Pre Tish'a B'Av Thoughts

[rosends]

I dashed this off yesterday and figured I'd plant it here (I'll just post the link -- you can choose to click or not).

Petty, please

I used to be good at some stuff. In fact, there are probably things that I'm still good at. I taught myself to juggle and I'm pretty OK at ...

rosends.blogspot.com

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

I agree with what you are saying in your blog entry, as well as with the Ethics of the Fathers teaching that someone is rich if he is happy with what he has.

A member of the older generation in my family would often say: "Enough is as good as a feast." I looked up that saying and found that it's not a Yiddish proverb (as I'd originally thought), but that it goes back to the 17th century and was first attributed to James Howell, a Welsh writer and historian.

I believe "enough is as good as a feast" means that we should count ourselves rich if we have the things in life that are enough to make us happy. If we think that we require a "feast" to make us happy, then we'll also probably keeping imagining more and more things that we need to make us happy to the point of never-ending dissatisfaction with our lives. Well, that's my take on it, anyway.

This also ties in with what you wrote about jealousy. If we can be happy with whatever blessings we have been fortunate enough to receive in life, then why should we begrudge others what they have received?

As you wrote in your blog entry: "Accept that you are who you are and each of us is a link in a very special chain - we are not competitors but teammates. Give respect instead of demanding it from others. Then we might be on the path to redemption."

Word.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I noticed ...

If we want to rebuild the temple, we need to be wise' we need to be strong; we need to be full of the richness of life, and we need to respect others.

FWIW, I have no interest in the rebuilding of the temple.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

I noticed ...

"If we want to rebuild the temple, we need to be wise' we need to be strong; we need to be full of the richness of life, and we need to respect others."

FWIW, I have no interest in the rebuilding of the temple.

Were those Ben Zoma's thoughts, though? @rosends stated: "Ben Zoma lived in the first and second centuries CE, so right after the destruction of the second temple. I believe that he was giving his understanding of what happened so that we could reverse the loss and establish a new temple."

For me, I hear the phrase "rebuild the temple" and "establish a new temple" as akin to strengthening our faith in the face of great loss; placing the spiritual above the material. So, as to the rebuilding of the physical temple, I'm content to leave that to Moshiach when the right time comes.

 

[RabbiO]

FWIW, I have no interest in the rebuilding of the temple.

I take it you won’t be chairing the building fund.

 

[rosends]

Were those Ben Zoma's thoughts, though? @rosends stated: "Ben Zoma lived in the first and second centuries CE, so right after the destruction of the second temple. I believe that he was giving his understanding of what happened so that we could reverse the loss and establish a new temple."

For me, I hear the phrase "rebuild the temple" and "establish a new temple" as akin to strengthening our faith in the face of great loss; placing the spiritual above the material. So, as to the rebuilding of the physical temple, I'm content to leave that to Moshiach when the right time comes.

There is discussion as to whether we will build it or God will. I don't think the two are exclusive. I think we can build a world in which the temple can exist, no matter who builds it.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

There is discussion as to whether we will build it or God will. I don't think the two are exclusive. I think we can build a world in which the temple can exist, no matter who builds it.

I understand. I favor the discussion that leans toward God building it.

I imagine that any edifice built by man (at least, in this present day and age) to resemble the original Temple in Jerusalem will result in the creation of a tourist attraction -- the fabricated kind.

I'll wait for Moshiach -- who will come when we've first built that better world.