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This week's Parasha-Page has been dedicated by my grandmother, Mrs. G. Turkel, in memory of my grandfather, Yisroel Shimon ben Shlomo (Israel) Turkel. My grandfather was a man who loved Torah, and supported it until his last breath.

9 Av 5755

DAYS OF DOOM; DAYS OF JOY

9 Av: reserved for punishment

Five events befell our forefathers on the 17th of Tammuz and five events befell them on the 9th of Av ("Tisha Be'Av")... On the 9th of Av: 1. It was decreed that our forefathers, in the time of Moshe, would not enter the Land of Israel (Bemidbar 14:29-31); 2. The First Temple was destroyed (by the Babylonians, ~420 BCE); 3. The Second Temple was destroyed (by the Romans, ~70 CE); 4. The stronghold city of Betar was captured and destroyed by the Romans (~135 CE); 5. The city of Jerusalem was razed and plowed over (after its capture by the Romans following the destruction of the Second Temple - Tur, Orach Chayim #549)).
(Mishna, Ta'anit 4:6)
Why did so many tragedies befall us on the same date? Are some days less auspicious or "unluckier" than others? The Gemara (Shabbat 146a) states clearly that the Bnai Yisroel's fortunes are not governed by such things as luck or astrological influences. What then is to be understood from the coincidence of so many sad events happening on one day?

The Talmud reveals to us the answer to this question: "Reward is saved for a day of merit, and destruction is saved for a day of guilt" (Ta'anit 29a). Because our forefathers committed such a terrible sin on the ninth of Av in the times of Moshe, the day became one reserved for destruction. Every year, when that day comes around, the sin of our forefathers is brought back to light. Since we have not yet fully corrected their misdeeds, Hashem may not extend to us His usual loving-kindness on that day, leaving us vulnerable to impending adversity. The ninth of Av has thus become a "weak link" in the chain of Jewish history. (A similar reasoning can be extended to the 17th of Tammuz, as we shall soon see.)

The Sages of the Talmud (Sanhedrin 90a) tell us that whenever Hashem punishes someone it is always done in such a way that the punishment corresponds to the sin that was committed ("Middah Keneged Middah"). One classic example of this is the punishment of the Egyptians who enslaved the Bnai Yisroel. The Egyptians persecuted the Israelites through water, by drowning Jewish babies in the Nile river (Shmot 1:22), and their ultimate punishment was that they themselves were drowned in the Red Sea (ibid. Chap. 14, see Rashi Shmot 18:11. See also Parasha-Page, Metzorah 5755, for more on this theme.)

As we have pointed out, the catastrophic events of the ninth of Av were all precipitated by the sin of Moshe's generation. Here, too, it can be shown that the specific events that transpired on these days were all clearly wrought with the theme of "Middah Keneged Middah" -- measure for measure.

II

9 Av: Measure for measure

Let us first consider the sin of our ancestors that occured on Tisha Be'Av. The Jews sent spies to scout out the Land of Israel prior to what they believed was their imminent entrance into the land. These spies toured the land for forty days, and returned with a very depressing account, preaching the hopelessness of ever wresting the land from its current inhabitants. The people, instead of trusting in Hashem and His appointed leaders, rallied rebelliously behind the sinful spies -- "The people wept all through that night" (Bemidbar 14:1). This sin, the Mishna tells us, took place on Tisha Be'Av. "That night that the people wept was Tisha Be'Av eve. Hashem said to them, 'You wept on this day for no good reason; I will establish this day as a day of weeping for all generations' " (Ta'anit 29a). The tragedies that befell the Jews throughout the generations were apparently further punishments for the original sinful act committed by the generation of the Exodus.

(1) The Torah tells us that the punishment meted out immediately to those who allied themselves with the spies was that they would have to wander about in the desert for forty years -- "one year for each day" of the spies' excursion (Bemidbar 14:34). The Torah makes it clear that the punishment of forty years in the desert was "measure for measure" -- forty for forty. Can we say the same of the latter-day punishments -- the four tragedies listed in the Mishna in Ta'anit? A closer examination reveals that in fact we may.

