IT is getting close to the day that commemorates the greatest catastrophe that befell the Jewish people. The destruction of our Holy Temple, the house of G-d is destroyed and now G-d presence is in exile with His people.
The mourning period starts at the beginning of the month. The mourning should get more sever as we lead up to the 9th of Av [This year it starts Saturday night and continues till Sunday night.] WE wear clothes that have not been laundered, we don’t take shower [if one needs to shower it should be done with cold water. Ask your local Ortho Rabbi for more info], we don’t cut our hair and we refrain from buying new things.
On the ninth of Av, we refrain from eating, drinking, having relations with our spouse and we don’t wear leather clothes. It is a time of contemplating how incomplete we are. Our relationship with G-d is damaged and we must focus on the reason for this. WE do this so as to heal the damage.
The reason that the Temple was destroyed was because of senseless hatred. What does that mean? That means that our ancestors didn’t have a listening for others opinions. It was so bad that when the enemy, the Roman barbarians, were at the gate of the Holy city of Jerusalem the different factions within the city were killing each other vying for power. They went so far as to burn each other’s silos of food.
Our sages teach that redemption of humanity will come when we act out senseless acts of friendship.
I am of the opinion that this will be done when we get together to rebuild the Temple. Each one of us has a different role that we think that G-d plays. When we put our own interpretation to the side and rebuild the house of G-d for the sake of unity, in accordance to G-d’s will, then this will be the catalyst of Peace.
And if Peace doesn’t come right away, at least we would have built a beautiful House of G-d till we do have peace!
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