This is the beginning of the Nine Days. Klal Yisrael is preparing for the Nine Days by changing their shirts and the like in the few hours that remain before Rosh Chodesh Av, and more importantly, putting their minds to the days that are to come.
I want to share with you something that it says in the Ohr Gedalyahu in the Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim volume in the section of the Bein Hametzarim (starting at the bottom of page 167).
The Gemara says in Maseches Chagigah 5b (24 lines from the top) that on the one hand, it says נפשי תבכה במסתרים, kavayochel, G-d in His place is weeping, and on the other hand, עוז וחדוה במקומו, there is joy in G-d’s place. The Gemara answers, “One is on the outside, and the other is on the inside.” Obviously, this is a mysterious and hard-to-understand Gemara. The simple teitch is that in His hidden place, kavayochel, the Ribbono Shel Olam weeps, but openly, He rejoices.
Rabbeinu Chananel says the opposite. He says that HKB”H rejoices in the hidden places, and His tears are in the open places. Rabbeinu Chananel does not explain why, but I believe that he means to say that outside, where there is hester panim, where Hashem is not revealed, there are tears, but inside, עוז וחדוה במקומו, there is joy.
Rav Schorr says beautifully that there is a Yerushalayim Shel Matah and Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah. The Yerushalayim we go to, the Kosel we go to, the Beis Hamikdash we go to, is Yerushalayim Shel Matah. Then there is the heavenly Yerushalayim, the Beis Hamikdash upstairs, which is k’negged the Makom haMikdash downstairs. The Gemara says that the Beis Hamikdash still stands, that HKB”H still has a Beis Hamikdash, and that the angel Michoel stands and brings korbanos on the mizbeiach up in Heaven.
Rav Schorr teitches that our world, where there is hester panim, is a place of tears. But up in Heaven, where the true world exists, and there is Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah, עוז וחדוה המקומו, there is joy. A person down here who weeps over the Churban Beis Hamikdash is zoche to have an appreciation of the Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah. If you appreciate the Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah, you appreciate what we are missing down here in the Yerushalayim Shel Matah.
Rav Schorr teitches kol hamisabeil al Yerushalayim, somebody who has an appreciation of the Yerushalayim Shel Matah, what is missing down here, zoche v’ro’e b’nechemaso. Simultaneously, he sees the nechama in the sense of having an appreciation of the Yerushalayim Shel Ma’alah. Somebody who goes to the Kosel, somebody who goes to Yerushalayim and has a sense of the great spirituality that is there, is ro’e b’nechemaso. Such a person has the strength and joy of really appreciating Yerushalayim.
That is our job as we go into the Nine Days, to simultaneously be misabeil al Yerushalayim Shel Matah and appreciate the world of ruchnios in Heaven that Yerushalayim Shel Matah is connected to.
RABBI YISRAEL REISMAN
