Al Aileh Ani Bochiya

After the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed, the gemara tells us that the chachamim were so distraught over the loss of the bais hamikdash that they wanted to prohibit the eating of meat and the drinking of wine. The gemara is not discussing the nine days, the chachamim wanted to prohibit meat and wine until mashiach came. Luckily for us, one of the tannaim came with an argument that caused them to re-think it, but the original thought was there.
Where is that passion today? Where is that longing for the bais hamikdash and the geula?
You might say, well, that was when the loss was still fresh in their minds, and to some degree that's true. In sefer Ezra it's written, that the day of the dedication of the second bais hamikdash was a day of great joy and crying. The younger generation was thrilled and overjoyed, but the older generation that lived to see the first bais hamikdash and saw and recognized that the second was not on the same level of the first, they cried.
Rav Hutner once said, the difference between Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av is that on Yom Kippur, ver daft essen (who needs to eat) and on Tisha B'Av, ver ken essen (who can bring themselves to eat). Rav Hutner didn't live that long ago. He was from the previous generation, the 20th century, and yet he felt it. Why don't we?
There is a machlokes as to whether or not Tisha B'Av was observed as a fast day during the time when the second bais hamikdash was standing. The consensus seems to be that they did indeed fast on Tisha B'Av. HaRav Soloveitchik says that it was a day of tefila being that it was a day destined for tragedy, even though the bais hamikdash had been rebuilt, it was important to pray and cry to prevent future tragedies as well. As I heard Rabbi Moshe Weinberger say, anyone that survived the Holocaust is eternally scarred and every event and decision in their life is influenced by those experiences.
Where is that emotion? What happened to us to make us so stone cold?
Most people that I observe look for the easy ways out, the kulos not the chumros. You can listen to music, as long as it's not live. You can take a shower because you take one every day. You can shave because you go to work. You can eat meat because you went to a siyum. You can go swimming because it's really hot. The list of rationalizations are endless. I am not chas v'shalom disputing the kulos that people have. If you go to a siyum you can eat meat, etc., I'm not denying that, my point is, why is that the angle we look for? Why is it that most people look to daven in the shul that says the shortest kinus? I was in one shul which starts at 8 AM and has over a hundred mispallelim, and by chatzos when they finish, they barely have a minyan. Where is everybody rushing off to? Working on Tisha B'Av, hmmmm, of course, it helps pass the day.
We are taught that Kol Hamisabel al Yerushalayim Roeh Bnechemasa. How many of us are truly misabel? How many of us sleep on the floor, as is brought in chazal? Why don't we try, for one day a year to seek out the chumros not the kulos? Our job is to take the KINUT and turn it into a TIKUN. If we do that, may we all merit to see the building of the third bais hamikdash, bimheira b'yamaynu, amein!