Rav Yonasan David, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Pachad Yitzchok in Yerushalayim, speaks of something called “the song of the churban of Tisha B’Av” (Sefer Menachem Tzion 2:62, paragraph 29). This is certainly a strange term, seemingly self-contradictory. If there is churban, there is usually no shirah, and if there is shirah, that means that there has been rescue, building and salvation, not churban. So what exactly is “the song of the churban of Tisha B’Av”? First, let’s listen to the rosh yeshiva’s answer and then explore its ramifications for ourselves.
The Gemara (Gittin 57b) relates the sad story of the children who were captured for violation and abuse by the evil Titus. They understood what villainy was planned for them, but they wanted to thwart the fate that was being thrust upon them. Their question to the eldest of the children was: “If we throw ourselves into the sea, can we still enter into Olam Haba?” The eldest answered with a posuk: “Hashem promised: ‘I will bring back from Boshon, I will bring back from the depths of the sea” (Tehillim 68:23). He explained that the word miBoshon stands for the phrase mibeshinei – from the teeth [of the lion] I will return you.” The young but old leader concluded that this posuk is Hashem’s assurance that those who commit suicide to avoid being abused by Titus and his henchman will enter into Olam Haba. Tosafos asks, “But when Rebbi Chanina Ben Tradyon was being killed al kiddush Hashem, he wouldn’t hasten his own death (Avodah Zarah 18a) because suicide is forbidden.” Tosafos answers that these righteous children were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to withstand torture (see also Maharsha and Yad Hamelech to Rambam, beginning of Hilchos Avel).
Rav Yonasan adds that the children assumed that their action was permissible under dire circumstances, but wanted to know if this would ruin their chances to enter Olam Haba. To this, the eldest answered from Tehillim that their Olam Haba would not be jeopardized.
This is where the rosh yeshiva goes one giant step further. He says that “not only would they not be performing any sin, but, in effect, this would be their song. Everyone is put into this world to fulfill their potential. The sea generally represents a place where all is hidden by the water. It is the opposite of accomplishment and kiddush Hashem. However, the elder child was reassuring them all that far from a simple end, this was really their ultimate song, which would accompany them into the World to Come.”
Now let us explore this concept and teaching a bit more deeply. The posuk in Shir Hashirim (7:2) refers to “the daughter of nadiv (nobles).” The Gemara (Sukkah 49b) tells us that nadiv is a reference to Avrohom Avinu. Rashi explains that “his heart chose to recognize Hashem.” Rav Chaim Kamiel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ofakim, tells us that Avrohom Avinu’s title of nadiv comes not from any monetary contribution or philanthropy. It comes from his sense of achrayus, responsibility. Avrohom realized that the fate of the world and its continuing existence was in his hands. That was at a time when there was no one else in the world who could or would undertake to spread the truth of monotheism. He was the only true believer and so he undertook to become Avrohom Ha’Ivri, meaning the person who was on one side and everyone else in the world was on the other. Polytheism and idolatry were rampant and only he could stem the tide. And so he did. This was against all odds, at great risk to his life and pitting him against mankind itself.
This decision, difficult though it was, put Avrohom Avinu in the position of being a “partner with Hashem in creation itself” (Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, beginning of Vayeira). In other words, as Jews and especially as Torah Jews, each of us has the responsibility of doing all that we personally can both to maintain the existence of the world and to uplift its kedusha wherever we are. The holy children the Gemara describes were concerned that they might not be fulfilling their responsibility toward maintaining Hashem’s world, but their wise young man found solace in Dovid Hamelech’s words. The rosh yeshiva also taught us that they achieved the ultimate goal of human speech – shirah – and so had accomplished their purpose of taking achrayus.
Rav Yitzchok Ezrachi, rosh yeshiva at Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim, tells a fascinating story about Eliyahu Essas, one of the leaders of the teshuvah movement in Russia during the terrible days when all religious action was forbidden in Russia. When he was finally freed, he arrived in the Mir and asked if anyone knew who had authored the Minchas Yerushalayim Siddur. Someone finally told him that it was Rav Yeshaya Aryeh Leib Devorkas. Rav Essas immediately ran to the home of Rav Yeshaya, hugging and kissing him with great emotion. “You cannot imagine what you did for us. In Moscow, there were only three copies of your siddur (which has many special tefillos for all occasions, halachos and explanations). People had to wait weeks until they could hold one in their hands, and even then it was too dangerous to let it be seen for long. But your work gave us all hope, inspiration and the power to go on.”
