The most common theme we've found this year seems to be the feeling that the mourning process has somehow become entrenched and institutionalized throughout the Galut (which isn't a surprise) and even here in Eretz Yisrael (which is both unexpected and disappointing). The "Oy Vey Iz Mir" mentality has become part of "business as usual," but is this really Good For The Jews? It's our opinion that the answer is a resounding NO.
So what's the solution, what's the antidote for this poison of resigned melancholy which has become almost systemic within a large segment of our People? Should we not, all of us, take our very lives and souls into our own hands and determine with all our might to DO THE MITZVAH as commanded in the Torah? Are we waiting for our Sukkah to drop down from Heaven or is the Mitzvah to build ourselves a Sukkah? We're commanded to build the Holy Temple and each day we make an excuse as to why we're not building it is another day gone by without the Holy Temple in this World, another day gone by when the Jewish People both here in the Land of Israel and outside of Israel are NOT DOING THEIR JOB.
What is our job, exactly? To be a light unto the nations, to spread Torah from Jerusalem to the World, and to create the physical and spiritual infrastructure that makes both these things possible. We can't be a light while we're in darkness. HaShem - Master of the Universe! Open our eyes to Your Truth! Open our hearts to Your Holy Word! Remove the shame of our disobedience, turn our stony hearts into hearts of flesh & put as You promised a new Spirit within us so we can DO OUR JOB. Give us the strength, courage and wisdom we need and give us leaders whose hearts are turned only to You.
Did you have a vision of the Holy Temple on Shabbos Chazon? If you did we want to know about it. Don't forget you can always send us emails at radiofreenachlaot@gmail.com - we love to hear from you.
This afternoon's Torah Schedule is as follows ....
11:30pm - Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's series on Parenting continues
12:45pm - Lorelai's interview with Avraham Sutton
1:45pm - Rav Ozer Bergman's Rebbe Nachman Shiur from June 24th
2:45pm - Rav Betzalel Phillip Edwards Series on the Chevrya Part 8
3pm - Lorelai's continuing conversation with Benzion Eliyahu Lehrer on the Jewish Calendar Year
4:45pm - Lorelai's interview with Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute
5:30pm - Rav Ozer Bergman's Rebbe Nachman Shiur from July 15th
6:20pm - Avraham Sutton "Awareness in the Amidah"
8pm - Avraham Sutton "Inner Space"
Stay tuned for more programming updates - we hope to have either a live reading of Megillat Eicha or a recording of it being read this evening - and we (and by "we" I mean me, Lorelai and a host of other people) are, b'ezrat HaShem, going to ascend Har HaBayet tomorrow morning at 7:30am - stay tuned for recordings made on the spot there, interviews with people who have come to pay their respects to the Shechina, and much, much more as we come closer and closer to .... the end? The beginning? Both????
