Psychopaths shed light on a crucial subset of decision-making that’s referred to as morality. Morality can be a squishy, vague concept, and yet, at its simplest level, it’s nothing but a series of choices about how we treat other people. When you act in a moral manner – when you recoil from violence, treat others fairly, and help strangers in need – you are making decisions that take people besides yourself into account. You are thinking about the feelings of others, sympathizing with their states of mind.

This is what psychopaths can’t do. They are missing the primal emotional cues that the rest of us use as guides when making moral decisions. The absence of emotion makes the most basic moral concepts incomprehensible. G. K. Chesterton was right: “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”

At first glance, the connection between morality and the emotions might be a little unnerving. Moral decisions are supposed to rest on a firm logical and legal foundation. Doing the right thing means carefully weighing competing claims, like a dispassionate judge.

“Moral judgment is like aesthetic judgment,” writes Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “When you see a painting, you usually know instantly and automatically whether you like it. If someone asks you to explain your judgment, you confabulate . Moral arguments are much the same: Two people feel strongly about an issue, their feelings come first, and their reasons are invented on the fly, to throw at each other.”

Benjamin Franklin said it best in his autobiography: “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” Jonah Lehrer – How We Decide

There is a powerful reasons why our Avodah, or Spiritual Work, during the Three Weeks of Mourning, is focused on our emotions: No matter how reasonable we may be, we base our decisions on our emotions. The Sages wanted us to identify the negative emotions that led to the disastrous decisions that fed Jerusalem’s destruction. “The Children of Israel cried for no reason when they heard the Spies’ report. I will therefore give them a reason to cry!” Powerful negative emotions fed their decision to reject God and lose hope. The Sages teach us to identify those negative emotions and transform them, not the decisions but the emotions, into healthier emotions that nurture moral decisions.

We are feeding negative emotions and decisions when we practice mourning during the Three Weeks without a sense of what we can accomplish. We are grabbing hold of the same negative emotions that led to all the Tisha B’Avs in our history. We must use the Three Weeks to identify the negative emotions that attempt to assert control over our moral decisions.

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…You can be angry, just to get angry, or you can be angry because of a pattern in a relationship. So there is a difference between someone insulting me and someone preventing me from accomplishing something with my life. Hate comes from someone who wants to annoy me, from sin’at chinam. But someone who is out to prevent me from accomplishing my purpose in life, that is not sin’at chinam. The same thing is true with bichiya chinam. If I cry out in pain, there a cry for freedom. It is a loss of a sense of direction. That is to say, “Here I am functioning, trying to do everything I can, but I don’t feel that all my efforts are congealing. I’m not accomplishing what I think I can with my life.

The thing to keep in mind in the evening prayer before the reading of Eicha is to reflect on all those prayers that were not as good as they could be, and did not take us from one point to another. Then, on the positive side, is to understand that any prayer, even one that seems to accomplish nothing at all, does one thing – which is to connect with God. First, we reflect on why we go through these motions so often where we feel that our prayers aren’t getting us anywhere, three times a day, and then to turn it around while we are davening and to understand that by the very fact that I am doing so takes me one step closer to God. So I get to see what I am doing is chinam – without direction – and then I try to impose some sort of direction on it. This is a good way to begin Tisha B’av – both in the act of bechira chinam – the crying, the loss of direction, and then the fixing of it – giving it some sort of direction.

I would like to suggest an exercise. One of the major themes in the Midrash on Eicha is the idea of HaIr Rabti Am – “The city that was very great.” The Midrash tells these almost ridiculous stories about how fantastic, how brilliant, and how wealthy the Jewish people were before the destruction.

