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Rav Nosson Levine Lakewood Tisha Bav 5776
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The story is told
of a couple
that had not yet been blessed with
children.
And after many years,
after many chileis
and after so many tears,
the habias was finally expecting.
And when she was in labor,
it soon became evident to the doctor
that there were severe complications
[clears throat]
and there would be no way that she'd be
able to survive the child birth.
Realizing the gravity, the gravity of
the situation,
the woman summoned together her family,
her husband, her friends, and she made
one dying request from them.
Should
my child survive,
let him know
what I did for him.
Let him know that I made the ultimate
sacrifice for him.
And on my yard sight,
he should remember me
and he should appreciate the fact that
his entire existence is based upon my
mirror.
And with those words on her lips,
she fell unconscious.
And a few moments later,
as her nishama left this world,
a healthy baby boy was brought into this
world.
One could not imagine a more bittersweet
moment.
The anguish of a young mother
snatched from this world before she even
had a chance to lay her eyes
on her only child.
coupled with the joy
of a miracle baby
born to a father who had all but given
up hope on the prospects of becoming the
father
and this bittersweet taste haunted this
boy for the rest of his life
he was born on the day of his mother's
petira
his brisma took place the day they got
up from Shiva
his pigeon haben coincided with the end
of the
and every year his birthday was the day
of his mother's yard
the family and the friends
they awaited the day
when this young boy would finally be
able to say kadesh for the mother that
sacrificed everything for him. Surely
this kadesh would be a chilling and
emotion-packed kadesh that would stir
the entire sh.
[clears throat] And after all, he was
constantly reminded
of the mysterious nephesh that his
mother invested him. the ultimate
mysterious nephe literally.
And finally the day came
when this young boy
stood up to say kadesh.
And to everyone's dismay,
the boy mumbled the kadesh. A hasty
speed bed through a kadesh devoid of any
emotion. He couldn't even shed a tear.
Sensing his father's disappointment,
this young boy turned to his father and
he explained.
I know in my mind
the nephesh that my mother had for me,
but I just can't feel it in my heart.
You see, I never knew my mother.
I never felt her warmth. I never
experienced her caring and concern. It's
so difficult for my emotions to align
with my thoughts.
The child
is Claus.
The mother is the des
the deserve to mishkaz
explain mishkash mashkin as given as a
guarantee on
the time had come for to pay up their
debts
and the only currency that would pay it
up would have been ramanl with their
very lives.
The mdash took the fall for us.
Hashem was
in the in ourstead
the migdash made the ultimate sacrifice
for us
and the day of the bdash is yard sides
that's the day of our salvation
and to a degree it's the day of our
birthday
and on the outside of the day we should
be saying a heartfelt kadesh in the form
of a tearful Kus,
but instead
most of us just speed through the Kimus
just as that young boy sped through his
kadesh
because we too, just as that boy, we
never knew our mother.
We never knew the B mikdash. We never
experienced it.
And we therefore have such a hard time
aligning our emotions with all of the
information that Kazal has taught us.
When the second day was built, the
Gomorrah says that the were joyful
whereas the Canaan
they were crying.
to the Canaan that had seen the glory of
the first day Samdash.
They realized all that the second day
Mikdash was lacking.
They were crying. They were mourning.
But the younger generation although they
too knew all of the second's
shortcomings,
they were elated with joy.
It had been a mere 70 years since the
and already the next generation that had
not actually visualized and seen
the first.
They were unable to feel the pain of the
loss of the treasures and the nim of the
first
in our generation.
of a camera.
It's been 1,948
years since the
bas that we've never seen.
How difficult it is for us to feel the
pain of that.
And as a matter of fact, the gar tells
us
that the over the mdosh is called an
ais.
It's an old ais
and for this reasons there are
differences in the of as compared to the
that pertain to the loss of a relative.
all of this
but seem to validate our apathy
on tishabuff and we can go on and give
ourselves a pat on the back that at
least we're going through the motions
we're playing the part
even though the heart is not there
at least we're acting as a
we're playing the role we're following
the letter of lawar
for keeping.
Although this may be somewhat of a limit
for us,
but it certainly doesn't exempt us from
trying to feel the pain.
The tour
after he goes through all of the
what's permitted, what's prohibited, the
tour concludes.
someone who it's possible for him. He
should be
the same
and
he would take a little piece of dry
bread and salt.
He would sit in the most dingy and
depressing part of his home in between
the ovens on the floor.
He would drink just a picture of water.
The was so real and so raw
as if there was a lifeless body of a
relative lying before his eyes.
The tour
is not a Muslim.
The tour was not written for for grace.
