Today’s class has been sponsored for the Refuah Shelemah of Chaya Shefiah Shoshana bat Sarah, and the yeshuot for all Am Yisrael.
We are now beginning a seven-week period called Shivah Di Nehemta- The Seven Weeks of Comfort.
For some odd reason, the Three Weeks are more popular than the Seven Weeks. Everyone knows about the Three Weeks and the restrictions (for example, there are no weddings) that come between the 17th of Tammuz and the 8th of Av.
The period known as the Seven Weeks is less stressed. There are no restrictions, and there are no real changes, aside from the fact that over the seven Shabbatot after Tisha B’Av, leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we read Haftarot from the Navi, that talk about words of comfort to the Jewish people. This is no coincidence, and there’s a message in this, for our service to Hashem.
First, we have to understand that Hashem doesn’t want us to remain with the Three Weeks of mourning. That is why He gives us these Seven Weeks of Comfort.
Furthermore, as Rav Wolbe points out, there is more than a double dose of comfort, as compared to that of the mourning, so obviously, the messages of comfort are very important.
The first question to ask is: What are we being comforted about if the Bet HaMikdash is not rebuilt? Seemingly our work of the Three Weeks did not pay off. What are that words of comfort about? What suddenly changed?
Furthermore, it seems odd that we first go through the mourning, and even while mourning, we know that in a week’s time we will get up and be comforted. That’s a little strange; like we are changing channels. What’s going on, exactly?
When I was a boy in Camp Munk, on the Tenth of Av, everyone would stand around the pool waiting for Hatzot (midday) to strike. Then, at precisely that moment, the music would blast and everyone would jump into the pool (the Ashkenazic custom is to wait until Hatzot of that day to bathe, etc).
But nothing changed. What gives us the right to go from feeling sadness to being comforted without any real change?
Rav Dessler discusses this and makes a very important point. He starts off by quoting the Sefer HaTanya, which tells us that although sadness isn’t a good thing in our religion, there is a certain time that we are supposed to sad, over our sins. The Arizal writes the same thing, as quoted by the Pele Yoetz. Even though a person is supposed to be happy throughout his tefilla, and sadness during praying is not a good thing because we are standing in front of Hashem and we have to be happy, when we confess our sins, we are supposed to be sad.
So, we take a point, whether in the day or the year, to focus on that sadness. We must balance our emotions. There is time for happiness and a time for sadness. There are times of the year that we are sad over the Churban, and there are times of day or night when people say Tikkun Hatzot. We can put each feeling in a compartment. But that is not all it is. The Baal HaTanya says that after we’ve taken the time to be sad over our sins, we are supposed to pick ourselves up and say, Oh, but Hashem is great! He’ll accept my Teshuva, He’ll accept my repentance!
He says that the simcha that comes from the sadness is the greatness happiness.
So too, Rav Dessler says, that after we’ve gone through Tisha B’Av, and we’ve felt the destruction and the distance, that in itself is something to celebrate. The fact that we can feel the loss of the Bet HaMikdash, that we know that there is something we have to fix, is like someone that walks out of a doctor’s office, having gone from specialist to specialist, to figure out what’s wrong with him, and finally gets a diagnosis. Although it might be a severe diagnosis, the doctor has told him exactly what to do. All he has to do is follow the plan, and he’ll be healed. That’s what Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks are. It’s a time of introspection, of looking into our deeds, and starting the Teshuva process. Once we realize that we’re in need of healing- we feel the Churban, we realize that something is wrong, we can celebrate that.
That is the beginning of the road to recovery, and that’s why we need seven weeks of comfort in order to get ready for the Yamim Noraim- The High Holiday season.
We can’t just say okay, the Three Weeks are over, I’ll get ready for Rosh Hashanah. There is no break- it’s a flow. Everything in our religion, everything in our calendar, is a process. We need that sadness, and that broken feeling of Tisha B’Av in order to pick ourselves up, renew ourselves and get on the road to recovery. That is the message of these Seven Weeks of Nechama, which we may continue to discuss. And if Hashem helps, and there’s a thought to say on each Haftarah, from the different Nevi’im, we can share that as well, because just like we have to keep the Three Weeks alive, we have to keep the Seven Weeks of Comfort alive as well.
Have a wonderful day.