One of the most famous stories is that of Marta bat Beisus. She was incredibly wealthy and she wanted some bread. She sent her servant out to buy some wonder bread. The servant came back and said, “There is no more wonder bread. There is only barley bread.” “OK,” she replied, “go get me some barley bread.” By the time the servant went out again to search he discovered there was no longer any barley bread. He returned to report that there was only black bread. “OK, fetch me some black bread.” He again returned saying, “There is no more black bread, but there is some week-old spelt bread.” It never occurred to him, whenever he went out, to get the best quality of whatever bread was there. Finally, in desperation, she herself went out to buy bread. As she was walking through the street she stepped on a pit that had been sucked on by someone who was starving. Rabbi Tzaddok, who used to fast, spat the pit out and she stepped on it. She was so disgusted by the pit that she died. That is a story of how great Jerusalem was. Contrasted with how terrible it became. This is supposed to give us an idea of how terrible the destruction was, and our hearts are supposed to be broken.

Quite frankly, I have trouble relating to Marta bat Beisus. But I think that the Midrash is bringing a tremendous idea that goes the to core of Creation, all the way to the first hint of Tisha B’av, which occurred in the garden in time called Garden of Eden, when God says to Adam, ayeca – “Where are you?” The word ayeca is the same as eicha. This idea is that human beings have tremendous difficulty being great. Jews have the same history of doing this. For example, when the Jews had sovereignty over Israel, they had the Beit Hamikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem. They could see God’s presence play out right in front of them with the most unbelievable miracles. And they never noticed. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them. I remember, I would hesitate to go to spend time with my grandfather. It was great to see him; he was a great man. But I never realized that by being with him, I could be a lot better than I am. So I didn’t see him that often. I had the chance to go see some of the superstars of our generation with my grandfather. But I didn’t go, because I felt guilty. “I could be like Reb Moshe Feinstein, even taller!” But I was afraid. I don’t mean to categorize, but Jews in general have difficulty aspiring to greatness.

Greatness carries tremendous responsibility. There so many examples of this Tanach. Read the first chapter of Jeremiah. God says to him, “Listen, you’re a navi, you’re great. But the minute you accept your greatness, I want to let you know that you will be miserable. So you have a choice. You can be great and be miserable, or you can be comfortable.” This is a choice that confronts many people. And this really strikes at the core of what Tisha B’av is. All of us have this drive to accomplish great things. We all have potential to do so. But in acknowledging this potential, we realize the inherent responsibility. That’s where we get into trouble.

Sometimes we get so caught up in it, we can’t fix the situation. For example, look at Adam and Eve in the Garden. God said to Adam, “Where are you?” Why did they have to hide? All they had to say was, “We ate from the tree; we make a mistake.” Had they said this, they wouldn’t have been kicked out. Everything would have been hunky-dory. They didn’t because there was a set-up, and the set-up was called the Tree of Knowledge. If you read through all the rishonim, it’s quite clear. Basically, they were set up. A human being has tremendous drives. You can’t say to us that the whole world is ours, except for that one tree, and then command us to conquer the world, and not eat of that one tree. You can’t say that because he will go right after that tree – that is what the human being was created to do.

This is also hinted at in many Midrashim. Remember the story of the creation of the Sun and the Moon. They were both the same size. The moon said, “We have to be different.” So God said, “Make yourself smaller.” The moon responded, “Why should I make myself smaller? I didn’t do anything wrong. I just want to be different. I want to be me.” God appeases the moon by bringing a sin offering, to say that He needed the moon’s forgiveness for making the moon smaller. Yes, I created you with a drive to be different, but the moment you wanted to be different, I made you smaller.

There are certain basic contradictions in the world. Among the most painful is that we have a drive to accomplish, but we feel limited, and we limit ourselves. That is where we tend to trip up. And that is where the Jews tripped up in the desert. They were about to go into Israel and accomplish tremendous things. But they were terrified. It is easier in the desert, than when you have your own country. It happened at the First Temple, at the Second Temple, and by Bar Kochba. Imagine, you have the Messiah, right there. That’s where we trip up. We don’t appreciate our greatness. This is what we mourn for on Tisha B’av. We have tremendous potential that we don’t reach.

