July 28, 2025|ג' אב ה' אלפים תשפ"ה 667 Days Without a Day of Their Own: Building B'Yameinu
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667 days.
Of course, we daven from the bottom of our hearts that by Tisha B’Av the hostages will all be home, our soldiers will all be with their families, and our enemies will all be defeated.
But if not, Tisha B’av will mark 667 long days since October 7. 667 days in which innocent people, guilty only of the crime of being in Israel, will have been held by cruel, evil terrorists. 667 days that heroic IDF soldiers have been fighting on several fronts, leaving their families and risking their lives for our people and our land. 667 days with an entire country of 10 million people constantly remaining aware of where a bomb shelter is and needing to think about it each time they leave their home.
For 667 days—granted in very different ways—hostages, soldiers and the people in Israel have not been able to call any day fully their own.
The Talmud (Yerushalmi, Yoma 5) tells us Kol dor she’eino nivneh b’yamav, ma’alin alav k’ilu hu hecherivu, any generation in which the Beis HaMikdash isn’t built in its days, it is considered as if that generation itself destroyed it.
Why didn’t the rabbis just say kol dor she’eino nivneh, any generation in which the Beis HaMikdash isn’t built? What is added by the word b’yamav, in their days? We use this same word daily in our davening when we ask Hashem u’vnei osah b’karov b’yameinu. Again, why not just ask Hashem to build Yerushalayim and the Beis Ha’Mikdash, what is added by b’yameinu, “in our days,” when this is inherently the request?
In his Zera Kodesh, the first rebbe of Ropshitz, Rav Naftali Tzvi Horowitz, explains that “B’yameinu” isn’t a prayer for when we want redemption and rebuilding, it is the formula and blueprint for how to bring it. The letter Beis, when used as a prefix, can mean two different things. B’yameinu can mean in our days, but it can also mean with our days.
The building blocks, the materials for a generation to build the Beis HaMikdash and bring redemption, is “b’yamav,” to use its days meaningfully, productively and as fully as possible. Doomscrolling, mindless binge watching, criticizing, fighting and sowing division are exercises in squandering our days. If we waste them, misuse them, fail to appreciate the gift of “our days,” it isn’t only that we failed to rebuild the Beis HaMidkash, but by destroying our most precious commodity, our days, k’ilu hechrivo, we destroyed what we could have done with them, what we could have built with them.
For 667 days the hostages haven’t had “y’mayheim.” Their days haven’t been their own. They haven’t had control over their time or their lives. They haven’t had their freedom or seen their families. Maybe they haven’t even seen the light of day. For 667 days they haven’t been able to decide for themselves what they want to do, where they want to be, what they want to achieve.
We daven daily that Hashem finally changes our condition in the world, that He brings a genuine and lasting peace, that He builds the Beis HaMikdash b’karov. How? B’yameinu, by using our days to heal instead of harm, to create connection instead of separation, to compliment instead of criticize, to build instead of destroy, to unite instead of divide.
In Eicha we describe the unbearable pain of yashva badad, of feeling alone, a malady and condition that too many continue to suffer from today. If loneliness is the problem, the antidote and the answer is to be nosei b’ol im chaveiro, to bear the burdens of our friends and our people, to feel their pain, to empathize with their plight and to become part of their suffering.
To be nosei b’ol im chaveiro means to not only feel bad for, but to feel pain with those who are struggling and to focus on filling our days with providing relief, support, and love.
If we want to change what is happening to us in the world, we have to be thoughtful and mindful of what we do to and for each other. We must fill yameinu, our days, with standing with and davening for the hostages, our soldiers, and all our brothers and sisters in Israel. We must ensure nobody is dreading the countdown to Shabbos wondering if they will get invited or will once again be eating alone. We must make sure that nobody in our community can’t sleep at night because they aren’t confident they will cover their bills. We can’t allow an Agunah to feel she is all alone or a victim of trauma or abuse has been abandoned.
If you own and control your days, you are not only blessed but bear an awesome responsibility to fill it with meaning, purpose, care, and concern. If we use the days leading up to Tisha B’Av well, we will merit to no longer sit on the floor and mourn but to celebrate the building of the Beis HaMikdash, constructed b’yameinu, with our days.