Yesterday we discussed the Bet HaLevi’s ingenious approach to the concept that for every year that the Bet HaMikdash is not built, it’s like it’s destroyed. This is not just a metaphor- It is literal. It’s like we had the Bet HaMikdash and God took it away from us, because for God, not giving and taking are the same.
The Bet HaLevi takes this point further. He quotes the Gemarah in Masechet Sotah (49a) which says “Since the day that the Bet HaMikdash was destroyed, there is not a day that the curse is not greater than the day before, and there’s not a year that the curse is not greater than the year before.”
This means that every year, as we get deeper and deeper into Galut, the exile gets deeper and the destruction gets deeper.
The way the world looks today is more destroyed than it looked 10, 20, or 30 years ago. We don’t even have to describe the drop in generations that is taking place in the world at large.
The Gemarah in Masechet Sotah describes the signs of Mashiach, which says things get worse and worse. Today, we are in a generation where most people no longer trust the government; many people don’t trust doctors or medicine, as we see from the vaccine debate; the economy is declining to due inflation and other factors… things are deteriorating rapidly at every level.
Thus, the Bet HaLevi says that we have to view our world today as if we had the Bet HaMikdash and it was destroyed, and this is the destruction that are in.
So our destruction is greater than the destruction in the times of the Churban Bet HaMikdash- just look what we look like, after the destruction. We may not have seen the it, but it was built and destroyed last Tisha B’Av. And look at what the world looks like now after that destruction. Our destruction is even great than that of the Second Bet HaMikdash. This means that our deeds have caused an even bigger destruction.
He says that as time goes on, the Sinat Hinam is seemingly greater.
That’s a very scary way of looking at things.
This destruction isn’t just grandfathered in. We aren’t on autopilot from the residue of the last destruction. The Bet HaLevi says that the world we have today is the aftermath of this year’s destruction.
The Chatam Sofer adds to this concept. He quotes from Devarim 26,3 where the admonition regarding the Galut says, God will take you, and later it says You’ll leave the land.
This seems superfluous. We didn’t leave the land twice. But the Chatam Sofer explains that last year’s land of Eretz Yisrael was built, vis a vis this year’s Churban. Compared to this year, last year was a better world.
We really are leaving again. Every year, we go into a new Galut.
This sounds scary and depressing, but the Chafetz Chaim quotes this in his sefer Machane Yisrael (which was written as hizuk for Jewish soldiers conscripted into the Russian army), and says We have to realize that with all we have gone through, we have to know that God’s intention is not to harm us. It’s a loving father that is rebuking his son in order for his son to get better. As the pasuk says, like a father chastises his son-His intention is that his son should turn around.
Therefore, we have to say to ourselves, that the bigger the whack, the bigger the concern; the more severe the surgery, the more the severe disease, and the more necessary.
So after hearing all of this, we shouldn’t just say, “Oh my gosh this is terrible!” We should say that it is all coming from our loving Father, who is begging us.
Rav Wolbe used to say that sometimes after tragedies, people say it was Middat HaDin/God’s justice. But Rav Wolbe used a term that will always stick with me,
“Middat HaDin Tovea Shlemut/God‘s justice is demanding perfection.”
It’s like a red pen on a test indicating a -3. That’s the Middat HaDin. What is that -3 saying? It’s saying that you got a 97, but we want you to get 100.
This is all coming out of love, but we have to understand that it is demanding of us, to work on the concept of Ahavat Yisrael. That is the bottom line. Have a wonderful day.