Illustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman

We always read Parashat Devarim on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av. We even have a little reminder of Tisha B’Av in the parashah, with the word אֵיכָה (eikhah) (Devarim 1:12, and see Understanding the Verses).

Tisha B’Av comes at the end of three intense weeks when we focus on remembering the destruction of the בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ (beit ha-mikdash, Temple). But remembering the beit ha-mikdash is a complicated thing. How do we remember it appropriately without being overwhelmed with sadness all the time?

The Gemara (Bava Batra 60b) tells us that R. Yehoshua heard about a group of people who stopped eating meat and drinking wine because meat and wine had been part of the beit ha-mikdash sacrifices. These people thought, “How could we eat meat and drink wine when these special items can no longer be used to worship God in the beit ha-mikdash?”

R. Yehoshua explained to these people that, based on their argument, they should also stop eating bread and drinking water! In the beit ha-mikdash, bread was part of מְנָחוֹת (menahot, grain sacrifices), and there was also נִסּוּךְ הַמַּיִם (nissukh ha-mayim, a water pouring ceremony) on Sukkot.

But it’s impossible to survive without bread and water. So what can we do instead?

The Gemara provides four examples of ways to remember the destruction. These all appear in the Shulhan Arukh (OH 560):

All these practices create a balance by helping us remember—on a daily basis, and also in the middle of our happiest celebrations—that something very important is missing from our lives.