The Meaning Behind the Destruction of the Temple

A friend recently wrote of his impatience with G-d at the rebuilding of the Temple, saying that Our Father was ignoring us by leaving us with fast days of mourning destruction rather than restoring the joy of the rebuilt Bais HaMikdash.  This is my reply...

Tisha B'Av and the Three Weeks of mourning for the Bais HaMikdash that is in ruins is not about doubting G-d's existence, it is about humbling ourselves in preparation for the high holy days when we must accept G-d's supremacy. Then we call Him, Our Father, Our King.  He is not just an Abba, a father that allows room for us to calculate how much we can get away with, He is also our King, with the absolute righteous right to demand of us as He wills.

What father would ignore his children? Yet what king can tolerate if their behavior ignores him?  This is the time of our wake up call.  Return to Hashem, or at least recognize that we need to return to him.

When much of the nation wants to share G-d's mountain with another religion rather than wish that G-d's house, the Temple, be built there, then where is there room to doubt our Father, our King in His silence, however painful it may be?  Yet He still protects us from our enemies.  Even when the State of Israel was established while ignoring His Rabbis, G-d did not let us lose that war, or any since.  Just as one can choose to lose a battle that that can be won, so too a child can choose to prolong their exile from their father's embrace.

May the policies of the government reflect the spiritual aspirations of the people and in our policy and in our daily lives may we reflect those ideals intrinsic to a rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdash, swiftly in our days.  May it soon be so, by the grace of G-d.