The 3 Weeks: Thankfulness & Sadness
RABBI YAAKOV ZALMAN LABINSKY
We are grateful to be in the world and sad from the initial decree.
From the 10th of Teves, the decree began whether there would be construction or not of the Bais haMikdosh. We are in the final time period, the three weeks, from then. May we be zocheh to the reconstruction.
What are we trying to do
We understand the breakdown. The mourning, the four stages, three weeks, nine days, and day of Tisha B’Av. These reverse the regular mourning where the intensity is right away. We accept the painful loss and try to move on with the person’s legacy. But when it comes to this aveilus, we do not accept the loss, the very thing that is missing, what we are looking for, is the Shechina. The Shechinah is what we are looking for. But it is in hiding, not really lost. While it is lost, it is a temporary loss and it is up to us to find it.
Let’s make it intimate and personal. It is necessary. We look at the Melachos to fix our core identity, to restore the Shechinah lost and needing to be found within ourselves. We want to get back to the Nefesh Elokis. We want to give back our inner divinity. Remove the veil from within, the evil. We want to live with the divine reality in us, the Nefesh elokis. We want to go into the inner elements of fire wind water and earth, in a way we break our actions and traits to get to our core identity, which is where the Shechina lies.
Nefesh parallels Malchus where the Shechina is.
We want to begin to do deep reflection and go inward to examine our inner structure, to study our character traits to see the inner elements. Where is the Shechinah found, concealed, trapped? Even though it is lost within us it is not taken away.
We see the word ego and anochius and we think we are just human and not divine and even though I am precise with mitzvahs, there is not on the ground. We want to release the inner trapped divinity, the divine presence within on the Nafshi level.
On a person to person too. And with Makom.
We are not just a body, or a body with a soul, or just a soul. We are a portion of Hashem and our very existence is divinity.
But the Shechinah within… what does it mean to confront that the Shechina that is lost but not gone?
Take a look inside!
What we have seen in the last several months? There have been many tzaros, structural failings that give way, things not properly built. When structural failures happen, with implosion, they blow in… Hashem is telling us that things are breaking down.
How do we anatomically restructure ourselves on the inside.?
Restructure ourselves into a Mini-Bais Hamikdosh, strengthening ourselves through our core middos. Hashem does not want to break down the world except to rebuild it.
The flip of implosion is deep introspection for the sake of reworking our inner structure and reformatting it and building it anew.
That is relationship with ourselves.
When we make ourselves a mini mishkan within, an inner divine being, then we are identifying with the Shechinah within us. We are not just a body, or a body with a soul, or I am a soul. we are a portion of Hashem and our very existence is divinity. We have to awaken the divine flow from above and channel it through to the four elements that emanate to our guf to reveal Hashem in this world. The physical becomes a place to manifest Hashem’s divine reality. To the extent that we do not want that or think that about ourselves or speak or act that way, we are in galus within ourselves.
We are simply not just a human being. That is galus. We are in this world to break the superficiality of the triviality of our physical existence. It is falsehood. Do not buy into it, for that is galus.
We are shifting the focus out from the body and shifting towards our inner divine reality
We enter the three weeks, removing external pleasures, the comforts, we are shifting the focus out from the body and shifting towards our inner divine reality. For the nine days, the crying and mourning is to dig deep into the infrastructure. Between the straits, is suffering, the inner will of a person, in the depth of our suffering is ultimate inner will. The paradoxical thing is when we feel distant and detached and from there is an unbelievable place of yearning and longing for Him. The further we are from our own divinity and find ourselves in the limited dimension, from that deepest place of pain, there is a diamond in the dung.
The depth of the pain and suffering that we feel, not to go into deep depression, but to dig into the depth of pain with hopefulness and inner truth and awaken a yearning to return to Hashem from a place within our nefesh Elokis, to come home, to come home to our eternal existential reality, the truest me. not me in my limited existence.
But to be aware of the divine origin of our being. We struggle in a world of falsehood, where things appear to be but are not. Embedded in that is the yearning that allows us to come back from the depths of it.
Boomerang Mashal
Boomerangs are almost perpendicular. You can through it a quarter of a mile and lose sight of it and it will come back around 180 degrees and you can be in your own spot and catch it after a full 360 return. It is awesome.
When Hashem throws us so far into exile, our will comes to want to return with a profound yearning and longing born from the distance itself.
As it comes around to the point of origin, the reconstruction is that the light will shine and we can catch it and return. It will come from great distance to the point of origin. That is the transformation from tzara to ratza, go into the pain for the desire to return.
The distance is to feel the separateness and create an inner trajectory to want to come back and when you come back it creates a new radiance. Those who mourn the Bais hamikdosh will receive that. We are going to make a boomerang, go out from the furthest place and come back to the point of origin. We see that there is no true leaving Hashem, to sanctify the pain itself. We are meant to use all the halachas to renew it. we are trying to do this within ourselves. The avoda is on the ground. We have done 8 melachos, gone deeply into our own nefesh to restructure animal to more divine. Who were we, who are we now, and who are we truly becoming. Face the inner exile within ourselves. Do not get pulled down by sadness and hopeless. Dig deep to strengthen faith, no matter how distant we feel, we did not throw it forever away. It starts to break around and come back. Like a boomerang. Throw turned around is worth. We are worth everything. Our intrinsic value and love is built in.
Return to the original source more committed to who we are, fortifying our inner Mikdosh, with the freedom to be in that place that Hashem can dwell within us, in our marriages. What we contribute to this is rectified consciousness and we can merit the emergence of Moshiach. That is what He is asking.
No more structural collapses.Hashem please give us the strength to go inside to analyze our souls, understand the elements and character traits, and feel our inner exile of the Elokus.
Feel the depth and pain of the exile for the sake and striving of removing the kelipot to remove the trapped Shechinah in ourselves. That brings the boomerang back the Shechina is restored, and power of exile turns to being able to live more redemption.
How do we relate to our own exile?
Let’s discuss. It is time to awaken the inner joy and take ourselves more seriously.