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TISHA B’AV READING

Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel

When the

Shechina Departs

he secrets hidden in Yechezkel’s The mishnayot (Ta’anit, chapter 4), which You and Your keys were handed over to us.
ma’aseh merkava (Yechezkel 10) are discuss the reasons for the fasts commem- Now that we are not faithful, Your keys are
a mystery, but at the level of pshat orating the destruction, describe the story handed over to You.” One tradition says he
Tthey express a simple and terrible of a crumbling home. The breaching of the threw the keys up to Heaven and they have
reality. The Shechina ‘gathers itself’ from walls of the city signifies the chink in protec- not yet descended. Another says the likeness
its dwelling in the Beit HaMikdash, crosses tion, the disintegration of the chambers that of a hand came from Heaven and took the
the threshold and leaves the house, fills used to be safe and distinct from the world. keys from him (Yerushalmi Shekalim 17b).
the courtyard, and then leaves through the 16 years ago, during the disengagement from
gateway, climbs on a chariot and flies away. Gush Katif, many women and girls gathered
It is a description of the Makom (G-d) leaving in the synagogue in Neve Dekalim. Someone
its makom (place), leaving behind an empty approached Moriah, the officer in charge,
house. The breaching of the walls of and handed her a beautiful wedding ring
The introduction to Midrash Eicha Rabbah the city signifies the chink in found on site. Efforts to find the owner
reveals the inner story: When the Shechina protection, the disintegration of proved in vain.
was leaving the Beit HaMikdash, It cuddled the chambers that used to be In the years that followed, Moriah contin-
and kissed the walls of the Mikdash over safe and distinct from the world. ually tried to return the ring. Last year,
and over again, crying and saying: “Woe! she decided that social networking might
Goodbye to my Mikdash, goodbye to my The Midrash compares the breaking of have created a new opportunity to find the
royal house, goodbye to my dear home of the tablets and the burning of the Torah owner. She posted on Facebook describing
splendor.” to tearing up the betrothal and marriage how, in the midst of the destruction, she
Leaving the house seems inevitable. It has contracts. The abolition of the tamid daily found this wedding ring, and how, close to
lost its right to exist and will be destroyed. offering symbolizes the end of daily family Tisha B’Av, 16 years later, she is still looking
But the departing lover tearfully caresses routines. (And what do we end up missing for its owner.
and kisses every stone along the way – but the smallness of everyday life, the sound I shared that post in a Zoom shiur I gave
sobbing, longing, yearning, from the very of rejoicing or quarrel, the routine of life that day. The wedding ring left behind in
moment of separation. itself?) And placing an idol in the Sanctuary the ruins of the houses reminded me of the
is the final nail in the coffin of trust and Temple keys thrown by the priests at the
As happens in disintegration processes, loyalty. The physical ruin completes the time of the destruction. Then, in the middle
the internal collapse precedes the exter- spiritual destruction of this home. of the shiur, someone excitedly announced,
nal one. This Mikdash would still stand for At its core, this is the loss of having a home “They found the owner! Moriah just posted
many years after Yechezkel’s prophecy, but in this world, a place of belonging, shelter, it!”
in emptiness. familiarity. A place in the world we could
Similarly, of the second Mikdash it is said call our own. The exile of the Divine from It felt like a shot of encouragement. A hint
of impending redemption.
(Yoma 39) that the doors of the heartbro- its home heralds the exile of the people, set-
ken Mikdash terrify themselves and open ting them on a long and arduous journey of The keys to the Sanctuary had been thrown
again and again as if, suicidally, beckoning suffering, yearning and longing. back...
the invading enemy to enter. Eventually, When the king of Yehuda heard that
the destroyer will be told from heaven: Nevuchadnezzar was coming, he took the
“You burned a Sanctuary that was already keys of the Beit HaMikdash, ascended to the
burned, you ground flour that was already roof of the Sanctuary and said: “Master of Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel teaches
ground” (Sanhedrin 96b). the Universe, in the past we were faithful to Torah at midrashot in Israel.

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