Torah from Rabbi Saunders

In this week's Parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu is chastising the Jewish people over the incident of the spies and more importantly, their reaction to the report of the spies. The narrative of the spies is found in Parshat Shelach. When the Jews  are on the verge of entering the Promised Land, Moshe Rabbeinu  sends twelve spies to scout the land. However, upon their return, ten of the spies spread a negative report, instilling fear and doubt among the people. They describe the inhabitants as giants and claim that they cannot conquer the land, leading to widespread despair and rebellion against Hashems's promise. The Jewish people cried all night in their tents. The night this took place was the night of the 9th of Av. Rashi quoting Chazal says that Hashem declared ‘ the Jewish people cried for no reason on this night this will be the night of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash’. There is a dispute as to what exactly this means. There are opinions who say this means Hashem declared that if I decide to destroy the Beis Hamikdash  it would be on this night. There are others who opine that it was then Hashem decided he would in the future destroy the Beis Hamikdash and send the Jews into exile. The Brisker Rov offers many proofs beyond the scope of this article that Hashem did in-fact decide there and then that he would destroy the Beis Hamikdash.  So we see that the failure of the Jewish people to want to go into Israel was a direct cause of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the going into exile. So maybe now as we stand United willing to defend our land in the face of world pressure Hashem will decide that we have repented and will return us speedily to the peaceful society that he has promised and the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash