Why do we fast on Tisha B’Av?

Most people would readily respond it’s on account of the destruction of both Batei Mikdash, while others might point out the Sin of the Spies as the cause. Neither of these answers are wrong – this is what Chazal told us in the Talmud (Taanit 26b) – but both answers are incomplete. The problem is that those answers are looking in the wrong direction: they are facing the past instead of the future.

Judaism is not a religion about dwelling in the past. We remember where we came from and who we were, and build upon that to move forward into the future. Our sights should always be on what we’re doing now in order to guide where we are headed. With that perspective, we fast not for what we lost, but for what we’ve yet to gain.

Zechariah prophesied (Zecharia 8:19) that, in the future, the fasts associated with the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (the 17th of Tammuz, the 9th of Av, the 10th of Tevet, and the Fast of Gedaliah) will turn to days of rejoicing. This is the future we’re aiming for, when the Mashiach arrives, the Third Beit HaMikdash is built, and these fasts turn to days of happiness rather than sorrow. So the real reason we fast is because the Mashiach has yet to arrive.

What is he waiting for, then? All too often our perspective of Mashiach is affected by the non-Jewish views of the Messiah. To them, the Messiah is one who comes to rescue from the terrible reality of the world. That’s not what the Mashiach is. He will come when we are deserving for the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt. Both Batei Mikdash were destroyed because of our sins, and they cannot be rebuilt until we have corrected the error of our ways. The first one was destroyed because idolatry had run rampant, and was returned to us when, on a national level, we had absolved ourselves of that sin. The second was destroyed because of Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred, so the third can’t be built until we have absolved ourselves of that as well. It’s been taking us a while to figure that one out.

So why do we fast on Tisha B’Av? Because our nation is fractured. We have split ourselves up into factions and bicker among ourselves. Jews treat their brothers and sisters as enemies because they don’t see eye-to-eye to them, treating them with disdain at best and outright aggression at worst. Others vilify their fellow Jew for being of a different faction and attempt to force their own agendas on them, rather than cooperate and find a way to live together. Even worse, there are those who speak of the import of Jewish unity, but blame everyone but themselves for the lack of it!

This coming sunday, I will be fasting. I’ll be fasting to mourn the destruction of the Batei Mikdash, I’ll be fasting as I long for the coming of the Mashiach, but most of all I’ll be fasting over the hatred and bitterness that has yet to be removed from the hearts of Bnei Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom and Tzom Kal.