The topic we're discussing today is the topic of the חסידישע, the Chassidic approach to the three weeks. From שבעה עשר בתמוז, the fast day of שבעה עשר בתמוז, the 17th day of תמוז, there are three weeks till תשעה באב, the ninth of אב. שבעה עשר בתמוז is a fast day, and תשעה באב is also a fast day, that's even stricter, and these three weeks are the three weeks that we mourn the חורבן בית המקדש, the destruction of the בית המקדש, of the Holy Temple, because on שבעה עשר בתמוז that's when the walls of ירושלים were broken by the enemy, and it took them three weeks till they went through the whole ירושלים into the Holy Temple, into the בית המקדש, and finally on תשעה באב they put the בית המקדש, the temple on fire. And these are three weeks of mourning, three weeks of אבילות, and they're 21 days from שבעה עשר בתמוז till תשעה באב. These three weeks are known as בין המצרים. In Hebrew they're called בין המצרים. The literal translation of בין המצרים means between the borders. Really מצר means a border, מצר also means hardships. So the three weeks are between the two sides, between שבעה עשר בתמוז and תשעה באב. שבעה עשר בתמוז is a fast day because that's when they broke through the wall, and תשעה באב was basically the end, unfortunately. That's when they destroyed the בית המקדש, they burned the בית המקדש, and all these three weeks are three weeks of mourning. It's all based on the פסוק in איכה, where the פסוק says, it's right in the beginning of איכה, the third פסוק of איכה where it says גלתה יהודה מעני, that יהודה, which refers to the יידן, went to exile. גלתה means from the word גלות, which is exile, they went to exile. And the פסוק continues: כל רדפיה השיגוה בין המצרים. All their enemies caught up to them, found them בין המצרים, between the borders. And as רש״י, the commentary of רש״י and all the other commentaries explain that this refers to the two sides that this all happened בין המצרים between שבעה עשר בתמוז and תשעה באב. And these are three weeks of mourning. We know therefore there are a lot of הלכות, a lot of laws that apply to these three weeks. Besides the laws that we have to fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז, and we have to fast on תשעה באב. Actually תשעה באב is a very strict fast, not like שבעה עשר בתמוז where the fast starts basically in the morning and it goes on all day, but תשעה באב is like יום כיפור, that the fast starts the night before from the שקיעה, from sundown, sunset the night before, the day before תשעה באב till after צאת הכוכבים, after the stars come out on תשעה באב. It's a very strict fast, and these are הלכות of the three weeks, but besides that there are הלכות that we have to keep during the three weeks. We can't hear music during the three weeks, you can't get married during these three weeks, you can't buy new clothes, you can't eat new fruit, basically things which need a ברכה. When you eat a new fruit that you haven't eaten this year, you have to make a שהחיינו, a special ברכה of שהחיינו, but during the three weeks we can't do it. And then we have the last nine days is from, from ראש חודש, the first day of the month of אב till תשעה באב. There are special, strict, more strict דינים during these nine days that you can't even really bathe yourself for pleasure, and also you can't eat meat, you can't drink wine. By the way, this doesn't apply to שבת, but during the week, during the weekdays of these days, you're not allowed to do these things, which is even stricter. Until that finally when it comes to תשעה באב, besides the fact that you can't eat on תשעה באב and you can't drink on תשעה באב, there are other things that you have to stay away from on תשעה באב. The הלכות of תשעה באב, there are חמישה עינויים, you can't wear shoes and stuff like that, you can't even sit on a high chair at least till חצות, till afternoon of תשעה באב. But basically this is a time of the year when we mourn and we do all kinds of things because of the mourning of the destruction of the בית המקדש and the fact that we Jews went to exile and we're still in exile now. But these are הלכות that you learn in שולחן ערוך, you learn in the Code of Jewish Law and you know the הלכות and you know the reasons for these הלכות and why we mourn the בית המקדש. It's obvious. But then there is the Chassidic approach to how we look at תשעה באב and how we look at the three weeks. And בכלל, very important to look at everything through the חסידישע approach, through the eyes of חסידות, especially when it comes to this time of the year, because this time of the year when we're talking about the בית המקדש, the destruction of the בית המקדש, and the exile, the גלות, which automatically, and as I'll explain at length soon, leads us to the fact that we're looking into what's going to be in the future, that we're going to go out of this exile and we're going to have the בית המקדש again, the third בית המקדש, and we'll have משיח, and we know that when משיח will come, one of the main things that's going to happen Besides all the other good things that are going to happen, but the main thing that's going to happen, as רש״י, the commentary רש״י says on שיר השירים, the beginning of שיר השירים, that the secrets of the תורה will be revealed. The פנימיות התורה, the secrets of the תורה, which till now are hidden, actually we have four categories of ways of learning in the תורה, פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד. Not to go into the details, but the one is סוד, סוד means secrets, there are secrets of the תורה which is really the קבלה of it, and now we have very little of it. But when משיח will come, we're going to learn a lot, we're going to know the secrets of the תורה. So obviously, before משיח comes, and in order to get ready for the coming of משיח, we have to start a little bit of as much as we have, which is only a drop in the bucket of what the secrets of the תורה are. And that is in קבלה, and as it's explained in חסידות. So certainly when we come to a subject like the בית המקדש, which we're waiting for the building of the בית המקדש and the coming of משיח, which will be the time when the inner secrets of the תורה will be revealed, it's the time now in this subject certainly to see what does חסידות say about it. Because this is something has to do with משיח, because the coming of משיח will bring along that we will learn חסידות much more and much deeper what than we have now. And that is the reason the בעל שם טוב heard from משיח, the בעל שם טוב writes in a letter that he went up in his mind, he went up to the higher worlds, and he happened to see משיח, and he asked משיח, אימתי קאתי מר? When are you going to come? And משיח said לכשיפוצו מעינותיך חוצה, when your wellsprings are going to be spread out into the world. The wellsprings