How can we make the most of this time, rather than merely endure it?
E
very summer we face an obstacle. The three weeks of bein hameitzarim get in the way of us enjoying the glorious sunshine. Tears and grieving don’t work well with leisure and vacationing. We grasp for the moment when we can delight in the fullness of summer, the sounds of music, and the soothing words of the shivah denechemta, the chapters of consolation written by Yeshayahu Hanavi.
But this attitude doesn’t feel right. How can we make the most of this time, rather than merely endure it?
Let’s trace the pattern of our summers in greater detail. The mourning for Churban Beis Hamikdash begins on the 17th of Tammuz, intensifies when we reach Chodesh Av, reaches a crescendo on Tishah B’Av, and then starts to ease at a precise moment. This moment occurs, curiously, not after the ninth of Av, but on that day itself; not at the close of the day, but, shockingly, at chatzos, midday, the very hour the Beis Hamikdash was ignited by the enemy! It’s at this point each year that we get up from the floor, don our ornaments of glory, the tefillin, restore the paroches to the aron kodesh, and recite “nachem,” words of comfort, at Minchah.
How does the moment of our greatest loss turn abruptly into the onset of our healing and solace?
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