We are the People that Build

“Hope rebuilds the ruins of Jerusalem. The Jewish people kept hope alive and hope kept the Jewish people alive.”

“That I think is the message of Tisha B’Av. And it’s the message the world needs right now.  Because we need to know that what can be lost can be regained. And what has been ruined can be rebuilt. We have a great deal that has been lost or ruined in our world – economically, politically, educationally, and above all socially. And we have to show what it is never to give up hope – that we can rebuild what has been ruined.”

“The early Zionists had a lovely phrase: Livnot U’Lehibanot. To build and to be built. The more you build the stronger you become – the more you yourself are built. And that is what our challenge is. The whole world has seen – okay the Temple has not been rebuilt – but the whole world has seen Jerusalem today. What it is to take a city that was ha’aveilah, v’hachareiva, v’habezuya, v’hashomeyma – that was ruined and desolate – and turn it back into kelilat yofi, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.”

“The Jewish people are the people who try and show the world what it is to build. Let each of us, in our way, try and help mend a broken society and do so the right way – be’ahavat chinam – just by love of other people and love of the work. The more we build, the more we will be built. And let us be known as the people that doesn’t destroy. We are the people that build.”

'We are the People that Build' A Tisha B'Av video message