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Sense of Jewish Pride

obormottel Sunday, 14 August 2016

It says in the kinnos the story of a son and a daughter of R' Yishmael Kohein Gadol, how their masters put them together in a room "to mate." All night, the daughter cried, "I am the daughter of Yocheved! How can I marry a slave!?" and in the other corner the son cried, "I am a son of Aharon Hakohen! How can I marry a slave!?" In the morning they recognized each other and hugged and cried until they died together.

In the Kinnah, Yirmiyahu says that from all the tragedies that befell Klal Yisroel at the time of the Churban, this was the worst, and the question "Why?" We read through Kinnos, Eicha, the Gemoros, the Midrashim and Sefer Yirmiya, and we see tragedies that were seemingly much worse then this story?

So the Rav where I davened this morning said that with the death of these two siblings, we lost our pride. These two siblings didn't care about their own pride, they cared about the pride of their families, the pride of their shevet, and the pride of their nation. With their death, we lost this sense of pride. He went on to explain, that if we would have even a tiny amount of that pride, we would feel differently and act differently. When we walk on the street, we would tell ourselves, "I should look there!? I come from Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov!!! It doesn't make sense for me to do that!"

When I heard that, I felt as if he was talking to me, and all of us. We should be zoiche to that tiny ounce of pride that will stop us from looking, from lusting, and from acting out. And in the Zechus of this website, where people come for one reason, and that is to get better and to be a better person, we should be zoiche to greet Moshiach today! And the day of Tisha B'av will from now on be a Yom Tov.