Tisha B’Av and Parshat Va’etchanan
The Torah reading of Tisha B’Av morning is found in Parshat Va’etchanan (4:25-40). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 38a) references this reading with the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash, as the numerical...
It’s a Mitzvah to be Sad…One Day a Year,...
Once a disciple of a certain Chassidic Rebbe noticed his Rebbe dancing happily on the Ninth of Av. He was astonished by this behavior, for everyone knew that Tisha B’Av was...
What Mourning Means: Reflections of Rav Soloveitchik zt”l on...
Rabbi Koenigsberg is a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, and the editor of two volumes of the Shiurei HaRav series, an annotated collection of...
By Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Tragedy in Perspective: Why Did Rabbi Akiva Laugh?
At the end of “Masechet Makot,” the volume of the Talmud called “Makot,” on pages 24a and 24b, there are two similar stories. In each, the same group of great scholars...
Destruction and Desecration: Titus the Wicked and his Nephew...
“The replacement for Vespasian, the newly crowned Emperor, was the wicked Titus, from whose mouth the verse ‘Where is their G-d, the Rock in Whom they trusted?’ seemed to come. For...
The Fateful Meeting: Give Me Yavneh and It’s Sages
The setting is Jerusalem, approximately in the year 70 C.E.; the city is in the grip of a terrible famine, and it is surrounded by powerful Roman legions, under the command...
The Tiger at the Gates: The Romans Lay Siege...
The Enemy Approaches, and Famine in Yerushalayim When the Roman Emperor was convinced by Bar-Kamtza that the Jews were indeed mounting a rebellion, he sent against Yerushalayim the great general, Nero....
The Second “Beit HaMikdash,” Holy Temple, in Yerushalayim
The End of Prophecy – The Formulation of the Mishnah The Prophet Yirmiyahu had received a prophecy that the “exile” following the destruction of the First Temple would be relatively “short”...
The First “Beit HaMikdash”: The Temple of Shlomo
The First Beit HaMikdash was actually built in the time of Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon. Shlomo was the son of King David, who had conceived the idea of building a Temple...
The Attempt by David HaMelech to Build a Temple
“…But look, ‘Here am I, Sitting in a House of Cedar…’ ” (Shmuel II, 7:2) “David HaMelech, “ King David, had finally succeeded in bringing the Ark of the L-rd to...
