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What We Lost When the Temple was Destroyed
Why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B’Av? It seems strange to focus so much on losing a building, a thing. The loss of the Temple was devastating, to be sure. But wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on the exile from our land… and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews? Yes, we say that the Temple is where God resides, but doesn’t He exist everywhere? What is so unique about the Temple that it warrants the perpetual mourning of Tisha B’Av?