Hello chevra,

I just wanted to share something that struck me earlier. In a way it's a fairly obvious thought so I apologise for saying something so simple to a group of talmidei chachomim, I just want to get my thoughts out.

The whole year is about an individual's struggle against his internal forces of evil as he tries to become a perfect person. Tish'a b'av is the same thing on a national level. It's about our national struggle against evil as we try to rectify the wrongs we have done so that Hashem will see us worthy of revealing Himself to the world and making it perfect.

Put slightly differently, the whole year is about us trying to reach shleimus for ourselves, tish'a b'av is about HKB''H bringing the world to shleimus. He wants to show Himself and bring the world to shleimus but He knows that doing that would remove our bechira so He has taken a step back and allowed us to work on ourselves at our own pace. Hashem is in golus so-to-speak, He is in pain, waiting to show Himself but he doesn't want to do it until we've finished our mission so we can be zoche to olam haboh. He is being utterly selfless in this way, unbelievably patient, watching us take our time over our avodah, the avodah that needs to be done for both us and the world to come to shleimus.

It's so easy to be entirely self-focussed, thinking only about our own struggle with the yetzer horah, and believing that we will make it in the end, we will be tazidikim before our end, we will certainly say vidduy and do teshuvah and we'll be zoche to olam haboh. And of course that's good, it's what Hashem wants, but what about Hashem Himself? He's waiting to reveal Himself to the world and end all our suffering but He wants to wait for His children to get what they need first.

That's what tish'a b'av is about. It's about the golus of the shechinah and how much suffering that has brought to the world and how much Hashem wants it to end, but He is waiting for us. Therefore we as a nation must do teshuvah and enable that to happen. And we as a nation do teshuvah by each individual doing teshuvah. If we all take responsibility for our own teshuvah then iy''H we will be successful, and other will see our successful teshuvah and be inspired to do the same. That's all we can do.

Seforim speak about the aveiroh of being motzi shichvas zerah levatoloh and say among other things that it causes the giluy shecinah to be delayed. This is one of the main things that is getting in the way of us completing our national job thereby allowing Hashem to reveal Himself to the world. So in a way I feel that tish'a b'av is reminder of how much we need to work in this area. It's not just for ourselves, it's for Hashem and for the good of klal yisroel and the world.

Fast well chevra and stay out of the heat tomorrow.

Since someone posted chizzuk regarding tisha b'av i thought id share something i heard this morning.

It says in the kinnos the story of the son and daughter of R' Yishmael Kohein Gadol, how their masters put them together in a room and planned on splitting the kids. All night the daughter cried saying "I am a 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, Yirmayahu says that from all the tragedies that befell Klal Yisroel at the time of the Churban, this was the worst, and the question that must be asked is 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 didnt care about their own pride, they cared about the pride of their families, the pride of their shevet, and for the pride of their nation. With their death, we lost that sense of pride. He went on to explain, that if we would have even a tiny amount of that pride, we would feel different 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.

I just remembered another thought that he mentioned (I forgot which kinnah it was on, but it was early).
He said that we as Yidden have a tremendous Koiach, that nobody else has, not even the Malachim! That koiach is the power to make Hashem FEEL Kavyochol. And when we work on doing teshuva, especially in these three weeks that are now ending, we make hashem fell regret. He regrets having made the Yetzer Hora.
Baruch Hashem, my latest count started on 17 Tammuz. I am now up to 21 days. I have been clean for the entire duration of the three weeks. It is my second time reaching this milestone, and my first time i made it to 22 days. Hopefully with this teshuva, Hashem regrets his decision to make a yetzer hora and will take it away from me and from all of us

thanks for the vort doc!

I used it twice over tisha b'av

it went over well

I can't believe it's been a year already.