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 July 2015 • Tisha B’av 5775 Dedicated in memory of our dear parents Rabbi Philip (Fievel) and Ruth Cohen Seymour and Rhea Liebman by Elaine and Scott Liebman and family Featuring Divrei Torah from Rabbi Yosef Bronstein Rabbi Joshua Flug Rabbi Meir Goldwicht Rebbetzin Abby Lerner Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l Rabbi Hershel Reichman Rabbi Shimon Schenker Richard M. Joel, President and Bravmann Family University Professor, Yeshiva University Rabbi 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, Editor Andrea Kahn, Copy Editor Copyright © 2015 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 5775 Table of Contents Tisha B’av 2015/5775 Dedicated in memory of our dear parents Rabbi Philip (Fievel) and Ruth Cohen and Seymour and Rhea Liebman by Elaine and Scott Liebman and family Introduction: Tein li Yavneh vechachameha! 5 Rabbi Yaakov Glasser The Loss and Revival of Prophecy in the Thought of Rav Kook 6 Rabbi Yosef Bronstein Tisha B’Av and Birkot HaTorah: Letting the Light of Torah Shine 10 Through Rabbi Joshua Flug How Do We Move Past Tisha B’Av? 16 Rabbi Meir Goldwicht I Betroth You to Me Forever: The Unusual Marriage of Hoshea and 19 What it Teaches Us About Our Relationship with G-d Rebbetzin Abby Lerner Love and Hate that are not Baseless 24 Based on a sicha by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l Tisha B’Av and the Sin of the Meraglim 29 Rabbi Hershel Reichman Awaiting the Arrival of Moshiach 32 Rabbi Shimon Schenker 3 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5775 We thank the following synagogues who have pledged to be Pillars of the Torah To-Go® project Congregation Kehillat Shaarei United Orthodox Beth Shalom Yonah Menachem Synagogues Rochester, NY Modiin, Israel Houston, TX Congregation The Jewish Center Young Israel of Shaarei Tefillah New York, NY New Hyde Park Newton Centre, MA New Hyde Park, NY 4 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5775 Introduction: Tein li Yavneh vechachameha! s we read the story of churban Habayis, the destruction of the Holy Rabbi Yaakov Glasser Temple,A we learn about a number David Mitzner Dean, YU Center for the Jewish Future of leaders who distinguished Rabbi, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton themselves in navigating the Jewish people through the trauma of destruction, while simultaneously Yavneh, and its Torah scholars.” most poignant expression. He wasn’t building a foundation for a future The language seems peculiar; why not only trying to save the substance of survival. Rav Yochanan Ben Zakai, Torah thought; he was also attempting simply say “Tein li chachmei Yavneh, recognizing the danger of the zealots to rescue the paradigm of communal escalating the confrontation with the give me the Torah scholar of Yavneh?” It appears that Rav Yochanan Ben infrastructure that allows that Romans, clandestinely makes his way leadership to serve the community. out of Yerushalayim. He encounters Zakai was trying to convey that Vespasian, and immediately predicts not only were the Torah scholars On Tisha B’av, we mourn the the Roman leader’s impending themselves central to the perpetuation extraordinary loss of talmidei ascendency to the emperorship of the Jewish people, the community chachamim, yeshivos, and even of Rome. In return for this within which they find themselves seforim throughout Jewish history. extraordinary act, Vespasian provides plays an equal role in the vitality Yet some of the Kinnot address the Rav Yochanan Ben Zakai with the of their leadership. Rav Yochanan communal contexts within which our opportunity to make three requests. Ben Zakai understood that it is the scholarship thrived. It is the customs The most ambitious and dramatic interface between the Torah leaders and culture of Jewish communities request made is “Tein li Yavneh and the community where the eternal that provide the framework for vechachameha, Give me [the city of] strength of the Jewish people finds its the vibrancy of our continued commitment to Torah and mitzvos. The synergy that develops between It is the customs and culture of Jewish communal institutions and Torah leaders is paramount to developing a communities that provide the framework for thriving Jewish community. Tisha B’av is a time to reflect on the