The tour is for every
the tour is telling us that the ais is
here and now.
It's not just a zer a commemoration of
an ancient loss and it's not only onish.
every
he should worry he should stress over
the moss of the m
theor is not talking about actions the
demanding from our promotions
are the too is not a
wasn't written for
it's for every simple
is telling us that the ais over the and
it's here, it's now, it's constant, it's
something that every can relate to.
But how do we explain this paradox?
Is over the
or is it in real time?
Is the source of our mourning something
that happened generations ago
or is it to the fun.
The answer lies in the Gomorrah in
Sulus.
The Gomorrah recounts the story
of a yid and a
that were traveling by foot.
The brisk pace of the yid was too fast
for the to keep up with.
So the guy devised a plan how he'd be
able to slow his companion down.
He reminded the about the mikdashid.
There was a migdosh. It burnt down to
the ground
and the yid was moved
and he let out a crest.
But then
he gathered his composure,
pulled himself back together again,
and he started walking again at the same
brisk pace. And once again the goey was
lagging behind.
The goi was frustrated
and he called out to the I thought you
taught me a you told me
when someone has anguish and pain. It
breaks his gof. It has a physical effect
on a person. Why didn't the remembrance
of the mikdash slow you down? Why didn't
it break you?
And the Y responded with a motion.
He said,
"If a mother leu loses a child,
the pain is unimaginable."
She loses a second child.
Skips like a flying
But if the mother loses child after
child,
baby after baby,
time and again, one after another,
eventually
she stops feeling altogether,
she becomes numb from pain
and it doesn't have the same effect.
This is how we deal with our of the
pain is so current. It's so constant.
It's so recurring
that we've become numb
and it doesn't hurt the same way
anymore.
The you didn't give a mush of a mother
who lost a child years ago.
The mushel that he used to describe aris
is a mother who's lost child after child
and baby after baby one after another.
Here in lies the answer to the paradox
of the system.
It's constant. It's current. It's
here today. That which the gor calls it
is not because it's something that
happened years ago.
It's because it's happened so many times
that we've become numb and we stopped
feeling pain.
But what does this all mean?
What about
Yes, it's true
that we could have brought the BA
migdash in our times. We could have
brought it this year had we rectified
our actions, our ways.
And it's true that we have much to
lament and mourn about our own
shortcomings. Why we didn't read the
Bush. But what about the bias itself is
so current that it's compared to a me
would often talk about the concept of
looking towards
anticipating the season. It's one of the
first questions that a person is asked
when he comes to
and would give a mush of how a person
should anticipate the
if a person who had in his homes
a relative whose body is raging with
disease and there was no doctor
immediately available to treat the
The family sends a telegraph to the
neighboring town to summon their doctor
to come treat the island.
The the clock is ticking
and with every passing hour
the
situation is deteriorating.
The family is surrounding the bed. All
eyes and ears fixated at the door,
waiting for the doctor's arrival,
waiting for his knock at the door. And
finally, it comes,
or so it seems.
There's a faint noise by the door, and
one of the family members jumps towards
the door to open it up.
And alas, to his dismay,
it wasn't a knock at all. It was just
the howling wind.
and he goes back and the family assumes
their position around the bed and once
again they sit and wait for the doctor's
arrival.
Then they hear a knock and this time
they're certain it's a real bonafide
knock. It's not just the wind. And again
one of the family members runs towards
the door with a look of desperation in
his eyes. and he opened up the door to
reveal none other than the postman
bringing a package.
And this scene repeats itself over and
over again
says the
this is how someone should be Yeshua
with the same desperation and
anxiousness
of someone who's awaiting the arrival of
a doctor to treat his relatives.
Let's take the story one step further.
A family member
goes out to the train station
to be macab pun and the doctor when he
arrives and there's only one train a day
from the doctor's town to the town.
The family member sees the lights of the
train from a distance. The excitement is
growing, the adrenaline is flowing,
and finally the train comes to a halt,
and the passengers begin to disembark.
One by one, they're streaming off the
train,
one by one, but the doctor
is nowhere to be found.
And then he realizes
that the doctor didn't make this train.
In an instant,
all of his hopes and his aspirations
come crashing down.
They've all been broken and shattered
into pieces.
Tell us
that tishov is the birthday of Msiah.
the point in time when the was set
ablaze that was the very given moment
that Messiah was born
and it wasn't just a one-time event
each and every year on tishab
the seed of gulah for the coming year is
planted on of Msiah is
A year ago today,
Tishab
the train departed
from its station
and that train was supposed to deliver
us. Mashia,
we stand here tonight
with our gazes affixed at the train
doors.
