Mournful thoughts arise whenever we think about our times, over two thousand years after Jerusalem was captured by enemies, and the Beis Hamikdash has not been rebuilt. The Fasts of the Fourth, the Fifth and the Tenth months have not become days of rejoicing. The situation must certainly bring us to think about the lessons we can learn from the destruction of Jerusalem. What have we done to atone for that disaster and how much are the sins that brought the destruction still entrenched in us? Maybe this is why the Beis Hamikdash has not been rebuilt — for it if were we would certainly cause its renewed destruction. These are the thoughts of HaRav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch in The Jewish Year part 2.
HaRav Englander says that the siege of Jerusalem that began on 10 Teves was the one that led to the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash. How does this connect to us today? The truth is that we do not just fast because of the history.
In Ramban (Hilchos Taanis) he starts with this introduction: "There are days in which all Israel fasts because of the troubles that happened on them, in order to arouse our hearts and to open up ways to teshuvoh. This is a memorial to our bad deeds and the bad deeds of our ancestors that are like what we do today, causing them and us those troubles and by remembering them we will repent as it says, `They will admit this sins and the sins of their fathers.' "
The Chasam Sofer learns from here that, in contrast to 9 Av which is a day of mourning, the other fast days have the purpose to arouse us to teshuvoh.
In this context we again ask: Why fast on the occasion of something that happened in connection with the First Beis Hamikdash?
It is important to recall that after the First Beis Hamikdash we went into exile — but we never returned from that exile. True, after 70 years a relatively small group did return from Bovel, but most of the Jewish people remained in Bovel. Also the Second Beis Hamikdash lacked important pieces. Also there was no more prophecy in the Second Beis Hamikdash. So you can see that the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash is still relevant to us in 5786.
There is an important ma'amar of HaRav Dessler in Michtav MeEliahu part 3. He writes that the main point of golus is not punishment, but fixing the aveiroh that brought about the golus. There were four Goluyos: Bovel, Paras, Modai and Edom. These four different exiles refer to different aveiros that need tikkun.
The First Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of 3 very serious sins. They come from general moral decay. Therefore we were sent to Bovel because it as on the lowest moral level and we had difficult nisyonos there. If we succeed in the tikkun there will be Geulah. If there is no Geulah it shows that we have not fixed the sins that caused the destruction.
The gemara in Yuma says that when one comes to the Olom Haemes they ask him why he did not learn Torah. If he says that his wealth distracted him, they say that he was not as rich as Rabbi Eliezer ben Charsom. If he says that he was good looking and distracted by that, they say that he was not better looking than Yosef who stood up to the wife of Potiphar.
As I once said: If they come to me and ask why I was not like HaRav Chaim Kanievsky zt"l, I will be able to deal with it. But if they ask why I was not like Yosef, how can they compare me to Yosef? Who was he and where did he grow up?
Yosef was sold when he was only 17 and he managed to maintain his morality in a place as corrupt as Egypt, living all by himself. He was sold by his own brothers. How could he maintain himself?
The truth is that Yaakov Ovinu asked this. When they told him about Yosef it says that he did not believe them that he was still Yosef in the spiritual sense. How did they convince him?
It says that he saw the agalos. Rashi says that he sent the message that he was learning egla arufa with Yaakov when he left. How did he remember this after all those years and after all that he went through?
Chazal say that he had a small room and he used to sit in it and learn and review what he learned with his father. Throughout the 22 years he was on his own he continued to learn and review what he had learned at home.
This is a lesson for us: Nothing can save us from being swept into tumah, except being immersed in learning Torah!
This is what they say to us. We are not Yosef, but we have available to us the same thing that saved Yosef. It is not Yosef's high madreigoh that we recall but his actions that saved him. The fact that he was immersed in learning is what saved him and can save us.
I have been in the yeshiva world for decades and in many respects there is no decline of generations. There are as many learning today as ever, and not just in quantity but also in quality. But there is also a rise in the enjoyment of Olom Hazeh. When Olom Hazeh goes up, ruchniyus goes down.
Our goal in yeshivas is to impart spiritual values and to devalue Olom Hazeh. The temptations enter in many ways: bad instruments, entertainments, pleasures. This is what we have to do teshuva about.
