Tisha b'Av Lessons

Today I spent a while watching the YU livefeed of Rabbi J. J. Schacter reading and teaching various kinos. I took some notes, so I figured they count as things I learned today. I'm gonna post the highlights here (er, from the times when I wasn't spacing out from dizziness).

1. Rabbi Schacter was talking about how no one really believed the BHMK would be destroyed and that's a much more difficult kind of loss - when you truly believe you're not going to lose something and then you do. So in the same vein, we can't take Israel for granted and just assume that now we have it, we can't lose it. Redemption is contingent on us - who says now is the time? We have to make sure there won't be another churban. And even if you feel you're just an average Jew and you can't really do anything to make a difference, you can. Even if you just really mean it when you daven for things like shalom and Yerushalaim.

3. At the end of the day, tzaddik hu Hashem, God is righteous in all His ways, which is something we have to accept. It's really hard because there are so many unpleasant things that happen which we don't understand, but we have to trust that all which happens is right.

4. A Stern girl is writing an article for the Observer about hashkafa, so she wrote to Rabbi Schachter asking him what his hashkafa is. I was especially interested to see how he would answer that question, seeing as I'm on a revolution against unnecessary labeling and boxing people up. His answer: "to create a way in which to have a close relationsihp with HKBH and to appreciate the gifts we're given via torah and mitzvos to create a close relationsihp with HKBH." He said the Torah and mitzvos are both a din and a relationship. They provide us with a recipe how to develop that relationship. This was in a greater context that I missed, but he added that there's the maaseh hamitzvah and the experience of the mitzvah. What's going to bring us closer is the experience of the mitzvah, but, of course, the maaseh hamitzvah allows us to experience the mitzvah. We have to overcome the distance, transcend the distance, bridge the distance. Davening is really important in doing this because it's an obvious part of the relationship. That's what we struggle on tisha b'av to develop, because it doesn't look like the other side is having a relationship with us so much, it's not obvious to us, so we have to work on it.

I also learned:

1. It's possible to read three books at the same time (sort of). I don't mean be in the middle of three books at once (I've been doing stuff like that my whole life). I mean - switch off between three books in one sitting.

Yeah...that's all I've got. I'm still feeling kind of out of it from the fast.