In a heartfelt letter to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the Frierdiker Rebbe describes the tragedies that took place on Tisha B’Av during Jewish historical past, and the way as soon as once more the Jewish individuals are being examined via the ones pretending to be their pals.
By means of Anash.org author
Within the 12 months 5679 (1919), all through the times main as much as Tisha B’Av, the Frierdiker Rebbe penned a heartfelt letter to his daughter, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. In it, he describes the deep bitterness related to Tisha B’Av, an afternoon that has noticed super struggling and tragedy during Jewish historical past.
The Rebbe started via recalling the primary tragic match on Tisha B’Av, over 3,200 years in the past, when the spies returned from scouting Eretz Yisroel and delivered their slanderous file. The folk’s religion faltered, resulting in weeping and mourning, which marked the start of the unhappy nature of Tisha B’Av.
The Rebbe additionally mirrored at the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash in 3338 from introduction, and the untold struggling that adopted. Masses of hundreds of Jews had been killed, and their our bodies lay scattered within the streets. Even if the Jews returned to rebuild the 2d Beis HaMikdash, it used to be a time fraught with difficulties, because the Jews had been regularly at odds with every different and below the rule of thumb of overseas international locations.
He lamented how, during historical past, Jewish communities had regularly been led off target via out of doors influences. Those influences sowed discord and resulted in horrible penalties, such because the destruction of the 2d Beis HaMikdash. The Rebbe identified that it used to be the inner strife, pushed via younger Jews who had followed overseas values, that introduced in regards to the final downfall.
In spite of all this, the Rebbe emphasised the iconic power and resilience of the Jewish folks. Even within the darkest of instances, corresponding to all through the Inquisition, Jews held speedy to their religion, educating their youngsters Torah and instilling inside of them a deep and abiding connection to Hashem.
The Rebbe expressed his anguish over the present situation, drawing parallels between the existing and the previous. He noticed that when once more, the Jewish folks had been being examined via those that pretended to be their pals however had been actually main them off target.
In his remaining phrases, the Rebbe reminded his daughter, and all of Klal Yisroel, that Hashem has promised to turn out to be Tisha B’Av into an afternoon of everlasting pleasure when Moshiach arrives. He prompt them to stay steadfast of their religion and believe in Hashem’s promise of redemption.
Might we advantage to peer the success of Hashem’s promise with the approaching of Moshiach, speedily in our days.
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To my loved daughter,
“Tisha B’Av”—two small phrases that raise the load of profound and immense bitterness.
“Tisha B’Av” represents a curse of struggling, blood, tears, mourning, loss of life, and nervous cries, to the purpose the place it’s onerous to differentiate whether or not the huge ocean is bigger extensive and expanse or if Tisha B’Av’s struggling and loss of life are extra serious.
The start of this wretched day, or extra correctly, this darkish day, started within the 12 months 2449 from Introduction (about 3230 years in the past), when the spies who went to scout the Land of Israel returned (they left at the twenty ninth of Sivan, had been at the highway for 40 days, and returned on Tisha B’Av) and delivered a false file about what they noticed.
When the Jews left Egypt, because of the nice miracles and divine manifestations they witnessed, a large team of Egyptians transformed to Judaism. They’re known as “converts” (the real that means of “convert” is “resident,” and so they settled a few of the Jews) and so they followed the entire practices of the Israelites. Alternatively, they led to a lot struggling for the Jews. All of the troubles got here from them, as they frequently incited the folk.
The character of the Jewish folks is they consider and take pleasure of their religion and holy Torah. This led them to have a undeniable admire for those Egyptian converts (that means “proselytes”). They had been revered (very similar to how these days, if an individual is secular however adheres to Jewish values and isn’t embarrassed via being Jewish, he’s extra admired than a real brother who endures struggling with them. Even a stranger, like a Frenchman or an Englishman, may well be admired much more. Those evaluations influenced the general public. When the Jews left Egypt, they’d a undeniable regard for those “converts,”) and their phrases and evaluations took grasp (and had been won) a few of the folks.
The Jews suffered from them, as they combined so completely with the folk that they changed into one with them, although their blood used to be Egyptian. As a result, anywhere they may, they introduced the Israelites to the bottom state. Infrequently they lacked water, every so often meals, and so they desired meat, appearing discontent with the monn and looking for tactics to embitter and disrupt Jewish happiness.
When the spies got here and reported at the greatness of the land and the power of its fortresses and folks, the Jewish public had now not but discovered whether or not to mourn or have a good time. The “folks” briefly began to incite rise up, and at the night time of Tisha B’Av, a mass outcry arose, stating they most well-liked Egypt over the Eretz Yisroel, and started convincing others to go back to Egypt.
