Tisha B’av: When We Eliminate the Causes of the Destruction, the Temple will be Rebuilt
HaRav Dov Begon – Head of Machon Meir.
Our sages explain to us precisely why we mourn on Tisha Be’Av. “On Tisha Be’Av it was decreed that our ancestors would not enter the Land, the First and Second Temples were destroyed, and Beitar was captured and razed” (Ta’anit 26b).
The spies’ betrayal of Eretz Yisrael caused the people’s intense weeping on Tisha Be’Av Night in the Desert: “The entire community raised a hubbub and began to shout. That night, the people wept” (Numbers 14:1). The result was God’s saying: “Because you wept for nothing, I shall make you weep throughout the generations” (Ta’anit 29a).
The Talmud teaches (Yoma 9b): “Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because the people committed idolatry, sexual sin and murder. Yet in the Second Temple period the people learned Torah and performed mitzvot and kind deeds. Why was that destroyed?
Because there was groundless hatred.”
Today, on Tisha Be’Av and in general, we must engage in national and individual soul-searching. We must repent in our relationship to Eretz Yisrael, and we must rid ourselves of the weakness and lack of faith in our ability to conquer the Land, shortcomings displayed amongst the spies and their contemporaries. On the contrary, we must become stronger and more courageous. We must learn and understand and believe fully that Eretz Yisrael belongs exclusively to the Jewish People, and to no one else. If we believe in ourselves, our enemies will accept us as well.
We must search our souls regarding our relationship with our fellow man on the plane of the individual, the family and the community, and we must rid ourselves of all groundless hatred, for it has no justification, as its name implies. We must love our fellow man and our people, each and every individual Jew within the nation that God lovingly chose. Through groundless love, like the love between David and Jonathan, we will nullify the reasons for the Destruction, and then we will speedily be privileged to see the complete Messianic rebuilding. With our own eyes we will see the fulfillment of the prophet’s words: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall become times of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts to the house of Judah. Therefore love truth and peace” (Zechariah 8:19).
The Results of Israel’s Weeping over Nothing
On the Ninth of Av it was decreed that our ancestors would not enter the Land. The decree and its cause left their stamp down through the generations, as our sages said:
“‘The people wept that night’ (Numbers 14:1): That night was the Ninth of Av. God said, ‘You wept over nothing. I shall arrange for you to weep throughout the generations’” (Ta’anit 29a).
Indeed, on the Ninth of Av, through the generations until this day, the Jewish People have sat on the earth and sorrowfully recited tearful dirges about the Destruction of the Temple, the Exile and the troubles that beset our people. And why was that first weeping of the Desert Generation called “weeping over nothing”? Because there really was no reason to weep. After all, God loves Israel. He took us out of Egypt with signs and wonders, and He gave us the Torah at Sinai.
We are likened to a beloved bride, and God is likened to a loving husband and father. At night we recite the words, “You loved us with everlasting love.” God, in His great love for us, was bringing His beloved, chosen people to His beloved, chosen land. “The Lord chose Zion. He desired it for His habitation. Surely, He has chosen Jacob to be His, and Israel as His prized possession” (Yehi Kavod).
Yet the spies, in betraying Eretz Yisrael, created a quarrel between the lovers. So successful were they in this that the Desert Generation said, “The Lord brought us out of Egypt because He hated us! He wanted to turn us over to the Amorites to destroy us!” (Deuteronomy 1:27). The Torah responded, “In this regard, you have no faith in the Lord your God” (verse 32). “In this regard” – that God loves us and will keep His promise to bring us to the Land (Rashi).
Where there is no love, there surely is no faith. It is no surprise that the people cried that night over nothing. They thought that God hated them. Truthfully, however, God loved them and will love us forever. Imagine a wife who thinks her husband hates her and is cheating on her and scheming against her. Certainly she will cry bitterly. What caused the spies to libel the Land, bringing death to them and to their whole generation? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto explains: “It was their fear that when they entered the Land they would get less honor” (Mesillat Yesharim, end of Ch. 11). Hubris and pursuit of honor caused the spies to part with the Land and to create a quarrel between Israel and their Father in heaven.
Today, we have to rectify the sin of the spies and the Desert Generation by nullifying the cause that led our ancestors to cry over nothing. That is, we must increase love and faith and instill in our hearts the idea that God truly loves us, as we say in the Shemoneh Esreh: “He will lovingly bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of His name.” Not only must we believe that God loves us, but we must remove the ultimate cause of the people’s weeping, the sin of the spies. The spies created a quarrel between us and our Father in heaven in order to rid themselves of Eretz Yisrael.
Eretz Yisrael, after all, is like a mother to the Jewish People. Who wouldn’t weep if he heard that his mother was going to be sold? Quite the contrary, we must nullify the divisive idea of partitioning our beloved land and handing it over, God forbid, to a foreign nation. To do this we must strengthen faith and love for our land and our Torah, and we must tenaciously hold on to all parts of our land and devotedly defend it. This is the best rectification for the sin of the spies.
Through such efforts, the day will not be far off when we merit to see the days of fasting and weeping transformed into “times of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah, therefore love truth and peace” (Zechariah 8).
