Rav Nachman said to Rav Yitzchok (Sanhedrin 96): "Have
you heard when Bar Nafli is coming?"
"Who is Bar Nafli?"
"Moshiach."
"Do you call Moshiach `Bar Nafli -- son of
falling'?"
`Yes, because it is written, `On that day I will bring up the
fallen Succah of Dovid.' (Amos 9)"
@BIG LET BODY = There is a profound lesson for us in this
gemora -- and a message of hope.
Moshiach is a "son of falling," because the falling itself,
if acknowledged and treated properly, brings Moshiach.
As long as we recognize that we have fallen and we mourn our
situation and long for it to end, there is hope of rising
again.
As long as Jewish hearts turn to the Mikdash Hashem as
a spiritual center; as long as we strive to implement Torah
in our daily lives and the Beis Hamikdash is considered the
apex of keeping the Torah; as long as the Jewish people
recognizes its obligation to keep Torah and mitzvos fully; as
long as Yisroel sees itself as sanctified to service to
Hashem, not only in its heart and thought but fully and
bodily like in the Beis Hamikdash, so that the whole of a
person is given over to Hashem, even the blood, limbs and
nesochim, so that the entire being of a person is
sanctified to Hashem -- as long as this persists, then the
Beis Hamikdash is not completely destroyed and the Succah of
Dovid is not fallen, at least in the hearts of Yisroel.
And if we can say that today, when the destruction is so
evident, how much more will it be so when the Geula
finally comes!
Whoever mourns Yerushalayim will rejoice in its redemption --
because the mourning helps to bring the redemption, and as
long is the proper things are deeply mourned, there is no
complete destruction.
But if, chas vesholom, Yisroel turns its back on
Yerushalayim and sees the Har Habayis as mere historical
ruins, and takes this period as only an external and
inconsequential ceremony commemorating a terrible act in the
past but with no vision of what is missing and should be
restored in the future, then Tzion is truly destroyed and the
Succah is fallen.
Certainly the mourning is most intense in this period, but it
is something that should inform our lives throughout the
year.
The third posuk in Eichah says, "She sat among
the nations, and did not find a resting place." Rebbe Akiva
Eiger explains that if we try to sit permanently among the
nations, and we compete with them in wealth and prestige,
therefore we do not find a resting place. We are in
exile and not in our proper element as long as we are not in
our own land and not in a society that recognizes Torah
principles as the basis of life. If we try to act as if this
is not so, then we are rudely reminded that we have no rest
in exile.
We must live all the time with the awareness that we are
fallen and that all of Creation is fallen. That is the lesson
that we must learn from these days, and if we have learned
our lesson well, there is hope for a better future.
