Tu B'Av and Shabbos Nachamu - Rabbi Asher Parkesh

00:02 There was a chossid of the Alter Rebbe named Reb Moshe Yitzchak. He was known as Reb Moshe Yitzchak of Iași. Iași was a city near the Chernobyl chassidim, so they say. There he would study Chassidus and spread the teachings of Chabad Chassidus. He was one of the great chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, and later of the Mitteler Rebbe. He received a blessing from the Mitteler Rebbe for a long life and good years, and according to what the chassidim relate, he lived for more than a hundred years. Reb Moshe Yitzchak lived at the time when the Alter Rebbe was taken to prison. When he heard about the arrest, all the chassidim fasted, said Tehillim, and did all sorts of things that chassidim did at that time. As recorded in the accounts of those days, they did all this to arouse great mercy for the Alter Rebbe, so that he would emerge from prison to freedom with a mighty hand. There was one chossid, and only one, who behaved differently from everyone else: Reb Moshe Yitzchak. Every day he would stand there, light the oven, and bake potatoes—bulbes, as they say. That was what he did: stand and bake potatoes for several hours each day. When his friends once asked him

01:51 “Tell me, what are you doing here? Everyone is saying Tehillim, fasting, undertaking all kinds of fasts and self-denial, davening and doing whatever they can, while you stand here baking potatoes,” Reb Moshe Yitzchak answered: “What do you think? The Rebbe is about to come out of prison, and it will be a Yom Tov. And if it’s a Yom Tov, we’ll need to farbreng, say l’chaim, farbreng, dance, [unclear]. Well, we’ll need something to eat with the l’chaim. So while you stand there saying Tehillim and crying, I’m preparing a meal, so there will be something to eat at the greatest farbrengen, with the greatest feast, when the Rebbe comes out of prison.” And of course, that is what happened. A few weeks later came the great day of 19 Kislev, when the Alter Rebbe was released from prison. It became the great festival of liberation, when the chassidim danced and rejoiced with tremendous enthusiasm. This story is, of course, fitting for the time we find ourselves in today, after Tisha B’Av, as we move from Tisha B’Av to 15 Menachem Av. Of 15 Menachem Av, the Gemara says: “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as 15 Menachem Av.” This is the consolation that follows the destruction. In particular, the Shabbos after Tisha B’Av is called Shabbos Nachamu, when we begin the seven weeks of consolation: “Comfort, comfort My people, says your G-d.” And the day of 15

03:40 Menachem Av, of which it is said, “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as 15 Menachem Av,” is a time when the light of the Geulah shines in the world. There is a well-known teaching from the writings of the Arizal concerning the Gemara in Tractate Taanis. The Gemara gives six matters, six reasons for 15 Menachem Av. Why specifically 15 Menachem Av? As the Gemara asks: What happened on 15 Menachem Av that “there were no days as festive for the Jewish people as 15 Menachem Av”? What makes it special? The Gemara answers with six events: the generation that died in the desert ceased to die, and the tribes were permitted to marry into one another. Later, the tribe of Binyamin was permitted to marry into the rest of the Jewish people. Then the roadblocks were removed, allowing people to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after Hoshea ben Elah removed the roadblocks at Dan and Be’er Sheva. Then there was the matter of bringing wood for the altar. These are all reasons given by the Gemara. And then there was the event that made it possible to bury those killed at Beitar. These are all great and wondrous things. But the Arizal writes that these six reasons all rest on the seventh and principal reason: “The moon stands in its fullness.” On 15 Menachem Av, the moon stands in its fullness. This is the full moon that follows its waning. And on this the Rebbe Rashab asks, seemingly [unclear].

05:23 One might ask: What is so great about 15 Menachem Av because the moon is full then? The same thing happens every month. Every month the moon becomes full, and there is a large, full moon. So what is so significant specifically about 15 Menachem Av? Rather, as explained there in the maamar “There Were No Days as Festive for the Jewish People as 15 Menachem Av,” the great distinction of 15 Menachem Av is the great ascent that corresponds to the great descent. As is well known, the moon alludes to Knesses Yisroel, the Jewish people as a whole. When Knesses Yisroel is in a state of darkness, that is the moon in its diminished state. And when the ascent comes, as it will for Knesses Yisroel in the future, “the moon stands in its fullness”—that is Knesses Yisroel in its fullness. Since the descent and the ascent always correspond to one another, when the descent is greatest, the ascent is greatest. And since Tisha B’Av was the greatest descent, it was a descent “twofold,” in the words of the verse. Not merely a descent, but a twofold descent. In the words of the Midrash, “They were struck twofold.” The wording of the haftorah, whose verses are the basis for the Midrash, is: “She has received from the hand of Hashem twofold.” The Midrash says, “They were struck twofold.” That is, the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash was twofold. This was the destruction of Tisha B’Av, which brought a great descent.

07:04 Accordingly, the ascent that follows is a twofold consolation. The “Comfort, comfort” of 15 Menachem Av is a twofold consolation. It is not merely twice as much in quantity. “Twofold” means twofold in quality, a doubling upon doubling in quality—“double wisdom.” This is like what the Midrash says about the second Tablets: they were twofold compared to the first Tablets, and there “twofold” means many times as much. The Midrash says in Parshas Ki Sisa that if the Torah had been given with only the first Tablets, there would have been nothing beyond the Five Books of the Torah and the Book of Yehoshua. That would have been the entire Torah. With the addition of the second Tablets came “double wisdom”: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, Midrash, halachos, and Aggadah—a great abundance of Torah. In other words, “twofold” does not mean twice as much. “Twofold” means abundance without limit. Yes, and this is the Yom Tov of 15 Menachem Av. It is also the meaning of “Comfort, comfort,” a twofold consolation: it is not just doubled in quantity, but an entirely different kind of consolation, a consolation beyond all comparison. That is why the Rebbe Rashab says that every year, when 15 Menachem Av arrives, a glimmer of the future shines in the world, and all the reasons we see for it are—

08:48 the reasons given in the Gemara—all connected to the revelation of the future Geulah, and all connected to Moshiach. They are all connected to “the moon stands in its fullness.” But precisely because Knesses Yisroel experienced the fall of Tisha B’Av, the rectification and ascent come afterward, and the ascent is twofold—the ascent and greatness that will be in the future. All this is alluded to in the great Yom Tov of 15 Menachem Av, and all this is also alluded to in the parsha, Parshas Vaeschanan, which we always read specifically after Tisha B’Av. To understand what this means, where the twofold quality lies, what the great twofold consolation is, and how we see it in the reasons for 15 Menachem Av found in the Mishnah at the end of Tractate Taanis—“There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as 15 Menachem Av and Yom Kippur,” when “the daughters of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards”—and what all the matters mentioned there mean, as well as all the reasons in the Gemara: the works of Chassidus by the students of the Baal Shem Tov offer a number of explanations of all this. After all, these matters all relate to Knesses Yisroel. As brought in several seforim, one of them being the work of the Maggid of Kozhnitz, Avodas Yisroel,

10:16 where he explains all the details of the Gemara in a truly wondrous way. “The daughters of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards”—the daughters of Israel are Knesses Yisroel, as in Shir Hashirim. And the entire matter of “the daughters of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards” concerns Knesses Yisroel after the descent of Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av was the great descent and estrangement; G-d forbid, there was a state of distance, in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu seemingly distanced the Jewish people, and [unclear]. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the holy Berditchever, speaks about this when explaining the verses in Megillas Eichah: “Bring us back to You, Hashem, and we will return; renew our days as of old. For have You utterly rejected us? Have You been exceedingly angry with us?” There was seemingly a divorce, G-d forbid, may Heaven protect us, in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu distanced the Jewish people. To this the Jewish people say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Have You utterly rejected us?” “Bring us back.” The Jewish people know that the whole matter of divorce and of “You have been angry with us”—what is meant by “You have been angry with us”—is only on the outside. Inwardly, the opposite is true. Yes, precisely at that time, on Tisha B’Av, [unclear] there was the great love: Menachem Av, the true father, our Father in Heaven, and the great love with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves every Jew. When the days after Tisha B’Av arrive, and we find ourselves preparing for 15 Menachem Av and Shabbos Nachamu, it is of this that we say, “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people.”

