Rebuilding the Temple with Devotion
by Rabbi Yehudah Prero
The Fast of the 17th of Tamuz, which marks the beginning of the Three Weeks,
was on Thursday, July 20, 2000. The Fast of the 9th of Av, which concludes the
Three Weeks, begins at sundown on Wednesday, August 9, 2000 and ends at
nightfall on Thursday, August 10, 2000. (For more information on these fast days,
see I:27, 28, 30 and 31.)
One of the reasons why we fast on the 9th of Av stems from an incident
discussed in the Torah portion read a few weeks ago. In the Parsha of
Shelach, we find that Moshe sent spies to scout out the land of Israel, who
were to return to the nation with the status of the land. The spies, instead
of telling about the wondrous sights they witnessed, painted a dark and
dreary picture, and spoke of how attempting to enter the land would end in
disaster. The nation became despondent and lost faith in Hashem, although He
had promised the nation that they would enter into the land. Because the
nation wept unnecessarily, they were punished: they would have to wander in
the desert for 40 years, and males above the age of 20 at the time the
incident occurred would not enter into the land of Israel. This decree, which
led to deaths every year on the date it was issued, occurred on the 9th of
Av. Since then, the 9th of Av has remained a day of weeping.
What was it that caused the spies to sin against G-d, and present a highly
negative opinion of the land of Israel to the nation? The verses seem to
explicitly spell out why G-d was angry with spies (Bamidbar 14:11): "And the
Hashem said to Moshe, . . . And how long will it be before they believe me,
for all the signs which I have shown among them?" The spies did not trust in
G-d, and hence they feared the worst would befall them should they enter the
land of Israel. Their opinion of the land was colored with lack of faith,
which led them to relate only negative aspects of the land. Had their faith
in G-d's word been solid, they would have related the unbiased truth: it was
a beautiful and desirous land to live in.
However, a verse elsewhere in the Torah gives a different reason behind the
sin of the spies. In Bamidbar, the Torah states (26: 63): "These are those
who were counted by Moshe and Eleazar the priest, who counted the people of
Israel in the plains of Moav by the Jordan near Jericho. But among these
there was not a man of them whom Moshe and Aharon the priest counted, when
they counted the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, for the Hashem
had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not
left a man of them, save Calev the son of Yephunneh, and Yehoshua the son of
Nun."
The verses say "but among these there was not a man." The commentator Rashi
explains that the use of the term "man" in this instance teaches us a lesson.
Only the men died. The women were not punished because they loved the land of
Israel. The explanation of Rashi implies that the men were punished because
they did not love the land of Israel. This view is borne out in Tehillim,
(Psalms 106), which states: "Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not
understand your wonders; They forgot God who had saved them, who had done
great things in Egypt; And they despised the pleasant land, they did not
believe his word." It appears from here that the sin of the spies was not
that they failed to believe in G-d. Their fatal flaw was in their lack of
love for the land of Israel.
However, when one analyzes the reasons the spies gave for not entering the
land of Israel, it is difficult to find lack of love for the land underlying
them all. They said "the people, who live in the land, are strong, and the
cities are walled, and very great . . . The Amalekites live in the land of
the Negev; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, live in the
mountains; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and by the side of the Jordan
. . . We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger
than us." Their concern appears to be for the safety of the nation, a
concern, which if they had proper trust in G-d, would not be any cause for
worry and would not need to be voiced. However, Rashi and Tehillim do connect
a lack of love for the land of Israel with the sin of the spies. How exactly
was this lack of love manifested?
R' Avrohom Pam, in Sefer Atarah L'Melech, writes that a passage in the Talmud
(Bava Basra 142b) sheds light on this issue. The Talmud says there: R.
Yitzchak said in the name of R. Yochanan: If possession was given to an
embryo [through the agency of a third party] it does not acquire ownership.
And if objection [to this law] should be raised from our Mishnah [which, in
the context of father and child implies otherwise], [it may be replied that
there it is different] because a person is favorably disposed towards his
son." Why is it that the laws of agency differ when a father is acting as his
unborn child's agent, as opposed to any other individual?
Rav Pam writes that he heard the answer once from a great man. An unborn
child faces many challenges. The child must first survive gestation, and then
birth. Once the child is born, if he fails to thrive, he may not properly
develop and he may not survive. Because of all of these trials and
tribulations, an individual does not have completeness of thought when acting
as an agent for an unborn child. Doubts exist, and therefore the finality of
the transaction that must exist in the agent's mind for proper effectuation
is simply not present. However, a father, a parent, has an entirely different
perspective on his child's future. Because of the great love a father has for
a child, he never doubts that his child will live and thrive. He sees his
unborn child as an actuality, and therefore when he acts as his child's
agent, he does it with a completeness of mind and the finality needed to
effectuate the transaction.
The spies lacked faith in G-d. Their lack of faith and resulting expression
thereof was their sin. Underlying this lack of faith was a lack of love for
the land. If the spies truly loved the land of Israel and desired to live
there, any doubts or worries about their ability to conquer the land would
have dissipated. Their drive to live in the land out of their love should
have been so strong that nothing would stand in their way. They would have
clearly believed that G-d would help them, and despair and gloom would not
have set in. Just as a father "knows" that his unborn child will survive, so
too should the spies have "known" that they would enter the land,
notwithstanding potential roadblocks. They did not have the requisite love,
and they therefore did not have requisite faith in G-d.
This lack of love for Israel, this lack of drive, had effects that we feel
nowadays. The sin of the spies started the association between the 9th day of
Av and calamities. The Talmud Yerushalmi writes that every generation in
which the Temple, which was destroyed on the 9th of Av, is not rebuilt,
should consider itself as if the Temple was destroyed in its days. We mourn
the loss of the Temple on the 9th of Av. However, do we yearn for the Temple
to the extent that we have a drive to improve so that we should merit it
being rebuilt? Do we feel the spiritual void that exists and therefore strive
to perfect our character, to deal with our fellow man properly in business
and social relationships, to adhere to G-d's commandments and study His Torah
with faith and devotion? If we do not attempt to better ourselves, we show,
as the spies did, a lack of love for G-d's Temple, His Bais HaMikdosh. We
would be just as responsible for the destruction of the Temple as the
generation in which it was destroyed.
May we truly merit to see the rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdosh, speedily, in
our days.
Check out all of the posts on The Three Weeks: 17 Tammuz - 9 Av Mourning the Destruction. Head over to
http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/ to access the YomTov Page. Then click on the icon for the holiday of your choice.
For questions, comments, and topic requests, please write to Rabbi Yehudah Prero.
