Rav Nosson Levine Lakewood Tisha Bav 5776

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.