By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov: Tisha b’Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. Tisha b’Av – the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av – is the day that our sages informed us terrible events would happen throughout Jewish history.
The most important tragedies that occured on this day were the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by Nevuchadnetzar, King of Babylon, in 423 BCE and the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.
Therefore we fast and mourn on this day. However, we need to know that we don’t just mourn the destruction of a building; rather, we mourn the departure of the Shechina from the midst of Israel. We also need to realize that since the destruction, we have lost the blessings that existed during the time the temples stood and every day there are more difficulties than the previous day.
Still, in order to merit having the Temple rebuilt, we must first understand why it was lost in the first place and make every effort to correct whatever caused that to happen.
The Talmud (Yoma 9b) states that the Second Temple was destroyed because of the sin of “sinas chinam – baseless hatred,†which was an outgrowth of the rampant strife and discord that plagued the Jewish people. This disharmony led to both the destruction of the Temple and the two millennia long exile of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel.
The Rabbis say every generation that the temple was not rebuilt, it is as though the temple was destroyed then. There is only one way to bring HaShem’s Shechina and blessings back and that’s by ahavat chinam, which means baseless love for every other person. May we be able to have baseless love for each other and merit to see the construction of the Beit Hamikdash soon.