As Jews throughout the world prepare for the Nine Days of Mourning preceding the Tisha B'Av fast for the destruction of both the First and Second Beit Hamikdash holy Temples, there is a strange feeling of a blending of tears and hope.

Tears for the absence of a holy place where man could unite with his Creator in the most powerful way.

Tears for the two millennia of exile which followed the tragic destruction and the loss of our homeland.

Hope for the survival of the Jewish People despite destruction and exile — a hope reinforced by the exciting recovery of world Jewry after the Holocaust.

Hope for the inevitable triumph of our people over all their enemies and the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash.

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