Tisha B’Av - World in Balance

What drives people?

What makes people strive for eg. wealth? 

With wealth comes the potential to afford enjoyment that lack of wealth might prevent – eg travel, entertainment, luxuries etc.

Simple maths – if I have x dollars, I can afford x things

Wealth puts me in a bracket where affording those things is my ability and I can exercise that ability at will.

Is there a guarantee that if I work x number of hours or x amount I will be wealthy? No

The physical world is a reflection of the spiritual. This phenomenon exists in the Creation too. H’ created human beings, placing their souls in a physical body. The mission, should we decide to accept it, is to nurture the spiritual aspect of our existence, using the physical.

Human beings are created in the image of H’, meaning that we have the ability to transcend the spiritual levels of even angels and attain a likeness to Godliness beyond any other creature.

By striving for spiritual connection and knowledge of H’, we have the potential to transcend physicality and live at the level of supernatural. This is a spiritual law and if addressed properly, is a guaranteed outcome.

This does not come easily and only the select few have maximised their earning capacity in spiritual levels in this world.

One such individual was Avraham. By applying all his heart and strength and time to the cause, Avraham transcended even the natural barrenness that he and Sarah faced, to have children at the age of 99 and 90 respectively.

His ultimate spiritual test was, after a life completely dedicated to spreading the name of a merciful and benevolent Creator and shunning all forms of cruelty and idolatry, to have to kill and offer his son up to H’, which he passed faultlessly, without actually doing the deed.

This act of Avraham, earned a level in spirituality, that his descendants were now predestined to live an existence outside of nature.

Skipping around 400 years, Avraham’s descendants the Jewish people are freed from Egypt in the greatest show of Supernatural since the creation.

They go on to live the supernatural existence of splitting of the sea, Revelation of Sinai, Manna from Heaven, clouds of glory to clear the way and water from the rock.

They come to Israel, a land unlike any other, which transcends nature and is the perfect place to live a supernatural existence for eternity. They are virtually invincible and at the level where they can walk in and conquer without lifting a finger. They lower their spiritual worth by sending spies, the spies descend right down into a natural level of interaction with the world, give a doomsday report, the people cry and as the Midrash says, H’ responded ...because you cried with no cause, I will give you cause to cry. That night was Tisha B’Av.

H’ doesn’t change – He built into Creation the ability for human beings to acquire or lose levels of spirituality – closeness to Him. Based on personal achievement in the spiritual realm, the level of required exertion in the physical realm follows.

The Meraglims’ potential for transcending the physical and gaining the spiritual after all they had experienced, was unprecedented. But, due to their lack of trust in Hashem they lost the level of invincibility and as a direct measure for measure reflecting this, became much more dependent on physical concerns so that when they tried to go in naturally afterwards, they were seriously defeated.

Tisha B’Av thus went from what spiritually could have been a Yom Tov to a day of unparalleled physical suffering.

On the first pasuk in Breishis, Rashi states a Midrash that at first Hashem planned to create the world with judgement and saw it wouldn’t survive so He partnered the trait of mercy with judgement.

A world only of judgement would mean one wrong doing and it is curtains for the person.  Now, Hashem has given a way of fulfilling the need for judgement through parallel means. For example, if a person does something wrong, instead of physical suffering that such an act might require for repairing the spiritual damage, there is an alternative. Bringing a korban can completely heal the spiritual ill that a person’s actions or lack of action caused.

The mercy is that instead of offering up ourselves, we can offer up the next closest life form to ourselves, which is supposed to arouse us emotionally to feel as if it is actually ourselves being offered and bring us thus to a higher spiritual level.

The Beis Hamikdash was the means by which we could offer korbanos. It was the centre of our spiritual connection to Hashem and if utilised completely as it should have been, would have kept us on the level of Supernatural. Because the Jewish people didn’t live up to their potential at the time, the negative power of Tisha B’Av gave our enemies the ability to destroy both Batei Mikdashos.

But even here is evident the partnership of mercy with judgement. Actually it was a merciful act that the anger as it was, of H’, meaning the descent of the Bnei Yisroel into the physical, was taken out on wood and stone instead of on us.

Avot

Created spiritual gene pool to supernatural selection

Exodus

Experiencing Supernatural

Desert

Spies

Living Supernatural

Chose to go natural

So, the world has 2 balance sheets, the spiritual balance sheet and reflecting that, the physical balance sheet. Whilst korbanos were the ultimate tool for balancing the spiritual balance sheet, we still have very powerful tools at our disposal. Tefillah is called paros sefaseinu – the cows of our lips. In other words, we can earn our spiritual balance through the power we invest in our davening. Torah, mitzvos and acts of kindness achieve the same.

The destruction of the Beis Hamikdash is not a loss but a confiscation – the ideal is to do Tisha B’Av so well, that we restore the level to bring back the Beis Mamikdash.

Related essays: Three Weeks – Designed Emotions