Timeless Torah

“Judah has gone into exile…She dwelled among the nations but found no rest; all her pursuers overtook her in the narrow straits - bein hametzarim.” (Lamentations 1:3)
Rashi: Three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av.
The 21 days are really 21 days and 21 nights corresponding to the 42 journeys of the Jews in the desert before reaching Israel. These represent the major obstacles, pit-stops, and rectifications that Jews must accomplish.

All her pursuers overtook her:
All who pursue their G-dly service during Bein HaMetzarim will succeed. These days are particularly auspicious. These 21 days parallel the 21 holiday days: Shabbat (1), Rosh Chodesh (1), Pesach (7), Shavuos (1), Rosh Hashanah (2), Yom Kippur (1), Sukkos (7) and Shmini Atzeres (1).
These 21 days contain both grief, but also hope. How is that possible?

Worst national sin in our history was Golden Calf (the source for all the other calamities that followed.)
Right after the greatest revelation of all time, they bow down to a cow!
But all was not lost. Man can repair the damage. In this case, Moses made new tablets, even if they weren't quite the same.
Lessons: 1. People do sin and make mistakes.
2. Nonetheless, there is still hope.

Psychology’s dominant paradigm is behaviorism.
Assume all living creatures operate by one simple rule: An external, pleasant stimulus reinforces (positive) behavior, while a negative stimulus discourages the behavior. This is the concept of reward and punishment.
(Weekly prizes, tests, graded homework, honor rolls, and punishment - are all born from behaviorist thinking.)
Minhag: When children are first brought to cheder, they enjoy letter shaped-cookies smeared with honey. Jewish law: Maimonides: When he is young, the father should give him nuts, honey, and dates. When he grows older and rejects these small …fine clothes….when he grows yet older…money. Afterwards…“You will become a leader and be called Rabbi.”…Afterwards, “With Torah you will merit paradise.” When he becomes wise, his father should train him to learn Torah for its own sake.
On the other hand: We are warned not to make the Torah, “A crown to aggrandize oneself with, nor an axe to grind with.” Mishnah: “Don’t be like those who serve their master on condition to receive a reward, but be like those who serve their master without any conditions.”

Resolution: Talmud: “One should always learn Torah even if it is for ulterior motives, because from learning for ulterior motives, one comes to learn it for its own sake.” (Pesachim 50b). How can this transition be assured? Hebrew text: mitoch, better translated as “within.”
Implication: Underlying the ulterior motive is a pure motive.

Two types of rewards: Eat vegetables and get a dollar, or eat vegetables and be healthy. Maimonides' ladder of incentives is more than a means to cajole a child. It reinforces (every step of the way) the perception that Torah brings goodness and sweetness.

Underlying assumption of the behaviorist paradigm: All beings are vulnerable to manipulation.
Problem: If reward or punishment is removed, the child is not likely to gravitate to the desired behavior. Bigger problem: What happens when the reward succeeds? The reward-centered universe teaches that behavior alone matters. The learning then will be shallow. If the goal of schooling with all its rewards and prizes is to create lifelong learners, this method fails miserably.

The 17th of Tammuz is a testament to the failure of rewards incentives. Our people's greatest moment of glory occurred at Sinai. And yet, 40 days later, at the first moment of challenge, the Jews made the Golden Calf.
Inner change was necessary.
The reward of the Second Tablets was the 2ND TABLETS itself.

Which takes precedence, the Torah or the Jewish people? Moses threw down the tablets and saved his people.
It would seem that the Jew is greater than the Torah.
How do we know that this is so? Torah tells us. Without Torah, we would not know the Jew’s greatness.
Two sides of one coin: The Jew cannot know his own greatness without the Torah. And this Torah insight (along with countless others) cannot be fathomed until it is shattered for the sake of the people.
There are 2 Torahs; One within-Mitoch another.

Only one thing can put you further ahead than success, failure. When you are successful, you cannot break out beyond your own universe. When you fail, you look at the pieces of yourself lying on the ground and say, “This is worthless. I must go beyond this.” (Similar to the expansion of Torah after the breaking of the first Tablets.)

Both sets of tablets were placed together in the Ark. So too, in the Ark of your heart lie two sets of tablets. Where will you put the Infinite G-d? In your broken vessel! He will not stay. In the whole one! He will not fit.
He can only can in your heart when it is broken and whole together. Impossible! The 21 days of Bein Hamitzorim shows us that it is not.

Eichah - Lamentations: “Ein la menachem - She has no consoler.”
Ba’al Shem Tov: Ein (Alef, Yud, Nun - ), whose literal meaning is no, is to be to read ayin, transforming the implied negation into a positive assertion. Ayin means nothing, referring to the Divine nothing from which all is continuously recreated. This ayin is the source of the Jewish soul (“Ein mazal l'yisrael - Israel is under no astrological sign,” which he reads “ayin mazal l'yisrael – The Divine nothing is the soul-source of Israel.”
Ein la menachem is now “Ayin la menachem - The Divine nothing, the soul-source of Israel, is her consoler.
Sages: month of Av, we are to "diminish" (mishenichnas Av, mema'atim...). This is the time to reach our soul-root of ayin, Divine nothingness.