(2,3) The sin of the Bnai Yisroel was that they rejected the Land of Israel. They were willing to pass up possesion of the Promised Land, not even trying to conquer it, although Hashem had already told them of its unique virtues.

The destruction of the Temples that took place centuries later was more than just a loss of the opportunity to perform the sacrificial rite ordained by the Torah. It was the event that, symbolically and actually, spelled the end of organized Jewish settlement in Israel. The destruction of the Temple and the concept of exile are always considered to be two sides of the same coin by our Sages (See for example Berachot 3a, Chagiga 5b). The Torah itself seems to make this connection in Vayikra 26:31-2: "I will destroy your Temple... and will scatter you among the nations." It is clear that the punishment of the destruction of the Temple, which is tantamount to exile of the population, has a very close correlation with the sin of the Jews on the original Tisha Be'Av. Because the Bnai Yisroel expressed on Tisha Be'Av an unwillingness to accept the gift of the Land of Israel, they eventually lost the Land of Israel on that same date.

(4) Betar was the central stronghold of the Bar Kochva rebellion against Rome (Eichah Rabbati 2). Some sixty years after the destruction of the second Temple, the Jews, led by the charismatic and courageous Bar Kochva, tried to throw off the Roman yoke. They even succeeded to some degree in establishing an autonomous Jewish state in Israel for several years (132-135 CE). When the Bar Kochva uprising was finally quelled by the Romans with the fall of Betar, it effectively represented the end of any Jewish hope to sovereignty in the Land of Israel for the foreseeable future. This too, then, is clearly an appropriate punishment for the sin of the spies and their rejection of the Land of Israel.

(5) The last of the five events of Tisha Be'Av can be interpreted along the same lines. The final razing of Jerusalem was designed to quash any hopes among the Jews for a restoration of their sovereignty, or even of their ability to dwell in the city. Once again, on the very date which marked Bnai Yisroel's original spurning of Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael was showing its own scorn for them.

III

17 Tammuz: Measure for measure.

We have shown how the events of subsequent Tisha Be'Avs reflected the nature of the sin that had originally taken place on that day. Can we explain the incidents that occurred on the 17th of Tammuz in a similar manner? Do these events also show a measure-for-measure relationship to some primordial sin?

On the 17th of Tammuz: 1. The Tablets of the 10 Commandments were shattered (Shmot 32:19); 2. The daily ("Tamid") sacrifice of the Temple was discontinued in the days of the Second Temple; 3. The walls of Jerusalem were breached during the Roman siege of the city (in 70 CE); 4. The Greek ruler Epistemos publicly burned the Torah scroll; 5. Menashe, a king of Judea in the First Temple period, erected an idolatrous image on the Temple grounds (II Kings 21:7).
(Mishna, Ta'anit 4:6)
(1) Let us examine the original sin of Tammuz the 17th. The Bnai Yisroel, disoriented by what they considered Moshe's tardiness in coming down from Mount Sinai at the end of the prescribed forty day period, assumed Moshe to be dead. They decided to create a golden calf to take his place. "Get up and make a god for us, for we do not know what happened to this man Moshe who took us out of Egypt" (Shmot 32:1). Later, they declared this golden calf to be their new god. They worshipped the calf and sacrificed to it (ibid. 32:4-6). While still encamped before Mount Sinai, they rejected the Almighty Who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, led them through the desert, and given them the Torah! As it says in Tehillim (106:20): "They exchanged their Glory (=Hashem) for an image of a grass-eating ox." It was as a reaction to this disgrace that Moshe threw the Tablets from his hands and shattered them (Shmot 32:19).

(5) With this in mind, we can understand how the punishments of 17 Tammuz through the ages correspond to the original sin of that day. The most obvious one of the four punishments listed is that of Menashe's placement of an idol in the Temple. Menashe's placement of the idol in the Beit Hamikdash symbolized replacing the worship of Hashem with that of an idol right in Hashem's Holy Temple! This was a just punishment for the Bnai Yisroel, who had done the same with the worship of the Golden Calf before Mount Sinai, centuries earlier.

(2) The daily Tamid sacrifice personified the service of Hashem in the Temple. When this was discontinued, the situation paralleled the discontinuation of the worship of Hashem by the Jews who worshipped the Golden Calf at Mount Sinai.

