Let's begin perhaps by posing a strange seemingly anomalous question. The Rambam as is well known paskins that קדושה ראשונה מקדש קידשה לשעתה ולעתיד לבוא, that the Makom HaMikdash continues to be endowed with Kedusha and it didn't forfeit its Kedusha because of either of the churbanos. If a person tamei would tamei meis would walk into the Machane Shechina into the Azara, he'd be chayav kares bizman hazeh also. The Kedushas Mikdash exists bizman hazeh. Moreover, the Rambam paskins like Rabi Yehoshua, the Gemara in Megilla daf yud quotes that Rabi Yehoshua says מקריבין אף על פי שאין בית, that the physical structure of the Mikdash is not indispensable for Hakravas Karbanos. In theory, if we could know the precise place for the Mizbe'ach, if we could establish the yichus of kohanim to the standard required for doing avoda, if we had a tzitz, so then the tuma wouldn't be a me'akev either, so in theory we could have Hakravas Karbanos bizman hazeh. So what's Tisha B'Av all about? Now, it's certainly true that the traditions that we've lost in terms of being able to identify exactly where the Mizbe'ach should be, the yichus of kohanim, is part of the upheaval of Galus, but that's obviously not the real answer. But when you begin to think about it, the question really pertains not only to what the focus and impetus is for the avelus of Tisha B'Av, but understanding what the mitzva of building a Beis HaMikdash is, given again that the kedusha can endure without the physical edifice and given the fact that מקריבין אף על פי שאין בית and yet the mitzva very clearly is לבנות להם בית הבחירה, it very clearly is to construct a Beis HaMikdash. So let's perhaps look at one or two halachos maybe which will point us hopefully b'ezras Hashem in the right direction. The Mishna in Brachos has a din that לא יקל אדם ראשו כנגד שער המזרח שהוא מכוון כנגד בית קדשי הקדשים.
A person shouldn't engage in kalos rosh if he's in front of the eastern gate of the Azara because the eastern gate of the Azara you could draw a straight line from there to the Beis Kodshei HaKodashim. If you were draw a straight line east to west from the Sha'ar HaMizrach from the eastern gate so then that line would take you straight to the Kodshei HaKodashim. אמר רבי יוחנן לא אמרו אלא מן הצופים ולפנים. This halacha... The halakha only applies if one is within seeing distance of the Mikdash, min hatzofim velifnim. And in fact, beroeh, it's not only that the distance is such that one can see, but one's sort of vantage point also allows one to see, there's nothing obstructing one's vision. Ubishein gader, there's no wall, no partition between oneself and the Sha'ar Hamizrach. Ubiazman shehashchina shoreh, and the halakha applies bazman shehashchina shoreh. Now, given that the Rambam paskens that the Beis Hamikdash today, that the makom hamikdash has kedusha because of the shechina and shechina einah beteila, so we would expect this halakha to be fully operative bazman hazeh. And yet, the Rambam writes in Hilkhos Beis Habechira that there's a difference between the mitzvah of mora mikdash, again, this halakha of not acting with kalos rosh in front of the Sha'ar Hamizrach is an application of the halakha of es mikdashi tira'u, of mora mikdash. Rambam writes there's a difference between mora mikdash bevinyano and mora mikdash bechurbano. אף על פי שהמקדש היום חרב בעונותינו חייב אדם במוראו כמו שהיה נוהג בבניינו.
So the mitzvah of mora mikdash persists even when the Mikdash is bechurbano. Skipping a few words, ולא יקל ראשו כנגד שער המזרח. One again shouldn't act with kalos rosh in front of the eastern gate, שנאמר את שבתותי תשמורו ומקדשי תיראו מה שמירת שבת לעולם אף מורא מקדש לעולם שאף על פי שחרב בקדושתו עומד.
But then the Rambam in the very next halakha says, however bazman shehamikdash banui אסור לו לאדם להקל ראשו מן הצופים שהוא חוץ לירושלים ולפנים.
That today, bazman hachurban, so the din of mora mikdash translates into no kalos rosh only if one is within the Jerusalem, the Ir Ha'atika, bein hachomos. Bevinyano, so then the din of mora mikdash extended even outside of Jerusalem. So besides the very fact that there's a difference between mitzvas mora mikdash bevinyano and bechurbano, what's especially remarkable here is that the Gemara stipulated that this din of min hatzofim velifnim is contingent upon bazman shehashchina shoreh and the Rambam limits that to bevinyano, even though he says that the makom hamikdash is endowed with kedusha today because of the shechina. So that's one indication. Again, the difference in how the mitzvah of mora mikdash translates bevinyano from bechurbano and it's sort of that the significance is magnified by the fact that the form of the din bevinyano is linked to bazman shehashchina shoreh and yet that's limited to bevinyano. There are two very important Sefer Hachinukhs in this context. In Mitzvah Taf-Mem, the Achronim quote this Sefer Hachinukh in different contexts. In Mitzvah Taf-Mem, the Sefer Hachinukh, it's the mitzvah of להקריב כל הקרבנות בבית הבחירה. Veheveisem shama, that all korbanos should be offered in the Beis Habechira. So in the conclusion of the mitzvah, so the Chinukh writes, noheget mitzvah zo בכל מקום ובכל זמן. This mitzvah is operative at all times. And by that I mean, he says, ארצה לומר שהעובר על זה אפילו בזמן הזה והקריב קרבן חוץ לבית הבחירה מבטל עשה זה.
