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Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future THE BENJAMIN AND ROSE BERGER TORAH TO-GO® Established by Rabbi Hyman and Ann Arbesfeld August 2017 • Tisha B’av 5777 Dedicated in memory of Rabbi Meyer and Rose Kramer of Philadelphia PA הרב מאיר בן הרב חיים מנחם ז"ל ורייזל בת יהודה לייב ע"ה Featuring Divrei Torah from Rabbi Benjamin Blech • Rebbetzin Meira Davis • Mrs. Bracha Rutner Rabbi Hershel Schachter • Rabbi Dr. Moshe D. Tendler PERSPECTIVES ON JEWISH LIFE IN DIASPORA COMMUNITIES Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein (South Africa) • Rabbi Arie Folger (Austria) • Rabbi Dani Rockoff (USA) Rabbi Dani Fabian (Germany) • Rabbi Saul Paves (Brazil) • Rabbi Daniel Korobkin (Canada) 1 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5777 We thank the following synagogues which have pledged to be Pillars of the Torah To-Go® project Beth David Synagogue Green Road Synagogue Young Israel of West Hartford, CT Beachwood, OH Century City Los Angeles, CA Beth Jacob Congregation The Jewish Center Beverly Hills, CA New York, NY Young Israel of Bnai Israel – Ohev Zedek Young Israel Beth El of New Hyde Park New Hyde Park, NY Philadelphia, PA Borough Park Koenig Family Foundation Young Israel of Congregation Brooklyn, NY Ahavas Achim Toco Hills Atlanta, GA Highland Park, NJ Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Young Israel of Congregation Cedarhurst, NY Shaarei Tefillah West Hartford West Hartford, CT Newton Centre, MA Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President, Yeshiva University Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander, Vice President for University and Community Life, Yeshiva University Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, David Mitzner Dean, Center for the Jewish Future Rabbi Menachem Penner, Max and Marion Grill Dean, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Robert Shur, Series Editor Rabbi Joshua Flug, General Editor Rabbi Michael Dubitsky, Content Editor Andrea Kahn, Copy Editor Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved by Yeshiva University Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future 500 West 185th Street, Suite 419, New York, NY 10033 • [email protected] • 212.960.0074 This publication contains words of Torah. Please treat it with appropriate respect. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Paul Glasser at 212.960.5852 or [email protected]. 2 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5777 Table of Contents Tisha B’av 2017/5777 Dedicated in memory of Rabbi Meyer and Rose Kramer of Philadelphia PA הרב מאיר בן הרב חיים מנחם ז"ל ורייזל בת יהודה לייב ע"ה Introduction Rabbi Yaakov Glasser ................................................................................... Page 4 The Three Weeks and The Penitential Season: A Dedication In Honor Of My Parents Rabbi Doniel Zvi Kramer ............................................................................. Page 6 The Tragedy of Tisha B’av and the Redemption of Pesach Rabbi Benjamin Blech ................................................................................. Page 8 Making Tisha B’av More Meaningful Rebbetzin Meira Davis ................................................................................. Page 11 Yosef and Rabbi Yishmael Mrs. Bracha Rutner .................................................................................... Page 15 Are Children Obligated in Observances that Commemorate the Destruction of the Beis HaMikdash? Rabbi Hershel Schachter ............................................................................... Page 20 Shining the Light of Torah with Pride Rabbi Dr. Moshe D. Tendler ........................................................................... Page 23 SPECIAL FEATURE Perspectives on Jewish Life in Diaspora Communities Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein (South Africa) • Rabbi Arie Folger (Austria) Rabbi Dani Rockoff (USA) • Rabbi Dani Fabian (Germany) Rabbi Saul Paves (Brazil) • Rabbi Daniel Korobkin (Canada) .................................... Page 25 3 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5777 Introduction ndowed with prophetic abilities from a very young age, Rabbi Yaakov Glasser Yirmiyahu Hanavi invests the Etotality of his being into becoming David Mitzner Dean, YU Center for the Jewish Future an elevated spiritual personality. Yet Rabbi, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton his legacy was to be the one who foretold the impending destruction refugee is unable to do. I forgot prosperity, and uproot the normality of everyday of Yerushalayim. Hakadosh Baruch Rabbi Yirmeya said: That is the lack of life. Galus is manifest not only in Hu chooses Yirmiyahu to serve as the