By Rabbi Micah Greenland
International Director NCSY
As I spend Tisha B’Av here in Jerusalem with our NCSY Summer participants, I keep coming back to one striking contrast.
Jerusalem today is as rebuilt as it has ever been in Jewish history. Everywhere you look there is life. There are people filling the streets, neighborhoods growing, and construction happening in every direction.
And yet today we are mourning the destruction of Jerusalem.
That contrast reminds us that, as remarkable as today’s Jerusalem is, it is not yet whole.
We are missing the Beit HaMikdash, the central place where the Jewish people could channel our service of Hashem and where, as Yeshayahu describes it, “כִּי בֵיתִי בֵּית תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל הָעַמִּים.” My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. But we are also mourning something even deeper. We mourn that we do not experience Hashem’s presence as fully as we long to. We mourn the spiritual distance that still exists, the millions of Jews who remain disconnected from their heritage, and a world that continues to reject and alienate the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Today, the entire city feels different. Everywhere you go, Jerusalem has paused in mourning. It is a reminder that even as full as our lives may seem, they are not yet as complete as they are meant to be.
The Gemara teaches, “כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה.” (Ta’anit 30b). Whoever truly mourns for Jerusalem will merit seeing its joy. Before we can fully celebrate what we have, we must also appreciate what is still missing.
One of the greatest gifts of NCSY Summer is that our teens experience this firsthand. They have a front-row seat to both the miracle of a rebuilt Jerusalem and the yearning for the Jerusalem that is still not complete. There is simply no substitute for being here on Tisha B’Av.
May this day deepen our appreciation for what we have, strengthen our longing for what we are still waiting for, and bring us closer to the day when Jerusalem will truly be rebuilt in every sense.
Wishing you an easy and meaningful fast,
Rabbi Micah Greenland
