ASK THE RABBI

Dear Rabbi

I know there is a custom not to say the tachanun (penitence prayer) on the ninth of Av. This, I am told, is because the soul of Moshiach was created on this very day as well. I don’t really know what that means or how we know that. It occurs to me, as it is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, it’s an opportune time to atone for sins. Why leave out that special daily prayer?

Charlie

Dear Charlie

You are right that the ninth of Av, which we mark next Thursday, is indeed the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. This, because it is the day in which our Temples were destroyed. The tachanun prayer which is recited most days of the year, is never recited on a Jewish festival. Of course, your point as to the ninth of Av being anything but a festival is a valid one. However, let me put to you the deeper significance of what we mean when we say the soul of Moshiach was created on this day.

Have you ever noticed a construction site? It’s usually boarded up with a peep hole for the curious onlooker. When peering through one can see a huge mess. Machinery, dirt, holes, scaffolding, bricks and metal everywhere. It’s one big hodgepodge. In that moment, one cannot see beyond the chunks of debris or imagine that somehow this will yet emerge into one elegant structure. But the contractor can reassure you that all the dismantling of the old structure is intended to give way to something far superior. The present chaos is a prelude to a new order.

We experience something similar in our lives. Sometimes life is messy and chaotic. There is the debris of failed relationships, the dust of missed opportunities, the empty holes of loss. We wonder, what elegance can be constructed from our disorderly lives? And in our lives there is no contractor to explain to us the underlying purpose as to all that transpires. So it’s not so easy to look into our own troubled life and pick out the silver lining. We have to resort to faith on our own, believing and knowing that this too is part of a bigger picture.

This then leads into the ninth of Av. It is the day in which our Temples were destroyed. There is a simple yet enigmatic question asked by the Jewish philosophers: Our Sages taught, that which G-d instructs us to do, He adheres to Himself. One of the laws in the Torah is not to waste and destroy. How then did G-d allow for the wastage and destruction of the Temples?

The obvious answer lies in the fact that waste and destruction are allowed if they’re paving the way for a new build; when the mess at the construction site is really a forerun to a greater edifice that will emerge.

The Temple was a magnificent edifice which stood at the epicentre of Jewish life. It was also the most sacred abode in which the Divine presence was manifest. Even if, for whatever the reason, we lost the privilege of having the Temple, G-d didn’t just wantonly destroy. It remains eminently in His blueprint, that when the time is right, there will yet be something more magnificent that will replace what once was. In other words, we see the destruction as a construction site. At the moment it looks messy and we can’t make sense of it. But we are assured that it is only a temporary measure as a new Temple will be built with the coming of Moshiach.

King Solomon put it in perspective in Ecclesiastes when he wrote: “Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the heavens. A time to give birth and a time to die…a time to break and a time to build…a time of wailing and a time of dancing.”

King Solomon’s words not only describe the divergent twists and turns of life, but the contorted nature of even single events. Within the pain and even as we reflect on the hurt, we also look out for the new birth, the healing, the building and the dancing.

Even as we recite many prayers of lamentation on the ninth of Av, we also omit the tachanun because we take heart knowing that beyond the present destruction lies a whole new world. And we can help to bring that about.

Think about your personal Temple as well - that is, your life. Think about the messes that sometimes emerge, but like every construction site, it paves the way for a new build. Even the negative experiences we endure pave the way for new growth.

Think about the brazen power of faith that you have which enables you to claim that growth can come from the most unexpected places. Look through that little peephole and know that beyond the present destruction, the best is yet to come.

May we merit the building of magnificent edifices in our personal lives and the rebuilding of the Temple in our collective lives with the coming of Moshiach, speedily.

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