If bazman hazeh a person would offer a korban outside of the Mikdash, so one of the infractions of which he'd be guilty, he'd be guilty of multiple infractions, but one of them would be this asei of להקריב כל הקרבנות בבית הבחירה. אבל אין הכוונה לומר. when I say the mitzvah להקריב כל הקרבנות לבית הבחירה, I don't mean שיהיה עלינו חיוב להקריב קרבן בבית המקדש עכשיו שהוא חרב.
Meaning the Sefer Hachinuch understands that the din of מקריבין אף על פי שאין בית means that there's a reshus to be makriv, but there's no chiyuv to be makriv. So again, yes, kedushas mikdash endures and yes, מקריבין אף על פי שאין בית, but clearly there are very, very clear differences. Difference number one in terms of the morah mikdash, difference number two is that for the Chinuch, the din of מקריבין אף על פי שאין בית is a reshus. It gives us license, but there's no obligation to be makriv korbanos when the Beis Hamikdash is not standing. So lechora what this points to is the following, maybe with a little bit of a mashal. The Gemara in Megilla interprets the psukim when Dovid is speaking to Avigail. At this point Avigail is still married to Naval. And the Gemara, the way the Gemara reconstructs the exchange between Dovid and Avigail, so Dovid who had already been nimshach to be Melech Yisrael was gonna kill, was ready to kill Naval with a din of moreid b'malchus because Naval didn't cooperate with his request. And Avigail told him that he wasn't allowed to because עדיין לא יצא טבעו בעולם. Tivcho, the tes, beis, ayin, the same shoresh as in matbe'a, coin. When kings would ascend to the throne, so then they would issue currency with their likeness on it and that was a reflection of their having consolidated their rule. So Avigail told Dovid Hamelch and Dovid Hamelch then said brucha at and Dovid Hamelch conceded that she was correct and thanked her for saving him from what would have been shfichus damim. That even though Dovid Hamelch had already been nimshach to be king, but until, until עדיין לא יצא טבעו בעולם, he didn't have a full din melech. That the full din melech required that his melucha be established and be consolidated. And at this point when he's just a nirdof from Shaul, so then he doesn't have a full din melech. And the din of moreid b'malchus Avigail said depends upon that full din melech. In Parshas Shoftim, when the Torah has the parshas hamelech, so the Torah has the various lavin of the melech, לא ירבה לו סוסים ולא ירבה לו כסף וזהב. Then the Torah says, והיה כשבתו על כסא ממלכתו וכתב לו את משנה התורה הזאת על ספר מלפני הכהנים הלוים.
So the Torah presents the lavin of the various lavin that the melech has. Then it says v'haya k'shivto, when he'll ascend his throne, והיה כשבתו על כסא ממלכתו וכתב לו את משנה התורה הזאת.
So what is that pasuk? So Rav Velvel said, no, that's the pshat that the lavin don't depend upon yatza tivcho ba'olam. That even the din melech is already from mishichah. However, it's only והיה כשבתו על כסא ממלכתו, when he ascends his throne, when it's yatza tivcho ba'olam, then he has the chiyuv of kesivas sefer Torah. So there are two levels of malchus. So ke'ein zeh in kedushas mikdash as well, there's a kedusha... There's a type of Kedusha which can be a Kedusha Nisteres where the Kedusha is suppressed, the Kedusha is hidden, or you can have Kedusha Geluya. You have the Kedusha which is open, which is visible, almost as it were palpable and tangible. אף על פי והשימותי את מקדשיכם that even b'churban the makom hamikdash retains its kedusha, but there was a radical shift in the kedusha. The kedusha went from being a kedusha geluya to being a kedusha nisteres. He doesn't say it in these terms but the Sefer Hachinuch also says that there's a difference in mitzvah tzadi hei, ואף על פי שהאמת כי אמרו זכרונם לברכה קדושתן עליהם אפילו כשהן שוממין,
skipping a little bit, כי באמת אינו דומה קדושת המקדש בחורבנו לקדושתו בישובו. It's not the same kedusha. It's not the same kedusha. So it's not only rachmana litzlan if the kedusha would disappear, would evaporate entirely, which is mechayev an aveilus, but the fact that the kedusha becomes subterranean, it goes from being a kedusha geluya to a kedusha nisteres is also mechayev an aveilus. The kedusha geluya represents, signifies the kirvas Elokim. And the fact that the kedusha is nisteres to the degree that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is hidden from us, so to that degree we become distant from Him. And that is mechayev an aveilus. The chazon of acharis hayamim is ה' אחד ושמו אחד. Shem represents, right, we use a name to identify someone. So shem represents how when speaking of a person how a person is known to other people. He's known as David, he's known as Duvidel, he's how the person is known. יהיה ה' אחד ושמו אחד. So when when you have this congruence between the reality of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His name, it means that there's recognition of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in the world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's malchus in the world, the kedusha in the world is not nistar, but all of that becomes galuy. Which is why the binyan hamikdash stands at the center of the chazon for acharis hayamim because the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash is the reinstatement of that kedusha geluya. והיה באחרית הימים נכון יהיה הר בית ה' בראש ההרים ונשא מגבעות ונהרו אליו כל הגוים.
