וְכָל הַמִּתְאַבֵּל עַל יְרוּשָׁלַיִם זוֹכֶה וְרוֹאֶה בְּשִׂמְחָתָהּ …And all who mourn over Jerusalem merit and see its rejoicing – (Orach Chaim 554:25)

On Tisha B’Av and the 9 days leading up to it, we are meant to look backward to a time that predates our individual existence and consciousness. That’s a trick! How do we do it? Why do we do it? Why is peering far into the past a promise of a fortunate future? How does that work?

Almost 500 years ago the Maharal from Prague wrote a Sefer called Netzach Yisrael which is dedicated to outlining the spiritual dynamics and mechanics of the eternity and indestructibility of the Jewish People. In the very first chapter he posits a remarkably innovative thesis that only grows in credibility as time goes by. He says the GOLUS, the exile of the Jewish People, and their dispersal amongst the gentile lands, is actually a clear proof of the promise of a GEULA, a return from our exile. How so!?

There are a few premises that need to be spelled out and I only hope that my paraphrasing does justice to his reasoning. First of all, exile itself is an unnatural state, by definition. It means that we are not where we really belong. We are alienated and aliens in foreign lands. It’s not natural for something to remain in a place where it naturally does not belong. Fire wants to go up and cannot be held down. Earthy matter cannot remain up and defy gravity before it descends to the earth again.

Water is constantly moving in underground streams, tiny tributaries, and roaring rivers rushing and running back to its collective source, the ocean. Such is the nature of things to go back to their source.

So too, the Jewish People are uniquely a singular nation and we have remained so even in exile under the harshest of circumstances, and we are an independent people, with the capacity and desire for self-governance.

It is not natural, the Maharal says, for us to be under the hegemony of foreign governmental entities for long. Our natural state is to be together in Israel and that is where we are, consciously or unconsciously headed all the time. Maybe now we can understand Rebbe Nachmans’s statement, “Wherever I am going, I am going to Jerusalem.” We are on our way even if the route is, at times, circuitous and dotted with dangerous detours.

All of Jewish History is a puzzle, not just in a quizzical or metaphorical sense but literally. When you buy a puzzle, inside the box there are a jumble of puzzle pieces. On the cover of the box there is a beautiful and pristine picture that reminds us of how wonderful it once was way back when, before that image was shattered and scattered into disparate fragments. Even though those scraps look unrecognizable as they are currently constituted, that picture on the cover of the box is also a futuristic window into how it might be and will be, one day, when everyone finds their place.

That picture serves a dual purpose. It is a peek into the past. The puzzle pieces were once magnificently unified and not just loosely cohesive, but actually one. Then all of that was tragically broken. Focusing on the picture of how wonderful it once was, arouses a strong longing, a sense of individual and collective purpose, and connection to destiny. We yearn to reunite and reconstitute that former glory.

Greater than the original catastrophe of dispersal is losing sight of that portrait of how wonderful it once was and what is now gone. When one is lost and not even aware that he is lost, that is a double tragedy.

Yet, if one is living with an awareness, a glimpse of that “picture”, even if the details are not perfectly in focus, then a heartbeat of hope always remains and the exile itself holds a promise of future glory. Again, all of Jewish History is a puzzle, and we continue to long to be a part of it!