Inspirational Tisha B'Av Thoughts, cont.

When someone's father dies, r"l, no one has to teach her how to mourn. The whole world stops. Shiva is followed by a less intense mourning of the thirty day period and then by the even less severe and strict mourning period of the first year. Slowly, as time passes, the pain becomes more manageable.

But when someone is born into the world after her father already died, and she never even knew or saw her father, she first has to become aware that something is missing in her life. As time passes, she understands what not having a father has cost her, and most importantly, after hearing what type of person her father was, and how much he would've loved her and she would've loved him, she yearns for and mourns the intimate relationship that she lost out on.

We are like that daughter who was born into a world without a Father. Our mourning process is built up, increases with time, as we understand more and more, what it is we're missing out on. So we start with Shiva Asar b'Tamuz, go on to the three weeks and finally culminate with Tisha B'Av, after we have fully grasped the magnitude of our loss.

If someone who was color blind was offered an operation to restore his color- which would be costly and uncomfortable but not dangerous - and he would refuse, we would think he's crazy. But you never saw a sunset, we would tell him. Oh, I have, he would say. It's beautiful, so many different shades of grey. I'm fine. The way I see things now is good enough for me.

In this galus, we are like that color blind man. Except we are blind as bats. We don't even know what it is we're missing out on. We think we know what a Shabbos, a Yom Tov, a davening is. We're happy to settle for second-rate living. If we're lucky enough to daven at the Kosel, we say, That was so inpiring, that's good enough. But that was just the stones of the outer wall of the courtyard! We should want more! We should not settle for a sunset in shades of grey! We should not settle for second rate living!

And so today is the day when we express to Hashem that we are aware that there is so much more. That life is supposed to be so much richer, deeper, better. That we're not really living here. That we're not prepared to continue living as color blind people. That we want, really want, please, please, to see the day when we will fully understand and experience the burst of color and beauty that we yearned for so deeply.

May Hashem bring that day very soon in our times.

Thoughts taken from Chevi Garfinkel's shiur on the three weeks.