I don’t like to live in the past. Why waste the precious now bemoaning what was when there’s so many opportunities for what could be?

Yet these three weeks are a period of mourning for the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, its destruction and the beginning of our exile.

So let’s get this straight: We’re not mourning the past. The past is happening right now, and we’re fixing it for the sake of the future.

Rabbi Chayim Yosef Dovid Azulai, a brilliant star of 18th century Jewry, wrote that every historical event of the Jewish People reoccurs each year at the same time—just not in a way that's within the range of our five senses. Which means that now we have the opportunity to correct the greatest calamities of Jewish history. And if we are given the opportunity, that means we are given the power as well.

Jerusalem was destroyed and our exile began due to senseless divisiveness. Let’s start by fixing that. Get together with other Jews. Where there’s been a falling-apart, fall back together. Where there’s been acrimony, make harmony.

And then, where there’s been destruction and exile, let there be rebuilding and regathering.

Tzvi Freeman

on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team

PS: What are your thoughts? Are Jews preoccupied with the past? Or is that our way of dealing with the future? Let me know.