Thought for the Day: Mourning the Bais HaMikdash

I saw a mashal in "Achas Sha'alti" this morning that left me shaking.  Imagine an older couple who, after years of trying, are now expecting their first child.  Just before the child is due, the doctor comes to the parents with devastating news, "The child is in distress and is putting the mother's life at risk.  I can save one or the other, but not both."  The father doesn't know what to say, but the mother does.  "I have lived my life to produce this child and you must save him.  That will give my life meaning, and also my son will grow up to learn torah in my z'chus and say kaddish for me."  The child is born with medical issues, but alive.  The mother, as predicted, does not survive.  The father has to send the boy away to be raised in a proper environment while he works day and night to pay for the ongoing medical bills and care.  As the boy grows, he remains in poor health and even engages in behaviors that worsen his condition and increase the burden on his father.  The boy is not so interested in learning or davening.  He gets to shul late, davens as fast as possible, and on the mother's yahrtzeit mumbles his way through kaddish and then rushes out to play with his friends.  When the boy's caregiver (a close friend of the father) says something, the boy gets indignant.  "I know nothing of this mother you talk about!  Where has she been all my life?  Dead!  How am I supposed to care about a woman I never met?  And my father?  I barely know him and I don't really care that much.  I have my own life and concerns, they should be happy I remember her once a year at all."

"Ko amar HaShem: B'ni b'chori yisrael" -- Thus says HaShem, Yisrael is My precious only son. (Shmos 4:23, see Rashi there).  Because of our sins, the Bais HaMikdash was destroyed and the Sh'china was banished so that we could live.  Her yahrtzeit is coming.