15 Jul A THREE WEEK OBJECTIVE

We are now in the midst
of the sad calendar
period known as the
Three Weeks. In
Hebrew, it is referred
to as the period of Bein
HaMetzorim, the time
Between the Narrow Straights. This
refers to the tragic bookends of these days,
starting with Shiva Asar b’Tammuz, the
Seventeenth Day of the month of Tammuz,
and ending with the saddest day of the
year, Tisha b’Av, the Ninth of Av, when
both our Temples were destroyed.
Starting with Shiva Asar b’Tammuz, we
experienced a cessation of the korban
tamid, the perpetual daily offering, and
other korbanos, sacrifices, that were
brought as well. As we approach Tisha
b’Av, beginning on Rosh Chodesh Av, we
enter a period known as the Nine Days,
when we even desist from eating meat and
drinking wine (except on the intervening
Shabbos) to mourn over the fact that
we don’t have any more the meat of the
korbanos and the wine of the nesachim,
the libations. The korbanos, as their name
denotes, was one of our ways to be karov,
close, to Hashem.

As the walls of Yerushalayim were
breeched on Shiva Asar b’Tammuz, and
our security was lost, we felt the protection
of the Shechina, the Divine Presence of
Hashem, slowly slipping away as well.
Therefore, as we recall these events and
live through this time period, part of our
avodah, our effort to better ourselves, is to
make an effort to get closer to Hashem and
to bring ourselves nearer to the Shechina.
But, how do we go about doing this?
Of course, one way is to increase the study
of Torah lishma, for its own sake. As the
Mishna tells us in Pirkei Avos [3:7], “Even
one person who learns Torah alone, the
Shechina devolves upon him.” Another
interesting way to get close to the Shechina
is by visiting the sick. As Rashi teaches us
in Parshas Vayechi, “The Shechina always
resides by the head of a choleh, an ill
person. As the posuk proclaims, “Hashem
yishkevenu al eres devai – Hashem “rests”
by a sickbed.” It’s interesting that Rav
Shimshon Dovid Pincus, zt”l, zy”a, said
that one of the places where there is the
highest concentration of Shechina in this
world is in a hospital, for at every bed and
in every room, there is a high concentration
of Shechina.

But the most direct way to connect with
the Shechina is through sincere prayer.
The Chassidim have a saying: “When we
learn, Hashem is talking to us through the
Holy writings of the Written and Oral law,
both given at Sinai. When we daven, on
the other hand, we are talking to Hashem.”
In what is perhaps the most famous
Biblical dream, Yaakov Avinu sees the
vision of a sulom, a ladder, based on the
ground and reaching many miles high, all
the way up to the Heavens. The dream
further portrays angels going up and then
coming down this towering ladder. Rashi
immediately asks why it says that the
angels were first going up and only then
coming down. After all, the angels are
based in Heaven. Shouldn’t they have to
come down first and only afterwards go
up, and not vice versa?
The Zohar answers with its interpretation
of the powerful dream. As we know, a
ladder is a bridge that helps us to connect
from one place to another. If we have
an attic, the ladder gets us from the main
living areas up to the attic. This is much
like a staircase that connects the first floor
to the second floor. The Zohar points
out that the gematria of sulom (ladder) is
136. This is the exact numerical value
as the word kol, a voice. The Zohar
continues that the ladder represents
prayer and prayer is the way a person,
who is based on earth like the bottom of
the ladder, can connect with Hashem in
the Heavens above. The angels, which
started by going up, represent the angels
that take up our prayers to Hashem. The
angels that subsequently came down
symbolize other angels that descend to
carry out the requests of our heartfelt
prayers. Thus, we see that Yaakov, the
bechir she’b’Avos, the choicest of the
Patriarchs, is dreaming that the most
direct vehicle to bridge the gap between
earth and heaven is to connect with
Hashem through devout prayer.
Let me share with you a story of a great
man that conveys this idea in a very direct
way. Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg,
zt’l, zy’a, was very serious about always
davening in a Yeshivische minyan. The
lack of haste and the serious demeanor of
a Yeshivische minyan, where no one was
rushing to get back to work or distracted
by the many worldly needs of the outside
world, was his preferred choice of where
to pray. It therefore surprised everyone,
when the yeshiva had to change its
schedule, because of the needs of the
married kollel men, from davening
Mincha at mincha gedolah, in the early
afternoon, to later before shkiah, close

to sunset, that Rav Scheinberg stopped
davening at the yeshiva. Instead, he
continued to daven at the same early time
at one of the local workmen’s shul.
The bochrim, who always wanted to learn
from the Holy ways of their venerable
Rebbe, asked him why he eschewed the
later Yeshivische minyan to daven in the
more “casual” minyan earlier in the day.
Rav Scheinberg answered simply, but oh!
so profoundly, “I simply can’t wait until
almost sunset to see Hashem. It’s too long
from early in the morning when we daven
Shacharis to wait until almost the end of
the day to see Hashem once again. I much
prefer to daven in the early afternoon
Mincha so I don’t have to wait so long
for another meeting with Hashem.” This
anecdote speaks volumes as to how
a meaningful prayer elevates us from
the daily grind to having a face-to-face
meeting with the King of kings, HaKadosh
Baruch Hu, Himself.
Dovid HaMelech proclaims, “Ani kirvas
Elokim li tov – And I being close to
Hashem is what is good.” May we merit to
attain more often in our lives this closeness
to Hashem and in that zchus we should see
speedily the coming of Moshiach with
long life, good health, and everything
wonderful.