The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-לשמוע ולבכות הגאון הינוקא בליל תשעה באב תשפ＂ה 2025

3:11 Rabbeinu the Radbaz writes that just when one looks toward heaven, toward the Temple Mount, wisdom and understanding flow down upon a person, an upright mind — just from looking at this place. And think how much sorrow there is that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, that this House was destroyed — this holy House, this great and holy House. As you know, it was in the period — that was 1,957 years ago.

3:41 Whenever you want to know how much time has passed since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, do the calculation from the secular year. According to the Maharam Schick it is forbidden to reckon by the secular year, but it may be done only for the sake of the Beis HaMikdash. Always work out what the secular year is in that year — now, say, it is 2025 — minus "chaim", life. "Chaim" is 68. You want 2025 minus "chaim"?

4:08 It always comes out exactly, every year, by the secular count. When you work it out, wanting to know how much time we have passed since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, do the reckoning of the secular year, subtract from it the word "chaim", the number of "chaim" — for "chaim" comes to: ches is eight, yud and yud are twenty, plus mem — that is 68. Subtract 68 from the secular year, and that is "chaim", for that is the Beis HaMikdash — it is called "Beis Chayeinu", the House of our life, the place of our glory.

4:37 You subtract that, and it is exactly the time that has passed since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash — exactly. In every secular year. Next year, 5786, if Mashiach does not come, if the Beis HaMikdash is not built and we do not merit to be redeemed, then it comes out exactly 1,958, because in 2026, you take away sixty-eight, and it is one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight. That is how it goes on being counted — to do the reckoning of what "Beis Chayeinu" is, what life is.

5:12 When the Beis HaMikdash came to be destroyed, as you know, there were the Biryonim, there were the poor, there were the rich, there were all the classes — the classes that existed among the Jewish people, just as there are today: a class of the rich, a class of those who earn a living, a class of the poor — each one has some standing or other.

5:38 Even a poor man has a standing. The very fact that he is poor, and people would look at him and want to give him more — that is a kind of standing, something that gave him honor. In that time of the Beis HaMikdash — back when Yirmiyahu prophesied his prophecies, in the First Temple, no one understood what he was talking about. Everything was happy, everything was good, there were no troubles at all. There sits a man by the name of Yirmiyahu, prophesying prophecies of wrath.

6:04 To where is he prophesying them? About what is he prophesying them? Everything, everything — there is no problem at all, everything is the best in the world. But Yirmiyahu already sees the deeds of the Jewish people, he looks closely and understands the deeds of the Jewish people. Why the Beis HaMikdash [unclear] for them. Until Nevuchadnetzar comes, the king of Bavel, the destroyer of the Beis HaMikdash, and our Beis HaMikdash and our glory was destroyed on Tisha B'Av.

6:32 And therefore on Tisha B'Av — the Second Temple, when it was destroyed — there were the same classes: the rich too, the Sages too, the poor too, the Biryonim too. There were several groups among the Jewish people: the Biryonim were on one side, the Sages were on a second side, the poor were on a third side, and the rich were on the fourth side.

7:03 Each one had a faction of its own, a place of its own, and they did not mix with one another. But what — it pained the Biryonim very much how the Sages do not rebuke the rich. There were very, very rich men, and the Sages would sit and learn Torah and not rebuke them. And they had a very great pain.

7:28 "Why do you not rebuke them? Why do you not rouse them? Why do you not... so that they wake up — to give support, to help." Instead, rich men buy the priesthood with their money. Yehoshua ben Gamla, who bought his priesthood and made a match — he married Marta bas Baysus, who was one of the rich women of Jerusalem; out of her great wealth, which she had, he bought the priesthood.

7:56 So they said: "Look what you are doing with money — you sit and buy priesthood with this money, you do not guard the Beis HaMikdash as you should, you take all the money of the Beis HaMikdash and give it to Rome." To Rome they gave all the wealth and all the gold and the silver. Of course, this was — the Jewish people had already begun to grow poor, the economy had already begun to go down, and they had no money and they had no gold, and Rome, every time — the Romans would send, who held them back with taxes — the Beis HaMikdash — and of course Queen Berenice, what she did, that they blamed her for it.

8:33 But everything that was done in the time of the Beis HaMikdash was of course because of baseless hatred, for they were divided, one against another. This one did not listen to that one, and that one did not listen to this one; the Sages did not listen to the poor, and the poor did not listen to the rich, and the rich did not listen to the Biryonim, and everyone quarreled with one another. And there was no way at all to a solution, what to do so that the Beis HaMikdash would not be destroyed, for they began to quarrel with one another, and the Sages no longer knew what to do and how to rebuke; they sat and learned Torah, and they could rebuke the Jewish people, and they could not rebuke the rich; and the rich sat by themselves

9:13 on another planet of their own. They did not understand the pain of the poor. There were such differences of class — Ben Tzitzis HaKeses, whose tzitzis would trail over cushions and pillows. Kalba Savua, Nakdimon ben Gurion — they were the very rich men of Jerusalem, who could have fed Jerusalem, fed the whole Jewish people, without their lacking a thing.

