An old joke goes that when G-d gave the Torah to the Jews, everybody started dancing and rejoicing. The Chasidim who woke up late and did not see what had preceded this, thought the dancing was the Torah.
I think the Chasidim might have been right. In an ultimate way, the laws of the Torah remain a means and not an end in themselves. The ends is an elevated universe wherein man is in harmony with his Maker.
Since the laws and customs of the bin hametzarim period are modeled on the laws of aveilut, it is difficult to conjure up the appropriate thoughts unless one has been through personal aveilut. Being involved in this over the year has allowed me to better understand what is to be felt as we come closer to Tisha beAv.
Mourning is a sadness of an almost irreparable nature. When a person dies, certain opportunities are lost to those around him. That sense of loss brings regret at not having taken advantage of what is no longer available. Outside of death, this is a highly uncommon situation, as most opportunities are retainable or recreatable.
Judaism is generally about repair and not regret. We work on improving ourselves and our world. To let thoughts fester on what went wrong in the past is missing the point - all is geared to the practical goal of getting it right the next time around.
Nonetheless, all of human emotion is designed to serve us in our spiritual quest. There is room to expose ourselves to the spiritually dangerous realm of finality(see R.S.R. Hirsch on his understanding of the relationship between death and tumah). Refusal to internalize finality brings about an irresponsible optimism that allows us to miss the seriousness of any given opporunity.
The Jewish people have irreparably lost great spiritual opportunities. The second temple was not as spiritually elevated as the first. Various midrashim that speak about the messianic period associated with the third temple give us the impression that it will be established as a result of less human merit than in the past. (It is interesting to note that the second temple became more physcially spectacular under Herod, as it became more devoid of spirituality - I am not sure what to make of descriptions of the third temple being the most physically glorious of them all.) In each generation, the potential messiah is of lesser stature than his predecessor. Focusing on the past allows us to realize the potential for loss in the future. Mourning is about that focus which is the internalization of loss.
In the penultimate page of Ta'anit, it is stated that anyone who MOURNS for Jerusalem will merit and see its joy. The halachot are a vehicle - the point is the mourning. One who has emotionally internalized the irreparable losses of the past is able to apppreciate the gift of new opportunities. One who has not may sleep right through the joy brought about by these opportunities.
(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of Tzemach Dovid)
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