ראש השנה להתמדה

00:01 Speaker 1 This is Igress, and it is Tu B'Av. As the rebbe always says, Chamisha Asar B'Av. It is the fifteenth day of Menachem Av. And, uh, unlike all of our prior days, where up until now we've been going back through Igress and doing things that are not particularly timely, today we're going to do the most timely thing possible. We're going to look at a letter from our year, Taf Shin Lamed Gimel, about Tu B'Av, Chamisha Asar B'Av. But first, an introduction. The introduction is, I'm sure you're all familiar with the fact that there are a lot of things that happened on Chamisha Asar B'Av. Uh, I don't-- I've never counted them up. I was-- I would love to be able to give you a number. Maybe Sruly, maybe Sruly can off the, off the top of his head give you a number of how many things the Gemara attributes to Tu B'Av. That'd be a good trivia question. I don't know. We're gonna read them together, so keep track as we're reading them. The Gemara in Masefet Taanit thirty-one A, it's also in Bava Basra. I think it's also somewhere else too. There's a Gemara in a few places in Shas, lists all the incredible things that happened on Chamisha Asar B'Av. Let's take a quick look. I have it on your screen in front of you. I will read it. Amar rabbon Shimyon bar Gamaliel, he says, "L'haiyamim hayomim l'Yisrael k'Chamisha Asar B'Av v'Yom Hakippurim." The two greatest days, the two greatest Yomim Tovim for

00:58 Speaker 1 the Jewish people were the fifteenth day of Av and Yom Kippur. "V'ish lam Yom Kippur mishum d'is ba zrichat mechila." He says it's fine that Yom Kippur is a big day for us. It's the day we get forgiven for all the rotten stuff we've done. "Yam shnitnah ba luchot ha'achronot." And it was the day that we got the second set of tablets. So that's an important day. "V'Chamisha Asar B'Av ma hi?" What exactly is the fifteenth day of Av? It's not mentioned in the Torah. It's not mentioned anywhere. What is this day? Amar Rav Yehuda Amar Shmuel. And by the way, for such a special day, there seems to be a lot of argument over why exactly we're celebrating it. You would think the most special day on the calendar would have, uh, one opinion about why we do it. Amar Rav Yehuda Amar Shmuel. He says, "Yam sheshbatin lav ezav eze." This was the day that shvatim were allowed to marry each other. That before this day, before this day in history, if you were in one shevet, you couldn't marry your true love from another shevet, and this is the day that they-- you were allowed to marry in between shvatim, in between tribes. Amar Rebbi Yossi Amar Rebbi Nachman, "Yam shehirtah shevet Binyamin lav bechal." This was the day you were allowed to marry Shevet Binyamin. Binyamin got excluded from the entire Jewish people after the whole Peleg Ish Bogivah incident, and they only let him back in on Tu B'Av. Amar

01:55 Speaker 1 Rabba bar Chanah amar Rebbi Yehudah, "Yam shekalu b'meisei midbar." This is one of the most popular ones. This was the day that people stopped dying in the desert. "Damar achrei kalu meisei midbar klai adir b'Yim Moshe." And furthermore, this was the day that God started talking to Moshe Rabbeinu again because until the people who were supposed to die in the desert died in the desert, God didn't talk to Moshe. "Sh'namer vaihi acharei tam ukal shemeil chamlamus vai'daber Hashem elai." God started speaking to me again after all of those who were sentenced to death finally died. "Elai haya dibor." That's when I finally got to talk to God again. So we have two things here in that one sentence. I'm not gonna do them in depth, just very quickly. One of them is, as many of us know, that every single year on Tisha B'Av, the people who were supposed to die that year who were turning sixty that year, because everybody was sentenced to die by age sixty in the desert, anybody who was turning sixty that year would dig a grave for themselves and hop into it, and the next morning they would be dead. People would cover them over, and they would move along. That year, the people who were turning sixty put themselves in the ground only to discover that the decree had been lifted, but they didn't believe that the decree had been lifted. They thought maybe they miscalculated the date. It was the Ninth of Av. So they kept on