Thus, Tisha B’Av used to be born from the worries of Israel—a “present” from the “just right pals” of Egypt who had allied with the Jews.
The Jews of that era paid for this “present” with their lives for 39 consecutive years. On Tisha B’Av, they might pass out into the fields out of doors the camp, a distance of 1 or two miles from the place they cried, with their households, and dig graves for themselves. At the night time of Tisha B’Av, they might lie in those graves, and within the morning, the dwelling would depart, masking the useless with earth. For 39 years, 585,000 folks died—the ones concerned within the mass weeping.
Within the 12 months 3338 from Introduction (about 2341 years in the past), on Tisha B’Av, the First Beis Hamikdash used to be destroyed, and loads of hundreds of Jews, together with males, ladies, and kids, had been killed in quite a lot of tactics, and their our bodies had been rolled throughout the streets and fields like straw and picket.
Simplest after 70 years did Hashem go back the Jewish folks to Yerushalayim, and so they started rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash (the Bayis Sheini). All the way through this time, Jews had their very own kings, although they had been nonetheless below Roman rule, however the Eretz Yisroel used to be a kingdom in its personal proper.
For a number of centuries, some Jews sought connections in royal palaces and started to reside lives of luxurious and wealth. To start with, this used to be inside the framework of non secular habits, however progressively they drifted farther from the religion.
All the way through the time of the 2d Beis Hamikdash, the Jews weren’t at relaxation. It used to be now not just like the time of the First Beis Hamikdash, which used to be a time of true happiness for Israel. All the way through the time of the 2d Beis Hamikdash, many Jews had been dispersed throughout other lands, struggling in all places, right here from one calamity and there from every other.
Greater than the rest, the Jews suffered from envy. All of the international locations envied Jewish ethical existence, the purity of Jewish circle of relatives existence, the mutual loyalty of fogeys and kids, the purity and attractiveness that radiated from them, and their wisdom of the Torah in its purity, and the standard Jewish schooling consistent with the Torah. Even philosophical wisdom and medical wisdom had been common amongst Jews, to the level that even babies may articulate their evaluations obviously and proudly at the easiest medical subjects.
The Jewish circle of relatives, even in puts the place it confronted subject material power, didn’t let it have an effect on their ethical Jewish state. They’d sufficient valor and skill. Oldsters had fun of their youngsters, seeing them as gentle, contemporary, wholesome, and blooming like plants, and kids took delight of their smart, wholesome, and wonderful oldsters.
Hashem blessed them, and the Jews multiplied through the years. The economic system and agriculture persevered to broaden, however the formative years started to yearn for a lifetime of extra that aroused the envy in their neighbors, the Turks and Tartars.
The ethical and subject material wonderful thing about the Jews attracted the eyes of royal properties from Egypt, Rome, and different puts, and the Jewish formative years changed into eager about politics in opposition to the desire of the older Jewish leaders.
Each and every ancient international match begins with a apparently trivial and small factor, like a spider’s internet (the intensity of Jewish tradition supplies intensive explanations for this).
One particular person made a banquet and invited his just right buddy, however the servant mistakenly invited his enemy as a substitute. He drove him clear of his house. On the banquet, there have been smart males provide, and the one that used to be became away mentioned that the smart males didn’t object to the host, and thus, their opinion should be the similar as his. He went out in a hurricane of feelings and knowledgeable that the Jews refused to serve the king (the emperor).
At the moment, there have been already younger individuals who had realized a lot from the gentile tradition and started to unfold their perspectives a few of the lots with intensive explanations, claiming that the elders relied most effective on religion, whilst the hundreds will have to act with power and depend on their very own power to visit struggle and succeed in independence.
In a short while, the younger folks controlled to collect a public below the banner of “rebels” and took regulate of the entirety, even the management of the Beis Hamikdash, which used to be sacred and respected even via the international locations (many far away international locations and kings despatched sacrifices, cash, and gold as items to the Beis Hamikdash). At the moment, it used to be controlled via the Kohen Gadol, however the “rebels” took it over and appointed a Kohen Gadol from amongst their very own.
To power the general public to select struggle, they burned the entire grain, oil, salt, and picket provides (sufficient for many years), and burned the homes, till famine and necessity led them to visit struggle in opposition to the desires of the elders.
