lack thereof, figure into judging our current state? By way of analogy: Suppose you’re driving from Montreal to New York, passing through the Adirondacks in one of the less inhabited areas, when you suddenly realize that there is someone you need to contact urgently. There is a problem, however. Although you have a cell phone with you, the nearest cell phone tower was recently razed to the ground in a violent act of vandalism by some hooligans. Now, as you take out your phone, you’re left with but the weakest connection. You try to make a call, but the call keeps dropping. When you finally succeed in getting through, the line is full of static, making conversation barely intelligible. You try to send a text message, but are unsure if the message was successfully transmitted. One person might be urgently attempting to contact his business partner, a different person to reach his
spouse. Each traveler in the area has their own story, yet each one suffers the same anxiety and frustration. The Beis Hamikdash did not stand merely as a place of avodah, a place where we could bring korbanos and perform other acts of avodah. The building was not an end unto itself; rather, it served as a portal, a means for us to connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The building is gone, but ultimately, it is not only the building for which we mourn. One without service is certainly quite disturbed by the loss of the cell phone tower, but ultimately, cares not for the tower but for his lack of ability to connect. We, as well, mourn the loss of the physical building, but ultimately, our distress stems not from the lack of the physical structure, but for the lack of our personal ability to connect and speak to
Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Today, when we sit down and attempt to make that call, we are met with frustration. Someone sits down to
So many of our actions feel empty, as if we are just going through the motions without tapping into something deeper. learn a blatt Gemara, and finds himself struggling to get through each piece. He tries and tries, but feels like he’s simply missing that geshmak. A person goes through a tefillah, reciting the whole Shemoneh Esrei, and as he takes three steps, he wonders what just happened. Did I just speak to Hashem? Do
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