The Rav added that in certain ways aveilut yeshana for the Beit HaMikdash is even more stringent than aveilut chadasha. Although the Talmud (Moed Katan 27b) mentions that the first three days of shiva are days of crying, there is no obligation for a mourner to cry. The Talmud simply says that during the first three days of shiva it is natural for a mourner to want to cry. But on Tisha B’Av, crying is one of the motifs of the day.
As the prophet Jeremiah (9:16-17) says, in the Haftarah (a short selection from the Prophets read every Shabbat) we read the morning of Tisha B’Av, “Call the dirge women... let our eyes run with tears and our eyelids flow with water.” Mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash requires an expression of raw emotion; it obligates us to show how overcome we are with our longing for the Beit HaMikdash. That is why we spend much of the morning of Tisha B’Av reciting kinot (lamentations) which bemoan the loss of the Beit HaMikdash and describe the pain and suffering the Jewish people has endured as a result. The kinot (dirges, elegies) are designed to awaken our emotions until we cry out uncontrollably because only by crying can we properly mourn the loss of the Beit HaMikdash.
