i-Attach-Amidah-Kavanot Three Weeks-Jerusalem

Rabbi Yitzchak of Ziditchov said to a Chasid who despairingly told him that the physician of a relative had given up hope for his recovery, “A doctor has the duty of curing his patient, but he is not empowered to give up hope. To abandon hope is not within his province.”

To another Chasid whom thieves had despoiled of all his possessions, and who already had expressed his despair over recovering them, “It is a rule of Jewish law that if an owner despairs of his lost property he no longer has any claim upon it. Why is this? Because he should not lose hope, but should pray for the recovery of his lost goods (P’eir Yitzchak, page 72).”

When we, in the Amidah, pray for Redemption and Jerusalem, we are declaring that we have not given up hope.

Although we begin the Three Weeks fully expecting its conclusion with Tisha b’Av, it does not mean that we have given up hope of the Redemption and rebuilding of Jerusalem happening before Tisha b’Av!