Tisha B'Av | Rabbi Zev Leff | Beit Midrash

Shabbat and Holidays
The Ninth of Av

קטגוריה משנית

251

Calamity and misfortune are not G-d's tools of revenge and punishment for the sake of punishment. Rather, they are a means to arouse us to recognize that we have brought spiritual illness and calamity upon ourselves because of our sins, and that this is the physical manifestation of that spiritual malady. Suffering is like pain - a warning that something is wrong and needs to be identified and corrected. It is a method of discipline, as a father disciplines a child who runs into the street in the path of an oncoming truck. The child needs to be chastised and perhaps even physically struck in order to keep him from harming himself in the future.

For this reason, the month of our greatest calamity, the month in which the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, is called Av (father). It reminds us that we have an Av HaRachaman, a Merciful Father in heaven, who cares enough about us to punish us in order to prevent us from committing spiritual suicide.

Perhaps this is one way to explain the concluding verse of Eichah, "For if You are truly disgusted with us, You have been excessively angry with us." If G-d were disgusted with us and sought to destroy us - then why the extended exile? Why bother with us so long? Destroy us and get it over with! From the length and extent of G-d's involvement with our exile, it is obvious that His intent is not to destroy us, but rather to guide us back to Him and to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Beis HaMikdash.