When the Cracks Appear, Let the Light Enter
As One Home Was Being Destroyed, Another One Was Being Built
- August 9, 2019
- |
- 8 Av 5779
Rabbi YY Jacobson
3828 views
When the Cracks Appear, Let the Light Enter
As One Home Was Being Destroyed, Another One Was Being Built
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- August 9, 2019
The Jewish Contractor
A building contractor wants some quotes to build two flats.
The Irishman builder quotes $500,000.
"How did you arrive at that figure?" asked the contractor.
"Easy,” he says. “$200,000 for labor, and $300,000 for materials.”
The Scottish builder quotes $600,000. “$300,000 for labor and $300,000 for materials.”
The Jewish builder quotes $1 million.
The contractor says, "how did arrive at that figure?"
"Easy." says the Jewish builder: “$250,000 for you, $250,000 for me, and we will get the Irishman to do the job.
Confronting the Cracks in My Life
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a great and loving father. But now your children are older, and they want nothing to do with you. How do you deal with it?
The answer may lay in the story of Tisha B’Av.
Contradicting Mainstream Judaism?
Ask a Jew who professes basic Jewish knowledge, why is this Shabbos called “Shabbos Chazon”? He will tell you it is because of the opening of the Haftorah with the words “Chazon Yeshayahu,” the vision of Isaiah, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem.
This Haftorah and vision are perhaps the harshest Haftorah we read throughout the year, where Isaiah, for the very first time, prophesizes the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire country following the moral degeneration of Israel:
“An ox knows his owner and a donkey his master's trough; only Israel does not know Me [1]… Your land is desolate; your cities burnt with fire [2]… Alas! How has the faithful city [Jerusalem] become a harlot?!; once full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now filled with murderers![3]...”
Now, ask the same question to a Chassidic Jew. Why is this Shabbos called the Shabbos of Vision? He will give you a very different answer, presented by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (Ukraine, 1740-1809), one of the most inspiring and beloved of the early Chassidic Masters. He taught: It is on this Shabbos that every single Jew is shown a vision, a mini-prophecy if you will, of the third and future Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
Hardly can you find two interpretations more contradictory. Which one is it? A vision of destruction or a vision of rebuilding? Have the Chassidim altered Judaism yet "again?"
How can the Rebbe of Barditchev interpret the very same name for the same Shabbos in complete contradiction to the actual reason the Shabbos was named? Is this a Shabbos of Isaiah’s vision of destruction, or the Barditchever’s vision of hope? Are we commemorating the tragic end of the First (and Second) Temple, or are we imagining the Third one? How can the Chassidic Rebbe come along and present an idea that although romantic, contradicts and distorts the actual facts?
The Grunt of a Cow
There is a strange Talmudic tale:[4]
On the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, a Jew was plowing his field when his cow suddenly mooed loudly. An Arab was passing by and heard the mooing of the cow. This Arab understood the language of animals. The Arab said to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Unyoke your cow, free the stake of your plow, for your Holy Temple has now been destroyed!"
The cow then lowed a second time. Said the Arab to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Yoke your cow, reset the stake of your plow, for the Redeemer has now been born...."
What does this mean? If Moshiach was born when the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE, where is he?[5] Where has he been hiding all these years? How old is he today?[6]
The Legalities of Destruction
We will understand this by raising another question.
It is a well-known dictum in Judaism, that G-d is, so to speak, “bound” by Jewish law. (This is derived in the Midrash[7] from the verse in Psalms, “He shares His words with Jacob, His laws and statues with Israel.”[8] These are also His laws which oblige Him.) This raises a major question:
It is a biblical prohibition to destroy the Holy Temple or any part of it. In the words of the great legal codifier of Judaism, Maimonides: "It is forbidden to smash a single stone of the Altar or the Temple or the Temple courtyard in a destructive manner ... as it says, '...You shall not do so to the Lord your G-d.'"[9] It is similarly forbidden to destroy any synagogue, which is a home of G-d.
[Even during the tragic expulsion of Gush Katif in the summer of 2005, notwithstanding the cruelty of banishing people from the homes and businesses they built with sweat, blood, and tears, only allowing Gaza to become Hamastan, still the Israeli Government did not have the audacity to destroy the synagogues there, and many of will remember the horrific images of the Arabs desecrating and burning them afterward.]
How, then, could G-d destroy the Holy Temple—a clear violation of Jewish law?
To be sure, the actual burning of the first Temple was done by the armies of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, and the Second Temple by the Roman legions of Vespasian. Yet G-d does take full responsibility for the deed. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Behold, I shall dispatch the nations of the north ... and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, My servant, and I shall bring them upon this land and its inhabitants... I shall deliver this city in the hands of the king of Babylonia...."[10]Despite their vicious intentions, G-d has used them as His instruments to destroy the Temple, an act seemingly forbidden by Jewish law. If the Jews were undeserving of this unique structure, the spiritual epicenter of the universe, the Temple could have been dismantled and hidden (similar to Moses’ Sanctuary), or the Jews simply expelled from it. What was the justification for G-d to destroy it completely?
Renovation
The answer is profound. There is only one way in which it is permissible to destroy a synagogue: When the purpose is to rebuild the synagogue in the very same location. Why?