02:53 Speaker 1 looking at the sky. They, according to the Midrash, buried themselves in the ground every single day. They didn't just wait above ground. Every day, they got back into their graves on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. They see a full moon, and they knew that they were saved. So that's-- that, that, that would have been the fifteenth of Av, the day that they knew that they weren't going to be dying in the desert. That is also the day that God started talking to Moshe again. Continuing. Ula amar yam shebital Heshea, Ayla, excuse me, Heshea ben Ayla prostya sh'ches v'Yirovam ben Nevat al darach v'sh'liyad Yisrael l'reigel. This was the day that Heshea ben Ayla took away the guards that Yirovam had put on the paths that would not-- It wasn't just guards. It was like, uh, they had, like, uh, blockades. It was a blockade that, that, that Yirovam ben Nevat had put on the path that prevented people from going to Yerushalayim to serve God in the temple. When the two kingdoms broke off, the Northern Kingdom broke off from Yerushalayim, and I guess the Southern Kingdom of Judea, uh, when they broke off, Yirovam ben Nevat recognized that there was a real problem to create a rebellion and create a new state when all of your people three times a year had to visit your competitor. So he blocked the roads and built his own temple, his temple being golden calves, which you just wouldn't think. But whatever. That was what

03:54 Speaker 1 he did, and he blocked the roads. This was the day they stopped blocking the roads. I will point out that in the Midrash Tanchuma, this is said, uh, th-this is described as a time of destruction, actually, not as a positive thing. In the Midrash Tanchuma, it says that when, uh, when, when Heshea ben Ayla removed those blockades and allowed people to go to Yerushalayim, and they still didn't, their s-- their fate was completely sealed because now they had a choice. Up until then, it had been an anus that they couldn't worship God in Yerushalayim. From that day onward, the king would have allowed it, and they still didn't do it, and that was when God decided to destroy them. So I guess this Gemara doesn't agree with that Midrash. Onwards. Bamah d'eizo shirzu yom. Anyway, at that point, they said anybody who wants to go to Yerushalayim can. Rav Masna, he says, "Yam shenitnu harugei Beitar l'kevera." This was the day that those murdered in Beitar were allowed to finally be buried. The Romans massacred Beitar. We kind of started it. It was a whole thing with a broken wagon wheel. But in any event, we sort of started it. They fought us, we lost, and then they wouldn't let us bury the people who died in Beitar. Eventually, they let us bury them, and that was on the fifteenth of Av. Amar Rav Masna, "Awes yam shni-shnitnu harugei Beitar l'kevera tiknu b'Yavne teiv v'ameitiv ativ sh'lei tzibura v'ameitiv shnitnu l'kevera." This was also a

04:52 Speaker 1 day where we got some lines in benching. The berakha teiv v'ameitiv showed up in benching, the teiv because, uh, the word teiv because these bodies did not rot while they were waiting for burial, v'ameitiv in that we were finally allowed to bury them. So this was also the day of the teiv v'ameitiv. So it's a good day. I mean, it's kind of a bittersweet day. We buried people, but it was the day we finally got to bury people. Rava v'Rav Yosef damarta vai, the two of them both say, "Yam shpatstu m'lacheis eitz b'maracha." This was the day that the woodcutters would stop chopping wood for the pyre and the Beis Hamikdash. Tesanya k'sesa d'Bar Nassa. Rabbi Elazar haGadol ami he says, "M'Chamisha Asar B'Av eilech tashach koach shel chama." From the fifteenth of Av onward, the sun is not so strong anymore. V'l'chayei eitz b'maracha v'sh'ein rivashim, so they couldn't chop the wood anymore because they wouldn't be so dry. They would be kind of wet. And as others explain in the Meturgeman and also, I believe, also in Bava Basra, maybe it says it that way, at least it's in Rashi that way, that's when it starts getting wormy. You don't want to put wormy wood in the Beis Hamikdash because the wood gets too soft and wet. Amar Rav Nasho kar lei yam tzar magal. They called this the day of the breaking of the sickle. I saw someone post somewhere that this was the day of the breaking of the ax. I

05:49 Speaker 1 think they just don't know what a magal is. A magal is a sickle. But whatever. I guess you don't really chop, uh, wood with a, with a magal. So I'm, I'm all around confused. In any event, mikán v'eilech d'meisiv Yossef. From this point onward, anybody who increases, it's increased on him. U'd'lei meisiv, and anybody who does not increase, yeyasef, they die. Ma yeyasef? What does it mean to die? Amar Rav Yossef tikbe d'ima. It means dying before their time, that their mother will bury them. What's going on in this last line? We have a Rashi in this last line. Rashi says, "Mikán v'eilech m'Chamisha Asar B'Av v'eilech d'meisiv l'ei l'sal yamin v'lasi ftita yeyasef chaim al chayav." Basically, from this point onward- The, uh, we, we have, we have, uh, what? We have-- I'm gonna get it backwards. We have longer nights. From this point onward, we have shorter days and longer nights. This is where the nights start getting long again. And so right now we can't, as the Rebbe kind of spells out down here, we can't fulfill our obligation to learn Torah purely by day and say that we're learning enough Torah. We would also need to extend some of our Torah learning into the night. So from this point onward, people who learn Torah at night are going to live long lives, and people who don't learn Torah at night, chas v'Shalom, the opposite. It just brought it use it in Rabeinu Gershom 'cause it's really cool that Rebbe brings it

