Three Weeks 5768

Thoughts on the three weeks 5768

At 5:20 am I blurrily awoke to my buzzing phone, confused why anyone would be texting me at such an ungodly hour. The text read:
"Attack in J'lm: Pales rams tractor into bus and cars b/4 being shot. 1 dead 30 wounded."

The text was courtesy of a Young Israel initiative, called SMSSderot. Whenever a kassam is shot into sderot, an alarm sounds, and the people have about 15 to find safety before the rocket hits. In an effort to raise empathy and understanding, the YI program sends a text message whenever there is such an attack, and people commit to either do an act of chessed or say a perek of thilim within the 15 seconds in which they receive the text. (This is a really wonderful initiative which I encourage EVERYONE to sign up for. Hashem promises us "imo ani btzara." At the very least, we should similarly strive to stand by our fellow Jews while they daily risk our lives. Check out the website and sign up at http://www.youngisrael.org/content/sms_subscribe.cfm)

Sadly, I had come accustomed to seeing texts of rocket fire, and in my tired state I hardly absorbed what had happened. I said a quick perek, and crawled back into bed. Waking up that morning, I vaguely remembered receiving a text and quickly logged onto the Jerusalem Post. I was horrified to read the headlines. What sort of world have we devolved into, where tools that are supposed to be used to construct and build are being used for destruction of life. Ironically, the psukim of Yishaya and Micah came to mind, the prophecies which speak of taking weapons and beating them into farm tools. How far this dream feels when essentially our enemy is doing the opposite! If hakamat hamidina is really hitchalta degeula, why does it seem like we're working in reverse, rather than progressing?


In fact though, this too was foreseen by our nevim. In sefer Yoel, the prophet proclaims

"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say 'I am strong'."
Yoel 4:10

The first perek of Yoel speak about how am Yisrael has gone astray, and details extensively how we will be held accountable. It speaks about seeing our country lie fallow, and animals devouring whatever does grow. We will see enemies come and capture it, and wreak havoc upon our nation. They will sell our children into captivity for profit, and maliciously massacre our people. We will distraughtly question- why do we deserve this? Why are we being punished so?
In the second perek we finally recognize we've sinned. Hashem instructs us- instead of ripping your clothing in mourning, "rend your heart," internalize how you've stumbled and call out. These prayers Hashem will listen to, more so than the karbonot that were being brought
In the third and fourth perek comes the nechama. There will be the day that all the nations will be judged, and Hashem will have pity on his people and rescue us. On this judgment day, Hashem will challenge the nations to rise up against us- to recruit all their warriors to come wage war, to grab everything they have to fight- to the point that they will take their plowing shares and pruning hooks and create weapons from them. However, am Yisrael has nothing to fear! Because on that day Hashem will avenge our suffering and take nikama on those nations that come to fight against us, laying our once powerful enemies desolate and destroyed. In this awful war, am Yisrael will be raised and redeemed and the geula will really take place. We will return to our homes and our land for eternity- as Hashem promises in the last pasuk of the safer:

