By: Jisrael Yitzchak Rosenfeld
Our Sages teach that forty days before the conception of a child, a Heavenly Voice descends and proclaims whom that child is destined to marry.
Everyone knows that the creation of the world—the birth of the “cosmic child”—began on the 25th of Elul.
Therefore, the announcement of who would become the world’s destined soulmate took place forty days earlier: on Tu Be’Av.
Today is the day on which Am Yisrael (the Jewish people) was proclaimed the future soulmate (zivug) of Eretz Yisrael, the spiritual center of the world.
Only after we have passed through and endured the brokenness of Tisha B’Av can we truly recognize and appreciate our innate and eternal bond with reality.
Only then can we build a relationship with a true soulmate—a bond that rises above every mistake we make and every hurt we may cause one another.
Only today, one week after the birth of Mashiach, can we begin to realize that long before the creation of the world, a Heavenly Voice had already proclaimed:
No matter how much damage we may cause,
no matter how many mistakes we may make,
our bond with Eretz Yisrael can never be weakened,
because that bond transcends the visible world.
This is true both for the Jewish people as a whole and for every individual Jew.
Just as the bond between Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael transcends ordinary reality and the realm of human action, so too does your own personal connection with our Holy Land transcend all external circumstances.