Furthermore, we are told in the Gemara (Bava Kamma 82b) that this discontinuation of the Tamid took place during the civil war between the rival brothers Aristobulus and Hyrcanus. Jerusalem was under siege and no goods could be transported into or out of the city. Every day, however, people standing outside the city wall would bring two sheep, which were hoisted over the wall and used by the Kohanim in the Temple for the Tamid sacrifice. One day, this operation was terminated by the sieging party. When the Kohanim hoisted up their daily "catch," they discovered to their horror that it was a pig that had been sent to them instead of a sheep! It is interesting to note that pigs were offered by the Romans to their god Jupiter (see Megillat Antiochus and secular historical sources -- perhaps this is why the verse "The pig of the forest chews on them" [Tehillim 80:14] is interpreted by the Midrash [Vayikra Rabba 13] to be a reference to the Roman persecution of the Jews). Thus the element of "substitution" is apparent in this story as well. Not only was the Tamid sacrifice stopped, but the sheep of the Tamid was supplanted by the impure pig. The sacrifice unto Hashem was replaced by the animal which was used for idolatrous sacrifice.

There is another opinion that the discontinuation of the Tamid sacrifice to which the Mishna refers happened not during the war of Aristobulus vs. Hyrcanus, but rather at the time of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, just prior to the destruction of the Temple. After the Romans destroyed the Temple, it is documented that they used the site for their idolatrous pig-sacrifices. The glory of Hashem in the Beit Hamikdash was again exchanged for that of idolatry.

(4) The burning of the Torah by Epistemos paralleled the sin of the Golden Calf in a different way. As has been mentioned, when Moshe saw that his people had committed such a terrible sin he shattered the Tablets. As a punishment for bringing about the destruction of Hashem's Tablets of the Law, the Jews of a future era had Hashem's Torah burned before them by a blasphemous ruler.

(3) The breach in the walls of Jerusalem may also parallels the original sin of 17 Tammuz. The Gemara (Bava Batra 7b) tells us that the righteous people and Torah scholars of the generation provide protection to all members of the community, just as a city wall does. For this reason, the Talmud says that scholars do not have to contribute to the expense of building defensive ramparts around their home towns -- their Torah study is their share in the city's defense. As the Gemara expounds on a verse from Shir Hashirim [=The Song of Songs]:

"I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers"
(Shir Hashirim 8:10).
"I am a wall" - this refers to the Torah, which affords protection to its people. "My breasts are like towers" - this refers to Torah scholars.
(Bava Batra 7b)
The Bnai Yisroel, when they rejected the leadership of Moshe and chose a Golden Calf to lead them instead, were showing disdain for the ultimate scholar of the Torah. Also, their sin caused the shattering of the Tablets of the Torah themselves. Since Torah scholars are compared to city walls, a fitting punishment for their sin was that the Jews of Jerusalem in a future generation had their protective wall breached on the anniversary of the original sinful deed.

IV

15 Av & Yom Kippur: Days of Joy

The continuation of the "Tisha Be'Av" Mishna in Ta'anit goes as follows:

There were no greater celebrations for the Bnai Yisroel than those that were held on the 15th of Av and on Yom Kippur.
(Mishna Ta'anit 4:8)
What is the relevance of this fact to the fasts of the 9th of Av and the 17th of Tammuz -- or to anything else in Tractate Ta'anit? It seems to be completely out of place!

Let us examine the reasons that Yom Kippur and the 15th of Av were established as days of celebration. Yom Kippur is a joyous day because it is the day when Hashem told Moshe that He forgave the Bnai Yisroel for the sin of the Golden Calf, and promised to forgive the sins of Israel throughout the generations (see Rashi to Ta'anit 30b and Shmot 33:11).

One reason that the 15th of Av is considered a day of celebration is that this was the day that the Bnai Yisroel realized that the forty year punishment of death and wandering in the desert had finally come to an end(Ta'anit 30b). It was thus the day of the expiration of the punishment for the sin of the spies. In fact, according to one of the Tosafists (Rabbeinu Tam), that day did not just mark the *completion* of their forty year punishment. On the 15th of Av, Hashem *forgave* the sin of the Golden Calf, leaving those who had not yet been punished to live and enter the Holy Land! (Tosafot in Gemara Bava Batra 121a.)

