Tisha B’Av- another Zman Charusanu

3 Replies

I’ve been thinking over the past few days about certain similarities between Pesach and Tisha B’Av.
This all started because I really wasn’t so sure if I wanted to even post prior to Tisha B’Av this year. I have written about the day here and also here. I felt that I really didn’t have much else to write. We all agree that it’s the saddest day in our history. The events that took place are, in essence, the source for our state of Golus today. I think most of us get the idea. And if we don’t then that’s part of the problem.
I then realized that if I had taken this attitude towards other days, for example, Pesach, then I would have been very disconnected to Torah Judaism on a very personal level. I then began to think about several connections between Pesach and Tishah B’Av. I’ll list a few minor ones and then the major connection that has been plaguing me. These are all pretty basic ideas…

  • Eating- On Pesach we have postive mitzvos to eat certain foods, to help bring our guf to an elevated level. On Tishah B’Av it’s the mitzvah not to eat that only reminds us that we cannot enjoy eating an karbonos due to not having a Beis HaMikdash.
  • How we carry ourselves- On Pesach we sit at the seder like royalty. We emphasis the idea that we are ‘free’ people. On Tishah B’Av we are broken. We sit on the floor, we don’t really worry about our appearance.
  • Formulated readings- On Pesach we have our Haggadah that pretty much gives us a structured dialogue for the evening(s). On Tishah B’Av we filter our feelings through the reading of Kinnos.
  • National expression- On Pesach, we celebrate the birth of becoming a nation. We left Mitzrayim as a nation in order to receive the Torah as a nation, with the hope of fullfilling that Torah in our national homeland. On Tishah B’Av we mourn our national tragidies. The loss of our nation’s Holy Temples and our nationwide exile.
  • Personal expression- On Pesach we are to feel as if we ourselves left Egypt. On Tishah B’Av we must feel a personal loss and responsibility for doing our upmost to end our Golus.

Lastly, there is the concept that Pesach is our Zman Charusanu-our time of freedom. We were taken out of slavery so that we could chose to follow Hashem. It is that same freedom of choice (bechira) that our own downfall.
Our Sages, of blessed memory, state (Yoma 9b): “Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of the follow three sins that occurred there: idol worship, immorality, and murder. Yet, in the period of the Second Temple, they were involved in Torah study, mitzvos, and acts of kindness-so why was it destroyed? As a result of the baseless hatred that was there. Rebbi Yochanan and Rebbi Eliezer both said, ‘Since concerning the First Temple, their trangressions were revealed-their time of redemption was revealed. In the Second Temple, where their sins were not revealed-their time of redemption was not revealed.’”
It was us. Plain and simple. This power of choice, this freedom to serve Hashem only works if we want it to. Hashem’s connection to us is based on how close we want it to be. It’s the three Big Ones and Sinas Chinom that distanced us and ultimately sent us into Golus.
I see it in myself. When I choose to really attach myself to a vibrant active relationship with Hashem I am a much happier person. When I chose not to, well, I end up being not so happy.
In the end, it’s all about the choices we each make. May this be the last year we sit close to the ground on Tishah B’Av.

A Sweet Deal on Sefrei Kodesh

2 Replies
(Photo from istockphoto.com)


In Rebbetzin Jungreis’ book LIFE IS A TEST there is story on page 117 about Piazeczna Rebbe, Harav Kalonymous Kalman Shapiro, zt”l. The story tells about how after the Holocaust a manuscript of the Rebbe’s D’vrei Torah was found in among the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto by “a young Polish boy who sold it to an American soldier for a bar of chocolate. The soldier was not Jewish, but he recognized the Hebrew writing, and he handed it over to the Jewish chaplain of his unit.”*

The Piazecnza’s manuscripts were written during the war. They are some of the only collected works that survived. For sure, they were worth more that a bar of chocolate.

We tend to put a value on things based on our needs at the time. There are time that I choose what I want to do over what I need to do.
For some, papers or books written in Hebrew seem to hold less importance than the “Great American Chocolate Bar”. Others put work over family, or family over work. If we only knew the value of what we each have? If only we could recognize what value Hashem places in each of us?

I believe it was the Vilna Gaon who said that for the cost of a few coins one can purchase tzitzis and have the zechus to constantly serve Hashem.

* Rabbi Polen has a slightly different version of the story in The Holy Fire.

Community Internet Safety Program in Chicago

5 Replies

This Sunday the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago are sponsoring an internet awareness program this Sunday, July 8, at Congregation KINS in West Rogers Park. Discover strategies to set up a safe environment for internet use. The program starts at 7:45 PM. Mincha will be at 7:30 PM.
For more information feel free to contact the ATT at (773) 973-2828.

Totally seperate note:
A Simple Jew asks himself an important question.

Get inside yourself

9 Replies

There’s an interesting online personality test available here. Among the things it sheds light on are the ways we communicate and how we learn. I found it to be pretty on target with how I see myself.


I’m curious how well a blogger’s personality matches their blog in regards to this study?
Let me know what you think, if inclined.

What sits on my bookshelf

12 Replies

I never met my paternal grandfather. I do share his name, Solomon (which is my middle name in English, Zorach in Hebrew). Then about 8 years ago my father brought me a collection of ‘Jewish books’ that were owned by my grandfather.

The collection includes:
A machzorim set printed in Austria in 1889
A linear Chumash printed in 1905A set of Mikros Gedolos from 1889
A siddur (Hebrew-English) printed in Austria in 1857
And a set of Graetz’s History of the Jews printed in 1895 (which if you know anything about Rav Hirsch, he had colorful history with the author)

I usually use the machzorim for at least on davening during any given Yom Tov.
Once in a while I’ll open the siddur and daven from it. When I do use the siddur or the machzorim I admit, I feel some kind of connecting to something. Maybe it’s just because they have been in my family for a long period of time. Maybe it’s because I am looking for some connection on any level.

It does blow my mind that because these seforim haven’t been opened or used in the longest time. I’m the first Torah observant person on either side of my family in at least three generations.

On April 15 of this year my son came home with his first Chumash and the homework that came along with it. After I listened to him say and translate the first pasuk in Breishis I opened up to the same pasuk in my grandfather’s Mikros Gedolos and let my son read from it. It was an incredible feeling to listen to him read in a sefer that was 118 years old.

I am proud and thankful to have these seforim in my collection and it is a constant reminder that Limud HaTorah spans the generations.

My thanks to A Simple Jew who suggested I write about this topic.

The photo in this post is of several of the seforim mentioned above