of the depth of the תורה which was started by the בעל שם טוב and continued with all the other רביים, so that is what is going to bring משיח. And it makes sense, because if when משיח will come that's what's going to happen, that we're going to have the secrets of the תורה, so when you prepare yourself to something, usually you have to prepare yourself in the same subject. If you're going to prepare yourself to on musical concert, להבדיל, you're not going to study art, you're going to study music in order to appreciate it. When you prepare yourself to art exhibition, you're not going to study music, you're going to try to study art and see in order to appreciate the exhibition. When you're preparing yourself to the coming of משיח, you have to do things which is connected to what's going to happen when משיח will come, and that is learning פנימיות התורה, the inner secrets of the תורה, especially the way it's explained in חסידות, which gives it in an explanation and tries to explain it so that we could understand it with our regular human mind. So therefore, I'm just saying this is it's important to look into the three weeks and תשעה באב specifically, which is the climax of the three weeks, according to what חסידות has to say. And I want to give it just a small introduction. We know that חסידות, if you learn the Chassidic philosophy, we find that it always looks for the good part of everything. Even things which are negative, it always finds the good part of it, and it explains everything how what good will come out of it. We even find that in חסידות concerning those portions of the תורה which are referred to as the תוכחה. The תוכחה means rebuke. There are two פרשיות, two parts of the חומש, that's פרשת בחוקותי and פרשת כי תבוא, where the תורה gives curses. If you're not going to follow the ways of תורה, there are so many curses, terrible things that might that will happen. And when we learn it, we get very scared. Actually, the מנהג is even that when we read that in the תורה, the one that gets the עליה to that part of the קריאת התורה is the בעל קריאה himself, the one that reads the תורה. We don't even call him up, and the reason is because if you're going to call up somebody and he's going to stand next to the בעל קריאה, and the בעל קריאה, the one that's reading, is going to read these portions saying, \"You will get this curse, you will get curse,\" it shouldn't, God forbid, sound as if you're saying to the guy who's getting the עליה, \"You're going to get this curse.\" So therefore, the מנהג is that the בעל קריאה himself gets it, and we don't even call him up because these are very scary things. Nevertheless, חסידות comes and explains how every one of these קללות, of these curses, if you look deeper, they are really ברכות. They're really blessings, but they're blessings in disguise. Now I'll just give one example. Just so many unfortunately קללות, but in truth is there are so many ברכות there, and I'll just give one example. One of the things that it says there is that you'll be so poor and you won't have any money: ואפו עשר נשים לחמכם בתנור אחד. Ten women are going to have to bake their bread in one oven. We know that's a big curse. If you have them all, all the women get together and they have to use one oven and they're going to have very little and they're not going to have much. So the אלטר רבי in לקוטי תורה explains that according to חסידות, we know that every person, when you learn חסידות, you know, every person has ten כחות, ten attributes, that three of the intellect, seven of the emotions. So the פסוק says that these ten, and they're referred to, he explains why they're referred to as ten women, will be baked בתנור אחד in the oven of אחד. We know what אחד is: השם אלקינו השם אחד. השם is one. That these, that's the ברכה that the פסוק is saying. All your כחות, all your attributes, will be so full and baked and with the אחד, with the אחד of השם, with the unity of השם. So this is a ברכה that the פסוק is saying, but it's disguised. There are a lot of explanations on why the תורה did it that way, but חסידות brings out that this is really a ברכה. It tells you of the good things that are going to happen. And the truth is this is the general approach of חסידות versus מוסר, that in מוסר, I don't know if you're familiar with the שיטה, the way of מוסר, try also this is a philosophy of trying to help people go on the right path and making sure that they don't turn away, but there the stress is more on the negative, that if you don't listen, this and this might happen to you, and that might happen to you. And that does arouse a person to feel more responsible to do the right thing. But חסידות has a complete different approach. חסידות tells you how good it is if you keep the מצות. חסידות explains the good of learning תורה, the specialty of being a Jew, and all the good things that you have, and through that approach you accomplish much more. You look at everything from the good side rather from the negative side. And there is even a משל, a parable given, that there was once an argument between the sun and the wind. There was a person was walking in the street and had a coat on, and there was an argument between the sun and the wind who could get the coat off of the person faster. And the wind says, \"I'll show you, I'll do it.\" So the wind started blowing very strongly, and the coat started falling off. What did the person do? He buttoned it. Then he started blowing stronger, so he closed his belt. Started blowing stronger, he kept it with his hand. The wind couldn't get it off, because whatever the wind tried to do, the person was fighting it and not allowing it to happen. The sun says to the wind, \"Now watch.\" The sun came out, started shining, and what happened? The man took off the coat himself, because when you do it through shining, through good, through showing the light, then that works much better. The נמשל, what we're trying to bring out is that when you try to get off from a person, let's say, in ספרים, the holy books, when a person is involved in not such good things, we call it לבושים צואים, dirty clothes, and you wanting to get off the you want him to get off the dirty clothes. So if you're going to fight him and try to tell him how terrible it is, the evil inclination, the יצר הרע, fights back. But if you shine and show him the greatness of the goodness and the goodness of תורה ומצות, he'll take it off himself. I'm just bringing this out to show that the whole approach of חסידות in everything is from the positive end. And בכלל, and generally speaking, when any something bad happens, you always חסידות always tries to find the good part of it. I know the רבי, by the פארברענגענס, when things happened in the world, and