Explain the Halachik commentators, because in this case "the demolition is itself an act of building."[11] When you are destroying a synagogue to rebuild it elsewhere, you are doing an act of destruction, even if your intention is to rebuild it elsewhere. But if you are destroying a synagogue in order to rebuild it in this very place, then the very demolition is not an act of destruction, but rather the beginning of renovation. For all renovations consist of two phases: the demolition of the old and the construction of the new. You can’t build the new if you don’t remove the old.
So it was with G-d's destruction of the Holy Temple: The demolition itself was the beginning of a renovation of the Third Temple to be built in its very space. What was missing with these Temples?
The Zohar, the “Bible” of Kabbalah, explains [12] that the first two Temples were edifices built by human hands, and thus subject to the mortality of everything human. Just as man is by definition limited, all of his accomplishments and feats are limited, and hence they were both destroyed.[13] Only by destroying the human Temples was the groundwork laid for a Temple that defies the limits of human mortality, a Temple built by G-d Himself, and therefore indestructible.
To make room for a Divine structure, the human structure had to be demolished. The demolition itself was the first phase in the construction of the third and eternal Temple.
Yet, G-d, it seems, is a classic Jewish contractor. It is taking Him a while to get the job completed… The old structure was demolished; the erection of the new one is taking far too much time.
The Structure of Marriage
Let us apply this idea to our own lives. Let me provide three examples.
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You can see them as the end of a bright and blissful era. Now, boredom, anger and mistrust will come to replace the romance and affection of the past. But there is another deeper and truer perspective: The crocks are the beginning of the renovation of the marriage.
Renovation by definition consists of two phases: demolition and rebuilding. When something is being destroyed you can see it as destruction, or you can see it as creating the space for the new. The cracks in your marriage are what allow you to transform your marriage from a human temporary structure into a Divine and eternal structure.
The problem of the marriage was that it was merely a human structure, based on human subjective love and romance. But despite the passion that was so intense, humans are temperamental, their feelings and passions fluctuate and are subject to change. Last year I was crazy about you; today I am uninterested. A relationship founded on the pillars of human emotions alone is likely to develop crocks of all sorts.
When the cracks appear, it is an opportunity to renovate your marriage. Now you are called to rebuild your relationship and cast it upon new foundations. Now it is time to recreate your relationship as a Divine institution.
It is not only that our hearts are drawn to each other, for that can change quite easily. Rather, we are both committed to the sacred and Divine institution of marriage, transcending our own egos and our own subjective emotions. We both realize that there is something Divine at stake in our relationship and we are committed to this sacred structure. The very cracks in your relationship are thus redefined as the beginning of its renovation.
Awakening the Inner Entrepreneur
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You can see it as a horrible destruction of your career. But you can also see it differently: The very demolition of your perceived financial future may contain within itself the opportunity of a new and much greater future. Maybe it’s time to go independent. Maybe it is time to confront certain issues you were scared to confront.
If not for this crisis, you could have deceived yourself much longer. Maybe it’s time to allow yourself to dream far bigger and allowing your true Divine potential to emerge in all its might. The breakdown, then, is the birth of a new grand idea.
Failure as a Solution
A young chemist had been working for some time at developing a new bonding agent, a glue. After years of hardship, the work was complete. He tried it out. It did not stick. What is the use of glue that does not stick? Most people would have called this a failure, a disappointment. Time wasted. Effort spent in vain. The young chemist thought otherwise.
Instead of deciding that his work was a failure, he asked, “What if it is a success? What if I have discovered a solution? The only thing left to do is to find the problem.”
He refused to give up. He kept asking himself, “What is the use of an underachieving adhesive?” Eventually, he found it. It became a huge commercial success. They're little and they stick — but not too hard. That is how the “Post-It” Notes were invented!
When something bad happens we can see it as a failure or, as the chemist, we can make it a success. Whatever our fate, we always have a choice between seeing it as a crushing tragedy devoid of meaning, or as a tragedy which contains the seeds of something profoundly positive.
All rebuilding is painful. To demolish a house is never fun. Lots of work, rubble, and headaches. But it is crucial if you want a new, big, and beautiful abode.
Happiness
Another example is happiness. You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You may become overtaken by despair. But there is another perspective: These cracks in your sense of “self” will allow you to rebuild your inner core. Till now your confidence came from external accolades and approval, hence it was vulnerable and weak, now it must come from your true core identity.
The same is true with every breakdown in life. When one door closes, another one opens. We only need the courage to notice the new opening and enter it.
What Do You See?
Now we will understand the Talmudic story about the double mooing of the cow, the first one expressing the destruction of the Holy Temple, and the second one expressing the birth of Moshiach. These were not two detached occurrences: one, the burning of the Temple, and the other—the birth of Moshiach.
Rather, the two events were essentially one and the same. The very destruction of the Temple was also the birth of redemption.
The demolition of the Holy Temple could be seen in two ways, and they are both true: The Temple was going up in flames, and the house of G-d was disappearing. Yet within this very painful and horrific reality of destruction, one can see another drama unfolding: The Third Temple was beginning to be built! The destruction of the “human structure” was opening the space for a “Divine structure.”
These two perspectives on the very same reality gave rise to two sentiments within Jewish consciousness: a sense of profound pain and grief, articulated in the institution of a collective day of mourning, the 9th of Av; and an unwavering hope and faith in the future redemption.