The best way for me to keep this in mind is to picture if I had everything I needed, if I didn’t need to work for a living, and all my needs were taken care of, and I could dedicate my life to one thing, what would it be? And if that picture fantasy that you have is something that changes the world and doing something really significant, then you know that you have that potential. Then you have to ask yourself, what am I doing about it? – At least on a smaller scale. And if I am not doing anything about it, then I know that I have what is called a “Tisha B’Av Issue.” There is one part of me that believes I have this potential, and there is another that isn’t really doing anything about it. That is the frustration that is related in the first part of Eicha.

* * *

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“My tent, that You yearned, even before Creation, to align with Your celestial Throne of Glory, why is it forever plundered by the hands of the plunderers?” Each stanza of this Kinah begins with “My tent,” alluding to the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash. This developed from, “He bent his bow like an enemy. His right hand poised like a foe, He slew all who were of pleasant appearance. In the Tent of the Daughter of Zion He poured out His wrath like fire.” (Lamentations 2:4)

Rabbi Avraham Galanti (Kol Bochim) explains that we can understand this by imagining the world as the inside of a tent with the cover being the Presence of God that hovers above and protects and nurtures all that lays within. The tent itself is magnificent. It shines its light on everything inside, so that everything within reflects the glory of the tent itself.

We find the first allusion to this idea in the opening verses of the Torah, “And the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) Rashi comments, “The Divine Throne floated in the air and hovered over the water with the Ruach, or wind, from God’s mouth, and His Word, like a dove that hovers over her nest.”

The creation of the world began with God “Tenting” over the earth. God protected His creation as a mother bird hovers over her nest protecting her eggs.

God used a similar process when creating Adam: “A mist ascended from the earth and watered the whole surface of the soil. And God the Lord, formed the man of dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the soul of life; and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:6-7) The Talmud sees that mist as a tent, so much so that it derives the laws of Succah from the verse.

The mist formed a tent and nurtured life within.

The Mishkan and Beit Hamikdash were miniature creations of the world and man. The Mishkan’s coverings, and the Temple’s roof, portrayed God’s Presence hovering over His creation, protecting and nurturing.

This is why we have so many powerful descriptions of “My Tent,” the Beit Hamikdash, in this Kinah: Yearned before Creation, You guided with clouds of splendor, You positioned as a foundation, and more. “MyTent” was a powerful symbol of God’s active involvement in His creation; the world and man.

In is inevitable that we wonder about God’s continued role in Creation and our lives when this awesome symbol was destroyed by God. We, who lived in the safety of God’s Presence are lost when we are forced to live in the “open skies,” of this world, without the clarity of God hovering above, protecting and nurturing.

The Kinah ends:

“After and before,

both this time and that,

in each and every generation God’s anger

and protective shelter are made known.

So why, of all nations,

has He pressed His hand upon me?

This is evident, although my destruction is engraved upon His palm,

nevertheless, my healing is certain, for His anger is but for a moment.

Still,

I wonder,

How has He clouded me

until now

in His anger?

“in each and every generation God’s anger and protective shelter are made known,” we can find God’s shelter even now, without “My Tent,” but as long as “He clouds me in His anger,” I will wonder, where is My Tent.

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The author of this lamentation echoes Jeremiah: “If only my head would be water and my eyes a spring of tears, so that I could cry all day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” (Jeremiah 8:23) “If only someone would give me a traveler’s lodge inn the wilderness, then I would forsake my people and leave them, for they are all adulterers, a band of traitors. (9:1)

He is frustrated by his tears’ inability to express the full extent of his sorrow. He wants to escape the world and hide from the overwhelming nightmares of destruction and exile.