The Beis Hashem will be established on the top of the mountain and will be elevated and all the nations of the world will stream to the mikdash. והלכו עמים רבים ואמרו לכו ונעלה אל ה' אל בית אלקי יעקב.
We'll go to the house of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The Kedusha will be geluya and Malchus Shamayim will be known, recognized, Vayorenu midrachav, let him instruct us, ונלכה בארחותיו כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. Avelus of Tisha B'av is so important because there's a full equation between Avelus of Tisha B'av and Tzipia liyeshua. The Avelus of Tisha B'av again is for that return, that reinstatement of the Kedusha geluya. Kedusha nisteres doesn't have the same effect. There's no למען תלמד ליראה את השם אלוהיך. The degree of כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים is compromised when the Kedusha is only nisteres. That's why we ask שיבנה בית המקדש במהרה בימינו ותן חלקנו בתורתך. It's only after Sheyibane Beis Hamikdash when you have Kedusha geluya, so then the Kedusha geluya has its full effect on us, then it's Vesan chelkenu besisorasecha. Mourning Churban Habayis means mourning that Kedusha geluya, which was the source of nevuah, which was the source of Torah, which was the source of kirvas Elokim, Dira batachtonim, Iva lemoshav batachtonim. And the essence of Tzipia liyeshua is to desire that all that be reinstated. Hence the overwhelming significance of the day of Tisha B'av. The first Kinna, Kinna Vav, we'll announce each of the Kinnos by the number and then have a few words of introduction from a few of us will rotate בעזרת השם בלי נדר. Eleazar Kalir begins shavas. He doesn't specify what the subject of shavas is, he's alluding to the posuk in Eicha: Shavas mesos libenu. So either that's the implied subject, Mesos libenu, our joy ceased, the Artscroll translates it as everything came to a standstill, life as we knew it, everything stopped, everything froze with the Churban Habayis. There's nothing, it's impossible to compartmentalize what Churban Habayis meant, what Churban Habayis means, it radically transformed everything. Again, that difference we spoke of between a Kedusha geluya and a Kedusha nisteres just radically transformed everything, everything froze, everything stopped, life as we knew it stopped. But it could be that there's another kavana of Eleazar Kalir here as well in introducing this Kinna and the Kinnos with the word shavas. Chazal tell us, I think it's referenced in one of the later Kinnos that we don't generally say. If you take a look in Kinna Yud for a moment, it's the third stanza: גלתה מארצה כלה מקושטת בעוון משמרות ושמיטה. Right, the adorned bride was exiled from her land Ba'avon mishmaros ushmita. On account of the sin of not giving maasros and not observing shnas hashmitah. And we know Rashi in Parshas Bechukosai referring to the Toras Kohanim: אז תרצה הארץ את שבתותיה כל ימי השמה ואתם בארץ אויביכם.
Then the land will enjoy its respite all the days that it's desolate ve'atem be'eretz oyveichem אז תשבות הארץ והרצת את שבתותיה. So the Toras Kohanim says as follows: Ani amarti lachem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, I said to you שתהיו זורעים שש ומשמטים לי אחת בשביל שתדעו שהארץ שלי היא.
