On Tisha B'Av

Last night at Y.U. I was sitting on the floor looking over kinot (the one I introduced today). Someone approached me and asked why if Tisha B'Av is about the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash does Eichah seem to exclusively address the demise of the nation and the land.
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My thought is that Chazal teach that G-d in this kindness took his anger out on stones and wood instead of on flesh and bones. When we speak of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash it represents the destruction not only of that building but of a people and her land. Perhaps, due to tact we call it the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, as a headline representing much more.

This reminds me of the mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us. The truth behind that command is that we need to recall what we did that brought about the attack of Amalek. Because we were weak in our belief and observance we became vulnerable and were hit hard. (This fits with why the Torah rule to have even weights and measures precedes the law to remember Amalek. When we are off balance it leads to vulnerability and decline ~ Rav Efrayim Polyakoff). Due to discretion we are commanded to remember what Amalek did, but truly we are asked to remember what we did to bring about that attack.

A king had a flower garden which he cherished and therefore kept under heavy surveillance. His yard was guarded by watchdogs. One day someone broke into the garden and was attacked by the dogs. The perpetrator turned out to be a close aide of the king who gave into temptation. After that event, from time to time the king said to his advisor, "Do you remember when those dogs attacked you? Yeah, that was crazy, wasn't it?" And what he means to say to his dear friend is, "Remember what you did?"

Similarly, we remember what happened to The Temple. Really what's meant by that is to remember how we devolved, what we caused to happen to us, to our land.

In the kinah, which begins with the words, "A'adeh ad shamayim" - "Would that I could soar to the sphere of heaven," Rabbi Elazar HaKalir says all the things he wishes he could say if he could fly up in the sky. In an ironic twist he says it all anyway. He uses Biblical wording, Talmudic text, obscure language, and sophisticated poetic form to awaken passion and compassion in his own heart and in the heart of his reader. He says that if he could enter the realm above , "I would make the heaven share my dirge, I would curse the day that twice destroyed me, I would lament that my head was not filled with water for tears." He says all this in stanzas comprised of 4 lines. The second letter of the opening words goes in the order of the Aleph-Bet. And the second letter of the first word of the fourth lines goes in the order of the Aleph Bet from the end (At-Bash), until they meet in the middle at Lamed. At the end of this kinah G-d speaks and says, "From the time that Israel seized to walk in my ways, they abandoned me and I abandoned them and turned my face from them."