For eighteen years, the rebels maintained their alliance, and for a number of years they dominated Yerushalayim. Some of the 3 leaders of the factions—Yochanan the Galilean, Eleazar ben Anani, and Shimon the Insurrection—a civil struggle broke out. The good males of Yerushalayim had been misplaced because of betrayal and confusion. They killed and shot numerous folks. Within the Beis Hamikdash, as korbanos had been introduced, human blood used to be shed.
1400 treasures of a wide variety had been burned, and Shimon the Insurrection killed all 3 of Amittai the Kohen Gadol’s youngsters, after which himself.
Via one gate of Yerushalayim known as the Kidron Valley, 115,808 corpses had been taken out of Yerushalayim. In that struggle, from its starting till the autumn of Yerushalayim, 601,575 Jews fell in struggle, now not together with the ones killed within the civil struggle of the rebels (as discussed above).
Within the month of Tammuz, they noticed the primary cracks within the wall. For 3 weeks, the rebels fought with the Jews (who sought after peace below the most productive stipulations) and with their enemies. On Tisha B’Av, the enemy entered the Beis Hamikdash with noise and chaos, looted and destroyed, dropping blood of the aged, formative years, ladies, and kids.
A couple of hours after noon, the Beis Hamikdash started to burn. The kohanim, servants of Hashem, seeing the crisis and the horrible decree, young and old, leaped into the fireplace with pleasure, like royal servants dashing to a grand parade, stating: If Hashem has decreed this sort of sour decree on His holy space, there may be not anything extra for His servants to do in His international. We too ascend to the heavens within the flames of the burning Beis Hamikdash. 80,000 younger kohanim had been burned in conjunction with the Beis Hamikdash, and the smoke in their burning our bodies combined with the smoke of the burning partitions. Quickly, the Beis Hamikdash used to be destroyed.
Seeing the delight of the Jews (youngsters encouraging every different, oldsters slaughtering their youngsters after which themselves, fairly than falling into the palms of the enemy, who would no doubt power them to disclaim Hashem and His holy Torah), the enemies punished the Jews much more. They hanged 300 babies on tree branches, tied the aged to horse tails, and thus killed tens of hundreds of Jews.
But the Jews remained proud in their religion and holy Torah, and within the sour and darkish exile, they held directly to the Jewish flag, the holy flag, with all their may. Not anything used to be too tricky for them for the sake in their Torah and religion.
The bravery of the Jews has been obvious in each era, in spite of the Inquisition and the entire troubles.
The Jews have all the time stored their flag, bolstered the learn about of Torah for the younger, and deeply instilled of their candy and younger hearts the sacred religion and just right, basic habits, and a continuing reminiscence of the blistered kohanim and the Beis Hamikdash.
The present time, sour and darkish, offers us a correct working out of Tisha B’Av, an afternoon full of weeping. The ‘Egyptian Jews’ of our time have ‘venerated’ us once more with a brand new Tisha B’Av, every other crisis of the outdated, unforgettable troubles of Shimon the Insurrection and his supporters, and contemporary, heat blood lamentations at the pages of our blood-soaked historical past.
Our troubles are not any smaller than the outdated ones; similar to then, now too, our destroyers come from inside of us. We’re paying a good worth in lives, within the honor of households—rachmana litzlan—however the place are the courageous, the burning kohanim, the loads of youngsters who will talk brazenly and freely, stating earlier than all, with out hide, that we’re Jews, we’re Jews, and we stay Jews? Lifestyles and loss of life are in Hashem’s palms, however religion is with us; He’s ours, and we’re His. We don’t exchange Him, and He’s going to now not exchange us!
The place is the Jewish bravery, the Jewish flag?! Why are you hiding and being ashamed of your Jewish delight? Take into account that the blood of hundreds of thousands of Jews shed around the lands flows thru your veins, one Father to all people, and we obtain punishment in combination simply because we’re Jews. We stroll blind from the “love” of those that provide themselves as our pals and cultural advocates, appearing us smiling faces, and on account of them, we weaken our true, holy tradition.
Allow us to now not overlook the givers of the darkish and sour present of Tisha B’Av. They too had been as soon as “just right pals” with smiling faces, and now tears don’t depart our faces.
The bravery of Israel is entire and unimpaired; it is only subdued and lowered. Even our kids are imbued with Jewish blood and steadfast of their religion, the essence of Yiddishkeit is entire. Subsequently, we will be able to hope to not be deceived via our false pals and position our believe in our holy Father, Hashem, who swore that if we apply the Torah and commandments, He’s going to flip the day of mourning, Tisha B’Av, into an everlasting joyous day, and Moshiach will come.
Out of your father, one of the vital hundreds of thousands of Jews who weep and watch for,
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