So the interpretation of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchov that on Shabbos Chazon we see the third Temple was not contradictory to its simple meaning that on this Shabbos we study Isaiah’s vision of the destruction of the Temple. In gazing at the very destruction, we can see the beginning of the renovation of the third Temple.
It is this perspective that captures the underlying “plot” behind Jewish history. It was this vision that allowed our people to emerge from every crisis stronger. They refused to give up their belief that darkness was heralding a new dawn, and that the cracks were an invitation for a new light to come in.[14]
[1] Isaiah 1:1
[2] Verse 7
[3] Verse 21
[4] Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 2:4
[5] Interestingly, this piece of Talmud was presented by the Christians in Spain in 1263 in the public disputation they imposed on the Jews. The debate was initiated in Barcelona by an apostate Jew, Pablo Christiani, and the famed Spanish Jewish sage Nachmanadies (Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman), himself an elderly man, was forced to participate. This story was brought as ‘proof’ that the Messiah had already come as the Christians believe, and the Ramban discussed it at length. He easily refuted this proof by showing that either way their Messiah was long dead by the year 70, and was also born around the year 0, 70 years earlier!
[6] Furthermore, this Talmudic story is brought down in Halacha, Jewish law, as the reason why in the afternoon of Tisha B’av the mourning becomes less intense, since Moshiach was born on the day of the destruction. But was Moshiach really born then? What does this mean?
[7] Shemos Rabah 30:9.
[8] 147:19.
[9] Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple 1:17
[10] Jeremiah 25:9, 32:3 and 7:14
[11] See all the references in Likkutei Sichos vol. 29 pp. 12-13.
[12] Zohar vol. 3 221a. Cf. Zohar vol. 1 28a.
[13] Although G-d came to dwell in the work of man, nonetheless, the work of man can be corrupted by the deeds of man, which eventually drove the Divine presence from its earthly abode.
[14] This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shabbos Parshas Devarim, 5740, July 19, 1980. Published in Likkutei Sichos, vol. 29, pp. 9-17.
- Comment
Class Summary:
Ask a learned Jew why is this Shabbos called “Shabbos Chazon”? He will tell you it is because of the opening of the Haftorah with the words “Chazon Yeshayahu,” the vision of Isaiah, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem. Now ask the same question to a Chassidic Jew. He will give you a very different answer: it is because on this Shabbos we have a vision of the third Temple. Hardly can you find two interpretations more contradictory. Which one is it? A vision of destruction or a vision of rebuilding? Have the Chassidim changed Judaism yet again?
The Talmud tells the story of the Arab who understood the language of animals. One day, when he heard the mooing of a cow, he said: The Jerusalem Temple just went up in flames. When the same cow mooed once more, the Arab said: Moshiach was just born. What does this mean? Was the Messiah born right after the destruction of the Holy Temple?
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. How do you deal with it?
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
There are two ways: One is, you see it as the end of a bright era. Another way is you see it as the painful beginning of a new and yet brighter era. Both perspectives are legitimate. Demolition destroys the old structure, but it also opens the space for a new one. The cracks herald the destruction of the old, but also create the space for a new light to shine through. It is this truth which captures the essence of what it means to be a Jew and the secret “plot” behind Jewish history.
Dedicated by Menachem Yisroel Abrams in honor of his family: David Chai, Moshe, Dvora, Menashe Chaim, Bracha Esther, Rachel, Yenon, Batya, Liev David, Mazal Yishua, Ayala & Emma.
The Jewish Contractor
A building contractor wants some quotes to build two flats.
The Irishman builder quotes $500,000.
"How did you arrive at that figure?" asked the contractor.
"Easy,” he says. “$200,000 for labor, and $300,000 for materials.”
The Scottish builder quotes $600,000. “$300,000 for labor and $300,000 for materials.”
The Jewish builder quotes $1 million.
The contractor says, "how did arrive at that figure?"
"Easy." says the Jewish builder: “$250,000 for you, $250,000 for me, and we will get the Irishman to do the job.
Confronting the Cracks in My Life
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a great and loving father. But now your children are older, and they want nothing to do with you. How do you deal with it?
The answer may lay in the story of Tisha B’Av.
Contradicting Mainstream Judaism?
Ask a Jew who professes basic Jewish knowledge, why is this Shabbos called “Shabbos Chazon”? He will tell you it is because of the opening of the Haftorah with the words “Chazon Yeshayahu,” the vision of Isaiah, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem.
This Haftorah and vision are perhaps the harshest Haftorah we read throughout the year, where Isaiah, for the very first time, prophesizes the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire country following the moral degeneration of Israel:
“An ox knows his owner and a donkey his master's trough; only Israel does not know Me [1]… Your land is desolate; your cities burnt with fire [2]… Alas! How has the faithful city [Jerusalem] become a harlot?!; once full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now filled with murderers![3]...”
Now, ask the same question to a Chassidic Jew. Why is this Shabbos called the Shabbos of Vision? He will give you a very different answer, presented by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (Ukraine, 1740-1809), one of the most inspiring and beloved of the early Chassidic Masters. He taught: It is on this Shabbos that every single Jew is shown a vision, a mini-prophecy if you will, of the third and future Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
Hardly can you find two interpretations more contradictory. Which one is it? A vision of destruction or a vision of rebuilding? Have the Chassidim altered Judaism yet "again?"
