it lost its beauty and the singer doesn't feel so welcome anymore see what he's going to do he'll go to hotel he's got money it was once exciting to come to you but now it's not hashem says i am only here because you want me here the moment i feel that i've become a burden for you that it's a chore to have me in your presence in your midst don't do me no favors i am i'm everywhere anyways i don't need to be there all of this was meant for us it was never meant for him there's a story of a little kid who comes in on friday jewish kid and the far and he sees his father coming home on friday and he's got a big bouquet of roses and gives it to the mother flowers for shabbat and the mothers loves beautiful flowers for the table she takes them she smells them oh this is so beautiful she takes a vase and she puts them in fills it up with water and the little boy will call him chain comes oh mama likes flowers so he runs out and he picks some dandelions and he picks some whatever and and he says mama here's for you and she gets what's what just happened she said oh i must have seen papa come in with the flowers and he's trying to do the same thing so she makes a big deal out of these dandelions she does the same thing she smells them oh this is so nice thank you so much she takes a little cup and puts silver foil and puts puts the water in it and little heim's flowers are sitting next to papa's flowers and this began to happen each week papa would bring flowers and kai would bring his flowers it was so beautiful then one day haim is outside he's playing ball with his friends and then he realized oh it's friday i didn't give mom or flowers so he tells his friends you know what give me one second i'll be right back and he sticks his hand to the ground and he grabs a handful of dandelions together with some dirt and some grass he runs in the house so mama here and he throws it on the table and runs back out to play with his friends and the mother looks at the table and there's a table full of grass and dirt and some dandelions all scattered about and the mother sadly takes it and she sweeps it into the garbage because it had lost its magic it was no longer a symbol of love it had become a burden says hashem i will allow my base i make this to be there if you want me to be there but after a while the jewish people began to consider the temple like a burden look at it it's using up animals i have to go up three times a year i do an alvera i have to go up i have to bring up carbon i have to i'm going to lose my job i'll lose my work i have zaras i have to go up one thing after the next and soon people began saying i know do i really want do i really want do i really need this connection look i wanted to be in your midst you had that extra level of holiness you had the auranko dash the ark of the covenant with the 10 commandments it was right there and now what do you have now you don't want it you don't need it you're rebelling against me so don't do me any favors i don't need this here historically speaking the first temple was beautiful and it lasted for 410 years the babylonians destroyed it and by destroying it they killed hundreds of thousands of jews and as we're mourning over the people the loss of life we're mourning over the loss of the connection to hashem and it's a reason to be very sad if we picture right now it's a scary thing to picture to be honest we think okay we have israel it's ours forever we got a nice nuclear arsenal that we won't admit to we've got uh winners of all sorts of nobel prizes we have poets we have singers we have uh we're the startup nation uh all sorts of beautiful things we've given the world cures drip irrigation ways for people who are quadriplegic to be able to walk we've done so much for the world there's no way that the world will want to get rid of us but of course we're wrong the world will get rid of us in a heartbeat and then they'll build a museum to commemorate their inaction like they did a few years ago and just to picture losing israel again it would seem like that's the end of the jewish people that's literally how it would seem i mean israel is right now the heartbeat of judaism there are more jews in israel than there are in any other country in the world it is the heartbeat what would happen if we lost israel there's plenty of nations right now that are looking to destroy us some are not being very demure about it they're overt they're speaking about it they're announcing it in their mosques they would have no issue if israel were pushed into the sea would that be the end would we mourn the loss of life god forbid and we don't even have a temple now we don't even have what do we have we have a coat though which is the supporting wall of temple mount imagine we had a temple imagine we have the ten commandments we have the menorah we have the shulkhan we have the mizbahitz on the outer altar and the inner altar we have the quran qaddash from the holy of holies the kruven the the cherubs where god would speak between the two cherubs the same cherubs that were there at the time of moshe rabbenu we had the original torah that moshe bainu wrote the original man that was there that fell in the times of the desert we had all that we had the yom kippur when the when the high priest with the urim the that would light up and give us the answers to our most difficult national questions we had all of that and all of the sudden poof that disappears we lost all of it we don't have the levine we're singing we don't have the kahanam in their service we don't have the misback we can't bring karbanos we don't have the place where we would sing and dance on suckers during the simcha space sasha eva we didn't have a place to bow down when we said but we would bow down in front of hashem and there was space for everyone all of that gone what do we have left an outer wall and yet if we lost that we would be beside ourselves how could we not be beside ourselves knowing that the very place that we yearned for that david ahmela cried for for so many years shifting has been destroyed and defiled and leveled by idol worshipers with the jewish people mocked and and and tortured and taken in chains to babylon and then we came back 70 years later and we rebuilt and it was not like the first one the ark of the covenant was not there in the second temple and during most of the second temple period which was 420 years we didn't rule over our own land during most of the time we were ruled over first by the persians then by the syrian greeks for a few short years by the kashminoim and then the romans came and the romans finished us off but even then even at that time torah and wisdom and connection to hashem was magnificent during the time of the temple of hoardness which is when the second temple was rebuilt even it was enlarged it was it was it was refurnished it was added on to until it was more than a half a kilometer big the temple mount from one end to the other it was so beautiful millions of people would come up we are still discovering today in temple mount and in that area mikvahot