06:51 Speaker 1 in the Sikha. But it's cool Rabeinu Gershom says that that's also why they celebrated the cessation of the chopping of the wood. It's 'cause wood chopping would take you all night. So now that they didn't have to chop wood anymore, they had more time to learn Torahs. Maybe both those themes are about having more time to learn Torah. The Rebbe in this, I don't think I have to read this to you 'cause I just said this outside, but the Rebbe in the Sikha kind of unpacks that Rashi and says, the point is that since the days are getting short and the nights are getting longer, you have to learn just to keep up with your Torah schedule, and that's what the Gemara means here. I wanna draw your attention to a Sikha before we read our letter, a short piece of a Sikha. It's in Torah Minchah V'ma'acharim thirty-one, page two-o-nine. The Rebbe says this, "V'layla jasha kasina." I'm not coming here just to give you joshas. as we talk-- spoke about earlier. Here's the punchline. What is the whole point of the fifteenth day of Av? So we just read a whole list, right? Long, long list of all the things. The main point could be that people got buried in Beit Ar. The main thing could be that the girls were dancing in their white dresses. We didn't read that part, but it did happen. The main thing could be that the tribes could marry each other. The main thing could be that,

07:46 Speaker 1 uh, Moisha got to talk to Hashem again, or that we didn't have to chop wood anymore. They all could be the main point. But what's the main point? Well, the Mascan of the Gemara, the last line is this thing, and that is indeed what the Rebbe thinks the main point is. It says, what is the main point of Chamisha Asar B'Av? From this point onward, learning Torah extends your life. This is a place where if you increase this is something everybody needs to including those who up until now have been doing great and learning seriously and intently. Excuse me. And certainly people who up until now have not been learning Torah with a lot of diligence, that you will increase your life, and from this point onward, you learn Torah with more chasmata. The point is that the main point of Chamisha Asar B'Av is that this is the point, the turning point where we start learning Torah more seriously, extending our Torah learning into the nights, a time where we increase in Torah study. That's the main point, not all these other great stories. The main point of Chamisha Asar B'Av is that this is our Rosh Hashanah for Limud HaTorah, which is kind of funny 'cause there's other things that have that role, right? Shavuot, Simchat Torah, we're gonna talk about it. Let's look at today's letter. So that introduction, today's letter is from the year taf shin lamed gimel. Your faces on my screen are in the way of the letter. I

09:04 Speaker 1 have to move you all over a little or move the letter over. There we go. I'll make it a little smaller on my end so I can see. Okay. Taf shin lamed gimel, the letter is yud taf taf ayin beis, the Rebbe dayan shalom uvracha, and he says, "I've received your letters." Look at the Rebbe . The Rebbe addresses the fifteenth of Av as the day of the day of people increasing their Torah study to increase their lifespans. From this point onward, somebody who increases their Torah study at night, they will get more life. Learning Torah and specifically in delving into Torah, increasing in this This brings you not just to, uh, this brings you not just to more Torah, but to action, right? Otherwise, you're learning wrong. You're supposed to be learning to do more. So if this is a time of learning more Torah, that means it's also a time of more actions. That is keeping the mitzvahs and increasing in them. Also an increase in quality, not just quantity of mitzvahs. The Rebbe has just added literally three things to the drashah, so let's just take a moment to unpack it. The Rebbe's saying that in addition to what the Gemara says, that this is a time where we increase in our Torah study, that naturally means this is a time we increase in the number of mitzvahs that we do, which means this is also naturally a time that we increase in the quality of the mitzvahs that we do and

10:19 Speaker 1 that we increase our hidder in mitzvahs today. So now we have, what, four things happening on, on the Chamisha Asar B'Av, a day of increased Torah study, a day of increased quantity of mitzvahs, and a day of increased quality of mitzvahs. Three things. There is a lot more to this letter, and I'm tempted to read parts of it tomorrow, but I have a lot more to show you, so I might just-

10:36 Speaker 2 But the fourth thing, the fourth thing, hidder mitzvah.

10:39 Speaker 1 Hidder mitzvah, right.

10:39 Speaker 2 Hidder and echad is different.

10:41 Speaker 1 Hidder and echad is different how?