opportunity to bathe in the bathhouse. the more fundamental elements of conduit in relaying His discontent Rabbi Yochanan said: That is the lack Jewish exile, but also in the enduring with Am Yisrael. Yirmiyahu becomes of opportunity to engage in washing day-to-day challenges that we face the personification of pain, the bearer one’s hands and feet in hot water. Rabbi in an unredeemed world. It is the of bad news, as he pleads with the Yitzchak Nappacha said: Prosperity is a accumulation of those challenges that Jewish people to elevate their lives and pleasant bed and the pleasant bedclothes serve to pose the ongoing threat to change their ways. that are on it, which are not available in our survival as a vibrant and elevated Yirmiyahu’s emotional laments are exile. Rabbi Abba said: That is a made people. Yirmiyahu affirmed the notion expressed in the verses of Megilas bed, and a wife adorned, i.e., worthy of that the larger moments of suffering Eicha, and none more poignant than and suitable for Torah scholars. sometimes overshadow the more the third chapter — beginning with the Shabbat 25b (Translation: The constant difficulties that characterize words “Ani HaGever” — as Yirmiyahu William Davidson digital edition of the vicissitudes of our lives. bears witness to the calamities that the Koren Noé Talmud) This is true of individual challenges befell the Jewish people. This is a striking interpretation. The as well. So often, when someone Megilas Eicha states: verses are depicting the trauma and in our community is suffering, we devastation of Jerusalem’s destruction. imagine that it is the larger-than-life וַתִ זְנַחמִשָ לֹום ינַפְשִ ינָשִיתִ טֹובָ ה And yet, the Gemara interprets dimensions of that experience that And my soul is removed far off from the verses as portraying relatively make the challenge so unbearable. peace, I forgot prosperity. common conveniences that have Devoid of a solution to mitigate that Eicha 3:17 disappeared as a result of the churban. reality, we distance ourselves from The Gemara comments: Lighting Shabbos candles, utilizing the those enduring the challenge, leaving .bathhouse, washing ones hands and them feeling desperate and alone מאי ותזנח משלום נפשי אמר ר’ אבהו זו feet. Do these elements of life truly Often, engaging in the more detailed הדלקת נר בשבת נשיתי טובה אמר רבי ירמיה capture the anguish of Yirmiyahu? and smaller challenges of life can זו בית המרחץ )אמר רבי יוחנן( זו רחיצת ,The answer is that when reflecting alleviate a significant amount of pain ידים ורגלים בחמין ר’ יצחק נפחא אמר זו as so much of the challenge is indeed upon churban, we often focus on מטה נאה וכלים נאים שעליה ר’ אבא אמר the more extraordinary elements of found in the upending of normalcy זו מטה מוצעת ואשה מקושטת לתלמידי .destruction — the loss of our Beis that comes with life’s greatest tests חכמים. Perhaps we lack the capacity to propel “And my soul is removed far off from Hamikdash and its associated patterns the larger messianic solutions to our peace, I forgot prosperity” (Lamentations of Jewish life and the devastation exile — but we can take hold of the 3:17). What is: And my soul is removed of our Torah leadership and their smaller challenges of galus, and inch far off from peace? Rabbi Abbahu said: legacy. However, the losses that are by inch bring our world to a moment That is the lack of opportunity to engage often most penetrating to the core of redemption. in kindling the Shabbat lights, which a of our people are those that disrupt 4 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5777 Our dream is for our lives to return ִבְרֹחְבֹות יָרּושָל ְִם וִאיש ִמְשַעְנת ְֹובָיֵדֹו מרֹב Rav Yehuda Amital z”tl would to normal. To walk the streets of ָיִמְים. ּורֹחָבֹות הִעִיריָמְלְאּו יָלִדִים וָילדֹות point out that Rabbi Akiva’s famous .Jerusalem without fear or trepidation ְמַשֲחִקִים בְרֹחֹבֶתָיה. statement at the conclusion of Maseches Makkos, which depicts the So said the Lord of Hosts: Elderly men To raise our families, build our homes, enduring hope of the Jewish people, and women will once again sit in the and grow our communities with a employs a verse that speaks not of streets of Jerusalem, every man with his life devoted to avodas Hashem. May larger cataclysmic and miraculous staff in his hand from old age. And the we merit to see this dream come to messianic revelations but rather streets of the city shall be full of boys and fruition in our times. something different: girls playing in those streets. Zechariah 8:4-5 ֹכָה אַמְר ה’ עֵדצָבֹאֹות יְשְבּו זֵקִנְיםּוזֵקנֹות WHAT YESHIVA UNIVERSITY CAN DO FOR YOU! Programs of YU’s Center for the Jewish Future Lay Leader Services COMMUNITY BEIT MIDRASH facilitating a variety of extracurricular Join us at the Israel Henry Beren Campus workshops in a day