The children who were on the ship taught us about mesirus nefesh wherein one must give up his life. The Russian Jews waiting to hold the Minchas Yerushalayim Siddur taught us about mesirus nefesh when risking lives to grow in Torah. But Rav Dvorkas never knew what his work in writing, editing and publishing his siddur could do for the world until Reb Eliyahu told him.
Sometimes, we just don’t know how much we have accomplished with just one difficult action.
What does all this have to do with Tisha B’Av?
Rav Avrohom Yaakov of Sadigura was strangely very happy on Shabbos Chazon. When the Chassidim asked how he could be so b’simcha on the saddest Shabbos of the year, he answered, “When there is absolute darkness, a person doesn’t even know where he is and cannot find a way out of his enclosure. However, when someone lights even the tiniest of candles, the light is sufficient for someone to escape from his spiritual prison” (Sefer Divrei Yaakov).
It is on Shabbos Chazon and Tisha B’av itself when we can remind ourselves and others of the tragedies of Jewish history and how we emerged. We can use this flame to see our way through doubt, anger and often ignorance. When we take some of that light and spread it where it is needed, we have sung our own song of bitachon and emunah.
An interesting hint to the power of Tisha B’Av to accomplish this may be learned from the Alshich Hakadosh (Parshas Devorim). He notes the famous Medrash (Eicha Rabbah, Pesikta) that in the midbar, there was a period when every Tisha B’Av, graves were dug and the men spent the night in what might permanently become their grave. In the morning, those who had reached 60 years of age generally didn’t emerge from their final resting place. However, in the 40th year, to their shock, no one was left in the graves after Tisha B’Av. They waited until the 15th of Av and then realized that the decree of dying in the midbar was over. It turns out, says the Alshich, that the previous Tisha B’Av, the gezeirah had already been annulled, but they didn’t find out for a year. Today, we know that Tisha B’Av has the power to become the shirah we heard from the children in the Gemara in Gittin, according to the rosh yeshiva.
When the Jews were expelled from Spain on Tisha B’Av in 1492, one of the gedolim, the Chossid Yaavetz, commented that if the anti-Semites such as Ferdinand and Isabella had known how much chizuk the day gave to the Jews, they would have postponed the expulsion. The comment was later explained as meaning that all is in the hands of Hashem. Our enemies can plot and plan, but Hashem looks at eternity and the totality of Jewish history.
The day we cried for nothing after the meraglim gave their report became the day of crying for the churban, for the expulsion and later the beginning of World War I, which led to Churban Europa or World War II. This told everyone that these events were far from coincidence. They were part of a pattern.
I have heard from survivors that during the Holocaust, pages from the Meshech Chochmah in Parshas Bechukosai were discovered, giving them great emunah. Rav Meir Simcha there says that far from a punishment, which was major golus, this was Hashem saving us from ourselves, from assimilation, intermarriage and other terrible spiritual sins. This allowed many to go their deaths knowing that geulah would not be far behind. Little did the Ohr Somayach know, or perhaps he really did, that these words would bring solace and relief only a few years later, but he had fulfilled one of his purposes in this world posthumously with the publication of the Meshech Chochmah.
We know from Chazal (Eicha Rabbah 1:57; Yerushalmi, Brachos 2:4) that Moshiach is born on Tisha B’Av. This has been interpreted to mean that the light that comes after the darkness is at its worst shines the brightest. Whatever we can do to spread more belief and trust – emunah and bitachon – in these dark days will indeed bring the light of Moshiach. Each one of us can do this in our own way, as we saw earlier, and the result is the cumulative accomplishment of us all. May we join in heartfelt Eicha and Kinnos, bringing us all to the great light that is becoming closer and closer, im yirtzeh Hashem.
