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HaRav Brevda explains: He Who Mourns Jerusalem Will Rejoice in Its Redemption
By HaRav Shlomo Brevda (Shlita) zt"l
Part I
This was originally published in the English edition of Yated Ne'eman in 1993, that is, 32 years ago.
For Part II of this series click here.
If we should learn the Mishnah and gemara in Taanis, telling us what we are not permitted to do during these days leading up to Tisha B'Av, and if we will subsequently learn the Shulchan Oruch, we will literally not recognize the gemara and the Mishnah any longer. I mean, that many many halachos have been added by Klal Yisroel throughout the generations since Chazal hakedoshim originally set down the halachos of shavua shechal bo Tisha B'Av.
There is no mention in the gemara of the general inyan of the Three Weeks from Shiva Asar BeTammuz until Tisha B'Av, with special restrictive halachos. From Rosh Chodesh Av the gemara says mema'atim besimchah, we do not make festivities. We don't purchase things which are not necessities, or luxuries; we don't get married during those days. Shavua shechal bo Tisha B'Av, the week in which Tisha B'Av takes place (that isn't from Rosh Chodesh, since the ninth day of the month is always in the second week), the Mishnah tells that we should not cut our hair and we should not launder our clothing. Nothing more.
Great changes have taken place inhilchos Tisha B'Av. We do not bathe in the Nine Days. That's not the Shavua, that's from Rosh Chodesh Av: nine full days. Plus many other chumros: we don't drink wine; we don't eat meat. None of this is mentioned in the gemara. The only mention about not eating meat or drinking wine is in the last seuda just before Tisha B'Av.
What Is In A Chumra?
I have an astounding story. About twenty seven years ago, I was sitting in a sukkah in Bnei Brak visiting a neighbor, when a person who knows how to learn gemara very well, but who in my eyes is of somewhat questionable yiras Shomayim also came to visit. There are a number of such individuals in the world today.
Someone mentioned a certain action, and someone else asked, is it permissible in this generation? That lamdan, that visiting scholar, became furious. He said, "You people, with your chumros. All the additions that you add to the Shulchan Oruch—this is not permitted and that's not permitted!"
I sat there. I was taught to keep quiet at these times. And the person built up so much steam—it was solid fuel—and like a rocket he took off. And Boruch Hashem he left us alone in the sukkah.
Once he left, I turned around to those who remained there—the survivors—and I felt sorry for them for the very simple reason that they may think that every chumra which the Chazon Ish added, as did all gedolei Yisroel throughout the generations, is just a waste of time, of people picking on us. And I didn't want them to make that mistake.
So what I said to them is the following:
The Erev Rav
I once saw a quote from the Vilna Gaon, zt'l, saying the following: when we were in the desert, there were a group of individuals who trailed along with us when we left Mitzrayim. They are the erev rav, people who even today you can say of them that they can't make up their minds — should they become true believers and practicing Jews, or shouldn't they? — but they trailed along.
Eventually they took advantage of a situation. Moshe Rabbeinu was gone for forty days, and hadn't returned by the time that everyone thought he would. They panicked. They were so used to idol worship that they caused the Cheit HaEgel, the creation of the Egel, and they brought Klal Yisroel to the cheit.
At that time they were of no significance whatsoever amongst our people. The erev rav is a topic which is not discussed very much in the gemara and in midroshim, but in the Zohar HaKodosh and in Tikkunei Zohar there is a wealth of literature about these erev rav. They are still around, and they are of extremely great significance.
And the Gaon, taking together all the places that they are mentioned in the Zohar, says that from generation to generation they have done two things. They have disguised themselves and mingled amongst Klal Yisroel and married amongst us, and they have been climbing steadily from generation to generation, until, with the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and as we went into Golus, they have literally taken charge in various generations of our people. They are very often our spokesmen in the halls of the kings and presidents.
Until I saw this Gaon as a boy, I was very puzzled about something. I remember someone showing to me on the front page of the newspaper (it could have been The New York Times) about how the head of some "great" world Jewish organization was our spokesman before the President in Washington on this and this day, in this and this year (in the 1940's). I saw the face of this person. He had a nice crop of hair, no yarmulke, and didn't even look like he's part of our people, and I said to this person, "What's his name?"
And he said, "Rabbi So and So."
And I said, "That's a rabbi? Without a yarmulke?"
I was told, "One doesn't ask such questions in America."
And I began asking people who is this So and So Rabbi.
