Aug 3, 2025
This is a day of pain, tragedy and trials in the history of the Jewish people. Terrible events have happened on this day - exile, persecution, destruction
Today is the 9th of Av.
The day on which the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem were destroyed.
The day on which G-d decreed that the desert generation that came out of Egypt would not enter the Promised Land, but would wander in the desert for forty years, and there they would complete their journey.
This is a day of pain, tragedy and trials in the history of the Jewish people. Terrible events have happened on this day - exile, persecution, destruction.
But it is on this day that we turn to G-d with a plea and hope:
May You, G-d, turn this sorrow into joy, this mourning into comfort, this day into a feast in the rebuilt Third Temple of Jerusalem!
And as our sages have said, it will happen through gratuitous love - when we begin to love one another, not for anything, but simply as brothers.
I believe with all my heart:
G-d will surely do this. And very soon.