"What are we fasting for?" Chazal say: "Every generation in which the Beit Hamikdash (Temple) was not rebuilt is as if it had destroyed it ." (Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma, chapter 1, Halacha 1)

The Beit Hamikdash was the home of G-d in Eretz Yisrael. We paid for our sins, the Lord heard our pleas, and we were close to Him. This year again, we have not experienced the redemption because our generation has not been worthy of the Beit Hamikdash. This is why we cried and are still crying. Troubles are still on the horizon, joining the thousands of decrees we've already undergone.

G-d could have built the Temple this year, even at this very moment, however, He did not. We still don't deserve it. This means that even if Jerusalem had been rebuilt, even if there were a Temple right now, it would have been destroyed again because of our iniquities.

Therefore, we grieve and fast on our own destruction, on the destruction of the Temple, which continues until today, because of our numerous sins. We are fasting and mourning because of this destruction that has taken place and continues to persist. The destruction that marked the beginning of 2000 years of exile and continues to this day. It is the spiritual exile in which we find ourselves today that caused the destruction of our fathers and ourselves. And the pain of all that has been lost, we remember and plead to G-d to forgive His people and restore His glory of old.

On Tisha B'av, we do not only cry about what happened, but also about what is happening right now. We mourn for our sins, we mourn over the fact that the Temple has not been built this year. We cry for the redemption, which has been waiting for us after thousands of years of torment.

The Shoah We Endured

Every year, we postpone its deadline and we simply continue. Today, there is nowhere to go, the memory stands before us, the memory of all that we have experienced. The Shoah and the thousand other tragedies, the pogroms and the massacres, all competed to torment us for thousands and thousands of years of exile. So how can we not cry over Tisha B'av, when the true source of all our problems is not a tragic accident that has taken place and has disappeared, but an event that is still ongoing and to which many other tragedies are connected. Decree after decree, generation after generation, it persists, and no heart can resist the violence of these evils.

On Tisha B'av we cry for all the sufferings of our people during the years of their exile, horrors, pogroms and Shoah. For the destruction of the Temple is the source of all the vicissitudes that the people of Israel have undergone throughout history and continue to do so.

Divine Veiling

Every day, we ask in the Amida: "Bring us back our judges and consultants as it was in the beginning."

Ever since the destruction of the Temple, the prophecy hasn't taken place in Israel. The Sanhedrin, consisting of the 71 elders of Israel, has disappeared. We've lost our greatest relationship with G-d. Today, we are in spiritual darkness, we ask for guidance and direction, we are eager to hear the word of G-d. This explains the breaking of our spiritual connection with G-d that we bemoan and pray for. On this we will continue to be bereaved until Hashem restores His Temple and His prophets.

Do you have difficulty making a living? Trouble finding one’s soulmate? Physical or psychological problems? Your prayers are not answered, etc. All these evils come from the same source: the loss of our direct relationship with the Creator since the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash.

God knows what He does, He does not abandon us, and all He does is for our benefit. But all His purposes have been hidden from us since the beginning of exile. It is this Hester Panim (divine veiling) of which the Torah tells us: "And I will hide My face on this day for all the evil that has been done" (Devarim 31).

When a father is in hiding, he stays there and always protects us, we just don't see him. We've lost our direct link with the Creator. However, we also cry about our own destruction, the divine veiling.

All the difficulties that beset our emunah (belief), all the confusion in the world, all the evil and the heresy that surrounds it, they all have their roots in the spiritual destruction to which we are condemned until the geula (redemption).

On Tisha B'av we cry about the difficulty of connecting to the Torah and the mitzvot as in ancient times, we cry over the unveiled emunah we had and which has disappeared, as we call upon our Father.

There is no day more accurate for commemoration than Tisha B'av. What we need to ask ourselves is not how to cry, but how to stop our tears.

All the pain, whether it comes from material or spiritual suffering, all the divine veiling, all the prayers that have not been answered, all the feelings of closeness that are lost because of our sins and our trials, all this brings together the destruction of the Temple, which in turn is the source of our remoteness, of our sorrows and the judgment that has been bestowed upon us. This is what we wail for and what we want to stop next year.

The philosopher’s misunderstanding: Do We Cry About the Milk that Has Been Spilled?

Here we come to the most important segment. This is the point about which the nations of the world ponder and ask: Why have you been crying for two millennia? Over spilled milk?

A story tells us about the famous philosopher Plato who came from Greece to visit Jerusalem, after the destruction of the first Temple (according to historical sources, Plato indeed travelled to Asia and probably also went to Jerusalem). The story mentions the encounter between philosopher and the prophet Jeremiah, and saw him crying and mourning for the destroyed Temple.

Plato looked at the prophet inquiringly and asked him, "How can a great Jewish sage like you cry over trees and stones? Don't you understand that it is useless to cry about the past?"

Jeremiah asked in return: "You are a philosopher, talk to me about philosophical questions.”

Plato therefore raised complicated issues of philosophy and, having no solution,asked Jeremiah some difficult questions.

To his great surprise, Jeremiah resolved each issue and answered all the philosophical questions in a clear and firm way.

The philosopher, deeply impressed, asked, "Where did you gather this remarkable wisdom from?"

The prophet replied, "This wisdom I draw from the trees and stones I mourn over."

And what about the first question asked by the philosopher?

To this question the prophet Jeremiah replied to Plato: "You asked me how it is possible for a wise man to cry over the past. Unfortunately, I could not answer you because you wouldn't understand the answer!"

The philosopher, despite his great wisdom, was far from having a personal relationship with G-d. For him, G-d is simply "creator of nature and the cosmos". But for us, G-d is our Father, and the nearest entity that is. G-s tells us in the Torah, "You are the children of the Lord your G-d" (Deuteronomy 14).

Note that when we pray, "Hear Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One," we say in the verse that this G-d is our G-d. That same G-d that made us leave Egypt and chose us to be His people.

The great philosopher could not understand a simple thing that every Jewish child feels in his heart. If only we wept enough, all the cries of all generations would converge until our Father fulfils our heartfelt wishes and the Temple is built for us again.

Our sages have transmitted to us: "He who weeps for Jerusalem will deserve to see it in his joy" (Ta'anit 30b).

Anyone who has mourned for the Temple will deserve to truly experience the resurrection when the Temple is rebuilt. Anyone who has cried will deserve salvation and consolation.

This means we do not cry over "spilled milk" (a thing of the past). We cry however for our true and tangible future. Thanks to our mourning, we will deserve a new Temple.

This, the philosopher cannot understand, precisely because he is a philosopher and not a son. We, the sons and daughters of G-d, understand that our prayers will come together. We understand that there is hope in the people of Israel precisely because we plead to G-d as children and not as philosophers. Today we plead to our Father who is in heaven.

NB: Many have sought the source of the story of the famous encounter between Jeremiah and Plato. Apparently, the Rama (Rabbi Moshe Isserles) wrote in his book Torat Haola that the Greek philosopher Plato came to Jerusalem with Nebuchadnezzar. Rav Yaakov Israel Stal searched elsewhere for the source of the complete story of the meeting. He found it published for the first time in the book Gan Yerushalayim (year 659, p.54) of Rabbi Nachman Gedalia Breder from Lithuania, according to a story told by Rabbi Israel Salanter and reported from ancient Roman history.