I said, you work the land six years and the seventh you have to release, you have to pull back so that you would recognize that the earth is mine ואתם לא עשיתם כן. עמדו וגלו ממנה, so exile, be exiled ותהי תשומם מאליה כל שמיטין שחייבת לי. And then the shmitos will be observed. There's a fundamental and profound teaching here in this Toras Kohanim. Let's say we've put forward two propositions rabosai. One is that the truth is that what we do makes no difference Hakol bidei shamayim. History has its direction, there's a linear direction in history and what we do doesn't really make a difference. The second proposition is that what we do makes all the difference in the world. So which of those two is true? The answer is both of them. On the one hand what we do makes no difference whatsoever Me'idach gisa it makes all the difference. How so? The Rav explains that the principle of אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים which the bas kol articulated in reference to מחלוקת בית שמאי ובית הלל that is in the context in which the bas kol, the immediate context, so Beis Shammai say at night when you say Krias Shema you have to lie down and in the morning when you say Krias Shema you have to be standing up. That's what the pshak ubeshovkecha ubekumecha means. And Beis Hillel says no, it only means זמן שכיבה וזמן קימה. It only means to say Krias Shema at night and to say Krias Shema in the morning. So which does the posuk mean? Posuk means either, posuk means both. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote psukim in the Torah he allowed for equally legitimate equally valid multiple interpretations. Okay, one's going to end up being normative and the other's not going to be normative, but in terms of truth they're equally legitimate, equally valid אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. So what did Hakadosh Baruch Hu have in mind when he wrote ubeshovkecha ubekumecha? He left it open for either both of those interpretations, both those of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. Says the Rav that's true not only in terms of when Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote a posuk in Chumash, it's also true in terms of gezeiros min hashamayim. Gezeiros min hashamayim how they will be fulfilled there's also אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. That's how the Rav explains that the yesod that the Ramban has from the Midrash of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים in no way curtails our bechirah chofshis. Because at first glance מעשה אבות סימן לבנים seems to say that the whole course of Jewish history is predetermined. מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, so that seems to say what we do makes no difference. So where does bechirah fit into the picture? No, because אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. No, there are certain gezeiros, but how those gezeiros will be mekuyam, that there are multiple ways that can happen and that's where what we do makes all the difference in the world. And that's exactly what this Midrash is saying. The midrash says that there's going to be shemittah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, I said there's going to be shemittah, there's going to be shemittah. The shemittah can happen in either of two ways, and in that sense, what we do makes no difference. We can't... there's a gezeirah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, this is the way the world is going to run. There's going to be a shemittah. Proposition number one, what we do makes no difference. How will that shemittah come about? Proposition number two, what we do makes all the difference in the world. The shemittah can come about that every seventh year ושבתה הארץ שבת לה'. והשנה השביעית יהיה לכם קודש and we won't work the land. That's one way for Hakadosh Baruch Hu's gezeirah to be fulfilled. And another way for Hakadosh Baruch Hu's gezeirah to be fulfilled is im te'almu mimenu is you'll be exiled from the land. והשמה עליה כל שמיטין שחייבת. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Anochi Hashem Elokecha, what we do, proposition number one, makes no difference. Whether we choose to acknowledge that truth or we don't acknowledge that truth, whether we choose to live by that truth or we don't choose Rachmana litzlan to live by that truth, the truth is unaffected. The truth is undiminished. What we do makes no difference. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. That is the absolute and only reality. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. It can be mekayam in either of two ways, the Maharal comments on this. It can be fulfilled through our קבלת עול מלכות שמים. Beshachbecha uvekumecha שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד. Or, Hanavi Yechezkel says, והעולה על רוחכם היה לא תהיה. What occurs to you will not come to pass, the Navi says. והעולה על רוחכם היה לא תהיה asher atem omrim נהיה כגוים כמשפחות הארצות. We'll be like all the other nations of the world, leshares eitz va'even. We'll engage in avodah zarah. חי אני נאם ה' אלקים אם לא ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה ובחמה שפוכה אמלוך עליכם.
Anochi Hashem Elokecha. What we do makes no difference. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. What we do makes all the difference in the world, whether or not it's מלכותו ברצון קיבלו עליהם or whether it's Rachmana litzlan has to be bicheima shefucha with an outpouring of wrath emloch aleichem. The culmination of history is going to be with the geulah asida. What we do makes no difference. What's more, אין ישראל נגאלים אלא בתשובה, and that too has to happen. But that too can happen in either of two ways. We can take initiative and we can do teshuva, or as the Tannaim say in Sanhedrin, if we don't, Hakadosh Baruch Hu מעמיד להם מלך שגזרותיו קשות כהמן. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will bring to power a Haman-type king. וישראל עושים תשובה מחזירו למוטב, and because of those gezeiros we'll do teshuva. So what it's clear there's going to be a geulah and אין ישראל נגאלים אלא בתשובה. There's nothing contingent about that. Nothing contingent about that statement. There will be a geulah and the geulah will come only after teshuva. There's no contingency there. And in that sense, what we do doesn't make a difference. But me'idach gisa, אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, how that will play out, how that will happen, what we do makes all the difference in the world. We can initiate שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם. It can be beachishena or it can be be'itah where the teshuva is triggered by Hakadosh Baruch Hu מעמיד עליהם מלך הוא גוזר גזרות קשות like Haman. Maybe Rav Elazar Hakalir begins our recitation... That what should frame our Aveilus of Tisha B'av and our recitation of Kinnos is this awareness, this understanding that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the choice which side of history we choose to align ourselves with. Which of the two paths for Anochi Hashem Elokecha to be mekayem? Which of the two paths for the Geulah ha-atidah to come about? And that's something that should frame our recitation of Kinnos and the Aveilus, the recognition of having made the wrong decision in the past and the need to make the right decision in the future. We continue with Kinna number nine. At the end of the Yud stanza of this Kinna, כי סר צלם מעליכם והלכתי בתוככם. We earlier in this stanza, ישבו מבכים מנאק מעסיכם. They were sitting and crying from the over the death throes, the death cries, the death throes, וארבע מיתות סיפח מעסיכם. Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent us the equivalent of the ארבע מיתות בית דין. And all this happened Ki Sord Tzillom. The translation as God's protective shadow departed. That idiom of sord tzeil is from Parshas Shlach when Kaleiv and Yehoshua are looking to encourage Bnei Yisrael to believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was going to take them into Eretz Yisrael. So they say, speaking of the nations living in Eretz Yisrael, they say, Sord Tzillom Mealeichem. And that's the sense where tzeil has this sense of shade in the sense of a protective shade. And that's how it's being employed here in this line also. Ki Sord Tzillom, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who is our protective shade, so He removed Himself, kavyachol. He removed Himself from the v'halachti besochachem and that's how all of the suffering and death ensued. The notion of Hakadosh Baruch Hu being our tzeil in the sense of protective shade is closely linked to tzeil in another sense. The Nefesh Hachayim quotes the pasuk in Tehillim, השם צלך על יד ימינך. Hainu, what does it mean comparing Hakadosh Baruch Hu to tzeil? שכמו שנטיית הצל של איזה דבר הוא מכוון רק כפי תנועות אותו הדבר הנוטה.