10:43 Speaker 2 Because, because echad is, I guess, quality. Hidder is, I guess, in-

10:47 Speaker 1 Quality

10:47 Speaker 2 ... additional, uh, adherence to-- Like, a person can be-- could do a quality mitzvah. Could you do a quality mitzvah without being mehader bemitzvahs? Can you shake a little of nesek or you have a quality little of nesek but not be a mehader bemitzvahs?

10:59 Speaker 1 Okay, so you're saying that's an echad on top of an echad. I'm fine with that. That's four things. That's great because I wanted four. I said four, and then I could only find three, so I'm very happy. That's four things then. Four things the Rebbe's added to this, to this rule. I want to, um... We might do more of this later tomorrow 'cause we also get into Tu B'Av tomorrow.

11:16 Speaker 2 Actually, sorry to interrupt, but the Rebbe does say echad dash hidder, so it makes it kind of like the same.

11:21 Speaker 1 I, I still like yours better 'cause it justifies my four. We might do more of this later tomorrow 'cause I have on the schedule to do more Tu B'Av tomorrow, but no promises. Uh, you have the letter if you wanna read the rest of it. I wanna jump to some other things now to spin-off of this letter. So the Rebbe has told us that the main theme of the day is and we add in our letter that doesn't just mean the main point of today is to increase in our Torah learning, but it also means to increase in our Hasmadat Torah, we have that from the Sikha, and it also means to increase in our mitzvahs, and it also means to increase in the quality of our mitzvahs, possibly to hidder mitzvah, which may or may not equal quality of mitzvahs. Look at this letter over here. It's in Yiddish. Application number one, this also means that it's a time to give more tzedakah. This is Niglas volume four, page eleven. The Rebbe says the following, that Hashem Yisborach should help, um, that, uh, you should not, chas v'Shalom, uh, take back from any of the good min hagim that you're engaged in right now. You should be increasing in them in a way of milem b'kedoshim. So you shouldn't decrease, you should be increasing them. The Rebbe shifts. Certainly, when you see that that, uh, kol halah is specifically all the things we're talking about specifically are happening on the fifteenth day of Av.

12:23 Speaker 1 Here's the point that we need. on this day, Chazal say, say, tell us about this day, Chazal say at the end of times This obviously has to do with Torah, Certainly, the Torah then influences that this should be the same seder in mitzvahs, but now the Rebbe is pointing to a mitzvah. Also, mitzvahs tzedakah So specifically in the Torah, he says this is called it's been . This is called Mitzvah Stam. It equals all of the mitzvahs. He gives you a bunch of for that. But the Rebbe is adding another dimension. We had four, possibly three. Let's add a fifth. Let's add another one to our list. In addition to this, this is the day for increasing in tzedakah and increasing in tzedakah for the entire year, starting from today. This is the day of strengthening of Torah. Torah learned with hasmadah. Torah learned that leads to mitzvahs. Torah learned leads to more mitzvahs. Torah learned leads to more quality of mitzvahs and Torah that leads us to giving more tzedekahs. Now, now he's expanded Tu B'Av into something that is a, a tzedakah day. This is in Terias Menachem volume three, page two fifty-six. There's two we have to this effect, another one in volume thirty-one, page two eight. Let's read both of them. This makes today a, a scary day. Why I say a scary day? Uh, you guys familiar with the idea of a Yom Klali? We have them all over Chassidus. It's the reason why Chassidus is scary, in my personal

13:36 Speaker 1 opinion. Scary and impactful is because of the idea of the Yom Klali. Outside of the philosophy of Chassidus, I don't think anybody else has the idea that there are certain days where you're judged for something, and the way you act on that day then affects a certain aspect of your life the entire year. I'll give you an example. Purim is a Yom Klali for Simcha. The way that a person has joy on Purim is the way that they'll have joy the entire year. Shabbos Parashas, the way a person handles themselves on Shabbos Parashas is the way every Shabbos of the whole year goes. Rosh Hashanah, a birthday, we have all of these every . We have these general days that sort of predict or somewhat lock us in to certain behaviors. Obviously, anybody can do Teshuvah, but they lock us into certain limitations and certain excesses, um, when we s- when we behave a certain way on certain days. The Rebbe here is going to say that today, Chamisha B'Av, which we're already halfway through, unfortunately, so you're only hearing this halfway through the day. This day that we're already halfway through is a Yom Klali of sorts for hasmadah in Torah learning. So the Rebbe says here in the that whole thing we just talked about. Rashi says, as we said, let's go to the next paragraph. This means that the fifteenth day of Av is the beginning of a new tekufah, an entirely new chapter in our year that can-- that applies to

