Two great rabbinic luminaries wore sackcloth under their garments as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the Temple and the Galuth of the Divine Glory.
Not only one day in the year – on Tisha Be’av- nor for three weeks only – the period of Bein HaMetzarim – did they do so but throughout the entire year.
One was Rabbi Yehezekel Landau, author of responsa Noda BiYehudah and other important books, who served for almost 40 years as chief rabbi of Prague and Bohemia.
Rabbi Eleazar Fleckeles, beloved disciple of Rabbi Yechezkel Landau and and later member of the latter’s Beth Din, declared in his eulogy for his master, delivered at Prague’s Klaus Synagogue that until his old age he wore sackcloth on his body.
Rabbi Eleazar Fleckeles didn’t explain why his master did so. However, reading Rabbi Fleckeles’ descriptions – in the above mentioned eulogy as well as in that which he delivered at Rabbi Landau’s funeral — of his master’s intensive and constant mourning for the destruction of the Temple, one can easily guess the reason underlying Rabbi Landau’s practice.
“From the 17th of Tammuz until Rosh Chodesh Av, he didn’t eat any food which was derived from animals,” Rabbi Fleckeles stated. “From Rosh Chodesh Av until Tisha Be’av he ate only dry bread sprinkled with ashes. Thus was his practice until old age. All his life until shortly before his death, he recited the midnight prayers (Tikkun Chatzot) in commemoration of the destruction of the Temple and the Galut of the Shechina. From Tisha BeAv in the evening until the end of the fast, he wept and lamented without interruption. Persons passing behind the synagogue were stricken with terror when they heard his moaning…” (Rabbi Fleckeles’ eulogies were printed in his Olath Chodesh, part 3.)
2.
Rabbi Mordechai Banet was 40 years old, when Rabbi Yechezkel landau died in 1793. he served in various localities. he was for 40 years rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva in Nikolsburg and chief rabbi of Moravia.
He, too, wore sackcloth in mourning for the destruction of the Temple.
He didn’t tell anyone of his practice. Neither his intimate friends nor members of his family were aware of it.
Only the daughter who washed her father’s sackcloth knew his secret. It is told that after Rabbi Mordechai Banet’s death, when his custom of wearing sackcloth was revealed, the affluent Jews of Nikolsburg paid large sums of money to acquire the sackcloth, which they intended to use for their shrouds, believing that their rabbi’s garment of mourning would protect them after their deaths (see R. Moshe Menachem Walden, Yechabed Av, p. 34; Rabbi Dr. R. Faerber, Pe’er Mordechai, pp. 197-198.
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It is perhaps, apropos, to mention here another special custom of mourning for the destruction of the Temple practiced by two prominent rabbis- a father and a son- of 17th century Poland.
Rabbi Yitzhak Eilenburg was a student of Rabb iJoel Sirkis (author of Bayit Chadash, Bach) of Cracow and later a member of his Beth Din. In the 1640s he was chosen rabbi of Lissa. His son Rabbi Moshe Yisrael served as Dayan in Kalisch.
The son decided to engage in certain pious practices. His list of resolutions included the following:
“I will accustom myself to abstain from eating meat on the first day of the week — as did my father– because on that day the Temple was destroyed (i.e. Tisha Be’av, when the Temple was destroyed , happened to be on the first day of the week, see B.T. Ta’anit 29a). Only when there is a Seudat Mizvah– a wedding or a circumcision – or when Purim, Chanukah or other days on which Tachanun is not said, happen to be on the first day of the week, will I permit myself to eat meat, because so did my father. I will also permit myself to eat meat in honor of a guest. On the days on which I will not eat meat, I will also not eat tasty milky dishes or expensive fish. (Rabbi Moshe Yisrael’s resolutions regarding certain pious practices were printed in the large volume of decisions and responsa by Rabbi Shlomo Leibush’s of Lublin and other important Polish rabbis, published several years ago by Rabbi Yitzchak Herskovitz of Brooklyn).
The Jewish Press, July 16, 1993 p. 32