Today is Rosh Hodesh Av, so I want to wish everyone a Hodesh Tov- a good month.
BeEzrat Hashem, the month of אב will turn totally into a good month.
I use the word totally for the following reason:
The month of אב/Av has 2 letters א, and ב
א stands for for ארור cursed,
ב is for ברוך, blessed. (That’s why the Torah starts with ב- בראשית ב, for blessing)
And our rabbis tell us that the month of Av is actually split into two parts. The first half does not have the blessings, and second half is Baruch- Blessed. The first 15 days are challenging, then the last 15 days are turned around (We will beH discuss the significance of the 15th of Av later in the month.)
The Chatam Sofer says that when we announce the month of Av, which we call Menachem Av ( Comfort Av), it’s really two months; the first half is Av, and the second half is Menachem, comfort.
That’s one reason we have an א and ב: for the two halves of the month, because the month has two aspects of it.
There is another, more basic reason why the month is called אב/Av.
Av means father. It seems strange, however, to call this difficult month “father. ” Historically, Av has always been so difficult for us. It was when the first and second Bet HaMikdash were both destroyed, when the Spanish Inquisition started, when World War I started; and so many other difficult events happened on Tisha B’Av. So why do we call this month, the month of our Father?
Our rabbis explain that it is to show us that everything is coming from our loving Father. Even when Hashem punishes us, it’s coming out of our loving Father.
As it says, ..כאשר יעשה איש את בנו
Like a man chastises his his son,
G-d gives us mussar and rebuke
A father does this because he loves his son. A father does this because he doesn’t want his son to go off. When you see someone else’s children making noise, you don’t necessarily react in the same way that you would with your own children. If you saw a child in a restaurant, sitting at someone else’s table, squirting ketchup all over, you wouldn’t really care. But when it’s your children, you have to react. Hashem is our Father, and therefore He reacts.
The Midrash gives us a mashal on the Churban Bet HaMikdash: there was a king who made a canopy for his son. The son did something wrong, and his father got upset and angry. The king’s friend saw this, and was afraid that the king was so angry that he might kill his son. In the end, he saw the father tearing down the canopy, and suddenly, the friend started playing instruments. People asked him why he was playing instruments, while the king was tearing down the canopy. He replied that he had been afraid that the king might let out his rage on his son, but instead he let it out on the canopy.
So too, on the pasuk,
מִזְמ֗וֹר לְאָ֫סָ֥ף
בָּ֤אוּ גוֹיִ֨ם ׀ בְּֽנַחֲלָתֶ֗ךָ
A song for Assaph, when the goyim entered the Bet HaMikdash
The Midrash asks, How can it be a Mizmor, a song? Shouldn't it be a lamentation?
The answer is that it’s because G-d let His anger out on bricks, and on wood, rather than on the Jewish people themselves.
In this Mashal, G-d is compared to the father letting out his wrath on the canopy. So even the Churban, the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash is, in itself, an expression of G-d's love for the Jewish people.
That is something we always have to remind ourselves of: Whatever happens to the Jewish people is ultimately to get us to the final destination of Mashiach.
The Gemarah says that Hashem, out of His love for the Jewish people, pecks away at our sins, as a favor to us.
Imagine someone who had a very large property tax of $2,500 per quarter, or $10,000 a year. If it accrued over one hundred years, it would come to $1,000,000. Imagine if at the end of his life this man was given a bill of
$1 million for his property taxes. He wouldn’t be able to afford it, and he have nothing left to leave for his children.
So, we don’t pay our property taxes once in our lifetime. Nor do we pay it once in a decade, or even once a year. We pay it once a quarter.
I recently got an email inviting me to pay my property taxes monthly. That sounds even easier. Imagine if we paid it not even monthly, but daily. That would be nice. It would be like a cup of coffee, we wouldn’t even feel it.
That’s how Hashem, in His love for us, treats the Jewish people. That’s the only reason why we are here today, and the only reason why we’ve survive. All the other nations are gone but we are still here. Why? Because Hashem is that loving Father that keeps us in shape at all times. Therefore, even in this difficult month of Av, we can never forget that Av means father.
Hashem is our loving Father.
Rabbi Pinchus asks,
Av means father, and the symbol of Av is a lion- Leo the lion. Why a father and a lion?
He answers with a beautiful mashal:
There was a boy whose father dressed up as a lion on Purim... when the boy saw this “lion, ” he got scared and ran away from it. Then the father, dressed as the lion, started yelling the boy’s name. The boy came running back, scared- it looked like a lion, but it was his father talking. Then he realized that it was his father dressed up as a lion, and not a real lion.
That’s the month of Av: it looks like a lion, but we have to know it’s only a costume. Underneath, there’s a loving Father that only cares about us, and wants us to come closer to Him.
If we get that message, than we’ve understood the lesson of Av- He’s our Father.
Eventually, we will come running back to Him, during the high holiday season, when we say Avinu Malkenu. He’s our Father.
As the Peitan says, and as the Rambam says, “I run away from you, to you.”
I run away because it’s scary, but then I realize there is nowhere else to run, but back to You.
That’s the month of Av.
Have a wonderful day, a Hodesh Tov, and May we all learn the lessons of the month of Av.