A fast day to speed the redemption

We have had our fair share of tragedies.  We are not the only ones, but the way we mark them is unique, I think.  Close to 2,000 years have passed since the destruction of our Temple, and we act as if it just happened.  In fact the Talmud says that if the Temple has not been rebuilt in our generation, it is as if it was destroyed in our days.

 

Today, the 17th of Tammuz, we fast, commemorating the breach of Jerusalem’s walls leading up to the Temple’s destruction.  But we don’t stop there.  Every day, at least three times a day, we pray for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, as we have been doing consistently for the past 2,000 years.  “May our eyes see Your return to Zion.”  “For we wait for your salvation all day.”  “Rebuild [Jerusalem] speedily in our days as an eternal edifice.”  These are passages from the daily Amidah prayer.

 

Our connection to Jerusalem, the Temple and the Holy Land of Israel has never wavered, and now more than ever the need for redemption is foremost on our minds. 

 

Now one might think:  we have it pretty well here today.  We have nobody stopping us from observing our traditions and we live in relative affluence.  Contrast this with the previous generation when Hitler tried to wipe us out and Stalin and his followers tried to stamp out our religion.  And for so many generations we faced pogroms and persecution, forced conversion and religious coercion.  

 

There is a story told about a scholarly visitor staying at an inn in the Shtetl of old.  As was customary amongst many pious Jews, he sat down on the floor at midnight to mourn for the destruction of the Holy Temple.  The simple host of the inn heard him crying and asked him what the matter was.  The guest told him that he was crying about the exile and praying for redemption.  The innkeeper told his wife, who asked “why do we need redemption?”  He brought this question to the guest, who said “Moshiach will take us back to Israel.”  Once again the wife questioned: “We are comfortable here, we have our inn and a cow and chickens, why should we leave all this and go to Israel?”  The guest answered:  “What about the Cossacks?”  The woman thought about this and then said: “Well, let Moshiach take the Cossacks to Israel and we can stay here.”

 

In the last Chassidic discourse that the Lubavitcher Rebbe published, he wrote about the great suffering of the previous generation, whose deep faith was revealed when they sacrificed everything, including their lives literally, to remain faithful to Hashem.   

In our generation, we are much better off, thank G-d. But on the other hand, for someone to feel the pain of exile and the daily yearning for redemption reveals an even deeper level of faith.  There is no outside oppressor from whom we need to escape.  The only thing driving our need for redemption is that we feel the lack of Divine revelation that we had when the Temple stood.  This feeling stems from the essential, internal, bond that our souls have with Hashem.

 

Our mourning is not about just crying and suffering.  The purpose of a fast day is to remind us to  hasten the end of the exile.  It is a time for us to strengthen our faith and our connection to redemption.  During the next three weeks we study the laws of the Temple service in Mishna and Rambam, we read the passages in Ezekiel that recount his prophecies regarding the rebuilding of the temple, we increase our Tzedakah (charity) and observance of G-d’s commandments. 

May we speedily merit the fulfillment of the prophecy that these days of mourning will be transformed to days of joy.