17th of Tammuz: The Answer Lies Within You | Rabbi Mordechai Alster

It's the 17th of Tammuz, the day they broke the walls of Yerushalayim, leading to the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash three weeks later, on the 9th of Av. The Yerushalmi in the first chapter in Yuma says, In every generation that the Beis Hamikdash is not rebuilt, it’s as if that generation destroyed it. The question is, What's our responsibility? What exactly do we do? Where do we start? What do we have to fix? The truth is that this question they had at the time of the destruction. The Gemara in Nedarim 91a brings the Pasuk in Yirmiya that asks, Why was the Beis Hamikdash destroyed? And the Gemara continues, They asked this question to the sages and they asked it to the prophets and according to one version they asked it to the angels, and nobody knew the answer. Until Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself answered it, like the Pasuk in Yirmiya says, And Hashem said: Because they have forsaken My Torah. Because they did not recite the blessing over the Torah before studying it. The ר”ן brings Rabeinu Yona, who explains, that Klal Yisroel was doing everything right. They were learning Torah. They were keeping the Torah. The sin was they were missing a certain Chashivus, a certain appreciation for Torah, a sin so small and so subtle that even the greatest people in that generation didn't recognize it. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Rabeinu Yona says, who knows מעמקי הלב, who knows what's doing in the depths of everyone's heart, Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to reveal it. Every year after the 9th of Av, at the beginning of Bein Hazmanim, the Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Lazer Shach z”l, would give the opening schmooze to the Yarchei Kallah, in front of hundreds of Bnei Torah in the Ponevezher Yeshiva. In 5748, R’ Shach quoted this Gemara in Nedarim and he asked the obvious question, If the sages did not know which sin caused the destruction, and the prophets didn’t know which sin caused the destruction, and even the angels couldn't identify which sin caused the destruction, so what's the claim against Klal Yisroel? How could Klal Yisroel be expected to recognize what no one else did and why did Hashem bring the destruction? R’ Shach continued and he said that when he understood the answer to this question, it felt as if the walls were trembling. And R’ Shach explained, When it comes to what's doing in a person's heart, his struggles, your weaknesses, your shortcomings, your challenges, what you have to change, the greatest people don't know. The sages don't know, the prophets don't know, the angels don't know, but you know. You know where your weaknesses are, you know where your struggles are, you know what you have to change, you know what you have to improve, and you know exactly what Hashem wants from you. Therefore, it was a tremendous claim against Klal Yisroel. Every individual knew where the shortcoming was, where the sin was, where he had to improve. And because they didn't improve, therefore, the claim against Klal Yisroel was so overwhelming, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. But the truth is it's explicit in the Sforno. The Pasuk in Parshas Nitzavim says, For this Mitzvah, and the Ramban says it's going on the Mitzvah of Teshuva, is neither beyond your grasp nor far removed from you. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, Who will ascend to Heaven for us? Nor is it beyond the sea. The Sforno explains, It is not in Heaven, you don't have to go to Heaven to ask prophets where you have to improve. Nor is it beyond the sea, you don't have to go across the oceans to ask the sages what you have to correct. Rather, the matter is very close to you. When it comes to knowing what's in your heart, you know. And you know what nobody else knows. Everybody asks themselves, Where do I start? How do I change? What do I have to focus on? What does the Torah want from me? Don't look anywhere else. You know. And all you need is the honesty to recognize your shortcomings and the גבורה, the courage to change it. And then we’ll merit the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash.