The Power of the Three Weeks

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah, www.bircas.org

The Three Weeks are a time of mourning. It’s no secret that many Jews struggle through these weeks, dutifully keeping the mitzvos, but with an attitude of “when will this finally be over?” Instead of thinking about the time at hand, they think about the fun of bein hazemanim that they can’t wait to get to.

If only we would realize that these days are an exceptional gift, and wasting them is a tragedy. Since Chazal designated these weeks as a time to mourn the Destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, that means that even though such mourning may be hard for us throughout the year, these weeks have a special power to help us to reach true, heartfelt mourning of the Beis Hamikdash. Rav Yisrael Salanter would say that mourning is not just a mandatory ritual of these days, it is the key to exceptional spiritual levels that are gained only by sincere mourning.

This requires work, however. We must first try to recognize what it is we are missing by not having the Beis Hamikdash. Without knowing what we are missing, how can we mourn for it? Of course, we lack the Beis Hamikdash, but do we feel that? If we would lose a large sum of money, we would surely feel the loss. What can we focus on to feel the loss of the Beis Hamikdash?

Rav Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky would suggest that we focus on the fact that the Beis Hamikdash was the one place on Earth where every Jew could get closeness to Hashem. Without it, it is very hard for us to get close to Him, and this creates a lot of difficulties.

How does the Beis Hamikdash get us closer to Hashem? Harav Chaim Friedlander would explain that in the times of the Beis Hamikdash, a sinner could do teshuva, bring a korban, and right away know that Hashem had forgiven him and he was cleansed of his sin (Yalkut Shimon, Tehillim 48). Today, we are stuck with our sins, and this bogs us down spiritually.

Also, Nefesh Hachaim (2:17) notes that there was an exceptional revelation of the Shechina (divine presence) in the Beis Hamikdash. Even though the outside world appears to us entirely material, inside the Beis Hamikdash a person could feel palpable spirituality. People saw ten miracles at all times (Avos 5:7). People came to the Beis Hamikdash three times a year, as the verse states, “to see the face of the Master, Hashem.” (Shmos 23:17). When a person came to the Beis Hamikdash, he felt that he was literally standing before Hashem This feeling sustained him from one holiday to the next. How many of us feel that we are standing before Hashem?

Furthermore, prayers were answered there promptly (Divrei Hayamim 6:18-19). How close people must have felt to Hashem then, being able to speak to Him and know that He was listening! In Bava Metzia (59a), the Sages state that after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, “the gates of prayer are locked.” Today, it’s much harder to reach such a level of closeness to Hashem in prayer.

Reflecting on all these aspects of the Beis Hamikdash and feeling their lack will bring us to sincere mourning. And mourning for the Beis Hamikdash at this time – feeling bad that we lack Hashem’s closeness – will give us special siyatta deShemaya and cause Hashem to bring us closer to Him. Explains Rav Friedlander, this is logical, because if we would know that someone misses us and wants to be with us, this would make us feel closer to him. All the more so if Hashem sees that we are mourning our loss of closeness to Him, He surely will draw us closer.

Without the Beis Hamikdash, Hashem is not just far away, he is hidden. We feel this hiddenness. Tragically, we know that most Jews today are not Torah-observant. So called “leaders” of the Jewish people are often outspoken opponents of Judaism, and/or utterly ignorant about it.

Rav Shach felt sorrow over this hiddenness – throughout the year. Every weekday after Shacharis, he would delay eating breakfast. When asked about this, Rav Shach replied: “How can I eat? Right now Jewish children throughout Eretz Yisrael are going to school, and they are not saying Kriyas Shema there. They don’t even know what Kriyas Shema is! How can I eat at this time?”

If Rav Shach mourned the situation of Klal Yisrael throughout the year, we should surely try to feel this mourning during the Three Weeks; to feel the pain of Hashem’s hiddenness in the world and how this causes people to be far from Him.

Also, during these weeks a person should try to get closer to Hashem by learning and appreciating His Torah. The Bach (Orach Chaim 47) says that the Destruction of the Beis Hamikdash was mida kneged mida – since Torah is a way of getting closer to Hashem and clinging to Him, and the generation of the Bayis Sheini was lacking in appreciation of Torah (see Nedarim 81a) – Hashem destroyed the Beis Hamikdash, because if they didn’t want to be close to Him, why should He be close to them?

The way to show our appreciation of the Torah, as Rav Aharon Kotler used to say, is for Torah to be the main thing on our minds. This is the most important part of our lives. How many of us go through the day with myriad other matters uppermost in our thoughts? During these Three Weeks, we should make sure that Torah is always on our minds.

The Klausenberger Rebbe, when he was an inmate in the concentration camps, made a great effort to do some semblance of “hakafos” with other inmates on Simchas Torah. He adjured them to show joy over the Torah, as he himself did. Throughout the Holocaust, he never once showed sadness over the situation, so as not to appear as if he were questioning Hashem’s ways. On Simchas Torah, however, he went further, trying to instill joy and appreciation of the Torah in his fellow inmates’ hearts.

Nevertheless, after doing these “hakafos,” the rebbe was later seen dancing alone, clutching small remnants of a torn sefer. Since he thought he was not being observed, the Rebbe permitted himself to display mourning. As he sang joyously with these scraps of paper, he also shed tears over the difficult situation of the Jewish people, praying for a time when they could learn Torah again amid normal circumstances.

May we mourn the Beis Hamikdash sincerely during these weeks!