14:45 Speaker 1 the entire year. This is a turning point in the year. as explained in many books. has the same gematria of that you should have a good writing and a good sealing, the of Rosh Hashanah. So it's kind of a Rosh Hashanah for learning Torah. Do note the parenthesis 'cause they're funny. The Rebbe excused himself by saying, "Thus is a ." This is a . It's sort of not exactly a-- it's not a, not a deep gematria, but it's there. Terias Menachem volume thirty-one, page two eight, the Rebbe expands upon this. It's true . We got the first set of tablets of the Ten Commandments on Shavuot. We got the second set on Yom Kippur. Nonetheless, there is something special about the fifteenth day of Av that none of these other days have, including that is something that is beyond Shavuot and beyond Yom Kippur. What is that? From this point onward, one who increases in Torah study increases their life. This is a of an entirely , an entirely new in learning Torah. So we have from these two sefas that in addition to everything that we've said so far, today is also sort of a Rosh Hashanah for hasmadah, a Rosh Hashanah for learning Torah, where it becomes something of a Yom Klali, a day of for, uh, you know, on, on, what do we say on a, on a, on a, on, on ? We say that it's a when it comes to, uh, that's the day we get written and sealed for

16:07 Speaker 1 our learning of Chassidus. This is the day we get wr-written and sealed for diligence in Torah study. The last that I wanna show you is over here in a from the Rebbe. This is a from Rambam and from the year which is, of course, always . This the Rebbe says that you see in the end of he quotes the same Gemara that we keep on quoting. We see that when someone learns Torah at night, they merit Kesser Torah, the crown of Torah. What does this mean? Specifically increasing in Torah study from the fifteenth of Av onward. That means starting today to increase your sedarim and stick with them and make them more, make them stronger and deeper from today onward. This causes a-- So this causes a repair. This is a for the for the destruction and the exile that is by Tisha B'Av. This hints to a preparation for the of Kesser Torah, the crown of Torah that we will have in the times of Mashiach. When Mashiach comes, all we're going to do is focus on what all the entire world is going to be do, is focusing on understanding God, on knowing God alone, and not on other pursuits. So what this means, I think, a little bit outside, is that the d- rededicating ourselves to Torah study and pushing ourselves to learn more Torah and deeper levels of Torah, uh, with more hasmadah, with more seriousness, with more dedication, more is a, is a preparation for wearing the Kesser Torah. What

17:33 Speaker 1 is the Kesser Torah? Wearing the Kesser Torah is the Mashiach . That's the Torah the way that it'll be when we aren't distracted by our work and our other responsibilities and focusing on Torah exclusively. A mini version of that is saying that despite the fact that I'm very busy right now and have a lot of responsibilities, starting from the fifteenth of Av, I'm going to add a Seder in Torah study, increase my Torah study slightly or greatly. Uh, to summarize everything that we've done up until now, and then we can open the floor and chat a little bit. We said that, uh, several things happened on the fifteenth of Av. The one the Rebbe, the one that the Rebbe calls the of Chamisha B'Av is that from that point onward, we have to increase in our Torah studies. That's the main of the day, despite all the other things we talked about. We saw that Gemara, we saw Rashi, which is explained by the Rebbe, understands this to mean that the-- since now the nights are getting longer, we kind of have to learn Torah at night because if we don't, how are we going to squeeze in even our normal hours? We also saw what Rabbeinu Gershom, who said that this is the end of the woodcutting season, so it's also a of more time for Torah study. The celebration of Tu B'Av is, uh, although I know, as Sruli has told me, it's celebrated in Eretz Israel as a bit of a Valentine's

18:30 Speaker 1 Day. It has those elements, uh, in the Gemara. That's not the main . The way that Tu B'Av really should be celebrated is by people adding a Seder. That's what we're seeing from this letter, that what the real celebration of this day is adding a Seder in Torah study. Uh, our letter, uh, the letter that we saw is packed with stuff, but the thing that we focused on for our purposes is that it demonstrates the applies to learning Torah, doing mitzvahs, and doing the quality mitzvahs, uh, Hiddan mitzvah as well. We saw another letter that said that it applies to Mitzvot Tzedakah. This is the day where we dedicate more money to Tzedakah and continue that dedication throughout the year. We saw two letters. Actually, it wasn't two letters, two sefas. We saw two sefas that turned Chamisha B'Av into something of a Rosh Hashanah for hasmadah and dedication to Torah study, a tekufah chadashah, a that transcends the one that we have surrounding Shavuot and Yom Kippur. And finally, we saw that leads to Kesser Torah, a certain state of mind where I don't care what's going on in my life, I'm going to learn even when I'm challenged, which is a . Kesser Torah, the sort of Torah we'll have when Mashiach comes, when the entire focus of all people will be . That's it