there were negative things, the רבי would talk about it and try to find something good in it and bring out what good could come out of it. So too when it comes to the בין המצרים, the three weeks of תשעה באב, חסידות looks at it from the good side and brings out something positive in it. The צמח צדק, in one of his ספרים, says that the expression בין המצרים, which we said refers to between שבעה עשר בתמוז and תשעה באב, the three weeks of mourning, really is connected to the פסוק where it says, we say it in תהלים, in הלל, מן המצר, you follow, מצר and מצרים the same word, מן המצר קראתי קה ענני במרחב קה, which literally means מן המצר, from the narrowness, from the hardships, I call out to you השם, and השם will answer me במרחב, in width, in broadness, in goodness. So he says that it is through the בין המצרים, which is the מצר, the purpose and what's going to happen out of that will be ענני במרחב. We're going to reach the level of מרחב. מרחב, broadness, greatness, the depth of goodness, is going to come through the three weeks. As I will explain later, so far I didn't explain anything. I'm just saying that that's what he says, that there is a good part because through the three weeks and through the destruction of the בית המקדש, through the גלות, we will reach very, very great heights. The רבי actually says that this is hinted in רש״י, the commentary of רש״י on the פסוק. So on the פסוק בין המצרים, רש״י says, בין המצרים means between the two borders, שיש גובה מכאן ומכאן, there is a height, which means a high wall on this side, and there's a high wall on this side, ואין מקום לנוס, and you can't run away. And this is what the פסוק is saying, that the enemies got caught up to us, and there's no place to go, and we were lost. But the רבי asks, why is the expression in רש״י גובה מכאן ומכאן? גובה means there's a height on this side. He means a height wall. Why doesn't he say a wall? Why doesn't he use the לשון of the פסוק that we learned last week in פרשת בלק, גדר מזה וגדר מזה? There was a border, a a wall on this side and a wall on this side. Why does רש״י use the word גובה? So the רבי explains because he wants to hint that through the בין המצרים, through the three weeks, we will go to a גובה. גובה means height. This will reach us to great, great heights. And then the צמח צדק also says in the beginning of this פסוק, it says, גלתה יהודה, יהודה went to גלות, and he says the word גלתה, which means גלות, exile, has another meaning. גלתה comes from the word גילוי. גילוי means revelation. גלתה יהודה. From this exile, we will go to great, great revelations. We will reach high levels. In other words, חסידות says that as much as this is a time of mourning, nevertheless, this is a time when we have to know that there is something good, and not just something good, but a lot of good in what happened, and therefore we have to look at it from that perspective also. But what does it mean? What does it mean that the three weeks and the destruction of the בית המקדש and going into exile is good? Good? How could it be good? This is something that's terrible. We're mourning and we're crying for the destruction of the בית המקדש for 2,000 years already. What does it mean it's good? So I want to explain at length, and you'll have to have patience to go through what חסידות says about how we should look at the three weeks. First of all, we find an interesting thing that in מגילת איכה, this is the part that the נביא, the prophet ירמיהו wrote concerning the destruction of the בית המקדש, he refers to תשעה באב as מועד. מועד means the literal translation is a set time, but מועד is always used a word for a יום טוב. A holiday is called a מועד. מועדים לשמחה, when it comes to יום טוב, פסח, סוכות, we say מועדים לשמחה. The מועדים, the holidays are for joy. The word מועד is a holiday. Why is תשעה באב called a holiday? And it says the reason is because when משיח will come, תשעה באב will be the biggest יום טוב. Out of all the holidays we have, תשעה באב will be the biggest holiday, the biggest יום טוב. And it's very hard to understand. Why will תשעה באב be a יום טוב, a holiday? We understand why we won't have to fast anymore. We understand why תשעה באב won't be a day of mourning, because we'll have the בית המקדש again, we will not be in exile, there will be no reason to mourn. So תשעה באב will not be anymore as תשעה באב is now. But why will it turn into a יום טוב? And it's all based on the פסוק, it says והפכתי אבלם לששון, the פסוק in תנ״ך says that I will transform these days of mourning into holidays, מועדים טובים, to holidays. Why is it a holiday? What's so special about תשעה באב even when משיח comes to become a day of a יום טוב, why is it a holiday? And the truth is, even nowadays, we look at תשעה באב already as from a certain angle as a holiday. We don't say תחנון. Every day we say תחנון in דאווענען. On תשעה באב we do not say תחנון. When don't we say תחנון? On a holiday we don't say תחנון. On a special happy day we don't say תחנון, because תחנון deals with sadness and feeling remorse, and on a יום טוב we don't want to feel that way. And תשעה באב we don't say תחנון. What is the reason we don't say תחנון on תשעה באב? Now, there are reasons given in different ספרים why we don't say on תשעה באב. One reason is like this, and it's just good to know, one reason is based on a מדרש. The מדרש says, it says, מזמור לאסף באו גוים בנחלתך, there is a chapter in תהילים which starts off like this: מזמור לאסף, there is a song that this person אסף sang, and the song and that whole chapter talks about the destruction of the בית המקדש. And the מדרש asks, מזמור לאסף? There's a song? אסף is singing a song and describing the destruction of the בית המקדש and all the problems the יידן had? קינה לאסף מיבעי ליה. קינה means when you cry, this should have been, not singing. And the מדרש answers, no, there is something to sing about. Because when השם destroyed the בית המקדש, it was because He was angry at the Jews. So when He let out His anger, He could have let out His anger on the people and destroyed, God forbid, the Jewish people. Instead, כילה חמתו בעצים על עצים ועל אבנים, He let out His anger on the building, on the wood, on the stones. He destroyed the building, but the Jewish people continued. So אסף is happy. Look, this is a day when could have been much worse, and it wasn't that way. And that's a reason, one of the reasons it says for תשעה באב being a יום טוב, it's a happy day, the happiness is that it didn't wasn't worse. But that's not really good enough to answer the question why now it's a יום טוב, certainly why when משיח will come it'll be a יום טוב, because all it is, is it could have been worse, could have been a bigger tragedy and it wasn't as bad. So there is certain feeling that