By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
This year, Asara B’ Teves falls out on Erev Shabbos, and so we enter the joy of Shabbos straight from the sadness of the fast. Asara B’ Teves commemorates the day that Nevuchadnetzar’s armies surrounded Yerushalayim and brought it under siege that lasted two and a half years, until the final Churban.
For hundreds of years, the prophets had been rebuking am Yisrael for their sins, warning of the Churban. Hashem waited and waited for teshuvah. But nothing was forthcoming.
The Gemara tells us the following poignant thought about the events just prior to the final Churban: “Rav Yehuda bar Idi said in the name of Rav Yochanan, ‘Ten journeys did the Shechinah journey—from the kapores to the kruvim, from one of the kruvim to the other, from the kruvim to the doorway, from the doorway to the courtyard, from the courtyard to the mizbeiach, from the mizbeiach to the roof, from the roof to the wall, from the wall to the city, from the city to the mountain, and from the mountain to the desert. From the desert, the Shechinah went up and settled back in its place...The Ribbono shel Olam desired for it to remain among bnei Yisrael, but their excessive sins would not allow it.’
“Rav Yochanan said, ‘Six months the Shechinah delayed in the desert, for maybe they would return in teshuvah. When they did not, He said, “let their bones explode.”’”
Hashem said: I waited long enough.
Now, just as then, Hashem is waiting for am Yisrael to wake up and return to the path of Torah—for the irreligious to start keeping Shabbos and mitzvos, for the already frum to be more exacting in halacha, for all of us to pay attention to Torah and pour more fervor into our observance.
Then the Shechinah will indeed return to us, and we will experience the final redemption.
