Hear, Oh Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. (Devarim 6:4)

I grew up in a shul in which many of the members were survivors of the Holocaust. In fact, I assumed that at my bar mitzvah I would also get a number on my arm, just like all the other adults who were my parents’ friends. As I grew older, I understood that these “greeners” (new immigrants) were actually cut out of a different bolt of cloth. Many of them previously had families and fortunes, and an entirely other life which was turned upside-down and lost, forcing them to start all over again.

When I became an adult and started to feel responsibility, I stood in awe of these people, who were giants to me. Where did they have the strength to start over, in a strange land where everyone spoke an unfamiliar language? How were they able to deal with people they could not understand? Yet, they raised new families in a totally different world.

Tisha B’Av has passed, and we sat on the floor contemplating the loss of a “yesterworld”. We too are charged to have the courage to start over again. I once heard a joke about this fellow who had two burns on each side of his face. Someone asked him, “What happened to you?” and he responded, “I was ironing my clothes and the phone rang. By mistake I put the iron to my cheek and got a burn!” He was then asked, “But you have TWO burn marks – one on each cheek!” To this he answered, “The phone rang again!”

It sounds funny when we are referring to others, but we lost the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem due to inappropriate behavior, and then we did it again and lost the second Temple! Are we really any better than this guy with the two burn marks?!

There is a Kaddish which is said at the completion of a mesechta. That same Kaddish is said in the cemetery after one buries one of his close relatives. The reason they share the same Kaddish is because a human life is equated with a mesechta: When we finish a mesechta we feel that we learned a lot and now we are ready to start anew. In that Kaddish, we pray for Hashem to reveal Himself to us and to remove the heathen governments from the land with the bringing of Mashiach. Meaning, we are ready to inculcate what we have learned in order to do what we can to bring Mashiach.

In this week’s parsha we have a reaffirmation of the 10 Commandments, and one paragraph of Shema. I think that the fact that we read the Parsha of Shema immediately after Tisha B’Av is also a reaffirmation. We were thrown out of the Holy Land, and imprisoned and persecuted time and time again, which we related in the kinos on Tisha B’Av, yet the Jews through the generations held firm in their belief of Shema Yisrael. Therefore, we say it again right after Tisha B’Av. Jews said “Shema Yisrael” in the gas chambers, so too the Jews felt obligated to say “Shema Yisrael” when they come out of the Holocaust alive.

I believe that the lessons which were learned actually strengthened those people to continue unquestioningly as much as they were able to in the ways of their fathers, which brought about the resurgence of a vibrant Jewish community outside of Israel. Most of us are a product of that renaissance. Perhaps the seven weeks of consolation which lead up to Rosh Hashanah are to give us perspective that not only did we survive, but also that we have a goal in front of us. Hashem is here to soothe our pain, and we are here to drive ourselves to be closer to Him. This should bring us to the eventual ultimate embrace which was and will be depicted in the cherubim.

The Bnei Yisaschar tells us that when the gentiles came in to the Holy of Holies, they saw the cherubim in an embrace. He explains this as an expression of keeping in touch until we meet again. May we merit to meet Hashem again soon in the Beis Hamikdash Bimiheira Biyameinu!