Nine Days

We are now in the nine days. 

Unfortunately, we are so distant, so far, many of us don't even connect to what we are supposed to be mourning for. So we go through the motions, we don't wash our clothes, we take lukewarm showers and we don't eat meat. 

Yet, we look out for gourmet dairy recipes. We shop for the finest ingredients so our final product with be tasty with an exceptional presentation. 

We even send jokes about how hard it is to manage for nine full days without meat. (Two of those days happen to be shabbos this year). 

Seriously?! Jokes?

I get that we want to have good food and we want it to look and taste good but are we really going to joke about how difficult it is to manage for a week without any meat? That we can't barbeque? 

We don't get what we're mourning about. We don't grasp the enormity of the loss. So chazal instituted some external signs of mourning so we shouldn't forget that we should be sad about something.

You want to really feel it? Open up a shir hashirim and read about the love between Hashem and His Jewish Nation. Read about the bond we once had, the connection we are aching to have again. Learn what it means to be really close to Hashem, as close as a husband and wife who love each other more than anyone else in the world. 

This is the love Hashem has for us! This is the connection He wants to reestablish with us! 

But we are far too distracted to notice. We are busy mourning our week without meat instead of mourning what we really lost.

Let's stop for a moment. 

Ponder our lives. 

Think about what we're missing. 

Think about the lack of clarity. The lack of morals. The lack of understanding. 

And daven for the day when we will be reunited with a true bond of love and affection to the One who is waiting to show us just how much He loves us.