Tisha B’Av: Why Cry?

Translated by Aaron Yoseph

I’ll tell you what we need to cry about this Tisha B’Av: There is so much confusion nowadays. Nobody knows where the truth is. How will we ever get to have ahavat Yisroel, love and unity, how will we all get together? How will we come to have love and peace together, to a place where everyone has his bread and water? This is what we have to cry about.

By learning the Rebbe Nachman’s teachings we see that something is missing, that there’s what to cry about. The Rebbe teaches us that we need to think about Hashem. See the wisdom in each thing. Encourage yourself with good points. Keep starting again. It’s very clear what you need to do every day – learn as much as you can, behave in the way of the Torah in everything you do. Keep halacha. Do everything l’shem shamayim. Come to shul and pray.

How do we get this into people, into people who are sleeping? How do we get through to people and teach them the things that can bring them back to life? “You do have hope. Hashem is with you. Everything can be good. You can achieve everything you need to. There’s still time.”

The Rebbe prepared all the Torah’s we need for this. Each of us has to think for himself – “What’s going on with me right now? What do I need to do right now?” This is what brings us out of Egypt and builds our mind. We pick up a Meshivas Nefesh and learn something. “What is R’ Nosson saying to me here. He wants to help me. How can I connect to this?” This is thought. Slowly we connect to it and it revives us. Then we can think another thought of Torah, then another one.

People throw away they capacity for thought by thinking about the past, or their problems, they worry about the present or the future. Stop and think about Hashem. It’s always easy to come back to straight thinking. But it takes stubbornness, to sit down and open a sefer. First thing in the morning. The best is if it can be Likutei Halachot, one of the seforim of the Tsaddikim.

Someone who doesn’t think isn’t living. Just thinking is good, but there is a way to think in the ways to Torah. If a person is strong in this, and opens up the seforim of Tsaddikim – he can go the whole day thinking about Torah. Think about the words of Tefillah, Tehillim, a passuk with Rashi – the more you think about it, the more you understand, the more you connect to it.

There is a way out of this prison – this way of life without thinking. We have the Rebbe. He teaches us how to build up our minds properly. If we’ve been working very hard at this, we’ll need to take a break. We build ourselves up without any stress or tension. Any other way we’ll explode. So sometimes we need to go to sleep – to just think simple thoughts of emunah and simcha.

R’ Nosson comes to give us life. Learn something at home, then when you walk in the street you have something to think about. Happy is the person who lives with the Rebbe’s teachings and thinks about them. This is what the Rebbe wanted – that this should be our thoughts. If not Likutei Moharan, then Likutei Halachot, if not that, then there’s Sipurei Maasiyot or Sichot.

This is the essence of this Torah. There is such a thing to say Torah on a very high level. But there were also Tsaddikim who brought the Torah down so that we can also live with and think Torah. This is what heals us. The problem of galut is that even with all these things set out before us, we don’t always manage to do them.

We don’t give up. Think about the Beis HaMikdash. Think about what we’re missing. On Tisha B’Av cry – remember what was and what needs to be. Give a sigh. Break through the double concealment and remember that there is a truth in the world. In this way we start to build up what should be. There is truth. The Churban – the destruction of our Holy Temple – was all because we didn’t think about Hashem. We need to stop thinking about philosophy, and think properly.

Beware of questions. We need to know how to think, and what to not think about. The Rebbe teaches us how. We can get out of this bitterness. Think about Hashem – how He made the world, and you. Think about Meshivas Nefesh – be busy with holy things. After time a person becomes capable of thinking about holy things for longer periods of time. We need to heal our souls, and know that this is what we need.

Everyone has to buy a field and grow food, because there isn’t enough to go around. So too in spirituality – we need to grow ourselves and then help others. This is what will bring the Geula, speedily in our days, Amen.