Each person has his own pain, suffering and trials. Everyone goes through life with challenges and it is said that nobody wants to switch his troubles with somebody else’s trouble.
How do we take our troubles and connect them to Hashem’s pain? During the whole year there is a certain type of energy and connection to G-d in every single month. There are the months of the holidays with lots of happiness and joy. There’s the month of our birthday, which usually makes us happy to be alive and well. There are months where we experience difficulties and downfalls. All in all, most of the months go by fairly peacefully, and have a certain vibe and energy to them, that helps us get through the year in a positive manner.
However, there is a certain time of the year no matter how positive we try to be that it seems as though the heavens are closed, heaven forbid. And as much as we cry and reach out to Hashem our cries seem to stop somewhere along the way. We are now during the nine days of the month of Av. These days are sad days for the Jewish nation. These are days that in every generation, throughout history, since the Jews cried in the desert for no reason and didn’t trust Hashem regarding the promised land, we have been crying and feeling this pain during these nine days more than any other time of the year. Obviously, G-d is always listening to us and he never goes away. He is always there.
However, there are times when we are crying or reaching out and it feels like the door is closed, the lights are off, the house is dark, and no one is there to help. This feeling of helplessness that Hashem lets us feel during these nine days is to help us connect to His pain.
Many thousands of years Hashem is still waiting to dwell once again in His home here in Jerusalem. Hashem yearns to come home. Hashem yearns to see all His children united and coming to pray in His house right here in Jerusalem.
Who really feels the loss of the Holy Temple? We are all so busy taking care of our problems and our broken hearts, that we don’t feel Hashem’s broken heart. Some of us are pretty good at taking care of problems. Some of us are smart, and have the ability to solve almost any problem that we have.
Where is Hashem? Do we miss His house? Do we miss praying at the Holy Temple? Do we miss the high priests? Do we miss the holidays the way they were performed thousands of years ago when the Holy Temple stood so majestic in Jerusalem? Are we sad that those days are gone?
When we pray daily, bring us back to Jerusalem so we can worship you Hashem, do we really mean it? During these nine days when things seem to just not go the way we’re used to, let us connect that pain to G-d’s pain.
On the 9th day of Av the Temple was destroyed. In our generation we don’t remember seeing the Temple. We don’t really miss the Temple because we don’t remember what it felt like since it was so long ago. We can feel pain of something we can relate to even on a small scale like falling down, losing money, or someone hurting our feelings.
Hashem loves His children so much, and Hashem knows that we are limited. Hashem knows that He must reach out to us in order for us to reach out to him.
A parent reaches out to his child, picks him up, talks to him and explains what needs to be done. A child by himself doesn’t really know what the parent wants from him. We are all the small children of Hashem. During these nine days we must try to picture how things looked while the Temple stood in Jerusalem.
When things don’t go our way during these nine days Hashem wants us to know that He misses us very much. G-d misses our worship to Him in the Holy Temple. Instead of just thinking of what we’re lacking, let us think what Hashem is missing. Especially during these nine days, connect to Hashem’s house, connect to wanting Hashem to return to us in peace forever.
May all our troubles and pain go away so that we can worship G-d with joy and happiness forever.