you have, oh, thank God it's not as bad, but is that a reason to make the day into a holiday, because it could have been worse? That's not a holiday! There's another reason given in ספרים, because there is a מדרש that says that there was a Jew who lived far, far away from ירושלים. On תשעה באב, he didn't know what was happening in ירושלים hundreds and hundreds of miles away. He had a neighbor, a גוי, who was able to understand the language of the animals. And געה, געתה פרתו, and his cow made some noise, and he turned around to his neighbor the ייד, and he said, you know what it just said? That your temple is being destroyed now, on תשעה באב. Then געתה פרתו פעם שניה, the cow made noise again, and he says to him, you know what it just said? That נולד משיחן של ישראל, that today the savior of the Jews was born already. So it's not so bad, because משיח is already born, and it says that משיח is born on תשעה באב. So some say that's the reason why תשעה באב is a יום טוב, because תשעה באב is the day that משיח was born, and he will take us out of גלות. But in truth that doesn't answer the question either, because all it is, is that even though we have a גלות now, we were told on תשעה באב, and we know on תשעה באב the redemption started. But wouldn't it be better if we wouldn't have a destruction and we wouldn't need a redemption? It's like the רש״י says in one place, we tell a bee, we don't need your, don't give don't give me your honey and don't give me a sting. What happened here? We got a sting, and then on תשעה באב we were told you know it'll come back. Like somebody hurts somebody else and he says, okay, I'll get you a good doctor, and he'll heal you completely. Oh, it's a יום טוב! What's the יום טוב? Because today you're going to get a good doctor? Don't hurt me and don't give me a doctor! But that's exactly what's happening here. So obviously there must be something more to it, that תשעה באב is a יום טוב, going to going to be a very big יום טוב, and even now we look at it to to a certain degree as a יום טוב, at the same time when we fast and we mourn, there must be something more to it. So חסידות really has an explanation, which is not going to be 100% sufficient either as you will see. We know that השם, God, is only good. That's what it says, whatever He does is good. The תורה that He gave us is a תורה of kindness, תורת חסד, it's only good. Even though we find in the תורה punishments, the תורה says for certain things you will be punished, whether punished in this world by the בית דין that they used to have the time when we had the סנהדרין, or being punished in the world to come in עולם הבא, but there are punishments that השם gives. How does that fit to השם being purely good and kind? And the answer is that the punishment is not for the sake of punishing. It's for the sake of purifying the person. When the person does a sin, there is a blemish on the person's soul, on the person's נשמה, and you got to cleanse it. Just like when a person gets hurt or is sick physically, certain things that a person does will hurt him, and then if he does it, then you got to heal him. Spiritually, too. We don't know what hurts the נשמה spiritually, that's why we can't make up such things. Whatever God told us, we know. So whatever we do that God said don't do it, it causes a blemish, it hurts the נשמה. And just like when a person's body is hurt, you got to do something to to to heal it, you got to heal the נשמה, too. You got to cleanse the נשמה. That's what the punishments are. When there's a punishment that the נשמה, that a ייד has to go through, it's in order to cleanse him and take off the blemish. Now sometimes, it hurts. Sometimes to clean hurts, but that's the only way to clean. In תניא The אלטער רבי gives a משל, a parable, when it talks about השם said רחץ, השם was going to wash off the dirt of the יידן, of בנות ציון, so he gives a משל of a father or a mother, a parent, who is going to clean a child, a baby or a child who became dirty. Sometimes the way to clean it is through using hot water. That's the only way the dirt will come off. Now when you use hot water, it hurts the child. Nevertheless, the father, the mother does it. Why? Because that's the only way for it's for the benefit of the child and it's good for the child. So, too, the punishments of השם, they hurt, but it's all good. All good meaning it's all for the purpose of purifying and cleansing us, that we should become pure. The same applies to the three weeks and the חורבן בית המקדש, that the reason it came is because, like we say in דאווענען on יום טוב, מפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו, we were chased out of our land, and the בית המקדש was destroyed because of our sins. So, there are That means that we sinned, a lot of blemishes to our holy souls, and it has to be cleansed. And sometimes they have to clean it through something that hurts. And that's the purpose of the גלות. That's the purpose of the חורבן בית המקדש, so it will clean us. We go through this whole גלות so we'll be cleansed, and then משיח will come. So, it comes out that the fact that we have the three weeks, the destruction of the בית המקדש and going to גלות, is really for our benefit. It's to help us that we should become clean and we should become holy. Now, maybe that could be a reason why תשעה באב will become a יום טוב, the three weeks will become special holidays, because what happened during these three weeks is for the benefit of the נשמות of the יידן. It's for the benefit of the יידן, and if it's for their benefit, it's a special day. But I'll tell you the truth, it's not really enough, because, after all, it's only, as we would say, בדיעבד, if it happened. When we got a blemish, so what happened if we got a blemish? We want to get rid of the blemish, so it's very good that we're able to get rid of the blemishes. Wouldn't it be better if we wouldn't have the blemish to begin with? So, why is this a יום טוב, such a great יום טוב, celebrating? It's a reason to be happy because, under the circumstances, it's good to that this is happening, so we are clean. But to say that this is a reason to be a holiday on its own right is not enough either. So, the real reason what it says is like this, and you have to pay attention. It says in חסידות that when we go from one stage, one level, to another level, a higher level, there has to be a ירידה in between, a descent in between. We'll use these words. It says, if you learn חסידות, you know the expression ירידה צורך עליה. ירידה means you're descending in order to go higher. Sometimes in order to go higher, you had you got to take a step back. I heard that the רבי once by יחידות, when somebody came into יחידות and the רבי was talking to him about some this idea, and he wanted to tell him sometimes you got to take a step back, which looks like you're going down, in order to go higher, they say that the רבי got up from his chair, and he said, \"You see, we want to\" in front of the desk, \"if we want to jump over the desk, what do we got to do? I want to get on that side, because that side is better, whatever it would be.