They said, his practice of Torah is the following. Millionaires built him a temple, and he declared on the first day, the chanukas habayis of that Temple, that Shabbos is on Sunday, and not on Saturday. That was number one. Number two, there are no restrictions on Shabbos. He himself didn't fast even on Yom Kippur, and ate pork. His Yiddishkeit consisted in being good with certain non-Jewish minorities in New York and fighting for their cause. And this was his great thing in life. But with the backing of millionaires and The New York Times, he was able to become the president of this, and this, and this.
He would make demonstrations against Hitler when the true rabbonim said not to. After the War, those who survived the camps said that every time he made a demonstration in New York, Hitler would take it out on Jews. It was unbelievable how Hitler would punish the Yidden the next day.
If this "rabbi" had any children, they were meshumadim.
I was becoming very surprised. I found out that he had a competitor, another irreligious "rabbi."
So I began asking questions — they are our leaders?
Leaders in the Golus
Years later in Lakewood, I saw the sefer, Even Shleima, quoting the Gaon. The Gaon said that in golus these erev rav take charge of our people. They are the spokesmen. Things began to become very, very clear indeed.
The Gaon says the following: there are countless descendants of the erev rav mingling among our people. There is a gemara that says of certain people with no charity, that they came from erev rav. A Yid has kindness in him.
So we learn from all this, that the erev rav are people with different traits of personality. They do not have neshamos of kedushas Yisroel. From all we know, in Eretz Yisroel today, some of those who are rodef our people, who hate bnei Torah, who hate Torah and mitzvos, who get power in their hands, who, when they see a Yid on Shabbos keeping Shabbos they begin to boil—no one knows if that person today is a Yid or he's an erev rav. We don't have the power to decide this. But things begin to become slightly clearer once we know this.
Counteracting the Erev Rav
The Gaon says something amazing: Why did the chachamim have to add chumros in each dor? Why are there so many additions in Shulchan Oruch to things that were not in the gemara a thousand years ago, a thousand five hundred years ago? Why are there so many more restrictions today?
The Gaon says simply, the erev rav, this fifth column among us, have been destroying chunks of Torah and mitzvos throughout the generations. And in order to counteract them, the rabbonim in every generation, who have open eyes to the truth and to our true spiritual needs, must add restrictions. They have to build a much taller wall, the Gaon says, in order to repair what the erev rav are destroying constantly.
And that is what I explained to the people in the sukkah at that time. If the Chazon Ish added restrictions, thanks to that there are still are shomrei Shabbos today in Bnei Brak. If not for his restrictions, who knows what would have happened in the past forty years with all of the gezeiros and these anti-Torah feelings in the cities bordering on Bnei Brak? We can only thank all the rabbonim, all of our spiritual leaders, for saving us from the destruction of the Torah and keeping us in one spiritual piece until Moshiach will come.
Now that the Gaon has told us that added restrictions were caused by destructive acts of the erev rav in every generation, we begin to understand certain situations.
We found that in hilchos Tisha B'Av, there are so many added restrictions to the original ones that the Bach made a special introduction to hilchos Tisha B'Av to sort out the different sources: what the gemara said and what the Mishnah said, and what was added. He observes that many additions have been made.
Now we can say the following. If so many additions have been made, it means that the erev rav have been working very hard to destroy hilchos Tisha B'Av. That's why so many additions had to be made.
Now, why should the erev rav care about the fact that once a year, for a few weeks we are mourners? If I were from the erev rav, chas vecholiloh, I think I might be very happy to see the Jewish people lying on the floor in black, in shrouds, crying and weeping. I wouldn't try to prevent them from mourning. It's no pleasure. Yet it seems that the erev rav have been preventing us from doing this.
This is a very, very important issue. The erev rav have been trying very hard, and I want you to know that in this generation they have succeeded, you could say, by ninety-five percent. The mere fact that this essay will enlighten you, is a siman that they have succeeded, because I have nothing really new to say. Everything is written in texts that are generally well known—but hardly anyone knows it in this generation. The erev rav have put us to sleep spiritually in the whole inyan of aveilus hachurban, and I'm going to prove it.
We Used To Cry On Tisha B'Av
Our ancestors two generations back, used to weep literally with tears on Tisha B'Av. It is really only two generations—I'm not older than that, and I've seen it with my own eyes. I remember as a boy seeing men on Tisha B'Av when they were saying the Kinos, sitting on the floor with tears streaming down their cheeks, literally.