How can the Rebbe of Barditchev interpret the very same name for the same Shabbos in complete contradiction to the actual reason the Shabbos was named? Is this a Shabbos of Isaiah’s vision of destruction, or the Barditchever’s vision of hope? Are we commemorating the tragic end of the First (and Second) Temple, or are we imagining the Third one? How can the Chassidic Rebbe come along and present an idea that although romantic, contradicts and distorts the actual facts?
The Grunt of a Cow
There is a strange Talmudic tale:[4]
On the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, a Jew was plowing his field when his cow suddenly mooed loudly. An Arab was passing by and heard the mooing of the cow. This Arab understood the language of animals. The Arab said to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Unyoke your cow, free the stake of your plow, for your Holy Temple has now been destroyed!"
The cow then lowed a second time. Said the Arab to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Yoke your cow, reset the stake of your plow, for the Redeemer has now been born...."
What does this mean? If Moshiach was born when the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE, where is he?[5] Where has he been hiding all these years? How old is he today?[6]
The Legalities of Destruction
We will understand this by raising another question.
It is a well-known dictum in Judaism, that G-d is, so to speak, “bound” by Jewish law. (This is derived in the Midrash[7] from the verse in Psalms, “He shares His words with Jacob, His laws and statues with Israel.”[8] These are also His laws which oblige Him.) This raises a major question:
It is a biblical prohibition to destroy the Holy Temple or any part of it. In the words of the great legal codifier of Judaism, Maimonides: "It is forbidden to smash a single stone of the Altar or the Temple or the Temple courtyard in a destructive manner ... as it says, '...You shall not do so to the Lord your G-d.'"[9] It is similarly forbidden to destroy any synagogue, which is a home of G-d.
[Even during the tragic expulsion of Gush Katif in the summer of 2005, notwithstanding the cruelty of banishing people from the homes and businesses they built with sweat, blood, and tears, only allowing Gaza to become Hamastan, still the Israeli Government did not have the audacity to destroy the synagogues there, and many of will remember the horrific images of the Arabs desecrating and burning them afterward.]
How, then, could G-d destroy the Holy Temple—a clear violation of Jewish law?
To be sure, the actual burning of the first Temple was done by the armies of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, and the Second Temple by the Roman legions of Vespasian. Yet G-d does take full responsibility for the deed. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Behold, I shall dispatch the nations of the north ... and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, My servant, and I shall bring them upon this land and its inhabitants... I shall deliver this city in the hands of the king of Babylonia...."[10]Despite their vicious intentions, G-d has used them as His instruments to destroy the Temple, an act seemingly forbidden by Jewish law. If the Jews were undeserving of this unique structure, the spiritual epicenter of the universe, the Temple could have been dismantled and hidden (similar to Moses’ Sanctuary), or the Jews simply expelled from it. What was the justification for G-d to destroy it completely?
Renovation
The answer is profound. There is only one way in which it is permissible to destroy a synagogue: When the purpose is to rebuild the synagogue in the very same location. Why?
Explain the Halachik commentators, because in this case "the demolition is itself an act of building."[11] When you are destroying a synagogue to rebuild it elsewhere, you are doing an act of destruction, even if your intention is to rebuild it elsewhere. But if you are destroying a synagogue in order to rebuild it in this very place, then the very demolition is not an act of destruction, but rather the beginning of renovation. For all renovations consist of two phases: the demolition of the old and the construction of the new. You can’t build the new if you don’t remove the old.
So it was with G-d's destruction of the Holy Temple: The demolition itself was the beginning of a renovation of the Third Temple to be built in its very space. What was missing with these Temples?
The Zohar, the “Bible” of Kabbalah, explains [12] that the first two Temples were edifices built by human hands, and thus subject to the mortality of everything human. Just as man is by definition limited, all of his accomplishments and feats are limited, and hence they were both destroyed.[13] Only by destroying the human Temples was the groundwork laid for a Temple that defies the limits of human mortality, a Temple built by G-d Himself, and therefore indestructible.
To make room for a Divine structure, the human structure had to be demolished. The demolition itself was the first phase in the construction of the third and eternal Temple.
Yet, G-d, it seems, is a classic Jewish contractor. It is taking Him a while to get the job completed… The old structure was demolished; the erection of the new one is taking far too much time.
The Structure of Marriage
Let us apply this idea to our own lives. Let me provide three examples.
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You can see them as the end of a bright and blissful era. Now, boredom, anger and mistrust will come to replace the romance and affection of the past. But there is another deeper and truer perspective: The crocks are the beginning of the renovation of the marriage.
Renovation by definition consists of two phases: demolition and rebuilding. When something is being destroyed you can see it as destruction, or you can see it as creating the space for the new. The cracks in your marriage are what allow you to transform your marriage from a human temporary structure into a Divine and eternal structure.
The problem of the marriage was that it was merely a human structure, based on human subjective love and romance. But despite the passion that was so intense, humans are temperamental, their feelings and passions fluctuate and are subject to change. Last year I was crazy about you; today I am uninterested. A relationship founded on the pillars of human emotions alone is likely to develop crocks of all sorts.
When the cracks appear, it is an opportunity to renovate your marriage. Now you are called to rebuild your relationship and cast it upon new foundations. Now it is time to recreate your relationship as a Divine institution.