Right, a person's shadow, here tzeil is being understood in the sense of shadow, not shade, but shadow. A person's shadow replicates what he does. If a person extends his right arm, so then his shadow extends his right arm. And if a person withdraws his left foot, so then his shadow does the same. So Kein bidmyom zeh kavyachol, Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes His cue from us. He's מחבר לנטות עולמות כפי תנועות ונטיית מעשה האדם למטה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds in kind. Ken meforash b'medrash, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה, לך אמור להם לישראל. me Ekyeh Asher Ekyeh. מה הוא אהיה אשר אהיה? כשם שאתה הווה עמי, as you are with me capital M, kach ani, so am I, hoveh imcha. As you, Bnei Yisrael, collectively, as you, the individual Jew, individually, as you are with me, so I, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, am with you. V'chein amar David, השם צלך על יד ימינך. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is your shadow. מה הוא השם צלך, the Midrash says, מה צלך אם אתה משחק לו הוא משחק לך. If you want your shadow to smile at you, you want to look at a smiling countenance, then you have to smile. And if you'll scowl, so then what you're going to receive in return is a scowl. כשם שאתה הווה עמי כך אני הווה עמך. Hakadosh Baruch Hu as our tzel, as our protective shade, is a function of Hakadosh Baruch Hu as our tzel in the sense of Hakadosh Baruch Hu as our shadow. Further on in the kina, in the hey stanza, פצו זדים פה מי תכלה והזדים נהרו לעקב. The evil ones open their mouths and taunt us by saying, Lifnei mi techala? Who are you praying to? עם כבד עוון פקד ויאלא. He got, you wore Him out. All of your so weighed down with cheit that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is too tired. He's rejected you. לא תשחקו עוד מופת ופלא. You're waiting in vain for some miraculous salvation. Ana penasah. Vayisanaf Hashem bi. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is angry with you and He's left you. For thousands of years, for two millennia, this argument was adopted by the Christians that, rachmana litzlan, our galus, our suffering, reflects that pakad vayela, Hakadosh Baruch Hu took note of all the sin and He quit. The reality is that taunt, that specious theological argument notwithstanding, the reality is the opposite. Bechiras Yisrael is evident in the best of times, bimei David u'Shlomo, but Bechiras Yisrael is also evident in the worst of times. And this is something which many ba'alei machshava have commented on. Just to read a representative few lines from the Meshech Chochma: והנה מעת היות ישראל בגויים, from the time that we were plunged into galus amongst the goyim, ברבות שנים אשר לא האמינו כל יושבי תבל, as the years passed, which no inhabitants of the earth could possibly have believed, כי יתקיימו באופן נפלא, how a stateless, defenseless, totally vulnerable people could continue to exist. אשר לא ישער מחשבת אדם משכיל. Logical, rational thought could never predict this. היודע קורות הימים והמצולות אשר שטפו באלפי שנים one who is familiar with the history all the persecutions that have engulfed us throughout the millennia על עם המעט והרפה כח וחדל האונים on this small powerless nation אשר זה לבד גם כן מופת נפלא וגדול על קיום האומה למטרה נשגבה אלוקית
this is also a wondrous demonstration that this nation exists for some exalted divine purpose. So the truth is the exact opposite of what the zeidim taunt us with. The truth is the exact opposite of the specious theological argument. It's rather another illustration of what we spoke about before. There are different ways Ratzon Hashem translates. Ratzon Hashem that we are the Am Hanivchar can translate when we flourish but it also translates even in our Galus even in our suffering. But it's not only the Meshech Chochma, Chachmei Yisrael, Jews who recognize it. It's something which is so so overwhelmingly clear that any intellectually honest person, Jew or non-Jew, should recognize it. The Rav zichrono livracha decades ago wrote an essay and in that essay so I'll just read you an excerpt. I refer to Nicholas Berdyaev, the Russian religious philosopher who died in exile from Soviet Russia in 1948 and in many respects may be viewed as a forerunner of the contemporary dissident movement. Again he's non-Jewish. His little book The Meaning of History has been acclaimed as the book for which modern Christian apologists have been waiting. Let him also speak to this issue. And now this is a quote from this book The Meaning of History. Their destiny, referring to us, referring to Jewish history, their destiny is too imbued with the metaphysical to be explained either in material or positive historical terms. I remember skipping a little bit how the materialist interpretation of history when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples broke down in the case of the Jews where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint. And indeed according to the materialistic and positivist criterion this people ought long ago to have perished. Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history. The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny. The Kinah is constructed around the literary conceit of interpreting the word Eicha as also that HaKadosh Baruch Hu established for us, whether it's the zechus of the Akeida, of the Ai Koh, ad koh nishtachaveh, whether it's the koh of Moshe Rabbeinu. What happened to the special relationship, the special hashgacha which was expressed in various forms and ways in each of these kohs? The Kinah leaves the question unanswered. If we look ahead to the last stanza of the Kinah, it ends with a question mark. עד מתי אלהים יחרף צר. Until when HaKadosh Baruch Hu would the adversary blaspheme? But kemidomeh that Rabbeinu Elazar HaKallir intended his kinos as a unit and we're not supposed to sort of isolate or detach one kinah from the overall unit. So and I think what's the penultimate kinah which we have from Elazar HaKallir which is kinah yud tes. לך ה' הצדקה ולנו בשת הפנים. So that's where the answer comes. The answer comes with the tzidduk hadin which is so emphatically asserted in Kinah Yud Tes. And Kinah Yud Tes is a response to the previous kinos as well. And in that sense, so our Kinah doesn't really remain with an unanswered question. The idea that the significance of the word Eichah goes beyond its initial primary meaning of how, whether it's how with a question mark or how with an exclamation point, but that as words in Chumash should generally be understood not only in terms of their primary form of being enunciated and vocalized but in other forms as well, so there's another permutation of Eichah as well. And that's in Bereishis when HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Adam HaRishon, Ayekah. Ayekah is spelled osios Eichah. א י כ ה. It's the same spelling and l'chora it's clear the significance of that is that the source of the Eichah yashva badad is the Ayekah, is the sin, is the loss of direction. In this Kinah when we begin echoing the refrain from the previous Kinah of Lomo Lanetzach. למה אלהים זנחת לנצח. Why HaKadosh Baruch Hu have you neglected us for all eternity? So the Elazar HaKallir is clearly following in the footsteps of Yirmiyahu HaNavi in Eichah. למה לנצח תשכחנו תעזבנו לארך ימים. So one understanding is that sometimes we find that דברה תורה בלשון הבאי, that Tanakh speaks in lashon habai with what's understood to be an exaggeration. So obviously it's not really lanetzach, but אף על פי כן we describe it as such. It could be that there's a second understanding as well. Maybe one or two meshalim to try to understand. Sometimes when you ask a very small child to wait a minute, so how long is a minute to that child? But because the child is so young, he has no sense of time. And when there's no sense of time, so then that minute or two for what the child wants is an eternity. To recognize that the present moment isn't an eternity requires a certain perspective. In the mashal, the child is too young to have that perspective. It's often an unrealistic expectation depending upon the age of the child to expect a child to be able to wait. Another time one sees this rachmana litzlan, if one reads descriptions rachmana litzlan of people who have suffered from very deep clinical depression. The black hole of depression rachmana litzlan is so all-consuming and engulfing that it doesn't allow the person suffering to be able to see beyond it. And when a person can't see beyond the present, so then experientially, maybe not objectively, but experientially it is a netzach. It's not a guzma. Experientially it is a netzach. למה לנצח תשכחנו תעזבנו לאורך ימים which inspires the various usages of lanetzach by Rabbi Elazar Kalir is not experientially it's not an exaggeration. It's that the suffering is so all-encompassing that it doesn't allow the black hole is such that a person can't see outside of it, can't see beyond it. And because of that, so experientially, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, for us it is zanachtanu lanetzach. We continue with Kinah 17. Rabbi Elazar Kalir seems to be making at least two points, highlighting two features of the suffering associated with churban. The first is the incredible, virtually indescribable magnitude of the suffering. What has transpired is unimaginable. The expression expressing it in terms of im, אם תאכלנה נשים פריים עלולי טפוחים ועל ידי. What do you mean "if"? It's not "if", it's a fact. It has. It should be נשים אכלו פריים עלולי טפוחים ועל ידי, נשים רחמניות בשלו ילדיהם,
etc., v'al yadai. What's the im? So the im captures the sense of "if such a thing could possibly", it was unimaginable. Could such a thing happen? Even once it's happened, the reality that has come to pass is unimaginable and therefore virtually indescribable. But in addition to depicting the magnitude of the suffering, Rabbi Elazar Kalir is also describing the dehumanizing effect that the suffering has had. Nashim rachmaniyot, compassionate mothers, בשלו ילדיהם המדודים טפח טפח who watched over their children so vigilantly to chart every centimeter of growth and every pound of weight gain as the child grew and developed. אמצה הומינה זו לעומת זו. The crying, the making a commotion, one mother to another, בואי ונבשל בנינו צוחה. That's, look, the screaming children. It's dehumanizing. The word Kedoshim in the Holocaust, who didn't allow the suffering imposed upon them to have that effect, but there were some who didn't measure up. And that recognition of the dehumanizing aspect of suffering is one of the most acutely painful elements. The Kinah concludes im tohameinah with Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu's rebuttal. אם תהומנה נשים פרין משולמים אם יהרג במקדש השם כהן ונביא.
Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu says to describe in such graphic detail the suffering without accepting responsibility, without being mitvadeh, without an awareness and an acknowledgment and an admission that cheit is going is rachmana litzlan to insinuate injustice. We can't catalog suffering without tziduk hadin. We can't catalog suffering without being mitvadeh. The descriptions of tochna, תוכנה שלשים יום כיפורים, needs to be wedded to an admission, to a vidui, and hence to a tziduk hadin. Continue with Kinah 21. Kinah describes the asarah harugei malchut in a seamless fashion. The impression we get is that the mechonen is describing a single tragic incident. But in fact, we know historically that's not the case. We're not describing one incident, we're not describing one gezeirah. It's very much a composite depiction. So that simply begs the question, why why the Kinah sort of blurs those historical lines and runs together into one what were really distinct incidents. But the answer is clear. There's a continuity of our historical experience of Galus. That, combined with the fact that Knesset Yisrael is a metaphysical eternal being. So there is one continuum. What the mechuneh is conveying, what he's faithfully portraying, is that it is one long prolonged protracted episode of the sinas ha'umos, of our suffering, of our kiddush Hashem. And that endows it, the continuity of the historical experience makes its relevance ahistorical. It's a contemporary description also. Substitute the names for the names of the Tannaim and you can match the descriptions to other events in Jewish history. Take out the name of Rav Yishmael, put in the name of Rav Elchonon Wasserman in the Warsaw Ghetto. Take out the name of Rav Yishmael, put in the name of רב שמחה זליג לוריא from Brisk. And this is part of what was reflected in the Rav's reluctance to introduce a kinah for the Holocaust. So he said that the reason he felt that he couldn't do it was because he didn't think that anyone today was of the stature, had the kochos hanefesh of the Rishonim, of the Yehuda Halevi, of Maharam miRottenburg, of Elazar HaKalir to author a kinah. But the other part of his position was that as we recite the other kinos, because of the continuity of the historical experience, those kinos match for all of its horrible singularity and uniqueness and being unprecedented in the annals of Jewish history, but they do serve as kinos on the Holocaust as well. And that's what the mechuneh here is conveying that as well. It is one prolonged incident because there is that continuum within our historical experience. It happened and it's happening, it happened and it happens. There is no dividing line in our experience between the past and the present, which is why the mechuneh doesn't allow for that artificial distinction here in Tisha B'Av. Azi haromnu. We'll continue with the next kinah, kinah number 23. This kinah speaks on the son and daughter of רב ישמעאל כהן גדול, both of whom were captured in churban bayis sheni and describes their plight and their mesirus nefesh. The kinah focuses on individuals for two reasons. Number one, as the Rav zichrono livracha would comment that no matter how vast the tragedy, no matter. But second of all, and here again referring back to what we spoke about just a little bit ago about the continuity of our historical experience, the individuals are also representative. And in that sense, not only do we mourn these two individuals, but we mourn all the individuals. That their story is representative, the story again, its unique elements and features notwithstanding, but the tragedy of the story is something that one can substitute millions of other names. The other theme that comes to the fore in this kinah, Rabbi Ishmael's son is tortured by the thought, בן ערב איך לשפחה ינתנה, how can it be that kedushas kehunah will be sullied by marrying a shifcha? And in the darkness again, when they're unaware of each other's identities, the daughter of Rabbi Ishmael is similarly bemoaning, how can it be bas Yocheved, eich le'eved yitanosei, how can a daughter of Yocheved, the progenitor of kehunah, how can it be that she shall marry an eved? What the kinah illustrates is the, albeit in this instance it was averted, but is the chillul Hashem in our suffering. The pasuk in Yechezkel already depicts galus that way, באמור עם ה' אלה ומארצו יצאו. And the only antidote to that chillul Hashem of galus, of suffering, is a teshuva which leads to a reversal and leads to the yisgadal veyiskadash of the geulah. V'asmi v'chasva. We'll continue with kinah 28. The refrain in the kinah is v'eich anachem. Given what has happened, given what's been endured, given what's ongoing, given how long it's been, how can I be consoled? So