"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suf, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-Zahab"

"And Di-Zahab" says Rashi, this is the sin of the Golden Calf. When Moses our teacher rebukes Israel for the most terrible and greatest sins, he only speaks in hints. And it is difficult, for Moses could have spoken explicitly, why did Moses need to speak in hints? The Komarna explains that Moses our teacher feared that judgments would be aroused against Israel, because it is never permissible to give rebuke, for when we give rebuke, a person becomes intentional; until now he sinned, he did not pay attention, he did not know what was happening with him, he forgot his sin, he was "unintentional." But if one is rebuked, reminded of the sin and does not awaken, then he becomes "intentional." So Moses feared that perhaps Israel would not be embittered and would not do teshuvah (repentance) as they should, therefore he feared to give explicit rebuke, only rebuked in hints. Moses gained two things: if one does not awaken from the hints, does not remember that he sinned, does not awaken, does not understand the hint, then there is no judgment upon him (he remains in the category of "unintentional"). The second gain was for those who study Torah deeply and with scrutiny, and it is a rule that through deep and scrutinized Torah study, judgments are sweetened. To them, Moses spoke in hints, so that here too they would merit the sweetening of judgments through deep contemplation and reflection on every single word spoken. For a person who delves and reflects on the hints of the tzaddik, on every word, what the tzaddik intends, this alone sweetens the judgment for him, and this itself is his teshuvah, and consequently, he will merit to awaken and correct his sins.

To bring the Mashiach - says R' Natan, it is by sitting on the ground, crying, and mourning over the destruction. And what do we mourn? Over my transgressions, to believe that I am destroying the Holy Temple, only me and no one else but me, when I do not guard my eyes, I destroy Jerusalem and cause a spirit of impurity in Jerusalem. And by a person doing Hitbodedut, nullifying himself, and examining his deeds, and attributing the destruction to himself, only then will the redemption come!

What is Hitbodedut? Hitbodedut is only one thing, to reach nullification, to know that I am nothing and insignificant, and there will be no pride or substance in me. Because a person thinks all day, I am the wisest, I am the cleverest, the most successful, the most learned, 24 hours thinking thoughts of pride about himself, and he has proofs for it. That he is the most successful, the most fortunate, the cleverest. His mind works all day, because the mind is infinite. If we opened the mind, we would see a million thoughts per second, "I am the cleverest, the wisest, the most successful...

Hitbodedut is simply to start for a whole hour to stop the flow of thoughts. You need to calm down a bit, you are not the most, most, most... There are other wise people in the world, there are other successful people in the world, there are other understanding people in the world. Your neshamah (soul) is poor, it cannot return to its root. It wants to be "nothing," the neshamah is divine, it does not want to hear these illusions. Give it rest for one hour a day!

And the essence of Hitbodedut, the Rebbe says, is at night. ("For then it is the essence of the completeness of Hitbodedut, for then specifically one can come to the aforementioned nullification - Likutei Moharan 52). And for this specifically, you need night, quiet, when no one is really thinking now how to get the dollars and how to run to the bank, etc. At the time when everyone is sleeping, drowsy, then sit and do Hitbodedut and work on humility. And only such Hitbodedut cancels all decrees and all judgments, and if God forbid, one sees a decree during Hitbodedut - it is a sign that I did not do Hitbodedut correctly. I did Hitbodedut to be Moses our teacher, I did Hitbodedut to see Elijah the prophet. To bring the Mashiach. These are all wonderful wishes. But that is not the purpose of Hitbodedut. And truly when a person does Hitbodedut and sits on the ground and knows – every moment I am mistaken, every thought of mine, every critique of mine, every judgment of mine, every view of mine, everything is mistakes. Then immediately the complete redemption will come, God willing.

"The Suffering of the Shechinah"

One person came to comfort a widow, and she had many sons, and each of her sons had very many troubles, and sufferings, and terrible difficulties. And he began to comfort each child, each one with his troubles until he came to comfort the widow. Then the widow said to him, each child has his own sorrow, but in addition to my sorrow, I suffer the sorrow of everyone..., how can one describe the sorrow of this widow?!

The widow is the Shechinah. What happens is that we forget entirely that there is a Shechinah, we forget that there is the sorrow of the collective, each one with his own sorrow, each one with his sufferings, each one with his difficulties.

Truly terrible difficulties! But the greatest sorrow is that we are immersed in our own private sorrow, we do not succeed in awakening and rising and reaching the root of all things where we have harmed, in the cause of causes and the reason of reasons, and there we failed and separated Hashem from the Shechinah through our sins.

Usually, everyone is immersed in their own troubles, even hearing the troubles of another, they say oh oh, sigh a little for him, help him a little, comfort him, visit him, and then return to themselves. But on Tisha B'Av, it is a special day when we succeed in rising, and shedding a tear for the collective, Tisha B'Av is such a day that the Sages succeeded, through all the lamentations, and the mourning, with all the tradition of all the great ones of Israel in all generations, to instill in the people of Israel the "sorrow of the collective," the sorrow of the Shechinah, the true destruction, which is the destruction of the entire people, and it is to leave the sorrow of the individual and reach the sorrow of the collective.

And it is told about Napoleon who came on Tisha B'Av to the synagogue, and saw a whole congregation sitting and crying and mourning, he asked them, why are you crying? What are you crying about? They told him about the destruction of our Holy Temple, he asked when was the destruction? They answered two thousand years ago, he said to them, if so - I believe that you will be redeemed, I believe that you have a future, I believe that you have a holy mission in the world, because if you are capable, a whole nation, everywhere, in all synagogues, in all corners of the world, not to forget what happened two thousand years ago, and to continue to cry and mourn, and think about it, it means that you are connected to your roots, and you have hope to reach the purpose, to reach the building of your Holy Temple. And by everyone sitting and crying and mourning, and connecting to their roots, to the cause of causes, to the reason of reasons, and participating in the sorrow of the collective, in the sorrow of the Shechinah, through this they will merit to see the redemption. As it is written "All who mourn for Jerusalem will merit and see its joy" (Taanit 30b).