A Year of Tishah B’Avs 

Indeed, commentators have almost universally characterized this year as the worst for Jews since the end of the Shoah. The suffering and loss of life on such a large scale is clearly unparalleled in modern times. Over the last few months, I have begun referring to Tash”pad as “a year of Tishah B’Avs.”

While this year has all been about Tishah B’Av, in actuality, every tragedy and pain inflicted upon Klal Yisrael, whether this year or in any past year, whether individual or collective, has its ultimate source in Tishah B’Av.

In sefer Kolmus Halev (pg. 201), a story is told of a meeting that took place at the home of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzenski and a group of rabbanim in Vilna at the beginning of World War II. An attendee commented that the difficulty and tzaros that the Jewish People were going through then were more difficult than the years leading up to the Churban Bayis. While at first Rav Chaim Ozer did not respond to that comment, he later turned toward Rav Avrohom Kalmanovich (the founder of Mir Yeshivah in Brooklyn), and said that this statement was incorrect. For every tzarah that befalls Klal Yisrael, in every age, stems from the Churban Bayis.

Chazal tell us of an Amora who observed two days of Tishah B’Av, the 9th and the 10th. The Gemara questions how he could be allowed to do that; was he not in violation of the issur of bal tosif, as one would be for adding on to any Yom Tov? The answer is that adding an extra day to a Yom Tov does not make it a Yom Tov, whereas adding a day of mourning for the Churban Bayis and for the realization that we are still in galus is not inappropriate, as it is something that we should be feeling every day of the year.