It is not only that our hearts are drawn to each other, for that can change quite easily. Rather, we are both committed to the sacred and Divine institution of marriage, transcending our own egos and our own subjective emotions. We both realize that there is something Divine at stake in our relationship and we are committed to this sacred structure. The very cracks in your relationship are thus redefined as the beginning of its renovation.
Awakening the Inner Entrepreneur
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You can see it as a horrible destruction of your career. But you can also see it differently: The very demolition of your perceived financial future may contain within itself the opportunity of a new and much greater future. Maybe it’s time to go independent. Maybe it is time to confront certain issues you were scared to confront.
If not for this crisis, you could have deceived yourself much longer. Maybe it’s time to allow yourself to dream far bigger and allowing your true Divine potential to emerge in all its might. The breakdown, then, is the birth of a new grand idea.
Failure as a Solution
A young chemist had been working for some time at developing a new bonding agent, a glue. After years of hardship, the work was complete. He tried it out. It did not stick. What is the use of glue that does not stick? Most people would have called this a failure, a disappointment. Time wasted. Effort spent in vain. The young chemist thought otherwise.
Instead of deciding that his work was a failure, he asked, “What if it is a success? What if I have discovered a solution? The only thing left to do is to find the problem.”
He refused to give up. He kept asking himself, “What is the use of an underachieving adhesive?” Eventually, he found it. It became a huge commercial success. They're little and they stick — but not too hard. That is how the “Post-It” Notes were invented!
When something bad happens we can see it as a failure or, as the chemist, we can make it a success. Whatever our fate, we always have a choice between seeing it as a crushing tragedy devoid of meaning, or as a tragedy which contains the seeds of something profoundly positive.
All rebuilding is painful. To demolish a house is never fun. Lots of work, rubble, and headaches. But it is crucial if you want a new, big, and beautiful abode.
Happiness
Another example is happiness. You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You may become overtaken by despair. But there is another perspective: These cracks in your sense of “self” will allow you to rebuild your inner core. Till now your confidence came from external accolades and approval, hence it was vulnerable and weak, now it must come from your true core identity.
The same is true with every breakdown in life. When one door closes, another one opens. We only need the courage to notice the new opening and enter it.
What Do You See?
Now we will understand the Talmudic story about the double mooing of the cow, the first one expressing the destruction of the Holy Temple, and the second one expressing the birth of Moshiach. These were not two detached occurrences: one, the burning of the Temple, and the other—the birth of Moshiach.
Rather, the two events were essentially one and the same. The very destruction of the Temple was also the birth of redemption.
The demolition of the Holy Temple could be seen in two ways, and they are both true: The Temple was going up in flames, and the house of G-d was disappearing. Yet within this very painful and horrific reality of destruction, one can see another drama unfolding: The Third Temple was beginning to be built! The destruction of the “human structure” was opening the space for a “Divine structure.”
These two perspectives on the very same reality gave rise to two sentiments within Jewish consciousness: a sense of profound pain and grief, articulated in the institution of a collective day of mourning, the 9th of Av; and an unwavering hope and faith in the future redemption.
So the interpretation of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchov that on Shabbos Chazon we see the third Temple was not contradictory to its simple meaning that on this Shabbos we study Isaiah’s vision of the destruction of the Temple. In gazing at the very destruction, we can see the beginning of the renovation of the third Temple.
It is this perspective that captures the underlying “plot” behind Jewish history. It was this vision that allowed our people to emerge from every crisis stronger. They refused to give up their belief that darkness was heralding a new dawn, and that the cracks were an invitation for a new light to come in.[14]
[1] Isaiah 1:1
[2] Verse 7
[3] Verse 21
[4] Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 2:4
[5] Interestingly, this piece of Talmud was presented by the Christians in Spain in 1263 in the public disputation they imposed on the Jews. The debate was initiated in Barcelona by an apostate Jew, Pablo Christiani, and the famed Spanish Jewish sage Nachmanadies (Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman), himself an elderly man, was forced to participate. This story was brought as ‘proof’ that the Messiah had already come as the Christians believe, and the Ramban discussed it at length. He easily refuted this proof by showing that either way their Messiah was long dead by the year 70, and was also born around the year 0, 70 years earlier!
[6] Furthermore, this Talmudic story is brought down in Halacha, Jewish law, as the reason why in the afternoon of Tisha B’av the mourning becomes less intense, since Moshiach was born on the day of the destruction. But was Moshiach really born then? What does this mean?
[7] Shemos Rabah 30:9.
[8] 147:19.
[9] Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple 1:17
[10] Jeremiah 25:9, 32:3 and 7:14
[11] See all the references in Likkutei Sichos vol. 29 pp. 12-13.
[12] Zohar vol. 3 221a. Cf. Zohar vol. 1 28a.
[13] Although G-d came to dwell in the work of man, nonetheless, the work of man can be corrupted by the deeds of man, which eventually drove the Divine presence from its earthly abode.
[14] This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shabbos Parshas Devarim, 5740, July 19, 1980. Published in Likkutei Sichos, vol. 29, pp. 9-17.