And the last of the passengers
has disembarked.
But Messiah is nowhere to be found.
Our
dreams and aspirations
have come crashing down.
This is the ais of tishab
and this is something that every yid can
relate to.
[clears throat]
Someone who is sure.
Someone who is anxiously and eagerly
awaiting the gul.
Someone who last year after Tishab took
his kinus and he put it in Sheamus.
Someone who dared to dream.
Someone who allowed himself to get swept
up in the utopian vision of the gulah.
When this person reaches the tishab
he's crushed.
The pain that he feels is that of a ma.
The mace is not only the base.
The mace is our very own hearts that
have been deflated.
The mace
is our spirits that have been riding
high all year
that have now spiral down to a crash
landing.
When we have to once again
sit down on the floor,
dim the lights
and lane with a broken voice.
monos after
the loyal mon.
We are not compared to a widow that has
lost her husband forever.
We are compared to a woman whose husband
has disappeared and is destined to
return.
While that brings with it a glimmer of
hope and a tinge of
but at the same time the very source of
brings with it constant pain and
disappointment.
Because just as in the muscles,
all eyes were fixed at the door awaiting
the doctor's arrival.
So too this woman. Her eyes are
constantly affixed to the door waiting
for the return of her husband.
And with it comes all of the
disappointments,
crashed expectations,
the shattered dreams of all of those
false alarms.
And it's all narumas in day one.
That first faithful lish, the night that
it was nigar and off the all of the
subsequent tishab. The night when the
moradlin came back from their mission
from
you cried in vain. You cried over
nothing.
I'll give you what to cry about.
That very same that cloud Israel cried
that night. That's what was on us. What
was that? What did they cry?
It wasn't tears of a treasure that was
snatched from before their eyes.
They didn't cry over a loss.
Their tears were that of shattered
dreams and dashed expectations.
From their very first encounter with
Mosherenu, they were promised
the most beautiful land on earth to call
home. And they had it from.
They yearned for it. They dreamt about
it. They dreamt about its beauty. They
dreamt about its prosperity. And they
dreamt about calling it their own.
And then
came the moral.
They gave them a whole different
picture.
It's peris
its inhabitants are unconquerable. And
in an instant, all of their dreams and
aspirations came spiraling down to a
crash landing. All of their dreams were
shattered.
But that was all for nothing because in
truth
but said I'll give you what to cry
about. He was go on earth
not just the the night of the actual but
the of what we cry about every year. Our
cries on tishob are about our dashed
expectations and our shattered dreams
about the train that showed up
empty-handed this year.
But cloud Israel has gone through so
many disappointments,
so many false messiahs,
so many tish.
But like the woman that lost child after
child,
we've become numb.
We stopped feeling.
This may be the sad truth,
but tell us it's the wrong attitude.
It's the only one of the 13 an imams
that's accompanied not only by a belief
but it's accompanied by a feeling by an
emotional
that's part of the anime
and the brisk explains
because if a person would believe
that the ghoul is around the corner then
he couldn't help but get excited he
couldn't help but be mak
for it to come. To the degree that he
believes, that's the degree that he gets
excited and he hopes and anticipates.
This is the job of the
to never stop dreaming,
to never stop allowing ourselves to get
excited, to look forward and anticipate.
And this is one of the most difficult
aid of tish.
On the one hand, it's a day that we
express our disappointment.
It's a day of ais.
But on the other hand,
it's the birthday of Msiah for the
following year.
The seeds of goolah have been sown.
Messiah for the coming year has been
born.
[snorts]
And for this reason the say that on
proper at the pinnacle of the when the
dayd was set on fire we show signs of we
get up off the floor
because now is when the gul
has been set in place for the coming
year.
The hat brings from the that the begin
to push off until after
because
symbolic of the malish
is the birthday of Msiah Ben. We
immediately follow by kesh
the kdesh of mouth on the day when we're
down in the dumps the day
we had a great s of being the that is
the day when we need it most we need in
our we need a to dream once Yeah.
And this refreshing of our vision of
Gulah,
this
is a self-fulfilling prophecy
because Yeshua is not only a mitzvah,
it's the very foundation of the Gul.
If we would only be we'd be
[clears throat] three times a day.
Why?
Says
all day and every day.
That's why we have the right to demand
that
because one who is one who is he is the
one who is at the sea is
about 100 years ago
the town in Poland called Skovich.
They lived the Hiidan
from Skenovich
was the RV. He was the Reb.
and all of the town's folk,
they would flock to him to unbburden
their woes, their sorrows.
And one day, a brokenhearted Yid comes
into the Shim
to tell them about this sorrow.
