Teaching Our Children and Their Having Great Peace

All your children will be taught by God; your children will have great peace (shalom).   Isaiah 54:13  

                                                                  

            This is the third verse of the third of the seven haftarot of consolation.

In the opinion of Rabbi Hamnuna (a second generation Talmudic sage – late 3^rd century C.E.), “Jerusalem was destroyed only because they neglected (the education of) school children;” [Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 119b] while the Sages teach in Tractate Yoma [9b] that the Second Temple was destroyed as the result of unfounded hatred.

            Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai (1724 – 1806) notes that our verse comforts Israel with the declaration that the redemption will surely arrive, and God promises, through Isaiah, that the causes of Jerusalem’s destruction will be removed:

“All your children will be taught by God” – the Torah education of your children will not be neglected; as well “your children will have great peace” – peace and unity will prevail among you and there will be no hatred.

            We may add that realizing “All your children will be taught by God” depends upon God and us, for if we do not take advantage of God’s readiness to teach our children, nothing will be gained. In contrast, realizing “your children will have great peace” is dependent solely upon us; God will not create the spirit of brotherhood and unity for the nation of Israel, only we ourselves can accomplish this.

            May we merit doing our part in order to hasten the arrival of the Righteous Redeemer.

The Building Blocks for the Third Temple

 

            Ḥafetz Ḥayyim wrote:

If it were possible, every Israelite would willingly spend money and invest himself body and soul in helping to rebuild the Temple for the name of God. However, it is not necessary to spend any money, or to travel to Jerusalem for this purpose; all that is necessary is to guard one’s tongue and language to prevent blemishing them.  One who does this necessarily distances himself from lashon hara, arguments and anger, and from deceiving or embarrassing one’s fellow, all of which hinder the rebuilding of the Temple. Those who accomplish this certainly have great merit and through their positive behavior, they help rebuild the Temple.

            In his booklet Avodat Yemi Bein haMeẓarim v’Tisha b’Av, Rabbi Yoḥanan Eliyahu Rosenberg quotes Ḥafetz Ḥayyim, preceding his words with the heading “Between man and fellow-man: the building blocks for rebuilding the Temple.” Since the Second Temple was destroyed because of interpersonal sins (bein adam l’ḥavero), specifically as the result of sin’at ḥinam (unfounded hatred), the remedy and therefore the building blocks for the Third Temple is within the realm of bein adam l’ḥavero.

            The words of Ḥafetz Ḥayyim provide practical expression of Rabbi Kook’s comment:

Given that we were destroyed and the entire world destroyed with us due to unfounded hatred, we shall be rebuilt and the world rebuilt with us through unbounded love.

 

Mourning, Consolation and Repentance

 

            The spiritual content of the Jewish calendar from the seventeenth of Tammuz through Yom Kippur, a period of eighty-two days, consists of mourning, consolation and repentance. This content is expressed in customs and in the haftarot which are read on the Shabbatot of this period.

            Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tzirelson (1859 – 1941, chief rabbi of Bessarabia) notes that the order is exact and meaningful. The significance of mourning lies in understanding and recognizing that which is missing, what was and is no longer. One who does not understand what is lacking cannot begin the process of repentance since he does not understand the need to repent.

            Upon completion of the three week period of mourning the destruction of the Temples, following the fast of Tisha b’Av, we commence the period of consolation. For the seven weeks until Rosh haShana, the haftarot are the “Seven of Consolation.” Consolation, explains Rabbi Tzirelson, is the ability to see the strong points which remain and to understand that these are to be used to recover from the mourning and to build anew. This perception indeed is encouraging and comforting and paves the way towards repentance.

            Repentance is the actual work of rebuilding, abandoning the path which lead to loss and destruction and choosing a new path which will facilitate rectification and rebuilding.

            Indeed, our calendar presents a graduated program for the process of repentance.