The 12th Principle of faith as described by Maimonides is; “I believe
with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach (the Messiah), and
although he may tarry, nevertheless, I wait every day for him to come.”
The first question, a soul is asked after it returns to heaven is, “did you yearn for the coming of Moshiach?” The FIRST thing G-d is interested in knowing when inquiring about a person’s entire lifetime in this world is, did you develop the desire, the longing and aspiration, for the final redemption of the entire universe?
Did you live with THIS goal, not only in mind, but as well in practice? Did you get excited every day to make the world a little better than the day before, and bring it closer to its ultimate reason for creation?
This Sunday, July 26, 2015, we memorialize the worst tragedies that befell the Jewish people. When King Solomon in Ecclesiastes enumerates the 28 different times in a person’s life, “Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the heaven. …..A time to weep and a time to laugh …..A time to love and a time to hate…” our sages say, the “time to weep” is on the 9th of Menachem Av, corresponding to this coming Sunday.
“Whoever mourns the destructions of the two Temples, will merit (being there and) seeing its rebuilding and joyous times.” When you are there to offer support, identify with, and empathize with a person in their time of sorrow, when they win the lottery, and celebrate, you are the first one invited to participate in their happiness.
The 9th of Av, known better as Tisha b'Av, commemorates a list of catastrophes, a day set aside by G‑d for crying.
At the same time, we know, Moshiach, the seeds for the ultimate recuperation and recovery from all these calamities in a way that “ I will thank you G-d, for all the times you exhibited and protracted your wrath on me”, and the actual birth of Moshiach, takes place on this exact same day!!
In the year 1313 BCE the Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. They dispatched a reconnaissance mission and the spies return on the eighth day of Av to report, the land is unconquerable. “Even G-d, cannot clear the way for us” they said.
That night, the 9th of Av, the people cried and insisted they would rather go back to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites in the Promised Land. G‑d, displeased by this demonstration of distrust in His power promised, that this night will be forever a night of crying for justified reasons. The spies died immediately and the entire generation of male Israelites, were punished to die in the wilderness and never enter the Holy Land.
The First Temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av (423 BCE) and five centuries later (in 69 CE), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, the Jews realized their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first on the 9th of Av.
When the Jews rebelled against Roman rule and believed their leader, Simon bar Kochba, would fulfill their messianic longings, their hopes were cruelly dashed in 133 CE as the Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar. The date of the massacre was the 9th of Av!
One year after their conquest of Betar, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount, our nation's holiest site.
The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 CE on Tisha b'Av.
In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain came to a close when Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand ordered that the Jews be banished from the land. The edict of expulsion was signed on March 31, 1492, and the Jews were given exactly four months to put their affairs in order and leave the country after hundreds of years living there, on the 9th of Av!
World War II, and the Holocaust, historians conclude was the long drawn-out conclusion of World War I which began in 1914. Amazingly enough, Germany declared war on Russia, effectively catapulting the First World War into motion, on the 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av!
In the same way, G-d promised that we would forever have real reasons to cry on this day, we were promised that in the times of Moshiach, this day will change to joy and happiness, to a day of celebration.
The first question, a soul is asked after it returns to heaven is, “did you yearn for the coming of Moshiach?” The FIRST thing G-d is interested in knowing when inquiring about a person’s entire lifetime in this world is, did you develop the desire, the longing and aspiration, for the final redemption of the entire universe?
Did you live with THIS goal, not only in mind, but as well in practice? Did you get excited every day to make the world a little better than the day before, and bring it closer to its ultimate reason for creation?
This Sunday, July 26, 2015, we memorialize the worst tragedies that befell the Jewish people. When King Solomon in Ecclesiastes enumerates the 28 different times in a person’s life, “Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the heaven. …..A time to weep and a time to laugh …..A time to love and a time to hate…” our sages say, the “time to weep” is on the 9th of Menachem Av, corresponding to this coming Sunday.
“Whoever mourns the destructions of the two Temples, will merit (being there and) seeing its rebuilding and joyous times.” When you are there to offer support, identify with, and empathize with a person in their time of sorrow, when they win the lottery, and celebrate, you are the first one invited to participate in their happiness.
The 9th of Av, known better as Tisha b'Av, commemorates a list of catastrophes, a day set aside by G‑d for crying.
At the same time, we know, Moshiach, the seeds for the ultimate recuperation and recovery from all these calamities in a way that “ I will thank you G-d, for all the times you exhibited and protracted your wrath on me”, and the actual birth of Moshiach, takes place on this exact same day!!
In the year 1313 BCE the Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. They dispatched a reconnaissance mission and the spies return on the eighth day of Av to report, the land is unconquerable. “Even G-d, cannot clear the way for us” they said.
That night, the 9th of Av, the people cried and insisted they would rather go back to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites in the Promised Land. G‑d, displeased by this demonstration of distrust in His power promised, that this night will be forever a night of crying for justified reasons. The spies died immediately and the entire generation of male Israelites, were punished to die in the wilderness and never enter the Holy Land.
The First Temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av (423 BCE) and five centuries later (in 69 CE), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, the Jews realized their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first on the 9th of Av.
When the Jews rebelled against Roman rule and believed their leader, Simon bar Kochba, would fulfill their messianic longings, their hopes were cruelly dashed in 133 CE as the Jewish rebels were brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar. The date of the massacre was the 9th of Av!
One year after their conquest of Betar, the Romans plowed over the Temple Mount, our nation's holiest site.
The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 CE on Tisha b'Av.
In 1492, the Golden Age of Spain came to a close when Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand ordered that the Jews be banished from the land. The edict of expulsion was signed on March 31, 1492, and the Jews were given exactly four months to put their affairs in order and leave the country after hundreds of years living there, on the 9th of Av!
World War II, and the Holocaust, historians conclude was the long drawn-out conclusion of World War I which began in 1914. Amazingly enough, Germany declared war on Russia, effectively catapulting the First World War into motion, on the 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av!
In the same way, G-d promised that we would forever have real reasons to cry on this day, we were promised that in the times of Moshiach, this day will change to joy and happiness, to a day of celebration.
WE ARE, WAY MORE THAN HALF WAY THEREDo one more good deed today, and THAT may be the last act needed, to finally tip those scales for you and the whole universe, to bring the ultimate good to the world, when “they will grind their swords to plowshares ……..and one nation will never lift a sword to another nation… peace for ALL mankind.
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