Va'eschanan: 5783 - This week's insight from Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld, special for Shabbos 'Nachamu.' It is written, 'Whoever mourns for Jerusalem merits to see its rebuilding.' Why is this written in the present tense?…

00:00 Speaker 1 Good morning. Parshas Va’eschanan.

00:03 Speaker 2 The Chasam Sofer explained the Gemara’s statement: “Whoever mourns for Jerusalem merits seeing it rebuilt.” At first glance, there’s a question: Why does it say “merits seeing” in the present tense? It should say, “will merit seeing.” Why the present tense? So he explains. We see with Yaakov Avinu that when they brought him Yosef’s coat dipped in blood, they said, “Please identify it. Is this your son’s coat?” Yaakov said, “It is my son’s coat. A wild animal has devoured him; Yosef has surely been torn apart.” And it says there: “He mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his household came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.” Rashi says that comfort cannot be accepted for someone thought to be dead who is actually alive. Since Yosef was alive, the comfort could not take hold. That’s why Yaakov Avinu refused to be comforted. Yosef—Yosef was still alive. So a question arises: So many years have passed since the destruction. Why can’t we be comforted? There is a decree that the dead are eventually forgotten by the heart. So regarding the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, after so many years it should have been forgotten. How is it that, after all these years, we still mourn for Jerusalem? It should have faded from our hearts. But Jerusalem, the Beis Hamikdash, is alive and exists. It is above, ready, and we are only asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu to bring the Beis Hamikdash down, to bring it to a state in which we can see it with our own eyes. But it is alive and exists, and that is why we cannot be comforted. They tell a story about Napoleon, who would occasionally walk through the streets of Paris and mingle with the people. He wanted to know what was happening among them. He passed a Jewish synagogue, looked inside, and saw the Jews sitting there. It was Tisha B’Av, and they were sitting and lamenting. So he went in and asked, “What happened? Why are they crying? Why

02:36 Speaker 2 are they lamenting?” They told him that the Beis Hamikdash had been destroyed. So he asked how it was that he hadn’t heard about it. Had no one told him? He knew nothing about it. They told him that many years had passed—nearly seventeen hundred years. Napoleon said, “If after seventeen hundred years they are still sitting and lamenting the Beis Hamikdash, I am certain they will rebuild the Beis Hamikdash, see it, and restore it.” So may it be Hashem’s will that we merit to see it, and may our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy.

03:04 Speaker 3 Amen, amen. That’s right.