Kuvult: HELP!!! Cool your engines. He happens to be right!!!
Tisha B’av is a day of mourning. Period. Chazal instituted that day for mourning over our bais hamikdash. Our lost sublime status. We are all mourners over it.
No. It’s not a day of reflection, tshuva etc. Just in mourning.
Mourners R”L don’t go to shiurim, watch shows, listen to speakers… There’s a time for that.
That fact that we’ve lost sight of the essence of this unique day does not make it any less. Certainly don’t mock anyone who DOES try to retain something of it.
Someone once gave a beautiful analogy.. imagine R”L there’s an accident Lo Aleinu.. people are coming to the Shiva house to be Menachem the Availim. In comes the Department of Transportation heads, the Mayor, the city municipality etc. and start darshening about traffic safety… How to improve safety, crossings.. Where to put up lights… They’re doing something “constructive”… how to better the situation… Right? NO!!! There’s a time and place for everything. Availim are not interested in this stuff now… Their focus is on one this only – their lost loved one. So too us. So to say we are in mourning over our lost Bais Hamikdash, our elevated status, our close connection to the Shechina. That is, and should be our focus. We are not, and should not be interested in anything else. There’s another time and place for reflection, tshuva. How to hold hands with Achdus and rebuild…
oh… about the young women… are you perhaps Jewish? Get to know us. We’re from HaShem’s Am Kadosh. We try to be holy by not gazing at women… Maybe a pasuk about it too. Any Jewish (actually even not) man is affected. And avoiding it is what elevates us to be Kadosh.