9:37 They could have been in great plenty, they could have made a living, they would have had everything, and they would have lacked nothing. But on the other hand, the classes, and the wealth, and the wish to rule and the wish to reign of part of the people brought the poor to be down, far down, and stirred up the baseless hatred — until the Biryonim could no longer keep silent toward the rich and could not keep silent toward the Sages, and they stirred up riots and disputes and wars, until they fought one another — and of course until they burned all the grain and everything there was, [unclear] fight the Romans.

10:14 And of course that is what brought the burning of our Beis HaMikdash and our glory: that they would not unite with the Sages, that they did not heed the voice of the Sages. If they had heeded the voice of the Sages, if they had set themselves aside before Rabban Yochanan, had listened to him, sitting and receiving Torah, sitting and asking for Hashem's view of what truly to do — But this — that each one gets up and goes alone and thinks that he understands, he knows, everyone is Rabbi Yochanan, he knows what to do, everyone is wise in his own eyes, knows what to do — that is what caused the length of the exile.

10:49 That people — each one goes by his own mind and wants to receive from the world. A person must always set his own mind aside — until our Beis HaMikdash and our glory was destroyed. Those marauders came, wicked men, the Romans, and they left no remnant. They laid waste in the House of Hashem, they burned, they committed crimes, little children, women — they tortured them — young men, old men, old women, all of them they killed by the sword, by the bow, by all kinds — by fire, by all kinds of unnatural deaths, and they left nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

11:28 The exile from Spain too, which was with King Ferdinand — that was on Tisha B'Av. The exile from Spain too, and all the Crusades, and the Inquisition, and the pogroms — that too was on Tisha B'Av, at this time. Everything began on this evil, bitter and harsh day. When we look to the Holy One, blessed be He, to redeem us, when we weep over the Beis HaMikdash — to know what we are weeping over. And when we weep and do not understand the causes that caused the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the fast is worth nothing, it is worth nothing at all.

12:01 One must fast and pray and plead with Hashem over how our Beis HaMikdash and our glory was destroyed. To do teshuvah for this, to ask Hashem to remove the hatred from us, from the people, that same idolatry, that same heresy, heresy — every way in which we do not trust in Hashem, blessed be He, every way in which we do not look to Hashem, blessed be He, as we should. One must ask of Hashem, blessed be He, for everything we want, with a whole heart: that He save us, that He ransom us, that He redeem us, that He remove all the baseless hatred that is among us, that He light up our eyes, that He lead the way for us, that He guide us to Him, blessed be He, to bring Him nachas ruach, and that our Beis HaMikdash and our glory be rebuilt.

12:41 And now [unclear] our Master, the Creator, blessed be He, our King at our head, and we shall merit, with His help, blessed be He, for certain. I once said: why is it, in this generation, so hard for people to weep over the Beis HaMikdash and to connect? It is not because so much time has passed, but rather [unclear]. The Jewish people feel that they are soon to be redeemed, so it is already hard for them to weep. They cannot weep, because they know that already — "Gladden us according to the days You afflicted us."

13:08 That is the reason — and it is a merit for the Jewish people — that it is hard for them to weep over the Beis HaMikdash. So one must understand that all the troubles and all the sorrow in the world are from the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, and all the joys and the good things in the world, and long life and salvations, are from the Beis HaMikdash. One must walk in the way of Hashem, blessed be He. May it be His will that we merit to be redeemed with a high hand, and may Hashem, blessed be He, have nachas ruach.

13:32 Amen. Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz writes that at this time, when we sit on the ground, and especially tomorrow morning, it is a very, very high time of favor, and one can ask of Hashem, blessed be He, for every request, and its law is like Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur. It is a very high time of favor to ask Hashem for whatever one wants, and of course to join to it the requests for the Beis HaMikdash, to ask, and to understand that it is the Shechinah's lack.

13:57 When a person says: "All the sorrow and the heaviness that I have is sorrow for the Shechinah, and I do not want to have sorrow, because I do not want the Shechinah to have sorrow" — if a person asks this and says this, and he joins it to the sorrow of the Shechinah, then he can ask for the Beis HaMikdash and ask like this: "Master of the world, You know the troubles I have, the distress I have, everything that is hard for me, everything in which I do not feel well, everything that troubles me in my livelihood, at home, and everything I am going through — I ask of You: I know that this is the sorrow of the Shechinah.

14:27 Please, let the Shechinah have no sorrow, let the Shechinah have no lack. Please, make this whole for me, in the merit of the Beis HaMikdash, that it be built." That is how to ask of Hashem, blessed be He, and to understand that every sorrow is the sorrow of the Shechinah, and every request for any good at all is a request for the building of the Beis HaMikdash. And may it be His will that Hashem, blessed be He, redeem us with a complete geulah, and that we merit to be redeemed with a high hand. Amen and amen.