What are your post Tisha B’Av thoughts?
Appreciation of food?
Listening to music again tomorrow?
Vacation time?
Commitment to do your part in rebuilding the Bais Hamikdash?
Less Loshon Hara and Sinas Chinam?
Countdown to Elul?
Glad the 3 weeks are over?
What else?
Still thinking…
It occurred to me that the sugiya of Kamtza v’bar Kamtza may be misinterpreted and that it has nothing to do with sinat hinam….
The whole Nine Days were a very different experience for me as someone who had ended shloshim (for my father A”H) only days before. It was a little confusing, and as it was the experience was essentially like having six weeks of shloshim. But we certainly had a better understanding, albeit one that came the hard way, of what it feels to be in mourning.
Unfortunately, I am not sure I drew from those feelings in a way that made me feel the churban more acutely. To the contrary, I think, by the end of Tisha B’Av, I mainly was very tired of mourning and still feeling stunned.
It’s stunning losing your father, of course. But perhaps I mean I was drained by this point.
I appreciate that there is no shortage of live and broadcasted shiurim on Tisha B’Av–I attended 2 of them in the afternoon. Still the most kavanah for me came from reading Eicha in english, and some kinnos, and some inspiring videos online. Can’t say why, but as I get older it seems easier to absorb and feel the pain of this day.
BH
After Tisha b’av, i looooong to be in Israel
and wish the galut was the geula. there is kedosha in the land itself…
Judy Resnick-The Neviim and Chazal clearly state that the Beis Hamikdash had assumed the proportions of a segulah for a generation that thought it could act in any way possible and merely rely on the acceptance of a Korban, if the same lacked the proper intent. All of the Mitzvos associated with the Beis HaMikdash relate to being Lifnei HaShem. In the absence of the same, we can only rely on Teshuvah, Tefilah and Torah as the means to be Lifnei HaShem even though we lack the presence of a Beis HaMikdash and a Kohen Gadol.
For me, the big moment comes at 1:05 in the afternoon of the day after, when all of the restrictions of the Nine Days and of the Three Weeks are finally over.
To Steve Brizel #11: Certainly you are correct that we should be grateful that HKB”H vented His fury on a building of stone and spared our lives. The shearis hapleitah generation that survived Churban Europa cried over the death and destruction but was thankful for being personally spared. However, IMHO I would not agree that the Bais Hamikdash had outlived its function, as compared to the Mishkan which only was needed for a specific period of time. There are mitzvos in the Torah which cannot be performed when the Bais Hamikdash is not standing. I don’t know if we can come up with good substitutions for those mitzvos to bring us closer to HKB”H.
A good example is the Korban Pesach. Sure we can bake our Shmurah Matzos on Erev Pesach at the same hour of the day when the Korban Pesach was shechted, and we can sit and learn in Masechta Pesachim about how the Korban Pesach was roasted and the type of wood used for the roasting spit, and we can discuss how the Fourth Question used to be, “On all other nights we eat boiled or roasted meat, but tonight only roasted meat.” Yet nothing substitutes for that actual chunk of roast lamb on the Seder night; lehavdil it’s like a Big Mac with only the bun and the lettuce but no beef. It’s not really the meat itself; it’s the fulfillment of this mitzvah in the Torah which commemorates the taking of the very first Korban Pesach back in Mitzrayim.
I am so thankful to have made it through the fast gracefully. My four kids played beautifully all day, only getting a little bored and cranky at the end. Popsicles fixed that quickly! I read some meaningful books and watched a great shiur from Rabbi YY Jacobson in the middle of the day. You can still see it here: http://theyeshiva.net/Video/View/96. It was also rainy and very unseasonably cool for mid-July. It just felt like a total and meaningful departure from the everyday chaos.
How about the fact that HaShem allowed the Beis HaMikdash to be burned because it had seemingly outlived its purpose and spared the Jewish People, which is one reason according to Chazal and Rishonim as understood by RYBS, that the mood of the afternoon of Tishah B’av shifts from Aveilus to Nechamah? Perhaps, we need to think more about what the function of the Beis HaMikdash, which HaShem didn’t need, but which we could use as a means of expressing our closeness to HaShem. In that sense, I am glad that we again survived the Three Weeks. In that sense, being deprived of music and fleishigs from RC Av is at best a minor deprivarion. As R M Schwerd pointed out last night, one of our main obstacles all year round is not realizing what were the causes of the causes. That IMO should be one of the goals of our Avodah as Elul approaches, as opposed to taking on Kabalos that we won’t be able to fulfil.
Baruch HaShem, it seems that whenever I pray in advance for an easy fast, I always have one.
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Before Maariv at our shul, the rabbi asked the congregants whether it was getting less cloudy out, so as to permit us to say Kiddush Levanah. I had come inside shortly before and noted that it had been getting more cloudy. Someone suggested that if we davened hard enough we’d see the moon anyhow. Towards the end of Maariv, the rabbi sent my son out to check and the moon was visible after all! We came outside after the service, and there was a bright moon, just barely above some thick clouds.
I feel that Tisha B’Av was constructive, as it included going from shiur to shiur to learn about the Bet HaMikdash, and about ways we can improve ourselves to lead better lives and hasten the Geulah/Redemption.
More days with this type of devotion to Torah (in the form of learning and/or chesed activities, etc.) would be of great help to us as a community and as individuals.
Re: music
We adhered to our monthly custom of singing and dancing after Kiddush Levanah last night. (It’s a brief dance with no musical accompaniment).
I’m glad you asked!
I spent 9Av mulling over the following:
The sinat chinam situation looks very grim from where I sit. But maybe that’s not the case! Only Hashem knows how much teshuva needs to be done in this area for us all to merit the geula. Maybe, as the Rambam suggests about teshuva in general, everything in the world could be shifted by MY decision to work on ahavat yisrael.
Jewish unity seems so overwhelming because, seriously, everywhere I look people are acting like jerks. Who wants to love jerks? Not me. But if all it would take to bring the geula is me changing my attitudes, even if no one else changes, I think I can do it.
And who’s to say that’s not the case?
Their are different minhagim re music
Shoshanna,
Music is still forbidden until chatzot on the 10th of Av.
what a nice list of lofty sentiments. While I did watch a number of inspiring videos yesterday, and I was touched. I am overwhelmed and my list of post Tisha B’av sentiments are much more mundane: How am I gonna get all this laundry done? Is this afternoon’s planned swim outing gonna be rained out? What kind of fleishig supper am I going to prepare this evening? The house is always trashed post taanis, and someone has to put it back together. These very practical concerns are what I am thinking about!
Food never tastes so good it does that first day after a fast. All Tisha 1b’Av I had a crazy craving for freshly ground brewed coffee with milk and a piece of sponge cake. When I finally ate it I enjoyed it more than any meal I had all year. Then on my way to work I blasted Benny Friedman’s CD in my car. Music and food! Glorious gifts from Hashem!
I know that the restrictions are lightened as the day of Tisha b’Av progresses into the afternoon, but for some reason every year I feel saddest at the end of the day, in the time between Mincha and Maariv. I think that I haven’t taken the day seriously enough, that I haven’t really cried or felt anguish the way I hear it described in stories from the old country. I feel that it hasn’t really changed me, that I’ve just gone through the motions. And that tends to make me feel really sad.