This Shabbos is the second in our three week period of national mourning over the destruction of the Temple. Throughout the Three Weeks, we express our sentiments by observing certain outward signs of mourning: we avoid cutting hair and shaving, we do not listen to music or attend weddings, and we postpone all large purchases until after Tisha B’Av. With the beginning of the month of Av (this coming Tuesday night), our observance of mourning intensifies. We refrain from consuming meat or wine (with the exception of Shabbos), as well as laundering and, as a rule, bathing. On Tisha B’Av itself, we fast all night and day, and behave like mourners in their Shiva week, by sitting on low stools and not wearing leather shoes or extending greetings to each other.

But for how many of us are these signs of mourning no more than superficial gestures? How many of us actually experience the emotions that are so movingly expressed in our Tisha B’Av prayers? The Three Weeks can be viewed as a time of reckoning, an assessment of our connection with the Jewish People and our relationship with G-d. Our participation in Shabbos and holiday celebrations, while commendable, often reflect our own enjoyment no less than the importance we attach to our Judaism. It is the sad times, the times when we get together to share in grief, that test the strength of a relationship.

Looked at more positively, the Three Weeks are a time for reflection, a time to reflect on those outward signs of mourning and to learn the lesson they were designed to teach. What could be so tragic about the loss of the Temple as to warrant such an outpouring of emotion as these symbolic acts suggest? What could be so lasting about this grief as to make us unconsolable after so many centuries? Most importantly, what appreciation do we lack that prevents us from participating, on a deep, emotional level, in these days of national mourning?

The Temple in Jerusalem was more than a place of worship. It was more than a national landmark or symbol. The Temple was a “Tent of Meeting”, our rendezvous with G-d. It was the center of Torah knowledge and knowledge of G-d, the place in which G-d’s presence in the world and among the Jewish People was most apparent. It is not over the loss of our political independence or over the physical edifice of the Temple that we mourn. It is the intimacy of our relationship with G-d, the opportunities the Temple afforded us to serve G-d, and the honor which was thereby given to G-d, that we miss.

But the only vehicle we have for gaining an appreciation of that relationship, an understanding of what we lack when it is compromised, is the Torah. Indeed, it was precisely the neglect of Torah study, and the consequent lack of understanding of G-d, that caused our ancestors to slowly drift away from the conduct expected of the People of G-d, and eventually lose the Temple. As we reflect on these weeks of mourning over the Temple, and express our hope for the restoration of the Temple, it is imperative that we strengthen our ties to the Torah and intensify our efforts to study it.