11:42 For then the great love and brotherhood are revealed. And “the daughters of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards”—as he explains, “in the vineyards” refers to delight. A vineyard is a place of delight, where grapes and wine grow, things associated with delight and joy. And “dancing in the vineyards” is the joy, the delight that Jews take in Hakadosh Boruch Hu; Hakadosh Boruch Hu also takes delight in Jews, and the daughters of Israel go out and dance in the vineyards. He also cites the Tzemach Tzedek, who says that “dancing” here is related both to machol, a dance, and to mechilah, forgiveness. That is the connection between 15 Menachem Av and Yom Kippur: “There were no days as joyous for Israel as 15 Menachem Av and Yom Kippur.” So machol means both forgiveness and a dance. As is known, it is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that a machol is a dance involving moving apart and coming close. The holy Baal Shem Tov explains that in a machol, people stand in a circle and dance, moving away from one another and then drawing close again. That is how the dance goes: first distance, then closeness. Chassidim say that this is why people dance that way: the closeness that follows distance arouses the greatest delight and joy. The same applies to Yom Kippur: its dance, its joy, is the forgiveness and atonement that come after

13:15 that distance. Out of it comes an awakening of teshuvah among Jews, which arouses great joy Above. This also relates to matters [unclear] in the Chassidic interpretation of the month of Tishrei. Along these lines, the Tzemach Tzedek writes about “dancing in the vineyards”: the machol, the “dancing in the vineyards,” refers to the forgiveness and atonement that Hakadosh Boruch Hu grants Jews after the entire descent of Tisha B’Av. Then comes the machol, the dance of “dancing in the vineyards.” And what is this “dancing in the vineyards”? Jews say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Young man, lift up your eyes and see.” “Young man” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it says in Shir Hashirim, “distinguished among ten thousand, like the cedars.” Jews say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Young man,” Master of the Universe, You are “distinguished like the cedars,” and You have chosen—“Who chooses His people Israel with love”—You have chosen the Jewish people. “Lift up your eyes.” What does “lift up your eyes” mean? It means: raise your eyes and look higher. What do we mean when we say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “Lift up your eyes”? We are asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu not to look at us as the Jewish people appear outwardly. Outwardly, the Jewish people may appear to be in a low state, especially in the time of exile, and particularly in the era leading up to Moshiach, when Jews find themselves in such a low state, may Heaven have mercy. Looking at the situation outwardly, one may see, may Heaven have mercy, things that are far from ideal. So Jews ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu—the Jewish people ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu—

14:50 [unclear]. They ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to look at Jews differently: to see them as they are in the innermost part of their souls, and to see the truth—that deep down, Jews love Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In the innermost part of every Jew—“Look to the family.” As the Rebbe once said at a 15 Menachem Av farbrengen, Jews say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Do not look at beauty.” Do not look at the outward appearance. Do not look at “beauty,” meaning a person’s conduct in observing Torah and mitzvos: a fine Jew, a good Jew, a Jew who studies and prays to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, a G-d-fearing Jew. “Do not look at beauty”: do not look only at that beauty, but “look to the family.” Every Jew has a soul that comes from the family—the extended family of the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and the daughters of Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. Every Jew has a Jewish soul. And a Jewish soul is “truly a part of G-d Above.” Every Jew also has, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, the hidden love we inherited from our forefathers. A Jew truly loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and, as the Alter Rebbe said, a Jew does not want to and cannot be separated from G-dliness. That is the true reality of Jews. This is what Jews say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu on 15 Menachem Av: “Do not look at beauty.” During the exile, Hakadosh Boruch Hu should not

16:22 look at Jews as they appear outwardly, but should “look to the family”: He should see the truth of His family, the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. And through them will come the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. This is also what 15 Menachem Av emphasizes: the lights of Moshiach’s revelation increase in the world, so it is possible to bring about salvations and bring the complete Geulah in actual reality. With this in mind, we can understand all the reasons the Gemara in Taanis gives for 15 Menachem Av. When we think about them and reflect on their deeper meaning, we see that they are all connected to the Geulah of the Jewish people and the process of Geulah. And this is connected, as the Gemara says, to Jewish unity. The Gemara says that the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash came about because of baseless hatred. The Gemara in Yoma and the Gemara in Gittin speak about the baseless hatred that caused the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. We must understand that [unclear] baseless hatred; this is what brings the true and complete Geulah. Now, when we consider the reasons given in the Gemara, let us take the generation that died in the wilderness. The Gemara says that this was when the deaths of that generation came to an end. The entire experience in the wilderness resulted from the sin of the spies, and the sin of the spies caused the exile to be prolonged. The end of those deaths revealed that “you who cleave to Hashem your G-d are alive,

