By Moshe Schonbrun
Meaningful Minute’s Mourning with Hope film was a fusion of deep Torah and empowering optimism. Here are my 18 takeaways after watching the film:
- Every Jew has within them an aspect of the Beis Hamikdash. Though the gates to the Beis Hamikdash are currently closed, it is temporary. The gates inside each of us, the portals of connection to Hashem, though at times they may feel blocked, it’s temporary.
- A parent desires for their child to witness them living with happiness and love. Hashem desires the same.
- The lack of the Beis Hamikdash is Hashem’s pain more than ours.
- “All the korbanos will eventually be obsolete except for the Korban Todah”. That’s the call of the day, to consistently live with gratitude throughout all moments of our life
(Pro Tip: Do an extended bow by Modim to express your gratitude for everything you can think of)
- Even when you’ve done all you can, and the Beis Hamikdash is still not here- stay there. Don’t give up. Get to the broken gates, and don’t give in to the feeling that you should’ve done more and that you’re not enough
- “Nafshi Lashem Mshomrim Laboker; Hinei Lo Yanum Shomer Yisrael”. We yearn for Hashem more than someone up shivering in the night yearns for the morning; and Hashem never sleeps in His yearning for us.
- To cultivate a relationship with Hashem, you need to remove your limiting habits. (“Sal na’alecha meal raglecha”)
- Become teachable. We can learn Torah and say Tehillim all day, but we’d still need to strip down our externalities to get to our true essence. Especially for people in leadership, humility and openness to learn is absolutely crucial.
- Chochma, wisdom, is the “koach mah”- the power to be open to experiencing and learning from anything that may come your way
- Perhaps all the brokenness in the world is to get us to the point of accepting brokenness and leaning into it.
- There is Har Sinai and Har Habyis. Har Sinai is the paradigm of Torah, Har Habayis represents Tefillah. To learn Torah, you can be whole. But you cannot daven without being broken and shattered. Dovid Hamelech’s realness and vulnerability, like Tehillim tearfully cited in the hospital hallways, is the trigger of Mashiach ben Dovid.
- “Omdos hayu ragleinu b’shaarayich Yerushalayim”. When we cease coasting through a habitual rote of living, we’ll arrive at the gates of Yerushalayim.
- Tefillah is not to get us out of trouble, trouble is to get us into Tefillah
- We are at a historic point in time, where shuls are commonly composed of people with multiple nuschoas, and people are questing Torah from all across diverse Torah demographics. “Vayagel Yaakov es ha’even”- We need all 12 shevatim to achieve geulah
- We need to dispose of preconceived notions of “types of Jews”.
(Pro Tip: Be mekabel that when you encounter a Jew who aggravates you, and you begin thinking about how off they are in their Judaism, to ask yourself why you’re so insecure that you go to that place.)
- “Har Habayis Biyadeinu”. It is in our hands. A friend is called a Yedid– etymology of yad b’yad, as a real friend is someone who’ll hold your hand. We survived this galus and can only completely return by holding another Jew’s hand.
(Pro Tip: Really really mean it when you “love another Jew just for who they are, no matter how different they are from you”)
- The more present you can be in your current pain, the more visceral Geulah will be. If you believe in the concept of breaking, you’ll reach redemption. If you don’t think you’re properly mourning the Beis Hamikdash, but you’re yearning to, browsing inspirational Tisha B’av clips, or reading this article- you’re in.
- “Just like the sun rises in indiscernible steps, so too we will return to Eretz Yisrael” (Medrash). Geulah won’t all happen in a miraculous split second. Geulah is a process, and we can all partake in building toward it. The more it progresses and proceeds, the more people will join on board.
Vesechzena Eineinu, may we all experience and be a harbinger of Geulah to all of Klal Yisrael!
A deeply valued content contributor for Meaningful Minute, Moshe is a husband, father, and espresso enthusiast. He is Executive Director at Avenues Recovery of Maryland, a residential addiction treatment center, and co-founder of The 13th Gate, an innovative platform for contemporary spiritual engagement in Silver Spring, MD. A talmid of Rabbi Meir Stern and Rabbi Asher Arielli, Moshe previously served as Rabbi at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of Maryland in College Park. He is the artist behind @farbreng_ink and the Chavrusa Podcast.
