Inspirational Tisha B'Av Thoughts - from a speech by Chevi Garfinkel

Do you know those special kind of people who make the whole room light up when they come in? Who bring out the best in people, who give everything you do a sense of purpose and mission, because they have a vision? They empower you just by their presence, because they have so much confidence in you, they trust you so much, that everything becomes manageable when they're around and you just cope better? They're the glue that gels everyone together.

And then, one day, they leave. The joy is missing, people aren't able to get along as well... They're gone a week, a month, a year... and everything falls apart. Because what they brought to the table wasn't tangible, but it was real. And now it's missing.

When Hashem went into Galus, we lost that. We lost that on a personal level, on a family level, on a communal level, on a world-wide level. Everything is falling apart. The joy is gone, we're not coping so well, we're not rising to the challenges, we're not getting along so well... We need our tatty! Our daddy! Our abba! Our father!
You are the glue, Hashem!

Today, we are mourning the loss of our most precious relationship and everything that distance has caused the world. The loss of clarity, the loss of unity, the loss of prophecy, of purity, the loss of everything that has been weakened by our Father's distance.
The cost of this galus has been so great. The pain, the sick people, Eretz Yisrael, the Kassam missles, the kids who are leaving Yiddishkeit, the millions of people who don't even know what Yiddishkeit is, the break down of the family...

But Hashem did not abandon us. Hashem is always involved and communicating with us. Hashem has distanced Himself for a reason. Everything Hashem does for us has a benefit.
So what is the purpose of galus, of exile, of all this pain and distance? What is the purpose of this experience?

Galus is a state of being where that which you value is tested.
What do we value? We value holiness, we value meaning, truth, kindness, love, davening, Shabbos, tznius, purpose, purity. Deep inside of us, we have the belief that all these things are meaningful and we would want to become people who live by them.
Galus is a situation where all these beliefs are challenged. Do you still believe? Do you still have faith? Pain and hardships only intensify the challenge and the test. But they are not the definition of galus.

The definition of galus is, How much are your values worth to you?
Those very things the world has forced you to stand up for... your tznius, your davening, your purity... It forces you to dig very deep and to answer, I don't care if I suffer, I don't care if I'm made fun of, if I look ridiculous, if society thinks I'm a crazy extremist. There's nothing You can do to me Hashem, that will ever let me let go of You. You know how much You're worth to me? Everything! Hashem, You put me in a world that challenges and wants to rip everything I hold dear apart, but I never doubt the value of what I live for. And although I fall and have setbacks, I will get up again. I'm going to hold on and to strengthen it.

That's the purpose of galus. It is a state of being that what deep down, you hold most dear, is tested. It is only in galus that we can be tested and challenged because only here are we surrounded by lack of clarity and by everything that opposes that which we cherish most.
There was a time when these treasures were misused and underappreciated. So Hashem said, I will put you in a position where all these values will be ripped away from you so that it will awaken in you a desire to have it back.
Hashem is communicating to us through galus. What is important to you??

And Hashem promises, all those who yearn for Me, who mourn their lack of relationship with Me, who chase after Me, will be creating the comfort, the closeness, the redemption that will be theirs. To the degree that we mourn today, to the degree that we appreciate and value that which we lost, to that degree will we merit to experience the comfort and closeness that we deserve.