by Mystical Paths
Dear Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World),
I do not appreciate your holiday Tisha B'Av (the 9th of the hebrew month of Av). With respectful apologies, I must point out that it has turned into a basically meaningless occasion.
Memories of the Divine Presence are long faded away. Not even written descriptions of being with the Presence remain. Memories and tradition of the Beis HaMikdash (the Holy Temple) have passed into far distant history with nothing but a few brief barely understood written descriptions remaining. No pictures or drawings, no real concept of what was.
On Tisha B'Av we read Kinnos, a book of lamentations. Those written for the Holy Temple stopped being written over 900 years ago as memories, traditions, and even writings of that time faded away. While on Tisha B'Av we will read of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Beis HaMikdash, at best we will be filling our minds with the horrors not of then - to which we can't relate - but to the Holocaust for people, and maybe to 9/11 for the destruction of a building and city.
Ribono Shel Olam, dear Father in Heaven, it's been too long. We cannot truly yearn for what has passed from living memory and even from history. I have ascended Har HaBayit (the Temple mount, to the areas permissible by some authorities) to look for even a single stone of the Temple to mourn over... none are to be found.
I'm sorry dear Father, we just no longer can relate. For a parking lot to be opened on Shabbos in Jerusalem, for this we can fight tooth and nail for the mitzvah and to preserve the sanctity of Jerusalem. For an inch of the land to be given over, for this we can fight till they crack skulls to move us.
But for the Beis HaMikdash? We simply can't connect anymore.
Dear Father, it is forbidden to substitute one mitzvah for another. We cannot fast on Rosh Hashana, nor read the megillah on Yom Kippur. We do not eat matzah on Sukkot, nor fast on Purim...
Since we can no longer observe Tisha B'Av the way the mitzvah requires, we cannot truly mourn the Temple of which we no longer understand, picture, can find a single stone of, or relate to, please dear Father since we can't observe Your mitzvah properly TAKE IT AWAY!!!
Dear Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World),
I do not appreciate your holiday Tisha B'Av (the 9th of the hebrew month of Av). With respectful apologies, I must point out that it has turned into a basically meaningless occasion.
Memories of the Divine Presence are long faded away. Not even written descriptions of being with the Presence remain. Memories and tradition of the Beis HaMikdash (the Holy Temple) have passed into far distant history with nothing but a few brief barely understood written descriptions remaining. No pictures or drawings, no real concept of what was.
On Tisha B'Av we read Kinnos, a book of lamentations. Those written for the Holy Temple stopped being written over 900 years ago as memories, traditions, and even writings of that time faded away. While on Tisha B'Av we will read of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Beis HaMikdash, at best we will be filling our minds with the horrors not of then - to which we can't relate - but to the Holocaust for people, and maybe to 9/11 for the destruction of a building and city.
Ribono Shel Olam, dear Father in Heaven, it's been too long. We cannot truly yearn for what has passed from living memory and even from history. I have ascended Har HaBayit (the Temple mount, to the areas permissible by some authorities) to look for even a single stone of the Temple to mourn over... none are to be found.
I'm sorry dear Father, we just no longer can relate. For a parking lot to be opened on Shabbos in Jerusalem, for this we can fight tooth and nail for the mitzvah and to preserve the sanctity of Jerusalem. For an inch of the land to be given over, for this we can fight till they crack skulls to move us.
But for the Beis HaMikdash? We simply can't connect anymore.
Dear Father, it is forbidden to substitute one mitzvah for another. We cannot fast on Rosh Hashana, nor read the megillah on Yom Kippur. We do not eat matzah on Sukkot, nor fast on Purim...
Since we can no longer observe Tisha B'Av the way the mitzvah requires, we cannot truly mourn the Temple of which we no longer understand, picture, can find a single stone of, or relate to, please dear Father since we can't observe Your mitzvah properly TAKE IT AWAY!!!