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Essay Tisha B'Av/Shabbos Chazon
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- August 9, 2019
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- 8 Av 5779
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- 3828 views
When the Cracks Appear, Let the Light Enter
As One Home Was Being Destroyed, Another One Was Being Built
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- August 9, 2019
The Jewish Contractor
A building contractor wants some quotes to build two flats.
The Irishman builder quotes $500,000.
"How did you arrive at that figure?" asked the contractor.
"Easy,” he says. “$200,000 for labor, and $300,000 for materials.”
The Scottish builder quotes $600,000. “$300,000 for labor and $300,000 for materials.”
The Jewish builder quotes $1 million.
The contractor says, "how did arrive at that figure?"
"Easy." says the Jewish builder: “$250,000 for you, $250,000 for me, and we will get the Irishman to do the job.
Confronting the Cracks in My Life
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a great and loving father. But now your children are older, and they want nothing to do with you. How do you deal with it?
The answer may lay in the story of Tisha B’Av.
Contradicting Mainstream Judaism?
Ask a Jew who professes basic Jewish knowledge, why is this Shabbos called “Shabbos Chazon”? He will tell you it is because of the opening of the Haftorah with the words “Chazon Yeshayahu,” the vision of Isaiah, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem.
This Haftorah and vision are perhaps the harshest Haftorah we read throughout the year, where Isaiah, for the very first time, prophesizes the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire country following the moral degeneration of Israel:
“An ox knows his owner and a donkey his master's trough; only Israel does not know Me [1]… Your land is desolate; your cities burnt with fire [2]… Alas! How has the faithful city [Jerusalem] become a harlot?!; once full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now filled with murderers![3]...”
Now, ask the same question to a Chassidic Jew. Why is this Shabbos called the Shabbos of Vision? He will give you a very different answer, presented by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (Ukraine, 1740-1809), one of the most inspiring and beloved of the early Chassidic Masters. He taught: It is on this Shabbos that every single Jew is shown a vision, a mini-prophecy if you will, of the third and future Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
Hardly can you find two interpretations more contradictory. Which one is it? A vision of destruction or a vision of rebuilding? Have the Chassidim altered Judaism yet "again?"
How can the Rebbe of Barditchev interpret the very same name for the same Shabbos in complete contradiction to the actual reason the Shabbos was named? Is this a Shabbos of Isaiah’s vision of destruction, or the Barditchever’s vision of hope? Are we commemorating the tragic end of the First (and Second) Temple, or are we imagining the Third one? How can the Chassidic Rebbe come along and present an idea that although romantic, contradicts and distorts the actual facts?
The Grunt of a Cow
There is a strange Talmudic tale:[4]
On the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, a Jew was plowing his field when his cow suddenly mooed loudly. An Arab was passing by and heard the mooing of the cow. This Arab understood the language of animals. The Arab said to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Unyoke your cow, free the stake of your plow, for your Holy Temple has now been destroyed!"
The cow then lowed a second time. Said the Arab to the Jew: "Son of Judah! Yoke your cow, reset the stake of your plow, for the Redeemer has now been born...."
What does this mean? If Moshiach was born when the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE, where is he?[5] Where has he been hiding all these years? How old is he today?[6]
The Legalities of Destruction
We will understand this by raising another question.
It is a well-known dictum in Judaism, that G-d is, so to speak, “bound” by Jewish law. (This is derived in the Midrash[7] from the verse in Psalms, “He shares His words with Jacob, His laws and statues with Israel.”[8] These are also His laws which oblige Him.) This raises a major question:
It is a biblical prohibition to destroy the Holy Temple or any part of it. In the words of the great legal codifier of Judaism, Maimonides: "It is forbidden to smash a single stone of the Altar or the Temple or the Temple courtyard in a destructive manner ... as it says, '...You shall not do so to the Lord your G-d.'"[9] It is similarly forbidden to destroy any synagogue, which is a home of G-d.
[Even during the tragic expulsion of Gush Katif in the summer of 2005, notwithstanding the cruelty of banishing people from the homes and businesses they built with sweat, blood, and tears, only allowing Gaza to become Hamastan, still the Israeli Government did not have the audacity to destroy the synagogues there, and many of will remember the horrific images of the Arabs desecrating and burning them afterward.]
How, then, could G-d destroy the Holy Temple—a clear violation of Jewish law?
To be sure, the actual burning of the first Temple was done by the armies of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, and the Second Temple by the Roman legions of Vespasian. Yet G-d does take full responsibility for the deed. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Behold, I shall dispatch the nations of the north ... and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, My servant, and I shall bring them upon this land and its inhabitants... I shall deliver this city in the hands of the king of Babylonia...."[10]Despite their vicious intentions, G-d has used them as His instruments to destroy the Temple, an act seemingly forbidden by Jewish law. If the Jews were undeserving of this unique structure, the spiritual epicenter of the universe, the Temple could have been dismantled and hidden (similar to Moses’ Sanctuary), or the Jews simply expelled from it. What was the justification for G-d to destroy it completely?
Renovation
The answer is profound. There is only one way in which it is permissible to destroy a synagogue: When the purpose is to rebuild the synagogue in the very same location. Why?
Explain the Halachik commentators, because in this case "the demolition is itself an act of building."[11] When you are destroying a synagogue to rebuild it elsewhere, you are doing an act of destruction, even if your intention is to rebuild it elsewhere. But if you are destroying a synagogue in order to rebuild it in this very place, then the very demolition is not an act of destruction, but rather the beginning of renovation. For all renovations consist of two phases: the demolition of the old and the construction of the new. You can’t build the new if you don’t remove the old.
