THE EYE THAT DESTROYED THE TEMPLE — AND THE ONE THAT REBUILDS IT | Rabbi Israel Yakobov
What’s actually supposed to happen inside us in the final hours of the Tisha B’Av fast? Rabbi Israel Yakobov unpacks the midrashim on the destruction of the Temple — from Ammon and Moav’s desecration of the keruvim in the Holy of Holies, to the haunting story of a father who lost his sons during the siege of Jerusalem. But the real lesson isn’t the tragedy itself — it’s the cause behind it: the destruction began not with hatred, but with a “negative eye” — the habit of seeing the worst in people. Through the parables of the fly and the black dot on a white page, and through King David’s example of forgiving Avshalom, Rabbi Yakobov shows that the one thing capable of stopping the destruction — and ultimately bringing the coming of Moshiach — is the ability to judge every person favorably.
