While our narrow vision sees destruction our broader deeper perspective enables a more profound interpretation: the power to see the budding light of Geulah even during the blackest night of the present Galus

After midday on Tisha B'Av we get up from our low seats and begin to change our thinking. In some communities there is even a minhag to clean the house on Tisha B'Av afternoon in anticipation of Mashiach's coming. In the midst of our mourning over the Churban we make room for our dreams of Redemption. This is most fitting as the Midrash proclaims that the Mashiach is born on Tisha B'Av in the midday hours. And thus every year since the Destruction we leave Tisha B'Av and enter the gates of Shabbos Nachamu when we read the first of the seven Haftaros of Consolation.

In this way we learn and internalize the lesson that the Geulah is actually implanted deep within the Churban itself. This truth applies on all levels of Jewish life – to the Jewish Nation as a whole to each community and to each individual Jew.

From where does this ability stem this power to shift gears and begin envisioning Redemption even as the bitter words of the Kinos still flow from our lips reminding us not only of the loss of our Beis HaMikdash and dreadful events surrounding that calamity but also of many other horrific episodes in our history including the Holocaust that is still fresh in our memories? How are we capable at that point of entertaining thoughts of Mashiach?

There is a Gemara in Maseches Makkos (24a-b) that holds the key to this puzzling question. The Gemara says:

"Rabban Gamliel Rabi Elazar ben Azaryah Rabi Yehoshua and Rabi Akiva were walking on the road. They heard the sound of the Roman legions… and they began to weep but Rabi Akiva smiled. They said to him 'What are you smiling about?' He said to them 'What are you crying about?' They said to him 'These heathens who bow down to statues and burn incense to idols dwell in security and peace while the footstool of our G-d is burned in fire. How should we not cry?' He said to them 'This is just what I'm smiling about. If those who transgress His Will can have it this way how much more so can those who do His Will!"

The Gemara goes on to relate that these great Tannaim went up to the Temple Mount and saw a fox coming out of the ravaged Kodesh Hakodashim. Again the Tannaim wept; how should they not weep? And again in contrast their colleague Rabi Akiva smiled. See the daf for a full account of their diverging viewpoints.

There is a deep message in this Gemara passage a lesson that applies to us and to Jews of all generations a brief tutorial on how to look at facts that we see before our eyes. Once we've extracted this truth it can serve as a lifelong aid in everything we undertake as individuals as communities and certainly as a people.

And this is the message: the facts alone mean little. Knowing how to interpret the facts is what matters understanding how to look at them from the right perspective. Rabban Gamliel and his colleagues were broken-hearted when they saw the power and glory of Rome in its triumph as the Temple lay in ruins whereas Rabi Akiva looked upon the same events and saw something entirely different – the promise of Redemption the eternal truth lying deep within the tragic scene they were witnessing.

In fact this is why the Men of the Great Assembly were called "great." To bring this idea into sharper relief let us look at the Gemara in Yoma (69b) where it says "Rabi Yehoshua ben Levi said 'Why were they called the Men of the Great Assembly? Because they restored the crown to its former glory! Moshe came and said "The great mighty and awesome G-d" (Devarim 10). Yirmiyahu came and said "The great and mighty G-d " for foreigners were dancing in his Sanctuary; where then were His awesome deeds? He did not say awesome. Daniel came and said "The great and awesome G-d…" (Daniel 9) – foreigners were subjugating His children; where were His mighty deeds? He did not say mighty.

"'The Men of the Great Assembly came and said "On the contrary this is the power of His might that He vanquishes His inclination and shows forbearance to the wicked. And these are His awesome deeds that if not for Hakadosh Baruch Hu's awesomeness how could this nation survive among the nations?"

This same idea underlies Rabi Akiva's message. We cannot correctly interpret what we see before us by taking a localized view. The Men of the Great Assembly having seen the horrors of the Churban as well as the fact that Am Yisrael could still endure in the cutthroat world of the nations learned from these things to broaden their perspective and give a more profound interpretation to what they saw.  

Indeed this has always been and always will be im yirtzeh Hashem the special strength of the Jewish Nation this power of seeing the budding light of the future Geulah even during the blackest night of the present galus. The power to envision the Mashiach who is born on this very day of Tisha B'Av.

We have no need of outside support for the teachings of Chazal. Yet it's interesting to see how a certain Dutch sociologist perceived this truth about our people and wrote about it years ago. "How is it" he asked himself "that this particular tribe [i.e. the Jewish People] of all the tribes of the ancient world is still alive and active today?" His answer? "The Jewish People has always preserved a vision of its future."

This non-Jewish social scientist got the point. The Jewish People doesn't live in the pasts nor in the present but always in the future. We take the colors of the future and paint them onto the black canvas of the past and present and that blackness suddenly takes on new hues. The Jewish way of looking at things is not through tunnel vision; however it may seem -- even in times of crisis destruction suffering and persecution we don't look only at those harsh moments and interpret them narrowly. We have the capacity of vision – to see the future ahead of us which casts its light on the harsh reality that surrounds us today. For our people the Mashiach is born davka on Tisha B'Av.

Although it is incumbent on us to remember this truth every day at this time such a reminder is especially needed; we have suffered such a staggering series of blows during the past several weeks. The tragedies that took place in Boro Park and in Beer Sheva added their share to the general shock and demand some sort of response. We know this is some kind of calling to us; we heard from Rav Aharon Leib Steinman shlita and others who gathered in Beer Sheva to eulogize Rav Elazar Abuhatzira ztz"l that we need to focus in particular on our relations with our fellow man on both the personal and public levels.

A terrible tragedy can thus serve as an impetus to our own personal redemption if we will translate our sense of shock into a journey of introspection and learn to look at events around us from a more Jewish perspective fitting them into the big picture instead of viewing them in such a way as to fuel resentment and hatred. By bringing a little bit of "Mashiach" into the tangle of our relations with others which are so in need of correction we might truly merit seeing the complete Redemption in our times. Each one of us can make an enormous contribution to ensuring that this great event will actually come to pass. Amen!

Food for Thought

What is a chavrusa? It is like bringing together two stones. A stone by itself is worthless but when two stones are rubbed together they make sparks of fire

(Rebbe Mordechai of Lechowitz)