Reb Shlomo Carlebach zt"l
A Tisha B'Av Love Story
Via Stuie Wax
( Tisha B’Av Fast to commemorate the destruction of the 2 Great Temples in Jerusalem starts this Saturday night Aug.6 for 25 Hours)
Reb Shlomo speaking:
Okay, let me tell you, before we begin being happy that Moshiach is coming, that Moshiach came, I want to tell you my favorite sad, beautiful Tisha B'Av story. This is a short story I once read. I was in Rome, and I got myself a book of Italian short stories.
Okay, this is a short story: A husband and wife lived in Florence, and they loved each other very much, but somehow, they were fighting all the time. So they decide, let's separate for half a year. And she said she's going back to her parents, to Rome; and he said that he will just travel a little bit, and they're supposed to meet again in six months. And then, "let's see how it feels." But one thing - every Friday, he promised he'll write her a letter - just to let her know where he is, cause he's travelling.
Okay, the first Friday she gets a letter. He says, "I just want you to know that I'm having a wonderful time! Don't ask me! I went to this singles' bar in Paris, and do I have to go into details?" And he writes a whole long story, he had this affair and it's unbelievable!
She's so broken, gevalt! "Just a few days (ago) he left me, he's already running around with somebody else?!"
The next Friday, she gets a letter... from Hamburg! He says, "I'm just so glad to tell you that Paris was not the real thing yet! Right now I'm in Hamburg, this is for real! You cannot imagine what I have here! And... do I have to go into details?"
Anyway, every week she gets a letter from another city, and... she is so broken! Because on one hand, she is so angry at him! But she still loves him...
Anyway, after a few weeks she decides, "I'm not going to subject my neshama [soul] to those letters, I just can't take it!" And at home, her parents, you know... a woman is separated... her parents make her crazy. "So, are you going to get divorced? What's going on there?"
So she decided to go back to Florence, to her house. Anyway, she comes back to her house, and you know, every corner in the house - so precious. She remembers, "Oh, I was living here, I was so happy. It was so beautiful!" And she goes from room to room.
Suddenly, she sees that in her husband's study, there's a light! She's frightened, maybe there's a thief or something. And she somehow walks soft[ly]... she looks into her husband's study... and he is sitting, writing a letter to her! He turns around... gevalt is he happy to see her!
She says to him, "What are you doing?"
He says, "Do you really think I could leave this house? I was here the whole time. I just didn't want you to know how much I love you, so I have people send you letters from all those cities. If you remember, they were typed letters. It was not me! I am sitting here waiting for you!"
(Reb Shlomo now "steps out" of the story to explain):
So I said like this: "If you are on Tisha B'Av in Chutz La'Aretz (the Diaspora), you get all those letters from G-d: the Inquisition, the Six Million... And it seems to you, Oy Vey! Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World)! Gevalt, how could you do this to us?!"
"But when you are in Yerushalayim, you realize the Ribono Shel Olam never left, never left the Beis HaMikdash. And the Ribono Shel Olam is just sitting here waiting for us!"
Let there be no more waiting!
Let the rebuilding of the Temple happen now!
"When a son is crying, a good father consoles his son. What happens when both the father and the son are crying? If the son is a good son, then for a few moments he forgets his own pain and tries to console his father."
On Tisha b'Av, we are sad because of what happened to the Temple, which really means that on Tisha b'Av, we start becoming sad because of what happened to ourselves.
But it is even worse.
The truth is, on Tisha b'Av night we are crying - and G-d is crying as well. The Radomsker says that real people forget for a moment their own pain, and they mamesh pretend to be happy - for just a few minutes - in order to make it easier on their Father in Heaven. Because the destruction of our Temples was hardest on Him. If only we felt God's pain...