The Nine Days...

DovBear had an interesting re-post today about the Nine Days. He is trying to figure you why he doesn't like the Nine Days and comes to this conclusion:

In my humble opinion, this strange gloom that overtakes me year after year is simply one of the unhappy by-products of my all-too-succesful Jewish education.

I was taught to be sad during the nine days, and so I am.

For me, personally, aside from the time of year, which does greatly upset me, more and more each year, I have another reason why I don't like the Nine Days, one DovBear doesn't mention, but one that might also explain his dislike, and it certainly explains mine.

The Nine Days make me sad, yes. But they also make me angry at the Jewish Nation. That is angrier than usual...It royally pisses me off that it's been nearly two thousand years since this golus started, and there seems to be no end in sight. I sit in shul on Shabbos Chazon every year, listen to the Haftara, and cry my eyes out.

We, myself included, are a nation that simply can't get along with itself. "Kol Yisrael Chayavim - everyone is wrong in everyone else's eyes." And as a result, here we are. Still in golus, still filled with hate for one another, still begging Hashem for a Geula we simply do not deserve.

I've said on other threads before, I don't hate the RWNJs (Right Wing Nut Jobs). I don't like them, but I do love them. They are Jews, and I am commanded to love them. And I do. My goal in this space has never changed. It was never to demonize the RWNJs (even when it sounds like I am). It was always to show there are other ways to Avodas Hashem. My core thesis, that these people simply aren't frum, isn't because they don't learn and don't follow mitzvos. It's because they don't accept anyone else who does, but not on the same derech as them.

Says the Navi:

Why do I need your numerous sacrifices, says Hashem...When you appear before me, who sought this from your hands? ...You shall not continue to bring me worthless meal-offering...you appointed festival, My sould hates; they have become a burden upon Me; I am weary of bearing [them].

Knock off the BS, says God. That's all he's saying here. Just knock it off. I don't want chumras, I don't want korbanos. I want you simply be what a Jew is supposed to be and knock off all the hatred.

Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the victim, do justice for the orphan, take of the cause of the widow...

The posuk doesn't say "learn well." It says "learn to do good." there's a big difference here.

So, where is the compassion between Jews?! Where is the love? I don't know. Oh, sure, some will claim, "well, look at all the certain communities do." Whoopee. Hooray. What, you want to be praised on things you are already supposed to do? You want Geula for that?! If it were that easy, the geula would have happened centuries ago. No, it's the going above and beyond, WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND what we are supposed to do that will bring the geula.

And this is what the posuk says. I would go out on a limb here and say the ArtScroll translation of "Limdu Heiteiv - learn to do good" is wrong. I would say the correct translation LEARN - emphasis on the word LEARN - to do BETTER - Heiteiv can also mean improve - Learn to Improve! Don't just learn to do good. That's easy. LEARN TO DO BETTER THAN GOOD, LEARN TO KEEP IMPROVING - that's where the challenge exists. It's easy to do good. It's not so easy to keep improving on it.

The Three Weeks, and especially the last Nine Days, and even more especially, Tish'a B'Av itself, are not just a national Jewish Day of Mourning. They are much, much more than that. It's up to us, not God, to bring about the Geula. He's sitting up there, waiting for us.

The very next Haftara, Nachamu, gives us a key: "her iniquity has been conciliated, for she [Jerusalem, and by association, the Jewish People] has received from Hashem twice [the punishment] for all her sins." The hint here: It's not just twice the punishment; it's twice the effort on OUR PART, as the Jewish Nation, that will bring the Geula. God destroyed the Bais Hamikdash, we all know, because of Sinas Chinam. The Geula isn't going to take place because we no longer hate each other. That's just one step. But we have to double that effort: "Kiflayim bechol chatoseha - double for her sins" says the Navi - it's not enough to just take that one step forward and stop hating, as we took that one step backward and started hating.

We all need to put in DOUBLE the effort, just as we received double the punishment - we need to feel Ahavas Chinam for each other as well. This is the logical procession to to a full Geula - doubling the correct behavior to right the wrong we have been doing for over two thousand years. Not just stepping away from Sinas Chinam, but stepping into Ahavas Chinam - we need to distance ourselves from Sinas Chinam so the chance of falling back into that behavior is minimized, perhaps even eliminated, by creating a schism between the positive and the negative behavior.

This is why the Bais Hamikdash will only be rebuilt when we have Ahavas Chinam for one another - because Ahavas Chinam is the double - the two step solution..."Kiflayim bechol Chatoseha..."

So, I don't know, DB, but maybe this is reason for your dislike as well. Maybe it's not just the standard "it's a sad time of year and you're not allowed to be happy" reason we all get in school.