My father, z'l, told me that in his town in Poland, from Rosh Chodesh Av, anyone who came to that town in the Nine Days felt that he came to a house of mourning. He said this was true in any town that had a sizable Jewish population—even if the majority were not Jewish. In the whole town it was visible: in every Jewish shop, in how a Yid was walking in the street not smiling and hardly talking, not buying luxury goods. It was clearly visible, almost tangible. It sounds like a dream of two thousand years ago, but this is how it looked about fifty or sixty years ago in Klal Yisroel all over the world!
Today I would ask you, on Tisha B'Av to try your best to cry. You're going to hit a zero.
Just imagine a housewife who forgot to put lemon juice into her salad. She looks for a lemon, turns the refrigerator over and she finds one rotten, dried-out lemon. Nevertheless, she's going to try her best. So she starts to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. Nothing comes out. Why? It's dry. Try to cry on Tisha B'Av. See if anything comes out.
It proves my point. We literally can't. There is something missing in our hearts. The erev rav have succeeded. It's not them alone. The goyim have been trying very hard throughout the generations, but the erev rav have completed the work for them.
We Are Down But Not Out
But we are a nation that never reaches rock bottom. The difference between our nation and umos haolam is: other nations reach total destruction; Klal Yisroel will never reach total destruction.
"Nafla lo suchal kum besulas Yisroel." This is a posuk which literally means, "You have fallen, you cannot arise, daughter of Israel." But Chazal interpret it differently: Nafla lo suchal linpol yoser: Daughter of Israel, if you have fallen so deep that you cannot fall any deeper, kum, now you can arise, besulas Yisroel.
I once said a whole shiur on those words. Why can't we fall any deeper? Because falling deeper means you've gone through the hole and that's it. We are a nation that never falls entirely. We have a limit. In contrast, anyone who has studied history knows that there are nations that once ruled the world, but today there is nothing left of them except a few broken stones.
We always bounce back, we always get up. And it's a posuk: "Nafalti kamti — Al tismechi ayavti li ki nafalti kamti." We say to all our enemies, "Do not rejoice when I fall." Why? Because you've seen other nations fall that were your enemies and they never got up. But when I, the Jewish people, fall, I do return. So do not rejoice over it.
You know there's a Midrash that tells us (at the end of Devorim) that as Moshe Rabbeinu's neshamah was leaving his body, the Satan began to rejoice. And the good mal'ochim said to the Satan, "You're making a mistake. Moshe Rabbeinu's neshamah has just left, and Yehoshua ben Nun has just at this moment become an astounding genius of Torah and mitzvos, and he's taking over gantz Klal Yisroel." And the posuk is brought: "Ki nafalti—If I fall— —kamti—I arise again."
The erev rav have dealt us a very great blow in this generation. Our defeat now means nothing to us. We get up, we fight, and B'ezras Hashem, we will be mekabel ponim Moshiach Tzidkeinu bekarov. But we must return to the true appreciation and aveilus, the mourning over Churban Yerushalayim.
There is a gemara in Masechta Taanis which says, "Kol hamisabel al Yerushalayim zoche veroeh besimchasah. Vechol she'eino misabel al Yerushalayim eino roeh besimchasah." Those who mourn over the destruction of Yerushalayim and the Beis Hamikdash, and that the Shechina has left us—all of those will be present at the rejoicing of the rebuilding of Yerushalayim. Those who do not mourn will not be present at that day and in that age.
It Is Frightening
It scares us a bit. I remember some years ago in London. It was erev Shiva Asar BeTammuz, and there was a huge seuda for a bris mila. In London the minhag was that rabbonim say droshos. Who is considered a rav? I don't know. But on that day, I was also forced to speak. What's there to say to fifty balabatim who want to rush off to their various businesses? Who can say a derashah?
I said to them that I am not prepared. I did not know the minhag, that you speak at these things. I said that I am going to mention Shiva Asar BeTammuz and I mentioned the gemara that says that those who mourn over Yerushalayim will be present at the deliverance, and those who don't mourn will not be present.
There was an old man sitting there, an Orthodox Jew who had never heard this Chazal before. When I said these words, he grabbed the chair, and was about to fall off. He was from an old generation, and he took the gemara to heart. He was not complacent. When I noticed that, it gave me a lot of vigor—that I had awakened one old man. So I gave them a half hour derashah, and they were (possibly) sorry that they came to the bris, afterwards.
End of Part I
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