The Talmud tells us that one of the greatest festivals in the Jewish year was the Fifteenth of Av. Only Yom Kippur can compare with it. While the Talmud presents a number of reasons for this festival, these do not really explain why it should be so important. The Kabbalistic work Pri Etz Chaim (Fruit of the Tree of Life) states that the reason this day is so important, is that it is on the fifteenth of the Hebrew month, when the moon is full. But this too does not answer the question. Pesach and Succot are major festivals which begin on the fifteenth of the month, so why should the Fifteenth of Av be greater than either of them?
The answer given in Chassidic teachings, is because it comes after the terrible ‘descent’ of the Ninth of Av, when both Temples were destroyed and there were many other tragic events. Because there is a Chassidic principle, that a true ascent comes after a major descent.
We see this with the first ‘ascent’ in the Torah, leaving Egypt, which is described as an ascent, when G-d says to Jacob “I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will raise you up from there”. The Chassidic teaching is that the greater the descent, the greater will be the ascent which follows. We can thus understand the greatness of the Fifteenth of Av, because it comes after the terrible descent of the Ninth of Av.
One might ask, surely the descent into Egypt was a terrible descent, which means that the Pesach festival would be a correspondingly great ascent, and therefore might rival the Fifteenth of Av as the greatest festival? The Rebbe explains that, according to the Sages, at the time of Rosh Hashana of the year the Jews left Egypt, their servitude came to an end. The Exodus therefore came after a six month respite.
In addition, the Exodus was before the Giving of the Torah, when the Jewish people attained an extra-ordinary level of relationship with G-d. This was even more intense and intimate after the building of the Temple by Solomon. The Destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av was therefore a terrible descent, far greater than the slavery in Egypt. Hence we can understand why the Fifteenth of Av is described in the Talmud as greater even than Pesach which celebrates the Exodus.
As for Succot, this does not follow a ‘fall’ at all. In the Jewish Calendar, Succot comes after several stages of positive spiritual experiences, such as the Month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So we understand the rationale that, because the Fifteenth of Av comes after the deepest fall, it can be termed the greatest Festival.
In the year that the Rebbe delivered this discourse, 1984, the Fifteenth of Av was on a Monday. The Rebbe now applies the concept of ‘descent in order to rise’ to two aspects of Monday: the Psalm which was sung by the Levites in the Temple on a Monday, and the fact that during the days of Creation, on the second day, Monday, the firmament was created, dividing the Upper Waters from the Lower. Psalm 48, the Psalm sung in the Temple on a Monday, states “Great is G-d, and very much praised, in the city of our G-d, His holy mountain”. The Talmud connects this verse with the idea that on the second day of Creation, the waters were divided. Rashi explains that there is a parallel: the dividing of the waters led to G-d dwelling in the higher realm, Heaven, just as the greatness of G-d is expressed in the Temple and Jerusalem, ‘the city of our G-d’.
The Rebbe suggests we can see both of these – G-d dwelling in the sacred city of Jerusalem, and also, G-d dwelling in the higher abode of Heaven - as examples of ‘descent in order to rise’.
Jerusalem and the Divine Name
First, Jerusalem. The Sages comment on the verse we have quoted from Psalm 48: ‘When is G-d great? When He is in the city of our G-d’. This means that by the fact that G-d dwells in the lower world, in the Temple in Jerusalem, His greatness is revealed. The ‘descent’ of being in the lower, physical world leads to an ascent, the revelation of G-d.
An elaboration of this idea is that the ‘greatness’ of G-d is the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton, which links to the Sefirot from Wisdom (Yud) to Understanding (first Heh) and then the other six Sefirot (the letter Vav signifying six) to Malchut (the second Heh).
When the Holy One unites with his ‘Queen’, Malchut, Kingship, which can be seen as a ‘descent’, then the greatness of the Divine Name is magnified. This relates also to our service of G-d: through our study of Torah and keeping of Mitzvot ‘below’, in this world, we magnify the Divine Name above, by drawing G-dliness from the Essence, into the Divine Name. Our ‘descent’ into the practicalities of serving G-d leads to an exalted Divine revelation.
The Division of the Waters
Parallel to this, is the division of the waters at the beginning of Creation. At first all was mingled together. Then came the division of the waters into higher and lower, which is often depicted as something negative, leading to the ‘descent’ of the lower waters, which are described as ‘weeping’, because they wish to be closer to the Infinite Divine. Yet through this division and descent, comes about the exalted revelation of G-d.
The Descent of the Soul
Another example is the descent of the Soul in order to be born, described as a journey from a high roof to a low pit. It makes this journey in order to achieve the exalted spiritual heights which can only be achieved through keeping Torah and Mitzvot and facing the other challenges in the physical world. Through this it can also come to a level of weeping, not weeping from sorrow, but tears of joy, as it is said of Rabbi Akiva that when he studied the mystical dimension of Torah revealed in the Song of Songs, he wept tears of joy.
Elul and the Days of Penitence
Thus too, after the serious quality of the month of Elul, when we try to make a spiritual accounting, and to identify and rectify our errors during the year, which is a kind of descent, we come to the great ascent of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Through this we come to a sense of closeness to G-d in the Days of Penitence, which can also lead to weeping, tears not of sorrow but of joy. Thus the great kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria said that if a person does not weep in the Ten Days of Penitence, it is a sign that their soul is not whole. The weeping is because the penitence of these days is the Upper Teshuvah, which elicits tears of joy.
The Ultimate Ascent: Redemption
Thus our long Exile is itself the deepest ‘descent’, from which we will come to the greatest ascent, the coming of Moshiach, when the Jewish people will be collected together, one by one, and then we will all go to the Holy Land, to Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.
And this will affect the entire world, which will serve G-d, all together, swiftly in our days, with the true and complete Redemption.
