The Three Weeks Part 2

"Al naharos Bavel shom yushavnu gam bochienuh" As we sat on the shores of Bavel our first experience of galus as a nation. We were driven from our homeland in brutal fashion with hundreds of thousands dead, our nation in ruins. What were they crying for? Dovid Hamelach continues the Pasuk "Bezachrainu ess Tzion." At the moment they got to Bavel they didn't cry for themselves in exile far from their home, not for all the pain and suffering they went through, not for the uncertainty that lay ahead or even all their lost and tortured brethren. They cried for one thing "Tzion". All that was bothering them was that they didn't have the Bais Hamikdosh and that they were so far removed from Hashem. They- the Yidden that had lived and breathed the air of the Bais Hamikdosh- knew what they had lost, they knew what the Bais Hamikdosh was. All they yearned for was that closeness to Hashem that they had lost when they witnessed Hashems House go up in flames. They knew what was the cause to all their misfortune and troubles.