Maybe We Can Relate

These days are hard. Physically difficult. There are many restrictions on what we can and cannot do. It is a dark time. A dangerous time. Emotionally difficult. We are supposed to be in mourning for something we never had, a life we never experienced.

For me, and for most people I know T'Sha B'av is really hard. We feel like we cannot relate. I feel like I cannot relate. But if you think about the root of the day, its not too hard to connect.

Its a day mourning destruction. It is a day mourning the loss of relationship. G-d is in galut- He is in exile. His Shechina has no home. His children have lost their way. We are so confused and so lost we don't know which way is up, cant tell right from wrong. We are estranged from our Father and that loss of relationship is what we are mourning more than anything else.

We have all experienced estrangement, We have all experienced heartache and the pain that comes from a dissolved or distanced relationship. This is not foreign to us. This pain is not difficult for us to tap into.

We have lost our home, our land, our way. We continue to make decisions that further construction on the Third Beit Hamikdash. Its a loss. It is our loss. We may not feel the extent of it. We may not know what we are missing, but we do know what it feels like to lose someone precious to us.

We should try and tap into that, and maybe, just maybe we can start to begin to feel the pain of our loss.