Crying...crying...crying...

frumama

Wed, Jul 29 2020, 7:01 pm

My heart aches at the thought of another 9 av. Another year to mourn our long heart wrenching galus. Oh how I wish we were celebrating this year. But as sunset approaches, my hope sets too. Modchisch hasn't come yet and my heart is broken. We will sit on the floor again. Crying. Crying for 2000 years of pain, horror and suffering our nation had endured. Collectively as a people and oh so many individual tragedies. I know I will have sit on the floor again as I open my megillah and read. Out loud. In English, so know what I am saying. I know my voice will falter as I reach the words "should women eat their own offspring, the babes of their care". I can not say those words out loud, I can not bear the thought. Oh what those who lived (or died) through the churban had to endure. But that was just the beginning. Oh, the suffering of so many generations. Starting with those starving in yerushalayim, dying of hunger and thirst, then those by the sword of our enemy. Having to watch the beis hamikdash engulfed inflames. The unthinkable happening to taunts and gearing of those who set it aflame. Then starving and broken, led in chains to a foreign land to be sold as slaves or forced to face hungry wild beasts for the entertainment of their captors. I will think of them and cry. I will think of the crusades, the blood libels, those tortured and burned during the Spanish Inquisition. I will think of them and cry. I will think of the mothers who watched their young boys snatched away to be taken to a foreign army, never to be seen again. I cry for those heartbroken yidishe Mama's. And I will think of the horrors of the the Holocaust. And I will cry and cry. Sobbing for generations of pain and suffering. I will think of the bus bombings in Israel in our generation. I will think of the families I know who have suffered unimaginable loss . I will think of the individuals killed just this year, for being a Jew. In Israel, in NJ, in PA. It started in Jerusalem 2000 years ago,but it hasn't ended yet.
"Bring us back to you ,Hashem,and we shall return, renew our days of old. For even if you had utterly rejected us, You have already raged sufficiently against us." (Eicha 5, 21-22)

FranticFrummie

Thu, Jul 30 2020, 12:27 am

There is a story I heard long ago, and it still haunts me.

One of the first Ethiopian people to come to Israel, got off the plane, and the reception committee asked him what he wanted to do first. He said he wanted to go to the Temple.

Back then, the Ethiopians had been isolated for so long, that they did not know that the Temple had been destroyed long ago. When they told him this, he was in shock. He didn't believe them at first. How could that happen?

Once the truth sunk in, he collapsed on the ground and began to wail in grief. He grabbed handfuls of dirt and poured it on his head. He was inconsolable. They ended up needing to call an ambulance for him and get him a sedative, and take him into counseling. His heart was completely broken.

If we could only feel just a fraction of what he felt, we could all bring Moshiach.

Right now, I am sad that I am not that sad. I wish I could feel more. This generation can be so distant sometimes.

Thank you, OP, for bringing our emotions closer to home.

Please Hashem, ad mosai?