Think about this: If somehow you were mistakenly locked up in jail, and someone came and bailed you out, how would you feel about that person? Then if that person brought you to their mansion on an estate, and said “I am going to leave you here, alone, to live as you please, just follow these house rules”. Then the host leaves and upon returning, discovers that not only did his guest not follow the house rules, but had also desecrated the house! The host was trying to impart kindness; however, the guest had brought evil, crude, vulgar people, who embodied the exact opposite of kindness, into his home. The owner had no choice but to exclaim, “Hey! Wait a minute! I don’t understand this! I took you out of jail and I put you into a beautiful house. All I asked of you is to treat this place well, but what do you do instead? You destroy it! You won’t even stop when I reprimand you and threaten to throw you off the premises. So, you have left me with no other option but to take action and physically remove you from my property. You have run it down and I will have to tear my house down to the ground and rebuild it. This is the story of Tisha B’Av. How many times do we need to be reminded and reprimanded before we understand our role as a good Jew? So, think hard: How many places do we have to get thrown out of before we get the message?