He echoes Job: “If only I knew how to find Him, I would approach His seat.” (Job 23:3) “Pity me, pity me, O you, my friends, for the hand of God has afflicted me! Why do you pursue me, as does God? If only my words would be written down! If only they would be inscribed in a book, with an iron stylus and lead engraved forever on rock!” (19:21-24)

He, as Job, experiences the rebuke Israel receives from the other nations as a continuation of the destruction. The power of his words is thwarted by their fleeting meanings: Will others relate to all the pain and suffering embedded in his speech?

He echoes King David: “Then I said, ‘O that I had a wing like the dove! I would fly off and find rest! Behold, I would wander afar. I would dwell in the wilderness.” (Psalms 55:7-8)

The author of this lamentation wants to flee to where he can be with God without the distraction and pain of his existence.

And, the author, echoes God as portrayed by Isaiah: “If only I were at war with the weeds and thorns (rather than Israel) I would then trample it and set it altogether on fire!”

This is why God responds to this lamentation: “From the moment Israel ceased to follow My ways, they abandoned Me, so I abandoned them. I grumbled and I groaned, my innards and my heart were spilled out in grief.”

This Kinah takes us through the intense process of crying, weeping, lamenting, screaming and agonizing over the destruction. Did anyone ever find the words to express the horrors of the Holocaust?

It then introduces the picture of God weeping with us and experiencing the same frustration over finding a way to express the depth of His pain: Rabbi Nachman taught in the name of Shmuel, who taught in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha, that the Holy One, Blessed is He, summoned the Ministering Angels and asked them, “How does a flesh and blood king mourn?”

The angels responded, “He drapes sackcloth over the entrances to his palace.”

God said, “So shall I do: “I clothe the heavens in blackness and make sackcloth their garment!” (Isaiah 50:3)

But this was not sufficient. “How does a flesh and blood king mourn?”

“He dims the lights.”

“I shall do the same, as it is written, “The sun and the moon have become blackened, and the stars have withdrawn their shine.” (Joel 4:15)

Even this was not enough: “How does a flesh and blood king mourn?”

“He overturns all the beds in the palace, so that no one sits normally.”

“I will do the same, “I watched as thrones were set up, and the One of Ancient Days sat.” (Daniel 7:9)

It still was not enough: “How does a flesh and blood king mourn?”

“He walks barefoot.”

“I will do the same: “Clouds are the dust of His feet.” (Nahum 1:3)

God still wanted more way to mourn: “How does a flesh and blood king mourn?”

“He removes is royal robes.”

I will do the same, “God did as He planned and He tore His garments.” (Lamentations 2:17) – Lamentations Rabbah 1:1

We are desperate to find tears, words, and mourning adequate to reflect the level of our pain. God is described in the Midrash above and toward the end of this Kinah as equally desperate to cry. This is remarkable as we recall that the first Tisha B’Av, in the desert after the sin of the spies, God criticized Israel for crying meaningless cries: “You have cried empty cries and I will give you real reasons to cry. (Taanit 29a)

We do not cry because it is Tisha B’Av: Tisha B’Av is designed so that we will learn how to cry.

This Kinah teaches us about crying…

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There is an important comment by Rashi in the second story of Creation that is used as one of the most important ideas about prayer: “Now all the trees of the field were not yet on the earth and all the herb of the field had not yet sprouted, for God, the Lord, had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the soil.” (Genesis 2:5) Rashi explains the verse: “There was no one to recognize the benefit of the rains. When Adam came and knew that rain was necessary for the world, he prayed for them and they fell.”

I was recently studying Da’at Tefillah, one of the best works on prayer, and I read how the author derived from Rashi’s comment that we must pray as “Lackers,” people who have a need. “Adam recognized that the creation lacked rain, and therefore prayed for it.” His approach, primarily based on the Maharal, is that we must always approach God in prayer as “beggars,” who are lacking in everything, most of all, we lack the opportunity to live in a perfected creation, unified in God.