\" So the רבי himself got up, took a few steps back, and he said, \"You see, I got to go further away. I'm trying to get there. Why am I going away? I'm going further away, because sometimes in order to get higher, you have to first take a step back. And when you take a step back and you get lower, further, then you're able to jump and go to the next level.\" Now, this is mainly said when we go from one level to another that's באין ערוך. באין ערוך means where there's no comparison. When you have two levels, one is higher than the other, but they're בערך, בערך means, well, one is higher, but it's it's it's within the same category, you don't have to do this. But when you have to go from one level to another and it's באין ערוך, which means these two levels are completely far apart, there's a big gap in between, the way to do it is that there is a ירידה. חסידות, and I'm not going to explain this, but in חסידות it says, יש מיש אין באמצע. If you have a יש, something, an entity, and you want to go to another entity, another יש, which is completely beyond the first one, אין באמצע, in the middle you have to have the not. This is יש, and you have to have that there should be a descend, and not have it, and then you can go. The example given is that when you want to plant something, you take a seed, and you want to get a tree out of it, what do you do? You take the seed, you plant it in the ground, and what happens to it? It rots, and only then, after the seed rots, can it start growing and becoming a tree and giving fruit, etc., etc. And חסידות says why? Because first you had a יש, it's a seed, a seed is something, and in order from that seed to become something that's באין ערוך, that's completely without any comparison, there has to be the אין in between, it has to rot, has to get, you lose even what you had before. Because if you continue what you had before, you will never be able to reach that higher level because it'll always hold you back, because you're still limited to what you had before. It has to be in a way that you don't have it, and then you're able to start something new and you'll get something באין ערוך, something that's completely beyond. This is also explained in the, חסידות explains from the גמרא, the גמרא says about רב זירא, the great, great sage רב זירא. He was the greatest scholar, but he learned תלמוד בבלי, he learned the גמרא from בבל, תלמוד בבלי. He wanted to learn תלמוד ירושלמי. ירושלמי is much greater and much deeper באין ערוך than בבלי. So he fasted that he should forget תלמוד בבלי, because he felt if he's going to remember it, he won't be able to take that jump. So he had to have a descent, and when he had the descent, so now he was able to start come to the higher level. And the same חסידות says is concerning the בית המקדש and the גלות we have, the חורבן בית המקדש. When משיח will come, we will reach such a high, high level, and I'll explain soon the details, a such a high level, completely באין ערוך, a spiritual, godly level, completely באין ערוך, no comparison, no way in any way connected to the way it was till then, till when משיח will come. In the בית המקדש, when we had the first and the second בית המקדש, there was great godly revelation, we know that. ושכנתי בתוכם, it's השם says make for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the sanctuary, and amongst the יידן in the sanctuary, there was a revelation of godliness, no question about it. But the revelation that's going to be when משיח will come is completely, again באין ערוך, no comparison. In order to get from that level to the higher level, in the middle there had to be a גלות וחורבן, there had to be a exile and had to be a destruction of the בית המקדש. And only then can we reach that higher level. So now when we think about it, let's think about it, what happened when the בית המקדש was destroyed? On one hand, it's a destruction of the בית המקדש. We had great גילוי אלקות, godly revelation, and then the בית המקדש was destroyed and we don't have it all, and we all went to גלות, terrible, bad, and that's why we have to fast and we have to mourn. But knowing that the end will be that this is a, after that there is a possibility, not, this makes it possible that we should have the great revelation in time of משיח, so this makes it look at it completely different. If you're looking at it in the very narrow-minded way, looking at a, the destruction of the בית המקדש, terrible, and it is terrible. But if you look a little bit broader, you say, you know what, the destruction of the בית המקדש is the beginning of the great revelation that's going to happen, because if not for that, that revelation wouldn't be able to happen. So if you look at it that way, and even though we don't feel it yet, but if you know in our, we know in our mind that this is going to happen, that makes us look at it on one hand, completely different look at it, that this is a beginning of a great, great godly revelation. And I'll explain it maybe even a little bit more, the same thing happened in the first exile, when the יידן went to Egypt, to מצרים for גלות. There's a question that's asked: why did they deserve it? What did they do that they deserved to work hard and be in exile in Egypt for 210 years? What did they do? Usually it's a punishment. What was the punishment for? There are all different kinds of answers in the מפרשים. חסידות says it's not a punishment at all. God wanted to bring a great revelation that took place by מתן תורה, when השם gave the תורה on הר סיני, this was such a great revelation, באין ערוך, which means no comparison whatsoever to the way it was before. And in order to take that jump and to bridge that gap from the way it was before to this great revelation of מתן תורה, it had to be in a level of אין באמצע in between, had to be a problem, had to be a מצר as we call מצרים, in order that after that, like the seed that has to rot in order to be able to make the trees, or like רב זירא had to fast to forget תלמוד בבלי in order to be able to get. That's why it was. And just to explain what was to show that the great revelation was so strong, just to bring out the point, it's not important to our discussion here, but I want to bring out the point, what change took place that we could see by מתן תורה? So חסידות explains, God gave us the תורה, gave us the מצוות. The אבות, אברהם, יצחק, יעקב, kept