It was an historic moment. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, the IDF liberated the Kotel in Jerusalem. After two thousand years of restricted access, the Jewish people had finally regained this hugely significant site, and many of the soldiers were overwhelmed by emotion. Some began to cry. As soldiers ran to the Wall, one of the non-religious soldiers who ran with them saw the religious soldiers crying. He too began to cry. The religious soldier looked at him surprised and asked: “I know why I’m crying, but why are you crying?” The non-religious soldier replied: “I’m crying because I don’t know what I’m supposed to be crying about.”
There is a Yiddish saying that encapsulates this sense of disconnect, “A worm that lives its whole life in horseradish, does not know that its life is bitter!” For generations we have lived without the Temple, so it is a challenge to feel its loss. So how do we connect with Jews around the world mourning for the loss of the Temple on Tisha b’Av (9th Av)?
This question is reinforced by the Gemara that teaches that only those who mourn for Jerusalem will merit to share in her joy. But in what way are we able to meet this expectation?
The opening words of Eichah (Lamentations) which we read on Tisha b’Av paints a picture of Jerusalem bitterly weeping with no one to comfort her. This date was decreed as a night of crying after the Jewish people cried for nothing in the desert when they erroneously believed the negative report of the spies about the Land of Israel. Therefore, it is no coincidence that we must cry for both the First and Second Temples that were destroyed on this night.
However, we’re actually crying for something even more fundamental than the destruction and subsequent exile. Shockingly, the Midrash informs us that G-d was also crying because our transgressions had caused the Divine Presence, which had rested in this world in the Temple, now had to return to its original Heavenly place. Even though the angels protested at seeing G-d in distress, so to speak, He insisted on crying for this loss. G-d’s pain was not just on account of the physical destruction but, like a loving father, having to see His children suffer the ignominy of exile. G-d assures us that we’re not alone, as it says in Tehillim 91:15) “I am with him in sorrow” and in Isaiah (63:9) “In all their sorrows, He too was in sorrow.”
So we cry on Tisha b’Av in order to connect to G-d, to feel a sense of empathy with our Father in Heaven who shares in our pain and in whose pain we share. In developing this sensitivity, we bring meaning and purpose to Tisha b’Av as it transcends a mere historical event and becomes a profound way of deepening our relationship with G-d.
As G-d promises our Matriarch, “A cry is heard in Ramah…Rachel weeping for her children…Restrain your voice from weeping, Your eyes from shedding tears; For there is a reward for your labour…They shall return from the enemy’s land.” (Jeremiah 31:15)
Even though the Temple was destroyed, the gates of tears weren’t locked, and we can take comfort from those familiar words in Tehillim (126:5) “Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy.”
May our crying on Tisha b’Av be heard Above and may we merit to see the rebuilding of the Temple, speedily and in our days.