hundreds the vibrancy of our continued commitment of Jewish communities that we have to Torah and mitzvos. Tisha B’av is a lost over the centuries, and devote ourselves to investing in our own, time to reflect on the hundreds of Jewish to ensure an enduring and inspiring communities that we have lost over the impact upon the next generation. May this be our final Tisha B’av in the centuries, and devote ourselves to investing Galut, and may we all find ourselves reestablishing our communities in in our own, to ensure an enduring and Eretz Yisrael, bimheira biyameinu, inspiring impact upon the next generation. speedily and in our days. 5 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Tisha B’av 5775 The Loss and Revival of Prophecy in the Thought of Rav Kook In truth, the lack of ru’ach ha-kodesh in Israel is not only a lack of perfection but a blemish and sickness. And in the Rabbi Yosef Bronstein Land of Israel it is a painful sickness that Judaic Studies Faculty, Isaac Breuer College, YU must be healed, “for I am Hashem your healer.”1 To the spring of prophecy we are inspiring the people with high ideals, summoned. Parched with thirst we are, waning of prophecy represents a the Sages mainly exhorted the people but the spring of gardens, the source of basic shift in several key areas of our 4 to meticulously observe the all- living water is before us.2 religious lives, including the form of Torah that is emphasized5 and the encompassing way of life — halichot e generally associate Tisha primary method of connecting with olam lo, al tikrei halichot ela halachot.8 6 B’av with the destruction Hashem. Together with this shift in content of the Beit ha-Mikdash, came a change in method of theW loss of Jewish sovereignty and The Prophet and the Sage connection with Hashem. Tanach our exile from the Land of Israel. We describes a world permeated with mourn these losses and pray for their A cursory read of Nach illustrates that the palpable presence of Hashem. reversal. However, a study of Megilat the recorded legacy of the prophets It was a time of open miracles and Eicha and Kinnot illustrates that focuses on the general values of Torah. of clear divine providence, a time these processes were accompanied Thenevi’im passionately and lyrically in which the masses were able to with another loss, one less publicly call for a strengthening of our love witness the heavenly fire descending apparent than a burning edifice or of Hashem, fear of Hashem and of onto the Mizbeach. Prophecy itself is thousands of people being led to the high standards of interpersonal described as a full body experience, exile, but no less significant regarding morality that the Torah demands. a sensuous spirituality that creates a our relationship with Hashem. I One would be hard-pressed to find a profound sense of contact with the refer to a basic shift that occurred in passage in Nach imploring the people transcendent. inner spiritual consciousness of the to tie their left shoe before their right Jewish people — the loss of nevu’ah shoe or any other of the details of As opposed to this “psychic current (prophecy).3 On Tisha B’av, we mourn halacha.7 of actual spirituality” of the prophets, the loss of our most direct path of in the post-prophetic period this It was the role of the Sages, beginning communication with Hashem, and level of spirituality was no longer with the Anshei K’nesses ha-Gedolah, pray for its return. attainable. Instead, the major conduit the Men of the Great Assembly, to of connection with Hashem becomes In order to better appreciate the focus on how these lofty general ideals “academic spirituality” or the learning significance of this loss, I will outline can become a detailed framework for of Torah — Talmud Torah k’negged aspects of nevu’ah’s role based on every aspect of our lives. It was during kulam.9 This connection is oftentimes Rav Kook’s spiritual historiography. the post-prophetic period that the less palpable and less overtly spiritual. In Rav Kook’s historical essays, the halachot of Torah she-Ba’al Peh, the Academic spirituality is of a calmer loss of prophecy is not a mere detail Oral Tradition, developed into the nature, more cerebral and less but rather is the major fulcrum in mesmerizingly intricate system that experiential than the practices of the the spiritual winds of the world.