Reason To Cry

R. Eleazar fell ill and R. Yochanan went in to visit him. He noticed that he was lying in a dark room,  and he bared his arm and light radiated from it. Thereupon he noticed that R. Eleazar was weeping, and he said to him: Why do you weep? Is it because you did not study enough Torah? Surely we learnt: The one who sacrifices much and the one who sacrifices little have the same merit, provided that the heart is directed to heaven.  Is it perhaps lack of sustenance? Not everybody has the privilege to enjoy two tables [Totah and wealth].  Is it perhaps because of [the lack of] children? This is the bone of my tenth son! — He replied to him: I am weeping on account of this beauty [i.e. you]  that is going to rot in the earth. He said to him: On that account you surely have a reason to weep; and they both wept. [Brachos 5 Soncino Trans.].


WONDER OF WONDERS!!!


For Torah, Rav Eleazar wasn't crying. For the tragedy of Rav Yochanan losing his tenth son, Rav Eleazar wasn't crying. But for the beauty of Rav Yochanan that is going to rot in the earth they BOTH cried!? Why??

Explains the Maharsha: The gemara relates [bava metzia 84] that Rav Yochanan says that he is a remnant of the beauty of Yerushalayim [אנא אישתיירי משפירי דירושלים]. Yerushalayim was not only beautiful spritually but was also beautiful physically. As long as the Rav Yochanan was alive, one could behold his beauty and remember the lost beauty of the destroyed Yerushalayim. But when Rav Yochanan died, not only was he lost - but the remnant of the glorious beauty of Yerushalayim was also buried in the ground.

THAT is reason to cry.

Ayyyyyyyy, we should be zoche to once again behold the beauty of Yerushalayim.