So it was with G-d's destruction of the Holy Temple: The demolition itself was the beginning of a renovation of the Third Temple to be built in its very space. What was missing with these Temples?
The Zohar, the “Bible” of Kabbalah, explains [12] that the first two Temples were edifices built by human hands, and thus subject to the mortality of everything human. Just as man is by definition limited, all of his accomplishments and feats are limited, and hence they were both destroyed.[13] Only by destroying the human Temples was the groundwork laid for a Temple that defies the limits of human mortality, a Temple built by G-d Himself, and therefore indestructible.
To make room for a Divine structure, the human structure had to be demolished. The demolition itself was the first phase in the construction of the third and eternal Temple.
Yet, G-d, it seems, is a classic Jewish contractor. It is taking Him a while to get the job completed… The old structure was demolished; the erection of the new one is taking far too much time.
The Structure of Marriage
Let us apply this idea to our own lives. Let me provide three examples.
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. The marriage is crumbling, the future is uncertain.
How do you deal with the cracks?
You can see them as the end of a bright and blissful era. Now, boredom, anger and mistrust will come to replace the romance and affection of the past. But there is another deeper and truer perspective: The crocks are the beginning of the renovation of the marriage.
Renovation by definition consists of two phases: demolition and rebuilding. When something is being destroyed you can see it as destruction, or you can see it as creating the space for the new. The cracks in your marriage are what allow you to transform your marriage from a human temporary structure into a Divine and eternal structure.
The problem of the marriage was that it was merely a human structure, based on human subjective love and romance. But despite the passion that was so intense, humans are temperamental, their feelings and passions fluctuate and are subject to change. Last year I was crazy about you; today I am uninterested. A relationship founded on the pillars of human emotions alone is likely to develop crocks of all sorts.
When the cracks appear, it is an opportunity to renovate your marriage. Now you are called to rebuild your relationship and cast it upon new foundations. Now it is time to recreate your relationship as a Divine institution.
It is not only that our hearts are drawn to each other, for that can change quite easily. Rather, we are both committed to the sacred and Divine institution of marriage, transcending our own egos and our own subjective emotions. We both realize that there is something Divine at stake in our relationship and we are committed to this sacred structure. The very cracks in your relationship are thus redefined as the beginning of its renovation.
Awakening the Inner Entrepreneur
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize that your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You can see it as a horrible destruction of your career. But you can also see it differently: The very demolition of your perceived financial future may contain within itself the opportunity of a new and much greater future. Maybe it’s time to go independent. Maybe it is time to confront certain issues you were scared to confront.
If not for this crisis, you could have deceived yourself much longer. Maybe it’s time to allow yourself to dream far bigger and allowing your true Divine potential to emerge in all its might. The breakdown, then, is the birth of a new grand idea.
Failure as a Solution
A young chemist had been working for some time at developing a new bonding agent, a glue. After years of hardship, the work was complete. He tried it out. It did not stick. What is the use of glue that does not stick? Most people would have called this a failure, a disappointment. Time wasted. Effort spent in vain. The young chemist thought otherwise.
Instead of deciding that his work was a failure, he asked, “What if it is a success? What if I have discovered a solution? The only thing left to do is to find the problem.”
He refused to give up. He kept asking himself, “What is the use of an underachieving adhesive?” Eventually, he found it. It became a huge commercial success. They're little and they stick — but not too hard. That is how the “Post-It” Notes were invented!
When something bad happens we can see it as a failure or, as the chemist, we can make it a success. Whatever our fate, we always have a choice between seeing it as a crushing tragedy devoid of meaning, or as a tragedy which contains the seeds of something profoundly positive.
All rebuilding is painful. To demolish a house is never fun. Lots of work, rubble, and headaches. But it is crucial if you want a new, big, and beautiful abode.
Happiness
Another example is happiness. You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
You may become overtaken by despair. But there is another perspective: These cracks in your sense of “self” will allow you to rebuild your inner core. Till now your confidence came from external accolades and approval, hence it was vulnerable and weak, now it must come from your true core identity.
The same is true with every breakdown in life. When one door closes, another one opens. We only need the courage to notice the new opening and enter it.
What Do You See?
Now we will understand the Talmudic story about the double mooing of the cow, the first one expressing the destruction of the Holy Temple, and the second one expressing the birth of Moshiach. These were not two detached occurrences: one, the burning of the Temple, and the other—the birth of Moshiach.
Rather, the two events were essentially one and the same. The very destruction of the Temple was also the birth of redemption.
The demolition of the Holy Temple could be seen in two ways, and they are both true: The Temple was going up in flames, and the house of G-d was disappearing. Yet within this very painful and horrific reality of destruction, one can see another drama unfolding: The Third Temple was beginning to be built! The destruction of the “human structure” was opening the space for a “Divine structure.”
These two perspectives on the very same reality gave rise to two sentiments within Jewish consciousness: a sense of profound pain and grief, articulated in the institution of a collective day of mourning, the 9th of Av; and an unwavering hope and faith in the future redemption.
