The weeks of mourning between the fast of the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av are known in Hebrew as “בין המצרים.” In English they are known , rather prosaically, as “The Three Weeks.”
In the three upcoming sessions on the subject of “The Three Weeks” we will discuss the halachot of mourning which apply to these days. But the great Halachic authority, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, said (on more than one occasion) that observant Jews pay more attention to the minutiae of the rules of mourning and lose sight of the big picture. The halachot of mourning are of course not to be trivialized but they are meant to reflect a feeling of loss. We have lost the Temple and we do live in exile and we need to mourn this sad reality.
So in these three sessions, to speak metaphorically, I hope that we will discuss both the forest and the trees.