the מצוות before also, even though it wasn't given. So what happened? What was the change that took place? They knew the מצוות and they kept the מצוות. So חסידות says the פשט is, according to the way it was before, if someone did a מצוה, something special obviously, a מצוה, it did not penetrate into the גשמיות, into the physicality. The קדושה, the holiness, the spirituality that comes along with the מצוות did not penetrate into the physical object. If you put on תפילין, the תפילין did not become holy. There was no such thing as a physical object having holiness in it. Impossible. And logically it's impossible. It's impossible. You start thinking about it, it's impossible. How could you mix spirituality with physicality? How could something spiritual penetrate into something physical? I'll give you an example. We even see in this physical world that you have two things, both part of this physical world, and you can't mix them. שכל, intellect. Intellect and a physical object don't mix. You know, I tried a few times to the table to explain a a תוספות. You know, you learn תוספות, you learn גמרא, I tried to explain it to the table, it didn't understand. So you know what? Sometimes, you know, you try to explain a תוספות to somebody, doesn't understand. You try to explain it better, you bring more examples, you try to I tried very hard, didn't work. It remained the same way. Why? Because a table and logic, שכל, intellect don't mix. They just can't mix. Now, if שכל, logic, is not holiness, it's part of this physical world, but within this physical world it's something that's completely different category than something that's tangible. And they don't mix. So if שכל can't mix with a table or a piece of wood or a piece of leather or a piece of wool, how could godliness mix, which is much higher? So how could you say that the ציצית becomes a holy thing in whichever level, the תפילין becomes holy object? It can't be. That's why before מתן תורה it wasn't. By מתן תורה, there was such a great revelation of godliness beyond physicality and spirituality, and therefore it could mix it together. And that you learn in חסידות a lot, and this is not the subject of this שיעור, but I'm just giving you an example. In order for such a great revelation to happen, there had to be in the middle, there had to be a גלות, there had to be an exile. The same thing is now also. When משיח will come, there will be such a great revelation of godliness, much more than by מתן תורה, than when the תורה was given. In תניא, he says that when משיח will come, there'll be the world will recognize ה׳, the revelation of God be so great, and he says by מתן תורה was מעין זה, a little bit of it, a miniature part of a little bit of way it'll be when משיח will come was by מתן תורה. But when משיח will come, it'll be completely באין ערוך. So in order to get to that level, it can't go from one level to another. That only could go when two things are בערך, one is in compared to the other, but it's bigger. So you go from lower to to higher, from smaller to bigger, you go on and on and on normally. But when there's a gap in between, there's no connection, the only way it could work is like the seed that you put into the ground and it has to rot in order for the fruit to come out. So in order to get this great revelation when משיח will come, there had to be a גלות and a חורבן. Now, at the time of the גלות and the חורבן, it's very uncomfortable, it's very bad. But if you think about it and you say, \"Well, this is the only way I'm going to get to that great thing, this is going to be a this is something special.\" חסידות gives a parable, חסידות always likes to give משלים, a parable, and the רבי brings it, of a teacher teaching a student, a רב with a תלמיד. And the teacher is giving all kinds ideas and explain, the student is very happy, a studious student and a student that's very smart, enjoys intellect. And the teacher is teaching, and he feels so comfortable and so good, \"Look how my teacher is close to me and he's giving me all these ideas.\" In the middle, the teacher gets a thought comes to his mind of a new type of idea in the whole explanation that he gave, much deeper than before. And besides that he wants to understand it himself, he feels very, you know, responsible to repeat it to his student. So what does he do? But he doesn't know it yet, so he tells the student, \"Wait a minute.\" And he sits down and he thinks and he thinks to himself exactly how to work this out, and it could take, who knows, a half hour, an hour. And after that, he gets this idea and he tells tells his student the idea, wow, the student jumps from joy. Now, that hour that he wasn't telling his student, the student felt very uncomfortable. Till now he was learning with him and his teacher was giving him all kinds of ideas, telling him all kinds of סברות, and now he is sitting there lost, very uncomfortable, he feels very bad. But after he gets that thought and he realizes that what happened was that this was the only way he was able to get this new idea was through the time when he was missing the connection to his teacher, he feels so good. And when he looks back, he looks back and he says to himself, \"You know, the time when the teacher stopped teaching me was the best time, because that was the way I was able to reach his high level.\" Even though at that moment itself you felt uncomfortable and you felt in גלות, basically, you felt in exile, you felt lost, but later on when you look back, you see that whole thing not only was worth it, that is the beginning of this great revelation that I got. Now, if the student is smart, while this is happening, before he gets this special revelation, and he thinks about it and he says, \"I know my my my רבי, my teacher, this is probably in order to give me a new idea.\" He feels so good then, even though on one hand he feels very uncomfortable and doesn't know what to do and he's lost, that's on one hand, but at the same time he thinks to himself, he says, \"Wow, this is the beginning of something special that I'm going to get.