17:54 all of you, today”: Jews, as it says in Parshas Vaeschanan, all cleave as one to Hashem their G-d—“all of you are alive today.” They entered Eretz Yisroel, and that was the first Geulah. Similarly, the next reason is that “the tribes were permitted to marry one another”—the tribes could join together. As the holy sages said, and the Rebbe [unclear] cites, “the tribes were permitted to marry one another” means that people can sit together and farbreng. On Tisha B’Av, Jews are in a state in which each Jew is alone, separated from his fellow. That is exile and destruction: there is loneliness, there is destruction. When “the tribes were permitted to marry one another,” when the light of 15 Menachem Av shines, when the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear] shines, then “the tribes were permitted to marry one another”: all the tribes, all the families and all the different groups come together. Everyone gathers and sits together at a farbrengen, all of us as one. The same applies to the tribe of Binyamin, and likewise to [unclear] with Yeravam ben Nevat. This is what happened: when Yeravam ben Nevat brought about the split and instituted the... There were two aspects to this. First, he divided all the tribes. Apart from the idolatry [unclear] that led to the sin of idolatry, Yeravam ben Nevat also prevented the tribes from being in Jerusalem. These were two things. First, he [unclear] the tribes; this

19:26 created separation and division between the Ten Tribes and the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin, who were in Jerusalem. It prevented Jews from reaching the Beis Hamikdash. This is separation and baseless hatred, the opposite of Geulah and the opposite of the Beis Hamikdash. When Hoshea ben Elah came and allowed the exiles, and allowed [unclear], so that all the tribes could gather together, this was once again a matter of unity—the true meaning of Geulah. We need all the tribes: “For there the tribes went up, the tribes of G-d, a testimony to Israel”; “Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains.” This is brotherhood and unity, expressed in Jerusalem, in the Beis Hamikdash and in the complete Geulah. And likewise with the sixth reason the Gemara gives, concerning the wood for the altar. What is the significance of that wood? First of all, on the simple level, it was for the Beis Hamikdash. But what is the idea? The Gemara says that when they stopped bringing wood for the altar on 15 Menachem Av, they broke the sickle—“the day of the breaking of the sickle.” And the question arises: what is the connection? What makes breaking the sickle a Yom Tov? Especially since the breaking itself is [unclear]. When the Rebbe came to explain this in his remarks on 15 Menachem Av, he emphasized the point even more. All the commentators ask this question; there are explanations from the Rashbam, Rabbeinu Gershom, and all

20:57 Various early commentators explain it, but here there is an explanation with a particular point: What does “Tavar Magal”—“breaking the sickle”—mean? The sickle is made of iron. Iron represents the opposite of life: cutting. After all, they did not use iron in the Beis Hamikdash. As Rashi explains on “You shall not raise iron over them,” in Parshas Mishpatim, iron shortens a person’s life. They did not even bring iron into the construction of the altar. Yet here they use iron, a sickle, to cut the [unclear]. When 15 Menachem Av arrives and the period for cutting wood for the altar ends, it is “Tavar Magal”: they break the sickle. This is not a destructive breaking, not a breaking that causes damage. On the contrary, it is a breaking that brings about a correction. It emphasizes that the purpose of the Beis Hamikdash is to lengthen a person’s life, the opposite of iron. Iron shortens a person’s life, while the Beis Hamikdash lengthens it. There should be more Ahavas Yisroel, more unity among Jews, saving worlds, G-d forbid, from baseless hatred, and remembering that there should not be even a trace of the opposite of life, Heaven forbid. And so, as the Gemara continues, from this point on, “One who adds will have added to him”—life will be added to life. From now, from 15 Menachem Av, increasing Torah study is a matter of “adding life to life.” As is brought in Chassidus, and as the Rebbe repeated several times in the name of Reb [unclear] of Munkatch.

22:28 I remember that 15 Menachem Av has the same numerical value as 10 Teves and 5 Teves. In other words, the preparation begins already on 15 Menachem Av, but [unclear], that it should be 10 Teves and 5 Teves, [unclear], from 15 Menachem Av, Shabbos Parshas Nachamu. “Comfort, comfort My people, says your G-d”—a double measure of comfort. This is what we, each of us, do in these days: we place ourselves in a state of Geulah. Although we are still in exile, we place ourselves in a state of Geulah. And this awakens genuine Ahavas Yisroel and unity among Jews, which [unclear]. Each of us takes upon ourselves [unclear] and looks at another Jew with a warm gaze, looks at another Jew in the right way, with eyes that see a child of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. [unclear] One can [unclear] before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like Yechezkel, weeping, as he says, [unclear], to say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear], that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should bring us all into the Geulah. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu gather all the Jews together: “You will be gathered one by one, O Children of Israel.” May we see it with our physical eyes, openly. May there be Ahavas Yisroel, 15 Menachem Av, and “Comfort, comfort My people”—a double measure of comfort—and the building of the third Beis Hamikdash, speedily in our days. Amen, so may it be His will.