The Da’at Tefillah is not alone in the way he reads this Rashi. His reading of this Rashi is the same as all I have heard and read my entire life. However, I cannot find the word “lacking” anywhere in Rashi’s comment! In fact, I only see Rashi describing the first step as “recognizing the benefit of rain.” I believe that Rashi is offering an entirely different approach to prayer, that of Desire:

Rashi describes a person who recognizes that more blessing and Divine Sustenance is available. The person appreciates the potential, promise and benefit of the “good,” and uses prayer to express his desire (also known as “Nefesh, or soul,) for that potential good! In this form of prayer we do not approach God as “Lackers,” but as “Desirers.” We say to God: “We see that there is more. We see that it is good. We desire that good.”

Whenever I hear someone urging us to repent, I hear a stress on what we lack. Rashi’s approach to Teshuva is to express our desire for more; to live at a higher level, to attach even more to God.

The first question we are asked by the Heavenly Tribunal is, “Tzipita L’shua?” “Did you wait for the Redemption?” The “Lacker” waits for Redemption by focusing on a world that is lacking. He waits in his need. The “Desirer” does not sit and wait in his need; he works hard to fulfill a desire for a better and more complete world. Rashi’s form of Service is to connect with our Nefesh, our passionate desire for more, and express that desire in our prayer.

I use the Nine Days to express my desire to live in a redeemed world in which my soul can live at its highest level. I offer my desire, not my lackings, to God, with hope and confidence. It is thus that my prayers are considered as Offerings on the Altar.

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In January 1864, the U.S. Army forcibly removed between 8,000 and 9,000 Navajo Indians from their traditional lands in the eastern Arizona Territory and the western New Mexico Territory to internment camps in Bosque Redondo in the Pecos River valley. They had been conquered by a campaign whereby the U.S. Army had systematically destroyed their crops and other food sources, and the old and weak among the Navajo had to either surrender or die. During the Long Walk, at least 200 died  or were kidnapped along the 300-mile trek that took over 18 days to travel by foot. Their settlement in Bosque Redondo had such catastrophic consequences in death and disease and was so disastrously expensive that the U.S. returned them to a reservation in their original homeland in a second “Long Walk” in June 1868.

We are far too familiar with such Long Walks. The Babylonians marched the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon. We still remember the cruel taunts of the Arabs as our crushed and defeated ancestors walked out of Jerusalem. The Romans imposed their own Long Walks as they exiled the Jews from Israel. The Germans forced their infamous Death March from numerous concentration camps so that they could finish off the Jews who had refused to die in the camps. The “Walk” offers a glimmer of hope; ‘You are walking to a better place,’ but it is always “Your Walk;” you have to survive on your own. The walkers are vulnerable to enemies who attach them on the way, as the Arabs attacked us, as the Poles murdered us, and as the Zuni and Jemez tribes attacked the Navajo Walkers.

The Walkers must call on heroic strength to survive. They are helpless, starving, exhausted, vulnerable, weak, and desperate, but they are also heroes. Perhaps this is why the Sages describe our laws as Halacha – Walking: They remind us that when we continue to Walk with Halacha, no matter how vulnerable, weak, and desperate we may be, we are heroes. The Sages teach us that Halacha trains us in the heroism of these Walkers.

I can see Jeremiah linking himself to the chain of exiles so that he can walk with them. The Babylonians repeatedly refuse to allow the great prophet to join the lines of exiles, but he persists: He too wants to be a walker. He pays honor to their heroism and empowers them to survive until they reach Babylon where they can thrive. Jeremiah wants them to understand that the strength on which they call as they walk, is the strength that will allow them to continue living.

Many of us reflect on our life’s journey as we prepare for Tisha B’Av and the period of Teshuva that follows. We are encouraged to reflect on our failures and disappointments as a way of experiencing the Churban, or destruction. We should remember that when we recall the painful parts of our journey that we too, called on hidden strengths and heroism. We possess the strength to keep on marching through life; the same strength that will help us achieve our potential.

If we are going to recall our Long Walk, we would do well to rejoice in the strengths we discovered. It will be those strengths that will allow us to repair the effects of Tisha B’Av.

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In the 1500s and 1600s, the experience of two countries seemed to defy all that had gone before. Spain had amassed the largest supply of gold in history thanks to its New World conquests, but saw inflation and near bankruptcy as a result. In Holland, the Dutch were gaining greater wealth than most any country on earth by trading in fish and other mundane items – in the beginnings of a strange new way that came to be known as a market economy:

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch extracted tons of herring from waters that washed on English shores, had the largest merchant fleet in Europe, drew into their banks Spanish gold, borrowed at the lowest interest rates, and bested all comers, in the commerce of the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies. Dutch prosperity, like Dutch land, seemed to have been created out of nothing. The inevitable contrast with Spain, the possessor of gold and silver mines now teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, only underscored the conundrum of Dutch success. Joyce Appleby – The Relentless Revolution

The Midrash on Lamentations is filled with fantastic tales of the greatness that was Jerusalem’s before the destruction of the Second Temple. Although there are numerous stories describing people’s great material wealth, there are far more tales of the incredible brain power in Jerusalem. They are tales of a different form of wealth. They are tales of a people with absolutely everything they needed to succeed and thrive, and yet they failed, disastrously so.

These Midrashim are the stories of creative people, entrepreneurs, who expended effort after effort only to fail. They are the story of gifted people who did not know how to manage failure. They lost faith in their gifts. They did not appreciate their unusual form of wealth. They were exiles long before they were exiled. They lost their connection with their gifts. They lost their connection with themselves.

Theirs are the story of the student who struggles with Talmud study and does not become known as a Talmud Chacham, and never experiences the joy of Torah. He may possess numerous gifts, but he desires the one that all others honor; he desires the Spanish gold, rather than enjoying his particular gifts.

Theirs are the stories of the people who pray every day, and work hard to fulfill all the commandments but never experience joy in their prayer and observance. They want to pray with the same passion and insight as the great rabbis and Tzaddikim, and perceive themselves as spiritual paupers when they cannot. They have forgotten that there are many forms of wealth, and that rather than focus on accumulating Spanish gold they should begin by identifying their particular strengths; their form of wealth.

We can better prepare for Tisha B’Ab by focusing on what makes us, “Rabbati Am,” – great and unique among others. We can better repair the destruction of Tisha B’Av by refusing to be exiled from ourselves, by focusing on our gifts and strengths; the wealth that is ours and can only be lost when we define our wealth by the parameters of others.

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The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight.

“One sees the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the check tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain.”

Albert Camus’ description of Sisyphus’ curse rings in my ears each year on Tisha B’Av. We have climbed great peaks: We left Egypt a nation of slaves, struggled up the mountain of Sinai, only to let the rock roll down the slope because of the spies. We pushed our way up again and we entered Israel. We fought. We pushed our bodies against the weight of the great stone, but we achieved the summit. The land was ours and we built the Temple. But, its place was not secure and we allowed the stone to roll down the mountain and crush the Temple and the land. We pushed up again when we returned from Babylon. We pushed up toward the summit again in Spain, and again in German, and yet again in Iran and all over the world.

On Tisha B’Av we stand at the peak and watch that great stone of our achievements roll down, and down again and yet again, each historical 9th of Av.

As Camus points out, Sisyphus’s heroism is in that moment when he turns around after his long struggle up the mountain, feels the stone slip from his grasp and roll all the way down, and he leaves the heights and gradually goes down the slope to begin his efforts yet again.

Our heroism is in the moment after we have seen the repeated fall of the stone and we simply turn around and begin again, determined that this time we will not be Sisyphus. This time we will achieve Nachamu – We will hear God reach out to comfort us and assure us that our suffering is over.