His daughter had gotten caught up with
the wrong crowd
and she began mingling with
the Gisha boys in town
and one thing led to another.
And now she had her heart set on
marrying one of those Gisha boys.
Her father tried to talk sense into her,
but to no avail
and their relationship deteriorated.
They weren't even on talking terms
anymore.
And what's worse,
this Yid told of Shiman, she packed her
bags and she ran away from home.
She locked herself in a monastery in a
nearby town
until
the date of their wedding
which was set to take place in 3 weeks
from today.
Yim he was shaken to the cord but he
didn't waste any time.
Tell me her name. What's the name of the
town where she's located? The street of
the monastery. He jotted down all the
information and he sent the Sid home
with the braha and an assurance that
he'll do everything that he can.
Summoned his gabi
and he told him, "We're going on a
trip."
He got the horse wagon and they set out
to this town
where the monastery was located.
They arrived on a Thursday evening
and it was evident that they'd have to
spend Shabas in this town.
The Reb didn't look for an inn. He
didn't look for a host for a hotel.
He said, "I'm spending Shabas right here
in the wagon across the street from the
monastery."
But how would he communicate with the
girl in the monastery? two very Jewish
looking individuals would not be allowed
entrance into this monastery.
So the Reb flagged down a gaisha boy. He
waved a few coins in front of his eyes
and he said, "Come here little boy.
Take this letter.
Bring it into the monastery across the
street and give it to the Jewish girl
who's locked up there."
The boy took the money and the letter.
He went into the monastery
and a few moments later he was out and
he ran home.
The gaba was so curious.
Rabbit, tell me what was in the letter.
Was it a Ka?
Was it Sheamus Hakadoshin? Some kind of
scholar? What was it? What' you put in
that rabbit?
Except Shiman told him no. Very simple.
Made her a letter.
I wrote her Shiman from Skenovich
is waiting in the wagon across the
street and I'm not going home until you
come back with me.
And then they waited. [clears throat]
They spent Shabas in the wagon.
They waited day after day, night after
night. The rabbi wouldn't go to sleep.
He arranged with the Gabby to take
shifts so that in case the girl came out
at any given point in time, someone
would be awake to talk to her and talk
her out of the night.
And they waited. It started snowing.
They waited.
The temperatures became frigid. They
waited in the land day and night until
finally it was a week later
again Thursday evening and the Gab was
growing impatient at the thought of
having to spend another week away from
his family.
But then it happened.
Finally, the girl came running out of
the monastery screaming, "Okay, okay,
I'll come home WITH YOU." SHE JUMPED on
the wagon and the reba was on his way
with his treasure, a precious Yiddish
snatched from the clutches again.
The Reba turned to the young girl and he
asked her,
"Tell me
why the change of heart,
why did you decide to come home?"
And the girl explained,
"I'll tell you the truth. When you first
showed up and sent me the letter, I knew
my father sent you. My father doesn't
understand me. I can't even have a
conversation with him. And I was
determined to stick to my guns. I wasn't
coming home."
But then I looked out of my window
and I saw you waiting
and waiting and waiting. I saw you
waiting through the snow.
I saw you waiting through the cold
weather.
I saw how much sour you were going
through. And I saw you were determined
and you weren't going home without me.
And then he got me thinking
about my family
and how they must be waiting for me at
home
and how much sour they're going through
sitting and staring at the door waiting
for my knock when I come home.
I couldn't take it anymore.
How much can I make you all wait? How
much can I be mitari? I'm coming home.
This is how Yeshua
brings the guru
when sees us waiting and waiting and
waiting.
When he sees that we parked that
carriage and we're not leaving, we're
not going on with the rest of our lives
without him.
when sees how pain how much we're
enduring waiting for him
and eventually
the floodgates of Rahman's break open
and says okay I'm coming home I'm coming
back to my family's
home is the ban
and his family
is cli
All we have to do is wait.
And waiting begins by dream.
If we would all take out one moment of
our daily schedule
to say
to say it, to think about it [snorts]
and to allow ourselves to dream.
If we would take out one moment, to stop
dreaming about the mundane, to stop
dreaming about the trivial narish kite.
If we would take out one moment to dream
about the gula,
[clears throat] to picture the headlines
in the newspaper,
to visualize the scene
of the entire world,
coming to the realization
[clears throat]
to picture it, all of the guiding in
unison
to visualize
everyone saying a declaring.
If we take one moment a day
to visualize all of this and allow
ourselves to get excited about it,
we'd be transformed to different people.
We'd be on the way
to being the cabal pun
of Msiah when he gets off the train.
We'd be on the way
to seeing the realization of our dreams.