Why It’s Called the 3 Weeks, and Not 21 Days

Welcome to our weekly Mivtzah Shabbos program.

Tomorrow starts the Three Weeks. Tomorrow is Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, the fast of Shiva Asar B'Tammuz.

It says that when Moshiach comes, [Shiva Asar B'Tammuz] will be the first day, Tisha B'Av will be the last day — a Yom Tov — and in the middle, the Three Weeks will be like Chol HaMoed.

So even though Tammuz and Av are called months of mourning, nevertheless, since we are close to Moshiach's coming — why? As it says, one of the reasons that we taste something on Friday from Shabbos is that since Shabbos is Shabbos, to get ready for Shabbos you taste something of Shabbos. The same thing is true now: since we're waiting for the geulah and it's getting close to the geulah, the Three Weeks are treated the same way. Not only that — even though Av is a month of mourning, nevertheless it says there was never a day like Tu B'Av, the greatest day of the year, because that's when [the simchas were celebrated] — the Mishnah speaks about it — to show that even though it's a time of mourning, that shows the greatest joy as well.

And as we see from the minhag of Israel — the Jewish custom — it's called, starting tomorrow, the Three Weeks, not 21 days. Three weeks is 21 days, but we never hear a person call it 21 days, because 21 days is a negative term; three weeks is a positive term. And since that's so, we have to look at the positive.

How does 21 show something negative? It says — we'll learn this next week — a siman of almonds. It says it takes 21 days for an almond branch to blossom, and that shows that in 21 days there will be a sign — a hint that it will be [a swift redemption] — that's why it's called the Three Weeks; we don't call it 21 days.

What does "three weeks" show, as the opposite? Three is [unclear]. The Torah was given in the third month. [unclear] was revealed, was given also — we call it the third month, starting from three, and [Klal Yisrael] is divided into three — these are all positive omens, and there are many more. So three should always remind us — even though we're [in exile], it should always remind us.

I also heard once, talking about Tammuz, from a great [rabbi] — he said that there are four [events/days] that are [significant], even though it's for the whole world. What are they? Number one: what did the goyim want? They wanted to kill the Jewish body, the guf. So what happened — [the body] was [hidden/destroyed], and they couldn't get rid of the Yidden.

The goyim saw that they couldn't get rid of the bodies, so they said, "Let's get rid of the soul." That's [the maskilim] — they said, "You want to learn, but don't say that this is [Torah from Sinai]." They wanted to get rid of — the goyim [understood]: you can't get rid of the guf, and you can't get rid of the neshamah — let's get rid of [leadership itself] — that's it. If there's no [Yiddishkeit] — as we spoke about last [week] — the importance of living — the goyim, they can't get rid of the guf, they can't get rid of the neshamah, so let's kill the Rebbe himself, and when we kill the Rebbe, then there's no [leadership]. That's Yud Beis Tammuz, as we know — I don't want to go into it again, we've spoken about it many times — that they wanted to [crush Yiddishkeit] and get rid of it.

This is why it's called [Yud Beis Tammuz] — since now we're between [Yud Beis Tammuz] and [the days that follow].

I want to mention that the Rebbe, when the Rebbe wrote letters — I gathered all the letters of Yud Beis Tammuz, I wanted to see, from our Rebbe, hundreds of letters — what did the Rebbe write, what can we learn from Yud Beis Tammuz? We can learn: don't be discouraged by scoffers. This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe underwent, and this is why we have Yud Beis Tammuz — because he didn't give in. If you remember, during the interrogation, what he did: they told him to speak, he didn't want to, they said, "Here's a gun." So he said to them, "Whoever has one world and believes in two gods is afraid of that toy [gun]. Whoever has one G‑d and two worlds is not afraid of that toy." And he said to the interrogator, "Do you know where you are?" He [the Frierdiker Rebbe] said, "I'm in a [room]."

[unclear] — this was a place where he didn't have [any comforts] in those days, but he went for the sake of the mitzvah, and this is why we have [Yud Beis Tammuz]. Now, what can we learn, the lesson of this? There are two things here: there's the world, and there's among Yidden, and whatever happens in the world is because inside it has to be different.

We see everything going on — let's say antisemitism, we see it now in the colleges and universities — the Rebbe said [the world situation] is a dark house. Even secular Jews — they want the two-state solution, which the Rebbe says you're not allowed to agree to — and we should not get intimidated. We are alone, and we don't have to be concerned with what the goyim are going to say, and the more we try to appease the goyim, the more problems we have. The Rebbe writes the same about our personal lives: the reason that what's going on in the world is happening, the Rebbe says, is because inside, among Yidden themselves, we have to know that we are Yidden.

We have to teach our children — just like when we left Egypt, we didn't change our clothes, our clothes stayed Jewish clothes — we have to make sure the language the children speak, the language the adults speak, should be [a Jewish/holy tongue]. And the reason it's going on in the world the way it is, is because we have to be careful — you know, when you want to know if a fish is fresh, you smell the head; when the head is fresh, the whole fish is fresh. When we, the Yidden, do the right thing, then the whole world will be different — and we should not get intimidated by the world around us.

This is from a letter that the Rebbe writes — and that's, I think, from a summertime letter the Rebbe writes here — quoting the teachers and principals — to know where your children are, even if they go to camp, and when they're out of your [sight], you have to make sure that they'll be davening with a minyan, and that my children will see the same. This is the best, and the Rebbe writes in this letter that before Moshiach comes, when Moshiach will come, we will look back and we will regret why we didn't serve God, why we didn't teach our children, and it will be painful.

And the Rebbe brings down here in this letter: "A good word makes the head clear and the heart clean. A good custom brings light into the house. A good song strengthens hope and trust."

And this is what the Rebbe says in another letter about the summer — this was also in the early years. But the point is: if we are different, then it will be different. And don't worry about how friends feel differently — don't look at friends, show an example.

There's a letter from Rabbi Hodakov here. I don't know if I should also [read it] — you know, also in the early years, principals would call an assembly before the school year and give instructions to the children on what to do in camp, how they should behave. But the principals — and their [staff] — the principals have to be involved themselves; don't just tell the children, "All you have to do is..." — they themselves have to be involved, they have to go to camp also.

He says that's from the Rebbe — that they have to be involved with the children, and not [detached], so that they'll have a good summer and a healthy summer. And the same thing — this is what we can learn from Yud Beis Tammuz.

Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.