It is forbidden to speak Lashon Hara against one another, even if the information is true, and even if told to only one person - all the more so is it forbidden to speak L"H before a group of listeners. The greater the number of listeners that one gathers to hear his L"H, the greater his sin, for the subject is further disgraced by the heightened publicity against him. Also, the speaker causes more people to sin by putting them in the position to listen to L"H.
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart,"A broken spirit" connotes a lowly and humble spirit, and "a broken heart" relates to the breaking of physical desire; for the heart is the repository of desire, as it is said,
O God, Thou will not despise" (Psalms 51:19).
source: XXXIII. First Gate / "The Gates of Repentance" Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerona"...... to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15).
The 9th of Av, Tisha b'Av, commemorates a list of catastrophes so severe it's clearly a day specially cursed by G d.
Picture this: The year is 1313 BCE. The Israelites are in the desert, recently having experienced the miraculous Exodus, and are now poised to enter the Promised Land. But first they dispatch a reconnaissance mission to assist in formulating a prudent battle strategy. The spies return on the eighth day of Av and report that the land is unconquerable. That night, the 9th of Av, the people cry. They insist that they'd rather go back to Egypt than be slaughtered by the Canaanites. G‑d is highly displeased by this public demonstration of distrust in His power, and consequently that generation of Israelites never enters the Holy Land. Only their children have that privilege, after wandering in the desert for another 38 years.
The First Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Av (423 BCE). Five centuries later (in 69 CE), as the Romans drew closer to the Second Temple, ready to torch it, the Jews were shocked to realize that their Second Temple was destroyed the same day as the first.
SO MUCH MORE HAPPENED - and this is why we mourn these 9 days. We also mourn our present and last exile that we will be in.
Rabbi Yehoshua Ben-Meir related the following story:
During the Yom Kippur War, I served as an army chaplain in an IDF division in the Golan Heights. It was a terrible war. The battles and the conditions were extraordinarily difficult. Every day we witnessed death before our eyes.
We had been taught in the Mercaz HaRav yeshivah that the redemption is a process, one that grows and advances, progressing from strength to strength. But in this war there was a feeling of retreat. The blow was terrible, the pain was searing. In those trying times, I felt a tremendous need to examine and clarify my beliefs. I needed to understand how this bitter war fit in the process of Israel's redemption.
After two months of fighting at the front, with no showers, in extremely harsh conditions, I received a short leave.
I went straight to Jerusalem. The hour was late, two o'clock in the morning. But I felt an urgent need to speak with the rosh yeshivah, Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook. I decided that I would first go to his house. Hesitantly, I knocked on the door of his apartment on Ovadiah Street. The rabbi peeked through the peephole. He immediately opened the door and said, "Give me the document."
Apparently the rabbi was expecting some document from the army. I was so grimy and dirty, I figured he didn't recognize me.
"Rabbi, it's me, Yehoshua Ben-Meir."
"Yes, yes," Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah responded. "Bring the document."
I had no idea what the rabbi was talking about. He took my hand, led me into his room, and sat me down on a chair. Again he insisted, "Show me the paper."
"Rabbi, it's me, Yehoshua Ben-Meir from the yeshiva."
"Yes, I know. The document. Bring me the document."
I was completely baffled. I still figured that the rabbi did not recognize me because of all the grease and dirt.
"'Rabbi, what document are you talking about?"
"You have an agreement with God how the redemption is supposed to take place. And God changed the agreement. So show me the document. Let us examine what is written there, and we will decide." I heard the rabbi's words, and then - for the first time since the war broke out - I burst out in tears. Tears that released the pain and tension that had accumulated within me, from the horrible events that I had witnessed.
I was amazed how quickly the rabbi had understood me. In those few seconds, from when he saw me through the peephole until I entered the room, he had identified my problem and known the solution.
'Did We Not Learn?'
The rabbi sat with me for a long time, maybe two hours. He took down books from the shelves. Before starting to study, he said, "Perhaps you have not learned this. And if you have, perhaps you did not review it. And if you reviewed, perhaps you forgot. Did we not learn..."
The first book he opened was the commentary of thirteenth-century scholar Rabbeinu Bechaye. After God sent Moses to Egypt to redeem the people, matters only got worse. Moses complained to God, "Why have You made it worse for Your people?" (Ex. 5:22)
On this verse, Rabbeinu Bechaye noted that this situation is not unique to the redemption from Egypt. The future redemption will also be accompanied by many difficulties, by times of darkness that will conceal the light of redemption.
The rabbi opened the Maharal and the Kuzari and the Midrash, reviewing with me various sources. After two hours of study, I came out strengthened. I was armed with the spiritual strength to continue.
Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah had the genius to sense the needs of each student. He could plumb the depths of one's soul and provide the response one needed...
[From Mashmiya Yeshu'ah ('
Harbinger of Redemption'), on the life of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook (1891-1982), the son of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, pp. 357-358]
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http://ravkooktorah.org - Rav A.I. Kook on the Weekly Parasha
