Jewish Unity

The Netivot Shalom makes an interesting observation regarding the destruction of the בית המקדש. He notes that the First Temple was destroyed because of גילוי עריות, שפיכות דמים, and עבודה זרה, immorality, murder, and idol worship. The exile that followed lasted seventy years. The Second Temple was destroyed because of שנאת חינם, causeless hatred. The exile that followed has now lasted 1950 years and has not yet ended. The conclusion to be made from this is how important אחדות, or Jewish unity is. If we would like to see the גאולה, redemption, there must be a much stronger effort to create this unity. This is a wake up call telling us that we must learn to work together. All of the factionalizing into all kinds of groups, is really bad for the Jewish people. The period of the Three Weeks should also be a time of reflection as to how we can unite religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, and Chareidi and Dati Leumi. This will clearly help to bring Mashiach.