So the interpretation of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchov that on Shabbos Chazon we see the third Temple was not contradictory to its simple meaning that on this Shabbos we study Isaiah’s vision of the destruction of the Temple. In gazing at the very destruction, we can see the beginning of the renovation of the third Temple.
It is this perspective that captures the underlying “plot” behind Jewish history. It was this vision that allowed our people to emerge from every crisis stronger. They refused to give up their belief that darkness was heralding a new dawn, and that the cracks were an invitation for a new light to come in.[14]
[1] Isaiah 1:1
[2] Verse 7
[3] Verse 21
[4] Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 2:4
[5] Interestingly, this piece of Talmud was presented by the Christians in Spain in 1263 in the public disputation they imposed on the Jews. The debate was initiated in Barcelona by an apostate Jew, Pablo Christiani, and the famed Spanish Jewish sage Nachmanadies (Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman), himself an elderly man, was forced to participate. This story was brought as ‘proof’ that the Messiah had already come as the Christians believe, and the Ramban discussed it at length. He easily refuted this proof by showing that either way their Messiah was long dead by the year 70, and was also born around the year 0, 70 years earlier!
[6] Furthermore, this Talmudic story is brought down in Halacha, Jewish law, as the reason why in the afternoon of Tisha B’av the mourning becomes less intense, since Moshiach was born on the day of the destruction. But was Moshiach really born then? What does this mean?
[7] Shemos Rabah 30:9.
[8] 147:19.
[9] Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Holy Temple 1:17
[10] Jeremiah 25:9, 32:3 and 7:14
[11] See all the references in Likkutei Sichos vol. 29 pp. 12-13.
[12] Zohar vol. 3 221a. Cf. Zohar vol. 1 28a.
[13] Although G-d came to dwell in the work of man, nonetheless, the work of man can be corrupted by the deeds of man, which eventually drove the Divine presence from its earthly abode.
[14] This essay is based on a talk delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shabbos Parshas Devarim, 5740, July 19, 1980. Published in Likkutei Sichos, vol. 29, pp. 9-17.
- Comment
Dedicated by Menachem Yisroel Abrams in honor of his family: David Chai, Moshe, Dvora, Menashe Chaim, Bracha Esther, Rachel, Yenon, Batya, Liev David, Mazal Yishua, Ayala & Emma.
Class Summary:
Ask a learned Jew why is this Shabbos called “Shabbos Chazon”? He will tell you it is because of the opening of the Haftorah with the words “Chazon Yeshayahu,” the vision of Isaiah, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem. Now ask the same question to a Chassidic Jew. He will give you a very different answer: it is because on this Shabbos we have a vision of the third Temple. Hardly can you find two interpretations more contradictory. Which one is it? A vision of destruction or a vision of rebuilding? Have the Chassidim changed Judaism yet again?
The Talmud tells the story of the Arab who understood the language of animals. One day, when he heard the mooing of a cow, he said: The Jerusalem Temple just went up in flames. When the same cow mooed once more, the Arab said: Moshiach was just born. What does this mean? Was the Messiah born right after the destruction of the Holy Temple?
Engagement. Marriage. Honeymoon. The first years. All is bliss. Suddenly your marriage experiences cracks. Frustration and disengagement replace the romantic bliss. How do you deal with it?
You have a good job and it pays well; your career has a promising future. Suddenly, you realize your boss has taken a liking to someone else. You have no future in the company. How do you deal with it?
You thought you were a happy person. Two years in therapy did the trick. You are calm, collective, focused. Suddenly, your psyche hits a dam. You feel unhappy yet once again. You are back at square one. How do you deal with it?
There are two ways: One is, you see it as the end of a bright era. Another way is you see it as the painful beginning of a new and yet brighter era. Both perspectives are legitimate. Demolition destroys the old structure, but it also opens the space for a new one. The cracks herald the destruction of the old, but also create the space for a new light to shine through. It is this truth which captures the essence of what it means to be a Jew and the secret “plot” behind Jewish history.
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Joe -4 years ago
I was shocked to read your latest article (when the cracks….)
I am aware that you like to start your lectures off with a joke.
BUT, the joke you used is totally inappropriate. It supports the worst type of anti-Semitic stereotypes of the unethical Jewish businessman.
I would expect to see it in a David Duke or Louis Farrakhan web-site----but NOT in a Dvar Torah.
It was even more upsetting to see the use of the same stereotype in depicting Hakadosh Baruch Hu as an unethical Jewish builder who delays his projects.
While I generally admire the work you do, this kind of "humor" is inexcusable.
Please do better in the future
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Anonymous -4 years ago
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rabbi -4 years ago
As usual you do a great job of disseminating the wisdom of gedoley Yisroel. However, it is to often where you add your own words of degrading klal Yisroel.
In your essay you state and I quote”a classic Jewish contractor” this comment sounds as it came out of the “protocols of Zion”. the Jewish contractors I deal with are honorable trustworthy and keep their word to the best of there ability. This is not the first time I’ve seen this negative insinuation of klal Yisroel or individuals in your essays. The rebbe n”a was known for his impeccable adherence of never insuating negativity of any person.
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Boaz -5 years ago
Beautiful!
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Chaim L -5 years ago
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Anonymous -5 years ago
The Rebbe in Likkutei Sichos quotes it also from Yerushalmi, as well as Midrash. See inside.
Thanks for your kind words.
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