If so, it is very clear what these two joyous days have to do with the previous topic of the Mishna. As we explained above, the Mishna had just described the two days of mourning and fasting -- the 17th of Tammuz, whose sad events were precipitated by the sin of the Golden Calf; and the 9th of Av, whose unfortunate events were brought about by the sin of the spies. The Mishna then continues to explain that the days of greatest celebration were precisely the days which commemorated the abatement of Hashem's anger for these two sins. On Yom Kippur, Hashem's anger over the sin of the Golden Calf abated, and on 15 Av, Hashem exonerated us from the sin of the spies!

In Zecharia (8:19) we read (freely translated): "The fasts of Tammuz and Av and Tishrei and Tevet will become times of happiness and rejoicing for the house of Yehudah." The usual understanding of this verse is that there will come a time when mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple will become an obsolete practice, because they will be rebuilt in Messianic days. But according to the approach developed above, the verse could be interpreted to mean that even now, in our days, there is a certain element of the transformation of the fasts of Tammuz and Av into days of celebration!

(See also Radak, beginning of Yechezkel - Ed.)

V

The giving of the Torah & the rebuilding of the Holy Temple

At the end of the above Mishna in Ta'anit -- which, incidentally, forms the conclusion of the Tractate -- we are told the following:

...and so it says "Daughters of Jerusalem, go out and see Shlomo in the crown that his mother crowned him with on his wedding day and on the day of the joy of his heart" (Shir Hashirim 3:11). ["Shlomo" here is a reference to Hashem, see Shavuot 35b, and "Shlomo's mother" refers to the Congregation of Israel -- Rashi to Shir Hashirim, ibid.] "The day of his wedding" - this refers to the day of the giving of the Torah. "The day of the joy of his heart" - this refers to the building of the Temple -- may it be rebuilt speedily in our days!
(Ta'anit 4:8)
Here too the connection of this statement with what precedes it seems elusive. It is especially difficult because it is introduced with the words "and so it says," which clearly imply that this verse *proves* that the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur were days of joy. Rashi (Ta'anit 27b), who was apparently bothered by this point, explains that the "day of the giving of the Torah" mentioned in the Mishna refers to Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, the *second* set of tablets were given to Moshe after Hashem forgave the people for the sin of the Golden Calf.

This, however, only explains the relevance of the "day of the giving of the Torah" to what came before in the Mishna. What of the "building of the Temple"? How does that fit in to the scheme of either Yom Kippur or the 15th of Av? Rav Ovadyah of Bartenura (Spain, ~1350) in his commentary to the Mishna suggests that this is also a reference to Yom Kippur. The inauguration celebration of the First Temple took place over a period of two weeks, which included the day of Yom Kippur (Mo'ed Katan 9a). This seems difficult, however, because Yom Kippur was only one of the fourteen days of festivities at that time. Moreover, according to Rav Ovadyah's reading the verse provides absolutely no textual support for the *second* holiday of the Mishna, the 15th of Av.

Perhaps we may suggest that the reference of the verse is not to the building of the *First* Temple, but rather, as the Mishna says, to "the Temple to be rebuilt speedily in our days" -- the *Third* Temple, which will be rebuilt in Messianic times. At that time the sin which brought about the destruction of the Temple in the first place will have been rectified, and the Jewish people will be completely restored to Hashem's good graces. Thus the happiness of "the day of the building of the Temple" is the rejoicing in the complete forgiveness of the sins of Tisha Be'Av, which precipitated the destruction of the Temple.

We were offered a "taste" of that complete forgiveness, albeit on a limited scale, on the 15th of Av millennia ago, in the desert. On that day Hashem allowed the sinners who were still living to enter the Land of Israel. It is therefore on that same date that we can look forward with joyous anticipation to the "day of the joy of his heart," the blissful day of the restoration of the Holy Temple! In this light, the Mishna is indeed bringing a source for the celebrations of the 15th of Av as well as for the rejoicing of Yom Kippur. May we all merit to rejoice in the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, speedily in our days!


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