mikvas that people would come that would take hundreds and even thousands of people in one shot so many people would come up for with their with their carbon carbon pesach their carbon high giga their carbonaria the different carbonyls that they brought imagine the jewish people coming up bringing their mice to cheney in year number one two four and five they were the jewish people were supposed to take ten percent of the money that they made from their crops and bring it up to your shalom and spend it in yerushalayim 10 could you imagine if someone made a hundred thousand dollars that year ten percent they were supposed to bring up with their family and go crazy in yerushalayim to go crazy that was actually the mitzvah it's called mice or shani and they would spend the money and people who lived in jerusalem they would look forward to that time because they there would be a lot of money going around and help people uh make a living your slime is very hard to make a living in actual yerushalayim it's not a lot of place to plant in your slime but people would go up and they would spend their money and they would go to the nicest restaurants and they have to spend 10 percent of their money out of that extra money they'd give it to the poor year after year after year and then every 50th year you'd have the yeovil and you have the king and the high priest and the slaves would be going free it was it was amazing and now where do we have the world series snapchat tick tock it's like mars it's literally like we've gone from a place of connection to hashem and a person who grew up yearning for connection to hashem if we were to take them in a time machine and bring them to the year 2022 and show them our value system they they would they would mourn for humanity they wouldn't they wouldn't understand what makes us go what are our diversions likes i'm buying likes i'm buying followers you know you could buy followers on social media i could just imagine them wondering and what do you get for buying followers we've got more followers and then what are they following you do then i can sell stuff for corporations because i'm bad followers and i've likes but you bought the likes they don't really like you yeah but if people see people like me then there'll be more people liking me it's a system that is devoid it's bereft of god and godliness now we yearn to be back to a place where we're connected to the creator of the universe we yearn for a torah and a value system and a place that represented it with the mizbayach and the menorah and the shulkhan and yom kippur and blowing the chauffeur each week and especially on rosh hashanah and the singing and the dancing that used to take place on some special eva with this juggling and the talmud says if you haven't seen the happiness of a simcha special ever that took place during sukkah's period you never witnessed happiness in your life today in yerushalayim you could still go to assam khaspa they have them all over your shalom on the holiday of sukkos but we yearn for it and then the romans come and the romans destroyed the second islamic dash and the romans do what romans do best they killed they murdered more than a million jews more than a million jews were killed at the time of bayasheni during the time of the destruction of the second temple and then during the barakova resolve revolt that took place another 70 years later or again almost almost 700 000 kills jews were killed by adrian we're talking about a good two million plus jews killed and then we were exiled and we were made to wander amongst the nations of the of the world trying to understand how we could be jewish without pesamektash how we could feel to connect with hashem without carbanos how we could feel the holidays without being olorego and we struggled and thank god we have such a thing called rabbunum the rabbis who were very faithful captains of a very shaky ship a ship that threatened to capsize under the raging waters of exile and the rabbis from rebbe torviochen to many others hill shamai abbay rava ravina ravashi shmul and rav they took us by the hand they said claudiusro judaism is going to go on in algeria and spain in portugal in germany in poland and france south america and north america it'll go on but understand that you have to continue to yearn and the moment you stop yearning is the moment that you will not want to come back to israel you will not appreciate when hashem says i'm ready for this i make this to be rebuilt and therefore you have to allow yourself to be sad if you want to be happy you've got to be sad so now is the time to practice missing pining yearning for connection to hashem that we have lost over the period of first and second vessel magdesh confident that yearning and missing it will be the catalyst to having it rebuilt and i finish with a very famous story of napoleon who as he went around from country to country conquering and claiming it for france he ended up coming into one particular city and it was late at night and he came with his army and they saw there was a big shul that was open big synagogue that was open and he came in and there were jewish people many of them they were sitting on the floor they were crying and he was perplexed why are they crying sitting on the floor and one of the jewish people who were there got up and explained to him we're crying because our temple was destroyed and napoleon said oh i'm so sorry to hear when did that happen and they said oh it happened almost 2 000 years ago and he said 2000 years ago and you're still crying he said yeah we're sad that it's destroyed and napoleon said you know a nation that could cry over something that was destroyed 2 000 years ago as a nation that will see it rebuilt and as words were profound you could only appreciate happiness if you allow yourself to mourn and to yearn and to feel that sadness and so here we are how many years ago was the temple destroyed it's not good enough to say two thousand years ago because is that exactly how long ago was destroyed no exactly how long ago we should know the number the number is one thousand nine hundred and fifty two years ago it's a little bit less than two thousand it's forty eight years less than two thousand you know why that's important because forty-eight more years without being mikdash is a totally different tragedy it is much worse every day without being it's tragedy every day without shrina in the yerushalayim is something to mourn over so just to whitewash it to round it off to 2000 takes away the impact of every day without being dash i want to give you each a blessing that you should be able to yearn to be able to feel the constant lack of connection to hashem that we have uh because of where we are and may we all be maybe all merit to see based on mikdash we built we shouldn't celebrate and dance by a wall but we should celebrate and dance by a rebuilt bishop with the with the priests and the levine and the levites and all the jewish people coming up to celebrate the coming of mashiach thank you all so much [Music] foreign