\" So again, if you look at it from in a narrow way, it's a time of גלות, it's a time of being lost. But if you look at it deeper or you look at it further and broader, this is the beginning of the best time. So in this you could say this is why when משיח will come, we will look at תשעה באב, תשעה באב is the beginning of this great revelation! So if somebody is going to want to celebrate this beginning of the great revelation of משיח, what's he going to celebrate? תשעה באב! Because תשעה באב was the day when this started. And I'll explain this even in practical terms. Imagine someone buys a lot in order to build a beautiful palace, but on this lot there is a small house, an old house. You got to knock down the house in order to get to be able to build a palace. When you knock down the house, then you start building. Now, let's think about it: When did the building of the palace start? Now, if you want to look at it in a very narrow way, when they knocked down the small house, it wasn't building, that was destruction! That was terrible, knocking down a house that's usable. When did the building of the palace start? When they started digging the foundation to the palace, oh, now it's starting. But if you look at it a little bit broader, you know when it started? When they knocked down that house! That's the time when the beginning of the building started. השם wanted to give us the third בית המקדש. השם wanted to give us the great revelation that will come along with the third בית המקדש. But there was another בית המקדש standing there. So how could He give it to us? So he had to break the old בית המקדש in order to make it possible for us to have a third בית המקדש with the great revelations. So now when we start thinking and saying to ourselves, if we want to if when משיח will come and we'll start thinking to ourselves, which day do we celebrate? We want to celebrate a day that is the day that השם gave us the בית המקדש, the third בית המקדש. We will start it from תשעה באב, because תשעה באב when He broke, it wasn't destruction, it was physically destruction, but it was the beginning of the building. Which answers a obvious question, the רבי asks the question, everyone knows, we learn, that just like God, השם, gave us מצוות to do, He Himself keeps the same מצוות. And whatever He tells us not you're not allowed to do, He doesn't do either. There is a דין, if you learn רמב״ם, there is a הלכה, a law, that you're not allowed to break the בית המקדש. If a person would knock off a little stone off the בית המקדש, it's a לאו, it's a negative commandment. So how did השם destroy the בית המקדש? And He did it! No one will say, \"Well, He didn't do it, נבוכדנצר did it,\" or whoever that the גוים did it. השם sent them! How could השם destroy the בית המקדש? You're not allowed to! He Himself said you're not allowed to, how in the world is He doing it? And the רבי says the answer is, according to חסידות, there is a דין that if you're סותר על מנת לבנות, if you destroy in order to build, it's not called destruction. שבת, there is a a מלאכה that you're not allowed to destroy something. But that's only if you plan to build, because that's not really destruction, it's called building. סותר על מנת לבנות, if you destroy in order to build, it has the הלכה of of beginning of building. So when השם destroyed the בית המקדש, it's really the beginning of the building. So if a person wants to celebrate the day when the building started, when did the third בית המקדש start? On תשעה באב. Now at this point, we are still in גלות, משיח didn't come yet. We don't see yet with our eyes how this destruction is the beginning of the building, therefore now it's not a יום טוב. Now it's a time of mourning. But when משיח will come and we'll look back, then we'll see it. Now, החכם עיניו בראשו, if a person is smart and looks a little deeper, so even now we start thinking to ourselves, okay, we have to fast, we have to do all the הלכות that the תורה said, that the חכמים said, because it's a time of mourning and we still don't know, but there's another part in our brain that tells us, but there is a certain happiness that's there. That's why even now, תשעה באב is a day that we don't say תחנון. Why? Because this is already the beginning. This is the deeper meaning of when we said before that on תשעה באב, משיח was born. What does that mean? So simple meaning is that that's a day משיח was born, however to explain it, according to this, חסידות says that's what it means. משיח, the concept of משיח, was born at the destruction. At the time of the destruction, this was the beginning of the coming of משיח, if you look at it deeper. This explains another thing. It says in שולחן ערוך a way to remember which day of the week the holidays come out, as long as you know which day פסח was. And that works a very interesting way, maybe you heard of it. We take the first letter of the אלף בית with the last, put them together: אלף תו, בית שין, גימל ריש, את בש גר. אלף is one. If you know which day of the week פסח was, the first day of פסח, אלף, then that's the day of the week that the תו is going to be. What's the תו? תשעה באב. בית, if you know which day of the week second day of פסח was, you'll have the שין, שין is שבועות. גימל ריש, if you know which day the third of פסח was, which day of the week, that's going to be the ריש, ריש is ראש השנה. That's how it goes on. But the question is, it's strange. Out of all the things, which two come together? The first day of פסח with תשעה באב. Aren't they opposites? The first day of פסח is redemption, תשעה באב is the day of exile. How come את בש, אלף תו go together, that the day of פסח, that the same day of תשעה באב? And the answer is yes, because really the תשעה באב is like פסח. תשעה באב is the beginning of the redemption. When it'll come, we will see it. Now we don't see it, but we already now know that this is the beginning of the redemption, and therefore, תשעה באב is going to be a יום טוב. So the question we asked in the beginning, why is תשעה באב going to be a יום טוב? We understand why it's not going to be a day of mourning, there's no reason to mourn anymore, we'll have a בית המקדש, we'll have the גאולה, we'll have the redemption, there won't be any exile anymore, but why is it a יום טוב? Why is a special day? Yes, because this is the special day of the coming of משיח, this is what תשעה באב is really represents. Since there are still a few moments left, I'm going to go from another angle to explain this from another way, what's so special about תשעה באב, also the way חסידות explains. תשעה באב is a day השם, look at it this way, punished us. That's the simple meaning of תשעה באב, השם punished us. There is a פסוק that says, את אשר יאהב השם יוכיח. The one that השם loves, he's the one that he punishes. Punishment of השם, as I said before, comes out of love. Just like by a parent, why would a parent punish a child? It's only out of love. Because the parent loves the child, so the parent is going to punish the child for misbehaving. So punishing a child is an expression of love of a parent. If you'd see a group of children standing, then you see people, and you'll you don't know which person is the father of which child, don't know. And then you'll see the children misbehaving and one person will walk over to one child and give him a slap, you'll know this is his father. Why? Father