on the one level, the meaning of v'eich anachem is that the paytan, the mekonen as it were, is outer-directed. Eich tinachamuni hevel. If you extend comfort to me, it's futile. Possibly additionally, it's inner-directed as well, that sometimes when we speak to others, we're really speaking to ourselves. In that sense maybe he's giving himself mussar. How can I be distracted and how can I allow myself to let this recede from my consciousness? Ve-eich enachem? Inner-directed mussar. The kinna concludes עד ישקיף וירא עד ישקיף וירא ה' משמים. Morad sheol veyehemeh ve-az enachem. ה' השקיפה ממעון קדשך מן השמים. Hashem od gam and will lower, reading in the translation, lower our enemies to the great and raise us out of exile and then I will be consoled. If the source of aveilus is churban, the antidote to that and the source of nechama has to be geula. So how do we speak of the sheva d'nechemta? How do we speak of nechama in a penultimate sense? The Eleazar Hakalir says things very starkly. Ve'az enachem. So perhaps the answer for how we are when we reach Shabbos Nachamu, how we are supposed to experience a me'ein, a kernel of that ultimate nechama is made possible by the following combination. Number one, Chazal tells us כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה. Which means that if we properly observe Tisha B'av, so when we get off the floor soon, or tonight when we break our fast, if we observe the day properly, we should be that much closer to the geula. כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה. That conviction and that certitude, ואני בחסדך בטחתי יגל לבי בישועתך, allows for a me'ein of that ve-az enachem. It allows even for a penultimate sense of nechama because one is tapping into, one has approached incrementally that moment, that era of ve-az enachem and one has the, one is sustained and comforted by the conviction that the remaining distance will also be closed. Ve'az enachem. We continue with kinna number thirty-four. The kinna recounts how in the course of the churban, Hakadosh Baruch Hu was tove'ah the blood of Zecharya, who so many years earlier had been killed in the Beis Hamikdash on Yom Kippur. Again from a historical perspective, there is a gap here between when the... The eternity of Knesseth Yisrael on the one hand means that we enjoy all the prerogatives of the past but on the other hand we also assume responsibility to rectify the wrongs of the past. Churban didn't happen because of the simply because of the sins of that generation. It was the cumulative effect and we describe in Eichah yishtargu the different threads of cheit accumulated and that sense of responsibility for the past is one which forms the foundation of this Kinah. In the same way if if in one's youth one borrowed money in one's old age one is required to pay back that debt so Knesseth Yisrael has that same responsibility. Responsibility to correct, to take ownership of the past and to correct and if not so the chata'im of the past combine and compound the chata'im of the present which is what ultimately resulted in churban. And we'll possibly be the עלי ציון ועריה כמו אשה בצירה וכבתולה חגורת שק על בעל נעוריה עלי ארמון אשר נטש משמשון אדוריה ועל ביאת מכור פעל וזב מקדש אדוריה עלי גלות משרתי אל נעימי שיר זמריה ועל דמם אשר שופך כמו מימי יאוריה עלי הגה מחולליה אשר נטמא בעוריה ועל נזר אשר שומם ובטול סנהדריה עלי זבחי תמידיה ופדיוני בכוריה ועל חלול כלי היכל ומזבח קטוריה עלי טפי מלכיה בני דוד גביריה ועל יפיים אשר חשך בעת סורו נזריה עלי כבוד אשר גלה בעת חורבן דביריה ועל לחץ אשר לחץ ושם שקים חגוריה עלי מכת ורב מכות אשר הוכו נזיריה ועל ניפוץ עלי סלע ועלה לה ועל
Al rosh simchati, al rosh simchati. Sechoku al tziporeha, ve'alinu bedoreha, vetikveha netzoreha. Sechoku al tziporeha, ve'alinu bedoreha, vetikveha netzoreha. על בצע אשר שא, shlum derech ashoreha, ve'al tizboz gedoreha. על בצע אשר שא, shlum derech ashoreha, ve'al tizboz gedoreha. Shizuveha shekoleha, על כל הוזם מחלביה, me'et shevuot gedoreha. Shizuveha shekoleha, על כל הוזם מחלביה, me'et shevuot gedoreha. Me'al shesh gedaveha, vezemesh chatzereha, על שמך אשר חולל. Me'al shesh gedaveha, vezemesh chatzereha, על שמך אשר חולל. Mibeit komah metzireha, ve'al dagan yetzabchu, keshavu shem ofaleha. Al tzion ve'oholeha, keshavu shem ofaleha, al tzion ve'oholeha. Ke'isha betzireha, vechavusu sekadusa, al bnei ne'ureha. Ke'isha betzireha, vechavusu sekadusa, al bnei ne'ureha. Sechoku al tziporeha, ve'alinu bedoreha, vetikveha netzoreha, על בצע אשר שא, shlum derech ashoreha, ve'al tizboz gedoreha, shizuveha shekoleha, על כל הוזם מחלביה, me'et shevuot gedoreha, me'al shesh gedaveha, vezemesh chatzereha, על שמך אשר חולל, mibeit komah metzireha, ve'al dagan yetzabchu, keshavu shem ofaleha, al tzion ve'oholeha, ke'isha betzireha, vechavusu sekadusa, al bnei ne'ureha.