Become a Member
Opinion

You Gotta Believe

August 3, 2011 14:59
3 min read

By Rabbi Raymond Beyda {http://torah.org/learning/tabletalk/5765/devarim.html}

Devarim, the last of the 5 books of Moses, contains the words of rebuke and encouragement given by Moses to his people in the last days of his illustrious life. As he tells of the highlights of the Israelite's travels over the 40 years in the desert, the tale of the spies surfaces as a key turning point in the history of our people. At the request of the masses and with the consent of G-d, Moses agrees to send a group of righteous leaders, one from each tribe, to investigate the nature of the Promised Land and its inhabitants. Supposedly, with the information in hand, a strategy for conquering the land would then be devised. But history would not work out as planned. The spies returned with a negative, fear instilling report. ''The land is good, but the inhabitants are just too strong for us to conquer and remove from the land", they announced. The people started to cry and then rebel in spite of the assurances of Yehoshua and Caleb. Hashem in His anger decided to kill off the entire generation during 40 years of wandering in the desert before allowing their children to enter the land as conquerors. "Tonight you cried for no reason" He declared, "therefore, you will cry for generations on this night."

And so it has been for thousands of years --the mazal--luck-- of the Jewish people has been bad on that night-- the night of Tisha B'Ab. The first and the second Temple were destroyed by gentile armies --on Tisha B'Ab. The city of Bitar was raped and pillaged and hundreds of thousands of our gentle brethren were slaughtered on Tisha B'Ab. The Jews were expelled from Spain and England--on the night of Tisha B'Ab. The terrible history of the destruction of Judaism in Europe at the hands of the Nazis y''s, began with the political upheaval of World War I, which, not coincidentally, began on the night of Tisha B'Ab in 1914.

What connection is there between the sin of the spies and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem? What can we do to right the wrong and end the exile that we have been suffering for nearly 2000 years?