should hurt his own child? Yeah, because he loves him. What the other children did, he doesn't care, doesn't bother him really, but my own child, I love him so much. And I have to tell you, the love that a parent shows to a child through punishing is a deeper love than the love he shows to a child through giving him a kiss when he behaves, or giving him a prize when he behaves. Because to give a prize to a child is natural. A father loves his child, and naturally, he will give him a prize if he's good. So it's limited to his nature. To give a child a slap is against the nature of the child, of the father. Why did he do it? Against his nature. Because he loves the child so much, and so much so that it'll go against his nature, it'll break the the barriers of his nature. That's how strong the love is. That's that's what happens when a parent gives a פאטש to a child. Same thing with השם. When השם destroyed the בית המקדש because of our misbehavior, that was an expression of השם's greatest love to us. Because He loves us so much, that's why He did this, in order to enable us to get rid of their sins and be able to reach a higher level. Just like by a child, you know when the father comes and gives a slap to the child and it shows his love, the child, as being a small child, is very upset. He's angry at his father. But when he gets a little bit older and he looks back, he says, \"Wow, what my father did for me.\" And many times, you know what happens? It's that slap that the father gave the child that put the child on the right path and the child became, when he grew up, what he became is all thanks to that פאטש, to that slap that he got. Now, while as a child he doesn't realize that, but when he goes grows up, he looks back and he says, \"Thank God! The best day of my life was the day that my father slapped me for doing whatever I did, because because of that, it changed my behavior and I became what I am now.\" And the same thing here, also. Because of what השם did, this makes it possible this He punished us and therefore He made us now when to cleanse us and makes it possible for us to reach the level of משיח. So when we look back now, we say, \"So which day is the best day of our connection to השם?\" The day that He destroyed the בית המקדש. The day that He gave us a פאטש. That's the day that made it possible for us to reach the level of of משיח and the level of the third בית המקדש. Like that child is going to thank his father and maybe even celebrate the day that his father gave him the פאטש. If he wouldn't be a child at the at beginning, he would have celebrated right away. But, you know, children don't feel it. We're like children, spiritually we're like children, so we don't feel it. That's why we have to fast. And no one should get any ideas, it's such a good day, we don't have to fast, God forbid. We have to fast, and we have to do everything that the הלכה says that we have to do nine days, the three weeks, שבעה עשר בתמוז, תשעה באב, because that's the way the fact is now. But there is always something in our mind that we have to keep in mind, that should know that really, really, this is going to be this is a beginning of what's going to be very good later on. And this is there is a a ווארט from ר' פנחס קאריצער and something that ר' פנחס, one of the big רבי'ס, צדיקים, said. He said that there are 21 days in the three weeks. This is parallel to the 21 days from ראש השנה till שמחת תורה. ראש השנה till שמיני ע- till הושענא רבה. From ראש השנה till הושענא רבה, and the next day after that is שמחת תורה. That's like תשעה באב. What's the connection of תשעה באב and שמחת תורה? He says there is even a hint. In the reading of the תורה that we read on תשעה באב, we say the פסוק, \"אתה הראת לדעת.\" When do we say \"אתה הראת לדעת\"? שמחת תורה! So I said שמחת תורה. He said, \"Yes.\" Because just שמחת like שמחת תורה is the greatest שמחה that we have through the year. It's a competition between פורים and שמחת תורה. But שמחת תורה is from the greatest days of שמחה. So he says, we have to realize that תשעה באב is equivalent to שמחת תורה. And all the 21 days are like that. The רבי once said there is a פסוק that says, \"אך טוב לישראל,\" which means, אך means only, only good for the יידן. But the word אך is made up of two letters, אלף כף. אלף כף is 21. The גימטריא, the numerical value of כף is 20, אלף is 1, 21. The 21 days of the three weeks is טוב לישראל, אך טוב לישראל. That's good. Why? Because if we learn and see what's going to happen later and we realize it now, it brings us a certain joy. And this is what חסידות tells us about תשעה באב. That's why by חסידים always תשעה באב was a day of mourning and fasting, everything, but at the same time, there was always a certain feeling of looking at it from in a positive way. Like חסידות, like I said in the beginning, חסידות looks at everything from a positive angle. So if you look at תשעה באב, in addition to the mourning, which is something that is has to to be done, and I say whenever I talk about this I always mention no one should get any ideas that you don't. There is, we have to mourn the destruction of the בית המקדש, because at this point this is what it is, and it's something so special by יידן that no one else has. Just to finish off, they say that once Napoleon, he took a ride with his, I guess, second in command, one morning, and he happened to go through the Jewish quarters, and it was תשעה באב, and he saw the stores were closed, and the people walking around very serious, so he turns around to him and he says, \"What happened?\" So he says, \"You don't know? Their temple was burned, was destroyed.\" So Napoleon says, \"Tell me who did it! I'm going to go and challenge them, and I'm going to go conquer them, and I'm going to fight for the Jews, I'm going to- Who did this?\" So he says, \"No, it happened 1,500 years ago.\" He says, \"What? 1,500 years ago?\" He says, \"Well, a nation that could still be mourning something that happened 1,500 years ago about a building that was destroyed, this is an eternal nation, they're going to last forever.\" And this is something that we have to do. We have to think about it and we have to think about the destruction of the בית המקדש, but חסידות always brings in the light and says, \"But you have to remember that really, really השם is good, and all this is just a preparation for the rebuilding of the third בית המקדש with a great revelation of Godliness that the world will see.\" And we hope and pray that we're not going to have to wait long, but this תשעה באב we hope, this תשעה באב already will be the יום טוב, not only we won't say תחנון, and not only we will sit on a chair, we will actually be with משיח and go to the גאולה שלימה במהרה בימינו בקרוב ממש.