"But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." Joel 4:20

These awful attacks that we are currently enduring must just be another step along the steady climb to the geula. The analogy I've continuously referenced from Rav Aviner on Shir Hashirim, is the tzvi which is on its climb up the mountain. As it climbs it occasionally disappears from our line of vision, or must take a dip alongside of the mountain- but it always on its climb upwards! So too sometimes it appears that we are falling backwards into this endless exile, but no! The geula is constantly on a climb upwards, we just can't always see it. We are always moving our way up!
But if we want to facilitate these nevuot, we must also do our part. We must recognize what we've done wrong and make an effort to change. We are told, that in every generation that the Beit Hamikdash is not rebuilt, it's because we are just as responsible as the generation in which it was destroyed, because we are still doing the same sins as that generation. As the gmara in Yoma famously expounds, the second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed while Jews were actively involved in learning Torah and mitzvot, but sinned in that they had Sinnat Chinam- baseless hatred of their fellow Jew.
Can we deny that that exists in our society today? Forget about speaking about the charadi/secular divide- it exits within our own circles! What is sinaat chinam? Essentially, it doesn't have to be hatred as much as it's apathy. Failing to reach out and help your fellow Jew is essentially sinat chinam, because if you really cared for them you would go out of your way to help. The netziv writes that murder was prevalent in the period of bayit sheni. If so, why does the gmara attribute the destruction to the sin of sinaat chinam? Jews saw other of their bretheren observing the mitzvoth in a different manner, or perhaps relying on a leniency and immediately they judged them as baytusim and rebels and in their zealotry would kill them. If there was really ahavat achim, that would hardly be their first reaction. They would have reached out and tried to set them back on the right path! They would have seen a brother in need of some help, and do what they could to help. That's what ahavat chinam is! Helping a Jew because he is one of you, and you love him, and will do whatever you can to help. Even if they appear to be doing wrong, and unworthy of the help, we should reach out to them out of the love for your fellow Jew.
With the sad return of Eldad Regev and Uri Goldwasser this past week, I witnessed beautifully how am Yisrael can unite together. For the past 2 years, we've prayed and cried together for their return, two boys who were essentially strangers to us. Yet daily we prayed because they were Jews, and thus one of us, and as they looked out for our safety while they were out in the field, so too we found ourselves looking out for their safety while in our batai knisiyot.
Chaval that it takes such a national tragedy to unite us! Why is it that we only come together in tears- why do we have to let it ever come to the point of tragedy! Why are we not reaching out to our fellow Jews on a daily basis?
I pose to you all the challenge that I pose to myself over the next three weeks leading up to Tisha b'Av. Let's try to bring a little ahavat chinam into this world, let's try to take those steps that will allow us to celebrate in the construction of the Beit Hamikdash instead of mourning over its destruction. This project does not take much effort, just one act each day that you may not have otherwise thought to do. As simple as picking up your phone and calling a grandparent, sharing your leftovers with some neighbors, inviting an extra guest to your shabbos meal or helping one of your unemployed friends network by putting him in touch with someone you know in their field. How about taking a moment to think about the wonderful single friends you have, and that really great guy/or girl that may have not worked for you, but would be a great match for them. There are countless options, so many ways we can help set ourselves back on the right path. Chazal tell us- "bderech shaadam rotzel lalech bo molichin oso," on the path that man wants to take, G-d will help guide him along it. We just have to turn on our blinkers and switch lanes; Hashem will help us then speed along the highway.
We all know of the famous gmara, makkot 24B:

Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva were going up to Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus, they tore their clothes. Approaching the Temple Mount, they saw a fox run out of the area of the Holy of Holies. As they began to weep, Rabbi Akiva laughed. "Why are you laughing?" the others asked. "Why are you crying?" he retorted.

They responded, "When foxes run in the place where only the High Priest could enter on Yom Kippur, shouldn't we cry?"

"That is why I laughed," he answered. "I know two prophesies. The first, of the prophet Micah saying, 'Because of you, Zion will be a plowed field. Jerusalem a ruin, and the Temple Mount a forest.' The second of Zechariah saying, 'Old men and women will yet rejoice in the streets of Jerusalem.' Until I saw the first prophesy fulfilled, I feared the second would never happen. Now that I have seen the first prophesy come true, I know the second will also."

The other's answered, "Akiva, you have comforted us! Akiva, you have comforted us!"

We see in the headlines of the news before us today the building tools being transformed into weapons. Like Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria and Rabbi Yehoshua we cry out in anguish. Look at the destruction that is falling upon our people! But like Rabbi Akiva, we must recognize that the nevuot that Hashem are being realized before us. As Hashem promised that they'd come to destroy us, so too the other half of the nevuah, where He holds them accountable for their actions and takes judgment against then, and forgives us and redeems us shall certainly comes true. Our role is to prepare ourselves, to correct our ways, so that we can hastily pass through this dip of the mountain on our climb to the precipice and the geula shilama.
It is my hope that IYH very soon we will see our tools returned to their proper purposes and the nevuot of Yishaya and Micha realized.

"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3

Wishing everyone a meaningful three weeks and bsorot tovot for all of am Yisrael very soon.