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My first nightmare was of being attacked by the monsters described by my brother in a bedtime story. My father came running when he heard me scream and took care of the nightmare (and my brother). The monsters metamorphosed over the years into tests, my experiences as a prison chaplain, certain congregants, and then into some doctors. Tisha B’Av is when all of us relive the terrifying nightmares of our long exilic history.

Preparations helped me realize that my even my Tisha B’Av nightmares have changed.

My Tisha B’Av nightmare is that we stop dreaming of the impossible: Even as Isaiah and Jeremiah continued to dream no matter how dark their situation, Pindar, the greatest of the Greek lyricists, wrote: “O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.” That, is my Tisha B’Av nightmare! The only way we will overcome the destruction of Tisha B’Av is by aspiring to “the immortal life”. The Jewish people have survived, even thrived under the most terrible circumstances only because they held fast to their aspirations to the immortal existence of our nation.

Jonas Salk had it right when he said, “I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.”

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“The city that was great with people (Lamentations 1:1).” The Midrash goes to great lengths to describe the wisdom and wealth of Jerusalem’s inhabitants before its destruction by the Roman.

I appreciate the point of describing the wisdom, but why spend so much time describing the wealth? Does wealth make a city great? New York City has many wealthy people, but also many poor and homeless. Does its wealth make NY a great city?

Perhaps the issue addressed is the kind of wealth, and how it shaped peoples’ behavior. There is a difference between wealth and the projection of wealth:

“Increasingly over the last two decades, women and men with higher salaries and more college classes under their belt broke away from the sensible middle class and engaged in a new round of conspicuous consumption. … Yet they also wanted to show off their education and know-how. That is where the authenticity part mattered and where it became, under Starbucks and Whole Foods and so many other natural-looking chains, more about status and sophistication than it was about the counterculturally tinged consumption and rebellion against the fake that Jerry Baldwin and his fellow travelers favored. Post-post-hippies, like [Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz, associated authenticity not so much with the search for more genuine products, wrote consumer behavior specialist Michael Solomon in 2003, as with a range of upscale values, ‘like a better lifestyle, personal control, and better taste.

“To display smarts, superior tastes, and even enlightened politics, the upper classes of the 1990s focused their buying on things that looked natural and rare but also required special knowledge to fully understand. They bought a California wine to demonstrate that they knew about exceptional vintages, or a Viking stove because they knew that real cooks used these oversized machines, or a bike trip through Provence because they knew from their college art history classes that the hills and sun there inspired pained and brilliant painters. … Buying in post-Reagan America was not about keeping up with the Joneses; it was about separating yourself from the Joneses, the conformists in the middle.”

(Bryant Simon; Everything But The Coffee)

“It was about separating yourself from the Joneses, the conformists in the middle,” is a description of wealth as a source of disunity. Such wealth does not make a city “great with people.” Jerusalem’s wealth was different.

Of course there were the conspicuous consumers, as there always have been in every city in the world, but Jerusalem’s wealth, even as the people dealt with a different consumption; being consumed with Baseless Hatred, Sinat Chinam, was used to feed those who did not have the basic necessities. The wealth was used to make everyone benefit from the city’s greatness.

The tragedy was, “How could such a city of shared greatness fall so low?”

“Has become like a widow,” explains that people experienced the loneliness of a widow. The people of the city cared for the financial needs of the masses, but from a distance, through a government agency, but did not take the time to pay attention; “She sits in solitude.” Ironically, the same solitude as the people who live just to separate themselves from the Joneses.

We may not have the funds, but we have the phones. We can each call someone who lives alone just to wish them a Shabbat Shalom. We can stop and say hello to each person who is standing alone in the Synagogue.

This is a lesson we can learn on Tisha B’Av when we do not greet each other and experience the loneliness of the person to whom no one says hello. Just paying attention to the experience is a step forward; a fixing of the “city great with people,” that now, “sits in solitude.”

Author Info:

Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.