[Avodah] Tisha B'Av and aveilus

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, July 9, 2007 11:34 am, R Jonathan Baker wrote:
:> Aveilus is a mitzvah that channels and harnesses the feelings of
:> loss.
:> As RJR writes, it takes it as a given that those feelings are there.

:> The notion he attributes RYBS, that the qiyum of aveilus is the
:> sadness, doesn't seem muchrakh. Aveilus starts with sadness and
:> teaches how to express it.
:
: In the normal course of things, yes - you start from the death, when
: the feelings are strongest, and the aveilus allows you to direct them
: in productive ways, as they guide you towards reintegration into
: normal
: life.  The feelings are there, the aveilus acts on them to reduce
: them.

Shapir ke'amres. I retract my suggestion.

...
: In parallel with that, the fasting/inuyim, exactly parallel to Yom
: Kippur, invokes feelings of teshuvah, davka *because* of Yom Kippur...
...
: IIRC from R' Mayer Twersky - that the inuyim, while parallel,
: are supposed to have different effects - for Tisha B'Av, to increase
: the
: "feeling bad", for Yom Kippur, to separate us from the cares of the
: world
: so that we focus on our true selves and teshuvah.

For YK, the innuyim are probably a mega-shevisah. That's R' Moshe
Soloveitchik's explanation for why the Rambam (Hil Shevisas Asor 1:5)
links the innuyim to the expression "Shabbos Shabbason". I was going
to explain it at length, but I see it is already done at
<http://www.vbm-torah.org/roshandyk/yk57-ral.htm>, notes from a shiur
by R' Aharon Lichtenstein.

This dits what your recall from RMT. Yom Kippur is about shevisah from
olam hazeh and our nefashos beheimiyos.

But one could still preserve the parallel... Aveilus is there to
create remorse and sadness. Innuyim are there at the crescendo of the
mourning to channel it into teshuvah via memories of teshuvah. The the
role is not the same as YK's, as it would make 9 beAv's innuyim about
remembering YK, whereas YK is about shevisah from everything but
teshuvah.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter