Today’s yeshivos stand on the foundation of the past; on the blood, prayers, tears and mesirus nefesh of earlier times. My father-in-law, R. Mordechai Leib Man zt”l, recounted that when he was a young man, they didn’t always have food to eat in the yeshivos. One time they learned in the morning, and learned in the afternoon, and then came and told the Rosh Yeshivah that there is no bread. The Rosh Yeshivah went to the baker to convince him to give the yeshivah boys some bread. In those days, people learned under difficult conditions, with great self-sacrifice. They gave over these foundations to us.
And what are we giving over to the generations after us? Are we confident that everything will be fine in future? I remember Rav Shach saying that in the Yom Kippur War, the prime minister of the time said that Israel was close to losing the war. Israel was almost conquered by Egypt and Syria. Rav Shach talked about this because we need to understand that we have no guarantee regarding the future. Are we preparing ourselves for all eventualities? Are we building proper foundations to give over to coming generations?
Neither is the future guaranteed for the Jews of America. Those who live there know that the new anti-Semitism is only growing. The world does not stay the same forever. We need to remind ourselves of this.
A few days before the Brisker Rov passed away, Rav Shach went to visit him. The Brisker Rov was lying on his bed, and his strength was ebbing. Rav Shach tried to raise his spirits, and said, “Not everyone raised families of Gedolei Torah like the Rov did!”
The Brisker Rov replied, “Did I get this for nothing? How I fasted for them! How many prayers and tears I poured out for them!”
The Brisker Rov had twelve children. Seven were saved from the Holocaust and came with him to Eretz Yisrael, and five stayed behind with their mother in Europe.
Once the Brisker Rov remarked about his children who stayed behind, “If they were killed, they were killed. But who knows if they are not in churches and monasteries?” (Many Jewish children were forced into such tragic situations.)
As we mentioned, the Brisker Rov cried and fasted over his children. He would pour out fervent prayers for them. Yet, when the world was in upheaval, even he could not be confident and secure. He was in fear and trembling over the spiritual fate of his children.
And what about us? Are we pouring out tears and prayers?
On Tishah b’Av we cry over the past, but we need to cry also over the future. Chazal say that when the Jewish people were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar and arrived at the rivers of Babylon, and they saw that Yirmeyahu HaNavi was about to leave them, they all started crying. Yirmeyahu said to them:
I bring heaven and earth as witnesses that if you would have cried once while you were still in Tzion, you would never have been exiled.
Pesach is not what the Jewish people of that era lacked, nor Shavu’os nor Sukkos. What they lacked was Tishah b’Av. If they would have had a Tishah b’Av before they were exiled, “If you would have cried once while you were still in Tzion,” then there would not have been a Galus. If we cry before it happens, then we don’t need to cry after it happens. Tishah b’Av is a day to cry over the future. “If you would have cried once while you were still in Tzion.” If we make a “Tishah b’Av” before it happens, if we cry over the future, then we won’t have an actual destruction to cry over.
