There is hope, we just...
Wednesday evening, 15 Sivan. Just returned from the Kotel. Hope to go to the Hafgana in Kikar Tzion as well. Finished everything for TT before I went to the Kotel (no small accomplishment) except for this Lead Tidbit. Don't usually leave it for last. Wanted to see if my experience this late afternoon would guide what I'd write here. 

There's good to report... and maybe some things on the down side. There were thousands and thousands of Jews at the Kotel to join together and petition G-d to help us in the Situation we find ourselves in. The T'hilim was lead alternately by S'fardim and Ashkenazim, and the change from the S'fardi sing-songy chant to the Ashkenazi plaintive tones and back again served both as a reminder of our diversity and of our commonality. We might say/sing T'hilim differently, but it's the same T'hilim. And the same YUD-GIMMEL MIDOT. That was especially powerful, because you can't say it on your own, as you can with T'hilim. But the most inspiring part of the experience was hearing the CHATZOTZROT. In the sedra summary you will find a long MITZVA WATCH on the topic of the Silver Trumpets, one of the mitzvot from this week's sedra. But that is just an academic presentation of the topic.

But standing at the Kotel and hearing the haunting sound of the Chatzotzrot, in (possible) fulfillment of the Torah's command to blow them in times of national calamity, and knowing very well and from close up the tragedies that warrant the davening and fasting and the Chatzotzrot – that is not academic. That is real. And that is frightening.

But there is hope. Just as Rabbi Akiva knew that if the terrible prophecies of Churban come true, then so will the wonderful prophecies of the Geula, so too, we must hear the sound of the Chatzotzrot which were caused by terrible destruction and loss, and know with Akiva-like certainty that we will hear the Shofar of Mashiach and the joyful sounds of the Chatzotzrot of the Mikdash and Festivals.